the present so promising a game till he
had tried his strength and proved his weakness. He replied coldly to
Hawkins, "That for the King of England's amity he would be glad thereof, so
the said king would do works according. The matter was none of his; but the
lady, whose rights had been violated, was his aunt and an orphan, and that
he must see for her, and for her daughter his cousin."[439]

The scarcely ambiguous answer was something softened the following day;
perhaps only, however, because it was too plain a betrayal of his
intentions. He communicated at once with Catherine, and Henry speedily
learnt the nature of the advice which he had given to her. After the
coronation had passed off so splendidly, when no disturbance had risen, no
voice had been raised for her or for her daughter, the poor queen's spirit
for the moment had sunk; she had thought of leaving the country, and flying
with the Princess Mary to Spain. The emperor sent to urge her to remain a
little longer, guaranteeing her, if she could command her patience, an
ample reparation for her injuries. Whatever might appear upon the surface,
the new queen, he was assured, was little loved by the people, and "they
were ready to join with any prince who would espouse her quarrel."[440] All
classes, he said, were agreed in one common feeling of displeasure. They
were afraid of a change of religion; they were afraid of the wreck of their
commerce; and the whole country was fast ripening towards insurrection. The
points on which he relied as the occasion of the disaffection betrayed the
sources of his information. He was in correspondence with the regular
clergy through Peto at Antwerp, and through his Flemish subjects with
merchants of London. Among both these classes, as well as among the White
Rose nobles, he had powerful adherents; and it could not have been
forgotten in the courts, either of London or Brussels, that within the
memory of living men, a small band of exiles, equipped by a Duke of
Burgundy, had landed at a Yorkshire village, and in a month had
revolutionised the kingdom.

In the eyes of Charles there was no reason why an attempt which had
succeeded once might not succeed again under circumstances seemingly of far
fairer promise. The strength of a party of insurrection is a power which
official statesmen never justly comprehend. It depends upon moral
influences, which they are professionally incapable of appreciating. They
are able complacently t