Geneva and was given an angry reception when he visited the city hunting for recruits late in the year. The large part of the ideological support base for the coup came from petit seigneurs such as de Mauvans and Protestant clerics, such as La Roche Chandieu. Alongside military malcontents often from their retinues or clients, many poor soldiers were easily tempted by La Renaudie's offer of 10 sous for infantry and 18 sous for cavalry. The church of Provence was the only consistory to be fully onboard, the region, one of great Protestant strength, offering 2000 soldiers to the cause of the coup. Gaspard II de Coligny who had come to terms with the Guise recently was uninterested in involving himself, and did his best to persuade the Protestant nobility of Normandy in his powerbase to stay clear of involvement. Final meeting On 1 February the conspirators met in the forests near Nantes for a 'Parliament' during which the baron du Raunay offered his nearby Chateau as a springboard for the operation and all participants swore an oath. The location was chosen to coincide with the meeting of the nearby Parlement, to explain the conspirators' presence in the area. Conspiracy exposed On 12 February, the court left the chateau Marchenoir, where Longueville had been entertaining the young Francis with hunting and other pursuits, and began the journey to Amboise. On the route they were overtaken by the Duke's secretary Millet, who had with him a lawyer named des Avenelles. Avenelles' Paris home had been made into a safe house for the plotters, and he claimed he had gotten uneasy with the conversations he was overhearing. The Guise were soon to give him a reward of 10,000 livres for the information he told them, which suggests other motives for his defection however. He elaborated on a conspiracy to arrest the Guise at Amboise, and to force the king to declare a liberty of conscience. He further knew the name of the leader of the conspiracy, La Renaudie. Rumours had been swirling for some time that a plot was in the air, however now the Guise had concrete details. They had long suspected Condé of involvement in opposition plots, and he had already been passed over for the governorship of Picardy he had been promised in January. But Condé was cautious, and however greatly he was involved, he was careful to leave