day I set out from Venice they ordered one of their proveditors who was employed against us to inform me, at Padua, that their army should not pass a river near Parma (which, if I mistake not, is called the Oglio), unless his majesty invaded the Duke of Milan; and the said proveditor and I took private tokens and directions how we might correspond with each other, if there should be any occasion, to make a treaty of peace; for I was unwilling to refuse any overture of that nature, because I knew not how my master’s affairs might succeed. There was present at our conference one Monsieur Lewis Marcel, who (as a kind of treasurer) had that year the command of the Mots Viere[398], and had been sent by them to escort me. There were besides in the company some of the Marquis of Mantua’s servants, who were carrying him money; but they were at a distance, and heard nothing of our discourse. From these or others I procured for the king a list of the confederate army, their horse, foot, and Stradiots, and the chief officers that commanded them all; but few about the king believed what I told him. After the king had halted two days at Siena to refresh his troops, I earnestly pressed his majesty to march onward, for the enemy were not yet together, and I feared nothing till the Germans came up; for the King of the Romans was busily raising both men and money. But, notwithstanding all I said to the contrary, the king would have two things first solemnly debated in council, which took up but a little time: one was, whether he should restore all the Florentine towns, and receive thirty thousand ducats (which was an arrear of a former gift), and seventy thousand more which they offered to lend him, besides a reinforcement of three hundred men-at-arms (under the command of Francisco Secco, an experienced and brave commander, and one in whom the king put great confidence), and two thousand foot, to secure his passage into his own kingdom. It was my opinion (and several others agreed with me) that the king should restore all but Leghorn, which he should keep till he had reached Asti. If he had followed our advice, he would have been able to have paid his army, and have had enough to have bribed the enemy, and then he might have fought them as he pleased; but we could not get a hearing; Monsieur de Ligny prevented it (who was a young gentleman, and cousin-german to the king); but he scarce knew why he did so, unless it were in compassion to the Pisans. The other point to be debated was set on foot by Monsieur de Ligny himself, and proposed in council by one Gaucher de Tinteville[399], and by a party in Siena who wished to have Monsieur de Ligny for their governor; for that town is always divided into factions, and is governed the worst of any in Italy. My judgment was demanded first, and I answered that I thought it would be better for the king to march forward than to amuse himself with things of so little importance, which could not be