Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/190

170 pointed despondingly to Henry's renewed league with the Empire; not choosing to confess, and yet unable to deny, that the same league had been within their own reach, and that they had trifled with their opportunity. Repentance now was too late. The substantial support of the Emperor, however hollow might be the motive with which it was given, was too valuable to the English to be flung away in the uncertain hope of a friendship unpopular in itself with most of them, and politically made useless by divided counsels and instability of purpose.

How little they could expect from France the Lutheran league had soon occasion of knowing. As soon as the attitude of Charles was definitively taken, the cabinet of Paris had no longer a serious intention of continuing the war. They had other work upon their hands. The glens of Languedoc and the valley of the Loire were already ringing with the shrieks of perishing heretics. The blood of four thousand innocents—old men, women, and children—was the pious expiation with which, at the opening of the Council of Trent, Francis