f
duty and virtue could have weight with you, I should tell you that if
anything were capable of disturbing the happiness I hope for in the
next world, it would be to see you fall like other women; but if this
calamity must necessarily happen, I shall meet death with joy, as it
will hinder me from being a witness of it."

Madam de Cleves bathed with tears her mother's hand, which she held
fast locked in her own; nor was Madam de Chartres less moved. "Adieu,
dear daughter," said she, "let us put an end to a conversation which
melts us both; and remember, if you are able, all that I have been
saying to you."

When she had spoke this, she turned herself on the other side, and
ordered her daughter to call her women, being unwilling either to hear
her reply, or to speak any more. Madam de Cleves went out of her
presence in a condition one need not describe; and Madam de Chartres
thought of nothing but preparing herself for death: she lived two days
longer, during which she would not see her daughter again; her daughter
was the only thing she had reluctance to part with.

Madam de Cleves was in the utmost affliction; her husband did not leave
her, and no sooner was her mother expired, but he carried her into the
country, that she might not have in her eye a place which could serve
only to sharpen her sorrow, which was scarce to be equalled. Though
tenderness and gratitude had the greatest share in her griefs, yet the
need which she found she had of her mother to guard her against the
Duke of Nemours added no small weight to them; she found she was
unhappy in being left to herself, at a time when she was so little
mistress of her own affections, and when she so much wished for
somebody to pity and encourage her. The Prince of Cleves's behaviour
to her on this occasion, made her wish more ardently than ever, never
to fail in her duty to him; she also expressed more friendship and
affection for him than she had done before; she would not suffer him to
leave her, and she seemed to think that his being constantly with her
could defend her against the Duke of Nemours.

The Duke came to see the Prince of Cleves in the country; he did what
he could to pay a visit also to Madam de Cleves, but she refused to
receive him; and being persuaded she could not help finding something
dangerously lovely in him, she made a strong resolution to forbear
seeing him, and to avoid all occasions of it that were in her power.

The Prince of