The sight of this letter troubled her, because she knew it to be from the Knight of Navarre, and because it was so improbable that, during this night which must have been that of his nuptials, he had had the leisure of writing to her; she feared that he must have created or have been unable to overcome some obstacles to his marriage. She opened the letter with much emotion and soon found there approximately these words:

I think only of you, Madame, I am obsessed by you; and in the first moments of the legitimate possession of the greatest match in France, hardly had dawn broken than I left the bedroom where I had spent the night, in order to tell you that I have already repented a thousand times having obeyed you and not having abandoned all to live only for you."

This letter, and the moments when it was written, deeply moved the Countess of Tende; she went to dine at the home of the Princess of Neufchâtel, who had begged her to come. Her marriage had by now been declared. She found an infinite number of people in the bedroom; but as soon as the Princess saw her, she left everybody and took her past them into her office.

Hardly were they seated, when the face of the Princess was covered with tears. The Countess believed that it was the effect of making known her marriage and that she found it more difficult to endure than she'd imagined but she soon saw that she was mistaken. Ah! Madame, said the Princess to her, what have I done? Out of passion, I have married a man; I have made a marriage unequal, disapproved, which abases me; and the one that I preferred to all loves another!

The Countess of Tende felt like fainting at these words; she believed the Princess couldn't have penetrated her husband's passion without also having discerned the cause; she couldn't respond.