s I said my proposals were for the benefit
of the realm of his Majesty, and of the children who might be born to him.
The king would act more prudently both for his own interest, and for the
interest of his children, in securing himself, than in running a risk of
creating universal confusion; and, besides, he owed something to the king
his brother, who had worked so long and so hard for him.

"After some further conversation, his Majesty took me aside into a garden,
where he told me that for himself he agreed in what I had said; but he
begged me to keep his confidence secret. He fears, I think, to appear to
condescend too easily.

"He will not, however, publish the acts of parliament till he sees what is
done at Rome. The vast sums of money which used to be sent out of the
country will go no longer; but in other respects he will be glad to return
to good terms. He will send the excusator when he hears again from M. de
Paris; and for myself, I think, that although the whole country is in a
blaze against the pope, yet with the good will and assistance of the king,
the Holy Father will be reinstated in the greater part of his
prerogatives."

But the hope that the pope would yield proved again delusive. Henry wrote
to him himself in the spirit of his conversation with Chastillon. His
letter was presented by Cardinal Tournon, and Clement said all that could
be said in acknowledgment without making the one vital concession. But
whenever it was put before him that the cause must be heard and decided in
England and in no other place, he talked in the old language of uncertainty
and impossibilities;[417] and Henry learning at the same time that a
correspondence was going forward between Clement and Francis, with the
secrets of which he was not made acquainted, went forward upon his own way.
April brought with it the certainty that the expected concessions were
delusive. Anne Boleyn's pregnancy made further delay impossible.
D'Inteville, who had succeeded Chastillon as French ambassador, once more
attempted to interfere, but in vain. Henry told him he could not help
himself, the pope forced him to the course which he was pursuing, by the
answer which he had been pleased to issue; and he could only encounter
enmity with its own weapons. "The archbishop," d'Inteville wrote to
Francis, "will try the question, and will give judgment. I entreated the
king to wait till the conference at Nice, but he would not consent. I
prayed him to