thirty and the shortest not less than five foot six. Still, this was his
last chance, and he did not reject it at once, but tried to modify it so
that it might help him in his straits. His plan was to disguise himself
as a Franciscan monk, so that mounted on a shabby horse he might pass
for their chaplain; the others, Galeazzo di San Severing, who commanded
under him, and his two brothers, were all tall men, so, adopting the
dress of common soldiers, they hoped they might escape detection in the
Swiss ranks.
Scarcely were these plans settled when the duke heard that the
capitulation was signed between Trivulce and the Swiss, who had made no
stipulation in favour of him and his generals. They were to go over the
next day with arms and baggage right into the French army; so the last
hope of the wretched Ludovico and his generals must needs be in their
disguise. And so it was. San Severino and his brothers took their place
in the ranks of the infantry, and Sforza took his among the baggage,
clad in a monk’s frock, with the hood pulled over his eyes.
The army marched off; but the Swiss, who had first trafficked in their
blood, now trafficked in their honour. The French were warned of the
disguise of Sforza and his generals, and thus they were all four
recognised, and Sforza was arrested by Trimouille himself. It is said
that the price paid for this treason was the town of Bellinzona; for it
then belonged to the French, and when the Swiss returned to their
mountains and took possession of it, Louis XII took no steps to get it
back again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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