Luxembourg, with all the rights therein possessed, or possibly to be
possessed, by the Most Christian king."  [_Corps Diplomatique du Droit
des Gens,_ by J.  Dumont, t.  iv.  part i.  p.  57.] It was dismembering
France, and at the same time settling on all her frontiers, to east,
west, and south-west, as well as to north and south, a power which the
approaching union of two crowns, the imperial and the Spanish, on the
head of Prince Charles of Austria, rendered so preponderating and so
formidable.

It was not only from considerations of external policy, and in order to
conciliate to himself Emperor Maximilian and King Ferdinand, that Louis
XII. had allowed himself to proceed to concessions so plainly contrary to
the greatest interests of France: he had yielded also to domestic
influences.  The queen his wife, Anne of Brittany, detested Louise of
Savoy, widow of Charles d'Orleans, Count of Angouleme, and mother of
Francis d'Angouleme, heir presumptive to the throne, since Louis XII.
had no son.  Anne could not bear the idea that her daughter, Princess
Claude, should marry the son of her personal enemy; and, being more
Breton than French, say her contemporaries, she, in order to avoid this
disagreeableness, had used with the king all her influence, which was
great, in favor of the Austrian marriage, caring little, and, perhaps,
even desiring, that Brittany should be again severed from France.  Louis,
in the midst of the reverses of his diplomacy, had thus to suffer from
the hatreds of his wife, the observations of his advisers, and the
reproaches of his conscience as a king.  He fell so ill that he was
supposed to be past recovery.  "It were to do what would be incredible,"
says his contemporary, John de St. Gelais, "to write or tell of the
lamentations made throughout the whole realm of France, by reason of the
sorrow felt by all for the illness of their good king.  There were to be
seen night and day, at Blois, at Amboise, at Tours, and everywhere else,
men and women going all bare throughout the churches and to the holy
places, in order to obtain from divine mercy grace of health and
convalescence for one whom there was as great fear of losing as if he had
been the father of each."  Louis was touched by this popular sympathy;
and his wisest councillors, Cardinal d'Amboise the first of all, took
advantage thereof to appeal to his conscience in respect of the
engagements which "through weakness he had undertaken contrary to the
interests of the realm and the coronation-promises."  Queen Anne herself,
not without a struggle, however, at last gave up her opposition to this
patriotic recoil; and on the 10th of May, 1505, Louis XII.  put in his
will a clause to the effect that his daughter, Princess Claude, should be
married, so soon as she was old enough, to the heir to the throne,
Francis, Count of Angouleme.  Only it was agreed, in order to avoid
diplomatic embarrassments, that this arrangement should be kept secret
till further notice.  [The will itself of Louis XII. has been inserted in
the _Recueil des Ordonnances des Bois des France,_ t. xxi.  p. 323, dated
30th of May, 1505.]

When Louis had recovered, discreet measures were taken for arousing the
feeling of the country as well as the king's conscience as to this great
question.  In the course of the year 1505 there took place throughout the
whole kingdom, amongst the nobility and in the principal towns,
assemblies at which means were proposed for preventing this evil.
Unpleasant consequences might have been apprehended from these meetings,
in the case of a prince less beloved by his subjects than the king was;
but nothing further was decided thereby than that a representation should
with submission be made to him of the dangers likely to result from this
treaty, that he should be entreated to prevent them by breaking it, and
that a proposal should be made to him to assemble the estates to
deliberate upon a subject so important.  [_Histoire de France,_ by Le
Pere Daniel, t. viii.  p. 427, edit. of 1755.] The states-general were
accordingly convoked and met at Tours on the 10th of May, 1506; and on
the 14th of May Louis XII. opened them in person at Plessis-les-Tours,
seated in a great hall, in the royal seat, between Cardinal d'Amboise and
Duke Francis of Valois, and surrounded by many archbishops and all the
princes of the blood and other lords and barons of the said realm in
great number, and he gave the order for admitting the deputies of the
estates of the realm.

[Illustration: STATES GENERAL AT TOURS----329]

"Far from setting forth the grievances of the nation, as the spokesman of
the estates had always done, Thomas Bricot, canon of Notre-Dame de Paris,
delivered an address enumerating, in simple and touching terms, the
benefits conferred by Louis XII., and describing to him the nation's
gratitude.  To him they owed peace and the tranquillity of the realm,
complete respect for private property, release from a quarter of the
talliages, reform in the administration of justice, and the appointment
of enlightened and incorruptible judges.  For these causes, the speaker
added, and for others which it would take too long to recount, he was
destined to be known as Louis XII., father of the people.

"At these last words loud cheers rang out; emotion was general, and
reached the king himself, who shed tears at hearing the title which
posterity and history were forever to attach to his name.

"Then, the deputies having dropped on their knees, the speaker resumed
his speech, saying that they were come to prefer a request for the
general good of the realm, the king's subjects entreating him to be
pleased to give his only daughter in marriage to my lord Francis, here
present, who is every whit French.

"When this declaration was ended, the king called Cardinal d'Amboise and
the chancellor, with whom he conferred for some time; and then the
chancellor, turning to the deputies, made answer that the king had given
due ear and heed to their request and representation, .  .  .  that if he
had done well, he desired to do still better; and that, as to the request
touching the marriage, he had never heard talk of it; but that as to that
matter, he would communicate with the princes of the blood, so as to have
their opinion.

