The Constable was allowed to go to Beauvais with the Cardinal to consult King Henry, Alva and Orange went to Brussels to see Philip, and Christina took three days' holiday with her children at Douai. Before she went to Cercamp, a report of Charles V.'s death had reached Brussels. Now this was confirmed by letters from St. Yuste, announcing that the great Emperor had passed away on the 21st of September. The sudden death of his sister Eleanor, seven months before, had been a great shock to him, and when the Queen of Hungary entered his room without the accustomed figure at her side he burst into tears. The recent events of the war, and Philip's difficulties in the administration of the provinces, troubled him sorely, and he was very anxious for Mary to resume the office of Regent. When, in August, the Archbishop of Toledo brought a letter from the King, imploring the Queen to come to his help, Charles used all his influence to induce her to consent. In vain Mary pleaded her advancing years and failing health; the Emperor replied that her refusal would bring ruin and disgrace on their house, and adjured her by the love of God and her sisterly affection to do him this last service. This appeal decided the noble woman. On the 9th of September she wrote to tell Philip that, in obedience to his father's orders, she would start for the Netherlands as soon as possible. The knowledge of the Queen's decision was a great consolation to Charles in his last moments, and as soon as she had recovered from the first shock of his death she prepared to obey his last wish. But before she embarked at Laredo, a fresh attack of the heart trouble from which she suffered ended her life, and on St. Luke's Day she passed to her well-earned rest.[544] Her death was deeply lamented throughout the Low Countries, where her return had been daily looked for, and no one mourned her loss more truly than the niece to whom she had been the best of mothers. It was with a sad heart that Christina came back to Cercamp to preside at the second session of the Conference, which opened on the 7th of November. Alarming accounts of their mistress's health now reached the English Commissioners, and Count Feria, whom Philip sent to London, wrote that the Queen's life was despaired of, and that Parliament was in great alarm lest, if she died, the King would cease to care for the recovery of Calais. But, although Arras and Alva still declared that they would never consent to any treaty which did not satisfy the English, the French remained obdurate, and the Commissioners were at their wits' end. The Bishop of Ely was in tears, and on the 18th of November Lord Arundel wrote home that "it seemed very hard that all others should have restitution of their owne, and poore England, that began not the fray, should bear the burthen and loss for the rest, and specially of such a jewel as Calais."[545]