But his love of art and learning was as great as ever, and Fra Luca Pacioli, the able mathematician, who came to Milan in 1496, and dedicated his treatise of La Divina Proporzione to Lodovico, describes the laudable and scientific duel of famous and learned men, that was held on the 9th of February, 1498, in the Castello of Milan—"that invincible fortress of the glorious city which is a residence worthy of His Excellency." The duke himself presided at this meeting, which some writers have supposed to be a sitting of an academy of arts and sciences founded by Lodovico, with Leonardo for its president, and left Milan the next day, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Mount of the Madonna at Varese. Among the many illustrious personages, religious and secular, who were present on this occasion, Fra Luca mentions "Messer Galeazzo Sforza di San Severino, my own special patron," to whom he presented the beautiful illuminated copy of his treatise, now in the Ambrosiana, the Prior of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the doctors and astrologers, Ambrogio da Rosate, Pirovano, Cusani and Marliani, and many well-known jurists, councillors, architects, and engineers, including Leonardo da Vinci, "our fellow-citizen of Florence, who, in sculpture and painting alike, justifies his name and surpasses"—i.e. vince = conquers—"all other masters."[72]

Leonardo's Cenacolo, we learn from his friend Pacioli, was at length finished, and preparations were being made for casting his great horse in bronze, but the master himself was chiefly engaged in the study of hydraulics, and was writing a treatise on motion and water-power. In April, however, he was again painting in the Castello, and Messer Gualtero, one of Lodovico's most trusted servants, informed the duke, who was absent for a few days, that both his sons were very well, and that Magistro Leonardo was at work in the Saletta Negra. He would shortly proceed to the Camera Grande in the tower, and promised to complete the decorations by September, in order that the duke might be able to enjoy them next autumn. A note in one of Leonardo's manuscripts speaks of twenty-four Roman subjects, probably small decorative groups in camaieu, painted on the vaulting of these rooms, and gives the exact cost of the blue, gold, and enamel employed, but all trace of these decorations has vanished. At the same time Lodovico appointed his favourite master to the post of ducal engineer, and employed him to survey those vast and elaborate fortifications in the Castello, which excited the wonder of the French invaders.

Two of Amadeo's great architectural works, the cupola of the Duomo of Milan, and the facade of the Certosa, were brought to a successful conclusion in these last years of Lodovico's rule, while the foundation stone of the noble Cistercian monastery attached to S. Ambrogio, now a military hospital, was laid by the duke, and built at his expense from Bramante's designs. The charitable society known as the Confraternity of the Santa Corona, or Holy Crown of Thorns, a name familiar to all who have visited its ancient halls, and seen Luini's fresco, was another excellent institution intended for the relief of the sick poor in their own homes, which was founded under the duke's auspices, and largely supported by his liberality. But once more wars and rumours of war came to disturb the Milanese, and to call Lodovico away from these public works and improvements in which he took delight.

The renewed intrigues of Charles VIII. with the Florentines, and revived fears of a French invasion, induced Lodovico to send Baldassare Pusterla to Venice in February, 1498, to solicit the help of the Signoria, but while these negotiations were going on, a courier arrived from Ferrara with the news of the French king's sudden death. Charles, who was not twenty-eight, had died of apoplexy as he was watching a game of bowls at Amboise, and his cousin, the Duke of Orleans, had been proclaimed king under the title of Louis XII. Sanuto reports that the courier who brought the news from Amboise to Florence had ridden the whole way in seven days, and had killed no less than thirteen horses!

"Magnificent ambassador!" said the Doge to the Milanese envoy, "you told us that His Most Christian Majesty was on his way to Italy. We hear that he is dead!"

The news was a great relief to most of the Italian powers, to none more so than Lodovico, who saw his immediate fears removed, and did not realize how much reason he had to dread the ambitious designs of his old rival king Louis. But in his eagerness to secure the alliance of Florence, he committed the fatal mistake of affronting the Venetians. He refused to allow a fresh detachment of troops, which they were sending to Pisa, to pass through his dominions, and the Signory in revenge sent an embassy to the King of France with secret orders to take counsel with Trivulzio and negotiate a league with Louis XII. against the Duke of Milan. All Lodovico's hopes were now fixed on the formation of a new league between Maximilian, the Pope, Naples, and Milan. When this was concluded, he offered the generalship of the allied forces, with the title of Captain of the King of the Romans, to the Marquis of Mantua. Still Francesco Gonzaga was not satisfied, and complained that he ought also to be entitled Captain-general to the Duke of Milan, a title which Lodovico refused to take from his son-in-law Galeazzo. However, Isabella, who had already paved the way for this reconciliation, implored her husband to be content for the present with the duke's offer, remarking that the salary was the important thing, and in May the marquis went to Milan, where he received a cordial welcome, and the terms of the agreement were satisfactorily arranged.

Lodovico now announced his intention of coming to Mantua in person, and on the 27th of June arrived there on a visit to the marquis and marchioness, accompanied by the young Cardinal Ippolito and the German, Spanish, Florentine, and Neapolitan ambassadors, with a suite of a thousand persons. Great was Isabella's anxiety that nothing should be lacking on this occasion, and endless were the pains which she took to do honour to her splendid brother-in-law. She borrowed plate and tapestries from Niccolo da Correggio, and desired her own envoy at Milan, Benedetto Capilupi, to ask Galeazzo Visconti and Antonio Costabili what wines the duke preferred and what clothes he would expect her to wear. Lodovico himself had not yet laid aside his mourning, and Isabella wondered if the rooms of his apartments at Mantua must be hung with black velvet, or if she might venture to relieve them with violet tints, as would, she felt, be more fitting to this festive occasion. The duke, Capilupi replied, would be satisfied with any arrangements the marchesa liked to make, and as for the wines, he found that those usually preferred by his Excellency at supper were clear white wines, rather sweet and new, while at dinner he generally drank light red wine, such as Cesolo, all very clear and new.

The visit passed off successfully, and after three days of fetes and entertainments Lodovico returned to Milan. Francesco Gonzaga, however, still wavered between the duke and the Venetians, and it was not till Lodovico sent Marchesino Stanga and Fracassa to Mantua in November, that the agreement was finally concluded, and Erasmo Brasca delivered the baton to the marquis in the emperor's name. Isabella herself interviewed the ceremony from a tribunal erected on the piazza in front of the Castello di Corte at Mantua, and the duke wrote a graceful note to his sister-in-law, thanking her for her good offices in the matter. He still constantly sent her presents of choice fruits or wines and venison, while Isabella, in return, sent him salmon-trout from Garda, and Evangelista, the marquis's famous trainer, tamed the duke's horses. In July Lodovico sent her a basket of peaches, wishing they had been even finer than they were, to be more worthy of her acceptance, and Isabella wrote in reply: "The peaches sent by your Excellency are most welcome, not only because they are the first ripe ones I have tasted this summer, but far more because they are a proof of your gracious remembrance, for which I can never thank your Excellency enough." On New Year's Day, 1499, Lodovico sent the marchioness two barrels of wine—"vino amabile"—and two chests of lemons, and in February wrote to thank her for the fish, which were very fine and good and had reached him opportunely, as it was Friday in Lent.

Gifts of artichokes, which were then esteemed a great delicacy, were often sent to the duke by Genoese nobles, and in March, 1499, we find Giovanni Adorno, the brother-in-law of the San Severini, who evidently knew Lodovico's taste for flowers, sending a basket of forty artichokes together with a bouquet of the finest roses. Another characteristic note was the following, written by the Moro to Francesco Gonzaga, in January:—

"I always take great delight in seeing the swans which you sent us some years ago, sailing on the castle moat under these windows. So if you have any others to spare, I beg you to send me some, for which I shall be very grateful."[73]

Two of the last letters, which Isabella addressed to her brother-in-law, are of especial interest, as relating to Giangaleazzo's widow, the Duchess Isabella of Aragon. A few weeks after Beatrice's death, this unfortunate lady had been desired by the duke to leave her rooms in the Castello, and take up her abode in the old palace near the Duomo. Some contention arose respecting the boy Francesco Sforza, whom Lodovico wished to keep with his own sons in the Rocchetta, and who remained there for a time, only visiting his mother once a week. "You have taken my son's crown away," said the duchess, indignantly, "and now you would take his mother too!" Lodovico is said to have replied, "Madam, you are a woman, so I will not quarrel with you." But in spite of her hatred for Lodovico, Isabella of Aragon still kept up friendly relations with her Este cousins. In 1498, she asked the marchioness for an antique bust, which Andrea Mantegna had brought back from Rome, and which she heard bore a striking likeness to herself. The painter, however, valued the marble so highly that for long he refused to part with it, and offered to send the duchess a cast of the bust in bronze. Isabella d'Este, however, finally prevailed upon him to let her buy the head, and send it as a present to her cousin, whom she declared it resembled in a marvellous manner. At the same time she promised the duchess a replica of a portrait of her brother, King Ferrante of Naples, which she valued too much to part with, but would have copied as soon as possible by Francesco Mantegna. Before satisfying her cousin's wishes, however, the prudent Isabella applied to the duke and ascertained that he had no objection to her action. Again, when in March, 1499, the duchess begged Isabella to let her have her own portrait, the marchioness sent the picture to Lodovico, and asked him for leave to send the picture to Giangaleazzo's widow.

"MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE AND EXCELLENT DUKE AND DEAR FATHER,

"I am afraid I shall weary not only your Highness, but all Italy with the sight of my portraits; but reluctantly as I do this, I could not refuse the Duchess Isabella's urgent entreaties to let her have my portrait in colours. I send this one, which is not very like me, and makes me look fatter than I really am, and have desired Negro, my master of the horse, to show it to your Highness, and, if you approve, give it to the duchess from me."[74]

Lodovico replied pleasantly that he admired the portrait, and thought it very like Isabella, although it made her look stouter than when he had last seen her, but suggested that perhaps she had grown fatter during the interval. And the picture was duly presented to Duchess Isabella that same day.

The marquis's widowed sister Chiara Gonzaga, Duchess of Montpensier, also kept up an active correspondence with the Moro at this time, and warned him repeatedly of the intrigues against him that were going on at the French court, and of the dangers he had to fear from Trivulzio and the Venetians.

So warm was the friendship between this lady and Lodovico, that a Mantuan doctor wrote from Milan to Francesco Gonzaga, on pretence of having received a commission from the duke to ask for his widowed sister's hand in marriage, and as well as for that of his youthful daughter Leonora on behalf of the young Count of Pavia. The duke wrote back that he had never seen the doctor, and that the whole was a fabrication. As he informed Chiara, he had not the smallest intention of marrying a second time, although he had already received proposals to this effect, both from Naples and Germany. And, by way of peace-offering, he sent her a beautiful little niello pax, as a specimen of the work of his Milanese goldsmiths, and as a proof that he placed himself altogether at her service. In return, Chiara sent him her cordial thanks, and informed him that her brother had given orders for the instant arrest of the mischievous doctor, and would see that he was delivered into the duke's hands.

Another princess, who was in constant correspondence with the Moro during these last years, was his niece Caterina Sforza, the famous Madonna of Forli. Long ago, he had helped her against the conspirators who had killed her first husband and besieged her in the Rocca, and ten years before, Galeazzo di Sanseverino had won his first laurels at Forli. Since those days, Lodovico had been a good friend to this warlike lady in all her perpetual quarrels with her subjects and neighbours. "I should be ready to drown myself, were it not for the trust that I place in your Excellency," Caterina wrote to her uncle in 1496. Now that she had aroused the wrath of Venice by her alliance with Florence, and that Romagna was actually invaded by a Venetian force, the duke sent first Fracassa and then the Count of Caiazzo to her help. In her gratitude she called the infant son born of her third marriage with Giovanni de' Medici, Lodovico, a name which he afterwards changed, to become famous in history as Giovanni delle bande nere. But this virago, as Machiavelli named the gallant lady of Forli, was by no means easy to deal with, and she was constantly appealing to Lodovico to settle her disputes. One day she welcomed Fracassa as a delivering angel, the next she quarrelled with him violently, and turned a deaf ear to the Moro's advice to overcome the Condottiere's rudeness by fair words and gentle courtesy. After summarily rejecting his suggestion of a Gonzaga bride for her son, and informing him that she was about to accept the Count of Caiazzo's proposals for her daughter Bianca, she changed her mind, declaring the count to be too old, and suddenly bethought herself of Galeazzo di Sanseverino, as a suitable husband. This proposal, however, the Moro promptly declined in a curt note, telling the countess that Messer Galeazzo had no intention of marrying again.[75]

But the days of the once powerful Moro's reign were already numbered, and the time was coming when he would be in sore need of help himself. His subjects were already grievously discontented. At Milan, Cremona, and Lodi, even in faithful Pavia, there had been tumults and riotings. It became increasingly difficult to exact the loans required to meet the heavy expenses for the national defence, while the ill-paid troops murmured, and in many cases deserted the standard.

"In the whole Milanese there is trouble and discontent. No one loves the duke. And yet he still reigns.... But he is a traitor to Venice, and will be punished for his bad faith." So wrote Marino Sanuto that autumn; while another Venetian chronicler, Malipiero, gave vent to his bitter hatred in these words:

"Lodovico hoped to give the Signory trouble by his alliance with Charles VIII., but God our protector has taken away that monarch's life, and has made King Alvise his successor, who is Lodovico's enemy."

So the year closed gloomily. The political horizon was black and lowering, and Lodovico had lost the wife upon whose courage and presence of mind he had learnt to lean. He was suffering from gout himself, and was often unable to mount a horse. But he still found pleasure in his artistic dreams and in the vast schemes that filled his brain. Already he had seen many of his plans carried out. Bramante's cupola and sacristy were finished and Beatrice's tomb, with the sleeping form and face, had been exquisitely wrought in marble by the sculptor's hand. Leonardo had completed the Cenacolo to be the wonder of the world in coming ages, and the great equestrian statue was only waiting for better times to be cast in bronze and become a permanent memorial of the proud Sforza race. Now a new and grander vision filled his thoughts. He would rebuild the convent of the Dominican Friars on a vast and splendid scale, and make it the most glorious sanctuary in the world, surpassing even his beloved Certosa, for the sake of Beatrice, and as a living memorial of the love which he had borne to his dead wife.

He began by rebuilding the friars' dormitories, enlarging their gardens, and giving them a good water-supply. Then, on the 3rd of December of this year, 1498, he drew up a deed by which he granted his beautiful villa of the Sforzesca, with the spacious farms and fertile lands which had been his pride and pleasure in past days, to the prior and convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in perpetuity. In the preamble to the deed of gift, the duke expresses his great love for this church, "where our dead children repose, and our most dear wife Beatrice d'Este sleeps, where, God willing, we ourselves hope to rest until the day of resurrection," and ends with a devout prayer "that God and the Blessed Virgin, the Dominican saints, Peter Martyr, Thomas Aquinas, and Dominic, St. Vincent, St. Katharine of Siena, and all the saints, will hear the prayers offered at these altars by the brothers of the order, and forgive our failings, increase our merit, preserve our sons, give peace and tranquillity to our subjects, receive the soul of our dearly loved Beatrice into rest eternal, and finally place us, when this life is over, among the holy monarchs and princes of His kingdom." This deed, signed and sealed by Lodovico's own hand, and beautifully illuminated by Antonio da Monza, or some miniaturist of his school, is preserved, together with the former privileges granted to the community during the lifetime of Duke Giangaleazzo, in the collection of the Marchese d'Adda. Each leaf is elaborately decorated with Lodovico's favourite mottoes and devices and other ornaments, while on the first page is a miniature of the duke in black cap and mantle, in the act of presenting the act of donation to the Dominican prior. After the French conquest of Milan, Louis XII. annulled this deed of gift, although the friars escaped further spoliation owing to the protection of the powerful Borromeo family, and, after a long dispute, their possession of the Sforzesca was eventually confirmed by Emperor Charles V. An inscription was placed over the gates of the Sforzesca in honour of Lodovico Sforza and his wife, and the domain remained the property of the convent until the general confiscation of Church lands by Napoleon in 1798. Now Lodovico's foundation has become national property, the remnants of his spacious buildings are used as government schools.

