inclination of his wife,
to England; but he was bound to France by a traditionary bond of a much
stronger kind, by the memory of long friendship and alliance, and the
persistent policy of his kingdom and race. The question was modified
besides by other circumstances. England was, as she had but too often
been, but never before in James's experience--harsh, overbearing, and
unresponsive: while France, as was also her wont, was tender,
flattering, and pertinacious. Henry refused or delayed to pay Queen
Margaret a legacy of jewels and plate left to her by her father, and at
the same time protected certain Borderers who had murdered a Scottish
knight, and defended them against justice and James, while still
summoning him to keep his word and treaty in respect to England; while
on the other hand not only the King but the Queen of France appealed to
James, he as to an ancient ally, she as to her sworn knight, to break
that artificial alliance with his haughty brother-in-law. It may well
have been that James in his own private soul had no more desire for such
a tremendous step than the nobles who struggled to the last against it.
But he had _les defauts de ses qualites_ in a high degree. He was
nothing if not a knight of romance. And though, as the poet has said--

"His own Queen Margaret, who in Lithgow's bower
All silent sat, and wept the weary hour,"

might be more to him than the politic Anne of France, or any fair lady
in his route, it was not in him, a paladin of chivalry, the finest of
fine gentlemen, the knight-errant of Christendom, to withstand a lady's
appeal. Perhaps, besides, he was weary of his inaction, the only prince
in Europe who was not inevitably involved in the fray; weary of holding
tourneys and building ships (some of which had been lately taken by the
English, turning the tables upon him) and keeping quiet, indulging in
the inglorious arts of peace, while everybody else was taking the field.
And Henry was arrogant and exasperating, so that even his own sister was
at the end of her brief Tudor patience; and Louis was flattering,
caressing, eloquent. When that last embassage of chivalry came with the
ring from Anne's own finger, and the charge to ride three miles on
English ground for her honour, it was the climax of many arguments. "He
loves war," the Spaniard had said. "War is profitable to him and to the
country"--a curious and pregnant saying. James would seem to have
struggled at least a li