ch a sacrifice to please her. She
consented to accept his declaration and permitted him to believe that
she was not unmoved by his passion. The arrival of the Duchess, her
mother-in-law, put an end to this tete-a-tete, and prevented the Duc
from demonstrating his transports of joy.

Some time later, the Court having gone to Blois, the marriage between
the King of Navarre and Madame was celebrated. The Duc de Guise who
wanted nothing more than the love of the Princess de Montpensier,
enjoyed a ceremony which in other circumstances would have overwhelmed
him with disappointment.

The Duc was not able to conceal his love so well that the Prince de
Montpensier did not suspect that something was going on, and being
consumed by jealousy he ordered his wife to go to Champigny. This order
was a great shock to her, but she had to obey: she found a way to say
goodbye to the Duc de Guise privately but she found herself in great
difficulty when it came to a means of providing a method whereby he
could write to her. After much thought she decided to make use of the
Comte de Chabannes, whom she always looked on as a friend without
considering that he was in love with her. The Duc de Guise, who knew of
the close friendship between the Comte and the Prince de Montpensier,
was at first amazed at her choice of the Comte as a go-between, but she
assured him of the Comte's fidelity with such conviction that he was
eventually satisfied. He parted from her with all the unhappiness which
such a separation can cause.

The Comte de Chabannes, who had been ill in Paris while the Princess
was at Blois, learning that she was going to Champigny arranged to meet
her on the road and go with her. She greeted him with a thousand
expressions of friendship and displayed an extraordinary impatience to
talk to him in private, which at first delighted him. Judge his dismay
when he found that this impatience was only to tell him that she was
loved passionately by the Duc de Guise, a love which she returned. He
was so distressed that he was unable to reply. The Princess, who was
engrossed by her infatuation, took no notice of his silence. She began
to tell him all the least details of the events, and how she and the
Duc had agreed that he should be the means by which they could exchange
letters. The thought that the woman he loved expected him to be of
assistance to his rival, and made the proposal as if it was a thing he
would find agreeable was bitterly