enry commanded the
ambassadors to depart, with a promise that he would soon follow them.

It is here again painful to read the unkind and unjustifiable language
of the same author, whose triple charge against Henry's religious (p. 108)
and moral character we have just investigated, when he describes the
surprise of the French monarch and his court on the return of these
ambassadors. "Until that moment," he says, "the French court, either
_cajoled_ by Henry's _hypocrisy_, or lulled into security by a
mistaken estimate of his power, had neglected every means for
resisting the storm which was about to burst upon their country."
Henry stands convicted of no hypocrisy; and his accuser alleges no
evidence on which an impartial mind would pronounce him guilty. It is
curious as it is satisfactory to lay side by side with this unguarded
calumny the version of the circumstances of that time, made by an
unprejudiced foreigner, and a very sensible well-versed historian.[83]
"France was then governed by the Dauphin Louis, a young and
presumptuous prince, who had up to this point thought himself able to
amuse Henry by feigned negociations. Nevertheless, the preparations
going on in England having opened the eyes of his council, a
resolution was taken to send to England twelve ambassadors, at the
head of whom was the Archbishop of Bourges."

[Footnote 83: Abrege Historique des Actes publics
d'Angleterre.]

Several contemporary writers, as well as general tradition, state
that, on occasion of one of the various embassies sent to and fro
between the courts of London and Paris, the Dauphin, then about
eighteen or nineteen years of age, sent an insulting present (p. 109)
to Henry of a tun of tennis-balls, with a message full of contempt and
scorn,[84] implying that a racket-court was a more fit place for him
than a battle-field. It is well observed, that such an act of wilful
provocation must have convinced both parties of the hopelessness of
any attempts towards a pacific arrangement; and, since the
negociations were carried on to the very last, some discredit has
thence been attempted to be thrown on the story altogether. But it
must be remembered (as the author of the Abrege Historique justly
remarks) that these negociations were continued, on the part of
France, merely to gain time, and withdraw Henry from his purpose;
whilst Henry, on the other side, by his renewed proposals for the han