"If the King of England would seriously mend his ways and proceed to conclude the marriage in earnest, not merely to sow dissension between His Majesty and the King of France, this would no doubt be the most honourable alliance for the Duchess and the most advantageous for the Low Countries; but there is no evidence of this--rather the reverse, as your Ambassador in France tells us, from what he hears of the conversations held by King Henry with the French Envoy in London. The Queen considers this point to be entirely settled, and it remains only to know Your Majesty's wishes. Are we to dissemble with the English as we have done till now, which, however, is very difficult, or are we to break off negotiations altogether? This can best be done by putting forward quite reasonable terms, but which are not agreeable to the King. The Queen begs His Majesty to tell her exactly what she is to do, remembering that the King of England, when he cannot ally himself with the Emperor or in France, may seek an alliance with Cleves, and will be further alienated from religion, and may do much harm by putting himself at the head of the German Princes--all of which she prays Your Majesty to consider."[221] But no reply to this appeal came for many weeks. In vain Mary implored Charles to put an end to this interminable procrastination, and relieve her from the necessity of dissembling with the English Ambassadors, who never left her in peace. "Once more, Monseigneur," she wrote at the end of January, "I implore you tell me if I am to allow these conferences to drag on, for it is impossible to do this any longer without the most shameless dissimulation."[222] Still no answer came from Spain, and the solemn farce was prolonged. During the next two months frequent meetings between the Commissioners were held at Brussels, and the Queen herself was often present. "Indeed," wrote Wriothesley, "she is one and principal in it, and how unmeet we be to match with her ourselves do well acknowledge."[223] But little progress was made, although Henry, in his anxiety for the marriage, offered to give the Duchess as large a dowry as any Queen of England had ever enjoyed. On St. Thomas's Day he informed the French Ambassador in the gallery at Whitehall that his marriage was almost concluded. "All the same," wrote Castillon to the Constable, "I know that he would gladly marry Madame de Guise had he the chance. If you think the King and Emperor would enjoy the sport of seeing him thus _virolin-virolant_, I can easily get it up, provided you show his Ambassador a little civility, and make the Cardinal and Monsieur de Guise caress him a little."[224] [Illustration: MARY, QUEEN OF HUNGARY By Bernard van Orley (Cardon Collection) _To face p. 188_] [Sidenote: JAN., 1539] FAIR WORDS]