"The day after this session the king received an embassy which could not
but crown his joy: the estates of the duchy of Burgundy, more interested
than any other province in the rupture of the (Austrian) marriage, had
sent deputies to join their most urgent prayers to the entreaties of the
estates of France.

"On Monday, May 18, the king assembled about him his chief councillors,
to learn if the demand of the estates was profitable and reasonable for
him and his kingdom.  'Thereon,' continues the report, 'the first to
deliver an opinion was my lord the Bishop of Paris; after him the premier
president of the parliament of Paris and of that of Bordeaux.' Their
speeches produced such effect that, 'quite with one voice and one
mind, those present agreed that the request of the estates was sound,
just, and reasonable, and with one consent entreated the king to agree to
the said marriage.'

"The most enlightened councillors and the princes of the blood found
themselves in agreement with the commons.  There was no ambiguity about
the reply.  On the Tuesday, May 19, the king held a session in state for
the purpose of announcing to the estates that their wishes should be
fully gratified, and that the betrothal of his daughter to the heir to
the throne should take place next day but one, May 21, in order that the
deputies might report the news of it to their constituents.

"After that the estates had returned thanks, the chancellor gave notice
that, as municipal affairs imperatively demanded the return of the
deputies, the king gave them leave to go, retaining only one burgess from
each town, to inform him of their wants and 'their business, if such
there be in any case, wherein the king will give them good and short
despatch.'

"The session was brought to a close by the festivities of the betrothal,
and by the oath taken by the deputies, who, before their departure, swore
to bring about with all their might, even to the risk of body and goods,
the marriage which had just been decided upon by the common advice of all
those who represented France.'" [_Histoire des Etats Generaux_ from 1355
to 1614, by George Picot, t. i.  pp. 352-354].

Francis d'Angouleme was at that time eleven years old, and Claude of
France was nearly seven.

Whatever displeasure must have been caused to the Emperor of Germany and
to the King of Spain by this resolution on the part of France and her
king, it did not show itself, either in acts of hostility or even in
complaints of a more or less threatening kind.  Italy remained for some
years longer the sole theatre of rivalry and strife between these three
great powers; and, during this strife, the utter diversity of the
combinations, whether in the way of alliance or of rupture, bore witness
to the extreme changeability of the interests, passions, and designs of
the actors.  From 1506 to 1515, between Louis XII.'s will and his death,
we find in the history of his career in Italy five coalitions, and as
many great battles, of a profoundly contradictory character.  In 1508,
Pope Julius II., Louis XII., Emperor Maximilian, and Ferdinand the
Catholic, King of Spain, form together against the Venetians the League
of Cambrai.  In 1510, Julius II., Ferdinand, the Venetians, and the Swiss
make a coalition against Louis XII.  In 1512, this coalition, decomposed
for a while, re-unites, under the name of the League of the Holy Union,
between the pope, the Venetians, the Swiss, and the Kings of Arragon and
Naples against Louis XII., minus the Emperor Maximilian, and plus Henry
VIII., King of England.  On the 14th of May, 1509, Louis XII., in the
name of the League of Cambrai, gains the battle of Agnadello against the
Venetians.  On the 11th of April, 1512, it is against Pope Julius II.,
Ferdinand the Catholic, and the Venetians that he gains the battle of
Ravenna.  On the 14th of March, 1513, he is in alliance with the
Venetians, and it is against the Swiss that he loses the battle of
Novara.  In 1510, 1511, and 1512, in the course of all these incessant
changes of political allies and adversaries, three councils met at Tours,
at Pisa, and at St. John Lateran with views still more discordant and
irreconcilable than those of all these laic coalitions.  We merely point
out here the principal traits of the nascent sixteenth century; we have
no intention of tracing with a certain amount of detail any incidents but
those that refer to Louis XII. and to France, to their procedure and
their fortunes.

