osal to visit the Emperor at Bruges, and secure
the requisite powers. He was absent more than a fortnight, and not
long after his return fell ill. This served to pass time in September,
and the extravagant demands of both parties still further prolonged
the proceedings. Wolsey was constrained to tell them the story of a
courtier who asked his King for the grant of a forest; when his
relatives denounced his presumption, he replied that he only wanted in
reality eight or nine trees.[404] The French and imperial chancellors
not merely demanded their respective forests, but made the reduction
of each single tree a matter of lengthy dispute; and as soon as a
fresh success in the varying fortune of war was reported, they
returned to their early pretensions. Wolsey was playing his game with
consummate skill; delay was his only desire; his illness had been
diplomatic; his objects were to postpone for a few months the breach
and to secure the pensions from France due at the end of October.[405]

[Footnote 402: See his various and ample
commissions, _ibid._, iii., 1443.]

[Footnote 403: _Ibid._, iii., 1462.]

[Footnote 404: _L. and P._, iii., 1622.]

[Footnote 405: _Ibid._, iii., 1507. "The Cardinal
apologised for not having met them so long on
account of his illness, but said he could not
otherwise have gained so much time without causing
suspicion to the French" (Gattinara to Charles V.,
24th September, 1521, _ibid._, iii., 1605).]

The conference at Calais was in fact a monument of perfidy worthy of
Ferdinand the Catholic. The plan was Wolsey's, but Henry had expressed
full approval. As early as July the King was full of his secret design
for destroying the navy of France, though he did not propose to proceed
with the enterprise till Wolsey had completed the arrangements with
Charles.[406] The subterfuge about Charles refusing his powers (p. 146)
and the Cardinal's journey to Bruges had been arranged between Henry,
Wolsey and Charles before Wolsey left England. The object of that
visit, so far from being to facilitate an agreement, was to conclude
an offensive and defensive alliance against one of the two parties
between whom Wolsey was pretending to mediate. "Henry agrees," wrote
Charles's ambassador on 6th July, "with Wolsey's pla