re from such a commerce.

The Duchess of Valentinois made one in all parties of pleasure; and the
King was still as passionately fond of her as in the beginning of his
love. The Princess of Cleves being at those years, wherein people
think a woman is incapable of inciting love after the age of
twenty-five, beheld with the utmost astonishment the King's passion for
the Duchess, who was a grandmother, and had lately married her
granddaughter: she often spoke on this subject to Madam de Chartres.
"Is it possible, Madam," said she, "that the King should still continue
to love? How could he take a fancy to one, who was so much older than
himself, who had been his father's mistress, and who, as I have heard,
is still such to many others?" "'Tis certain," answered Madam de
Chartres," it was neither the merit nor the fidelity of the Duchess of
Valentinois, which gave birth to the King's passion, or preserved it;
and this is what he can't be justified in; for if this lady had had
beauty and youth suitable to her birth; and the merit of having had no
other lover; if she had been exactly true and faithful to the King; if
she had loved him with respect only to his person, without the
interested views of greatness and fortune, and without using her power
but for honourable purposes and for his Majesty's interest; in this
case it must be confessed, one could have hardly forbore praising his
passion for her. If I was not afraid," continued Madam de Chartres,
"that you would say the same thing of me which is said of most women of
my years, that they love to recount the history of their own times, I
would inform you how the King's passion for this Duchess began, and of
several particulars of the Court of the late King, which have a great
relation to things that are acted at present." "Far from blaming you,"
replied the Princess of Cleves, "for repeating the histories of past
times, I lament, Madam, that you have not instructed me in those of the
present, nor informed me as to the different interests and parties of
the Court. I am so entirely ignorant of them, that I thought a few
days ago, the Constable was very well with the Queen." "You was
extremely mistaken," answered Madam de Chartres, "the Queen hates the
Constable, and if ever she has power, he'll be but too sensible of it;
she knows, he has often told the King, that of all his children none
resembled him but his natural ones." "I should never have suspected
this hatred,"