house of Amboise, with six-score men-at-arms, and five hundred archers, newly sent him by sea out of France. I wondered that a prince of his age should not have one minister of state about him that durst be plain with him, and tell him the dangers to which he exposed his person; but indeed he put no confidence in what I said. We had a few forces at sea, which came from Naples, under the command of Monsieur de Miolans, Governor of Dauphiny, and one Stephen de Neves, of Montpelier; they were in all about eight galleys, and were arrived at Spezzia and Rapalo, where they were defeated at the time I speak of, and in the same place where our men had beaten King Alphonso’s forces in the beginning of this expedition, and by the same party who had been on our side at that battle (that is to say, Signor John Lewis di Fieschi, and Signor John Adorno); and everything was changed in Genoa. It had been better management to have had them on the king’s side, though that would have been little enough. Monsieur de Bresse and the Cardinal advanced into the suburbs of Genoa, expecting their party in the town would rise in their favour; but the Duke of Milan had taken care to prevent any insurrection; and the Adorni and Signor John Lewis di Fieschi had given such orders about the affair that our forces were in great danger of being handled as they had been at sea, considering the smallness of their numbers; nor did anything prevent it but the fear the prevailing party in Genoa had, that if they sallied out of the town, the Fregosi would rise up in arms and shut the gates upon them; however, our men met with difficulty enough before they got to Asti; and they were not at the battle, where they might have been more serviceable and better employed.