Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/171

1545.] link between the two Catholic powers, had died. Under such circumstances the French General had been unwise to presume too far on the indifference of the Emperor to the observance of his treaties. There had been a moment, indeed, in the summer, when he assumed an aspect towards England most dangerously menacing. The first quarrel had been scarcely disposed of when Henry, in consequence of the notoriety of the intended French invasion, applied, in compliance with the special article which referred to such a contingency, for assistance in men or money. While Charles was seeking excuses to parry this demand, an opportunity was thrown in his way by a complaint which reached him from Spain. The English merchants, being heretics, were not allowed to plead in the Castilian courts, or their evidence was not admitted against true believers, and they were exposed to outrages of all kinds without possibility of redress. Injustice produced injustice. An Englishman who had been robbed by the authorities in a Spanish port, indemnified himself on the high seas at the expense of the first Spanish ship which he fell in with. The Emperor required that he should be surrendered to justice. Henry refused to sacrifice a man who had been the first sufferer by a sustained and intolerable injury; and letters of general reprisal against all English property in Spain were in consequence threatened. The two countries seemed now to be drifting into a quarrel which neither would nor could be settled without war. The only prospect of escape,