Chapter 40

Chapter XL:
The Nymphs of the Park of Fontainebleau.

The king remained for a moment to enjoy a triumph as complete as it could
possibly be. He then turned towards Madame, for the purpose of admiring
her also a little in her turn. Young persons love with more vivacity,
perhaps with greater ardor and deeper passion, than others more advanced
in years; but all the other feelings are at the same time developed in
proportion to their youth and vigor: so that vanity being with them
almost always the equivalent of love, the latter feeling, according to
the laws of equipoise, never attains that degree of perfection which it
acquires in men and women from thirty to five and thirty years of age.
Louis thought of Madame, but only after he had studiously thought of
himself; and Madame carefully thought of herself, without bestowing a
single thought upon the king. The victim, however, of all these royal
affections and affectations, was poor De Guiche. Every one could observe
his agitation and prostration - a prostration which was, indeed, the more
remarkable since people were not accustomed to see him with his arms
hanging listlessly by his side, his head bewildered, and his eyes with
all their bright intelligence bedimmed. It rarely happened that any
uneasiness was excited on his account, whenever a question of elegance or
taste was under discussion; and De Guiche's defeat was accordingly
attributed by the greater number present to his courtier-like tact and
ability. But there were others - keen-sighted observers are always to
be met with at court - who remarked his paleness and his altered looks;
which he could neither feign nor conceal, and their conclusion was that
De Guiche was not acting the part of a flatterer. All these sufferings,
successes, and remarks were blended, confounded, and lost in the uproar
of applause. When, however, the queens expressed their satisfaction and
the spectators their enthusiasm, when the king had retired to his
dressing-room to change his costume, and whilst Monsieur, dressed as a
woman, as he delighted to be, was in his turn dancing about, De Guiche,
who had now recovered himself, approached Madame, who, seated at the back
of the theater, was waiting for the second part, and had quitted the
others for the purpose of creating a sort of solitude for herself in the
midst of the crowd, to meditate, as it were, beforehand, upon
chorographic effects; and it will be perfectly understood that, absorbed
in deep meditation, she did not see, or rather pretended not to notice,
anything that was passing around her. De Guiche, observing that she was
alone, near a thicket constructed of painted cloth, approached her. Two
of her maids of honor, dressed as hamadryads, seeing De Guiche advance,
drew