On the same day, December 3, 1498, Lodovico made his will, a curious and interesting document, which is still preserved in the Milanese archives, and opens with these sentences:

"The holy Fathers teach us that according to the laws of the Eternal kingdom, ordered by God Almighty, the elect may attain to this immortal heritage by purifying their souls from every earthly stain. By mourning for our sins, by giving alms and making reparation for wrong done to others, by fasting, prayers, and good works, we can win everlasting life, as has been decreed by God in all eternity. Believing this truth with our whole heart, in full agreement with the Catholic faith, and desiring to provide for the salvation of our soul as precious above all earthly treasures, so that by the help of God we may rise purified from the stains of this life to enjoy life and peace in the company of the blessed, we order these things."[76] After recommending his soul once more to all the saints, mentioned in the former deed, he desires that his body, the ducal robes and insignia, may be buried on the right of his wife, in the tomb erected by him, in the Cappella Maggiore of Santa Maria delle Grazie, and further endows the convent with a rent of 1500 ducats, in order that they may never cease to pray for his own soul and that of his lady, Beatrice. Seven masses, he decrees, are to be said daily for the duke, seven for the duchess, five requiems are to be chanted every Wednesday, and the whole office for the dead is to be used on the 3rd of every month, being the day on which Beatrice died; while in the church of the Sforzesca, masses are to be said in January and June—these being the months of Beatrice's birth and death—for both the duke and his wife. For a whole year after his death, the alms which he has given since the duchess's death are to be continued, a certain number of poor families are to be relieved, and poor maidens and nuns dowered, who are to pray for the souls of Beatrice and of his children Leone and Bianca. He leaves 4000 ducats to be distributed yearly in alms, and 3000 more to pension his old servants, while 5000 ducats are to be paid to each of his illegitimate sons, Cesare and Gianpaolo. All his debts and those of his mother are to be discharged, and a sum of money equal to that which he, his father, and brother Galeazzo had exacted from the Jews is to be spent in good works. All his gifts to the Duomo of Milan are confirmed, including the rich plate and vestments presented by Azzo Visconti to the chapel of S. Gottardo in the old palace, and removed by Duke Galeazzo to the Castello, but restored by Lodovico.

To this same date, another even more interesting document must be assigned: the political will of Lodovico, which was among the manuscripts brought from Milan by Louis XII., in 1499, and is still preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale.[77] This document consists of thirty-four parchment leaves, enriched with delicately painted initials and the monogram of Lodovico and Beatrice, bound in black velvet and fastened with gold clasps. By the duke's orders, it was placed in an iron casket, richly ornamented with silver work, bearing his arms and those of his wife, as well as the Sforza devices of the lion with the buckets and his own favourite emblem of the caduceus. This casket was sealed with the cornelian engraved with Beatrice's portrait, which Lodovico always used after her death, and deposited in the treasury of the Rocchetta, in the charge of the governor of the Castello, to be opened by him and the chief secretary and chamberlain, immediately after the duke's death. The writer begins by explaining that since the premature death of his wife, in whose wisdom and knowledge he placed absolute trust, has deprived his sons of their natural guardian, he has drawn up the following instructions for their education and guidance and for the proper administration of the State, until the elder of the two, Maximilian Count of Pavia, shall attain the age of twenty.

First of all, he desires the governors and regents set over his son, to impress upon the new duke the love and duty which he owes to his Father in heaven, who is the Disposer of all, and the King of earthly kings, and under Him to his vicar, the holy pontiff, and his Imperial Majesty, Maximilian King of the Romans. And immediately on the present duke's death, his son is to apply to the Cesarean Majesty for a confirmation of the privileges granted to Duke Lodovico as a singular mark of favour, after they had been refused to his father, brother, and nephew. Lodovico then proceeds to give minute directions for the constitution of a Council of Regency, the administration of the finances, the punishment of criminals, appointment of magistrates, and organization of the national defences. A standing army of 1200 men-at-arms and 600 light cavalry is to be kept up, as well as garrisons in the fortresses, and great stress is laid on the selection of tried and trusted castellans. A special paragraph is devoted to Genoa, and Lodovico begs his successor to pay especial attention to the noble families of Adorno, Fieschi, and Spinola, warning him that the Genoese are easily led but will never be driven, and must be treated courteously, and with due regard. All important questions of peace and war and of making new laws are to be referred to representatives of the people, and the voice of the nation is as far as possible to be consulted in these matters. The young duke is to make the Castello his residence, and be as seldom absent from Milan as possible, never going further than his country houses of Abbiategrasso, Cussago, Monza, Dece, and Melegnano, until he has reached the age of fourteen. After that, he may, if he pleases, cross the Ticino, and visit Vigevano and Pavia, but is recommended to be seldom absent from Milan, if he wishes to keep the affection of his subjects. His education is to be entrusted to none but the best governors and teachers, who are to train him carefully in all branches of religious and secular learning, in good conduct and habits, and in the knowledge of letters, which last is not merely an ornament but an absolute necessity for a prince. From his earliest years he is to take his place in the council, and is to be gradually initiated into the management of affairs, taught to deliver speeches and receive ambassadors, and instructed in all that is necessary to make him a wise and good prince, who cares for the welfare of his subjects and is capable of ruling them in days of peace, and defending them in time of war. One particular on which Lodovico insists is the restraint which he places on his son's expenditure. The young prince is to observe great caution in his gifts to his favourites. Up to the age of fourteen, he is never to give away more than 500 ducats at a time, without the leave of his councillors, and may never give presents exceeding that value to strangers on his own authority, before he is twenty. Similar directions are given for the education of Lodovico's younger son, Sforza, Duke of Bari, and the revenues of his principality are to be carefully invested in Genoese banks until he is of age. The wise management of the ducal stables and of the chapel choir is especially recommended to the regents, and good horses and good singers are always to be kept, for the duke's pleasure and the honour of his name. Minute instructions for the safe custody of the treasure in the Rocchetta are given, and the very forms to be observed in the payment of public money and in the use of the different seals affixed to public documents are all carefully determined. Great discrimination is to be observed in the appointment of certain ministers, in the choice of the Podesta of Milan, in the selection of Commissioners of Corn and Salt, as well as of the officer of Public Health, since all three of these departments are of the foremost importance in a well-regulated State.

In conclusion, directions are given as to the ceremonial to be observed at Lodovico's own funeral, which is to take place before the proclamation of his successor, who is warned, on pain of incurring the paternal malediction, not to assume the ducal crown until his father has been laid in the grave.

This political testament, which is so characteristic a monument of Lodovico's forethought and attention to detail, and of his enlightened theories of government, bears no seal or signature, but ends with the following lines in the Moro's own handwriting—

"We Lodovico Maria, lord of Milan, affirm these orders to be those which we desire to be followed after our death, in the government of the State, under our son and successor in the Duchy. And in token of this, we have subscribed them with our own hand, and have appended our ducal seal."

FOOTNOTES:

[72] G. Uzielli, Ricerche sopra L. da Vinci, i.

[73] L. Pelissier, op. cit.

[74] Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p. 650.

[75] P. Pasolini, Caterina Sforza, iii.

[76] Cantu in A. S. L., vi. 235.

[77] Italian State papers, M. 821.



CHAPTER XXIX

Treaty of Blois—Alliance between France, Venice, and the Borgias—Lodovico appeals to Maximilian—His gift to Leonardo and letter to the Certosini—The French and the Venetians invade the Milanese—Desertion of Gonzaga and treachery of Milanese captains—Loss of Alessandria—Panic and flight of Duke Lodovico—Surrender of Pavia and Milan to the French—Treachery of Bernardino da Corte and surrender of the Castello—Triumphal entry of Louis XII.

1499

From the moment of Louis XII.'s accession, he announced his intention of making good his claim to the duchy of Milan. He refused to give Lodovico the title of duke, addressing him as Messer Lodovico, while he styled himself King of France and Duke of Milan, and told the Bishop of Arles that he would rather reign over the Milanese for one year than be King of France during his whole lifetime. At the same time he spoke freely of his plans for the conquest of Italy, and told his courtiers that he meant one of his sons to be King of Naples, and the other Duke of Milan.

These sayings were duly reported to Lodovico by his own friends at the French court, and chief among them M. de Trano, a Provencal gentleman who was in constant correspondence with Milan, as well as by the Duke of Ferrara's envoy. Ercole himself is described by French agents as "tres attache a son gendre" and Marino Sanuto speaks of him as "exceedingly partial to his son-in-law and devoted to him in his secret heart," but he was far too wise and prudent a ruler to oppose Louis XII. openly.

The Pope, long the Moro's firm ally, had turned against him since the dissolution of his daughter Lucrezia's marriage to Giovanni Sforza in 1497, and the presence of Cardinal della Rovere, who returned to Rome towards the end of 1498, increased his hatred of the Sforzas. He was still more drawn to France by the offers of Louis XII. to forward the ambitious designs of his son Caesar Borgia, who had renounced his cardinal's hat and was seeking the hand of the King of Navarre's daughter. The discovery of these intrigues led to a sharp passage-at-arms between the Pope and Ascanio Sforza in a consistory held on the 3rd of December. The cardinal openly accused his Holiness of bringing ruin upon Italy, upon which Alexander retorted that he was only following the Duke of Milan's example. In vain Lodovico endeavoured to avert the gathering storm by entering into negotiations with the French king, and even approached Trivulzio with that purpose, but all attempts at a peaceable arrangement were frustrated by Galeazzo di Sanseverino and Antonio Landriano's hatred of their old rival and the fixed determination of Louis XII. to reign in the Moro's stead.

