betwixt his master and mine. I was twice invited to this feast, but desired to be excused; yet I stayed nearly a month after in the town, and was all the while as civilly entertained as before the publication of this alliance. At length I was recalled; and, having had an audience of leave, they gave me a passport, and conducted me safely to Ferrara at their own expense. The Duke of Ferrara came in person to meet me, and entertained me two days very handsomely at his own charge. The same civility I received at Bologna from Prince John Bentivoglio; and, being sent for to Florence, I continued there in expectation of my master’s coming, with the relation of whose affairs I shall now proceed. BOOK THE EIGHTH. CH. I.—Of the Order in which the King left his Affairs in the Kingdom of Naples upon his Return into France.—1495. To continue my Memoirs, and for your better information, we must return to our discourse of the king, who, from his first arrival at Naples to his departure, minded nothing but his pleasures, and his ministers attended to nothing but their own advantage. His youth might excuse him in some measure; but nothing could excuse them, for the king referred all to their management; and if they only had had the discretion to advise him to put strong garrisons into three or four of the chief castles, such as that of Gaeta; nay, if he had only garrisoned the castle of Naples (whose magazines and furniture had been given away and embezzled, as you have heard), the kingdom of Naples had been his at this day; for, if he had been master of that castle, the town would never have revolted. Upon the conclusion of this Italian alliance, he assembled all his forces together, and ordered 500 French men-at-arms, 2,500 Swiss, and some French foot to remain to guard the kingdom; and with the rest he resolved to march back into France by the same way he came; while the confederates were determined to stop him. The King of Spain had sent, and was still sending, his caravels[388] into Sicily, though with but few men on board them. However, before our king’s departure they had garrisoned Rheggio in Calabria, which is near to Sicily. I had often acquainted my master with their designs of sending supplies thither, for the ambassador of Naples had told me so, supposing they had got there already; and if the king had sent any forces thither in time, he would certainly have taken the castle; and the town had declared for him before. For want of our sending thither, the enemy landed, forces at Mantia and Tropea. The townsmen of Otranto in Apulia had set up our king’s colours; but, being informed of the new alliance, and considering how near neighbours they were both to Brindisi and Gallipoli, and how difficult it would be to furnish themselves with troops, they pulled them down again, and erected the standard of Arragon; and Don Frederic, who was at Brindisi, supplied them with a garrison. There was a universal change in the minds of the people