g.

Charles, moved by these various considerations, at length visited Francis,
and, with a show of respect and affection, gave him such promises of
speedy release and princely treatment as greatly cheered the sad heart of
the captive. The interview was short; Francis was too ill to bear a long
one; but its effect was excellent, and the sick man at once began to
recover, soon regaining his former health. Hope had proved a medicine far
superior to all the drugs of the doctors.

But the obdurate captor had said more than he meant. Francis was kept as
closely confined as ever. And insult was added to indignity by the
emperor's reception of the Constable Bourbon, a traitorous subject of
France, whom Charles received with the highest honors which a monarch
could show his noblest visitor, and whom he made his general-in-chief in
Italy. This act had a most serious result, which may here be briefly
described. In 1527 Bourbon made an assault on Rome, with an army largely
composed of Lutherans from Germany, and took it by assault, he being
killed on the walls. There followed a sack of the great city which had not
been surpassed in brutality by the Vandals themselves, and for months Rome
lay in the hands of a barbarous soldiery, who plundered and destroyed
without stint or mercy.

What Charles mainly insisted upon and Francis most indignantly refused was
the cession of Burgundy to the German empire. He was willing to yield on
all other points, but bitterly refused to dismember his kingdom. He would
yield all claim to territory in Italy and the Netherlands, would pay a
large sum in ransom, and would make other concessions, but Burgundy was
part of France, and Burgundy he would not give up.

In the end Francis, in deep despair, took steps towards resigning his
crown to his son, the dauphin. A plot for his escape was also formed,
which filled Charles with the fear that a second effort might succeed. In
dread that, through seeking too much, he might lose all, he finally agreed
upon a compromise in regard to Burgundy, Francis consenting to yield it,
but not until after he was set at liberty. The treaty included many other
articles, most of them severe and rigorous, while Francis agreed to leave
his sons, the dauphin and the Duke of Orleans, in the emperor's hands as
hostages for the fulfilment of the treaty. This treaty was signed at
Madrid, January 14, 1526. By it Charles believed that he had effectually
humbled his rival, and weake