You must know that the king had placed his greatest strength in his van; for in it there were about three hundred and fifty men-at-arms, three thousand Swiss (the hopes of the whole army[420]), three hundred archers, and some of the two hundred mounted cross-bow men of his own guard (which was a great loss to him, as he ordered them to fight on foot). Besides these we had very few foot; but what we had were distributed among them. There fought on foot among the Swiss the Lord Englebert of Cleves[421], brother to the Duke of Cleves, the Lord of Lornay[422], and the bailiff of Dijon, who commanded them; and the artillery was placed in their front. The forces that had been left in the territories of Florence, and those which had been sent to Genoa against the judgment of all people, would have been of very great service to us on this occasion. Our vanguard had by this time marched on as far as the enemy’s camp, and everybody expected they would have attacked us; but our two other bodies were neither so near each other, nor so well ordered as on the day before; and because the Marquis of Mantua (who had already passed the river, and entered the plain) was within a quarter of a league of our rear ready to attack them, but marching slowly on, and in such close order, that it was a very fine sight to behold, the king was forced to turn his back upon his own vanguard, and face about to his enemies at the rear. I was at that time with the Cardinal, awaiting an answer; but I told him it was no time to trifle any longer, and so I passed by the Swiss squadron and went to find out the king. In my passage I lost a page (who was my cousin-german), a valet-de-chambre, and a foot-boy, who followed me at a little distance; and I did not see when they were slain.