ld, but the bishop made his
way to Rome with the haste of good will, and arrived in time to stay
judgment, which was on the point of being pronounced. It seemed, for the
moment, as if he would succeed. He was permitted to make engagements on the
part of Henry; and that time might be allowed for communication with
England, the pope agreed to delay sentence till the 23rd of March. This
bishop's terms were approved by the king, and a courier was sent off with
letters of confirmation; Sir Edward Karne and Dr. Revett following
leisurely, with a more ample commission. The stone which had been
laboriously rolled to the summit of the hill was trembling on the brink,
and in a moment might rebound into the plain.

But this was not to be the end. Some accidental cause delayed the courier;
the 23rd of March came, and he had not arrived. Du Bellay implored a
further respite. The King of England, he said, had waited six years; it was
not a great thing for the papal council to wait six days. The cardinals
were divided; but the Spanish party were the strongest, and when the votes
were taken carried the day. The die was cast, and the pope, in spite of
himself, his promises, and his conscience, drove at length upon the rocks
to which he had been so long drifting.[704] In deference to the opinion of
the majority of the cardinals, he pronounced the original marriage to have
been valid, the dispensation by which it was permitted to have been legal;
and, as a natural consequence, Henry, King of England, should he fail in
obedience to this judgment, was declared to be excommunicate from the
fellowship of the church, and to have forfeited the allegiance of his
subjects.

Lest the censures should be discredited by a blank discharge, engagements
were entered into, that within four months of the promulgation of the
sentence, the emperor would invade England, and Henry should be
deposed.[705] The imperialists illuminated Rome; cannon were fired;
bonfires blazed; and great bodies of men paraded the streets with shouts of
"the Empire and Spain."[706] Already, in their eager expectation, England
was a second Netherlands, a captured province under the regency of
Catherine or Mary.

Two days later, the courier arrived. The pope, at the entreaties of the
Bishop of Paris, re-assembled the consistory, to consider whether the steps
which had been taken should be undone. They sat debating all night, and the
result was nothing. No dependence could be place