The story of Cromwell’s arrest, followed by the report of the divorce of Anne of Cleves, was also immediately communicated to France and Spain. Francis appears to have received the news of the first with unfeigned joy, and was not slow to signify to Henry his satisfaction at the unexpected turn of affairs[729]. He wrote again to the King a little later, asserting that Cromwell had adjusted a dispute over some prizes taken by the ships of the governor of Picardy, the Sieur de Rochepot, in such a way that he had derived personal gain from the transaction; this complaint was sent to Cromwell in the Tower, and drew from him the reply contained in the last existing letter which he wrote[730]. Francis’ enthusiasm at the ruin of a minister whom he had such reason to hate, seems to have been somewhat diminished when he learned that Anne’s marriage had been dissolved, as he naturally saw that this step would immediately put England and Spain on a better footing. An interesting account of the ambassador Carne’s breaking the news to Francis, is given in a letter of Wallop’s to Henry of July 10. Francis, as it appears, ‘fett a gret sighte,’ as if reflecting on the vacillating methods of his ‘nere and dere brother,’ but finally assented that Henry’s ‘owne conscience shuld be judge therein[731].’ The French King, though he greatly rejoiced in Cromwell’s fall, was evidently somewhat taken aback by the first result of the consummation of his hopes. Charles showed none of the same outward enthusiasm, when Pate declared to him the news of Cromwell’s arrest; he did not even send a message, but left the ambassador in a later letter to the King to supplement his silence with his own approval. His replies to the news of the divorce of Anne were likewise calm, but he certainly was much relieved by what he had heard[732]. The common opinion which the sudden reversal of Cromwell’s policy had caused on the Continent seems to have been, as Pate wrote to Norfolk on July 31, that Henry had ‘lost the hartes of the Electors of thEmpire’ but had ‘contravailed thEmprour or the Frenche King in there places[733].’