foreseen, that the emulation and rivalship, which
had so long subsisted between these two monarchs, would make him feel
the strongest reluctance on yielding the superiority to an antagonist
who, by the whole tenor of his conduct, he would be apt to think, had
shown himself so little worthy of that advantage which fortune, and
fortune alone, had put into his hands. His ministers, his friends, his
subjects, his allies, would be sure with one voice to inculcate on him,
that the first object of a prince was the preservation of his people;
and that the laws of honor, which, with a private man, ought to
be absolutely supreme, and superior to all interests, were, with a
sovereign, subordinate to the great duty of insuring the safety of his
country. Nor could it be imagined that Francis would be so romantic in
his principles, as not to hearken to a casuistry which was so plausible
in itself, and which so much flattered all the passions by which, either
as a prince or a man, he was strongly actuated.

Francis, on entering his own dominions, delivered his two eldest sons
as hostages into the hands of the Spaniards. He mounted a Turkish horse,
and immediately putting him to the gallop, he waved his hand, and cried
aloud several times, "I am yet a king." He soon reached Bayonne,
where he was joyfully received by the regent and his whole court. He
immediately wrote to Henry; acknowledging that to his good offices alone
he owed his liberty, and protesting that he should be entirely governed
by his counsels in all transactions with the emperor. When the Spanish
envoy demanded his ratification of the treaty of Madrid, now that he had
fully recovered his liberty, he declined the proposal; under color that
it was previously necessary to assemble the states both of France and of
Burgundy, and to obtain their consent. The states of Burgundy soon
met; and declaring against the clause which contained an engagement for
alienating their province, they expressed their resolution of opposing,
even by force of arms, the execution of so ruinous and unjust an
article. The imperial minister then required that Francis, in conformity
to the treaty of Madrid, should now return to his prison; but the French
monarch, instead of complying, made public the treaty which a little
before he had secretly concluded at Cognac, against the ambitious
schemes and usurpations of the emperor.[*]

* Guicciard. lib. xvii.

The pope, the Venetians, and other Ital