In vain Mary of Hungary warned him of Maurice and Albert's intrigues with France, and told him that his incredulity was like to cost him very dear, and that if he did not take care he would lose, not only Germany, but also the Netherlands, which were not the meanest feather in his cap. Both he and Arras refused to listen. Instead of following his sister's advice and remaining at Worms or Spires to control Germany and protect Lorraine, Charles lingered on at Augsburg after war was declared, and persisted in taking refuge at Innsbruck. After protracted delays, he at length left Augsburg on the 21st of October, dragging the reluctant Ambassadors in his train, and crossed "the cold Alps, already," sighed Ascham, "full of snow," to descend on Tyrol.[447] Meanwhile his niece was watching the course of events with increasing anxiety. All the French King's fine promises could not allay Christina's fears, as the autumn months went by, and the din of warlike preparations sounded louder in her ears. In her terror she clung to the Guises, hoping that their influence might save her son and his realm from ruin. On the 20th of July she went to Joinville to meet the Dowager Queen of Scotland and stand proxy for Queen Catherine at the christening of Francis of Guise's daughter, afterwards the notorious Duchess of Montpensier. When, in October, the young Duke of Longueville died suddenly, on the eve of his mother's departure, Christina once more went to condole with Antoinette on the loss of her "Benjamin."[448] Both she and Anne, who came to Nancy at her earnest request, were full of sympathy for the venerable Duchess in the trials that clouded her declining years. A fresh proof of Christina's anxiety to gratify her powerful relatives appears in a letter which she wrote to her uncle from Pont-à-Mousson on the 28th of October, begging him to grant a request of the Cardinal regarding the Abbey of Gorzes, which he had lately annexed to his vast possessions. "I could not refuse this petition," she adds, "as my Lord Cardinal is so near of kin to my children, and has always treated me and my son with so much kindness and affection. And I humbly beg Your Majesty to show him favour, in order that he may see that I do all that is possible to please him and his house."[449] [Sidenote: JAN., 1552] FRENCH INTRIGUES]