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," said the Princess of
Cleves, "after having seen her assiduity in writing to the
Constable during his imprisonment, the joy she expressed at his
return, and how she always calls him Compere, as well as the
King." "If you judge from appearances in a Court," replied
Madam de Chartres, "you will often be deceived; truth and
appearances seldom go together.

"But to return to the Duchess of Valentinois, you know her name
is Diana de Poitiers; her family is very illustrious, she is
descended from the ancient Dukes of Aquitaine, her grandmother
was a natural daughter of Lewis the XI, and in short she
possesses everything that is great in respect of birth. St.
Valier, her father, had the unhappiness to be involved in the
affair of the Constable of Bourbon, which you have heard of; he
was condemned to lose his head, and accordingly was conducted to
the scaffold: his daughter, viz., the Duchess, who was extremely
beautiful, and who had already charmed the late King, managed so