for the instructions in question were undoubtedly drawn up in August, as the letter of the Duchess of Guise, of the 1st of September, clearly proves.[323] Footnote 321: See above, pp. 119-20. Footnote 322: “Instructions given by the L. Cromwell to Philip Hoby, sent over by him to the Duchess of Lorraine then [to the] Duchess of Milan.” Footnote 323: After pointing out that the instructions order Hoby to return home at once after obtaining portraits of the two Guises and the daughter of the Duke of Lorraine, he continues: “Yet instructions for his proceeding on another very similar mission seem to have been drawn up at or near the same time; and by these second instructions he was not to come home at all, but proceed at once from the duchess of Lorraine in France to the duchess of Milan in the Netherlands. It would seem, however, that the heading to the second set of instructions has been supplied by a transcriber of a later date, and it is clearly inaccurate.” _C.L.P._, vol. xiii. pt. i., preface, p. xxxviii. In spite of this anxiety to obtain portraits, Henry’s negotiations for a French marriage were as unsuccessful as his advances for the hand of the Duchess of Milan. In each case, no doubt, the proposed alliance was largely political, though Henry seems to have been genuinely anxious to marry Madame de Longueville, or to prevent his nephew of Scotland from doing so, and was afterwards by no means unwilling to take one of her sisters. Throughout the whole proceedings the French and the Imperial ambassadors in London kept each other well informed of what was going on, though each one was of the private opinion that Henry was more inclined towards a bride from his country than from the other’s. Thus Chapuys, writing to Charles V early in 1539, reports that “everybody says he is much inclined to the duchess of Milan, whom, as I was informed three days ago, by one who knows almost all secrets, he would willingly take, even if she were delivered to him naked without a penny.”[324] On the other hand, Castillon told Montmorency: “He, however, says the practice of his marriage with the duchess of Milan still continues, ... but I know he would willingly return to marry Mademoiselle de Guise. If you think the King (Francis) and Emperor should have the pastime of seeing him thus ‘virolin virolant,’ I can easily get it up, provided a little good cheer is made to his ambassador, and that M. le Cardinal or M. de Guise caress him a little.”[325] Henry, however, finally turned his attentions in another direction, while two of the ladies he had sought were soon married elsewhere, Louise of Guise to Charles de Croi, Prince de Chimaix, in 1541, and Anne of Lorraine to René, Prince of Orange, in 1540. The third, Marie of Vendôme, died unmarried, aged twenty-two, on 28th September 1538, a week or two after Holbein was at Joinville.[326] Footnote 324: _C.L.P._, vol. xiv. pt. i. 37 (9 Jan. 1539.) Footnote 325: