But as to the designs which I have mentioned as being so considerable, they began before the surrender of Gaeta, upon the Duke of Milan’s not keeping his promise, and continued for two years after our king’s return. As for the Duke of Milan, he did not break his promise so much out of malice and deceit, as through fear; for he was fearful that the king could not have so great an addition to his power, without some diminution of his own; besides, he did not think our king a prince of any firmness or resolution. At length it was concluded that the Duke of Orleans should march to Asti with a considerable body of forces; and I saw him and his troops ready to set out. We were secure of the Duke of Ferrara with five hundred men-at-arms and two thousand foot (though he was the Duke of Milan’s father-in-law); for he joined with us to preserve himself against the danger he was in between the Duke and the Venetians, who not long previously (as I have said before[480]) had taken from him the Polesan, and endeavoured all they could to ruin him: upon which account he preferred his own and his children’s safety before the friendship of his son-in-law; and perhaps he was of opinion that his son-in-law would, by his mediation, come to some agreement with the king, when he found himself in danger. We had also engaged the Marquis of Mantua on our side, who had been, and was at that time general for the Venetians; but they were so jealous of him, and he so dissatisfied with them, that he remained with three hundred men-at-arms with his father-in-law the Duke of Ferrara, for his wife was sister to the Duchess of Milan, and the Duke of Ferrara’s daughter. Signor John Bentivoglio (who was governor, and as it were Prince of Bologna,) was to have provided a hundred and fifty men-at-arms, besides the horse and foot which his two sons were to have brought with them, and his country was well situated for an attack on the Duke of Milan. The Florentines, who saw they were utterly undone, and were afraid they should be dispossessed of Pisa and the rest of their towns, unless they exerted themselves, and did something extraordinary in this critical juncture of affairs, agreed to assist us with eight hundred men-at-arms, and five thousand foot, and to maintain them at their own expense; and they had six months’ pay ready in bank. The Ursini and the Prefect of Rome[481] (who was brother to the Cardinal of St. Peter ad Vincula, so often mentioned before), who were in the king’s pay, would have brought a thousand men-at-arms, but you must know the retinue and equipage of their men-at-arms is not so great as ours; for they have no archers, but their pay is alike; for the pay of a man-at-arms (if he is well paid) is one hundred ducats a year, but if he be attended by archers it is double. These soldiers the king would have paid, but the Florentines were to have paid their own forces. The Duke of Ferrara, the Marquis of Mantua, and Signor Bentivoglio desired only