Navarre who suggested calling her brother Alençon to lead the negotiations. They were rapid and culminated in the peace of Fleix. It is then that Margaret fell in love with the grand equerry of her brother, Jacques de Harlay, lord of Champvallon. The letters she addressed to him illustrate her conception of love, imprinted with Neoplatonism. It was a matter of privileging the union of minds with that of the bodies – which did not mean that Margaret did not appreciate physical love – to bring about the fusion of souls. After the departure of Alençon, the situation of Margaret deteriorated. One of her ladies-in-waiting, Françoise de Montmorency-Fosseux a 14-year-old girl known as La Belle Fosseuse, was conducting a passionate affair with the King of Navarre and became pregnant. Margaret proposed banishing her rival from court, but La Belle Fosseuse screamed that she would refuse to cooperate. She never ceased to incite Henry against his wife, hoping perhaps to be married to him. "From that moment until the hour of [his mistress's] delivery, which was a few months after, [my husband] never spoke to me. [...] We slept in separate beds in the same chamber, and had done so for some time", remembered Margaret. Françoise finally gave birth to a daughter, but the child was stillborn. "It pleased God that she should bring forth a daughter since dead" wrote the queen in her Memoirs. Scandal in Paris In 1582, Margaret returned to Paris. She had failed to give her husband an heir, which would have strengthened her position. However, the real reasons for her departure were obscure. No doubt she wanted to escape from an atmosphere that became hostile, perhaps also to approach her lover Champvallon, or to support her younger brother Alençon. Moreover, King Henry III and the Queen-Mother urged her to return, hoping thus to attract the King of Navarre to the court of France. Queen Margaret was initially well received by her brother, the King. Margaret maintained an active correspondence with her husband and tried to convince him to join her in Paris. But Henry of Navarre was not persuaded, and a rupturing of their relationship occurred when Margaret forced La Belle Fousseuse from her service on the order of the Queen-Mother. After this new break with her husband, from November 1582 to August 1583, the queen of Navarre resumed the relationship with Champvallon, who had returned