So, on the 18th of September 1544, Charles and Francis met at Crépy in Laonnois, Madame d'Étampes and Martin de Guzman, doubtless, among the attendant company. Between the King and the Emperor lay the treaty, yet unsigned. By its provisions the Emperor ceded to the young Duke of Orleans, at the expiration of two years, either his daughter Mary with the Netherlands, or Anne, his niece, dowered with the Milanese. The King, on his side, promised to bestow upon his second son a yearly revenue of a hundred thousand livres, secured on Bourbon, Orleans, Angoulême, and Chatellerault. In case these duchies did not yield the sum desired, that of Alençon should be taken from the much-enduring Margaret and added to the list. All mutual conquests since the Treaty of Nice were to be restored. It was further provided that the King should renounce his alliance with Soliman II., and withdraw his protection from the Protestant princes of Germany; and that he should undertake to subdue the power of the Turks, and arrest the progress of Heresy. So ran the treaty, with it promises of gold and treason. The King and the Emperor read it through. First one signed it, then the other.
From that moment the influence of Spain was paramount in Europe; France was no longer a rival. From that moment the Inquisition triumphed; that treaty authorized the Vaudois massacres, and decided the doom of the twelve hundred Huguenot gentlemen of Amboise; the knife was ground then that should serve to stab Coligny, and the signal given for the slaughter of Saint Bartholomew. And, at the same time, the political influence of France was destroyed. She was made to ruin herself in the eyes of her natural allies. In reducing France to the condition of an
