This news Mason also carried to the Emperor, who was better and brighter than he had been for years, for he knew that Pole would now go only to carry out his policy, so far as regarded restitution, and he was already full of hope that a child was to be born to Philip and Mary. That, indeed, would be to fix the hand of Spain upon England for at least long enough for his great purpose to be effected. In answer to an inquiry as to the Queen’s state, somewhat too coarsely worded to be quoted verbatim here, Mason was able on this occasion to inform the Emperor that: “I understand to my great joy and comfort that her garments wax very strait.” “I never doubted, quoth the Emperor, of the matter; but that God, who had for her wrought so many miracles, could make the same perfect by assisting nature to His good and most desired work. And I warrant it shall be, quoth he, a man child. Be it man or woman, quoth I, welcome shall it be: for by that shall we come to some certainty, to whom God shall appoint by succession the government of our State.... Doubt not, quoth he, God will provide both with fruit and otherwise: so as I trust to see yet that realm to return to a great piece of that surety and estimation that I have seen it in my time.”[76] Here, indeed, the wish was father to the thought. For some weeks past it had been whispered at Hampton Court that the Queen was with child, though Mary herself refused to confirm it or otherwise; but to the Spanish party such a fact was all-important, and the Emperor’s jubilation was heart-felt. Noailles, on the other hand, scoffed incredulously at what he asserted was only a conspiracy to cheat the English people into giving Philip greater power and importance in the country, and he quotes as an instance of the way in which the hope was regarded by English people, a scurrilous placard on the subject which, he says, was nailed to the door of Whitehall Palace. Cardinal Pole, already ailing and elderly, was carried in his litter with great ecclesiastical state from Brussels to Calais, and crossed the Channel as soon as news reached him that the Parliament at Westminster had reversed his attainder. Travelling by road, as usual, from Dover to Gravesend, he found awaiting him at the latter port King Philip’s own state barge to convey him to Westminster. On his way to London, on Saturday, 24th November, he was met by all the English Catholic Bishops and the Lords of the Council in their barges, and then, leading the imposing procession with uplifted crosier before him, the English Cardinal, in his rochet, tippet, and scarlet hat, passed up the London river to the palace of his royal ancestors.