On Saturday, the 12th of March, there was another stormy meeting in the Duchess's rooms. This time the French and Spanish Commissioners quarrelled violently, and Alva and Arras left the room in anger, declaring they had been fooled, and retired to their own lodgings. In a private letter to the Duke of Savoy, the Bishop complained bitterly of the Frenchmen's insolence, saying that nothing could be "done with such people by fair means, and the only way was to show your teeth."[558] The next afternoon, however, at the Duchess's earnest entreaty, he and Alva returned to the Conference. This time the Cardinal was in a more amiable mood, and the terms originally proposed by Christina were accepted by all parties. Calais was to remain in the hands of France for eight years, and hostages were to be given for the payment of a yearly ransom of 500,000 crowns. There was great rejoicing at this agreement, and the young Duchess and her ladies returned to Court on the 19th of March, full of the goodness and generosity of the Duke's mother, who loaded them with costly presents, and gave her daughter-in-law the magnificent jewelled necklace which had been the Emperor's wedding gift on her marriage to the Duke of Milan. Christina herself was now so convinced of the certainty of peace that she begged her son to delay his departure a few more days, in order that he might take the good news to the Most Christian King. The end of the Conference seemed really in sight, and Lord Howard wrote to inform Queen Elizabeth of the treaty regarding Calais, only to receive a sound rating from his mistress for having dared to allow the French and Spaniards to call her title in question.[559] IV. The question of Calais having been settled, the French and Spanish Commissioners met again on the 13th of March, and conferred for six hours on their own affairs. The Duke of Savoy's marriage treaty was the chief point under discussion. Madame Marguerite's own eagerness for the union was well known. She had repeatedly asked her friend the Constable to press the matter, and on the 25th of March she sent her _maître d'hôtel_, Monsieur de l'Hôpital, to Câteau-Cambrésis to sign the contract on her behalf. The Duke's original reluctance had been overcome, and he sent Margaret word through a friend that she must not think him ill-disposed towards her, but that, on the contrary, he counted himself fortunate to win so noble and accomplished a bride, adding, with a touch of irony: "I believe that the fate with which you have often threatened me is really in store for me, and that I shall submit to be governed by a woman whom I shall try to please."[560]