91)
crowns of Henry's pay for the Swiss;[217] the Fuggers, Welzers and
Frescobaldi, were also accused of failing to keep their engagements,
and only the first month's pay had been received by the Swiss when
they reached Milan. On the Emperor's retreat the wretched Pace was
seized by the Swiss and kept in prison as security for the remainder.[218]
His task had been rendered all the more difficult by the folly of
Wingfield, ambassador at Maximilian's Court, who, said Pace, "took the
Emperor for a god and believed that all his deeds and thoughts
proceeded _ex Spiritu Sancto_".[219] There was no love lost between
them; the lively Pace nicknamed his colleague "Summer shall be green,"
in illusion perhaps to Wingfield's unending platitudes, or to his
limitless belief in the Emperor's integrity and wisdom.[220] Wingfield
opened Pace's letters and discovered the gibe, which he parried by
avowing that he had never known the time when summer was not
green.[221] On another occasion he forged Pace's signature, with a
view of obtaining funds for Maximilian;[222] and he had the hardihood
to protest against Pace's appointment as Henry's secretary. At last
his conduct brought down a stinging rebuke from Henry;[223] but the
King's long-suffering was not yet exhausted, and Wingfield continued
as ambassador to the Emperors Court.

[Footnote 215: _Ibid._, ii., 1877.]

[Footnote 216: _Ibid._, ii., 2152, 1892, 1896,
2034, 2035.]

[Footnote 217: _L. and P._, ii., 1231, 1792, 1854.]

[Footnote 218: _Ibid._, ii., 1877.]

[Footnote 219: _Ibid._, ii., 1817.]

[Footnote 220: _Ibid._, ii., 1566, 1567.]

[Footnote 221: _Ibid._, ii., 1775.]

[Footnote 222: _Ibid._, ii., 1813.]

[Footnote 223: _Ibid._, ii., 2177.]

* * * * *

The failure of the Milan expedition taught Wolsey and Henry a bitter
but salutary lesson. It was their first attempt to intervene in a
sphere of action so distant from English shores and so remote (p. 092)
from English interests as the affairs of Italian States. Complaints in
England were loud against the waste of money; the sagacious Tunstall
wrote that he did not see why Henry should bind himself to maintain
other men's causes.[224] All the grandees, wrote Giustinian, were
opposed to Wolsey's p