The Princess De Montpensier Read online

should be concealed. In order toallay all suspicion he answered with a laugh that the Prince himselfhad seemed so preoccupied with the thoughts which he was accused ofhaving that he had deemed it inadvisable to interrupt him; the beautyof Madame de Montpensier was, he said, nothing new to him, he had beenused to discounting its effect since the days when she was destined tobe his sister-in-law, but he saw that not everyone was so littledazzled. The Duc d'Anjou admitted that he had never seen anyone tocompare with this young Princess and that he was well aware that thevision might be dangerous if he was exposed to it too often. He triedto get the Duc de Guise to confess that he felt the same, but the Ducwould admit to nothing.

  On their return to Loches they often recalled with pleasure the eventswhich had led to their meeting with the Princess de Montpensier, asubject which did not give rise to the same pleasure at Champigny. ThePrince de Montpensier was dissatisfied with all that had happenedwithout being able to say precisely why. He found fault with his wifefor being in the boat. He considered that she had welcomed the Princestoo readily; and what displeased him most was that he had noticed theattention paid to her by the Duc de Guise. This had provoked in him afurious bout of jealousy in which he recalled the anger displayed bythe Duc at the prospect of his marriage, which caused him to suspectthat even at that time the Duc was in love with his wife. The Comte deChabannes as usual made every effort to act as peacemaker, hoping inthis way to show the Princess that his devotion to her was sincere anddisinterested. He could not resist asking her what effect the sight ofthe Duc de Guise had produced. She replied that she had been somewhatupset and embarrassed at the memory of the feelings she had oncedisplayed to him; she found him more handsome than he had been then andit had seemed to her that he wished to persuade her that he still lovedher, but she assured the Comte that nothing would shake herdetermination not to become involved in any intrigue. The Comte washappy to hear of this resolve, but he was far from being sure about theDuc de Guise. He earnestly warned the Princess of the danger of areturn to the previous situation should she have any change of heart,though when he spoke of his devotion she adopted her invariableattitude of looking on him as her closest friend but in no way apossible suitor.

  The armies were once more called up; all the Princes returned to theirposts and the Prince de Montpensier decided that his wife should comewith him to Paris so as to be further from the area where it wasexpected that fighting would take place. The Huguenots besiegedPoitiers. The Duc de Guise went there to organise the defence and,while there, enhanced his reputation by his conduct. The Duc d'Anjousuffered from some illness, and left the army either on account of theseverity of this or because he wanted to return to the comfort andsecurity of Paris, where the presence of the Princess de Montpensierwas not the least of the attractions. The command of the army was takenover by the Prince de Montpensier, and shortly after this, a peacehaving been arranged, the Court assembled in Paris. Here the beauty ofthe Princess eclipsed that of all her rivals. She charmed everyone byher looks and personality. The Duc d'Anjou did not abandon thesentiments she had inspired in him at Champigny, he took great care tomake her aware of this by all sorts of delicate considerations, beingcareful at the same time not to make his attentions too obvious forfear of arousing the jealousy of her husband. The Duc de Guise was nowfervently in love with her, but wishing, for a variety of reasons, tokeep this secret, he resolved to tell her so privately and avoid anypreliminaries which, as always, would give rise to talk and exposure.One day when he was in the Queen's apartments where there were very fewpeople, the Queen having left to discuss affairs of state with Cardinalde Lorraine, the Princess de Montpensier arrived. He decided to takethis 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 Ihave always felt for you that emotion which you once knew so well, andthat its power has been so greatly increased by seeing you again thatneither your disapproval, the hatred of your husband, nor the rivalryof the first Prince in the kingdom can in the least diminish it. Itwould perhaps have been more tactful to have let you become aware ofthis by my behaviour rather than by my words, but my behaviour wouldhave been evident to others as well as to yourself and I wanted youalone to know of my love for you."

