Four or five months before his leaving the court, a very lucky adventure happened to him, if he had known how to make use of it. The whole kingdom of Naples rebelled[206] against King Ferrand[207], for his and his son’s tyranny; and all the barons, and three parts of the kingdom, submitted themselves to the Church. But King Ferrand, with the assistance of the Florentines, pressed them very hard; upon which the Pope[208] and the rebel lords of the kingdom sent to the Duke of Lorraine, to make him king; and they were so far in earnest in the matter, that their galleys, and the Cardinal of Saint Peter ad Vincula[209], waited for him a long time at Genoa, whilst he was quarrelling at the French court, though ambassadors from all the nobility of Naples were with him, pressing him daily to depart. The result of all was, the king and his council expressed great readiness to assist him. He was promised sixty thousand francs, and received twenty thousand of them; the rest he lost. He had leave to carry his hundred lances along with him, and was told that the king would send ambassadors to foreign courts in his favour. However, though the king was now nineteen years of age, yet he was still governed by the persons above-named, who were always telling him of his undoubted title to the kingdom of Naples (which I insert the rather, because persons of little consideration are often capable of raising great troubles), as I learned from several of the Duke of Lorraine’s ambassadors to Rome, Florence, Genoa, and elsewhere, and also from the duke himself as he passed by Moulins, where I then resided with John Duke of Bourbon, upon account of a dispute with the court. At that time the Duke of Lorraine’s opportunity was half lost already by his own delay; however, I went out to meet him, though I had no obligation to do so, for he was partly the occasion of my being driven from court, and had given me very abusive language. But nobody was now so dear to him as I; he caressed me at a most extravagant rate, and complained heavily of those who had the present administration of affairs. He continued two days with John Duke of Bourbon, and then he set out for Lyons.