be gained over, and
Scottish armies might be defeated in the field, Scotland itself, as the
experience of centuries had proved, could never be conquered. The policy of
the Tudors had been to abstain from aggression, till time should have
soothed down the inherited animosity between the two countries; and Henry
was unwilling to be forced into extremities which might revive the bitter
memories of Flodden. The Northern counties also, in spite of their Border
prejudices, were the stronghold of the papal party, and it was doubtful how
far their allegiance could be counted upon in the event of an invasion
sanctioned by the pope. The hands of the English government were already
full without superadded embarrassment, and the offered mediation of Francis
was gratefully welcomed.

These were the circumstances under which the second great interview was to
take place between Francis the First and Henry of England.[385] Twelve
years had passed since their last meeting, and the experience which those
years had brought to both of them, had probably subdued their inclination
for splendid pageantry. Nevertheless, in honour of the occasion, some faint
revival was attempted of the magnificence of the Field of the Cloth of
Gold. Anne Boleyn was invited duly; and the Queen of Navarre, as the Bishop
of Paris recommended, came down to Boulogne to receive her. The French
princes came also to thank Henry in person for their deliverance out of
their Spanish prison; and he too, on his side, brought with him his young
Marcellus, the Duke of Richmond, his only son--illegitimate
unfortunately--but whose beauty and noble promise were at once his father's
misery and pride; giving point to his bitterness at the loss of his sons by
Catherine; quickening his hopes of what might be, and deepening his
discontent with that which was. If this boy had lived, he would have been
named to follow Edward the Sixth in the succession, and would have been
King of England;[386] but he too passed away in the flower of his
loveliness, one more evidence of the blight which rested upon the stem of
the Tudors.

The English court was entertained by Francis at Boulogne. The French court
was received in return at Calais by the English. The outward description of
the scene, the magnificent train of the princes, the tournaments, the
feasts, the dances, will be found minutely given in the pages of Hall, and
need not be repeated here. To Hall indeed, the outward life of men, the