Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/289

1539.] would sacrifice an old attendant in any such manner. Wyatt answered sturdily that Brancetor was his master's subject. There was clear proof, he could vouch for it on his own knowledge, that the man committed treason in Spain; and he again insisted on the treaties. The Emperor cared nothing for treaties. Treaty or no treaty, a servant of his own should pass free; 'and if he was in the Tower of London,' he said, 'he would never consent so to charge his honour and conscience.' Brancetor had come to Paris under his protection; and the French Government would never do him the dishonour of permitting the seizure of one of his personal train.

He was so displeased, and there was so much truth in what he said, that Wyatt dared not press him further; but opened ground again with a complaint which he had been instructed also to make, of the ill usage of Englishmen in Spain by the Inquisition. Charles again flashed up with imperious vehemence. 'In a loud voice,' he replied that 'the authority of the Inquisition depended not upon him. It had been established in his realm and countries for good consideration, and such as he would not break—no, not for his grandame.'

It was unreasonable, Wyatt replied, to punish men merely for their want of allegiance to Rome. They were no heretics, sacramentaries, Anabaptists. They held the Catholic faith as truly as any man.

'The King is of one opinion,' Charles replied, 'and I am of another. If your merchants come with novelties,