Quarrel between Bassompierre and the Marquis de Cœuvres--Bassompierre sends his cousin the Sieur de Créquy to challenge the marquis to a duel--The King sends for the two nobles and orders them to be reconciled in his presence--Bassompierre and Créquy are forbidden to appear at Court, but are soon pardoned--Visit of Bassompierre to Plombières--He returns to Paris, and “breaks entirely” with Marie d’Entragues--The Chancellor, Pomponne de Bellièvre, ordered to resign the Seals--His conversation with Bassompierre at Artenay--Bassompierre wins more than 100,000 francs at play--He is reconciled with Marie d’Entragues--He joins Henri IV at Sedan--The adventure of the King’s love-letter--Henri IV gives orders that a watch shall be kept on Marie d’Entragues’s house to ascertain if Bassompierre is secretly visiting that lady--A comedy of errors--Madame d’Entragues surprises her daughter and Bassompierre. One day, in the King’s cabinet, Bassompierre, in taking his handkerchief from his pocket, drew out with it a _billet-doux_ he had just received from Marie d’Entragues, which fell to the ground and lay there unperceived by him. An Italian banker named Sardini picked it up, and the Marquis de Cœuvres having told him that it was his, he gave it him. Cœuvres read the letter and then sent a message to Bassompierre, asking him to meet him that night before the Hôtel de Soissons and to come alone, as he had something of importance to communicate to him. Bassompierre, not a little surprised, since he and the marquis were on far from good terms with one another, kept the appointment and found Cœuvres awaiting him, in company with a friend of his, the Comte de Cramail, although in his letter he had given him to understand that there was to be no witness to their meeting.