were already crowding to his standard with their vassals, and impatient to set out, but Henry had always some plausible excuse for lingering. At one time it was the unsafe state of Scotland, and four months were occupied in negotiating an extension of the truce; then it was the necessity of contracting for fresh levies of troops. These troops, however, were ready in June and July, but still they were not allowed to move. "The truth was," says Bacon, "that though the king showed great forwardness for a war, not only to his Parliament and Court, but to his Privy Council, except the two bishops (Fox and Morton), and a few more, yet, nevertheless, in his secret intentions, he had no purpose to go through with any war upon France. But the truth was, that he did but traffic with that war to make money."
Remains of Bermondsey Abbey in which Queen Elizabeth Wydville was confined. From a Drawing made before its Demolition.
At length, in the beginning of October, 1492, he landed at Calais, with a fine army of 25,000 foot, and 1,600 horse, which he gave in command to the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Oxford. This was a force capable of striking an alarming blow; but what appeared extraordinary was, that the French made no efforts to prepare against it. The country was as quiet and as defenceless as if not a hostile soldier was in it. There was no excitement, no muster of troops; there was scarcely a regiment on the whole way from Calais to Paris. This convinced those of any reflection that, after all, there would be no war, that nothing less was meant by Henry, or expected by Charles, and rumours to this effect began to pervade the English camp. It was said that it was now time to go into winter quarters, and, therefore, an actual campaign had never been contemplated. But Henry replied that the very lateness of the season, on the contrary, showed that he was in earnest. His object, he said, was the total conquest of France, and the appendage of it to the English crown, and that was not likely to be the work of a single summer. At what season he commenced this great enterprise was, therefore of no consequence whatever. He had Calais for his winter quarters, and was at once as much at home as in England, and yet, ready at a moment to seize on all opportunities. To show them what he meant to do, he ordered a march upon Bologne. The siege of Bologne lasted two months, but nothing whatever was done, except Sir John Savage, an English captain, being killed by a shot as he was reconnoitring the walls.
In fact, Henry had entered into a treaty of peace before he had set out, and the only difficulty now was how to get out of the war without incurring too much resentment at home. To guard against this, the odium of the abortive expedient must be carefully removed from himself to other parties. The machinery for this was already prepared. His ambassadors appeared in the camp at Bologne, informing them that their visit to his previous ally Maximilian had been useless; he was incapable of joining him. These were followed by others from Spain, bringing the intelligence that Ferdinand had concluded a peace with France, Rousillon and Cerdagne being ceded to him by Charles. But with Henry's fine army, and the defenceless state of France, the defection of these allies, from whom little or nothing had been expected, would have scarcely cost him a thought had he been a Henry V. As it was, after all his boasts, it was not even for him to propose an abandonment of the enterprise, and therefore, the Marquis of Dorset and twenty-three other persons of distinction were employed to present to him a request that he would also make a peace with France. They urged, as they were instructed for this purpose, the defection of these allies, the approach of winter, the difficulty of obtaining supplies at Calais at that season, and the obstinacy of the siege of Bologne. All these were circumstances that had been foreseen from the first, and treated with indifference, as they deserved to be; but now Henry affected to listen to the desires of his army, and sent off the Bishop of Exeter and the Lord Daubeney to confer with the Marshal de Cordes, who had been sent as pleni-
