Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/514

494 absence under the tutelage of Mary of Guise. Once more, in the Cardinal's absence, Kirkaldy made August. an effort to recover the ascendency, and in the winter the interview was for a last time suggested. 'But the clergy of Scotland,' says Knox, 'promised the King mountains of gold, as Satan their father did to Christ Jesus if He would worship him. Rather they would have gone to hell or he should have met King Henry, for then they thought, Farewell, our kingdom! Farewell, thought the Cardinal, his credit and glory in France.'

The fortunes of Europe were still hanging in uncertainty, and Francis was feeling his way towards an outbreak, when the Marquis de Guasto, the Imperial commander-in- chief in Milan, caught two French emissaries on their road to Constantinople with despatches. There was still peace with France; but the nature of the mission was palpable, and, careless of their privileges as ambassadors, De Guasto put them to death as traitors against the peace of Christendom. A third messenger soon after shared the same fate; and at the same time came the news of the defeat of the army of Ferdinand by the Turks in Hungary. The Emperor, determined to make a great effort to save Europe from the danger which threatened it, had sent his brother to recover Buda, while he himself was preparing an expedition into Africa. The plague had