Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/185

] fallen, Francis had entered into her views with such warmth, that great animosity had arisen betwixt him and the constable. This grew to such a pitch, that the constable was treated with the most open discourtesy at Court, and in his turn absented himself from it. But this did not shield him from the undying resentment of the slighted Louise. At her instigation, Francis commenced a suit against him for the recovery of the great estates which Louise demanded from him. The constable, on the other hand, insisted on the repayment of large sums of money which he had disbursed in the Italian campaigns; these were insultingly refused; his salaries were stopped, his offices and trusts withdrawn, and the baton of constable taken from him.

These impolitic persecutions drove the proud duke into a condition of the most violent resentment, and when at length the Parliament of Paris decided the process against him, which made over to the woman whom he had made an enemy by his contemptuous rejection, a formidable proportion of his fiefs and estates, his anger knew no bounds, and he was just in the temper of mind to listen to the temptations of the enemies of France. This circumstance had not been neglected, and both Charles V. and Henry of England had entered into a secret treaty with the disaffected prince, to betray his sovereign and his native country. The transaction was a disgraceful one to all parties concerned. In Bourbon, notwithstanding his grievous wrongs, it was a base as well as an impolitic deed; in Henry and Charles, it was one destructive of the security of the throne, and of every principle of honour which should guide the counsels of kings. Henry felt the vileness of the proceeding, but endeavoured to justify it as a fair retaliation for that Francis had tampered with his Irish subject, the Earl of Desmond. What salve Charles provided for his conscience does not appear.

The Lord of Beaurain had boon employed as the secret agent of the emperor; and Sir John Russell—this being one of the first public notices of the Russells in history—that of Henry. A private treaty was concluded, of which the substance was as follows:—The emperor and the King of England were to invade the kingdom simultaneously, the one in the north, the other in the south, whilst Bourbon himself was to excite a rebellion in the heart of the kingdom, supported by all the connections of his family, whom he calculated at 200 knights and gentlemen, with their retainers. The attempt was to be made the moment Francis had crossed the Alps; and when the conquest of France was complete, Bourbon, in addition to his appanage of the Bourbonnais and Auvergne, was to receive Provence and Dauphiny, which together were to constitute a kingdom for him. He was, moreover, to receive the hand of the emperor's sister, Eleanor, Queen-Dowager of Portugal. The emperor was to have as his share of the spoil, Languedoc, Burgundy, Champagne, and Picardy, and Henry VIII. the rest of France.

Such was the traitorous scheme which was now opened up to the astonished gaze of Francis. Had he crossed the Alps before he received the intelligence, it might have been fatal. He had received some dark hints of mischief to be apprehended from Bourbon previously; and, on his way south, he had suddenly presented himself at the duke's castle, and called upon him to accompany the expedition to Italy; but the duke made it appear that the state of his health rendered that impossible. Francis, not by any means satisfied, set a strict but secret guard upon his castle, and proceeded to Lyons; but there the news reached him that the pretended sick man had managed to escape in disguise, and was on his way, through the intricacies of the mountains of Auvergne and Dauphiny, to join the emperor's army in Italy.

The powers of England and the Netherlands appeared, in pursuance of the secret treaty with Bourbon, on the soil of France about the same time. The Duke of Suffolk, Charles Brandon, the commander of the English army, landed at Calais on the 24th of August, and, joining to his troops those collected from the garrisons of Calais, Hams, and Guisnes, found himself at the head of 13,000 men. He marched on the 19th of September, and the next day fell in with the imperial troops from the Netherlands, under De Buren. The allies now amounted to 20,000; but instead of marching to join the imperial forces coming from Germany, they remained under the walls of St. Omer, debating whether they should do this, or invest Boulogne. After having wasted a precious month, they decided to leave Boulogne, and endeavour to form a junction with the Germans. But they had now allowed Francis ample time to thwart all their objects. He had sent a strong detachment, under the Duke of Guise, to throw themselves in the way of the Germans; whilst the Dukes of Vendòme and Tremouillo kept a sharp watch over the movements of the allied army. Suffolk and De Buren traversed Artois and Picardy, crossed the Somme and the Oise, and alarmed Paris by pitching their tents near Laon, within twenty miles of the capital. They had stopped by the way to invest Bray, Montdidier, and some other small places, and now confidently expected the arrival of the German army.

But the Germans by this time wore in full flight before the Duke of Guise, and Vendòme and Tremouille manœuvred more menacingly on the front and flank of the allies. Tremouille, in particular, grew more and more audacious, beat up their quarters with his cavalry, harassed them by frequent skirmishes, and intercepted their convoys. The position of the allied troops became every day more critical. They were threatened with a growing force in their rear, drawn from the garrisons of Picardy, and there was danger of their supplies, which were all derived from Calais, being cut off. The troops were become sickly, and discontented with their situation. It was high time to retrace their steps, and they commenced their march by way of Valenciennes. But the weather was very rainy, the roads were almost impassable, cold and frost succeeded, and the sickness and murmurs of the troops augmented every day. Numbers perished on the march; all were eager to reach their homes; and, as the Flemings drew near their frontiers, they deserted in shoals. The armies then separated, and Suffolk reached Calais in December, with his forces greatly reduced, and all in miserable condition.

Henry, who had calculated most confidently on the effect of this concerted scheme, was highly enraged at the failure of the Duke of Suffolk; who, though he was a very handsome and gallant man at a tournament, had