were sold; the Genoese bought Sarzana and Sarzanello, and they were sold by the Bastard of St. Paul.[468] Monsieur Entragues sold Pietrasanta to the citizens of Lucca[469], and Librefatta to the Venetians, to the great dishonour of the king and his subjects, and to the detriment and I may say destruction of the kingdom of Naples. The first oath King Charles VIII. took for the restitution of those places was at Florence, upon the high altar in the great church of St. John; the second was at Asti, on his return, where the Florentines furnished him in his extremity with thirty thousand ducats, upon condition that if Pisa were surrendered to them, the king should be discharged of the said sum, and all his jewels and pawns should be restored; and they were to lend him threescore thousand more, to be paid down in the kingdom of Naples, to those whom his majesty had appointed to manage his affairs there, and to maintain at their charge three hundred horse for the service of our king in the kingdom of Naples, which were to continue there during the whole expedition; but upon the selling of Pisa and the rest of the towns all was at an end, and the king was obliged to repay the thirty thousand ducats which the Florentines had lent him, and all this by the disobedience and whisperings of some persons about the king, who had given private encouragement to Entragues to act thus in the business. About the same time, in the beginning of the year 1496, the Lord de Montpensier, the Lord Virgil Ursini, Signor Camillo Vitelli, and the rest of the French officers, seeing that all was lost, took the field, and made themselves masters of several small towns; upon which King Ferrand, the son of Alphonso (who was turned monk, as you have heard before), with the Marquis of Mantua, brother to the Lord Montpensier’s wife[470], and captain-general of the Venetians, drew out against them, and found the Lord de Montpensier in a town called Atella, situated very disadvantageously for the supply of provisions. The enemy immediately encamped on a hill, and fortified themselves as strongly as they could, not daring to venture a battle, for King Ferrand and the Marquis of Mantua had been beaten by us in every engagement they had fought. The Venetians had in pledge six towns in Apulia, of very great importance, namely, Brindisi, Trani, Gallipoli, Crana, Otranto, Monopoli, and Tarento, which last they had taken from us. And they lent some money to King Ferrand, but they valued the service of their forces in that kingdom so high, that it was computed and charged upon the said towns at two hundred and fifty thousand ducats, besides what they demanded for the fortifications and other expenses in keeping them; so that I am persuaded they have no intention to restore them[471]; for it is not their custom to part with anything that is for their convenience, as those towns are, lying all upon the Gulf of Venice, and making them absolute lords of it,