ould do the right thing; with women he seemed to be under a
fatal necessity of mistake.

It was now necessary, however, after this public step, to communicate in
form to the emperor the divorce and the new marriage. The king was assured
of the rectitude of the motives on which he had himself acted, and he knew
at the same time that he had challenged the hostility of the papal world.
Yet he did not desire a quarrel if there were means of avoiding it; and
more than once he had shown respect for the opposition which he had met
with from Charles, as dictated by honourable care for the interests of his
kinswoman. He therefore, in the truest language which will be met with in
the whole long series of the correspondence, composed a despatch for his
ambassador at Brussels, and expressed himself in a tone of honest sorrow
for the injury which he had been compelled to commit. Neither the coercion
which the emperor had exerted over the pope, nor his intrigues with his
subjects in Ireland and England, could deprive the nephew of Catherine of
his right to a courteous explanation; and Henry directed Doctor Nicholas
Hawkins in making his communication "to use only gentle words;" to express
a hope that Charles would not think only of his own honour, but would
remember public justice; and that a friendship of long standing, which the
interests of the subjects of both countries were concerned so strongly in
maintaining, might not be broken. The instructions are too interesting to
pass over with a general description. After stating the grounds on which
Henry had proceeded, and which Charles thoroughly understood, Hawkins was
directed to continue thus:--

"The King of England is not ignorant what respect is due unto the world.
How much he hath laboured and travailed therein he hath sufficiently
declared and showed in his acts and proceedings. If he had contemned the
order and process of the world, or the friendship and amity of your
Majesty, he needed not to have sent so often to the pope and to you both,
nor continued and spent his time in delays. He might have done what he has
done now, had it so liked him, with as little difficulty as now, if without
such respect he would have followed his pleasure."

The minister was then to touch the pope's behaviour and Henry's
forbearance, and after that to say:--

"Going forward in that way his Highness saw that he could come to no
conclusion; and he was therefore compelled to step right forth ou