the Abbey of Ferrieres, near Montargis, where they underwent an
examination, at which the King himself presided,[19] and wherein facts
were elicited that were fatal to the character of their mistress. Their
replies were then reduced to writing; and Marguerite, who had been
detained for this express purpose, was compelled by her inexorable
brother to affix her signature to the disgraceful document; when, after
she had been subjected to this new indignity, the daughter of Catherine
de Medicis was at length permitted to pursue her journey; but she was
compelled to do so alone, as her two attendants were forbidden to bear
her company.

She had no sooner left Ferrieres than Henri III despatched one of the
valets of his wardrobe to St. Foix, where the King of Navarre was for
the moment sojourning, with an autograph letter, in which he informed
him that he had considered it expedient to dismiss from the service of
his royal sister both Madame de Duras and Mademoiselle de Bethune,
having discovered that they were leading the most dissolute and
scandalous lives, and were "_pernicious vermin_" who could not be
permitted to remain about the person of a Princess of her rank.

Thus ignominiously driven from the Court of France, Marguerite, who had
no resource save in the indulgence of her husband, travelled with the
greatest speed to Nerac, where he was then residing, in the hope that
she might be enabled by her representations to induce him to espouse her
cause against her brother; but although, in order to preserve
appearances, Henry received her courteously, and even listened with
exemplary patience to her impassioned relation of the indignities to
which she had been subjected, the coldness of his deportment, and the
stern tone in which he informed her that he would give the necessary
orders for a separate residence to be prepared for her accommodation, as
he could never again receive her under his own roof, or accord to her
the honour and consideration due to a wife, convinced her that she had
nothing more to hope from his forbearance.

Even while he thus resented his own wrongs, however, Henry of Navarre no
sooner comprehended that Marguerite had been personally exposed to
insults which had affected his honour as her consort, than he despatched
a messenger to the French King at Lyons, "to entreat him to explain the
cause of these affronts, and to advise him, _as a good master_, how he
had better act." [20] But this somewhat s