and the main body thirty miles behind the vanguard, with high and steep rocks all around, where such great cannon had never been seen till then; for those with which Duke Galeas had passed that way were but four falconets, which perhaps weighed five hundred pounds a-piece, and yet the people regarded them with infinite wonder. CH. VI.—How the Duke of Orleans behaved himself in the City of Novara.—1495. But to return now to the Duke of Orleans. As soon as he had taken the Castle of Novara, he lay still for some days, and then marched to Vigevano. Two little towns[411] hard by sent to him and offered to receive his troops; but he wisely refused the overtures they made him. The citizens of Pavia sent twice to him likewise, and certainly he was mightily to blame in refusing their offer. However, he drew up in battle array before the town of Vigevano, where the Duke of Milan’s whole army was encamped, and commanded by the sons of Galeas St. Severino, whom I have so often mentioned before. The town is worth nothing, not a jot better than St. Martin de Cande.[412] I came thither not long after the Duke of Milan had been there, and the chief officers who were there showed me the places where their armies had been drawn up, both within and without the town; and if the Duke of Orleans had advanced but a hundred paces farther, the enemy must have retreated over the river Tesino, where they had made a large bridge of boats, and were drawn up on the bank; and I saw them demolish an earthwork which they had made on the other side to secure their retreat; for they had resolved to quit both the town and the castle, which would have been a great disadvantage to them. This is the place where the Duke of Milan generally resides, and indeed it is the best seat for hunting and hawking, and all kinds of sports, that I ever yet saw. But perhaps the Duke of Orleans thought the town stronger than it really was, and that he had done enough already, without attempting anything farther; and therefore he marched off to a place called Trecate, the lord of which place had a conference with me not long after, and had something in charge from the Duke of Milan. To this town of Trecate the chief citizens of Milan sent to invite the Duke thither, and tempt him into their town, offering their children as hostages; and they could easily have put him into possession of it, as I have been credibly informed since by persons of great authority who were there at that time; for the Duke of Milan would not have found men enough to have defended the castle, and the nobility and commons both desired the destruction of the house of Sforza. The Duke of Orleans also, and his men, have told me the same, but they durst not trust the citizens; and they wanted a person that understood them and their ways better than they did; besides, his great officers were not all of the same opinion in relation to that affair.