at, in order to repair the reverses of France and for the sake of their
own fame, there was something else to be done, and they impatiently
awaited the opportunity.

[Illustration: Henry II.----235]

It was not long coming. At the close of 1551, a deputation of the
Protestant princes of Germany came to Fontainebleau to ask for the king's
support against the aggressive and persecuting despotism of Charles V.
The Count of Nassau made a speech "very long," says Vieilleville in his
_Memoires,_ "at the same time that it was in very elegant language,
whereby all the presence received very great contentment." Next day the
king put the demand before his council for consideration, and expressed
at the very outset his own opinion that "in the present state of affairs,
he ought not to take up any enterprise, but leave his subjects of all
conditions to rest; for generally," said he, "all have suffered and do
suffer when armies pass and repass so often through my kingdom, which
cannot be done without pitiable oppression and trampling-down of the poor
people." The constable, "without respect of persons," says Vieilleville,
"following his custom of not giving way to anybody, forthwith began to
speak, saying that the king, who asked counsel of them, had very plainly
given it them himself and made them very clearly to understand his own
idea, which ought to be followed point by point without any gainsaying,
he having said nothing but what was most equitable and well known to the
company." Nearly all the members of the council gave in their adhesion,
without comment, to the opinion of the king and the constable. "But when
it came to the turn of M. de Vieilleville, who had adopted the language
of the Count of Nassau," he unhesitatingly expressed a contrary opinion,
unfolding all the reasons which the king had for being distrustful of the
emperor and for not letting this chance of enfeebling him slip by. "May
it please your Majesty," said he, "to remember his late passage through
France, to obtain which the emperor submitted to carteblanche;
nevertheless, when he was well out of the kingdom, he laughed at all his
promises, and, when he found himself inside Cambrai, he said to the
Prince of Infantado, 'Let not the King of France, if he be wise, put
himself at my mercy, as I have been at his, for I swear by the living God
that he shall not be quit for Burgundy and Champagne; but I would also
insist upon Picardy and the key of the road