Happily for the good Duchess, the young Prince had his way, and the contract between him and Louise was duly signed at Bar on the 22nd of December. On the same day the Emperor, accompanied by the Regent and Duchess of Milan, paid a visit to the Duke of Aerschot at Beaumont, and offered him their warmest congratulations on his son's marriage.[298] The wedding took place at Joinville in the following March, by which time Christina's own marriage to Louise's cousin was arranged, and all Lorraine rang with the sound of wedding-bells. V. [Sidenote: JAN., 1541] CHRISTINA'S BETROTHAL] The vaunted alliance between Charles and Francis did not last long, and less than a year after the Emperor and King had parted at St. Quentin, vowing eternal friendship, a renewal of war seemed already imminent. Francis was bitterly disappointed to find that none of the great results which he expected from Charles's visit had come to pass. The Emperor firmly declined to marry his daughter, and gave no signs of surrendering Milan to the Duke of Orleans. All he would offer was the reversion of the Low Countries as his daughter's portion if she married Orleans. This failed to satisfy Francis, who declared that he would have Milan and nothing else. In order to prevent his niece, Jeanne of Navarre, marrying the Prince of Spain, the King offered her to the Duke of Cleves, who signed a treaty with France this summer, but was not actually affianced to the little Princess until the Duchess of Milan was finally betrothed to Francis of Lorraine. Upon hearing of the alliance between France and Cleves, Charles retaliated by solemnly investing his son Philip with the duchy of Milan. This ceremony took place at Brussels on the 11th of October, and was regarded by Francis as an open act of defiance. He vented his anger on the Constable, who asked leave to retire; while Madame d'Étampes did her best to obtain her rival's disgrace and induce the King to declare war against the Emperor. But Francis was loth to let his old servant go, and said to Montmorency, with tears in his eyes: "How can you ask me to let you leave me? I have only one fault to find with you, that you do not love what I love."[299] The Constable consented to remain, and for the moment the crisis was delayed.