Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/80

60 intention. The military insanity of the movement was evident even to the eyes of a civilian. Wotton's mind misgave him, and, although Granvelle assured him still that all was well, his uneasiness was visible in his report to the King.

A letter announcing the advance was written on the 31st of August. On the 6th of September Chalons was thirty miles in Charles's rear. The Dauphin's army had closed up behind. The convoys which had followed him were interrupted; and, by an extraordinary accident, the military chest was empty. There was no pay for the soldiers, and without money the soldiers could not obtain even food. D'Annebault hung in the neighbourhood in unbroken correspondence, and 'would have offered the Emperor something reasonable,' so Wotton was next informed, but 'would not consent to satisfy the King of England.' Next came M. de Neuilly, with a proposal to pay the arrears of the English pension, 'and to show reasonable cause why it was not to be paid in time to come;' and at last, when Charles had embarrassed his army so deeply that its extrication would have been difficult, if not impossible, the French overtures assumed a definite form. Separate terms were offered, which, though falling, of course, far short of those which Charles had called on Henry to demand for him, yet answered fully the original object with which he had himself engaged in the war. Ten thousand men would immediately serve against the