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 coming. He could not prevent it. If he retained his office he found that he must either go against his conscience or increase the displeasure of the King. He preferred to retire.

In this way, at least in England, the situation was clearing, and parties and individuals were drifting into definite positions. Montfalconet, writing to Charles in May, said that he had been in England and had seen Queen Catherine, who was still clamouring for the Pope's sentence. "Every one," he continued, speaking for the Catholic party, whom alone he had seen, "was angry with the Pope, and angry with the Emperor for not pressing him further. Peers, clergy, laity, all loved the Queen. She was patient. She thought that if she could but see the King all might yet be well. Were the sentence once delivered she was satisfied that he would submit." The French Ambassador in London, on the other hand, recommended Francis to force the Pope to hold his hand. He told Chapuys that "France must and would take Henry's part if a rupture came. The Emperor had no right to throw Europe into confusion for the sake of a woman. If the King of England wished to marry again, he should do as Louis XII. had done under the same circumstances—take the woman that he liked and waste no more time and money."

At Rome the Pope had been fingering his briefs with hesitating heart. The first, which he had issued under Charles's eye at Bologna, had been