in court.]

Champchevrier accordingly returned to England and reported the result
of his mission. The king was very much pleased with the painting, and
he immediately determined to send Champchevrier again to Lorraine on a
secret mission to Margaret's mother. He first, however, determined to
release Champchevrier entirely from his parole, and so he paid the
ransom himself for which he had been held. The Duke of Gloucester
watched all these proceedings with a very jealous eye. When he found
that Champchevrier, on his return to England, came at once to the
king's court, and that there he held frequent conferences, which were
full of mystery, with the king and with the cardinal, and when,
moreover, he learned that the king had paid the ransom money due to
the knight, and that Champchevrier was to be sent away again, he at
once suspected what was going on, and the whole court was soon in a
great ferment of excitement in respect to the proposed marriage of the
king to Margaret of Anjou.

[Sidenote: Gloucester's opposition.]

[Sidenote: Margaret gains the day.]

[Sidenote: Truce proposed.]

The Duke of Gloucester and his party were, of course, strongly opposed
to Margaret of Anjou; for they knew well that, as she had been brought
to the king's notice by the other party, her becoming Queen of England
would well-nigh destroy their hopes and expectations for all time to
come. The other party acted as decidedly and vigorously in favor of
the marriage. There followed a long contest, in which there was
plotting and counterplotting on one side and on the other, and
manoeuvres without end. At last the friends of the beautiful little
Margaret carried the day; and in the year 1444 commissioners were
formally appointed by the governments of England and France to meet at
the city of Tours at a specified day, to negotiate a truce between the
two countries preparatory to a permanent peace, the basis and cement
of which was to be the marriage of King Henry with Margaret of Anjou.
The truce was made for two years, so as to allow full time to arrange
all the details both for a peace between the two countries, and also
in respect to the terms and conditions of the marriage.

[Sidenote: Opposition in England.]

As soon as the news that this truce was made arrived in England, it
produced great excitement. The Duke of Gloucester and those who were,
with him, interested to prevent the accomplishment of the marriage,
formed a powerful pol