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1551.] its preservation to fortune. The events of Europe had turned the scale at Paris against the schemes of the Guises, and the recovery of Calais was postponed for a few more years. Octavio Farnese, with his duchy of Parma, had been driven backwards and forwards in the eddies of Italian politics. He had been Imperialist when Paul III. kept him from his possessions; he had been reinstated by Julius; but Julius, now on good terms with the Emperor, had attempted again to eject him; and, to save himself, he had thrown himself upon France. Gonzaga still held Piacenza. A French garrison was in Parma. The Pope, to settle the differences between the great Powers, proposed that the duchy should be reannexed to the States of the Church. To this, however, Octavio refused to agree. The French said they would evacuate Parma if Gonzaga would evacuate Piacenza; but neither would begin, and each considered the presence of the other a ground for war. The dispute would have come to nothing had there been no other provocation; but the promised return of the council to Trent, with the attempts of Charles to convert the Empire into a despotic sovereignty which he could transmit to his son, roused in Henry of France the spirit of his father; and the unexpected resistance of the Free Towns held out a prospect of reviving his father's policy in supporting the Germans.

Magdeburg would not fall. The siege had been formed in November, 1550. In January the Magdeburgers made a sortie happier than their first, cutting