showed the greatest interest on my behalf in expressing a deep pity for
me, accompanied, however, by dark hints which alarmed me at first, but
which I at last looked upon as the result of his usual love of mystery.
These are the facts: he had received news of the court; you will
understand, however, that it was only through M. de Lorraine. The report
goes, so says the news, that a change has taken place in the king's
affections. You know whom that concerns. Afterwards, the news
continues, people are talking about one of the maids of honor, respecting
whom various slanderous reports are being circulated. These vague
phrases have not allowed me to sleep. I have been deploring, ever since
yesterday, that my diffidence and vacillation of purpose,
notwithstanding a certain obstinacy of character I may possess, have left
me unable to reply to these insinuations. In a word, M. de Wardes was
setting off for Paris, and I did not delay his departure with
explanations; for it seemed rather hard, I confess, to cross-examine a
man whose wounds are hardly yet closed. In short, he travelled by short
stages, as he was anxious to leave, he said, in order to be present at a
curious spectacle the court cannot fail to offer within a short time. He
added a few congratulatory words accompanied by vague sympathizing
expressions. I could not understand the one any more than the other. I
was bewildered by my own thoughts, and tormented by a mistrust of this
man, - a mistrust which, you know better than any one else, I have never
been able to overcome. As soon as he left, my perceptions seemed to
become clearer. It is hardly possible that a man of De Wardes's
character should not have communicated something of his own malicious
nature to the statements he made to me. It is not unlikely, therefore,
that in the strange hints De Wardes threw out in my presence, there may
be a mysterious signification, which I might have some difficulty in
applying either to myself or to some one with whom you are acquainted.
Being compelled to leave as soon as possible, in obedience to the king's