From thence the king marched to Placentia[291], where Ludovic was informed that his nephew, the Duke of Milan, lay a dying; so he took his leave of the king, and, being pressed to return, he promised faithfully to do so. Before he reached Pavia the duke was dead[292], upon which he went post immediately to Milan. This I saw in a letter which the Venetian ambassador that was with him wrote to Venice, assuring the Signory of his design to make himself duke. And it is certain both the Doge of Venice and the Signory were much against it, and asked me if the king my master would not espouse the young duke’s interest. Though the thing was but reasonable, yet knowing how necessary Ludovic’s interest and assistance were to the king’s designs, my answer was in doubtful terms. CH. VIII.—How and by what Means the Lord Ludovic seized and usurped the Lordship and Duchy of Milan, and was received by the Milanese as their Sovereign.—1494. In short, he made himself Duke of Milan, and, as many affirmed, that was his design in inviting and drawing us into Italy. He was charged also with the death of his nephew, whose friends and relations put themselves in a condition to wrest the government out of his hands; and they might easily have done it, had it not been for his alliance with our king; for they had already assembled their forces in Romagna, as you have heard; but the Count di Cajazzo, and Monsieur d’Aubigny made them retire. For when Monsieur d’Aubigny, with about a hundred and fifty or two hundred French men-at-arms and a good body of Swiss, advanced upon them, Don Ferrand retreated towards his friends, keeping about half a day’s march before us towards Forli[293], which belonged to a lady[294] that was a bastard of the house of Milan, and widow of Count Hieronimo, who was, or said he was, a nephew to Pope Sixtus. It was reported that she favoured their party, but our men battered a small town[295] of hers for half a day, and took it by storm; upon which and the inclination she had to us before, she came over to our side. The people of Italy began generally to assume new courage, and be desirous of change; for they saw a thing that they had never seen before, and that was the use of great guns, which had never been so well understood in France till then. Don Ferrand retreated towards his own kingdom, and marched for Cesenna[296], a strong city of the pope’s, in the marquisate of Ancona; but the people stripped and plundered all the stragglers they could meet with, for they were disposed all over Italy to revolt, had things been managed wisely on our part, without violence and plunder. But all was done quite contrary, at which I was extremely concerned, for, by this way of proceeding, we lost all the honour and renown that the French nation might otherwise have gained in that expedition. At our first entrance into Italy we were regarded like saints, and everybody thought us people of the greatest