sador had now to trim
his sails on the other tack. The Emperor was ready to allow the execution
of Clement's sentence to stand over till the General Council, without
prejudice to the rights of parties, provided an engagement was made for
the respectful treatment of the Queen and Princess, and a promise given
that their friends should be unmolested. To Catherine the disappointment
was hard to bear. The talk of a treaty was the death-knell of the hopes on
which she had been feeding. A close and confidential intercourse was
established between Chapuys and Cromwell to discuss the preliminary
conditions, Chapuys, ill liking his work, desiring to fail, and on the
watch for any point on which to raise a suspicion.

The Princess was the first difficulty. Cromwell had promised that she
should be moved to her mother's neighbourhood. She had been sent no nearer
than Ampthill. Cromwell said that he would do what he could, but the
subject was disagreeable to the King, and he could say no more. He entered
at once, however, on the King's desire to be again on good terms with the
Emperor. The King had instructed him to discuss the whole situation with
Chapuys, and it would be unfortunate, he said, if the interests of two
women were allowed to interfere with weighty matters of State. The Queen
had been more than once seriously ill, and her life was not likely to be
prolonged. The Princess was not likely to live either; and it did not
appear that either in Spain or France there was much anxiety for material
alteration in their present position. Meanwhile, the French were
passionately importuning the King to join in a war against the Emperor.
Cromwell said that he had been himself opposed to it, and the present
moment, when the Emperor was engaged with the Turks, was the last which
the King would choose for such a purpose. The object to be arrived at was
the pacification of Christendom and the general union of all the leading
Powers. The King desired it as much as he, and had, so far, prevented war
from being declared by France.

It was true that the peace of the world was of more importance than the
complaints of Catherine and Mary. Catherine had rejected a compromise when
the Emperor himself recommended it, and Mary had defied her father and had
defied Parliament at her mother's bidding. There were limits to the
sacrifices which they were entitled to demand. Chapuys protested against
Cromwell's impression that the European Powers were i