ould hazard all rather than yield. Even the
present Pope, he said, had, when Cardinal, written an autograph letter to
the King, telling him that he had a right to ask for a divorce, and that
Clement had done him great wrong.

The less reason then, Chapuys neatly observed, for refusing to lay the
matter before a General Council.

The Ambassador went through his work dutifully, though expecting nothing
from it, and his reports of what passed with the English Ministers ended
generally with a recommendation of what he thought the wiser course. Lord
Hussey, he said, had sent to him to say that he could remain no longer in
a country where all ranks and classes were being driven into heresy; and
would, therefore, cross the Channel to see the Emperor in person, to urge
his own opinion and learn the Emperor's decision from his own lips. If
the answer was unfavourable he would tell his friends, that they might not
be deceived in their expectations. They would then act for
themselves.[327]

It is likely that Chapuys had been instructed to reserve the concessions
which Charles was prepared to make till it was certain that, without them,
the treaty would fail. France meanwhile was outbidding the Emperor, and
the King was using, without disguise, the offers of each Power to alarm
the other. Cromwell at the next meeting told Chapuys that Francis was
ready to support the divorce unreservedly if Henry would assist him in
taking Milan. The French, he said, should have a sharp answer, could
confidence be felt in the Emperor's overtures. A sharp struggle was going
on in the Council between the French and Imperial factions. Himself
sincerely anxious for the success of the negotiation in which he was
engaged, Cromwell said he had fallen into worse disgrace with Anne Boleyn
than he had ever been. Anne had never liked him. She had told him recently
"she would like to see his head off his shoulders."[328] She was equally
angry with the Duke of Norfolk, who had been too frank in the terms in
which he had spoken of her. If she discovered his interviews with Chapuys
she would do them both some ill turn.

The King himself agreed with Cromwell in preferring the Emperor to
Francis, but he would not part company with France till he was assured
that Charles no longer meant his harm. Charles, it will be remembered, had
himself written to Henry, and the letter had by this time arrived. Chapuys
feared that, if he presented it at a public audience, the