ward for renouncing the council of Pisa;
the interruption of the trade with Venice; the attention required by
Scotland now that her king was Henry's infant nephew; and lastly, his
betrayal first by Ferdinand and now by the Emperor. In October, 1513,
at Lille, a treaty had been drawn up binding Henry, Maximilian and
Ferdinand to a combined invasion of France before the following
June.[149] On 6th December, Ferdinand wrote to Henry to say he (p. 070)
had signed the treaty. He pointed out the sacrifices he was making
in so doing; he was induced to make them by considering that the war
was to be waged in the interests of the Holy Church, of Maximilian,
Henry, and Catherine, and by his wish and hope to live and die in
friendship with the Emperor and the King of England. He thought,
however, that to make sure of the assistance of God, the allies ought
to bind themselves, if He gave them the victory, to undertake a
general war on the infidel.[150] Ferdinand seems to have imagined that
he could dupe the Almighty as easily as he hoped to cheat his allies,
by a pledge which he never meant to fulfil. A fortnight after this
despatch he ordered Carroz not to ratify the treaty he himself had
already signed.[151] The reason was not far to seek. He was deluding
himself with the hope, which Louis shrewdly encouraged, that the
French King would, after his recent reverses, fall in with the
Spaniard's Italian plans.[152] Louis might even, he thought, of his
own accord cede Milan and Genoa, which would annihilate the French
King's influence in Italy, and greatly facilitate the attack on
Venice.

[Footnote 149: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 138, 143; _L. and
P._, i., 4511, 4560.]

[Footnote 150: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 132.]

[Footnote 151: _Ibid._, ii., 159.]

[Footnote 152: _Ibid._, ii., 158, 163.]

That design had occupied him throughout the summer, before Louis had
become so amenable; then he was urging Maximilian that the Pope must
be kept on their side and persuaded "not to forgive the great sins
committed by the King of France"; for if he removed his ecclesiastical
censures, Ferdinand and Maximilian "would be deprived of a plausible
excuse for confiscating the territories they intended to conquer".[153]
Providence was, as usual, to be bribed into assisting in the (p. 071)
robbery of Venice by a promise to make war on the Turk. But now that
Louis