the Catholic despatched the Duke of Alva to
besiege Pamplona. On the fourth day of the siege John and
Catherine succeeded in escaping from their capital, which,
three days later, surrendered. Ferdinand, having sworn to
maintain the _fueros_, was thereupon acknowledged as
sovereign. However, it was only in 1516 that the former
rulers were expelled from Navarrese territory. "Had I been
Don Juan and you Donna Catherine," said the Queen to her
pusillanimous husband, as they crossed the Pyrenees, "we
should not have lost our kingdom." From this time forward
the d'Albrets, like their successors the Bourbons, were
sovereigns of Navarre in name only, for an attempt made in
1521 to reconquer the kingdom resulted in total failure, and
their dominions were thenceforth confined to Beam, Bigorre,
and Foix on the French side of the Pyrenees. Queen Catherine
died in 1517, aged 47, leaving several children, the eldest
of whom was Henry, Queen Margaret's second husband.--M., B.
J., D. and Ed.

Now it happened one day that the gentleman who was her unknown father
came to the house of the Queen of Navarre on his way back from beyond
the mountains, and as soon as he had set eyes on his daughter he fell
in love with her, and having license from his mother to marry any woman
that might please him, he only inquired whether she was of gentle birth,
and, hearing that she was, asked her of the Queen in marriage. The Queen
willingly consented, for she knew that the gentleman was not only rich
and handsome, but worshipful to boot.

When the marriage had been consummated, the gentleman again wrote to
his mother, saying that she could no longer close her doors against him,
since he was bringing with him as fair a daughter-in-law as she could
desire. The lady inquired to whom he had allied himself, and found that
it was to none other than their own daughter. Thereupon she fell into
such exceeding sorrow that she nearly came by a sudden death, seeing
that the more she had striven to hinder her misfortune, the greater had
it thereby become.

Not knowing what else to do, she went to the Legate of Avignon, to
whom she confessed the enormity of her sin, at the same time asking
his counsel as to how she ought to act. The Legate, to satisfy his
conscience, sent for several doctors of theology, and laid the matter
before them, without, however, mentioning any names; and