Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/222

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
DEATH OF THE KING.
207

her brother held their lives and sufferings in common. Indeed, the King was very ill that year. He could not rest in that palace which it had been the great business of his life to adorn. He found no consolation now in the "fayre tables with histories right finely wrought," which only a few years ago he had shown with such leisurely triumph and delight to the astounded Wallup. He could not sleep now in the Royal bed-chamber, which, wrote Wallup, "I do assure your Majestie is very singulier, as well with antycall borders as with a costly sealing and chemney." And when he walked in the gallery, where were Cellini's statues and Primaticcio's casts, "the most magnifique gallereye I had ever seen with, betwixt every windowe, great antycall personages standing entier," doubtless King Francis remembered how he had shown these treasures also, a little while ago, to his good friend and guest and brother-in-law, the Emperor.

All of Francis's life was poisoned by his enmity of Charles. He laid plans and schemes for beginning the war again, and on a grander scale than heretofore. Between the winter of 1545 and the winter of 1546, he traversed the frontier of his kingdom, inspecting every town in Burgundy and Champagne, hurrying on the work of fortification, himself distributing the necessary moneys. For war seemed imminent at any moment, though Francis, weary and disheartened, was readier for enmity than for actual battle; but in the early spring of 1549 he received a shock which sent all thoughts of a campaign far from his spirit for the time.

On the 28th of January Henry of England died. This news was a thunderbolt for Francis, who, since