[243] Relatione di Giovanni Micheli, MS.—Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. IV. cap. 2, 4.—Campana, Vita di Filippo Secundo, parte II. lib. 11.
[244] Relatione di Giovanni Micheli, MS.
[245] "Yo os digo que yo estoy de todo punto imposibilitado à sostener la guerra.... Estos términos me parecen tan aprestados que so pena de perderme no puedo dejar de concertarme." Letter of Philip to the Bishop of Arras, (February 12. 1559,) ap. Papiers d'Etat de Granvelle, tom. V. p. 454, et alibi.
Philip told the Venetian minister he was in such straits, that, if the French king had not made advances towards an accommodation, he should have been obliged to do so himself. Campana, Vita di Filippo Secondo, parte II. lib. 11.
[246] Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. IV. cap. 16.—Ferreras, Histoire Générale d'Espagne, tom. VII. p. 397.
[247] "Habló que era de tener en mas la pressa del Condestable, que si fuera la misma persona del Rey, porque faltando el, falta el govierno jeneral todo." Carta del Mayordomo Don Luis Mendez Quixada al Secretario Juan Vazquez de Molina, MS.
[248] The French government had good reasons for its distrust. It appears from the correspondence of Granvelle, that that minister employed a respectable agent to take charge of the letters of St. André, and probably of the other prisoners, and that these letters were inspected by Granvelle before they passed to the French camp. See Papiers d'Etat de Granvelle, tom. V. p. 178.
[249] Some historians, among them Sismondi, seem to have given more credit to the professions of the politic Frenchman than they deserve, (Histoire des Français, tom. XVIII. p. 73.). Granvelle, who understood the character of his antagonist better, was not so easily duped. A memorandum among his papers thus notices the French cardinal: "Toute la démonstration que faisoit ledict cardinal de Lorraine de désirer paix, estoit chose faincte à la françoise et pour nous abuser." Papiers d'Etat de Granvelle, tom. V. p. 168.
[250] "Adjoustant que, si Calaix demeuroit aux François, ny luy ny ses collègues n'oseroyent retourner en Angleterre, et que certainement le peuple les lapideroit." Ibid., p. 319.
[251] "Were I to die this moment, want of frigates would be found written on my heart." The original of this letter of Nelson is in the curious collection of autograph letters which belonged to the late Sir Robert Peel.