autumn, under the excuse of gout and other convenient
accidents, until the news reached him of De Lautrec's death, which took
place on the 21st of August; and then at length proceeding, he betrayed to
Francis I., on passing through Paris, that he had no intention of allowing
judgment to be passed upon the cause.[146] Even Wolsey was beginning to
tremble at what he had attempted, and was doubtful of success.[147] The
seeming relief came in time, for Henry's patience was fast running out. He
had been over-persuaded into a course which he had never cordially
approved. The majority of the council, especially the Duke of Norfolk and
the Duke of Suffolk, were traditionally imperial, and he himself might well
doubt whether he might not have found a nearer road out of his difficulties
by adhering to Charles. Charles, after all, was not ruining the papacy, and
had no intention of ruining it; and his lightest word weighed more at the
court of Rome than the dubious threats and prayers of France. The Bishop of
Bayonne, resident French ambassador in London, whose remarkable letters
transport us back into the very midst of that unquiet and stormy scene,
tells us plainly that the French alliance was hated by the country, that
the nobility were all for the emperor, and that among the commons the
loudest discontent was openly expressed against Wolsey from the danger of
the interruption of the trade with Flanders. Flemish ships had been
detained in London, and English ships in retaliation had been arrested in
the Zealand ports; corn was unusually dear, and the expected supplies from
Spain and Germany were cut off;[148] while the derangement of the woollen
trade, from the reluctance of the merchants to venture purchases, was
causing distress all over the country, and Wolsey had been driven to the
most arbitrary measures to prevent open disturbance.[149] He had set his
hopes upon the chance of a single cast which he would not believe could
fail him, but on each fresh delay he was compelled to feel his declining
credit, and the Bishop of Bayonne wrote, on the 20th of August, 1528, that
the cardinal was in bad spirits, and had told him in confidence, that "if
he could only see the divorce arranged, the king remarried, the succession
settled, and the laws and the manners and customs of the country reformed,
he would retire from the world and would serve God the remainder of his
days."[150] To these few trifles he would be contented to confine
hi