[121] She had written more than one fiery letter to Charles during the previous few months, fervently urging him to strike for the authority of the Church. All considerations of her safety and that of her daughter, she said, were to be put aside. It was the duty of the Emperor to his faith that the march of heresy and iniquity in England should be stayed at any cost, and she exhorted him not to fail. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, February and May 1534.) [122] Bedingfield and Tyrell were instructed in May 1534 to inform Katharine that the appeal she had made that her Spanish servants should not be penalised for refusing to take the oath to the new Act of Succession had been rejected, but licenses for the Spaniards to stay with their mistress on the old footing were soon afterwards given. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, May 1534.) [123] The account here given, that of Chapuys himself, is quaintly and minutely confirmed by that of one of the Spanish merchants who accompanied him, Antonio de Guaras, the author of the _Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII._ [124] See Chapuys' many letters on the subject. [125] Letters of Stephen Vaughan, Henry's envoy to Germany. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, vol. 7, etc.) [126] Letters of Chapuys in the autumn of 1534. (_Spanish Calendar._) [127] Chapuys to the Emperor, 2nd May 1536. [128] Lady Shelton. [129] The plans for Mary's flight from Eltham and her deportation to the Continent were nearly successful at this time. [130] Katharine had first met the saintly Friar Forest when she had gone on the famous pilgrimage to Walsingham after the victory of Flodden (October 1513), and on his first imprisonment she and her maid, Elizabeth Hammon, wrote heart-broken letters to him urging him to escape. (_Calendar Henry VIII._) [131] A vivid picture of the general discontent in England at this time, and the steadfast fidelity of the people to the cause of Katharine and Mary, is given by the French envoy, the Bishop of Tarbes. (_Calendar Henry VIII._, October 1535.) [132] The suggestion had been tentatively put forward by the English Minister in Flanders three months before. [133] This is according to Bedingfield's statement, although from Chapuys' letters, in which the chronology is a little confusing, it might possibly be inferred that he arrived at Kimbolton on the 1st January and that Lady Willoughby arrived soon after him. I am inclined to think that the day I have mentioned, however, is the correct one. [134] In the previous month of November she had written what she called her final appeal to the Emperor through Chapuys. In the most solemn and exalted manner she exhorted her nephew to strike and save her before she and her daughter were done to death by the forthcoming Parliament. This supreme heart-cry having been met as all similar appeals had been by smooth evasions on the part of Charles, Katharine thenceforward lost hope, and resigned herself to her fate.