Jealousy, ambition, secret resentment, and the prospect of despoiling
them caused the formation of the League of Cambrai against the Venetians.
Their far-reaching greatness on the seas, their steady progress on land,
their riches, their cool assumption of independence towards the papacy,
their renown for ability, and their profoundly selfish, but singularly
prosperous policy, had excited in Italy, and even beyond the Alps, that
feeling of envy and ill-will which is caused amongst men, whether kings
or people, by the spectacle of strange, brilliant, and unexpected good
fortune, though it be the fruits of rare merit.  As the Venetians were as
much dreaded as they were little beloved, great care was taken to conceal
from them the projects that were being formed against them.  According to
their historian, Cardinal Bembo, they owed to chance the first notice
they had.  It happened one day that a Piedmontese at Milan, in presence
of the Resident of Venice, allowed to escape from his lips the words,
"I should have the pleasure, then, of seeing the crime punished of those
who put to death the most illustrious man of my country."  He alluded to
Carmagnola, a celebrated Piedmontese condottiere, who had been accused of
treason and beheaded at Venice on the 3d of May, 1432.  The Venetian
ambassador at Louis XII.'s court, suspecting what had taken place at
Cambrai, tried to dissuade the king.  "Sir," said he, "it were folly to
attack them of Venice; their wisdom renders them invincible."  "I believe
they are prudent and wise," answered Louis, "but all the wrong way of the
hair (inopportunely); if it must come to war, I will bring upon them so
many fools, that your wiseacres will not have leisure to teach them
reason, for my fools hit all round without looking where."  When the
league was decisively formed, Louis sent to Venice a herald to officially
proclaim war.  After having replied to the grievances alleged in support
of that proclamation, "We should never have believed," said the Doge
Loredano, "that so great a prince would have given ear to the envenomed
words of a pope whom he ought to know better, and to the insinuations of
another priest whom we forbear to mention (Cardinal d'Amboise).  In order
to please them, he declares himself the foe of a republic which has
rendered him great services.  We will try to defend ourselves, and to
prove to him that he has not kept faith with us.  God shall judge betwixt
us.  Father herald, and you, trumpeter, ye have heard what we had to say
to you; report it to your master.  Away!"  Independently of their natural
haughtiness, the Venetians were puffed up with the advantages they had
obtained in a separate campaign against the Emperor Maximilian, and
flattered themselves that they would manage to conquer, one after the
other, or to split up, or to tire out, their enemies; and they prepared
energetically for war.  Louis XII., on his side, got together an army
with a strength of twenty-three hundred lances (about thirteen thousand
mounted troops), ten to twelve thousand French foot, and six or eight
thousand Swiss.  He sent for Chevalier Bayard, already famous, though
still quite a youth.  "Bayard," said he, "you know that I am about to
cross the mountains, for to bring to reason the Venetians, who by great
wrong withhold from me the countship of Cremona and other districts.
I give to you from this present time the company of Captain Chatelard,
who they tell me is dead, whereat I am distressed; but I desire that in
this enterprise you have under your charge men afoot; your lieutenant-
captain, Pierrepont [Pierre de Pont d'Albi, a Savoyard gentle-man, and
Bayard's nephew], who is a very good man, shall lead your men-at-arms."
"Sir," answered Bayard, "I will do what pleaseth you; but how many men
afoot will you be pleased to hand over to me to lead?"  "A thousand,"
said the king: "there is no man that hath more."  "Sir," replied Bayard,
"it is a many for my poor wits; I do entreat you to be content that I
have five hundred; and I pledge you my faith, sir, that I will take pains
to choose such as shall do you service; meseems that for one man it is a
very heavy charge, if he would fain do his duty therewith."  "Good!" said
the king: "go, then, quickly into Dauphiny, and take heed that you be in
my duchy of Milan by the end of March."  Bayard forthwith set out to
raise and choose his foot; a proof of the growing importance of infantry,
and of the care taken by Louis XII. to have it commanded by men of war of
experience and popularity.

[Illustration: Battle of Agnadello----334]

On the 14th of May, 1509, the French army and the Venetian army, of
nearly equal strength, encountered near the village of Agnadello, in the
province of Lodi, on the banks of the Adda.  Louis XII. commanded his in
person, with Louis de la Tremoille and James Trivulzio for his principal
lieutenants; the Venetians were under the orders of two generals, the
Count of Petigliano and Barthelemy d'Alviano, both members of the Roman
family of the Orsini, but not on good terms with one another.  The French
had to cross the Adda to reach the enemy, who kept in his camp.
Trivulzio, seeing that the Venetians did not dispute their passage, cried
out to the king, "To-day, sir, the victory is ours!"  The French advance-
guard engaged with the troops of Alviano.  When apprised of this fight,
Louis, to whom word was at this same time brought that the enemy was
already occupying the point towards which he was moving with the main
body of the army, said briskly, "Forward, all the same; we will halt upon
their bellies."  The action became general and hot.  The king, sword in
hand, hurried from one corps to another, under fire from the Venetian
artillery, which struck several men near him.  He was urged to place
himself under cover a little, so as to give his orders thence; but, "It
is no odds," said he; "they who are afraid have only to put themselves
behind me."  A body of Gascons showed signs of wavering: "Lads," shouted
La Tremoille, "the king sees you."  They dashed forward; and the
Venetians were broken, in spite of the brave resistance of Alviano, who
was taken and brought, all covered with blood, and with one eye out, into
the presence of the king.  Louis said to him, courteously, "You shall
have fair treatment and fair captivity; have fair patience."  "So I
will," answered the condottiere; "if I had won the battle, I had been the
most victorious man in the world; and, though I have lost it, still have
I the great honor of having had against me a King of France in person."
Louis, who had often heard talk of the warrior's intrepid presence of
mind, had a fancy for putting it to further proof, and, all the time
chatting with him, gave secret orders to have the alarm sounded not far
from them.  "What is this, pray, Sir Barthelemy?" asked the king: "your
folks are very difficult to please; is it that they want to begin
again?"  "Sir," said Alviano, "if there is fighting still, it must be
that the French are fighting one another; as for my folks, I assure you,
on my life, they will not pay you a visit this fortnight."  The Venetian
army, in fact, withdrew with a precipitation which resembled a rout: for,
to rally it, its general, the Count of Petigliano, appointed for its
gathering-point the ground beneath the walls of Brescia, forty miles from
the field of battle.  "Few men-at-arms," says Guicciardini, "were slain
in this affair; the great loss fell upon the Venetians' infantry, which
lost, according to some, eight thousand men; others say that the number
of dead on both sides did not amount to more than six thousand."  The
territorial results of the victory were greater than the numerical losses
of the armies.  Within a fortnight, the towns of Caravaggio, Bergamo,
Brescia, Crema, Cremona, and Pizzighitone surrendered to the French.
Peschiera alone, a strong fortress at the southern extremity of the Lake
of Garda, resisted, and was carried by assault.  "It was a bad thing for
those within," says the Loyal Serviteur of Bayard; "for all, or nearly
all, perished there; amongst the which was the governor of the Signory
and his son, who were willing to pay good and heavy ransom; but that
served them not at all, for on one tree were both of them hanged, which
to me did seem great cruelty; a very lusty gentleman, called the
Lorrainer, had their parole, and he had big words about it with the grand
master, lieutenant-general of the king; but he got no good thereby."  The
_Memoires of Robert de la Marck,_ lord of Fleuranges, and a warrior of
the day, confirm, as to this sad incident, the story of the Loyal
Serviteur of Bayard: "When the French volunteers," says he, "entered by
the breach into the castle of Peschiera, they cut to pieces all those who
were therein, and there were left only the captain, the proveditore, and
the podesta, the which stowed themselves away in a tower, surrendered to
the good pleasure of the king, and, being brought before him, offered him
for ransom a hundred thousand ducats; but the king swore, 'If ever I eat
or drink till they be hanged and strangled!  'Nor even for all the prayer
they could make could the grand master Chaumont, and even his uncle,
Cardinal d'Amboise, find any help for it, but the king would have them
hanged that very hour."  Some chroniclers attribute this violence on
Louis XII.'s part to a "low and coarse" reply returned by those in
command at Peschiera to the summons to surrender.  Guicciardini, whilst
also recording the fact, explains it otherwise than by a fit of anger on
Louis's part: "The king," he says, "was led to such cruelty in order
that, dismayed at such punishment, those who were still holding out in
the fortress of Cremona might not defend themselves to the last
extremity."  [_Guicciardini, Istoria d'Italia,_ liv.  viii.  t.  i.  p.
521.] So that the Italian historian is less severe on this act of cruelty
than the French knight is.

