Condé could not contain his indignation. “The Prince de Condé has left the Court in anger,” runs a letter from Fontainebleau, “because they (Charles IX. and Catherine) would not give the daughter of the late Maréchal de Saint-André to his son. He believes that they intend to give her to Guise. The Constable has gone to fetch him back. Others have gone to fan the flame.”[49] But it appears to have been Mlle. de Limeuil, and not the Constable, who persuaded the prince to stomach the affront he had received and to return to the Court. Acting doubtless by Catherine’s orders, the damsel addressed to him eloquent and persuasive letters, assuring him that he alone possessed her heart, and that the affair with M. du Fresne had been no more than a harmless flirtation, which malicious persons of both sexes--woman who envied her her happiness, and gallants who could not forgive her for having preferred the prince to them--had magnified into an intrigue. As for the matter which had caused his departure from the Court, was it worth while to sacrifice his pleasures to his _amour-propre_? The little Mlle. de Saint-André was a sickly child, who would probably never live to a marriageable age. Let him return, and he would find his Isabelle impatiently awaiting him. Condé did return, forgetting for the nonce his grievances against Catherine and anxious only for a reconciliation with his mistress. The Maréchale de Saint-André was compelled, to her intense mortification, to resign her conquest and retire temporarily from the field; and the prince and Isabelle embarked upon a second honeymoon, which was conducted with so little pretence at concealment that people were astonished that Catherine, who still insisted on the observance of some outward decorum at her Court, should permit such “goings on.” Her Majesty, however, who was fully alive to the political advantages of a passion which was, so to speak, binding her adversary hand and foot, found it convenient to be a little blind. In the course of the month of November, Coligny and Andelot arrived at the Court, and, on learning of the manner in which Condé was parading his profligacy, expostulated with him in no measured terms. Their remonstrances, however, had very little effect, and it was not until the following February, when the Princesse de Condé paid a brief visit to Fontainebleau, that his Highness condescended to show some respect for _les convenances_. CHAPTER V