Chapuys could never admire and praise Mary enough. Even in communicating officially the news of the Duke of Richmond’s death, eulogy of the Princess formed the chief part of his despatch. “Few are sorry,” he wrote to Perrenot de Granvelle, “because of the Princess. Even Cromwell has congratulated her in his letters, and thank God, she now triumphs, and it is to be hoped that the dangers are laid, with which she has been surrounded, to make her a paragon of virtue, goodness, honor and prudence: I say nothing of beauty and grace, for it is incredible. May God raise her soon to the Crown, for the benefit of his Majesty and of all Christendom.”[196] Those who wished for a return to the old order in England looked to Mary’s influence to bring it about. She was in some miraculous way, by her very presence at court, to exercise power over her father’s indomitable will (the will that had crushed her into submission), to reconcile him with the Pope, and undo all the mischief he had been doing for the last ten years. “It is to be hoped,” wrote Chapuys to the Empress Isabella, “that through the Princess’s means, and through her great wisdom and discretion she may hereafter little by little bring back the King, her father, and the whole of the English nation to the right path. It would indeed have been a great pity to lose such a gem, her virtues being of such a standard, that I know not how to express and define her great accomplishments, her wisdom, beauty, prudence, virtue, austere life, and her other great qualities, for certainly all those who have been and are acquainted with her, cannot cease from praising her any more than I can.”[197] He was indefatigable in promoting Mary’s interests in every possible way. On being presented to Queen Jane, he seems to have thought of nothing else, regarding her merely as a useful friend, who had it in her power to smooth the Princess’s paths. His account of the interview is interesting:— “Mass over, I accompanied the King to the apartments of the Queen, whom, with the King’s pleasure, I kissed, congratulating her on her marriage, and wishing her prosperity. I told her besides, that although the device of the lady who had preceded her on the throne was ‘The happiest of women,’ I had no doubt she herself would fully realise that motto....