The Duc de Guise who had used the opportunity of the massacre to
take ample revenge for the death of his father, gradually took
less and less interest in the Condition of the Princess of
Montpensier; and having met the Marquise de Noirmoutier, a woman
of wit and beauty, and one who promised more than the Princess de
Montpensier, he attached himself to her, an attachment which
lasted a lifetime.

The Princess's illness reached a crisis and then began to remit.
She recovered her senses and was somewhat relieved by the absence
of her husband. She was expected to live, but her health
recovered very slowly because of her low spirits, which were
further depressed by the realisation that she had received no
news of the Duc de Guise during all her illness. She asked her
women if they had not seen anyone, if they had not had any
letters, and finding that there had been nothing, she saw herself
as the most wretched of women, one who had risked all for a man
who had abandoned her. A fresh blow was the news of the death of
the Comte de Chabannes, which her husband made sure she heard
about as soon as possible. The ingratitude of the Duc de Guise
made her feel even more deeply the loss of a man whose fidelity
she knew so well. These disappointments weighed heavily upon her
and reduced her to a state as serious as that from which she had
recently recovered. Madame de Noirmoutier was a woman who took as
much care to publicise her affairs as others do to conceal them.
Her relations with the Duc de Guise were so open that, even
though far away and ill, the Princess heard so much about it that
she was left in no doubt. This was the final straw. She had lost
the regard of her husband, the heart of her lover, and the most