de Conti, being totally deaf and partially dumb, was
incapable of government; the Comte de Soissons was at variance with
both; and the Duc de Nevers was commanding the army in Champagne, until
he should be superseded by the arrival of the King in person, according
to the arrangement made by that unhappy monarch before the departure of
the troops from France; while the Prince de Joinville, who, it may be
remembered, had been banished from the Court for his intrigue with
Madame de Verneuil, and who had been travelling in England and Germany,
and afterwards retired to Lorraine until his brother the Duc de Guise
should be enabled to procure his recall, was also absent. To each and
all of these Princes Marie, who at once felt the necessity of their
immediate presence in order to give dignity and stability to her
position, hastened to forward messengers to request their instant
return; a summons which was promptly obeyed by the Duc de Nevers and all
the principal officers under his command, as well as by M. de Joinville,
who also received a pressing letter from the Duc de Guise, enjoining him
to profit without delay by so admirable an opportunity of regaining his
forfeited favour. But whatever were the haste with which all endeavoured
to reach the Court, it still required time for them to do so;[44] and
meanwhile the other great nobles were anxious to shake off the control
to which they had been subjected during the previous reign. Individual
hatred came to the assistance of personal ambition, and those whose
talent enabled them to acquire influence at Court began to exercise it
no less zealously in the ruin of others than in their own
aggrandizement.[45]

The Prince de Conde had no sooner forwarded to the Queen the letter to
which allusion has been already made, than he received a pressing
invitation to return to France, for which purpose he prepared to leave
Milan; a step so obnoxious to Spain that the Conde de Fuentes spared no
pains in dissuading him from its adoption. He represented in earnest
terms the exceptional position of the Prince, whose rank as the first
subject of the realm justified him in aspiring to a throne filled by a
mere boy, who could be considered only as a puppet in the hands of an
ambitious woman; following up his arguments by an offer of efficient aid
from his own monarch to enable M. de Conde to enforce his pretensions;
and while he was thus endeavouring to shake the loyalty of his guest,
the Spani