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Madam de Cleves understood very well what he said, but made him no answer; her care was to prevent Madam de Mercoeur from going into the bower, because the Duke de Nemours's picture was there, and she had no mind she should see it; she managed the matter so well, that the time passed away insensibly, and Madam de Mercoeur began to talk of going home: but when Madam de Cleves found that the Duke and his sister did not go together, she plainly saw to what she was going to be exposed; she found herself under the same embarrassment she was in at Paris, and took also the same resolution; her fear, lest this visit should be a further confirmation of her husband's suspicions, did not a little contribute to determine her; and to the end Monsieur de Nemours might not remain alone with her, she told Madam de Mercoeur she would wait upon her to the borders of the forest, and ordered her chariot to be got ready.
'Who sent you here? he asked, when he had so far recovered his senses as to recognise me, which he did with great surprise. 'I am here, sire, I answered evasively, 'to place myself at your Majesty's service. 'Such loyalty is rare, he answered, with a bitter sneer. 'But stand up, sir. I suppose I must be thankful for small mercies, and, losing a Mercoeur, be glad to receive a Marsac.
Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. pp. 102, 103. Henri de Bourbon, Due de Montpensier, Governor of Normandy, peer of France, Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon, Dauphin d'Auvergne, etc., was born in Touraine in 1573. During the lifetime of his father he bore the title of Prince de Dombes. The King confided to him the command of the army which he despatched to Brittany against the Due de Mercoeur.
That he, a chieftain of the Holy League, the long-descended scion of the illustrious house of Lorraine, brother of the great Duke of Mercoeur, should become the captive of a Huguenot buffoon seemed the most stinging jest yet perpetrated since fools had come in fashion.
He had an infallible pledge for his fidelity. The Duke's eldest son, the loyal and pious Duke de Mercoeur, had married one of the Cardinal's nieces, the amiable and virtuous Laura Mancini, so that the house of Vendôme was interested in and inseparably united to Mazarin's fortunes.
The duke of Mercoeur, governor of Brittany, a prince of the house of Lorraine, had declared for the league; and finding himself hard pressed by Henry's forces, he had been obliged, in order to secure himself, to introduce some Spanish troops into the seaport towns of that province.
He said, there were in his own province far better matches, which he named, that would not be refused him. "I thought I had written you word that the Cardinal de Le Roche-Aimon was abbe de St. Germain. It is said that M. de Briges has the barony de Mercoeur. M. de la Vauguyon has died, little regretted either by the court or by the town.
The young duke had married the beautiful Madlle. de Vendôme, daughter of Duke Cæsar, and sister of the Dukes de Mercoeur and Beaufort, and by her he had two daughters who became, one the Queen of Portugal, the other the Duchess of Savoy.
Guy Eder de Beaumanoir de Lavardin, Baron de Fontenelles, was a Breton noble, who, according to De Thou, had been a celebrated Leaguer and brigand. From the year 1597 he had held, in the name of the Duc de Mercoeur, the fort of Douarnenez in Brittany, and the island of Tristain in which it is situated.
Mayenne, Nemours, Aumale, Mercoeur longed to convert temporary governments into independent principalities. The Duke of Lorraine looked with longing eyes on Verdun, Sedan, and, the other fair cities within the territories contiguous to his own domains.
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