He had placed a motto on this fabric, under the figure of an English archer embroidered on it, "Cui adhaereo praeest," He prevails whom I favor;[**] expressing his own situation, as holding in his hands the balance of power among the potentates of Europe.

In these entertainments, more than in any serious business, did the two kings pass their time, till their departure.
* Memoires de Fleuranges.
** Mezeray.
Henry paid then a visit to the emperor and Margaret of Savoy at Gravelines, and engaged them to go along with him to Calais, and pass some days in that fortress.

The artful and politic Charles here completed the impression which he had begun to make on Henry and his favorite, and effaced all the friendship to which the frank and generous nature of Francis had given birth.

As the house of Austria began sensibly to take the ascendant over the French monarchy, the interests of England required that some support should be given to the latter, and, above all, that any important wars should be prevented which might bestow on either of them a decisive superiority over the other.

But the jealousy of the English against France has usually prevented a cordial union between those nations; and Charles, sensible of this hereditary animosity, and desirous further to flatter Henry's vanity, had made him an offer, (an offer in which Francis was afterwards obliged to concur,) that he should be entirely arbiter in any dispute or difference that might arise between the monarchs.