advice and persuasion of all his captains; which,
if he had not done, out of doubt first Liege, and
after, these countries, had had such a foil as
would long after have been remembered. By his own
wisdom and unconquered courage the enemy's meaning
that way was frustrated."--Mason to the Council,
Aug. 13: _German MSS. Mary_, bundle 16, State Paper
Office.]

{p.147} CHAPTER III.

RECONCILIATION WITH ROME.

Mary had restored Catholic orthodoxy, and her passion for Philip had
been gratified. To complete her work and her happiness, it remained to
bring back her subjects to the bosom of the Catholic Church. Reginald
Pole had by this time awoke from some part of his delusions. He had
persuaded himself that he had but to appear with a pardon in his hand
to be welcomed to his country with acclamation: he had ascertained
that the English people were very indifferent to the pardon, and that
his own past treasons had created especial objections to himself. Even
the queen herself had grown impatient with him. He had fretted her
with his importunities; his presence in Flanders had chafed the
parliament, and made her marriage more difficult; while he was
supposed to share with the English nobles their jealousy of a foreign
sovereign. So general was this last impression about him, that his
nephew, Lord Stafford's son, who was one of the refugees, went to seek
him in the expectation of countenance and sympathy: and, farther, he
had been in correspondence with Gardiner, and was believed to be at
the bottom of the chancellor's religious indiscretions.[347] Thus his
anxiety to be in England found nowhere any answering desire; and
Renard, who dreaded his want of wisdom, never missed an opportunity of
throwing difficulties in the way. In the spring of 1554 Pole had gone
to Paris, where, in an atmosphere of so violent opposition to the
marriage, he had not thought it necessary to speak in favour of it.
The words which Dr. Wotton heard that he had used were reported to the
emperor; and, at last, Renard went so far as to suggest that the
scheme of sending him to England had been set on foot at Rome by the
French party in the Consistory, with a view of provoking insurrection
and thwarting the Imperial policy.[348]

[Footnote 347: Renard.]

[Footnote 348: Que pour