bestowing her hand upon the sovereign of a petty kingdom might perhaps
have deterred Catherine, had she not already decided upon the means by
which the bonds of so unequal an alliance might be rent assunder; and it
is even possible that the hatred which she bore to the reformed faith
would in itself have sufficed to render such an union impossible, had
not the crafty and compunctionless spirit by which she was animated
inspired her with a method which would more than expiate the temporary
sin. It is at all events certain that having summoned Henry of Navarre
to her presence, she unhesitatingly, and with many professions of regard
for himself, informed him of the overtures of the Portuguese monarch,
assuring him at the same time, that although the King of Spain was
opposed to the alliance from motives of personal interest, it was one
which would prove highly gratifying to Gregory XIII; but adding that
both Charles IX and herself were so anxious to perform the promise which
they had made to his mother, and to prove their good faith to his own
person, that they were willing to refuse the crown of Portugal and to
accept that of Navarre for the Princess.

Henry of Béarn hesitated. He was aware that the chiefs of the Protestant
party, especially the Admiral de Coligny, whom he regarded as a father,
were desirous that he should become the husband of Elizabeth of England.
Past experience had rendered them suspicious of the French, while an
alliance with the English promised them a strong and abiding protection.
Nor was Henry himself more disposed to espouse Marguerite de Valois, as
her early reputation for gallantry offended his sense of self-respect,
while a strong attachment elsewhere rendered him insensible to her
personal attractions. As a matter of ambition, the alliance was beyond
his hopes, and brought him one step nearer to that throne which, by some
extraordinary prescience, both he and his friends anticipated that he
was destined one day to ascend;[5] but he could not forget that there