The captain would have carried him a prisoner to Venice,--but the seneschal of Beaucaire, the lord de Montoison, and the chief justice of Provence, who had gone thither to receive the cardinal, prevented it. The Venetians also, knowing that the cardinal was an enemy to the king, that he had been taken on the king's territories near Piacenza, and wishing likewise to be on good terms with France, had the cardinal delivered into the hands of the before-named persons. The inhabitants of Milan, on their duke and his brother the cardinal being made prisoners, opened a negotiation, for the surrender of their town, with the cardinal of Amboise, lieutenant for the king. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 18: Soucin Bienson. Q.] CHAP. XII. THE INHABITANTS OF MILAN ARE BRIBED INTO SUBJECTION. On the 17th of April, which was Good Friday, in this same year, the inhabitants of Milan, acknowledging the great crimes they had committed against the king of France, their duke, most humbly besought the reverend father in God the lord George d'Amboise, cardinal-priest of the apostolical see, lieutenant-general for the said king, that he would be pleased (after having granted some small sums for their relief, to assist them in paying their fine, and also to save them from the pillage and destruction which the army was ready to inflict on them) to come to the duke's palace in the city of Milan to receive their submissions, which they were determined to make publicly in acknowledgment of their misconduct, and to entreat the clemency of the king, on payment of such a fine as their means would admit of. This reverend cardinal acceded to their request, and came to the palace called La Court-vieille, whither arrived in procession all the nobles, burghers, tradesmen and inhabitants, preceded by little children dressed in white linen, and bareheaded, having a large crucifix, and the great banner of our Lady, borne before them. The lord-cardinal being seated on the throne prepared for him in the great court of this palace, and surrounded by many of the king's counsellors and captains, master Michael Touse, doctor of laws, and town-advocate, ascended a rostrum that had been there erected, and made the following harangue: 'Unworthy as I am to ascend this rostrum, my most reverend and most illustrious lord-cardinal, I am very anxious to have it remembered, and thus publicly to express the complete submission and devotion my countrymen, the people of Milan, as well as myself, feel toward our sovereign lord and duke, the most Christian king of France; and although I know my own incapacity to express their wishes, notwithstanding my earnest desire so to do, yet, as a good citizen, I could not refuse their requests to undertake it,--and I will accomplish it to the best of my abilities.