Amidst that band of noble Huguenot ladies, who in the evil days to come so bravely upheld their persecuted faith against the overwhelming forces arrayed against it, and inspired their disheartened co-religionists with fresh energy and enthusiasm to maintain the unequal struggle, there is no nobler figure than that of Éléonore de Roye. Less capable, less ambitious, than Jeanne d’Albret, she is infinitely more attractive, for she possessed a boundless fund of sympathy, an exquisite tact, and a charity which was but too seldom found among the leaders of “the Religion.” Catholic as well as Protestant writers bear homage to the charms and virtues of this admirable woman. “She was a lady of much intelligence, of heroic courage, and of an admirable chastity,” says De Thou; Le Laboureur, while describing her as “a very obstinate Huguenot,” admits that she was “beautiful and very virtuous”;[12] while Désormeaux declares that she yielded to none of her sex in beauty, in grace, in intelligence and in chastity, and that she “surpassed every one in knowledge, in courage, and in magnanimity.”[13] Condé could not be indifferent to the devotion of such a woman, and there can be no doubt that, for a long time, he reciprocated her affection and that he always entertained for her a sincere regard. Nevertheless, his marriage did little to subdue his taste for gallantry, and his attentions to the light beauties of the Court must often have caused her the keenest pain. “The good prince,” observes Brantôme, “was as worldly as his neighbour and loved other people’s wives as much as his own, partaking largely of the nature of the Bourbons, who have always been of a very amorous complexion.” If, however, Condé shared his family’s weakness for the fair sex, he shared also its taste for a military career, and, for some years after his marriage, it was the camp rather than the Court which claimed the greater part of his time. The long and bitter struggle between the Houses of France and Austria, closed for a time by the Peace of Crépy, broke out afresh in the early summer of 1551, in Italy, where Henry II. and Charles V., though still nominally at peace, intervened in the dispute between Pope Julius III. and his vassal Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma. Condé, though only a few days married, at once demanded and obtained permission to serve as a volunteer in the Army of Italy, commanded by the Maréchal de Brissac, and set out for Piedmont.