Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/521

1550.] with such bragging and braving terms and countenances, as, if your lordship had seen Rochpot, ye would have judged him a man more meet to make of peace a war than of war a peace. Debt they will recognize none, for they say, though they say untruly, that you have made them spend, and have taken upon the seas of theirs, ten times as much as the debt cometh to. Nevertheless, say they, let us have Boulogne, and wipe away all pretences that you make to us, and ask a reasonable sum, and we will make you a reasonable answer; or, if you will not, in respect of your master's young age, acquit his pretences, let us have Boulogne: we will agree with you for it upon a reasonable sum. Reserve you to your master the droicts that he pretendeth, and we to ours his defence for the same and so to make a peace; and if you afterwards demand nothing of us, we demand nothing of you. Keep you within your limits, which God hath given you, enclosed with the seas—saving your Calais, whereunto ye have been married these two or three hundred years, and therefore God send you joy with it—and we our limits upon the land, and we shall live together in peace. Other bargains than this we will not make.'

Paget expostulated, entreated, threatened. They ought to have been persuaded, but they were dense and resolute. They stood to their demands, and required an immediate answer.

Paget did not hesitate to say that England must yield.