After having passed a week at Paris he started for the Low
Countries, halted at Chantilly, at the Constable de Montmorency's, who,
as well as the king's two sons, the dauphin and the Duke of Orleans, was
in attendance upon him, and did not separate from his escort of French
royalty until he arrived at Valenciennes, the first town in his Flemish
dominions. According to some historians there had been at Chantilly,
amongst the two young princes and their servants, some idea of seizing
the emperor and detaining him until he had consented to the concessions
demanded of him; others merely say that the constable, before leaving
him, was very urgent with him that he should enter into some positive
engagement as to Milaness. "No," said Charles, "I must not bind myself
any more than I have done by my words as long as I am in your power; when
I have chastised my rebellious subjects I will content your king."

He did chastise, severely, his Flemish subjects, but he did not content
the King of France. Francis I. was not willing to positively renounce
his Italian conquests, and Charles V. was not willing to really give them
up to him. Milaness was still, in Italy, the principal object of their
mutual ambition. Navarre, in the south-east of France, and the Low
Countries in the north, gave occasion for incessantly renewed disputes
between them. The two sovereigns sought for combinations which would
allow them to make, one to the other, the desired concessions, whilst
still preserving pretexts for and chances of recovering them. Divers
projects of marriage between their children or near relatives were
advanced with that object, but nothing came of them; and, after two years
and a half of abortive negotiations, another great war, the fourth, broke
out between Francis I. and Charles V., for the same causes and with the
same by-ends as ever. It lasted two years, from 1542 to 1544, with
alternations of success and reverse on either side, and several
diplomatic attempts to embroil in it the different European powers.
Francis I. concluded an alliance in 1543 with Sultan Soliman II., and, in
concert with French vessels, the vessels of the pirate Barbarossa cruised
about and made attacks upon the shores of the Mediterranean. An outcry
was raised against such a scandal as this. "Sir Ambassador," said
Francis I. to Marino Giustiniano, ambassador from Venice, "I cannot deny
that I eagerly desire to see the Turk very powerful and ready for