the activities of two men who were fishing nearby.

This spectacle created something of a sensation amongst the
Princes and their suite. It seemed to them like an episode from a
romance. Some declared that it was fate that had led the Duc de
Guise to bring them there to see this lovely lady, and that they
should now pay court to her. The Duc d'Anjou maintained that it
was he who should be her suitor.

To push the matter a bit further, they made one of the horsemen
go into the river as far as he could and shout to the lady that
it was the Duc d'Anjou who wished to cross to the other bank and
who begged the lady to take him in her boat. The lady, who was of
course the Princess de Montpensier, hearing that it was the Duc
d'Anjou, and having no doubt when she saw the size of his suite
that it was indeed him, took her boat over to the bank where he
was. His fine figure made him easily distinguishable from the
others, she, however, distinguished even more easily the figure
of the Duc de Guise. This sight disturbed her and caused her to
blush a little which made her seem to the Princes to have an
almost supernatural beauty.

The Duc de Guise recognised her immediately in spite of the
changes which had taken place in her appearance in the three
years since he had last seen her. He told the Duc d'Anjou who she
was and the Duc was at first embarrassed at the liberty he had
taken, but then, struck by the Princess's beauty, he decided to
venture a little further, and after a thousand excuses and a
thousand compliments he invented a serious matter which required
his presence on the opposite bank, and accepted the offer which