The body of the duke of Nemours arrived at Milan the 26th of April, in the year 1412, preceded by all the prisoners taken at the battle of Ravenna. The banners, guidons, and standards the French had so valiantly conquered, as well from the Italians as from the Venetians and Spaniards, and of the different lords who had fallen in this battle, were borne before him, which added joy intermixed with grief at this mournful interment. Great order was observed in the procession,--and it was a triumphantly melancholy spectacle. The nobles and captains were in deep mourning,--and there was no heart so hard not to weep on seeing his body thus carried untimely to the grave. His pages and attendants led his horses of parade and for war: his helmet and victorious sword, as lieutenant general for the king, were borne before the body. In short, those of his army who attended the funeral were loud in their lamentations; for they had always found him liberal and courteous, and never sparing of his own personal efforts in war. The principal inhabitants and churchmen of Milan came out to meet the body, dressed in mourning cloaks and hoods, with a blaze of lighted torches, on which were the arms of the deceased emblazoned. The body, surrounded by two hundred of the choicest lances in the army and a numerous escort of infantry, was conducted, with great pomp of grief, to the cathedral, where a most solemn service was performed for the repose of his soul. Think how great must have been the sorrow of the king and queen, when they heard of this sad event at Blois, for they loved him as if he had been their own child; and I can assert for truth, that those who had never seen him bewailed his loss, on the reports they had heard of his uncommon virtues and gallantry. May God receive his soul! FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 44: Duke du Traict. Q. Utrecht?] CHAP. XXVII. ON THE DEPARTURE OF THE FRENCH FROM ITALY, THE SWISS TAKE THE TOWN OF MILAN AND OTHER PLACES HELD BY THE KING OF FRANCE. After this battle of Ravenna, where, as well as in the preceding ones, great quantities of human blood were shed, principally of the Italians and their allies,--but also of the French, and of some of the noblest families, by which many ladies and damsels in France became widows and orphans. The generals, or at least those who had the management of the finances for the army, imagined that, by the happy event of this battle, all Italy was subdued, as far as Rome, if not farther, and disbanded great bodies of infantry at the very time when they should have sought reinforcements, to garrison the towns and castles that had been lately conquered.