ircumstances in England; a negotiation was opened between the two
courts; Henry VIII. gained by it two millions of crowns payable by annual
instalments of fifty thousand crowns each, and Wolsey received a pension
of a hundred thousand crowns. At first a truce for four months, and then
an alliance, offensive and defensive, were concluded on the 30th of
August, 1525, between France and England; and the regent, Louise of
Savoy, had no longer to trouble herself about anything except the
captivity of the king her son and the departure of her daughter Margaret
to go and negotiate for the liberation of the prisoner.

The negotiation had been commenced, as early as the 20th of July, at
Toledo, between the ambassadors of Francis I. and the advisers of Charles
V., but without any symptom of progress. Francis I., since his arrival
in Spain, had been taken from strong castle to strong castle, and then
removed to Madrid, everywhere strictly guarded, and leading a sad life,
without Charles V.'s coming to visit him or appointing him any
meeting-place. In vain did the emperor's confessor, the Bishop of Osma,
advise him to treat Francis I. generously, and so lay upon him either the
obligation of thankfulness or the burden of ingratitude; the majority of
his servants gave him contrary counsel. "I know not what you mean to
do," wrote his brother, the Archduke Ferdinand; "but, if I were wise
enough to know how to give you good counsel, it seems to me that such an
opportunity should not be lost, but that you should follow up your good
fortune and act in such wise that neither the King of France nor his
successors should have power hereafter to do harm to you or yours."
That, too, was Charles V.'s own way of thinking; but, slow and patient
as he was by nature, he relied upon the discomforts and the wearisomeness
of prolonged captivity and indecision for tiring out Francis I. and
overcoming his resistance to the harsh conditions he would impose upon
him. The regent, Louise, made him an offer to go herself and treat with
him, at Perpignan, for the king's liberation; but he did not accept that
overture. The Duke of Alencon, son-in-law of Louise, had died at Lyons,
unable to survive the shame of his flight at the battle of Pavia; and the
regent hinted that her daughter Marguerite, three months a widow, "would
be happy if she could be agreeable to his Imperial Majesty," but Charles
let the hint drop without a reply. However, at the end of Au