While Charles was on a visit to Chantilly, Francis of Montmorency had suggested that the best means of conciliating the hostile parties would be to unite his sister Margaret to Prince Henry of Bearn.[489] This union between the two branches of the royal house was no new scheme. The prince, while yet a child, was presented to Henry II., who was so pleased with the boy that he asked him if he would be his son. “This is my father,” replied the child in the Bearnais patois, pointing to the King of Navarre. “Well then,” said the king, “will you be my son-in-law?” “Oh! with all my heart,” answered the sturdy little fellow, and from that time his marriage with Margaret, a princess four years old, was resolved upon. Anthony of Navarre was delighted, and wrote to his sister the Duchess of Nevers (Margaret of Bourbon), that “this alliance was the thing in the world he most desired to obtain, and which from thenceforward placed both his repose and prosperity upon a secure basis.” Joan also wrote to an old friend: “To cheer and console you in your sickness, I send you the news ... that his majesty has been pleased to grant this favor, for which I will not try to conceal the joy and satisfaction I feel.” This was in 1557; and in 1560, soon after the death of Francis II., Catherine wrote to the Queen of Navarre, pressing her to visit the court, and proposing to connect the families still closer by a marriage between “little Catherine” of Bearn and Henry Duke of Anjou: “Such an alliance,” she said, “will render our union indissoluble.” This, however, never came to any thing; but in 1562 we find the project revived, when Catherine feared that Anthony of Navarre was slipping out of her control.[490]