Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/177

1539.] whole secret of the Emperor's intentions it is not easy, perhaps it is not necessary, to comprehend; but, as it was not till late in the spring that the threatening symptoms finally cleared, so it is impossible to doubt that an enterprise against England was seriously meditated, and was relinquished only when the paralysis of the domestic factions who were to have risen in its support could no longer be mistaken.

The official language of the Spanish Court through the winter 'had waxed from colder to coldest.' On Pole's arrival in the Peninsula, Sir Thomas Wyatt, by the King's instructions, protested against his reception. The Emperor, who in 1537 had forbidden his entrance into his dominions when on a similar errand, replied now that, 'if he was his own traitor, he could not refuse him audience, coming as a legate from the Holy Father.' The next step was the arrest of the English ships in Flanders, and the recall of the Spanish ambassador; and meanwhile a mysterious fleet was collected at Antwerp and in other ports, every one asking with what object, and no one being able, to answer, unless it were for a descent on Ireland or England. Mendoza's departure