Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/377

351 CONQUEST OF NAVARRE. 351 trust six of their principal fortresses to such Na- chapter XXIII varrese as he should name, as a guaranty for their '-^ neutrality during the expedition. He accompanied this modest proposal with the alternative, that the sovereigns should become parties to the Holy League, engaging in that case to restore certain places in his possession, which they claimed, and pledging the whole strength of the confederacy to protect them against any hostile attempts of France.® The situation of these unfortunate princes was in the highest degree embarrassing. The neutral- ity they had so long and sedulously maintained was now to be abandoned ; and their choice, whichever party they espoused, must compromise their pos- sessions on one or the other side of the Pyrenees, in exchange for an ally, whose friendship had proved by repeated experience quite as disastrous as his enmity. In this dilemma they sent ambassa- dors into Castile, to obtain some modification of the terms, or at least to protract negotiations till some definitive arrangement should be made with Louis the Twelfth.^ On the 17th of July, their plenipotentiaries J^g^f^^*'- signed a treaty with that monarch at Blois, by which France and Navarre mutually agreed to de- 8 Lebrija, De Bello "Navariensi, ii. lib. 29, cap. 25. — Sandoval, lib. 1, cap 3. — Zurita, Anales, Hist, del Emp. Carlos V., torn. i. torn. vi. lib. 10, cap. 4, 5. — Ale- p. 25. son, Annales de Navarra, torn. v. 9 Zurita, Anales, torn. vi. lib. 10, lib. 35, cap. 15. — Peter Martyr, cap. 7, 8. — Peter Martyr, Opus Opus Epist., epist. 488. — Bernal- Epist., epist. 487. — Garibay, Com- dez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., ubi su- pendio, torn. iii. lib. 29, cap. 25, ora. — Garibay, Corapendio, torn. lied to France.