inning the conclusion to which he would at last be driven; that he had
engaged himself with Charles to decide in Catherine's favour as distinctly
as he had engaged himself with Francis to decide against her; and that all
his tortuous scheming was intended either to weary out the patience of the
King of England, or to entangle him in acknowledgments from which he would
not be able to extricate himself.

He was mistaken, certainly, in the temper of the English nation; he
believed what the friars told him; and trusting to the promises of
disaffection, insurrection, invasion--those _ignes fatui_ which for sixty
years floated so delusively before the Italian imagination, he imagined,
perhaps, that he might trifle with Henry with impunity. This only is
impossible, that, if he had seriously intended to fulfil the promises which
he had made to the French king, the accidental delay of a courier could
have made so large a difference in his determination. It is not possible
that, if he had assured himself, as he pretended, that justice was on the
side against which he had declared, he would not have availed himself of
any pretext to retreat from a position which ought to have been intolerable
to him.

The question, however, had ended, "as all things in this world do have
their end." The news of the sentence arrived in England at the beginning of
April, with an intimation of the engagements which had been entered upon by
the imperial ambassador for an invasion. Du Bellay returned to Paris at the
same time, to report the failure of his undertaking; and Francis,
disappointed, angry, and alarmed, sent the Duke of Guise to London with
promises of support if an attempt to invade was really made, and with a
warning at the same time to Henry to prepare for danger. Troops were
gathering in Flanders; detachments were on their way out of Italy, Germany,
and Bohemia, to be followed by three thousand Spaniards, and perhaps many
more; and the object avowed for these preparations was wholly
incommensurate with their magnitude.[709] For his own sake Francis could
not permit a successful invasion of England, unless, indeed, he himself was
to take part in it; and therefore, with entire sincerity, he offered his
services. The cordial understanding for which Henry had hoped was at an
end; but the political confederacy remained, which the interests of the two
countries combined for the present to preserve unbroken.

Guise proposed another interview a