Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/248

 228 de Valois the Count was to propose the splendid temptation of a marriage with Philip. If Francis would surrender the English alliance, the Emperor would make over to him the passionately coveted Duchy of Milan, to be annexed to France on the death of the reigning Duke. In the mean time he would pay to the French King, as 'tribute for Milan,' a hundred thousand crowns a year, as an acknowledgment of the right of the house of Yalois. Offers such as these might well have tempted the light ambition of Francis. If sincere, they were equivalent to a surrender of the prize for which the Emperor's life had been spent in contending, and perilous indeed it would have been for England if this intrigue had been permitted to succeed. But whether it was that Francis too deeply distrusted Charles, that he preferred the more hazardous scheme of the German alliance, or that he supposed he could gain his object more surely with the help of England, the Count de