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398, at the outset of the discussion, had advised it also. 'Marry freely,' the Pope had said; 'fear nothing, and all shall be arranged as you desire.' He had forborne to take the Pope at his word; he had hoped that the justice of his demands might open a less violent way to him; and he had shrunk from a step which might throw even a causeless shadow over the legitimacy of the offspring for which he longed. The case was now changed; no other alternative seemed to be open to his choice, and it was necessary to bring the matter to a close once and for all.

But Henry, as he said himself, was past the age when passion or appetite would be likely to move him, and having waited so many years, he could afford to wait a little longer, till the effects of the Calais conferences upon the Pope should have had time to show themselves. In December, Clement was to meet the Emperor at Bologna. In the month following, it might be hoped that he would meet Francis at Marseilles or Avignon, and from their interview would be seen conclusively the future attitude of the Papal and Imperial Courts. Experience of the past forbade anything like sanguine expectation; yet it was not impossible that the Pope might be compelled at last to yield the required concessions. The terms of Henry's understanding with Francis were not perhaps made public, but he was allowed to dictate the language which the French cardinals were to make use of in the consistory; and