l forces at the command of the court were to be set on
foot, and four armies, under the Duke of Aumale and Marshals St. Andre,
Brissac, and Termes, were to serve as the instruments of destruction.
Termes was to effect a junction with a Spanish force entering France
through Bearn; and the Governor of Bayonne was instructed to surrender
that important city into the hands of Philip. The expenses of the
crusade were to be defrayed by the clergy, who, from cardinal down to
chaplain, were to retain of their income only the amount necessary for
their bare subsistence.[959] The recent publication of the Pope's bull,
renewing the Council of Trent, meanwhile served as a good excuse for
forbidding the discussion of religious questions by the States General,
then about to meet, by the king's direction, at Orleans instead of
Meaux.[960]

[Sidenote: Illness of the king.]

The moment for the execution of this widespread plan of destruction was
approaching, when its devisers were startled by the sudden discovery
that the health of their nephew, the king, was fast failing. Francis's
constitution, always frail, and now still further undermined, was giving
way in connection with a gathering in the ear, which resisted the
efforts of the most skilful physicians.[961] "This King," wrote the
English ambassador, on the twenty-first of November, giving to his
fellow-envoy at Madrid the first intimation of Francis's illness,
"thought to have removed hence for a fortnight, but the day before his
intended journey he felt himself somewhat evil disposed of his body,
with a pain in his head and one of his ears, which hath stayed his
removing from hence."[962] But the rapid progress of the disease soon
made it clear that the trip to Chenonceau, "the queen's house," whence
the king "was not to return hither until the Estates are assembled,"
would never be taken by Francis. The sceptre must pass into other hands
even more feeble than his.

[Sidenote: The queen mother rejects the advances of the Guises,]

[Sidenote: and makes terms with Navarre.]

The Guises in consternation proposed to Catharine to hasten the death of
Navarre and Conde,[963] and perhaps to put into immediate execution
their ulterior projects. But Catharine de' Medici little relished an
increased dependence[964] upon a family she had good reason to distrust.
Instead of accepting the advances of the Guises, she hastened to make
terms with the King of Navarre. In an interview with tha