[[A.D. 1325.]] In this dilemma the queen volunteered her services as peace-maker, providing she might be allowed to go to Paris herself. Edward was only too happy to have the matter so easily settled, and the Despencers were delighted at the thought of getting rid of her. Isabella had a little plan of her own which she {198}intended to carry out. The first step was a treaty of peace, which she arranged on her arrival in France, between her brother and the King of England. She was not at all surprised when the Despencers, who feared her influence over the weak mind of Edward, had dissuaded him from crossing the channel with her, even after his arrangements had been made. In fact, this was exactly what she had desired, because it enabled her to propose that her son, the Prince of Wales, should be invested with certain powers which she named, and sent in his father's stead. Both the king and the Despencers fell into the snare, and Isabella got the heir to the throne of England into her own hands. As soon as Isabella found herself safe in France with her son, she laughed in her sleeve at the way she had hoodwinked her husband and his despised favorites. She was just where she wanted to be, and had no intention of returning to England until affairs there had changed to her complete satisfaction. She and her brother, King Charles, had concocted a treaty, it is true, but it was so written as to be almost incomprehensible, and to leave much matter for dispute between the two sovereigns. Isabella made all sorts of frivolous excuses for prolonging her stay in Paris, where she was joined by her favorite Mortimer and all the banished English lords. Although these people were open enemies of her husband and his government, the wicked queen held councils and meetings with them, while she refused to have anything to do with the commissioners Edward had appointed. The Bishop of Exeter, horrified at her disgraceful behavior, went over to England to inform the king of it, and to advise him to command her immediate return with the Prince of Wales. Edward wrote several letters to his wife on this subject, {199}but she paid no attention either to his entreaties or his orders. She declared openly "that it was the intention of the Despencers to cause her to be put to death if she returned to England." She knew better, but this statement aided her schemes, and she even succeeded in deceiving her brother, King Charles of France, who wrote King Edward "that he could not permit her to return to him unless she were guaranteed from the evil that was meditated against her by her enemies, the Despencers." Edward's reply to this letter was manly and dignified. He begged his brother-in-law not to credit anything so false, but to send back his wife, of whom he wrote in kind, affectionate terms.