Loyalty of Mlle. de la Trémoille to Condé--She prevents her mother, the Duchesse de Thouars, from surrendering the Château of Taillebourg to a Catholic force--And defends it gallantly until she is relieved--She equips two ships-of-war to bring Condé from Guernsey--Reunion of the lovers--Their marriage--Condé takes the field again--Financial embarrassments of the new _ménage_--Battle of Coutras: encounter between Condé and Saint-Luc--Ill-health of the prince--He returns to Saint-Jean-d’Angely--He is suddenly taken ill, and dies in two days--Violent grief of his wife--Suspicions of the doctors--An autopsy is performed, and the prince is declared to have been poisoned--Letter of the King of Navarre to the Comtesse de Gramont--Flight of the princess’s page, Belcastel, and her head _valet-de-chambre_, Corbais--Arrest of her intendant, Brilland--The King of Navarre arrives at Saint-Jean-d’Angely, and orders the Princesse de Condé to be placed under arrest--Terrible situation of the princess 125–138 CHAPTER X The King of Navarre appoints a special commission for the trial of Brilland--Brilland is put to the question--His confessions under torture implicate the Princesse de Condé, but on the following day he disavows them--He is found guilty and condemned to be dismembered by horses--The princess denies the competency of the court and appeals to the Parlement of Paris--But the King of Navarre and the commissioners ignore the decrees of that body--The commission directs that the princess shall be brought to trial--She gives birth to a son--The prosecution is dropped, but the princess remains in captivity--The Président de Thou interests himself in her case--Means by which he obtains from Henri IV. the recognition of her son’s rights, and, with them, the acknowledgment of the princess’s innocence 139–148 CHAPTER XI