The Princesse de Clèves (The Princess of Cleves)

The Vidame concludes his story and informs M. de Nemours that the Dauphine believes the letter was addressed to Nemours. The Vidame then asks Nemours to keep up the ruse by locating the letter and returning it before more eyes see it and recognize the handwriting. Nemours worries that the object of his own affection will be alienated, and so the Vidame reveals a second letter, signed and addressed, clarifying the truth of the affair. “I am entrusting this note to you and I give you leave to show it your mistress to justify yourself,” the Vidame implores (102).

Nemours goes to M. and Mme de Clèves and convinces them to surrender the letter for the Vidame’s sake, asking for their discretion. Mme de Clèves is secretly overjoyed to learn of Nemours’s innocence in this affair. Nemours returns the letter to the Vidame. In the meantime, the Queen has heard about the letter, and the Dauphine desperately wants it back. Admonishing the princess for having given it so freely to her husband (and thus to Nemours), the Dauphine requests a duplicate of the letter “written out in an unrecognizable hand” (107). Having no such letter, M. de Nemours and Mme de Clèves while away many hours attempting to recreate the lost letter from memory.