The affairs of the League were far from promising. Ferdinand, caring little to send his troops through a hostile state in search of distant and unprofitable laurels, preferred carrying on a little war of his own against the Pope in the Pontine marshes to marching upon Lombardy. The Tuscans, ever averse to battle-fields, employed their stipendiaries, under Costanzo Sforza, in guarding the Umbrian principalities. The brunt of the war thus fell upon the Lords of Milan and Mantua; and the Duke of Urbino, ill satisfied with their exertions, took boat soon after the date of this despatch, and proceeded in person to urge further exertions upon them both. Sanzi, somewhat inconsistently, selects this visit of urgency to pause upon his raptures with the works of art he saw at Mantua, introducing an episodical criticism, and a catalogue of the best painters and sculptors of Italy, which will be afterwards noticed.[197] On the 20th of May he returned, bringing with him their contingents to La Stellata, where the League lay almost inactive during the siege of Ficheruolo on the opposite bank of the Po, their offensive operations being confined to a pretty constant and galling discharge of long swivels across the river into the Venetian camp, which they also submerged by cutting the banks of the Mincio. This irksome aggression was answered by a message from Sanseverino that he would presently return fire for their water, and by sending to Federigo a fox in a cage, as a hint that, with all his cunning, he too might be entrapped; a paltry taunt, which provoked only a smile from the veteran. No warfare could be more irksome and inglorious; but Federigo, regarding Ferrara as Italy's best bulwark against the ambitious maritime Republic, resolved to defend it at any sacrifice. Ficheruolo held out until the end of June, by which time the marsh fever had become more fatal than human weapons, and mowed down both armies. The Venetian proveditore or commissioner was among its earliest victims; but, as the summer heats increased, the epidemic spread with augmented virulence, until 20,000 men are said to have perished in this miserable contest. Passing over the sad details, we may borrow from Sanuto an absurd incident which varied these horrors. In order to divert the people from their misfortunes, and to inspire them with courage, their sovereign had devolved extensive powers upon a commission or council of sixteen "sages," and the Duchess sent for a wandering friar, whose eloquence and sanctity were in high repute, to preach in the cathedral. One of his orations was wound up by an offer to provide an armada of twelve galleons, which should disperse the Venetian force before Ficheruolo. On the appointed day he produced a dozen of pennons, each surmounted by a cross, along with figures of Christ, the Madonna, and forty saints; and with these he formed a procession, marching at its head, and followed by a concourse of fanatics to the river's brink, opposite the leaguer.