That which had been begun in the Netherlands was completed in France. During the troubles of the League, the duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel, had seized upon the marquisate of Saluzzo. Hitherto he had held nearly undisturbed possession of it, but Henry, now that he was relieved from the pressure of foreign and domestic hostility, resolved to recover a territory which was of importance from its affording a passage into Italy. For the same reason, the duke was anxious to retain it; he could not see without apprehension and disgust a powerful neighbour constantly posted within a few miles of his capital. In the hope of prevailing on Henry to cede the marquisate to him, the duke adopted the plan of visiting the French court. Charles Emmanuel had seductive manners, and a ready eloquence, and he concealed profound dissimulation under the semblance of openness and sincerity. Henry, however, though he treated him with an almost ostentatious kindness and pomp, was inflexible on the main point, and the duke found himself under the necessity of signing a disadvantageous treaty. But Charles Emmanuel had not relied solely on the policy or the generosity of Henry; he knew that the embers of disaffection were still alive in some of the French nobles, and he hoped to fan them into a flame which should scorch the monarch. To win the discontented to his side, he scattered with a lavish hand his largesses, under the disguise of presents. Though from some of those whom he tempted he failed to procure an explicit avowal of their sentiments, he doubted not that they might be reckoned upon in case of an explosion; others spoke out more plainly; and Biron threw himself unreservedly into the arms of the wily Savoyard. It was partly, perhaps, by ministering to the marshal’s wants, but much more by rousing his wrath against the king, that the duke succeeded in making him a traitor. He artfully communicated to him some depreciating language which Henry was said to have used, and the vain and passionate Biron no longer hesitated to cast off his allegiance. The reward of his treason was to be the sovereignty of Burgundy, and the hand of one of Charles Emmanuel’s daughters. Yet at the moment when he was rushing headlong into rebellion, he publicly refused to accept a present of two fine horses from the duke of Savoy; assigning as the reason, that it would not become him to receive gifts from a prince between whom and his own sovereign there were differences existing. Thus hypocrisy was added to the list of his vices.