the
powerful intercession made in his behalf induced the government to
forget his disrespectful language respecting the princes, and to release
him after barely a week's imprisonment.[1239]

[Sidenote: Philip threatens to interfere in French affairs.]

[Sidenote: "A true defender of the faith."]

[Sidenote: Courteville's mission to Flanders.]

Unfortunately, Tanquerel's treasonable thesis and Hans's excited
declamation were not mere harmless speculations which might never be of
any practical importance to the state. The King of Spain had taken the
pains to inform the queen mother that he had fully made up his mind to
interfere in the affairs of France, and to enforce Catholic supremacy at
the point of the sword. She might accept or decline the offers of the
self-appointed champion of orthodoxy; _but, if she declined, he was
resolved none the less to afford his succor to any true friend of the
Church that chose to request it_. Timid and irresolute Catharine, who
desired to steer clear of the Scylla of Spanish intervention quite as
much as of the Charybdis of Huguenot supremacy, trembled for the
security of her unballasted bark. But the watchful old man who sat on
St. Peter's reputed seat was thrown into a paroxysm of delight. When the
Ambassador Vargas handed him a copy of the message his master had sent
to St. Germain, Pope Pius paused a moment, after he had read the
undisguised threat, then burst out with a flood of benedictions on the
head of the Spanish king. "There," he cried, "is a truly Catholic
prince, there a true defender of the faith! I expected no less of
him."[1240] And Philip intended to carry his menaces into effect. On the
twenty-fifth of October his secretary, Courteville, left Madrid,
ostensibly on a visit to his infirm father in Flanders, but in reality
intrusted with a very important commission, which, in an age when it was
no uncommon thing for a messenger to be waylaid and robbed of his
despatches, could scarcely be otherwise discharged. He was to make
diligent inquiries of Margaret of Parma, Regent of the Netherlands, as
to the actual condition of the provinces, and the material support they
could give the undertaking upon which Philip has set his heart. While
passing through Paris he was to confide his dangerous secret to the
Ambassador Chantonnay, and instruct him to support any of the Roman
Catholic nobles that might show a disposition to rise,[1241] or to
instigate them to action by the pr