A very short time elapsed before Auvergne was again involved in treasonable projects. His confederates were the marchioness of Verneuil, her father, Francis de Balsac d’Entragues, and an Englishman named Thomas Morgan. The duke of Bouillon, and other nobles, were also ready to lend their aid. The marchioness, who, in consequence of the promise of marriage which the king had given to her during the insanity of his passion, affected to consider herself as his wife, was irritated by the birth of a dauphin, which seemed to shut out the possibility of her son ever possessing what she called his right. D’Entragues was deeply wounded in his feelings, by the stain which Henry’s licentious love for his daughter had cast upon him. Some writers,—who appear to suppose that a French father could not think himself dishonoured by his child becoming a king’s concubine,—throw doubts on the sincerity of d’Entragues’ indignation; but I can see no real grounds for their so doing. There is an air of sincerity, in what he says upon this subject, which is greatly in his favour. After touching upon the ingratitude with which his faithful services had been repaid, he adds, “Borne down by years and maladies, I was condemned to suffer more deadly blows from blind fortune. My daughter, the sole consolation of my old age, pleased the king, and this last stroke completed my misery. Grief aggravated my maladies, and still more intense mental anguish was joined to the pains which my body endured. I found myself exposed to all the gibes of the courtiers, and that which generally constitutes the happiness of a father, and which ought to have formed the glory and felicity of my family, was, on the contrary, the cause of my shame, of the dishonour of my house, and of the insulting scorn with which I was overwhelmed.” As often as he implored for leave to withdraw from court he was refused, and at length he was forbidden to see his daughter. Not content with inflicting these wrongs upon him, Henry was striving to seduce his second daughter also. Assuredly if such injuries are not sufficient to rouse the wrath of a father, it is difficult to imagine what would be. That d’Entragues keenly felt them is certain; for he more than once endeavoured to intercept and kill the king, while he was on his way to the marchioness, and to her sister, and Henry is said to have narrowly escaped. The design to assassinate is indefensible; but it at least proves that the father was in earnest. At a subsequent period, Henry said to d’Entragues, “Is it true, as is reported, that you meant to kill me?” “Yes, Sire,” replied the undaunted noble, “and the idea will never be out of my mind, while your majesty persists to blot my honour in the person of my daughter.”