Madam de Cleves was harder put to it than she expected; "I don't know,
Madam, what you will do," answered she, "for Monsieur de Cleves, to
whom I gave it to read, returned it to the Duke of Nemours, who came
early this morning to beg him to get it of you. Monsieur de Cleves had
the imprudence to tell him he had it, and the weakness to yield to the
entreaties the Duke de Nemours made that he would restore it him."
"You throw me into the greatest embarrassment I can possibly be in,"
replied the Queen-Dauphin; "and you have given this letter to the Duke
de Nemours. Since it was I that gave it you, you ought not to have
restored it without my leave; what would you have me say to the Queen,
and what can she imagine? She will think, and not without reason, that
this letter concerns myself, and that there is something between the
Viscount and me; she will never be persuaded the letter belonged to the
Duke de Nemours."
"I am very much concerned," replied Madam de Cleves,
"for the misfortune I have occasioned, and I believe the difficulty I
have brought you into is very great; but 'twas Monsieur de Cleves's
fault, and not mine." "You are in fault," replied the Queen-Dauphin,
"for having given him the letter; and I believe you are the only woman
in the world that acquaints her husband with all she knows." "I
acknowledge myself in fault, Madam," replied the Princess of Cleves,
"but let us rather think of preventing the consequences of what I have
done, than insist on the fault itself." "Do you remember, pretty near,
what the letter contains?" says the Queen-Dauphin. "Yes, Madam, I do,"
replied she, "for I have read it over more than once." "If so," said
the Queen-Dauphin, "you must immediately get it written out in an
unknown hand, and I'll send it to the Queen; she'll not show it those
who have seen it already; and though she should, I'll stand in it, that
it is the same Chatelart gave me; and he'll not dare to say otherwise."
Madam de Cleves approved of this expedient, and the more because it
gave her an opportunity of sending for the Duke de Nemours, to have the
letter itself again, in order to have it copied word for word,
imitating as near as may be the hand it was written in, and she thought
this would effectually deceive the Queen. As soon as she was got home,
she informed her husband of what had passed between her and the
Queen-Dauphin, and begged him to send for the Duke de Nemours.