rre, and transferred to the dominion of imperious Castile and
Aragon.

Catharine retired with her child to the colder and more uncongenial
regions of the northern declivity of the mountains. Her bosom glowed
with mortification and rage in view of her hopeless defeat. As she sat
down gloomily in the small portion which remained to her of her
dismembered empire, she endeavored to foster in the heart of her son
the spirit of revenge, and to inspire him with the resolution to
regain those lost leagues of territory which had been wrested from the
inheritance of his fathers. Henry imbibed his mother's spirit, and
chafed and fretted under wrongs for which he could obtain no redress.
Ferdinand and Isabella could not be annoyed even by any force which
feeble Navarre could raise. Queen Catharine, however, brooded deeply
over her wrongs, and laid plans for retributions of revenge, the
execution of which she knew must be deferred till long after her body
should have mouldered to dust in the grave. She courted the most
intimate alliance with Francis I., King of France. She contemplated
the merging of her own little kingdom into that powerful monarchy,
that the infant Navarre, having grown into the giant France, might
crush the Spanish tyrants into humiliation. Nerved by this determined
spirit of revenge, and inspired by a mother's ambition, she intrigued
to wed her son to the heiress of the French throne, that even in the
world of spirits she might be cheered by seeing Henry heading the
armies of France, the terrible avenger of her wrongs. These hopes
invigorated her until the fitful dream of her joyless life was
terminated, and her restless spirit sank into the repose of the grave.
She lived, however, to see her plans apparently in progress toward
their most successful fulfillment.

Henry, her son, was married to Margaret, the favorite sister of the
King of France. Their nuptials were blessed with but one child, Jeanne
d'Albret. This child, in whose destiny such ambitious hopes were
centred, bloomed into most marvelous beauty, and became also as
conspicuous for her mental endowments as for her personal charms. She
had hardly emerged from the period of childhood when she was married
to Antony of Bourbon, a near relative of the royal family of France.
Immediately after her marriage she left Navarre with her husband, to
take up her residence in the French metropolis.

One hope still lived, with undying vigor, in the bosom of Henry.