nch King of what he had done, assuring him that the permission
granted to the fugitive Prince involved no want of respect for himself
or of deference to his wishes, but had been accorded in the full
persuasion of his ultimate approval.

The Spanish minister also despatched a messenger to the Prince,
declaring that he was at liberty to take up his abode in the Low
Countries, where he would be treated in a manner worthy of his birth and
dignity, and, under the protection of the King his master, be assured of
safety and respect. M, de Conde gladly availed himself of this
permission, and a short time subsequently established himself in the
palace of his sister, the Princess of Orange.

Enraged at this open violation of his wishes, and still reluctant to
commence a war which he was conscious would rather owe its origin to
private feeling than to national expediency, Henry resolved, as a last
resource, to invest M. de Coeuvres with full powers to treat with the
revolted Prince; and for this purpose he furnished him with an autograph
letter, in which he assured the fugitive of an unreserved pardon in the
event of his immediate return to France; but threatened, should he
persist in his contumacy, to declare him guilty of the crime of
_lese-majeste._ M. de Conde simply replied to this missive by a
declaration of his innocence, and his respect for the person of the
King, and by protesting against all that might be done to prejudice his
interests; nor did the interviews which took place between himself and
the royal envoy prove more satisfactory, although the Marquis exerted
all his eloquence to induce him to comply with the will of the
sovereign. Moreover, the letter of Henry, instead of exciting his
confidence, had rendered the Prince more suspicious than ever of the
designs of the monarch; and he accordingly left Brussels, where he no
longer considered himself safe, at the end of February (1610), and took
refuge at Milan with the Conde de Fuentes, the governor of that city.

More than one rumour had meanwhile reached the Archduchess that Madame
de Conde was by no means so indifferent to the degrading passion of the
King as was befitting to her honour, and the Princess was accordingly
soon made sensible that her sojourn at Brussels had degenerated into a
species of ceremonious imprisonment. Naturally vain and volatile,
dazzled by the consciousness that she had become a sort of heroine, and
moreover saddened by her memories of