Almost about the same time, Francis bent his steps towards the Rhine. The establishment of the Reform throughout Europe depended, as many thought, on the union of France with protestant Germany. This union would emancipate France from the papal supremacy, and all christendom would then be seen turning to the Gospel. The king was preparing to hold a conference with the most decided of the protestant princes of Germany. Rarely has an interview between two sovereigns been of so much importance. Francis I. had hardly quitted Marseilles and arrived at Avignon, when he assembled his council (25th of November, 1533), and communicated to it the desire for an alliance which the German protestants had expressed to him. A certain shame had prevented him from moving in the matter, amid the caresses which papacy and royalty were lavishing upon each other at Marseilles. But now that Clement was on board his galleys, nothing prevented the King of France, who had given his right hand to the pontiff, from giving his left to the heretics.[522] There were many reasons why he should do so. The clergy were not allies for whose support he was eager: the best orthodoxy, in his eyes, was the iron arm of the lansquenets. Besides, the opportunity was unprecedented: in fact, he could at one stroke gain the protestants to his cause, and inflict an immense injury on Austria—that is to say, on Charles V. It will no doubt be remembered that the young Prince of Wurtemberg, whom the emperor was leading in his train across the Alps, having escaped with his governor, had loudly demanded back the states of which Austria had robbed his father. Francis was chiefly occupied about him at Avignon. 'At this place,' says the historian Martin du Bellay, 'the king assembled his council, and deliberated on a request made to him not only by young Duke Christopher of Wurtemberg and his father, but by his uncles, Duke William and Duke Louis of Bavaria. Christopher himself had written to Francis I.: "Sire," he said, "during the great and long calamity of my father and myself, what first made hope spring up in our hearts was the thought that you would interpose your influence to put an end to our misery.... Your compassion for the afflicted is well known. I doubt not that, by your assistance, we shall soon be restored to our rights."'[523] Francis, always on the watch to injure his rival, was delighted at this proceeding, and did not conceal his joy from the privy council. 'I desire much,' he said, 'to see the dukes of Wurtemberg restored to their states, and should like to help them, as much to weaken the emperor's power as to acquire new friendships in Germany. But,' he added, 'I would do it under so _colourable a pretext_, that I may affirm that I have infringed no treaty.'[524] To humble the emperor and to exalt the protestants, without appearing to have anything to do with it, was what Francis desired. [Sidenote: DU BELLAY SENT TO GERMANY.]