Page:History of england froude.djvu/455

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1533.]
MARRIAGE WITH ANNE BOLEYN
433

But the hope that the Pope would yield proved again delusive. Henry wrote to him himself in the spirit of his conversation with Chastillon. His letter was presented by Cardinal Tournon, and Clement said all that could be said in acknowledgment without making the one vital concession. But whenever it was put before him that the cause must be heard and decided in England and in no other place, he talked in the old language of uncertainty and impossibilities;[1] and Henry learning at the same time that a correspondence was going forward between Clement and Francis, with the secrets of which he was not made acquainted, went forward upon his own way. April brought with it the certainty that the expected concessions were delusive. Anne Boleyn's pregnancy made further delay impossible. M. d'Inteville, who had succeeded Chastillon as French ambassador, once more attempted to interfere, but in vain. Henry told him he could not help himself, the Pope forced him to the course which he was pursuing, by the answer which he had been pleased to issue; and he could only encounter enmity with its own weapons. 'The Archbishop,' d'Inteville wrote to Francis, 'will try the question, and will give judgment. I entreated the King to wait till the conference at Nice, but he would not consent. I prayed him to keep the sentence secret till the Pope had seen your Majesty; he replied it was impossible.'[2]

  1. State Papers, vol. vii. p. 441.
  2. D'Inteville to Francis the First: MS. Bibliothéque Impériale, Paris.—Pilgrim, p. 92.