Louis XII.'s victory at Agnadello had for him consequences very different
from what he had no doubt expected.  "The king," says Guicciardini,
"departed from Italy, carrying away with him to France great glory by
reason of so complete and so rapidly won a victory over the Venetians;
nevertheless, as in the case of things obtained after hope long deferred
men scarcely ever feel such joy and happiness as they had at first
imagined they would, the king took not back with him either greater peace
of mind or greater security in respect of his affairs."  The beaten
Venetians accepted their defeat with such a mixture of humility and
dignity as soon changed their position in Italy.  They began by providing
all that was necessary for the defence of Venice herself; foreigners, but
only idle foreigners, were expelled; those who had any business which
secured them means of existence received orders to continue their labors.
Mills were built, cisterns were dug, corn was gathered in, the condition
of the canals was examined, bars were removed, the citizens were armed;
the law which did not allow vessels laden with provisions to touch at
Venice was repealed, and rewards were decreed to officers who had done
their duty.  Having taken all this care for their own homes and their
fatherland on the sea, the Venetian senate passed a decree by which the
republic, releasing from their oath of fidelity the subjects it could not
defend, authorized its continental provinces to treat with the enemy with
a view to their own interests, and ordered its commandants to evacuate
such places as they still held.  Nearly all such submitted without a
struggle to the victor of Agnadello and his allies of Cambrai; but at
Treviso, when Emperor Maximilian's commissioner presented himself in
order to take possession of it, a shoemaker named Caligaro went running
through the streets, shouting, "Hurrah! for St. Mark."

The people rose, pillaged the houses of those who had summoned the
foreigner, and declared that it would not separate its lot from that of
the republic.  So Treviso remained Venetian.  Two other small towns,
Marano and Osopo, followed her example; and for several months this was
all that the Venetians preserved of their continental possessions.  But
at the commencement of July, 1509, they heard that the important town of
Padua, which had fallen to the share of Emperor Maximilian, was uttering
passionate murmurs against its new master, and wished for nothing better
than to come back beneath the old sway; and, in spite of the opposition
shown by the doge, Loredano, the Venetians resolved to attempt the
venture.  During the night between the 16th and 17th of July, a small
detachment, well armed and well led, arrived beneath the walls of Padua,
which was rather carelessly guarded.  In the morning, as soon as the gate
was opened, a string of large wagons presented themselves for admittance.
Behind one of these, and partially concealed by its bulk, advanced six
Venetian men-at-arms, each carrying on his crupper a foot-soldier armed
with an arquebuse; they fired on the guard; each killed his man; the
Austrian garrison hurried up and fought bravely; but other Venetian
troops arrived, and the garrison was beaten and surrendered.  Padua
became Venetian again.  "This surprisal," says M. Darn, "caused
inexpressible joy in Venice; after so many disasters there was seen a
gleans of hope."  The Venetians hastened to provision Padua well and to
put it in a state of defence; and they at the same time published a
decree promising such subjects of the republic as should come back to its
sway complete indemnity for the losses they might have suffered during
the war.  It blazed forth again immediately, but at first between the
Venetians and the Emperor Maximilian almost alone by himself.  Louis
XII., in a hurry to get back to France, contented himself with leaving in
Lombardy a body of troops under the orders of James de Chabannes, Sire de
la Palisse, with orders "to take five hundred of the lustiest men-at-arms
and go into the service of the emperor, who was to make a descent upon
the district of Padua."  Maximilian did not make his descent until two
months after that the Venetians had retaken Padua and provisioned it
well; and it was only on the 15th of September that he sat down before
the place.  All the allies of the League of Cambrai held themselves bound
to furnish him with their contingent.  On sallying from Milan for this
campaign, La Palisse "fell in with the good knight Bayard, to whom he
said, 'My comrade, my friend, would you not like us to be comrades
together?'  Bayard, who asked nothing better, answered him graciously
that he was at his service to be disposed of at his pleasure;" and from
the 15th to the 20th of September, Maximilian got together before Padua
an army with a strength, it is said, of about fifty thousand men,
men-at-arms or infantry, Germans, Spaniards, French, and Italians, sent
by the pope and by the Duke of Ferrara, or recruited from all parts of
Italy.