  The Princess was so surprised and thrown into confusion by this speechthat she could not think of an answer, then, just when she hadcollected her wits and begun to reply, the Prince de Montpensierentered the room. The Princess's face displayed her agitation, and herembarrassment was compounded by the sight of her husband, to such anextent that he was left in no doubt about what the Duc de Guise hadbeen saying to her. Fortunately at that moment the Queen re-entered theroom and the Duc de Guise moved away to avoid the jealous Prince.

  That evening the Princess found her husband in the worst temperimaginable. He berated her with the utmost violence and forbade herever to speak to the Duc de Guise again. She retired to her room verysad and much preoccupied with the events of the day. She saw the Ducthe next day amid the company around the Queen, but he did not comenear her and left soon after she did, indicating that he had nointerest in remaining if she was not there. Not a day passed withouther receiving a thousand covert marks of the Duc's passion though hedid not attempt to speak to her unless he was sure that they could beseen by nobody.

  Convinced of the Duc's sincerity, the Princess, in spite of theresolution she had made at Champigny, began to feel in the depths ofher heart something of what she had felt in the past.

  The Duc d'Anjou for his part, omitted nothing which could demonstratehis devotion in all the places where he could meet her. In the Queenhis mother's apartments he followed her about continually, completelyignoring his sister who was very fond of him. It was at around thistime that it became evident that this sister, who later became theQueen of Navarre, had a liking for the Duc de Guise, and another thingthat became evident was a cooling of the friendship between that Ducand the Duc d'Anjou. The rumour linking the name of the Royal Princesswith that of the Duc de Guise disturbed the Princess de Montpensier toa degree which surprised her, and made her realise that she was moreinterested in the Duc than she had supposed.

  Now it so happened that her father-in-law, M. de Montpensier, married asister of the Duc de Guise, and the princess was bound to meet the Ducfrequently in the various places where the marriage celebrationsrequired their presence. She was greatly offended that a man who waswidely believed to be in love with "Madame", the King's sister, shoulddare to make advances to her; she was not only offended but distressedat having deceived herself.

  One day, when they met at his sister's house, being a little separatedfrom the rest, the Duc was tempted to speak to her, but she interruptedhim sharply saying angrily "I do not understand how, on the basis of aweakness which one had at the age of thirteen, you have the audacity tomake amorous proposals to a person like me, particularly when, in theview of the whole Court, you are interested in someone else." The Ducwho was intelligent as well as being much in love, understood theemotion which underlay the Princess's words. He answered her mostrespectfully, "I confess, Madame, that it was wrong of me not to rejectthe possible honour of becoming the King's brother-in-law, rather thanallow you to suspect for a moment that I could desire any heart butyours; but if you will be patient enough to hear me I am sure I canfully justify my behaviour." The Princess made no reply, but she didnot go away and the Duc, seeing that she was prepared to listen to him,told her that although he had made no effort to attract the attentionof Madame, she had nevertheless honoured him with her interest: as hewas not enamoured of her he had responded very coolly to this honouruntil she gave him to believe that she might marry him. The realisationof the grandeur to which such a marriage would raise him had obligedhim to take a little more trouble. This situation had aroused thesuspicions of the King and the Duc d'Anjou, but the opposition ofneither of them would have any effect on his course of action, however,if this displeased her he would abandon all such notions and neverthink of them again.


  This sacrifice which the Duc was prepared to make caused the Princessto forget all the anger she had shown. She changed the subject andbegan to speak of the indiscretion displayed by Madame in making thefirst advances and of the considerable advantages which he would gainif he married her. In the end, without saying anything kind to the Ducde Guise, she made him recall a thousand things he had found sopleasing in Mlle. de Mezieres. Although they had not had privateconversation for a long time, they found themselves attuned to oneanother, and their thoughts went along a track which they both hadtravelled in the past. At the end of this agreeable meeting the Duc wasleft in a state of considerable happiness, and the Princess was not alittle moved to think that he truly loved her. However, in the privacyof her room she became ashamed of the ease with which she had acceptedthe Duc's excuses and reflected on the trouble