One of Charles's most trusted Flemish servants, Nicholas de Marnol, was now sent to Milan, to obtain the consent of the Duke and Duchess to Dorothea's marriage. After a perilous journey over the Alps in snow and floods, Marnol reached Milan on the 10th of January, 1535, and received a cordial welcome. Francesco approved warmly of a union which would insure the Princess's happiness and serve to confirm the peace of Germany, but quite declined to accept the Emperor's suggestion that he should help to provide a pension for Christina's brother-in-law, saying that this was impossible, and that His Majesty would be the first to recognize the futility of making promises which cannot be kept. After a short stay at Milan, Marnol went on to Vienna, and advised the Palatine to go to Spain himself if he wished to settle the matter. Frederic, always glad of an excuse for a journey, travelled by way of Brussels and France to Saragossa, and accompanied the Emperor to Barcelona, where Charles signed the marriage contract on the eve of sailing for Africa. [Sidenote: MAY, 1535] A HAPPY MARRIAGE] On the 18th of May, 1535, the marriage was solemnized at Brussels, and Frederic consented to leave his bride with her aunt until her outfit was completed. Queen Eleanor expressed the liveliest interest in her old lover's marriage, and insisted on seeing Dorothea before she went to Germany. At length the wedding-party reached Heidelberg, on the 8th of September, where the gallant bridegroom, who, in Hubert's words, "loved to shine," rode out in rich attire to meet his bride, and escorted her with martial music and pomp worthy of a King's daughter to the famous castle on the heights. The next day the nuptial Mass was celebrated by the Bishop of Spires, and a series of splendid entertainments were given by Frederic's brother, the Elector Louis, after which the Count took his bride to his own home at Neumarkt, in the Upper Palatinate.[116] "Now at length," wrote Hubert, "my lord thought that he had attained a haven of rest, and found a blessed end to all his troubles; but he was grievously mistaken, and soon realized that he had embarked on a new and tempestuous ocean."[117]