At the first hint of scandal Monsieur
de Conde put himself into a fine heat, and said things which
pained and annoyed the King exceedingly. Henry had amassed a
considerable and varied experience of jealous husbands in his
time; but he had never met one quite so intolerable as this
nephew of his. He complained of it in a letter to Sully.
"My friend,--Monsieur the Prince is here, but he acts like a man
possessed. You will be angry and ashamed at the things he says of
me. I shall end by losing all patience with him. In the meanwhile
I am obliged to taut to him with severity."
More severe than any talk was Henry's instruction to Sully to
withhold payment of the last quarter of the prince's allowance,
and to give refusals to his creditors and purveyors. Thus he
intended also, no doubt, to make it clear to Conde that he did
not receive a pension of a hundred thousand livres a year for
nothing.
"If this does not keep him in bounds," Henry concluded, "we must
think of some other method, for he says the most injurious things
of me."
So little did it keep the prince in bounds--as Henry understood
the phrase--that he immediately packed his belongings, and
carried his wife off to his country house.
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