"I hear with great pleasure of the kindness shown by M. de Brégilles, the Master of your Household, to my nephew, the Prince of Denmark, and am very grateful to him for teaching the boy to ride and mounting him so well. And you will please tell Brégilles that I beg him to go on from good to better, and train the boy in all honest and manly exercises, as well as in noble and virtuous conduct, for you know that he is likely to follow whatever example is set before him in his youth. And I have no doubt that, not only in this case, but in all others, you will not cease to watch over him. "Your good nephew, "CHARLES."[63] When in July, 1528, Margaret's servant Montfort was sent on an important mission to Spain, the Emperor's first anxiety was to hear full accounts of Prince John and his sisters from the Envoy's lips. He expressed great satisfaction with all Montfort told him, saying that he entertained the highest hopes of his nephew, and would far rather support his claim to Denmark than help his father to recover the throne--"the more so," he added, "since we hear that King Christian, to our sorrow, still adheres to the false doctrine of Luther." IV. King Christian, as the Emperor hinted, was still a thorn in the Regent's side. Although, since his wife's death, most of his time had been spent in Germany, he remained a perpetual source of annoyance. In July, 1528, he induced his sister Elizabeth to leave her husband, Joachim of Brandenburg, and escape with him to Saxony. All Germany rang with this new scandal, and while the Marquis appealed to Margaret, begging her to stop Christian's allowance as the only means of bringing him to his senses, Elizabeth, who had secretly embraced the reformed faith, implored the Emperor's protection against her husband, and refused to return to Berlin. At the same time the King did his utmost to stir up discontent round Lierre, and raised bands of freebooters in Holland, whose lawless depredations were a constant source of vexation to Charles's loyal subjects. When the Regent protested, he replied that he had nothing to do with these levies, and that his intentions were absolutely innocent, assurances which, Margaret remarked, would not deceive a child. Under these circumstances, relations between the two became daily more strained. "Margaret loves me not, and has never loved me," wrote Christian to his Lutheran friends, while the Regent turned to Charles in her despair, saying: "Monseigneur, if the King of Denmark comes here, I simply do not know what I am to do with him!"[64] [Sidenote: 1523-31] DEATH OF MARGARET]