m to effect a reconciliation with
his turbulent brother, a mission which the young Duke cheerfully
undertook; but it unfortunately happened that in order to reach the
Abbey of St. Germain, where M. de Conti was then residing, it was
necessary for him to pass beside the Hotel de Soissons, which he
accordingly did, followed by a retinue of thirty horsemen. This
circumstance was construed into a premeditated insult by the Count, who
immediately assembled his friends, and informed them that he had been
braved in his own house by the Duc de Guise; whose adherents had no
sooner ascertained that there was an assemblage hostile to his interests
forming at the Hotel de Soissons, than they in their turn flocked in
such numbers to afford him their support that in a short time more than
a thousand nobles were collected under his roof.

When this fact was communicated to M. de Soissons he sent to request
that the Prince de Conde would accompany him to the Louvre, to demand
from the Regent that she should afford them satisfaction for the
insolence of the Duc de Guise; who, when summoned to explain his motives
for inflicting an affront upon the Count, simply and calmly replied that
he had never sought to insult M. de Soissons; but had, in obedience to
the command of her Majesty, been compelled to pass an angle of his
hotel, which he had moreover done without a demonstration of any
description, and accompanied only by the escort suitable to his rank.
That his sincere anxiety had been to second the wishes of her Majesty;
and that so far from seeking to envenom an unfortunate misunderstanding
which could only tend to involve the Court in new disorder, he had from
the first moment resolved not to offer an opinion upon the merits of the
feud; a determination to which he still meant to adhere.

This manly declaration in no degree softened the ire of the Count; who,
enchanted at having discovered an opportunity of annoying and harassing
M. de Guise during the first week of his marriage, retorted in a manner
which impelled the Queen to request that each would retire to his hotel;
and to express at the same time her earnest hope that a little calm
reflection would induce the disputants to become reconciled.

The quarrel was nevertheless sustained throughout the whole of that and
the following day; and so great was the commotion which it excited in
the capital that the Regent, apprehending its result, considered it
necessary to order that cha