At the end of the following year, Marguerite de Valois joined her husband at Nérac. Catherine, whom the King left free to intrigue as she pleased, accompanied her daughter, bringing with her her “squadron,” whose charms wrought much havoc among the gentlemen of Henri’s little Court. She remained there several months, but the results of her visit fell very far short of her expectations, and, on her return to Paris, she made overtures to Condé, who, since the last war, had been on far from cordial terms with the King of Navarre. With a view to separating him entirely from his cousin, she offered him the hand of the Queen’s sister, Mlle. de Vaudémont, together with a considerable pension and the restoration of his government of Picardy. Condé declined the marriage, on the plea of difference in religion, and the next thing Catherine heard about him was that he had made his way in disguise into Picardy, and seized the town of La Fère, by means of a stratagem (November, 1579). The prince was left in peaceable possession of La Fère for some months, though his efforts to extend his influence through the rest of the province were unsuccessful. But when, in the spring of 1580, the “Lovers’ War” broke out, he was compelled to abandon his conquest and take refuge in the Netherlands. From there he crossed to England and endeavoured to obtain assistance from Elizabeth; but, failing in this, returned to the Netherlands, and, after taking part in the defence of Ghent, in which he exhibited great courage, made his way into Germany and concluded a treaty with the Elector Palatine, but on such disadvantageous terms that the French Protestants promptly repudiated it. He then began a little war on his own account in the Cevennes; but in November the King of Navarre made peace with the Court at Fleix, and obliged him to suspend his somewhat futile operations. The Treaty of Fleix was followed by four years of anarchic peace, which were passed by Condé chiefly at Saint-Jean-d’Angely. He had been reconciled to the King of Navarre, and the two cousins visited one another on several occasions; but this reconciliation was never really sincere, for Condé was not a little jealous of the military reputation which Henri had acquired in the last war, and he and the more fanatical section of the Protestants disapproved of the moderation shown by the young king, and sometimes endeavoured to compel him to adopt measures which his good sense condemned.