"As soon as Monsieur d'Anville had told me this news, I acquainted
Sancerre with it; I told it him as a secret newly entrusted with me,
and charged him to say nothing of it.
"The next day I went early in the morning to my sister-in-law's, and
found Madam de Tournon at her bedside, who had no great kindness for
the Duchess of Valentinois, and knew very well that my sister-in-law
had no reason to be satisfied with her. Sancerre had been with her,
after he went from the play, and had acquainted her with the quarrel
between the King and the Duchess; and Madam de Tournon was come to tell
it to my sister-in-law, without knowing or suspecting that it was I
from whom her lover had it.
"As soon as I advanced toward my sister-in-law, she told Madam de
Tournon, that they might trust me with what she had been telling her;
and without waiting Madam de Tournon's leave she related to me word by
word all I had told Sancerre the night before. You may judge what
surprise I was in; I looked hard at Madam de Tournon, and she seemed
disordered; her disorder gave me a suspicion. I had told the thing to
nobody but Sancerre; he left me when the comedy was done, without
giving any reason for it; I remembered to have heard him speak much in
praise of Madam de Tournon; all these things opened my eyes, and I
easily discerned there was an intrigue between them, and that he had
seen her since he left me.
"I was so stung to find he had concealed this adventure from me, that I
said several things which made Madam de Tournon sensible of the
imprudence she had been guilty of; I led her back to her coach, and
assured her, I envied the happiness of him who informed her of the
King's quarrel with the Duchess of Valentinois.
"I went immediately in search of Sancerre, and severely reproached him;
I told him I knew of his passion for Madam de Tournon, without saying
how I came by the discovery; he was forced to acknowledge it; I
afterwards informed him what led me into the knowledge of it, and he
acquainted me with the detail of the whole affair; he told me, that
though he was a younger brother, and far from being able to pretend to
so good a match, nevertheless she was determined to marry him.
I can't express the surprise I was in; I told Sancerre he would do well to
hasten the conclusion of the marriage, and that there was nothing he
had not to fear from a woman who had the artifice to support, in the
eye of the public, appearances so distant from truth; he gave me in
answer that she was really concerned for the loss of her husband, but
that the inclination she had for him had surmounted that affliction,
and that she could not help discovering all on a sudden so great a
change; he mentioned besides several other reasons in her excuse, which
convinced me how desperately he was in love; he assured me he would
bring her to consent that I should know his passion for her, especially
since it was she herself who had made me suspect it; in a word, he did
oblige her to it, though with a great deal of difficulty, and I grew
afterwards very deep in their confidence.