Meanwhile the Venetian envoys were secretly plotting the Duke of Milan's ruin, and on the 15th of April the Treaty of Blois was signed and the partition of the Milanese between France and Venice finally determined. The Signory agreed to invade the duke's territory with an army of 6000 men, and were to receive the district of Cremona in return for their assistance. This was followed by Caesar Borgia's marriage to Charlotte d'Albret, which took place at Blois on the 10th of May. The Pope's son was created Duke of Valentinois by the French king, and Alexander VI. joined France and Venice and publicly declared that the house of Sforza must be swept off the face of the earth. At the same time, Francesco Gonzaga made secret advances to Louis XII., who accepted his offers of service and advised the Venetians to make peace with him.

In his extremity Lodovico turned to his sole remaining ally, the Emperor Maximilian, and sent Erasmo Brasca and Marchesino Stanga to Fribourg, to beg that a German force might be speedily sent to his assistance, while he earnestly entreated his niece the empress to plead his cause with her husband. Unfortunately, Bianca had little or no influence at the imperial court, and Maximilian, who would gladly have helped the duke, was hampered by want of money and already engaged in war with his turbulent Swiss neighbours. But Bianca did her best for her uncle, and in these last days her letters were his chief consolation. She sent him the latest and most confidential news, and wrote repeatedly from Fribourg and Innsbruck, encouraging him with hopes of speedy help, and reminding him how triumphantly he had overcome greater dangers in the past.

Even now, when his enemies were closing round him and the last struggle was at hand, Lodovico still clung to his old ideals. The love of art was still the ruling passion of his life, and Leonardo still for him the prince of painters. On the 26th of April, he made the Florentine master a present of a vineyard which he had bought from the monastery of S. Victor outside the Porta Vercellina, probably adjoining a house and piece of land which the painter had already received from him, near S. Maria delle Grazie. During the last few years the duke, we know, had found it increasingly difficult to provide money for his vast enterprises, and from a rough draft of a letter that has been found among Leonardo's manuscripts, we gather that the painter's salary was in arrears, and that his equestrian statue had not yet been cast in bronze:

"Signore," he writes in these fragmentary sentences, "knowing the mind of your Excellency to be fully occupied, I must ask pardon for reminding you of my small affairs.... My life is at your service; I am always ready to obey your commands. I will say nothing of the horse, because I know the times; but, as your Highness is aware, two years' salary is owing to me, and I have two masters working at my expense, so that I have had to advance fifteen lire out of my own purse to pay them. Gladly as I would undertake immortal works and show posterity that I have lived, I am obliged to earn my living.... May I remind your Highness of the commission to paint the Camerini, only asking ..."

The painter, we know, had never complained of Lodovico's want of liberality, and before he left Milan that December, he was able to send 600 gold florins to Florence, but he probably received the vineyard outside the gate in answer to this appeal. In the deed of gift, the duke expressly states that Leonardo, in his judgment and in that of the best judges, is the most famous of living painters, and that, having been employed by him in manifold works, in all of which he has shown admirable genius, the time has come to put the promises which have been made him into execution. Accordingly, the duke presents him with this vineyard, small indeed compared with the painter's merits, but which Leonardo may take as a sign that, as in the past, he will always find the ducal house sensible of his services, and that Lodovico himself will in the future more fully reward the master's excellent acts and singular talents.

A week later Lodovico remembered the altar-piece which Perugino had promised to paint for the Certosa, and on the 1st of May wrote to the Carthusian friars, desiring them to urge the Umbrian painter to complete and deliver the work without delay.

"You know," he wrote, "how much labour and expense we have bestowed on the decoration of the Certosa of Pavia, and how much we rejoice to see that the building is nearly finished. And we have always exhorted yourselves, venerable Prior and brothers, to choose the most excellent artists to paint pictures that may be at once helps to devotion and ornaments of the church. Since, with this intention, we proposed a certain Perugino and a Maestro Filippo, both of them admirable and honoured masters, to paint two altar-pieces, and disbursed large sums in order to obtain these pictures, we are seriously displeased to find that three years have passed without the work being done. This is unjust both to ourselves and the friars, since it deprives the Certosa of the perfection that we desire to see there, and we must beg you to insist on these excellent masters completing the said altar-pieces within a reasonable term, or else returning the money which they have received. For, as you know, nothing is dearer to our hearts than the things that concern this church and monastery."

Lodovico's exertions were not in vain, at least in the case of Perugino. Before the end of the year, the great altar-piece containing the lovely Madonna and saints, which now adorns the National Gallery, was finished, and while the duke himself wandered in exile beyond the Alps, the Umbrian painter's masterpiece was safely placed in the glorious church which he had loved so well.

This letter relating to the Certosa altar-piece and the gift to Leonardo were the last public acts in which the great Moro showed his love of art and generosity to artists. His fate was sealed, and already his foes were at the door. Before the end of May, King Louis and Caesar Borgia came to Lyons, and Trivulzio descended upon Asti with fifteen thousand men. A few weeks later the Milanese envoy to Venice was dismissed, and the Venetian army prepared to enter the district of Cremona. Caterina Sforza, almost the only Italian ally who was still faithful to Milan, sent a troop of men from Forli to her uncle's help, but the invasion of Romagna by papal troops hindered her from attacking the Venetians as she had intended. In vain Lodovico sent despairing letters to Maximilian, begging for the promised reinforcements. Week after week went by, and still the German troops did not arrive. On the 13th of August, Trivulzio invaded the Milanese with a powerful force of well-trained soldiers, and took the castle of Annona. The same day the Venetians crossed the eastern frontier and advanced towards the river Adda. On the 14th Lodovico wrote the following letter to his niece, the Empress Bianca:—

"In our present great anxieties, while the French are attacking us on the one side, and on the other a large Venetian army is advancing, your Majesty's loving letter has been a great comfort, expressing not only the sympathy which you feel in our troubles, but the efforts you have made to induce your husband, the king, to help us in these bad times. What you say of his good-will is not more than we expected, but your kind words have given us unspeakable joy, and we are exceedingly grateful, and beg you with all our heart to continue your offices on our behalf with the king, entreating him to send us help immediately (presto, presto). Indeed, his troops ought to be here now, for we are already reduced to extremity, as you will learn from Messer Galeazzo Visconti and others, whom we have sent to your Majesty, praying that help may be speedy and effectual."[78]

Three days after, Bianca herself wrote to say that she had spoken to the emperor, and begged her maitre d'hotel to support her request, and that he had solemnly promised to send her uncle help. Maximilian kept his word, and before the month was over despatched a strong German force to the duke's relief. But the sorely needed succour came too late. When the Germans reached the Italian frontier, Milan had already surrendered, and they met Lodovico flying for his life. There were traitors in the Moro's camp and court. Not only had the Marquis of Mantua broken faith and refused to defend the Milanese against the Venetians, but two of the Sanseverino brothers, Fracassa and Antonio Maria, had for some time past threatened to enter the Venetian service; while Francesco Bernardino Visconti, the Borromeos, and Pallavicini were secretly corresponding with Trivulzio, and the Count of Caiazzo was out of temper and jealous of his younger brother Galeazzo, if he was not, as Corio and other contemporaries affirm, already in league with the French. Galeazzo himself, who had the supreme command of the Milanese forces and held Alessandria with 5000 men, was a brilliant carpet-knight and gallant soldier, but had little experience as a general, and had no confidence in his ill-paid and half-starved troops. When the duke, in a moment of irritation, reproached his son-in-law with thinking too much of fine clothes and fair ladies, Galeazzo boldly told him that his subjects were disaffected and tired of his rule, and that if he did not take vigorous measures, he would lose his state. His words proved all too true. One by one the fortresses of the Lomellina opened their gates to Trivulzio's victorious army, Antonio Maria Pallavicini surrendered Tortona without a blow, and when Galeazzo prepared to relieve Pavia, his troops refused to follow him. At the head of a handful of cavalry, he made a gallant attempt to reach Pavia, but the citizens, alarmed at the approach of the French, closed their gates and refused to admit any armed men.

Alessandria was now the only fortified town in the district which could arrest Trivulzio's onward march, and Lodovico, trusting to Galeazzo's valour, was confident he would be able to hold the town until the arrival of Maximilian's reinforcements. But, to the amazement of friend and foe alike, on the night of the 28th of August, Galeazzo, attended by only three horsemen, left Alessandria at nightfall, crossed the Po, and, after cutting the bridge behind him, rode as fast as he could go to Milan. There had been dissensions in the garrison, and the soldiers clamoured for pay and refused to fight, but whispers of darker treachery were abroad. The Count of Caiazzo, it was said, had forged a letter purporting to be from the duke, recalling his son-in-law to Milan on the spot, and Galeazzo himself afterwards showed the false orders which had deceived him to the French and Milanese chroniclers who repeat the story. There seems little doubt that Caiazzo's defection was one of the principal causes of Lodovico's ruin, but, whatever the circumstances of the case may have been, it is certain that on the next day the French entered Alessandria without meeting with any resistance, and Trivulzio sent word to his kinsman Erasmo that before the week was over he would dine with him in Milan.

