Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/88

68 events, are open to something more than censure when they give the value of ascertained realities to their own imaginations.

Yet, after observing the most severe caution, it is impossible, in the present instance, to conceive an explanation of Charles's conduct which would acquit him in the eyes of his ally. It is impossible to avoid contrasting his conduct with Henry's, when they were both exposed to the same temptations.

Martin du Bellay, the brother of the Cardinal, who was well acquainted with Court secrets, mentions—not in censure, but as a fact of which he had perfect knowledge—that the negotiations for the peace were really and truly commenced before the Emperor left St Dizier, at the time when both he and Granvelle were so warm in their protestations to Wotton, and when the exaggerated answer was returned to the proposals which were sent through Henry. Although Boulogne was especially defined as among the securities which England might demand for the payment of the pension, the Emperor, Du Bellay affirms, looked with alarm on the increase of strength which the possession of it would confer upon a power with which he had so lately been on the edge of an internecine war. The occupation of Boulogne in addition to Calais would ensure the command of the narrow seas. Another supposition, that