These hard conditions filled Christina with dismay. She begged the Cardinal to defend her rights, but he could only advise her to submit to the inevitable. Both he and Francis of Guise have often been blamed for not opposing Henry II.'s arbitrary proceedings, but there seems little doubt that the King originally intended to reduce Lorraine from the rank of an independent State to that of a fief of the Crown, and that it was only the opposition of the Guises which saved the duchy from this fate. In her despair Christina made a last attempt to soften the King's heart. Clad in her black robes and flowing white veil, she entered the Galerie des Cerfs, where Henry and his courtiers were assembled, and, throwing herself on her knees at the King's feet, implored him, for the love of Christ who died on the cross that day, to have pity upon an unhappy mother. The sight of her distress, and the touching words in which she begged the King to take everything else, but allow her to keep her son, moved all hearts, and there was not a dry eye in the whole assembly. Even Henry was filled with compassion, and, raising the Duchess from her knees, he assured her that he only wished to confirm the friendship between the two houses. Far from intending any harm to the young Duke, he proposed to bring him up with his children, and to treat him as if he were his own son, but Lorraine was too near the frontiers of Germany, and too much exposed to attacks from his enemies, for him to be able to leave the boy there. With these consoling words, he took the weeping Duchess by the hand and led her to the doors of the gallery, but, as Anne afterwards told the Queen of Hungary, the King vouchsafed no reply to her sister's entreaty that she might not be deprived of her boy, and Christina's prayer remained unanswered.[459] Early the next morning Vaudemont and the Councillors renewed their oaths of allegiance to Duke Charles III., after which the young Prince left Nancy in charge of the French captain Bourdillon and an escort of fifty men-at-arms. The parting between the Duchess and her son was heartrending. The poor mother gave way to passionate tears, in which she was joined not only by Vaudemont and Anne, but by all the nobles and people who had assembled at the palace gates to see the last of their beloved Duke. Nothing but the sound of weeping and lamentation was to be heard, and Rabutin, with all his hatred of the House of Austria, was filled with compassion at the sight of the Duchess's grief. [Sidenote: APRIL, 1552] CAPTURE OF THE YOUNG DUKE] On Easter Day Christina wrote the following letter to her aunt, enclosing a copy of the articles drawn up by the French King: "MADAME,