When Lodovico heard that Alessandria was lost, his courage failed him. He determined to seek safety in flight, and prepared to send his sons to Germany under the charge of his brother Cardinal Ascanio Sforza and Cardinal Sanseverino, both of whom had left Rome secretly on the 14th of July, and travelled by Genoa to Milan. Once more the duke called the chief citizens together, and appealed to them, by the love which they bore to the house of Sforza and the memory of the peace and prosperity which they had enjoyed under his rule, to defend Milan against the foreign invaders. But already sedition was spreading among the people. That evening the ducal treasurer, Antonio Landriano, one of Lodovico's ablest and most loyal servants, was attacked by the mob on the Piazza of the Duomo and mortally wounded.

On the same day—Saturday, the 31st of August—the duke took leave of his sons, and sent them to Como in the charge of the two cardinals and their kinswoman, Camilla Sforza. "A truly piteous and heart-breaking sight it was," writes Corio, "to see these poor children embrace their beloved father, whose face was wet with their tears."

Twenty mules laden with baggage, and a large chariot bearing Lodovico's most precious jewels and 240,000 gold ducats, covered with black canvas and drawn by eight strong horses, followed in the young princes' train. All the rest of the Moro's treasures, including a sum of 30,000 ducats, his vast stores of gold and silver plate, and all Duchess Beatrice's rich clothes and possessions, were left in the Castello, which was provided with ample supplies of food and ammunition, and defended by 1800 guns and a garrison of 2800 men, who had received six months' pay in advance. These the duke entrusted solemnly to the charge of the governor, Bernardino da Corte, leaving him full instructions as to his future course of action, and a system of signals by which he could communicate with friends in the town, and telling him that he would return with 30,000 Germans before a month was over. Both Ascanio Sforza and Galeazzo di Sanseverino, it is said, entertained doubts of Bernardino da Corte's fidelity, and warned the duke not to leave him without a colleague in this responsible office; but Lodovico did not share their fears, and trusted implicitly in the loyalty of this servant, whom he had advanced from a humble position to fill this responsible post and loaded with favours.

After his children were gone, Lodovico drew up a last deed, by which he left certain of his lands and houses to his friends in Milan, and made reparation to others whom he had wronged. Chief among these was the widowed Duchess Isabella, to whom he gave his own duchy of Bari, in the kingdom of Naples, with a yearly revenue of 6000 ducats in place of her dowry. He restored the lands of Angleria and the fortress of Arona to the Borromeos, gave poor Beatrice's favourite country house of Villa Nuova to Battista Visconti, and divided his different domains among the chief representatives of noble Milanese families, in the hope of securing their allegiance. While he was engaged in this final disposal of his property, a deputation arrived to inform him that a meeting had been held that day in the Dominican hall of La Rosa, at which the Bishop of Como, Landriano, general of the Umiliati, Castiglione, Archbishop of Bari, and Francesco Bernardino Visconti were chosen to form a provisional committee of public safety, and that these councillors had decided to make terms with Trivulzio and admit the French. The duke said that he still put his trust in the people; upon which Visconti asked him why, if this were the case, he had sent his sons and his treasure away? "If you surrender the city to the French," replied the duke, "I will hold the Castello for the emperor." It was his last word. In vain Galeazzo urged him to put himself at the head of his loyal servants, and call upon the citizens of Milan to man the walls against the French and fight or die with their duke. It was already too late. While they were still speaking, news reached the Castello that the people had risen in tumultuous uproar, and that Galeazzo di Sanseverino's stables and the seneschal Ambrogio Ferrari's house had been sacked by the mob. The shops were closed, and the houses in the principal streets were barricaded. Terror and confusion prevailed everywhere, and Milan seemed in a state of siege. Lodovico now took leave of his faithful servants, and solemnly charged Bernardino da Corte to hold the Castello as a sacred trust. "As long as the Rocca holds out, I know that I shall return; but when that surrenders, the house of Sforza is doomed." With these words he kissed the castellan on the cheek, and, mounted on a black horse, in the long black mantle which he always wore since his wife's death, he rode out, accompanied by his chief senators to the Porta Vercellina. There he turned to his companions, and, with a noble and dignified air, thanked them once more for their faithful services, and bade them all farewell. "State con Dio—may God be with you," he said, and, with a last wave of his hand, put spurs to his black charger and rode off.

The sun was setting in the western sky, and the sorrowing courtiers thought that their master had gone to Como. But he alighted before the gates of S. Maria delle Grazie, and, throwing the reins to a page, entered the church where Beatrice was buried. There he knelt in prayer by the tomb of the wife whom he had loved so well and mourned so long—la sua amantissima duchessa—while the moments slipped away and his servants waited anxiously outside. At length he rose from his knees, took a last look at the fair face and form lying there in the deep repose of death, and left the church, accompanied by the weeping friars, who followed him with their tears and blessings to the door. Three times he turned round, while the tears streamed down his pale face, and looked at the stately pile, which held all that had been dearest to him in the world—where Leonardo had painted his Last Supper, and where Bianca and Beatrice slept together. Then, in the dusk of the summer evening, he rode slowly back through the park and gardens of the Castello.

At break of day on the following morning, Monday, the 2nd of September, Duke Lodovico, accompanied by his son-in-law, Galeazzo di Sanseverino, his nephews, Ermes and the Count of Melzi, and his brother-in-law, Ippolito d'Este, and attended by a few armed horsemen, left Milan and rode to Como. Here the fugitives spent the night, and the duke issued a last decree, by which he confirmed the privileges and grants of land which he had granted to the friars of S. Maria delle Grazie. Then he told the loyal citizens of Como that he would soon return at the head of a German army, and rode along the banks of the lake to the mountains of the Valtellina. Often on the road he looked back at the blue waters and lovely shores of that native land which he had been so proud to call his own, and, at last, addressing his companions in the words of the Roman poet, said sorrowfully, "Nos patriam fugimus et dulcia linquimus arva."

"Only think, reader," moralizes Marino Sanuto, "what grief and shame so great and glorious a lord, who had been held to be the wisest of monarchs and ablest of rulers, must have felt at losing so splendid a state in these few days, without a single stroke of the sword.... Let those who are in high places take warning, considering the miserable fall of this lord, who was held by many to be the greatest prince in the world, and let them remember that when Fortune sets you on the top of her wheel, she may at any moment bring you to the ground, and then the closer you have been to heaven, the greater and the more sudden will be your fall."

Already Ligny's horsemen were scouring the country round Como in pursuit of the fugitive, and reports reached Venice that the duke had been captured and Galeazzo slain. By this time, however, Lodovico had crossed the frontier and was safe on Tyrolese soil. At Bormio he met 2000 German troops, who were marching to his relief; and when he reached Innsbruck, he found that the Empress Bianca had prepared rooms for his reception, and received kindly messages from Maximilian, promising him more efficient support as soon as he had settled his quarrel with the Swiss.

Meanwhile Pavia had opened her gates to the French, upon hearing news of the duke's flight, Trivulzio had taken possession of the Castello, and Ligny was occupying the Certosa, while Jean d'Auton knew not whether to wonder most at the rich marbles and sumptuous chapels of the great church, or the vast herds of red deer which roamed in the park.

"Truly," the good Benedictine exclaimed, as he wandered through these flowery meadows with their banks of roses and myrtles, and clear springs of running water—"truly, this is Paradise upon earth!"

On the 6th of September, after a feeble effort on the part of the Milanese nobles to preserve the rights and liberties of the city, the keys were given up to Trivulzio, who entered by the Porta Ticinese with Ligny and two hundred horse, and, after visiting the Duomo, breakfasted in the house of his kinsman, the Bishop of Como.

The Count of Caiazzo had gone out to meet Trivulzio the day before, and had been received with great honour, while his brothers Fracassa and Antonio Maria took refuge with Giovanni Adorno at Genoa, and waited to see how the tide would turn.