At the first rumor of such a force there was great emotion in Venice, but
an emotion tempered by bravery and intelligence.  The doge, Leonardo
Loredano, the same who had but lately opposed the surprisal of Padua,
rose up and delivered in the senate a long speech, of which only the
essential and characteristic points can be quoted here:--

"Everybody knows, excellent gentlemen of the senate," said he, "that on
the preservation of Padua depends all hope, not only of recovering our
empire, but of maintaining our own liberty.  It must be confessed that,
great and wonderful as they have been, the preparations made and the
supplies provided hitherto are not sufficient either for the security of
that town or for the dignity of our republic.  Our ancient renown forbids
us to leave the public safety, the lives and honor of our wives and our
children, entirely to the tillers of our fields and to mercenary
soldiers, without rushing ourselves to shelter them behind our own
breasts and defend them with our own arms.  For so great and so glorious
a fatherland, which has for so many years been the bulwark of the faith
and the glory of the Christian republic, will the personal service of its
citizens and its sons be ever to seek?  To save it who would refuse to
risk his own life and that of his children?  If the defence of Padua is
the pledge for the salvation of Venice, who would hesitate to go and
defend it?  And, though the forces already there were sufficient, is not
our honor also concerned therein?  The fortune of our city so willed it
that in the space of a few days our empire slipped from our hands; the
opportunity has come back to us of recovering what we have lost; by
spontaneously facing the changes and chances of fate, we shall prove that
our disasters have not been our fault or our shame, but one of those
fatal storms which no wisdom and no firmness of man can resist.  If it
were permitted us all in one mass to set out for Padua, if we might,
without neglecting the defence of our own homes and our urgent public
affairs, leave our city for some days deserted, I would not await your
deliberation; I would be the first on the road to Padua; for how could I
better expend the last days of my old age than in going to be present at
and take part in such a victory?  But Venice may not be deserted by her
public bodies, which protect and defend Padua by their forethought and
their orders just as others do by their arms; and a useless mob of
graybeards would be a burden much more than a reenforcement there.  Nor
do I ask that Venice be drained of all her youth; but I advise, I exhort,
that we choose two hundred young gentlemen, from the chiefest of our
families, and that they all, with such friends and following as their
means will permit them to get together, go forth to Padua to do all that
shall be necessary for her defence.  My two sons, with many a comrade.
will be the first to carry out what I, their father and your chief, am
the first to propose.  Thus Padua will be placed in security; and when
the mercenary soldiers who are there see how prompt are our youth to
guard the gates and everywhere face the battle, they will be moved
thereby to zeal and alacrity incalculable; and not only will Padua thus
be defended and saved, but all nations will see that we, we too, as our
fathers were, are men enough to defend at the peril of our lives the
freedom and th  safety of the noblest country in the world."

This generous advice was accepted by the fathers and carried out by the
sons with that earnest, prompt, and effective ardor which accompanies the
resolution of great souls.  When the Paduans, before their city was as
yet invested, saw the arrival within their walls of these chosen youths
of the Venetian patriciate, with their numerous troop of friends and
followers, they considered Padua as good as saved; and when the imperial
army, posted before the place, commenced their attacks upon it, they soon
perceived that they had formidable defenders to deal with.  "Five hundred
years it was since in prince's camp had ever been seen such wealth as
there was there; and never was a day but there filed off some three or
four hundred lanzknechts who took away to Germany oxen and kine, beds,
corn, silk for sewing, and other articles; in such sort that to the said
country of Padua was damage done to the amount of two millions of crowns
in movables and in houses and palaces burnt and destroyed."  For three
days the imperial artillery fired upon the town and made in its walls
three breaches "knocked into one;" and still the defenders kept up their
resistance with the same vigor.  "One morning," says the Loyal Serviteur
of Bayard, "the Emperor Maximilian, accompanied by his princes and lords
from Germany, went thither to look; and he marvelled and thought it great
shame to him, with the number of men he had, that he had not sooner
delivered the assault.  On returning to his quarters he sent for a French
secretary of his, whom he bade write to the lord of La Palisse a letter,
whereof this was the substance: 'Dear cousin, I have this morning been to
look at the breach, which I find more than practicable for whoever would
do his duty.  I have made up my mind to deliver the assault to-day.  I
pray you, so soon as my big drum sounds, which will be about midday, that
you do incontinently hold ready all the French gentlemen who are under
your orders at my service, by command of my brother the King of France,
to go to the said assault along with my foot; and I hope that, with God's
help we shall carry it.'

"The lord of La Palisse," continues the chronicler, "thought this a
somewhat strange manner of proceeding; howbeit he hid his thought, and
said to the secretary, 'I am astounded that the emperor did not send for
my comrades and me for to deliberate more fully of this matter; howbeit
you will tell him that I will send to fetch them, and when they are come
I will show them the letter.  I do not think there will be many who will
not be obedient to that which the emperor shall be pleased to command.'

