Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/415

1540.] for the peace and happiness of the two countries, the King of England implored his nephew to meet his overtures with the frankness with which they were made.

There was an element of good sense in James, which might have prevailed had he been free; but he was under the spell of the Cardinal and the Queen, which he could not break, and the Scotch nation was as unmanageable as himself. Sadler carried down the gracious message, but only to fail at the Court and to be insulted by the people. The provost of Edinburgh refused him a lodging for his train; and it was not till the King interfered that they could be entertained. Although in some of the younger noblemen—in the young Earls of Argyle and Ruthven, and in Sir David Lindsay—he found a sounder feeling, the Church on one side, and national pride on the other, were too strong to give a chance of success to the English advances. Policy had