ood of each other, where a single spark might at any time lead
to a general explosion. A still stronger earnest was given of their
pacific intentions, by both the monarchs disbanding part of their
foreign mercenaries, whose services were purchased at a ruinous cost,
that made one of the great evils of the war.

The congress met on the fifteenth of October, 1558, at the abbey of
Cercamps, near Cambray. Between parties so well disposed, it might be
thought that some general terms of accommodation would soon be settled.
But the war, which ran back pretty far into Charles the Fifth's time,
had continued so long, that many territories had changed masters during
the contest, and it was not easy to adjust the respective claims to
them. The duke of Savoy's dominions, for example, had passed into the
hands of Henry the Second, who, moreover, asserted an hereditary right
to them through his grandmother. Yet it was not possible for Philip to
abandon his ally, the man whom he had placed at the head of his armies.
But the greatest obstacle was Calais. "If we return without the recovery
of Calais," said the English envoys, who also took part in this
congress, "we shall be stoned to death by the people."[250]

[Sidenote: MARY'S DEATH.]

Philip supported the claim of England; and yet it was evident that
France would never relinquish a post so important to herself, which,
after so many years of hope deferred, had at last come again into her
possession. While engaged in the almost hopeless task of adjusting these
differences, an event occurred which suspended the negotiations for a
time, and exercised an important influence on the affairs of Europe.
This was the death of one of the parties to the war, Queen Mary of
England.

Mary's health had been fast declining of late, under the pressure of
both mental and bodily disease. The loss of Calais bore heavily on her
spirits, as she thought of the reproach it would bring on her reign, and
the increased unpopularity it would draw upon herself. "When I die," she
said, in the strong language since made familiar to Englishmen by the
similar expression of their great admiral, "Calais will be found written
on my heart."[251]

Philip, who was not fully apprised of the queen's low condition, early
in November sent the count, afterwards duke, of Feria as his envoy to
London, with letters for Mary. This nobleman, who had married one of the
queen's maids of honor, stood high in the favor of his mas