The king sent with the Cardinal of St. Peter ad Vincula to Ostia, Peron de Basche, the steward of his household, who three days before had brought the king twenty thousand ducats by sea, which was part of the money lent him by the Duke of Milan. This Peron de Basche landed at Piombino, and left the fleet (which was but small) under the command of the Prince of Salerno, and the Baron of Sernon[317] in Provence; but being overtaken suddenly by a storm, their ship was much shattered, and driven upon the coast of Sardinia, where they lay a long time without doing us any service till they could be repaired, though they cost us a vast expense, and came not to us till the king was in Naples. There were with the Cardinal at Ostia about five hundred men-at-arms, and two thousand Swiss under the command of the Count de Ligny[318] (the king’s cousin-german by his mother’s side), the Lord of Allegre[319], and others. Their design was to have passed the Tiber, and enclosed Don Ferrand in Rome, by the favour and assistance of the Colonne, of whom the chief were Prospero and Fabritio Colonna, and the Cardinal Colonna[320], who had two thousand foot under their command, to pay whom the king remitted money by Peron de Basche, though they had raised and mustered them at their own pleasure at Sansonna[321], a town belonging to them. We must here observe that several affairs are coincident in this place, and of every one of them something must be said. Before the king had made his entrance into Viterbo, he had sent the Lord de la Tremouille[322], his chamberlain, the President of Gannay[323], who had the seal, and Monsieur Bidaut[324], to Rome, to treat with the Pope, who was never without some underhand practices, according to the mode of the Italians. While they were at Rome, the Pope in the night received Don Ferrand and his whole army into the town, so that our people were seized for a short time, but dismissed the same day by the Pope; only the Cardinal Ascanio, vice-chancellor and brother to the Duke of Milan, and Prospero Colonna, were detained (some say by their own consent). I had news of all this immediately, by letters from the king, and the Signory of Venice had a more ample account of it from their agents; and it happened before the king got into Viterbo, for he never stayed above two days in any place, and all things succeeded better for our interest than we could have expected or hoped, and no wonder, for God’s providence appeared so visibly for our assistance, that nobody could deny it.