Still the Castello held out, and Trivulzio was debating how best to reduce this almost impregnable citadel, when Bernardino da Corte sent a herald to parley with Francesco Bernardino Visconti. At the end of a few days the faithless governor agreed to surrender the Castello, in exchange for a large sum of money and the concession of various privileges for his family and friends. On the 22nd, letters from the duke arrived, telling the castellan to be of good cheer, for the German troops were on their way. But when they reached Milan, the Castello was already in the hands of the French. The treasures of gold and silver plate which the Rocca contained, the money and the precious stuffs, the pictures and statues and furniture which adorned its Camerini, were divided between the treacherous governor, Francesco Visconti, and Antonio Pallavicini, while Trivulzio reserved Lodovico's magnificent tapestries, that alone were valued at 150,000 ducats, for his share of the spoil. Then the wonders of antique and modern art which the Moro had collected from all parts of Italy, the paintings of Leonardo and the gems of Caradosso, the Greek marbles and Roman cameos, Lorenzo da Pavia's rare instruments and Antonio da Monza's miniatures, were scattered to the winds. Certain things—the gorgeous altar-plate and vestments of the chapel, with the priceless manuscripts of the Castello of Pavia, and most of the Sforza portraits—were taken to Blois, others found their way to Venice or Mantua, and many fell into unworthy hands and vanished altogether.

Lodovico was lying ill of asthma in the castle at Innsbruck, discussing the best means of relieving the Castello with Galeazzo, when the news of Bernardino da Corte's treachery reached him. For some minutes he remained silent, as if unable to realize the full meaning of the words. Then he said to the friends at his bedside, "Since the day of Judas there has never been so black a traitor as Bernardino da Corte." And all the rest of that day he never spoke again.

Even the French were filled with horror at Bernardino's treachery, and shunned him like a criminal when he appeared among them. As for his old friends and comrades, the poets and scholars of Lodovico's court, their indignation knew no bounds, Lancinus Curtius hurled bitter epigrams at his head, and Pistoia held him up to the scorn of the whole world in some of his finest sonnets. He did not live long to enjoy the reward of his treachery and it was popularly believed in Italy that he had poisoned himself in his despair, or put an end to his wretched life by falling upon his own sword. Even Charon, sang the poet, shuddered when he heard the traitor's name, and refused to let him enter the gates of Hades.

When the news of the conquest of Milan reached Lyons, Louis XII. crossed the Alps without delay. On the 21st of September he was at Vercelli; on the 26th, at Lodovico's favourite Vigevano; on the 2nd of October he reached Pavia, where the Marquis of Mantua and the Duke of Ferrara, who feared the Pope's vengeance and Caesar Borgia's army even more than the French, came to meet him.

"Duke Ercole and his two sons," wrote the Ferrarese annalist, "are gone to meet the King of France. As for the Duke of Milan, his name is never mentioned, and you might think that he had never lived."

On Sunday, the 6th of October, he made his triumphal entry into Milan, with the Dukes of Ferrara and Savoy riding at his side; the Cardinals della Rovere and d'Amboise were in front of him; and ambassadors from all the chief cities of Italy, and a goodly array of princes and nobles, in his train. Francesco Gonzaga, who had so lately been Duke Lodovico's guest, was there. And there, too, were men like Caiazzo and Fracassa, who had eaten and drunk at the Moro's table, and were fighting under his banner only a few weeks before, and with them one, who was still more closely associated with Lodovico and his wife by the ties of blood and friendship—Niccolo da Correggio, the favourite courtier and poet of the Moro, and the cousin of Beatrice.

Conspicuous among them all by his height and majestic bearing was the Pope's son, Caesar Borgia, while the king himself made a gallant show in his long white mantle embroidered with golden lilies over a suit of royal purple, bearing the ducal cap and sword. Eight Milanese nobles carried an ermine-lined canopy over his head, and the doctors of the University of Pavia were there in their scarlet robes, as they appeared a few short years before at Lodovico's coronation. Fair ladies in gay attire welcomed the victor with their smiles. Everywhere tall white lilies were seen blossoming in the streets that led to the Duomo—Notre Dame du Dome, as the monkish chronicler calls the glorious pile of dazzling marbles that rose into the summer air. Here the procession paused, and the king walked up the vaulted aisles to pay his devotions at the Madonna's shrine. Then he rode on again, to the sound of trumpets and horns, and the royal guard of Gascon archers led the way up the well-known street, with the frescoed palaces and goldsmiths and armourers' shops, to the gates of the famous Castello, where the victor entered and took up his abode in this proud citadel of the Sforzas, the core and centre of the Milanese.

In the eyes of the French strangers it was all very marvellous—the beautiful city with its stately palaces and hospitals, and the fair churches with their Gothic spires and pinnacles, their slender creamy shafts and deep red terra-cotta mouldings; the Milanese ladies with their jewelled robes and mantles embroidered with cunningly wrought devices, the flowering lilies and the garlands of laurel and myrtle—all seen under the radiant sunshine and the deep blue of the Italian skies. But what excited their admiration and wonder more than all was the Castello.

"A thing," writes one of them, "truly marvellous and inestimable, with so many large and beautiful rooms that I lost all reckoning. Without are broad lakes, fair running streams, and bridges. There is a fine large square on the side of the town, and on the other are beautiful meadows and woods and the chateau, where the Moro had his stables, painted with frescoes of different-coloured horses."

King Louis wondered most of all at the strength and completeness of the bastions and excellence of the artillery, exclaiming that never before had he seen so strong and splendid a citadel! And he and all the Frenchmen greatly blamed that second Judas, who had betrayed his master and delivered it up without a blow.

The next morning, his Majesty attended mass at S. Ambrogio, accompanied by the Dukes of Ferrara and Savoy, the Marquis of Mantua, Caesar Borgia, and all the cardinals and ambassadors, and afterwards visited the church and convent of S. Maria delle Grazie. Here he gazed with admiration on the Cenacolo of Leonardo, that master of whose genius he had heard so much, and expressed his ardent wish to transfer the famous wall-painting to France, a sentiment which can hardly have gratified the Dominican friars or the Italian princes in his train. The painter was not present on this occasion. His master had fled, the works upon which he was engaged were all interrupted, and on the approach of the French he had left Milan for one of his favourite country retreats in the hills of Bergamo or the mountains of Como, where he could study Nature and pursue his scientific researches in peace. And the French king and Caesar Borgia, whose genuine appreciation of fine art was well known, did not fail to admire Bramante's fair chapel and that latest masterpiece of Lombard sculpture, the noble tomb which the Moro had raised to be an eternal memorial of his love and sorrow. There were others in his train that day who could hardly look unmoved on the sleeping form of the young duchess with the child-like face and the brocade robes which Il Gobbo had fashioned with such exquisite skill. There was her brother-in-law, Francesco Gonzaga, and Niccolo da Correggio, in whose heart that fair face and bright eyes, he tells us, were for ever enshrined; there were her brothers, Alfonso and Ferrante; above all, there was her father, the aged Duke Ercole. The sight of that marble figure, with the soft curling hair and the long fringe of eyelashes and quietly folded hands, must have vividly recalled the memory of his dead child, and of all the joy and brightness that had vanished in the grave with Beatrice. For him at least that must have been a bitter moment.

And there was yet another, young Baldassare Castiglione, that courtly and handsome boy who had been sent to Milan a few years before to finish his education, and had now followed his master, the Marquis of Mantua, to wait upon the French king. He had been present many a time at those brilliant fetes in the Castello, and had seen Duchess Beatrice in her most radiant and triumphant hour, had talked with Leonardo and Bramante, and looked on Messer Galeaz as the mirror of chivalry. Now he came back to find the scene changed and that gay company all dead or gone. And the next day he sat down to write home to Mantua and tell his mother of all the pomp and splendour of the scenes which he had witnessed. He described the king's triumphal entry, and the great procession in which he had taken part, with all a boy's enthusiasm; but he could not refrain from a sigh over the melancholy change in the Castello, when he told her how these halls and courts, that had once been the home and meeting-place of rare intellects and accomplished artists, "the fine flower of the human race," were now full of drinking-booths and dung-hills—of rude soldiery, who defiled the place with their foul habits and polluted the air with their savage oaths. So passes the glory of the world.

FOOTNOTES:

[78] L. Pelissier, op. cit.



CHAPTER XXX

Louis XII. in Milan—Hatred of the French rule—Return of Duke Lodovico —His march to Como and triumphal entry into Milan—Trivulzio and the French retire to Mortara—Surrender of the Castello of Milan, of Pavia and Novara, to the Moro—His want of men and money—Arrival of La Tremouille's army—Lodovico besieged in Novara and betrayed to the French king by the Swiss—Rejoicings at Rome and Venice—Triumph of the Borgias—Sufferings of the Milanese—Leonardo's letter.

1499-1500

During the next month Louis XII. remained in the Castello of Milan, joining in hunting-parties with his guests, the Duke of Ferrara and the Marquis of Mantua, and being royally entertained at banquets by the Viscontis and Borromeos and Giangiacomo Trivulzio. Isabella d'Este, eager to ingratiate herself with the French, invited Ligny to visit her, and sent dogs and falcons, as well as trout from Garda, to the king, who told La Tremouille that he had never tasted better fish. And when Cardinal d'Amboise expressed his admiration for Andrea Mantegna's art and told the marquis that in his opinion he was the first master in the world, Isabella hastened to promise him a picture by the great Paduan's hand.

