his conduct. The Duc d'Anjou suffered from some illness, and left
the army either on account of the severity of this or because he
wanted to return to the comfort and security of Paris, where the
presence of the Princess de Montpensier was not the least of the
attractions. The command of the army was taken over by the Prince
de Montpensier, and shortly after this, a peace having been
arranged, the Court assembled in Paris. Here the beauty of the
Princess eclipsed that of all her rivals. She charmed everyone by
her looks and personality. The Duc d'Anjou did not abandon the
sentiments she had inspired in him at Champigny, he took great
care to make her aware of this by all sorts of delicate
considerations, being careful at the same time not to make his
attentions too obvious for fear of arousing the jealousy of her
husband. The Duc de Guise was now fervently in love with her, but
wishing, for a variety of reasons, to keep this secret, he
resolved to tell her so privately and avoid any preliminaries
which, as always, would give rise to talk and exposure. One day
when he was in the Queen's apartments where there were very few
people, the Queen having left to discuss affairs of state with
Cardinal de Lorraine, the Princess de Montpensier arrived. He
decided to take this opportunity to speak to her, and going up to
her he said, "Although it may surprise and displease you, I want
you to know that I have always felt for you that emotion which
you once knew so well, and that its power has been so greatly
increased by seeing you again that neither your disapproval, the
hatred of your husband, nor the rivalry of the first Prince in
the kingdom can in the least diminish it. It would perhaps have
been more tactful to have let you become aware of this by my
behaviour rather than by my words, but my behaviour would have
been evident to others as well as to yourself and I wanted you