Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/620

600 desist therefrom until the Duchy of Burgundy should be restored to the Emperor, and England had recovered her ancient rights in Normandy and Guienne, and in the sovereignty of France. Finally, within a month of the declaration, the Imperial and English navies should unite to defend the narrow seas; and at some period within two years of the ratification of the treaty their armies, each not less than twenty-five thousand eight hundred strong, would together invade France.

Rumour had whispered on the Continent the possibility of such a treaty; but the events of the ten past years—the unpardoned, and, as was supposed, the unpardonable affront which Henry had offered to the Spanish nation; the attitude which Charles had so repeatedly been upon the point of assuming as the champion of the orthodox faith; the schemes of invasion so often discussed; the intrigues in Ireland, and with the English Catholics, added to the Emperor's own repeated declarations that he would ally himself to England only when England had returned to the Church—these things, in spite of warning symptoms, had forbidden the world to believe that such a combination could take effect until it was actually accomplished; and the consternation which the reality created when actually present, was proportioned to the previous incredulity. The friends and the enemies of the Papacy saw the consequences developing themselves before their imagination in the ruin of the powers which they loved