came into Bearn.

It was not any feeling of compassion for a political victim that influenced him to take part with the captive; for he was just the person to approve of an act, however cruel, which would secure power to a sovereign; but his own interests appeared affected by this arrangement of things; and, in a conference at Pampluna, in which the powerful family of Beaumont offered their services to assist the project, it was agreed that the captive Queen should be demanded at the hands of the Count de Foix, and reinstated in her rights.
Leonora and her husband saw that the time was come when nothing but a further crime could secure them from danger.

Blanche, once dead, nothing stood between her sister and the throne of Navarre; and what was her life in comparison with the great advantages they should derive?
A deputation from the states of Bearn arrived; the Beaumonts and King Louis sent imperious messages, which were received with the utmost humility by the Count and Countess of Foix: they had no wish to oppose the general desire; there was but one obstacle to the accomplishment of the end in view.

They represented that their beloved sister, whose health had long required extreme care, and who had been the object of their solicitude ever since Prince Charles's death, was on a bed of sickness--every hour she grew worse--and, at length, it was their melancholy duty to announce her death.
"Treason had done its worst," and Blanche had breathed her last in the Tour de Moncade.
A magnificent funeral was prepared--much lamentation and mourning ensued--and the body of the royal victim was pompously interred with her ancestors, the Princes of Bearn, in the cathedral of Lescar.[35] [Footnote 35: Some historians say that Blanche was confined at the castle of Lescar, but there is no foundation for the assertion: no castle but that of Pau or Orthez would have been sufficiently strong to retain a prisoner of so much importance.

Moret, and other Spanish authors, relate the event as above.] Five years after this tragedy, the vengeance of Heaven--still called for by the shades of the brother and sister--overtook Dona Juana, their cruel step-mother.