At the same time the Guises, repenting that they had permitted Condé, “the dumb chief,” to leave Amboise, began to strengthen their hands. Duke Francis, now lieutenant-general of the kingdom, having full control over the military resources of the country, increased the royal body-guard by the addition of several regiments, the command of which he gave to the infamous Du Plessis-Richelieu, one time a monk but now a soldier. He also received troops from Scotland, kept up the veteran regiments of Brissac, which had just returned from Italy, and negotiated for the assistance of Swiss and German mercenaries. This step, as we shall see, necessarily drove the Huguenots to seek foreign help. Meanwhile the King of Navarre and his brother appear to have entered into a new plot against the Guises, of which a general Huguenot insurrection formed a part. It was to begin with the seizure of Lyons, an important town close to the Swiss frontier and on the northern border of the most Protestant portion of France. Here Condé was to rally all the disaffected nobility and gentry, while Navarre headed a similar rising in the west. This plot, even more obscure than that of Amboise, came to nothing, beyond implicating the two Bourbon princes, whose share in it is, nevertheless, somewhat doubtful. This was another triumph for the house of Lorraine, who determined to crush their rivals at once and forever. Francis II. proceeded to Orleans escorted by a numerous guard. The Prince of Roche-sur-Yon was made governor for the occasion; the garrisons from the neighboring towns were called in, which, added to the king’s escort of 4000 foot, composed a force of nearly 10,000 men. Hither the two brothers were summoned to explain their conduct, and the Count of Crussol, the bearer of the letters, was instructed to hint that resistance was hopeless, as the king could bring against them 48,000 French troops besides Swiss and German lansquenets. Moreover the King of Spain had promised to assist with two large armies, one entering France by Picardy, the other by the Pyrenees. Anthony at first held back, despite these hints, and had he been as enterprising as his brother, he might soon have been at the head of a force as strong as any that the Guises could muster against him, and for a time it was believed at court that he could do so. But he was always mean-spirited, always crouching, and cringing, and thinking of himself. Some time before this, in order to contradict a report coming from Spain that he favored the Amboise conspirators,[146] he fell upon some Protestant insurgents at Agen and cut them to pieces. Both he and his brother had been warned of the impending danger. The Princess of Condé wrote to her husband: “Every step you take toward the court brings you nearer to destruction. If your death is inevitable, it is surely more glorious to die at the head of an army than to perish ignominiously on the scaffold.” Catherine also intimated