re the
news of St. Quentin reached him, and the duke, leaving Paul to his
fate, amid a storm of mutual reproaches, hurried back to his own
country.

The pontiff had now no resource but to yield; and the piety of the
Spaniards, whom he had compelled against their will to {p.292} be
his enemies, softened the ignominy of his compelled submission.
Cardinal Caraffa and the Duke of Alva met at Cava, where, in a few
words, it was agreed that his holiness should relinquish his alliance
with France, and cease to trouble the Colonnas. Alva, on his side,
restored the papal towns which he had taken; he went to Rome to ask
pardon on his knees, in Philip's name, for the violence which he had
used to his spiritual father; and the pope gave him gracious
absolution.

This bad business, which had tried Mary so severely, was thus well
finished, and on the 6th of October London was again illuminated for
the peace between the king and the papacy. But the shadow which had
been thrown on Pole was maliciously permitted to remain unremoved; on
him, perhaps from personal ill-feeling, Paul visited his own
disappointment. With the return of peace there was no longer any
plausible reason for the recall of the legation; Peto was dead, having
survived his unpropitious honours but a few months: yet, unmoved by
Pole's entreaties, the pope refused to permit him to resume his
legatine functions, except so far as they were inherent in the
archbishopric. The odious accusation of heresy was not withdrawn; and
the torturing charge was left to embitter the peace of mind, and
poison the last days of the most faithful servant of the church who
was then living.[607]

[Footnote 607: Pole's sufferings in consequence
were really piteous. "Your holiness," he wrote on
the 30th of March, 1558, "is taking my life from me
when you take from me the reputation of orthodoxy.
You told the English ambassador it was God's doing;
God has told you, like Abraham, to kill your son;
and that your holiness intends that kind of death
for me, I know far more certainly than Isaac seemed
to know his father's purpose. When I see the fire
and the knife in the hands of your holiness, and
the wood laid upon my shoulders, there is no need
for me to ask where is