t of the
maze, and so to quiet himself at last. And is it not time to have an end in
seven years? It is not to be asked nor questioned whether the matter hath
been determined after the common fashion, but whether it hath in it common
justice, truth, and equity. For observation of the common order, his Grace
hath done what lay in him. Enforced by necessity he hath found the true
order which he hath in substance followed with effect, and hath done as
becometh him. He doubteth not but your Majesty, remembering his cause from
the beginning hitherto, will of yourself consider and think, that among
mortal men nothing should be immortal; and suits must once have an end, si
possis recte, si non quocunque modo. If his Highness cannot as he would,
then must he do as he may; and he that hath a journey to be perfected must,
if he cannot go one way, essay another. For his matter with the pope, he
shall deal with him apart. Your Majesty he taketh for his friend, and as to
a friend he openeth these matters to you, trusting to find your Majesty no
less friendly than he hath done heretofore."[437]

If courtesy obliged Henry to express a confidence in the stability of the
relations between himself and Charles, which it was impossible that he
could have felt, yet in other respects this letter has the most pleasant
merit of honesty. Hawkins was so much overcome by "the sweetness of it,"
that "he nothing doubted if that the emperor read the same, by God's grace
he should be utterly persuaded;" and although in this expectation he was a
little over sanguine, as in calmer moments he would have acknowledged, yet
plain speech is never without its value; and Charles himself after he had
tried other expedients, and they had not succeeded with him, found it more
prudent to acquiesce in what could no longer be altered, and to return to
cordiality.

For the present he remained under the impression that by the great body of
the English the divorce was looked upon with coldness and even with
displeasure, that the king was supported only by the complacency of a few
courtiers, and that the nation were prepared to compel him to undo the
wrong which had been inflicted upon Catherine and the princess. So he was
assured by the Spanish party in England; so all the disaffected assured
him, who were perhaps themselves deceived. He had secured Ireland, and
Scotland also in so far as James's promises could secure it;[438] and he
was not disposed to surrender for