Mary on her part was most anxious for her niece's return, and lost no time in letting Charles know how impatiently she expected her. But, with characteristic dilatoriness, the Imperial Council, which met at Monzone on the 2nd of June, pronounced that it was highly expedient for the Widow of Milan to go to Flanders, but that the Queen's wishes must first of all be consulted.[144] Meanwhile Count Massimiliano Stampa returned from Spain with instructions from the Emperor to make arrangements for the Duchess's journey with the Cardinal and Montmorency, and Charles wrote again to beg the Captain to start without delay. But this, as Montmorency replied, was not so easy. Three months' pay was due to his men, and in his penniless condition it was hard to provide them with food or their horses with fodder. "I will do my utmost, Sire," he wrote on the 15th of June, "but some things are impossible. As I told you when you left me at Genoa, six months' wages were due to me, and I can only beg you to have pity on your poor Captain; for we are in sore straits, and you alone can help us, for, as the Scripture saith, _Tua est potentia_." At the same time, like the brave soldier that he was, the writer cannot refrain from expressing his joy at the good news of the capture of S. Pol, which had just arrived from Flanders. [Sidenote: AUG., 1537] CAPTAIN OF THE ARCHERS] "Sire, I hear grand news from S. Pol, and am sure, when you return to your Low Countries, you will find that the Queen has been very vigilant in charge of your affairs, and will be welcomed by very humble and loyal subjects. But you will have something to say to the citizens of Ghent, for I fear those gentlemen are not as wise as they might be. Sire, I hear that, after the surrender of Hesdin, your sister the Queen of France came to the camp in rich attire, with a number of ladies all in white. Such insolence cannot last long, as S. Pol--both the town and the Apostle--bear witness. I hear that Madame the new Duchesse d'Étampes was nowhere. _Sic transit gloria mundi._ All this Latin is to show Your Majesty that I have not wasted my time in Pavia, any more than Don Beltrami did at Louvain. Once more I beg you to have pity on _La Chrétiennete_, who needs your help more than ever." But the summer months went by, and still no orders and no money came from Spain. Pavia became unhealthy, and the Duchess and all the members of her household fell ill of fever. "Hardly one has escaped," wrote Montmorency on the 22nd of August, "but now, thank God, my Lady has recovered, and I am trying to raise money to carry out your orders, although I fear my purse is not long enough to feed my poor archers."[145]