When his daughter and her husband left Brussels, on the 8th of August, Charles felt himself a free man. At half-past four in the afternoon he set out for Ghent, after receiving the farewells of the chief nobles and Bishops. Many were in tears, but the Emperor remained calm and serene until he rode out of the gates, escorted for the last time by his faithful archers. Then, turning round, he took a last long look at the city towers and wept bitterly. "Everyone about him was in tears," says Badoer, "and many wept when he was gone."[512] Christina accompanied her aunts to Ghent a few days later, and went on at the end of the month with the Queens and Emperor to Zeeland, to wait for a fair wind. On the 15th of October Charles embarked at Flushing, and his sisters followed on another ship. Two days later an easterly breeze sprang up and the fleet set sail. Christina stood on the shore till the ship which bore the great Emperor from his native land dropped below the horizon. Then she retraced her steps sorrowfully to join her children at Ghent. [Sidenote: OCT., 1556] FRUSTRATED WISHES] IV. When her uncle and aunts were gone, Christina felt that there was nothing more to keep her at Brussels. She had already thought of retiring to her dower city of Tortona, but the castle was occupied by a Spanish garrison, and while the war lasted the Lombard city was hardly a safe place. This being the case, she asked Philip's leave to take up her residence at Vigevano, the summer palace of the Sforzas, which the Duke had bequeathed to her, but was told that this house was required for the Viceroy's use. After the Palatine's death she was seized with a longing to join Dorothea, and proposed to go to Heidelberg, and then on to Lorraine, in the hope that, now peace was signed, the French King would allow her son to enjoy his own again. But there were more difficulties in the way than she had anticipated.[513] Simon Renard and the other delegates to the conference at Vaucelles were especially charged to include the Duke of Lorraine's restoration among their demands; but the French, while professing the utmost friendship for both the Duchess and her son, pointed out that her guardianship would expire in another year, and that the Regent Vaudemont and the Guises, who were the Duke's nearest kinsmen, agreed to his residence at the French Court. In vain Renard and Lalaing protested at the strange kindness shown to the Duchess in detaining her son. This only led to a long wrangle, which almost caused the rupture of peace negotiations, and eventually no mention was made of Lorraine in the articles of the truce.