m Parliament to appoint her my successor if
I like;" but Chapuys gave several other reasons why the match with Mary
would never suit the French. "Why," cried Henry, "Francis is even now
soliciting an interview with me with a view to alliances." "Yes, I know
they say that," replied the ambassador, "but at the same time Francis has
sent an ambassador to Scotland, with orders not to touch at an English
port." This was a sore point with Henry, and he again winced at the blow.

Then he began to boast. He was prepared to face any one, and James of
Scotland was in mortal fear of him. Chapuys then mentioned that France
had made a secret treaty with Sweden and Denmark to obtain control of the
North Sea, and divert all the Anglo-German trade to France, which Henry
parried, by saying that Francis was in league with the German Protestants,
and, notwithstanding the new decree of the Diet of Ratisbon, could draw as
many mercenary soldiers as he liked from the Emperor's vassals. He felt
sure that Francis would invade Flanders next spring; and if he, Henry, had
cared to marry a daughter of France, as her father wished him to do, he
might have had a share of his conquests. This made Chapuys angry, and he
said that perhaps Holstein and Cleves had also been offered shares. Henry
then went on another tack, and said that he knew quite well that Francis
and Charles together intended, if they could, to make war on England.
Considering, however, the Emperor's disaster at Algiers, and the state of
Europe, he was astonished that Charles had not tried to make a close
friendship with him. Chapuys jumped at the hint, and begged Henry to state
his intentions, that they might be conveyed to the Emperor. But the King
was not to be drawn too rapidly, and would not say whether he was willing
to form an alliance with the Emperor until some one with full and special
powers was sent to him. He had been cheated too often and left in the
lurch before, he said. "He was quite independent. If people wanted him
they might come forward with offers." This sparring went on for hours on
that day and the next, interspersed with little wrangles about the
commercial question, and innuendoes as to the French intrigues. But
Chapuys, who knew his man, quite understood that Henry was for sale; and,
as usual, might, if dexterously handled, be bought by flattery and feigned
submission to his will, hurriedly wrote to his master that: "If the
Emperor wishes to gain the King, he