be told.”[517] To the Cardinal of Lorraine, then in Rome, he wrote that whether the pope’s answer was favorable or not, he should go on with the marriage.[518] To his friends he repeated his assurance that he married his sister not only to the Prince of Bearn but to the whole Protestant party: “It will be the strongest bond between my subjects,” he said, “and a sure evidence of my good-will toward those of the religion.” It was Joan’s desire that the wedding should be celebrated at Blois, on account of the fanatical temper of the inhabitants of the metropolis; but as Charles objected with reason to a solemn state ceremony being performed anywhere but in the capital, the Queen of Navarre gave way. It is a curious coincidence that the Parisians should have been equally adverse to the celebration of the marriage within their walls. “They feared,” says Claude Haton, “that they would be robbed and despoiled in their own houses by the seditious Huguenots.”[519] CHAPTER XI. THE MARRIAGE AND THE PLOT. [August, 1572.] Proposed German and English Alliances--Anjou’s Refusal--Treaty with England--Capture of Mons--Defeat of Genlis--Walsingham’s Dispatches--War-Excitement--Deliberations in Council--Charles at Montpipeau--Catherine follows him--Her tears--Increasing influence of Coligny--His Death resolved on--Joan of Navarre in Paris--Her sudden Death--Distrust and Warnings--Coligny’s firmness--Plot and Counterplot--Henry of Navarre enters Paris--The Wedding--Masque at the Hôtel Bourbon--The Admiral’s last Letter--Plot to Assassinate him--The Duchess of Nemours--Maurevel sent for.