for a peaceful
arrangement.

It was assumed that if the Princess escaped, and if Henry did not then
submit, war would be the immediate consequence. The Emperor, always
disinclined towards the "remedy" which his Ambassador had so long urged
upon him, acted as Cromwell expected. The adventurous flight to Gravesend
had to be abandoned, and he decided that Mary must remain quiet. In
protecting Catherine while alive he had so far behaved like a gentleman
and a man of honour. He was her nearest relation, and it was impossible
for him to allow her to be pushed aside without an effort to prevent it.
But as a statesman he had felt throughout that a wrong to his relation, or
even a wrong to the Holy See, in the degraded condition of the Papacy, was
no sufficient cause for adding to the confusions of Christendom. He had
rather approved than condemned the internal reforms in the Church of
England: and, after taking time to reflect and perhaps inquire more
particularly into the circumstances of Catherine's end, he behaved
precisely as he would have done if he was satisfied that her death was
natural: he gave Chapuys to understand, in a letter from Naples,[382]
that, if a fresh opening presented itself, he must take up again the
abandoned treaty; and the secret interviews recommenced between the
Ambassador and the English Chief Secretary.

These instructions must have arrived a week after the plans had been
completed for Mary's escape, and Chapuys had to swallow his disappointment
and obey with such heart as he could command. The first approaches were
wary on both sides. Cromwell said that he had no commission to treat
directly; and that, as the previous negotiations had been allowed to drop,
the first overtures must now come from the Emperor; the Queen being gone,
however, the ground of difference was removed, and the restoration of the
old alliance was of high importance to Christendom; the King and the
Emperor united could dictate peace to the world; France was on the eve of
invading Italy, and had invited the King to make a simultaneous attack
upon Flanders; a party in the Council wished him to consent; the King,
however, preferred the friendship of the Emperor, and, Catherine being no
longer alive, there was nothing to keep them asunder.

Chapuys, who never liked the proposal of a treaty at all, listened coldly;
he said he had heard language of that kind before, and wished for
something more precise; Cromwell replied that he