Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/557

1542.] soul from the rhapsodies of Mahomet than from Tyndal's Bible and the 'Institution of a Christian Man;' furious at his past failures, at the blighted conspiracies, the recent defection of Ireland, the still later defeat at Solway Moss, and dreading now that Scotland, his last hope, would fail him also; furious at the Emperor for inclining to the heresiarch whom he had promised to destroy; and therefore pardoning in Francis his alliance with the Porte, for the strength which that alliance might lend him to defy Henry and maintain David Beton and the queen-mother:—

These were the respective objects and attitudes of the great powers of Europe at the termination of the year 1542; these were the tendencies out of which the future, so far as the policy of statesmen and sovereigns could affect it, was to form itself. The direction of events in England and Scotland, France and Germany, ceased to be guided by local and superficial influences, and moved with the broad undercurrent which penetrated from one to the other; the resolutions of the Estates at Edinburgh were dictated from the Vatican or from Paris; the relations between England and France were turned out of their course by the necessity which was compelling into one the two nations which divided between them the small island of Britain.

The news of the Scottish invasion, and of the murder of the herald, reached London simultaneously; the death of James, which so soon followed, was undreamt of till it actually occurred; and Henry, encouraged by