With the ground cleared by the retirement of his unpopular colleague, Sir Thomas Wyatt was able to display to far greater advantage that wealth of tact and diplomatic talent, which had rendered him such an invaluable servant to Henry at the Emperor’s Court. He immediately saw that it was useless to blame Francis, as Bonner had done, for an act which the situation had forced upon him, and he forbore to mention the affair of Brancetour again in the presence of the French King. Instead he addressed himself to Charles, and in the most careful and guarded phrases insinuated that the Emperor had shown ingratitude to Henry, in obtaining the Englishman’s release[682]. Wyatt’s action throughout was characterized by an external courtesy quite as remarkable as the previous rudeness of Bonner, and his efforts were finally rewarded in a manner which exceeded the King’s highest expectations. He had caught the Emperor off his guard, and the first result of his representations was to cause the usually imperturbable Charles completely to lose his temper. The Emperor in his vexation let several words escape him, of which Wyatt was prompt to take advantage. When reproached with ingratitude, Charles had turned sharply on the ambassador with a few angry words, which implied that it was impossible for him to be ‘ingrate’ to Henry, on account of the superiority of his own Imperial rank. The Emperor confessed that ‘the inferyour’ might be ‘ingrate to the greter,’ though the term was ‘skant sufferable bytwene lyke[683],’ but hinted that an accusation of ingratitude from the petty King of England against himself, the acknowledged head of Christendom, was entirely out of place. All this was reported at the English Court in early February. The use which Henry made of the information is remarkable. As a result of Wyatt’s communications, the Duke of Norfolk was sent with a special message to Francis[684]. He was ordered to quote all the conversation between Charles and Wyatt, but so to distort the meaning of the Emperor’s angry words as to make it appear that Charles was using Francis’ friendship merely as a stepping-stone to an ulterior purpose, and perhaps to a plan for the domination of Europe. Charles’ unfortunate slip about superiors and inferiors lent itself well to such an interpretation. On February 15 the Duke arrived at the French Court, of which Charles had already taken leave, and was immediately received by Francis[685]. From Norfolk’s own report it is evident that he had at last succeeded in creating serious distrust of the Emperor in the mind of the French King, and he reported to Henry that by Francis’ countenance he ‘dyd conjecte He was not content with thEmperours wordes[686].’