g toward Protestantism were plied with other arts.
In fact, so well did the legate counterfeit liberality of sentiment,
that even the Pope and his brethren of the Roman consistory seem to have
become a little alarmed. For he went so far, on one occasion, as to
accompany the Huguenot nobles to hear the sermon of one of their
ministers, greatly to the displeasure of the Pope and of Philip the
Second, as well as of the Cardinal of Tournon and other bigots at the
French court who could not follow the tangled thread of his tortuous
policy.[1206] It was difficult for him to convince them that he had made
this extraordinary concession simply in order to induce Antoine and his
more intractable queen in their turn to attend the Roman Catholic
services. Navarre was naturally the person whom legate and nuncio were
most anxious to influence. For, respecting Catharine, they soon
satisfied themselves that, if she was not a very ardent Romanist, she
was nothing of a Protestant.[1207] The King of Navarre, however, was to
be gained only by skilful and concerted diplomacy. Easy to be duped as
he was, he had met with so many disappointments that he required
something more than vague assurances to induce him to throw away the
solid advantages derived from still being the reputed head of the
Huguenots. For about this time his agents at Madrid and at Rome had been
coldly received. Philip and his minister Alva excused themselves from
paying any attention to his claims upon Navarre or an equivalent, until
Antoine had shown more decided devotion to Catholicism than was afforded
by simply attending mass, and they had made it evident that armed
intervention in behalf of the French adherents of the old faith was
rather to be expected from the Spaniard, than any act of condescension
in favor of the titular king. From Rome he had scarcely obtained more
encouragement than from Madrid.[1208] Under these circumstances, it
seemed that little was needed to make his alienation from Romanism
complete.

[Sidenote: Antoine of Navarre plied with suggestions.]

While, therefore, the Spanish ambassador, Chantonnay, brother of
Cardinal Granvelle, by his severity and his continual threats of war not
only discouraged the Navarrese king, but rendered himself so hateful to
the court that his presence could scarcely be endured,[1209] the papal
emissaries, to whom the Venetian Barbaro lent efficient aid, allured him
by brilliant hopes of a sovereignty which Philip, i