In the discussions with the political ministers it was soon evident to Catharine, as she had probably foreseen from the first, that to throw herself entirely into the hands of the extreme Catholic party as Philip desired, would be disastrous to her, and probably also to her son’s throne. But it did not suit her to quarrel with her powerful son-in-law, or to send her daughter back empty-handed to Madrid, after the much heralded interview; so, although an arrangement was signed which ostensibly bound France and Spain together for a religious end, Catharine took care to leave a sufficient number of knotty points open to give her a loophole to escape. When she returned to Paris she soon began to raise difficulties about the ratification, and wrote to her ambassador in Madrid (Fourquevault), ‘Je lui dis que en faisant ces mariages, et donnant quelque état à mon fils d’Orleans, qu’il nous falloit tous joindre ensemble: c’est à savoir le Pape, l’Empereur, et ces deux rois, les Allemands et autres que l’on avisera: et que le roi mon fils n’etait pas sans moyens pour aider de sa part, à ce qui serait avisé quand les dits mariages seroient faits, et la dite ligue conclüe.’ It will be seen that she makes here so many conditions as to render the league quite impossible. Not only is her daughter Margaret to marry Carlos, and her son Henry a daughter of the Emperor with an independent State, but all the other Catholic powers are to join the league before France is to be bound to anything. Indeed, it is clear that the power of the Huguenot and ‘politician’ nobles in France, and the old jealousy between France and Spain, together with the persecution by the Inquisition of French residents and visitors in Spain, and the massacre in the following year of the French expedition to Florida by Philip’s orders, made a sincere co-operation between the two countries in such a league impracticable;[192] and though appearances were saved at Bayonne, Philip, when he joyfully met his wife after her nineteen days’ absence from him, must have known that again his dream of a Catholic league had failed. ‘Je ne fis qu’arriver hier (writes the French ambassador to Catharine on Isabel’s return) de baiser la main de la reine, la quelle j’ai trouvée si joieuse et contente de la bonne venue du roy son mari, et de la démonstration de la bonne affection et amitié qu’il lui fait.’ Though the personal affection between the husband and wife was without a cloud, it was certain that the political results of the marriage were insignificant. Isabel fought hard for some satisfaction to the outrage to France in Florida, but without result; Coligny, to her and Philip’s indignation, was growing powerful in the French government; and the second war of religion was seen to be inevitable, whilst the issue was already joined between Philip and his Dutch subjects; pledged, as they were, to stand together to resist him to the death.