When this conduct was noticed by certain bloodsuckers and turbulent spirits, they collected troops in divers parts, to endeavour to regain honour by attacking the French; for, seeing them dispersed in their garrisons, they were aware that courage, when disunited, is not so much to be dreaded as when in a collective body. The holy father the pope, smarting from the losses he had suffered from the French, three times excited the Swiss-cantons to rise in arms against them, for they had of late been neglected by the king of France. They chiefly depend, for their maintenance, on pensions from kings and princes,--and the pope having made the bishop of Sion a cardinal, he was an active and able tool, by his public preachings and intrigues, to prevail on them to comply with the wishes of his holiness. Maximilian also, having turned his coat, was to allow them an entrance to Italy through his territories of the Veronese and elsewhere. The Spaniards likewise assembled from various parts of Italy; and they all advanced toward Milan, whence the government had been withdrawn to France, so that the poor Milanese were in despair, and knew not how to act. However, the French having left them, they, as usual, fell in with the strongest, and the enemy was admitted into the town. The castle was held by the French, under the command of the lord de Louvain; and other castles were also in their possession: that of Brescia was held by the lord d'Aubigny. When the French were returning from Italy, a sharp skirmish took place at a bridge near to Pavia, between a small body of french adventurers and the enemy, and they were inhumanly treated by the townsmen. Among others of their villanous acts, I shall mention one. A Frenchman, unable to keep up with the rest, was met by an inhabitant of Pavia, who said to him, 'My friend, I love the french nation: come, I beg of you, to my house, and I will save you from being killed.' The poor adventurer, confiding in his fair words, followed him; but he was no sooner within his doors than he treated him most brutally, cut off his private parts, and thrust him into the street in his shirt, bawling aloud, 'Here is another Frenchman!' on which numbers rushed out of their doors, and hacked him to pieces with their swords. There was another inhabitant of Pavia who had even devoured the heart of a Frenchman, by way of revenge.