eady made himself master of the fortress; and
although the Imperial general gallantly persisted in his defence, he
found himself at its close compelled to capitulate, being no longer able
to resist the cannonade of the enemy, who had effected an irreparable
breach in one of the walls, by which they poured an unceasing fire into
the streets of the town.

The capitulation was signed on the 1st of September, and executed on the
morrow, after which M. de la Chatre and his forces returned to France,
and the different Princes who had been engaged in the campaign retired
to their several states.[83]

Meanwhile the Court of Paris was rapidly becoming a scene of anarchy and
confusion. The Prince de Conti and the Comte de Soissons were alike
candidates for the government of Normandy, which the Regent, from its
importance and the physical disqualifications of the Prince, conferred,
despite the solicitations of Madame de Conti, upon M. de Soissons; and
she had no sooner come to this decision than the two Princes were at
open feud, supported by their several partisans, and the streets of the
capital were the theatre of constant violence and uproar. The Duc
d'Epernon, who was the open ally of the Count, on his side supported M.
de Soissons in order to counterbalance the influence of the Prince de
Conti and the Guises; an unfortunate circumstance for Marie, who had so
unguardedly betrayed her gratitude for his prompt and zealous services
at the first moment of her affliction, that the vain and ambitious Duke
had profited by the circumstance to influence her opinions and measures
so seriously as to draw down the most malicious suspicions of their
mutual position, suspicions to which the antecedents of M. d'Epernon
unhappily lent only too much probability.[84]

In addition to this open and threatening misunderstanding between two of
the first Princes of the Blood, a new danger was created by the
imprudence of the same noble, who, presuming upon his newly-acquired
importance, uttered the most violent and menacing expressions against
the Protestants, declaring that they had been tolerated too long, and
that it would soon become necessary to reduce them to a proper sense of
their insignificance; an opinion which he had no sooner uttered than the
Marquis d'Ancre in his turn assured the Regent that if she desired to
secure a happy and prosperous reign to her son, she had no alternative
but to forbid the exercise of the reformed religion, t