Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/179

1539.] sail, and the ships would be free. She tried to leave him; his anxiety got the better of his courtesy; he placed himself between her and the door, and entreated some better explanation. But he could obtain nothing. She insisted on passing, and he found himself referred back to the council. Here he was informed that she could not act otherwise; she was obeying absolute orders from the Emperor. Wriothesley warned them that the King would not bear it, that he would make reprisals, and 'then should begin a broiling.' It was no matter; they seemed indifferent.

From their manner Wriothesley did not believe that they would begin a war; yet he could feel no security. 'I have heard,' he wrote to Cromwell, 'that the French King, the Bishop of Rome, and the King of Scots be in league to invade us this summer: and how the Emperor will send to their aid certain Spaniards which shall arrive in Scotland; which Spaniards shall, as it were in fury, upon the arrival in Spain of the ships here prepared, enter the same, half against the Emperor's will, with the oath never to return till they shall revenge the matter of the dowager.' 'This,' he added, 'I take for no gospel, howbeit our master is daily slandered and villanously spoken against. It is possible that all shall be well; but in the mean season, I pray to God to put in the King's Majesty's mind rather to spend twenty thousand pounds in vain, to be in perfect readiness, than to wish it had so been done if any malicious person would attempt anything. Weapons biddeth peace: and good preparation maketh men to look or they leap.