of her old apartments in the
Louvre. She was received with great cordiality by Henri III, who trusted
that her residence in France might induce her husband ere long to follow
her; but he soon discovered that not even the warmth of his welcome
could cause her to forget the past; and that, under his own royal roof,
she was secretly intriguing with the Duc d'Alencon, who was once more in
open revolt against him.

For a time, although thoroughly informed that such was the fact, his
emissaries were unable to produce any tangible proof of the validity of
their accusations; but at length, rendered bold by impunity, Marguerite
was so imprudent (for the purpose of forwarding some despatches to the
rebel Duke) as to cause the arrest of a royal courier, charged with an
autograph letter of two entire sheets from the King to his favourite the
Duc de Joyeuse,[16] who was then on a mission at Rome; when the
unfortunate messenger, who found himself suddenly attacked by four men
in masks, made so desperate an effort to save the packet with which he
had been entrusted, that the _sbirri_ of the Princess, who had
anticipated an easy triumph, became so much exasperated that they
stabbed him on the spot.

This occurrence no sooner reached the ears of Henri III, than he sent to
desire the presence of his sister, when, utterly regardless of the fact
that they were not alone, he so far forgot his own dignity as to
overwhelm her with the coarsest and most cutting reproaches; and not
satisfied with expatiating upon the treachery of which she had been
guilty towards himself, he passed in review the whole of her ill-spent
life, accusing her, among other enormities, of the birth of an
illegitimate son,[17] and terminated his invectives by commanding her
instantly "to quit Paris, and rid the Court of her presence." [18]

On the morrow Marguerite accordingly left the capital with even less
state than she had entered it, for she had neither suite nor equipage,
and was accompanied only by Madame de Duras and Mademoiselle de Bethune,
her two favourite attendants. She was not, however, suffered to depart
even thus without impediment, for she had only travelled a few leagues
when, between Saint-Cler and Palaiseau, her litter was stopped by a
captain of the royal guard, at the head of a troop of harquebusiers:
she was compelled to remove her mask; and her companions, after having
been subjected to great discourtesy, were finally conveyed as prisoners
to