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The Duc de Bourgogne, passionately in love with his wife, was not so well made as Nangis; but the Princess reciprocated his ardor so perfectly that up to his death he never suspected that her glances had wandered to any one else. They fell, however, upon Nangis, and soon redoubled. Nangis was not ungrateful, but he feared the thunderbolt; and his heart, too, was already engaged.
"Later," he said, "come to Paris, and remind me of the service you have rendered me to-day. You will be satisfied of my gratitude." She thanked the Emperor and withdrew, very proud of his words of commendation. The day of the battle of Nangis an Austrian officer came in the evening to headquarters, and had a long, secret conference with his Majesty.
All this while the semblance, at least, of negotiation had been kept up at Chatillon. When Schwartzenberg was attacked at Nangis on the 17th, he had just received the intelligence of Caulaincourt's having signed the preliminary articles; and he, therefore, sent a messenger to ask why the Emperor, if aware of his ambassador's act, persisted in hostilities?
Maulevrier had thus two sources of annoyance the Abbe de Polignac and Nangis. Of the latter he showed himself so jealous, that Madame de Maulevrier, out of pique, made advances to him. Nangis, to screen himself the better, replied to her. Maulevrier perceived this. He knew his wife to be sufficiently wicked to make him fear her. So many troubles of heart and brain transported him.
Marguerite de Valois, the beautiful Queen of Navarre, who is anxious to reconcile the bitterly hostile parties of Catholics and Huguenots, persuades the Comte de Saint Bris, a prominent Catholic, to allow his daughter Valentine to marry Raoul de Nangis, a young Huguenot noble.
A Curious Marriage. Its Result. History of a Conversion to Catholicism. Attempted Assassination. Singular Seclusion Fascination of the Duchesse de Bourgogne. Fortunes of Nangis. He Is Loved by the Duchesse and Her Dame d'Atours. Discretion of the Court. Maulevrier. His Courtship of the Duchess. Singular Trick. Its Strange Success. Mad Conduct of Maulevrier He Is Sent to Spain.
The Allies arrest their steps at Nangis, and again are beaten: Nangis becomes another name of glory to the ears of Frenchmen. Let me rest one instant in this rapid recital of a week whose great deeds not even Napoleon's life can show the equal of, the last flash of the lamp of glory ere it darkened forever.
Monsieur de Nangis, wishing to be assured of this, called on me one morning with a cantata of Clerambault's which he had transposed as he said, to suit his voice, and to which another bass was necessary, the transposition having rendered that of Clerambault impracticable. I answered, it required considerable labor, and could not be done on the spot.
The Duke of Burgundy never imagined that his wife thought of Nangis, although it was visible to all the world besides that she did. As he was very much attached to Nangis, he believed firmly that his wife only behaved civilly to him on his account; and he was besides convinced that his favourite had at the same time an affair of gallantry with Madame la Vrilliere.
This trick lasted more than a year: his conversation was principally composed of reproaches but reproaches rarely succeed in love. Maulevrier, judging by the ill-humour of Madame de la Vrilliere, believed Nangis to be happy. Jealousy and rage transported him at last to the extremity of folly.
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