It was a sad time for the followers of Lodovico. The faithful servants who had followed him into exile, saw their lands and houses confiscated and divided among the victors. The Count of Ligny's mother occupied the Marchesino Stanga's house, and Trivulzio's triumph over his rivals was complete when he received the Moro's palace of Vigevano and Messer Galeazzo's fair domain of Castel Novo as his share of the spoils. But no one suffered more keenly or shed more bitter tears than Giangaleazzo's widow, Duchess Isabella. She had unwisely declined Lodovico's advice to leave Milan when the war broke out, and take refuge on her uncle Frederic's galleys at Genoa. Instead of this, she remained in Milan and sent her son, a child of eight, whom contemporaries describe as beautiful as a cherub, but weak in mind, like his father, to meet Louis XII. on his arrival at the Castello. But, to her dismay, the king refused to allow the young prince to return to his mother, and when he left Milan on the 7th of November, he took the boy with him to France, and made him Abbot of Noirmoutiers, where he lived in retirement until, twelve years later, he broke his neck out hunting. After her son's departure, the unhappy mother, who signed herself "Ysabella de Aragonia Sforcia unica in disgrazia" in letters of this period, finally left Milan. Early in 1500 she paid a visit to Isabella d'Este at Mantua, and then travelled by sea from Genoa to Naples, and spent the rest of her life in her principality of Bari. One of her daughters died as a child; the other, Bona, was betrothed to her cousin, Maximilian Sforza, when, in 1512, he was restored to his father's throne. It was Isabella's cherished dream that her last remaining child should reign over the duchy of Milan, where, after all, her own brightest days had been spent; but before the marriage could take place, the young duke had been compelled to abdicate his throne and taken captive to France. His betrothed bride, Princess Bona, married Sigismund, King of Poland, in 1518, and six years later her mother died at Naples.

After Louis XII. left Milan, the severity of Trivulzio's rule, and the violence and rapacity of the French soldiery, led to increasing discontent among the people, who sighed for the good old days of Duke Lodovico, when at least their life and property, and the honour of their wives and daughters, were safe. Even on the day of the French king's entry, Marino Sanuto remarks that Louis was displeased to find how few of the people cried "France!" while the Venetians were greeted with shouts of "Dogs!" and hardly dared show themselves in the streets. "We have given the king his dinner," said a Milanese citizen; "you will be served up for his supper!" Already, on the 21st of September, the annalist of Ferrara wrote: "The French are hated in Milan for their rudeness and arrogance." And a private letter, written by a Venetian from Milan, in October, confirms Castiglione's account of the confusion and disorder that reigned in the Castello.

"The French are dirty people. The king goes to hear mass without a single candle, and eats alone, in the eyes of all the people. In the Castello there is nothing but foulness and dirt, such as Signor Lodovico would not have allowed for the whole world! The French captains spit upon the floor of the rooms, and the soldiers outrage women in the streets. The Ducheto has been taken from his mother, who weeps all day long. Galeazzo is with Lodovico, Caiazzo with King Louis, Fracassa and Antonio Maria are at Ferrara, and keep up an active correspondence with Lodovico and Galeazzo."[79]

Meanwhile, at Innsbruck, the exiled duke was anxiously watching the course of events, and awaiting a favourable moment to return and claim his own. "I will beat the drum in winter and dance all the summer," was the motto which he adopted, together with the device of a tambourine, in reference to his future hopes. A letter which the well-known preacher, Celso Maffei of Verona, addressed to him, moralizing over the causes of his fall, and exhorting him to observe the laws of public and private justice, gave Lodovico an opportunity of issuing a manifesto to his adherents. In this curious document he defends his conduct, and declares that he has no reason to reproach himself for anything in his past life. He has always led a Christian life, given abundant alms, listened to frequent masses, and said many prayers, especially since the death of his dear wife Beatrice. He has ever had a strict regard for justice, no complaint of his subjects has ever been left unheard, and since his fall, no one has ever reproached him with injustice excepting the Borromeos, whose alleged wrongs he explains, in a manner to justify his own action. His whole desire has been to love his subjects as his own children, and seek peace and prosperity for his realm. If he raised heavy taxes, it was only in order to defend his people from their enemies, and he never waged war excepting to resist the invasion of hostile armies. Whatever mistakes he may have made, the Milanese have never had reason to complain of him, and have proved this by their fidelity, only a few captains having sold the fortresses in their charge and joined the French. And in conclusion he appeals to his old subjects to restore him once more to the throne of his ancestors.

His appeal was not in vain. Niccolo della Bussola and the architect Jacopo da Ferrara, Leonardo's friend, arrived at Innsbruck in December, bringing the duke word of the disaffection that reigned in Milan, and of the prayers that were daily offered up for his return. Cheered by these tidings, Lodovico determined to leave nothing undone on his part. He pawned his jewels and began to raise forces both in the Tyrol and Switzerland. In his eagerness to find allies, he applied to Henry VII. of England, and even invited the Turks to attack the Venetians in Friuli. Maximilian helped him with men and money, as far as his slender resources would allow, and summoned the German Diet to meet at Augsburg in February, in the hope of obtaining support from the electors. But the Moro's impatience could brook no delay. At Christmas he came to Brixen, and there succeeded in collecting a force of eight or ten thousand Swiss and German Landsknechten, supported by a body of Stradiots and his own Milanese horse. At the head of this little army, Lodovico left Brixen on the 24th of January, and set out on his gallant but ill-fated attempt to recover his dominions.

Meanwhile Girolamo Landriano, the General of the Umiliati, who had been the first to yield Milan to the French, was actively engaged in plotting the restoration of Lodovico, with the help of the leading ecclesiastics in the city. "To say the truth," writes Jean d'Auton, "the whole duchy of Milan was secretly in favour of Lodovico, and all the Lombards were swollen with poison, and ready like vipers to shoot out the deadly venom of their treason." A general rising was fixed for Candlemas Day, but so well was the secret kept, that not a whisper reached the vigilant ears of Trivulzio, and all remained quiet until the last few days of January. On the 24th, a band of children at play, engaged in a mimic fight between the supposed French and Milanese armies, ending with the rout of the French and a procession in which the effigy of King Louis was dragged through the streets tied to a donkey's tail. Some French soldiers, who witnessed the scene, fired on the children, killing one and wounding others, upon which the citizens rose in arms, and drove the foreigners back into the Castello. This was followed by a more serious riot on the 31st of January, and Trivulzio gave orders for a general disarming of the people, which, however, he was unable to enforce. Already news had reached Como that the Moro had crossed the Alps, and was on his way to Milan.

The course of Lodovico's victorious march is best described in a letter which he addressed to his sister-in-law, Isabella d'Este, on the day after his triumphal entry into his old capital.

"ILLUSTRIOUS LADY AND DEAREST SISTER,

"On the 24th of last month we left Brixen by the grace of God, and crossed Monte Braulio into the Valtellina with a body of Landsknechten. Monsignore the Vice-chancellor, Messer Galeaz, and Messer Visconti, went on before with the Swiss and Grison infantry, by way of Coire and Chiavenna, and reached the lake of Como on the 30th. Here M. Galeaz fitted out eleven ships, with which he attacked and put to flight the enemy's fleet, and took a fortress occupied by the French. Both the Castle of Bellagio and the town of Torno surrendered to His Reverence, who pushed on with his troops to Como, where he met Monsignore Sanseverino arriving from the Valtellina, and the two cardinals together did the rest. Monsieur de Ligny and the Count of Musocho"—Trivulzio's son—"who held the town with 1500 horse, fled at the approach of the two Monsignori, knowing the feeling of the people, and his Eminence entered Como amidst the greatest rejoicing in the world. M. Galeaz and his light horse pursued the enemy, and Monsignore pushed on towards Milan, hearing from our friends there that his arrival was impatiently desired. On Friday, the last of January, some of the people rose in arms, and M. Gian Giacomo fortified the Corte Vecchia and the Duomo, and, with 2000 infantry, marched through the streets of the armourers, the builders, and the hatters, to make a public demonstration. But our friends waited, knowing that the right moment had not yet come. On Sunday, the 2nd, the French captains, hearing of the cardinals' approach, and knowing the strong feeling in the city, assembled their troops early on the Piazza of the Castello. Our friends were well prepared, and at the same moment all the bells rang, and the whole city rose in arms. More than 60,000 people attacked the French, and drove them back into the Castello, where they spent the night, without forage for their horses, and on Monday morning, the day before yesterday, they fled from Milan in terror. The bridges had been broken down to hinder their passage, but, luckily for them, the Ticino was low, and they crossed the bed of the river, and retired to Gaiata in safety. And on Monday the Vice-chancellor entered Milan, amidst universal rejoicing, and endeavoured to give chase to the French army, but had not a sufficient number of horse to effect his object.

