The evangelicals having discharged this duty passed rapidly over the rest. They represented to the ambassador that the proposal to send learned men into France was of such importance, that it was impossible to give him an immediate answer, but that the deputies would report thereon to the chiefs as soon as they returned home. ‘We assure you, however,’ they said in conclusion, ‘that nothing would please us more than to see the doctrine of piety and the concord of nations propagated more and more by means in conformity with the Word of God.’[789] After a postponement, which seemed almost a refusal, Du Bellay felt embarrassed, for he had still to discharge the principal mission that his master had entrusted to him. He could not, however, leave Smalcalde without fulfilling it. He did not make it known distinctly in his public speeches, but solicited the protestants in private conversations to make an alliance with the king his master. The latter answered that the first condition of such a union would be that the allies should undertake nothing against the emperor, the head of the Germanic Confederation. Now it was precisely for the purpose of acting against Charles V. that Francis I. sought the friendship of evangelical Germany. Du Bellay left Smalcalde dissatisfied. [Sidenote: Francis Plays Two Parts.] The distrust of the Lutheran princes was not unreasonable. While the king was acting the protestant beyond the Rhine, he was acting the papist beyond the Alps; if the emperor would consent to yield Milan to him, Francis I. would bind himself to reduce Germany under the yoke of the house of Austria. ‘I will spare nothing,’ he said, ‘for the greatness of the said emperor and his brother the king of the Romans.’[790] He went further than this: ‘Let the pope say the word, and I will constrain England by force of arms to submit to the Church.’ The cruel paw peeped out from beneath the skin of the lamb, and the lion suddenly appeared, ready to attack, seize, and devour, as a delicate morsel, those whom he treated as friends and companions.