In short, his friends were so weary and tired with waiting, that both Pope and barons came to an accommodation[210] with King Ferrand; in reliance upon which, when the barons ventured to Naples, they were all seized and imprisoned[211], though the Pope, the Venetians, the King of Spain, and the Florentines, had all of them guaranteed the observance of the peace, and had promised and sworn to secure their safety. The Prince of Salerno[212] escaped into France, refusing to be comprehended in the treaty of accommodation, as he knew the revengeful temper of King Ferrand; and the Duke of Lorraine returned with great shame and dishonour into his own country. He never afterwards had any credit with our king, who took away his lances, stopped his pension of thirty-six thousand francs for the county of Provence; and in that condition he stands to this very day; which is the year 1497. CH. II.—How the Prince of Salerno, a Neapolitan by Birth, came into France; and the Endeavours that were used by him and Ludovic Sforza, surnamed the Moor, to persuade the King to make War upon the King of Naples; and the Occasion of it.—1486-92. The Prince of Salerno with three of his nephews, sons to the Prince of Bisignan[213], fled to Venice, where he had great acquaintance. Their business was to consult the senate (as the prince told me himself), to know what prince they should address themselves to, whether to the Duke of Lorraine, the King of France, or the King of Spain. He told me their answer was, that the Duke of Lorraine was a dead man, and it was impossible for him ever to relieve them; that the King of Spain would be too powerful if he had the kingdom of Naples in addition to the isle of Sicily and what he possessed already in the Gulf of Venice; and that his strength at sea was very considerable: but they would rather advise them to apply to the King of France, for with the Kings of France who formerly reigned in Naples, the Venetians had held very good friendship and amity; and this I believe was spoken without any anticipation of what happened afterwards. The conclusion of all was that these barons came into France, where they were well received, but indifferently supplied. They solicited very hard for two years together; and all their applications were made to Stephen de Vers, at that time seneschal of Beaucaire, and chamberlain to the king.