That night we had two great alarms, and all through our own negligence, in not having taken the same precautions to secure ourselves against the incursions of the Estradiots, as we used to do against the light horse; for twenty of our men-at-arms, with their archers, would easily have stopped two hundred of them; but they were new to us then. We had great rains that night also, and such claps of thunder and lightning, as if heaven and earth were coming together, or that this was an omen of some impending mischief. But we were at the foot of great mountains, in a hot country, and in the height of the summer, so that the thing was natural enough; however, it was very terrible, and our consternation was increased by our enemies being so numerous before us, and our having no possibility to pass without fighting them, which must be done to our great disadvantage; for our army was but small, not amounting to above nine thousand men in the whole; and of these, I believe, two thousand were servants, and such as followed the camp, without reckoning pages and footmen belonging to the officers. CH. X.—The Arrangement of the two Armies for the Battle of Fornovo.—1495. On Monday morning, the 6th of July, in the year 1495, by seven o’clock, the noble king mounted on horseback, and called for me several times: I came to him, and found him completely armed, and mounted upon the best horse I ever saw in my life. The horse was called Savoy, of the Bressian breed, and had been given him, according to common report, by Charles, Duke of Savoy. It was a black horse, with but one eye, of no extraordinary stature, but tall enough for him that was to ride him. This young prince seemed that day quite another person than what one would take him to have been by his nature, proportion, and complexion. He was exceeding bashful, especially in speaking, and is so to this day; and no wonder, for he had been brought up in great awe, and in the company of inferior people; but now, being mounted on his horse, his eyes sparkled with fire, his complexion was fresh and lively, and all his words showed wisdom and discretion,—so that I could not but believe the predictions of Friar Jerome (and I thought of them at that time) when he told me that God would conduct him, as it were, by the hand, and that he should meet with some difficulties in his return to his own dominions, but that he should overcome them all, and gain immortal honour by it. The king told me that if those people wished to treat, I might go treat with them; and the Cardinal being by, he nominated him to go along with me, and also the Marshal de Gié, who at that time was in a violent passion, occasioned by a dispute between the Counts of Narbonne and Guise, both of whom pretended to the command of the van that day. I replied, “Sire, I shall observe your commands; but I never saw two great armies so near without fighting before they parted.”