Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/523

1542.] there was a precedent as having been given on similar occasions was four hundred thousand crowns, the request was less than decent: nor did it receive a better complexion when, in defence of his exorbitancy, Francis undervalued his own security, and threw a doubt upon his liability to pay. When the English ambassador proposed, as a fairer sum, three hundred thousand crowns, the King of France, in profound astonishment, exclaimed that the Pope had offered him as much as that with his niece, 'in ready money.' He began to raise questions on the debt itself, to imagine conditions in the treaty of Moor Park which he pretended that Henry had not fulfilled. While he did not deny his obligations, he would not acknowledge them. 'There were knots,' he said, in the claims upon him. The King of England ought to have sent him assistance when the Emperor invaded Provence. It would be better to prevent disputes by a clearance of the score.

Meanwhile the Catholic party at Paris were not idle. They, too, desired to clear the score, but to clear it by a quarrel; and, if war followed, they had no objection. French pirates were again robbing in the Channel. A sailor named De Valle had laid before the Government