History has not yet given a satisfactory account of the motives which led Doria, hitherto a violent enemy of Cæsar, to desert the standard of France and offer his sword to Spain. It was a desertion fruitful of numberless misfortunes as we shall show in the progress of this work. It is certain that this change contributed more largely than anything else to alter the fortunes of Italy, and to reduce her to slavery under the empire. It induced both peoples and princes to submit to the Spanish power, Luigi Alamanni, seduced by the influence of Andrea, adopted that policy, though he was one of the warmest friends of liberty, and he attempted to persuade the Florentines to ally themselves with Cæsar. The unfortunate patriot suffered for his delusion. The people hearing the rumour that he advocated such opinions compelled him to seek personal safety in exile from Florence. Returning to the question, we mention first the reasons put forward by the historians for the justification of Doria. They tell us that France had not paid him according to her promises; that Frances I. took away from him the prince of Orange whom Doria had captured, thus defrauding the Admiral of the twenty thousand ducats of ransom; that the king sought to get possession of the marquises Vasto and Colonna with a like motive; that this monarch granted favours in prejudice of Genoese rights to rebellious Savona; and that a rumour ran of the king’s having given this city in feud to Montmorency. However, Doria was blamed (according to the testimony of Varchi,) by the greater part of the Italians, and many accused him of desertion and treason. They said that his conduct was not dictated by his resentment at the liberty of Savona, or the slavery of Genoa, which he himself enslaved, but rather by his boundless appetite for wealth and honours. Some affirm that Giovanni Battista Lasagna, whom Doria had sent to Paris to treat for the recovery of Savona, informed him that the king’s council had determined to deprive him, not only of his prisoners, but also of his own life, and that this information led him to enlist under Cæsar. Others, on the contrary, say that the king of France having heard that Doria intended to abandon his service, sent to him Pierfrancesco di Noceto, Count of Pontremoli and his esquire, to dissuade him from that design and to promise payment of the ransom of Orange and other prisoners as well as the Admiral’s personal salary. It is difficult to arrive at the truth when testimony is so conflicting. One fact only is unquestioned: that before the last day of the month of June, the period at which his contract with France would expire, he mounted his galley and repaired to Lerici.