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 KATHARINE OF ARRAGON. 267 the Fifth without however satisfying them, and hence pur- sued the most disingenious conduct to all parties. While a prisoner, and strictly guarded' by a Spanish captain, Knight could not have an audience with Clement the Seventh; he nevertheless found means to inform him of the wishes of Henry, and when, shortly after, the pope escaped from prison to Orvieto, Knight joined him there, and delivered to him a letter from Cardinal Wolsey, strongly urging him to grant the divorce. The pope promised to do all that he could, but ad- vised that nothing should be hurried — in fact, he wished to gain time for the accomplishment of his own ends ; but Knight, knowing the king's impatience, pressed Clement so vigorously, that he at length pledged himself to sign the acts demanded, on condition that no use should be made of them until the French and Germans had vacated Italy. Knight accepted this condition, thinking that, when once these acts were signed and in the possession of Henry he could use them when he pleased ; but the pope was not to be imposed on, and, pretending to desire nothing so much as to satisfy the King of England, he employed all the address and cunning in which he was a profi- cient to prolong the affair. Various were the expedients used by Clement to deceive Knight and Gregory Cassali, now joined with him, and to delay accordingly the acts required by Henry ; among others he declared that before signing them he wished to consult the cardinal of the four crowned saints. Knight and Cassali believed that all now required was to secure the favor of this cardinal, and, amply supplied with gold, they were not sparing of it. The cardinal having examined the acts, declared that they contained many errors, and proposed to draw up new ones. This took time ; and when these new acts were taken to the pope for his signature, he announced that he could not grant them until he had informed the emperor of it, or unless, to explain such a breach of promise, General Lautrec was made to advance on Orvieto, and to demand on the part of the King of France that the signature should be given for his ally the King of England. As this measure would occupy a consider- able time, it was rejected by the English emissaries ; and their object being to finish the affair before the emperor could be informed of it, they became so importunate with the pope, that he at length accorded them the commission for Cardinal Wolsey, with the bull of dispensation for the king, and prom- ised to send to England the other bull for breaking the mar-