In the fifteenth century wars the loss of life was slight--notwithstanding the blood-curdling accounts of contemporary chroniclers. The defensive armour was so massive that it was difficult to kill a man, although it was comparatively easy to unhorse him. War is a trade--in spite of the efforts of the advocates of brute force to glorify it. Wars were usually brought about then by adventurers bent on gain, as they are now, by the so-called captains of industry--who control all civilised Governments--for the extension of commerce, but always, of course, in the sacred name of patriotism, which Dr. Johnson described as “the last refuge of a scoundrel.” The leaders and the men in their pay fought for any state which hired them, and they might at any time change employers. The famous Italian captains played the game of war with great profit to themselves and no little skill. While the French troops were overrunning the Patrimonium Petri a body of their cavalry under Monsignor Yves d’Allegre captured Madonna Adriana Orsini, Giulia Bella, the Pope’s mistress, and her sister Girolama, and great was the consternation of his Holiness; his anxiety to secure the return of the ladies set all Italy to laughing and gave the sonneteers an opportunity to display their wit, of which they were not slow to avail themselves. The captain who made the precious capture wanted to hold them for a vast ransom, “because the Holy Father would give his very eyes to have them back”; but Charles surrendered them for a comparatively insignificant sum, doubtless not valuing them as highly as did Christ’s Vicar. The Neapolitan troops retreated before Charles, who entered Rome the last day of the year 1494; and Burchard describes in detail the manner of his reception and how the populace greeted him with shouts of “Francia, Francia! Colonna, Colonna! Vincola, Vincola!” Evidently they preferred France, Colonna, and Della Rovere to Borgia. All the great prelates then in Rome promptly paid their respects to the King, the youthful Cardinal of Valencia among the number. While the French were in the city they committed all sorts of outrages, robberies, and murders. It was at this time that Vannozza’s house was plundered, and on January 10, 1495, the Pope for his greater security removed to the Castle of St. Angelo, accompanied by several cardinals, including Valencia. The following day the Holy Father and Philibert De Bressa, Charles’s representative, concluded an agreement by which the Pope was to crown the French monarch King of Naples and was to abstain from harming the cardinals Della Rovere, Gurk, Savelli, and Colonna. It was also arranged that the Pope’s son Caesar should accompany the King of France as his hostage.