patiently upon your master's enemy."

After having entered thus their protest against the French king's
conduct, the embassy was to return to England, leaving a parting
intimation of the single condition under which Henry would consent to
treat. If the pope would declare that "the matrimony with the Lady
Catherine was and is nought, he should do somewhat not to be refused;"
except with this preliminary, no offer whatever could be
entertained.[167]

[Sidenote: The remonstrance fails.]

[Sidenote: The effect upon the world's opinion.]

[Sidenote: Intended Catholic triumvirate--the Pope, the Emperor, and the
King of France.]

This communication, as Henry anticipated, was not more effectual than
the former in respect of its immediate object. At the meeting of Calais
the interests of Francis had united him with England, and in pursuing
the objects of Henry he was then pursuing his own. The pope and the
emperor had dissolved the coalition by concessions on the least
dangerous side. The interests of Francis lay now in the other direction,
and there are few instances in history in which governments have adhered
to obligations against their advantage from a spirit of honour, when the
purposes with which they contracted those obligations have been
otherwise obtained. The English embassy returned as they were ordered;
the French court pursued their way to Marseilles; not quarrelling with
England; intending to abide by the alliance, and to give all proofs of
amity which did not involve inconvenient sacrifices; but producing on
the world at large by their conduct the precise effect which Henry had
foretold. The world at large, looking at acts rather than to words,
regarded the interview as a contrivance to reconcile Francis and the
emperor through the intervention of the pope, as a preliminary for a
packed council, and for a holy war against the Lutherans,[168]--a
combination of ominous augury to Christendom, from the consequences or
which, if Germany was to be the first sufferer, England would be
inevitably the second.

[Sidenote: September 6. Henry, against his will, looks towards Germany.]

[Sidenote: Unfortunate want of union among Protestants.]

[Sidenote: Mission of Stephen Vaughan to the Court of the Elector of
Saxe,]

[Sidenote: Which is not welcome.]

[Sidenote: The Elector had no anxiety to compromise himself with the
Emperor.]

Meanwhile, as the French alliance threatened to fail, the English
government fou