es V. transferred his principal
efforts therein to the north, on the frontiers of the Low Countries and
France, having concluded an alliance with Henry VIII. for acting in
concert and on the offensive. Champagne and Picardy were simultaneously
invaded by the Germans and the English; Henry VIII. took Boulogne;
Charles V. advanced as far as Chateau-Thierry and threatened Paris.
Great was the consternation there; Francis I. hurried up from
Fontainebleau and rode about the streets, accompanied by the Duke of
Guise, and everywhere saying, "If I cannot keep you from fear, I will
keep you from harm." "My God," he had exclaimed, as he started from
Fontainebleau, "how dear Thou sellest me my kingdom!" The people
recovered courage and confidence; they rose in a body; forty thousand
armed militiamen defiled, it is said, before the king. The army arrived
by forced marches, and took post between Paris and Chateau-Thierry.

[Illustration: Claude de Lorraine, Duke of Guise----130]

Charles V. was not rash; he fell back to Crespy in Laonness, some few
leagues from his Low Countries. Negotiations were opened; and Francis
I., fearing least Henry VIII., being master of Boulogne, should come and
join Charles V., ordered his negotiator, Admiral d'Annebaut, to accept
the emperor's offers, "for fear lest he should rise higher in his demands
when he knew that Boulogne was in the hands of the King of England." The
demands were hard, but a little less so than those made in 1540; Charles
V. yielded on some special points, being possessed beyond everything with
the desire of securing Francis I.'s co-operation in the two great
contests he was maintaining, against the Turks in eastern Europe and
against the Protestants in Germany. Francis I. conceded everything in
respect of the European policy in order to retain his rights over
Milaness and to recover the French towns on the Somme. Peace was signed
at Crespy on the 18th of September, 1544; and it was considered so bad an
one that the dauphin thought himself bound to protest, first of all
secretly before notaries and afterwards at Fontainebleau, on the 12th of
December, in the presence of three princes of the royal house. This
feeling was so general that several great bodies, amongst others the
Parliament of Toulouse (on the 22d of January, 1545), followed the
dauphin's example.

Francis I. was ill, saddened, discouraged, and still he thought of
nothing but preparing for a fifth great cam