Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/613

1543.] honest payment. He dilated naturally on the behaviour of the French in Scotland. French pirates were hanging about his coasts in fleets; and at that very moment when the French Government were professing a desire for conciliation, they were permitting Scotch cruisers to seize English merchant-ships as they lay at anchor in their harbours under the guns of their forts. If Francis desired a reconciliation, he must alter his conduct as well as his words. If he intended to act as a friend, he had better recall Marillac, and send over some more temperate minister.

Weary of listening to language with which conduct was in perpetual contradiction, Henry had learnt the necessity of replying to acts by acts. While Francis was debating his answer to this message, listening in the morning to d'Annebault, in the evening to Margaret of Navarre, he took the pirate difficulty again into his own hands. French ships, calling themselves traders, had pillaged English fishing-smacks, and were caught red-handed, with the stolen nets and lines on board. Remonstrances had brought no redress, and the Portsmouth fleet again dashed out and seized a number of the offenders, condemned the vessels, and threw the crews into prison. Circumstances thus came to the assistance of the irresolution of the French King. The war-party were allowed to retaliate; and orders were sent out to arrest all English merchantmen in every part of France. Sir William Paget