"When the French captains had arrived at the quarters of the lord of La
Palisse, he said to them, 'Gentlemen, we must now dine, for I have
somewhat to say to you, and if I were to say it first, peradventure you
would not make good cheer.'  During dinner they did nothing but make
sport one of another.  After dinner, everybody was sent out of the room,
save the captains, to whom the lord of La Palisse made known the
emperor's letter, which was read twice, for the better understanding of
it.  They all looked at one another, laughing, for to see who would speak
first.  Then said the lord of Ymbercourt to the lord of La Palisse, 'It
needs not so much thought, my lord; send word to the emperor that we are
all ready; I am even now a-weary of the fields, for the nights are cold;
and then the good wines are beginning to fail us;' whereat every one
burst out a-laughing.  All agreed to what was said by the lord of
Ymbercourt.  The lord of La Palisse looked at the good knight (Bayard),
and saw that he seemed to be picking his teeth, as if he had not heard
what his comrades had proposed.  'Well, and you,' said he, 'what say you
about it?  It is no time for picking one's teeth; we must at once send
speedy reply to the emperor.'  Gayly the good knight answered, 'If we
would all take my lord of Ymbercourt's word, we have only to go straight
to the breach.  But it is a somewhat sorry pastime for men-at-arms to go
afoot, and I would gladly be excused.  Howbeit, since I must give my
opinion, I will.  The emperor bids you, in his letter, set all the French
gentlemen afoot for to deliver the assault along with his lanzknechts.
My opinion is, that you, my lord, ought to send back to the emperor a
reply of this sort: that you have had a meeting of your captains, who are
quite determined to do his bidding, according to the charge they have
from the king their master; but that to mix them up with the foot, who
are of small estate, would be to make them of little account; the emperor
has loads of counts, lords, and gentlemen of Germany; let him set them
afoot along with the men-at-arms of France, who will gladly show them the
road; and then his lanzknechts will follow, if they know that it will
pay.'  When the good knight had thus spoken, his advice was found
virtuous and reasonable.  To the emperor was sent back this answer, which
he thought right honorable.  He incontinently had his trumpets sounded
and his drums beaten for to assemble all the princes, and lords, and
captains as well of Germany and Burgundy as of Hainault.  Then the
emperor declared to them that he was determined to go, within an hour,
and deliver the assault on the town, whereof he had notified the lords of
France, who were all most desirous of doing their duty therein right
well, and prayed him that along with them might go the gentlemen of
Germany, to whom they would gladly show the road: 'Wherefore, my lords,'
said the emperor, I pray you, as much as ever I can, to be pleased to
accompany them and set yourselves afoot with them; and I hope, with God's
help, that at the first assault we shall be masters of our enemies.'
When the emperor had done speaking, on a sudden there arose among his
Germans a very wondrous and strange uproar, which lasted half an hour
before it was appeased; and then one amongst them, bidden to answer for
all, said that they were not folks to be set afoot or so to go up to a
breach, and that their condition was to fight like gentlemen,
a-horseback.  Other answer the emperor could not get; but though it was
not according to his desire, and pleased him not at all, he uttered no
word beyond that he said, 'Good my lords, we must advise, then, how we
shall do for the best.'  Then, forthwith he sent for a gentleman of his
who from time to time went backwards and forwards as ambassador to the
French, and said to him, 'Go to the quarters of my cousin, the lord of La
Palisse; commend me to him and to all my lords the French captains you
find with him, and tell them that for to-day the assault will not be
delivered.' I know not," says the chronicler, "how it was nor who gave
the advice; but the night after this speech was spoken the emperor went
off, all in one stretch, more than forty miles from the camp, and from
his new quarters sent word to his people to have the siege raised; which
was done."

So Padua was saved, and Venice once more became a power.  Louis XII.,
having returned victorious to France, did not trouble himself much about
the check received in Italy by Emperor Maximilian, for whom he had no
love and but little esteem.  Maximilian was personally brave and free
from depravity or premeditated perfidy, but he was coarse, volatile,
inconsistent, and not very able.  Louis XII. had amongst his allies of
Cambrai and in Italy a more serious and more skilful foe, who was
preparing for him much greater embarrassments.

Julian Bella Rovera had, before his elevation to the pontifical throne,
but one object, which was, to mount it.  When he became pope, he had
three objects: to recover and extend the temporal possessions of the
papacy, to exercise to the full his spiritual power, and to drive the
foreigner from Italy.  He was not incapable of doubling and artifice.
In order to rise he had flattered Louis XII. and Cardinal d'Amboise with
the hope that the king's minister would become the head of Christendom.
When once he was himself in possession of this puissant title he showed
himself as he really was; ambitious, audacious, imperious, energetic,
stubborn, and combining the egotism of the absolute sovereign with the
patriotism of an Italian pope.  When the League of Cambrai had attained
success through the victory of Louis XII. over the Venetians, Cardinal
d'Amboise, in course of conversation with the two envoys from Florence at
the king's court, let them have an inkling "that he was not without
suspicion of some new design;" and when Louis XII. announced his
approaching departure for France, the two Florentines wrote to their
government that "this departure might have very evil results, for the
power of Emperor Maximilian in Italy, the position of Ferdinand the
Catholic, the despair of the Venetians, and the character and
dissatisfaction of the pope, seemed to foreshadow some fresh
understanding against the Most Christian king."  Louis XII. and his
minister were very confident.  "Take Spain, the king of the Romans, or
whom you please," said Cardinal d'Amboise to the two Florentines; "there
is none who has observed and kept the alliance more faithfully than the
king has; he has done everything at the moment he promised; he has borne
upon his shoulders the whole weight of this affair; and I tell you," he
added, with a fixed look at those whom he was addressing, "that his army
is a large one, which he will keep up and augment every day."  Louis, for
his part, treated the Florentines with great good-will, as friends on
whom he counted and who were concerned in his success.  "You have become
the first power in Italy," he said to then one day before a crowd of
people: "how are you addressed just now?  Are you Most Serene or Most
Illustrious?"  And when he was notified that distinguished Venetians were
going to meet Emperor Maximilian on his arrival in Italy, "No matter,"
said Louis; "let them go whither they will."  The Florentines did not the
less nourish their mistrustful presentiments; and one of Louis XII.'s
most intelligent advisers, his finance-minister Florimond Robertet, was
not slow to share them.  "The pope," said he to them one day [July 1,
1509], "is behaving very ill towards us; he seeks on every occasion to
sow enmity between the princes, especially between the emperor and the
Most Christian king;" and, some weeks later, whilst speaking of the
money-aids which the new King of England was sending, it was said, to
Emperor Maximilian, he said to the Florentine, Nasi, "It would be a very
serious business, if from all this were to result against us a universal
league, in which the pope, England, and Spain should join."
[_Negotiations Diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane,_ published by
M. Abel Desjardins, in the _Documents relatifs d l'Histoire de France,_
t.  ii.  pp.  331, 355, 367, 384, 389, 416.]

