ted Maximilian,
taken Tournay, and reduced France to extremities; and now, when his
enemy was at his feet, Ferdinand talked of truce: he would never trust
any one again.[163] "Had the King of Spain," wrote a Venetian attache,
"kept his promise to the King of England, the latter would never have
made peace with France; and the promises of the Emperor were equally
false, for he had received many thousands of pounds from King (p. 074)
Henry, on condition that he was to be in person at Calais in the month
of May, with a considerable force in the King's pay; but the Emperor
pocketed the money and never came. His failure was the cause of all
that took place, for, as King Henry was deceived in every direction,
he thought fit to take this other course."[164] He discovered that he,
too, could play at the game of making peace behind the backs of his
nominal friends; and when once he had made up his mind, he played the
game with vastly more effect than Maximilian or Ferdinand. It was he
who had been really formidable to Louis, and Louis was therefore
prepared to pay him a higher price than to either of the others. In
February Henry had got wind of his allies' practices with France. In
the same month a nuncio started from Rome to mediate peace between
Henry and Louis;[165] but, before his arrival, informal advances had
probably been made through the Duc de Longueville, a prisoner in
England since the Battle of Spurs.[166] In January Louis' wife, Anne
of Brittany, had died. Louis was fifty-two years old, worn out and
decrepit; but at least half a dozen brides were proposed for his hand.
In March it was rumoured in Rome that he would choose Henry's sister
Mary, the rejected of Charles.[167] But Henry waited till May had
passed, and Maximilian had proclaimed to the world his breach of
promise. Negotiations for the alliance and marriage with Louis then
proceeded apace. Treaties for both were signed in August. Tournay
remained in Henry's hands, Louis increased the pensions paid by
France to England since the Treaty of Etaples, and both kings (p. 075)
bound themselves to render mutual aid against their common
foes.[168]

[Footnote 163: _L. and P._, i., 4864.]

[Footnote 164: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 505.]

[Footnote 165: _Ibid._, ii., 372.]

[Footnote 166: _Ibid._, ii., 505; _L. and P._, i.,
5173, 5278.]

[Footnote 1