as going;
although she had no doubt that so wise and good a sovereign as your
Majesty (_i.e._ the Emperor) would see the need and importance of
upholding the friendship, of which the King, on his side, had given so
many proofs in the past. Yet it seemed to her that your Majesty had not
been so thoroughly informed hitherto, either by my letters or otherwise,
of the King's sincere affection and goodwill, as I should be able to
report verbally. She therefore begged me earnestly, after I had presented
to your Majesty her humble service, to express explicitly to you, all that
I had learned here of the good wishes of the King."[256]

There was much more high-flown compliment both from Katharine and her
step-daughter before the gouty ambassador went on his way; but it is
evident that Katharine, like her husband, was at this time (May 1545)
apprehensive as to the intentions of Charles and his French allies towards
England, and was still desirous to obtain some aid in the war under the
treaty, in order, if possible, to weaken the new friendship with France
and the Catholic alliance. In the meanwhile the failure of Gardiner's
policy, and the irritation felt at the Emperor's abandonment of England,
placed the minister somewhat under a cloud. He had failed, too, to
persuade the Emperor personally to fulfil the treaty, as well as in his
negotiations for peace with the French; and, as his sun gradually sank
before the King's annoyance, that of Secretary Paget, of Hertford, of
Dudley, and of Wriothesley, now Lord Chancellor, a mere time-serving
courtier, rose. The Protestant element around Katharine, too, became
bolder, and her own participation in politics was now frankly on the
anti-Catholic side. The alliance--insincere and temporary though it
was--between the Emperor and France, once more produced its inevitable
effect of drawing together England and the German Lutherans. It is true
that Charles' great plan for crushing dissent by the aid of the Pope was
not yet publicly known; but the Council of Trent was slowly gathering, and
it was clear to the German princes of the Schmalkaldic league that great
events touching religion and their independence were in the air; for
Cardinal Farnese and the Papal agents were running backward and forward to
the Emperor on secret missions, and all the Catholic world rang with
denunciation of heresy.

In June the new imperial ambassador, Van Der Delft, sounded the first note
of alarm from England.