.
Andre as his favourites; but whether favour or business admitted men to
his presence, they could not preserve that privilege without the
good-liking of the Duchess of Valentinois; for though she was no longer
in possession of either of youth or beauty, she yet reigned so
absolutely in his heart, that his person and state seemed entirely at
her disposal.

The King had such an affection for the Constable, that he was no sooner
possessed of the Government, but he recalled him from the banishment he
had been sent into by Francis the First: thus was the Court divided
between Messieurs de Guise, and the Constable, who was supported by the
Princes of the blood, and both parties made it their care to gain the
Duchess of Valentinois. The Duke d'Aumale, the Duke of Guise's
brother, had married one of her daughters, and the Constable aspired to
the fame alliance; he was not contented with having married his eldest
son with Madam Diana, the King's daughter by a Piemontese lady, who
turned nun as soon as she was brought to bed. This marriage had met
with a great many obstacles from the promises which Monsieur
Montmorency had made to Madam de Piennes, one of the maids of honour to
the Queen; and though the King had surmounted them with extreme
patience and goodness, the Constable did not think himself sufficiently
established, unless he secured Madam de Valentinois in his interest,
and separated her from Messieurs de Guise, whose greatness began to
give her uneasiness. The Duchess had obstructed as much as she could
the marriage of the Dauphin with the Queen of Scotland; the beauty and
forward wit of that young Queen, and the credit which her marriage gave
to Messieurs de Guise, were insupportable to her; she in particular
hated the Cardinal of Loraine, who had spoken to her with severity, and
even with contempt; she was sensible he took the party of the Queen, so
that the Constable found her very well disposed to unite her interests
with his and to enter into alliance with him, by marrying her
granddaughter Madam de la Marke with Monsieur d'Anville, his second
son, who succeeded him in his employment under the reign of Charles the
Ninth. The Constable did not expect to find the same disinclination to
marriage in his second son which he had found in his eldest, but he
proved mistaken. The Duke d'Anville was desperately in love with the
Dauphin-Queen, and how little hope soever he might have of succeeding
in his passion, he cou