Guyenne, or Damville from that of Languedoc, who were
meditating incursions in the interest of the Roman Catholic Church. "In
short," exclaims her indefatigable coadjutor, Raymond Merlin, "it is
wonderful that this princess should be able to persist with constancy in
her holy design!"[323] Then came the papal citation, and the necessity to
avoid the alienation of the French court which would certainly result from
suddenly abolishing the papal rites, especially in view of the
circumstance that Catharine de' Medici had several times begged the Queen
of Navarre by letter to refrain from taking that decided step.[324]

[Sidenote: A plan to kidnap Jeanne and her children.]

It speaks well for the energy and intrepidity of Jeanne d'Albret, as well
as for the wisdom of some of her advisers, that she was able to lay in
these troublous times such broad foundations for the Protestant system of
worship and government as we shall shortly have occasion to see her
laying; for she was surrounded by courtiers who beheld in her bold
espousal of the Reformation the death-blow to their hopes of advancement
at Paris, and were, consequently, resolute in their opposition. An
incident occurring some months later demonstrates that the perils from her
treacherous neighbors were not purely imaginary. This event was nothing
less than the discovery of a plan to kidnap the Queen of Navarre and her
young son and daughter, and to give them over into the hands of the
Spanish Inquisition. Shortly after Antoine's death, her enemies in
France--among whom, despite his subsequent denial, it is probable that
Blaise de Montluc was one--had devised this plot as a promising means of
promoting their interests. They had despatched a trusty agent to prepare a
few of their most devoted partisans in Guyenne for its execution; he was
then to pass into Spain, to confer with the Duke of Alva. The latter part
of his instructions had not been fulfilled when the assassination of Guise
took place. Nothing daunted by this mishap, the conspirators ordered their
agent to carry out the original scheme. Alva received it with favor, and
sent the Frenchman, with his own approval of the undertaking, to the
Spanish court, where he held at least three midnight interviews with
Philip. No design was ever more dear to that prudent monarch's heart than
one which combined the rare attractions of secrecy and treachery,
particularly if there were a reasonable hope in the end of a little
w