Next year (1510) the mistrust of the Florentine envoys was justified.
The Venetians sent a humble address to the pope, ceded to him the places
they but lately possessed in the Romagna, and conjured him to relieve
them from the excommunication he had pronounced against them.  Julius
II., after some little waiting, accorded the favor demanded of him.
Louis XII. committed the mistake of embroiling himself with the Swiss by
refusing to add twenty thousand livres to the pay of sixty thousand he
was giving them already, and by styling them "wretched mountain-
shepherds, who presumed to impose upon him a tax he was not disposed to
submit to."  The pope conferred the investiture of the kingdom of Naples
upon Ferdinand the Catholic, who at first promised only his neutrality,
but could not fail to be drawn in still farther when war was rekindled in
Italy.  In all these negotiations with the Venetians, the Swiss, the
Kings of Spain and England, and the Emperor Maximilian, Julius II. took a
bold initiative.  Maximilian alone remained for some time at peace with
the King of France.

In October, 1511, a league was formally concluded between the pope, the
Venetians, the Swiss, and King Ferdinand against Louis XII.  A place was
reserved in it for the King of England, Henry VIII., who, on ascending
the throne, had sent word to the King of France that "he desired to abide
in the same friendship that the king his father had kept up," but who, at
the bottom of his heart, burned to resume on the Continent an active and
a prominent part.  The coalition thus formed was called the League of
Holy Union.  "I," said Louis XII., "am the Saracen against whom this
league is directed."

He had just lost, a few months previously, the intimate and faithful
adviser and friend of his whole life: Cardinal George d'Amboise, seized
at Milan with a fit of the gout, during which Louis tended him with the
assiduity and care of an affectionate brother, died at Lyons on the 25th
of May, 1510, at fifty years of age.  He was one not of the greatest, but
of the most honest ministers who ever enjoyed a powerful monarch's
constant favor, and employed it we will not say with complete
disinterestedness, but with a predominant anxiety for the public weal.
In the matter of external policy the influence of Cardinal d'Amboise, was
neither skilfully nor salutarily exercised: he, like his master, indulged
in those views of distant, incoherent, and improvident conquests which
caused the reign of Louis XII. to be wasted in ceaseless wars, with which
the cardinal's desire of becoming pope was not altogether unconnected,
and which, after having resulted in nothing but reverses, were a heavy
heritage for the succeeding reign.  But at home, in his relations with
his king and in his civil and religious administration, Cardinal
d'Amboise was an earnest and effective friend of justice, of sound social
order, and of regard for morality in the practice of power.  It is said
that, in his latter days, he, virtuously weary of the dignities of this
world, said to the infirmary-brother who was attending him, "Ah! Brother
John, why did I not always remain Brother John!"  A pious regret the
sincerity and modesty whereof are rare amongst men of high estate.

[Illustration: Cardinal d'Amboise----347]

