The man who acted thus was not likely to be without enemies; all the greedy, who were disappointed of thrusting their hands into the public purse, and all the wasteful and corrupt, to whom his example was a stinging rebuke, would of course abhor him. But Semblançai might have set their malice at defiance, had they not found an invincible ally in a female, whose venomous hatred was rendered fatal to him by her unbounded influence. This powerful female was Louisa of Savoy, duchess of Angoulême, the mother of Francis the First. She was beautiful in person, a doating mother, and endowed with many intellectual qualities of a superior class; but she was immeasurably ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious. Such was her avidity for riches, and such her success in gratifying it, that, at the time of her death, her coffers contained no less than a million and a half of golden crowns—an enormous, not to say disgraceful hoard, especially when we consider what was the value of the sum at that period. In two instances, her criminal passions were the cause of shame and misfortune to France. Of the first of these we are about to speak; the second was her persecution of the Constable de Bourbon—a base and disastrous measure, which was prompted either by resentment for his rejection of her love, or by her eagerness to seize upon his ample domains, or, perhaps, by a combination of both these unworthy motives. The regard which was manifested for Semblançai by Francis was, at one period, equally felt by the duchess of Angoulême. There exists, under her hand, the strongest testimony to the rectitude of the superintendant, and of the generous sacrifices which he made, to provide for the wants of the state. It was not till the necessity of vindicating his own character compelled him to criminate her, that she became his enemy. Jealous of the influence possessed by the countess of Chateaubriant, the mistress of Francis, whose brother, Lautrec, was then governor of the Milanese and commander of the French army in that province, the duchess appears to have formed the plan of aiming a deadly blow at the sister through the side of the brother. If, by disabling him from defending the Milanese, she could bring Lautrec into disgrace, it was not improbable that the disgusted and indignant monarch, who set a high value on his Italian conquest, would extend his anger to the countess. The means which she adopted for bringing her scheme to bear, had also an additional and not trivial merit in her eyes; that of contributing to swell the mass of treasure which she had already accumulated. In the first part of her project, she completely succeeded. Deprived of the pecuniary resources which he had expected from France, and which were the more needful, as the harshness of his government had rendered him unpopular in Italy, Lautrec was defeated at the battle of the Bicocco, was deserted by his Swiss auxiliaries, and at length was driven from the duchy of Milan.