Duke of Nemours

Henry took part in the celebratory jousting, boldly wearing his mistress Diane's black and white colors.

He was victorious against his friend the Duke of Guise and the Duke of Nemours.

But was knocked off his saddle by Gabriel de Lorges, the Earl of Montgomery, in an honorable joust.

Insisting on riding out again against Montgomery, Henry's face was shattered by Montgomery's lance.

The Count of Armagnac was killed leading a rising on his estates.

The Duke of Nemours and Saint-Paul had ended on the block.

The Duke of Bourbon was failing in health, and his brother and heir was married to the King's younger daughter, while Louis of Orléans was husband of the elder.

Of the throng of Princes of the Lilies, the Duke of Brittany alone remained powerful and dangerous.

But she was silent again.

"Heloise was married," he continued, "while visiting at the chateau of the Duc de Nemours near Paris to Don Luis Danasco, who was a Spaniard.

Fearing her father's wrath and disinheritance, this unfortunate woman concealed the facts of this marriage, the record of which was the acknowledgment of the priest who married them and the statements of a nurse and another witness who had accompanied her to Amiens, where in or about the year 1635 she gave birth to a son." If Mistress Clarke had allowed herself to relax a little before, her interest now had dominated all feeling of fear and suspense.

She leaned a little forward, breathless, her hand upon the chair before her, her eyes fixed upon the lips of the Frenchman, who spoke slowly, concisely, and held her with an almost irresistible fascination.