December, 1560, at Meaux in Brie, and for a national council of bishops and other church dignitaries to assemble at Pontoise on the following month of January. The letters of convocation ran that “they were to confer together and resolve what should be laid before a general council; and until that should assemble, the clergy were to suspend all proceedings against heretics, and correct the abuses that had gradually crept into the house of God.”[145] After the Amboise failure, Anthony of Navarre kept himself aloof at Nerac in Gascony, where he was joined by his brother Condé, who had openly professed the new religion. The latter succeeded in inspiring the king with some of his own spirit, but could not induce him to take any step that would commit him with the Lorraine party. Meanwhile the little town on the Baise became the general rendezvous of all the discontented, who, undismayed by the past, were quite as ready to act as to speak. But there was no one to lead them, for the eldest of the Bourbon line still hesitated. It was supposed that a remonstrance from the whole Huguenot body might move him, and with that intent the chiefs of the Protestant party laid before him “a supplication,” in which they (to the number of more than a million) offered him the disposal of their lives and fortunes, provided he would make common cause with them by putting himself at their head; threatening, in case of refusal, to choose another leader, native or foreign. The supplication was nominally addressed to both princes, but was really intended for Navarre alone, who however was not bold enough to act upon it.