Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/185

1545.] French Government, the war was at an end; but Paget, on asking a few questions, discovered circumstances which induced him to hesitate. It appeared that when D'Annebault was at Brussels a conversation had passed between him and the Emperor, in which the latter had said that, 'unless the French King would agree with him in omnibus rebus litigiosis, he would not travel for the restitution of Boulogne; and in that case he would.' Francis, who looked for no conditions, was irritated; and Madame d'Estampes took the opportunity of urging a peace with England. When out of temper Francis would say more than he meant; and Sturmius's first conversation with Paget had been based upon hasty expressions which the King let fall in the heat of the moment. Tournon and D'Annebault had afterwards remonstrated; the King was relapsing into hostility; when at the moment Friar Gruzman brought an intimation from the Emperor that he was resolved after all to keep Milan. Francis was at once incontrollable. The name of Milan drove him into madness; he swore, par la foy de gentilhomme, that he would make a league with the Protestants; he desired Madame d'Estampes to summon Sturmius; and out of the fit of bad temper arose the articles now proposed.

'The Frenchmen,' Paget wrote to the King, 'be naturally fantastical; and a man shall have at one time that he cannot at another;' he doubted whether it might not be better to close with them at once; and