being consumed by jealousy he ordered his wife to go to
Champigny. This order was a great shock to her, but she had to
obey: she found a way to say goodbye to the Duc de Guise
privately but she found herself in great difficulty when it came
to a means of providing a method whereby he could write to her.
After much thought she decided to make use of the Comte de
Chabannes, whom she always looked on as a friend without
considering that he was in love with her. The Duc de Guise, who
knew of the close friendship between the Comte and the Prince de
Montpensier, was at first amazed at her choice of the Comte as a
go-between, but she assured him of the Comte's fidelity with such
conviction that he was eventually satisfied. He parted from her
with all the unhappiness which such a separation can cause.

The Comte de Chabannes, who had been ill in Paris while the
Princess was at Blois, learning that she was going to Champigny
arranged to meet her on the road and go with her. She greeted him
with a thousand expressions of friendship and displayed an
extraordinary impatience to talk to him in private, which at
first delighted him. Judge his dismay when he found that this
impatience was only to tell him that she was loved passionately
by the Duc de Guise, a love which she returned. He was so
distressed that he was unable to reply. The Princess, who was
engrossed by her infatuation, took no notice of his silence. She
began to tell him all the least details of the events, and how
she and the Duc had agreed that he should be the means by which
they could exchange letters. The thought that the woman he loved
expected him to be of assistance to his rival, and made the
proposal as if it was a thing he would find agreeable was
bitterly hurtful, but he was so much in control of himself that