"At last, then, I am the only pope!" cried Julius II., when he heard that
Cardinal d'Amboise was dead.  But his joy was misplaced: the cardinal's
death was a great loss to him; between the king and the pope the cardinal
had been an intelligent mediator, who understood the two positions and
the two characters, and who, though most faithful and devoted to the
king, had nevertheless a place in his heart for the papacy also, and
labored earnestly on every occasion to bring about between the two rivals
a policy of moderation and peace.  "One thing you may be certain of,"
said Louis's finance-minister Robertet to the ambassador from Florence,
"that the king's character is not an easy one to deal with; he is not
readily brought round to what is not his own opinion, which is not always
a correct one; he is irritated against the pope; and the cardinal, to
whom that causes great displeasure, does not always succeed, in spite of
all influence, in getting him to do as he would like.  If our Lord God
were to remove the cardinal, either by death or in any other manner, from
public life, there would arise in this court and in the fashion of
conducting affairs such confusion that nothing equal to it would ever
have been seen in our day."  [_Negociations Diplomatiques de la France
avec la Toscane,_ t.  ii.  pp.  428 and 460.]  And the confusion did, in
fact, arise; and war was rekindled, or, to speak more correctly, resumed
its course after the cardinal's death.  Julius II.  plunged into it in
person, moving to every point where it was going on, living in the midst
of camps, himself in military costume, besieging towns, having his guns
pointed and assaults delivered under his own eyes.  Men expressed
astonishment, not unmixed with admiration, at the indomitable energy of
this soldier-pope at seventy years of age.  It was said that he had cast
into the Tiber the keys of St. Peter to gird on the sword of St. Paul.
His answer to everything was, "The barbarians must be driven from Italy."
Louis XII. became more and more irritated and undecided.  "To reassure
his people," says Bossuet (to which we may add, 'and to reassure
himself'), "he assembled at Tours (in September, 1510), the prelates of
his kingdom, to consult them as to what he could do at so disagreeable a
crisis without wounding his conscience.  Thereupon it was said that the
pope, being unjustly the aggressor, and having even violated an agreement
made with the king, ought to be treated as an enemy, and that the king
might not only defend himself, but might even attack him without fear of
excommunication.  Not considering this quite strong enough yet, Louis
resolved to assemble a council against the pope.  The general council was
the desire of the whole church since the election of Martin V. at the
council of Constance (November 11, 1417); for, though that council had
done great good by putting an end to the schism which had lasted for
forty years, it had not accomplished what it had projected, which was a
reformation of the Church in its head and in its members; but, for the
doing of so holy a work, it had ordained, on separating, that there
should be held a fresh council.  .  .  .  This one was opened at Pisa
(November 1, 1511) with but little solemnity by the proxies of the
cardinals who had caused its convocation.  The pope had deposed them, and
had placed under interdict the town of Pisa, where the council was to be
held, and even Florence, because the Florentines had granted Pisa for the
assemblage.  Thereupon the religious brotherhoods were unwilling to put
in an appearance at the opening of the council, and the priests of the
Church refused the necessary paraphernalia.  The people rose, and the
cardinals, having arrived, did not consider their position safe; insomuch
that after the first session they removed the council to Milan, where
they met with no better reception.  Gaston de Foix, nephew of Louis XII.,
who had just appointed him governor of Milaness, could certainly force
the clergy to proceed and the people to be quiet, but he could not force
them to have for the council the respect due to so great a name; there
were not seen at it, according to usage, the legates of the Holy See;
there were scarcely fifteen or sixteen French prelates there; the Emperor
Maximilian had either not influence enough or no inclination to send to
it a single one from Germany; and, in a word, there was not to be seen in
this assembly anything that savored of the majesty of a general council,
and it was understood to be held for political purposes."  [Bossuet,
_Abrege de l'Histoire de France pour l'Education du dauphin_; _OEuvres
completes_ (1828), t.  xvii.  pp.  541, 545.] Bossuet had good grounds
for speaking so.  Louis XII. himself said, in 1511, to the ambassador of
Spain, that "this pretended council was only a scarecrow which he had no
idea of employing save for the purpose of bringing the pope to reason."
Amidst these vain attempts at ecclesiastical influence the war was
continued with passionateness on the part of Julius II., with hesitation
on the part of Louis XII., and with some disquietude on the part of the
French commanders, although with their wonted bravery and loyalty.
Chaumont d'Amboise, the cardinal's nephew, held the command-in-chief in
the king's army.  He fell ill: the pope had excommunicated him; and
Chaumont sent to beg him, with instance, to give him absolution, which
did not arrive until he was on his death-bed.  "This is the worst," says
Bossuet, "of wars against the Church; they cause scruples not only in
weak minds, but even, at certain moments, in the very strongest."
Alphonso d' Este, Duke of Ferrara, was almost the only great Italian lord
who remained faithful to France.  Julius II., who was besieging Ferrara,
tried to win over the duke, who rejected all his offers, and, instead,
won over the negotiator, who offered his services to poison the pope.
Bayard, when informed of this proposal, indignantly declared that he
would go and have the traitor hanged, and warning sent to the pope.
"Why," said the duke, "he would have been very glad to do as much for you
and me."  "That is no odds to me," said the knight; "he is God's
lieutenant on earth, and, as for having him put to death in such sort, I
will never consent to it."  The duke shrugged his shoulders, and spitting
on the ground, said,  'Od's body, Sir Bayard, I would like to get rid of
all my enemies in that way; but, since you do not think it well, the
matter shall stand over; whereof, unless God apply a remedy, both you and
I will repent us."  Assuredly Bayard did not repent of his honest
indignation; but, finding about the same time (January, 1511) an
opportunity of surprising and carrying off the pope, he did not care to
miss it; he placed himself in ambush before day-break, with a hundred
picked men-at-arms, close to a village from which the pope was to issue.
"The pope, who was pretty early, mounted his litter, so soon as he saw
the dawn, and the clerics and officers of all kinds went before without a
thought of anything.  When the good knight heard them he sallied forth
from his ambush, and went charging down upon the rustics, who, sore
dismayed, turned back again, pricking along with loosened rein and
shouting, Alarm! alarm!  But all that would have been of no use but for
an accident very lucky for the holy father, and very unfortunate for the
good knight.  When the pope had mounted his litter, he was not a stone's
throw gone when there fell from heaven the most sharp and violent shower
that had been seen for a hundred years.  'Holy father,' said the Cardinal
of Pavia to the pope, 'it is not possible to go along this country so
long as this lasts; meseems you must turn back again; 'to which the pope
agreed; but, just as he was arriving at St. Felix, and was barely
entering within the castle, he heard the shouts of the fugitives whom the
good knight was pursuing as hard as he could spur; whereupon he had such
a fright, that, suddenly and without help, he leaped out of his litter,