were promised in the treaty, Henry was insolently told that he might accept, if he pleased, the Solway prisoners, who were on their parole to return. His hopes, a few months before so sanguine, were gone like a dream. His forbearance had been scorned; his credulity had been trifled with. The intrigues of the Papacy, working on a misguided patriotism, had baffled a policy as farsighted as it was generous. Scotland was once more an enemy, and as an enemy it must expect to be dealt with.
The King's first anxiety was for Sir Ralph Sadler, who, he feared, might share the fate of Somerset Herald. To prevent this, or any similar catastrophe, he addressed a few words of warning to the citizens of Edinburgh. 'Being advertised,' he said, 'that our ambassador resident in that town has of late been menaced to be violently and extremely handled, contrary to all law of reason, nature, and humanity, and forasmuch as the injury done to an ambassador hath ever been accounted, among all Christian men, of so high a nature as it was never left unpunished and revenged, we have thought good to admonish you to beware and eschew that outrage whereby ye might worthily provoke our extreme displeasure, and to forbear that attemptate, not only for the detestation of it in all men's ears, but also for fear of the revenge of our sword to extend to that town and commonalty, to the extermination of you to the third and fourth generation.'[1] The menace was brief; but
- ↑ King Henry VIII. to the Citizens of Edinburgh: State Papers, vol. v. p. 334.
