The war campaign approached; the Prince of Navarre had to leave for the army. The Countess of Tende began to feel the sadness of his absence and to fear the perils he would be exposed to; she resolved to escape the constraint of constantly hiding her affliction and decided to pass the summer on an estate she had thirty leagues from Paris.

She executed her projected plan; their adieu was so dolorous that both saw in it an evil omen. The Count of Tende remained close to the King, to whom he was attached by his duties.

The court had to draw near the army; Madame of Tende's house wasn't far away; her husband told her he would make a trip there of one night only for some work that he had begun. He didn't want her to have the satisfaction of believing it was to see her; he had against her all the spite that passions give.

In the beginning, Madame of Tende had found the Prince of Navarre so respectful and she sensed such virtue that she didn't distrust either him or herself. But time and events had triumphed over her virtue and respect and, soon after she returned home, she perceived she was pregnant.

One must only reflect on the reputation she had acquired and conserved and on the state of her relationship with her husband, in order to judge her despair.

She felt compelled several times to attempt her life; however she gained some flimsy hope on the visit that her husband was making to be near her, and resolved to await the outcome. In her dejection, she had the added sadness of learning that La Lande, whom she'd left in Paris to receive the letters of her lover and herself, had died a few days ago, and she found herself stripped of all succor, at a time when she had the most need of it.