"On Monday morning we reached Como, after taking possession of the castle on the rock of Musso, and were joyfully received all along the lake, by the chief citizens and gentlemen of the district, who came out in boats to meet us. At the gates of the city, the whole population received us with incredible rejoicing and loud acclamations. Yesterday we slept at Mirabello, a house of the Landriani, about a mile out of Milan. All the way from Como crowds of gentlemen and citizens streamed out to meet us on foot or on horseback, in continually increasing numbers, and cries of Moro! Moro! and shouts of joy greeted our steps, whichever way we turned. This morning at sunrise we left Mirabello, and entered the suburb of the Porta Nova, at the hour indicated by our astrologer, but alighted at Gian Francesco da Vimercato's garden, and waited there a little while, to give the gentlemen time to meet us, and enter the city.

"The two cardinals rode out to meet us, and Messer Galeaz and many gentlemen, with a great number of men-at-arms on foot and horseback, and we marched all through the city and up to the Duomo. All the streets and windows and roofs were thronged with people shouting our name, with such rapture that it would be a thing almost incredible if we had not seen it ourselves. And so with universal rejoicing we have returned here, by the grace of God, and already we hear that Lodi, Piacenza, Pavia, Tortona, and Alessandria have driven out the French, and returned of their own free will to our allegiance. The castle of Trezzo has surrendered, and that of Cassano has been fortified in our name by the Marchesino, and all the towns on the Venetian frontier have declared for us, and before long we hope to have recovered the whole state. The Castello here is still held by 300 French soldiers, but it is badly provided with victuals and fuel, and although they have saltpetre, there is no charcoal to make gunpowder, so we are in good hope of recovering the place, but do not mean to let this delay us for a moment in pursuing our victorious course. The enemy is in full retreat, and we mean to drive them back to the mountain passes, and have already sent M. Galeaz early this morning with the infantry, and all the horse that we have, in their pursuit. Monsignore Sanseverino is gone to-day, and we follow to-morrow with all the horse we can collect and a good number of infantry, the better to carry out our plans. We hear that the soldiers, which were in Romagna, to the number of 250 lances, besides infantry, have been recalled, and have reached Parma, and feel sure that your lord, the Marquis of Mantua, and our other allies will pursue them, and with their help, and the general rising of the people, we trust to obtain complete victory. We tell your Highness these things the more gladly because we feel sure that you have been grieved for our trouble, and will rejoice with us at these fortunate successes. You will forgive me for not writing in my own hand, because of pressing engagements.

"LODOVICUS MARIA SFORTIA, Anglus Dux Mediolani, etc., B. Chalcus.

Milan, February 5, 1500."[80]

At the same time Lodovico wrote to Francesco Gonzaga—

"This morning we entered Milan, and it would be impossible to describe the immense jubilation of the whole city and all classes of people, or the extraordinary demonstrations of affection and good-will that we have received on all sides. Our intention is to follow up our victory with the utmost speed, to effect the complete destruction of our enemies, and secure the passes neglecting no precaution. To-day we have sent Monsignore Sanseverino on with ten thousand Germans, and intend to follow with the remaining forces ourselves to-morrow. I hope your Highness will attack and destroy the troops on their way from Romagna, and if they are already gone, join with the forces of our allies and the men of the country in their pursuit, according to the orders that we have already issued."

This sudden revolution took all Italy by surprise. When couriers arrived in Mantua and Ferrara, saying that Duke Lodovico had that day entered Milan in triumph, people refused to believe the news. But it was true. "The Moro has returned," wrote Jean d'Auton, "and has entered Milan, where he has been received as if he were a God from heaven, great and small shouting Moro! with one accord. Verily these Lombards seem to adore him. One and all implore him to drive out the French and become their prince again." When the people saw the well-known form of their old duke riding through the streets, clad in rich crimson damask, their enthusiasm knew no bounds. The two cardinals were at his side, and Messer Galeazzo rode behind him, in a suit of glittering brocade, with tall white plumes in his cap and white shoes, "better fitted," remarks the chronicler, "for the service of Venus than for that of Mars." They took up their abode in the old palace of the Corte Vecchia, near the Duomo, since the Castello was in the hands of the enemy, and the duke issued a proclamation, calling on all loyal subjects to restore the pictures, hangings, and other rare and precious objects, which had been taken from the Castello. The wealthy citizens parted freely with their gold and jewels, the Prior and friars of S. Maria delle Grazie melted down their sumptuous altar-plate, and the canons of the Duomo brought the duke those costly gifts which he had made them in his days of prosperity. Having thus succeeded in raising 100,000 ducats, Lodovico assembled the councillors, and harangued them in eloquent language, reminding them of all they had suffered from the French tyranny, and calling on them to join him in delivering their land from this intolerable yoke. "I, too, have been guilty of mistakes and faults in the past," he added, "but I will repair them. All I ask is to be your captain, not your lord. Help me to drive out the stranger."

Before the week was over, Jacopo Andrea and his friends had succeeded in obtaining the capitulation of the French garrison, and the Castello was occupied by Cardinal Ascanio, whom Lodovico left with a small force at Milan, while he himself went on to Pavia. It was on one of the few days which he spent in Milan that his meeting with the Chevalier Bayard took place, as recorded in the joyous chronicle of the loyal servant. After a skirmish with some of Messer Galeazzo's horse at Binasco, the young French knight who had been too eager in the pursuit of his foes was taken prisoner, and brought before the duke at Milan. Lodovico, wondering at his youth, asked him what brought him in such hurried guise to Milan, and ended by restoring his sword and horse, and sending him back to his friends under the escort of a herald, to tell Ligny of the courteous treatment which he had received from the Moro, and to say what a gallant gentleman Duke Lodovico was—"qui pour peu de chose n'est pas aise a etonner."

At Pavia the Moro was received with the same enthusiastic joy, and during the fortnight that he remained there the Castello was bombarded and taken by his artillery. The next week his native town of Vigevano welcomed him with open arms, and the French garrison was forced to quit the citadel. But the Venetians held Lodi and Piacenza, and the Duke of Ferrara and Marquis of Mantua, however much they wished their kinsman well, and secretly disliked the French, did not dare to incur their vengeance by any rash action. In vain the Moro wrote passionate appeals to Francesco Gonzaga from Pavia and Vigevano, urging him to come to his help before it was too late, and pointing out how the safety and well-being of Mantua depended upon that of Milan. All the marquis ventured to do was to send his brother Giovanni, with a troop of horse, to help Lodovico in the siege of Novara, which he now attacked with the aid of fifty pieces of artillery sent from Innsbruck.

Meanwhile his foes were every day gaining strength. King Louis had hastily collected a large army of French lances and Swiss mercenaries under La Tremouille at Asti, who entered Lombardy, and marched to relieve Trivulzio and Ligny at Mortara. On the other hand, the French troops who had gone with Yves d'Allegre to assist Caesar Borgia in the siege of Forli and conquest of Romagna, speedily retraced their steps to relieve the garrison of Novara. But they could not hold out against the furious assaults of the Germans and Burgundians, and on the 21st of March the castle surrendered, and the garrison marched out with the honours of war. Two days afterwards La Tremouille reached Vercelli at the head of his powerful army, and succeeded in effecting a junction with Trivulzio's forces. This put an end to the Moro's brilliant successes, and it became evident to all that the unequal contest could not be maintained much longer. Seeing himself outnumbered and surrounded on all sides, Lodovico threw himself into Novara, and early in April was besieged there in his turn. But the Swiss, who formed the bulk of his force, murmured because they were not allowed to pillage the towns, and began to communicate secretly with their comrades in the hostile camp. The Moro had sent Galeazzo Visconti to Berne, and at his request the Helvetian Diet issued orders to the Swiss in both armies, forbidding them to fight against their comrades. But the French envoy, Antoine de Bussy, bribed the herald who bore the message to Novara, and only the Swiss in the Moro's service received orders to lay down their arms. The result was that when Lodovico's captains led them out to meet the enemy, they refused to fight, and withdrew in confusion into the city. In vain the duke offered them his silver plate and jewels, till he could obtain money from Milan, and begged them to return to the battle. In vain Galeazzo, at the head of his Lombards, charged the foe gallantly, killing many of them with his artillery and putting the others to flight. He and his brothers fought desperately, till the sword was broken in Galeazzo's hands and Fracassa was badly wounded. But all their heroism was of no avail. Trivulzio was already in secret treaty with the Swiss, who sent a deputy to the French camp, asking for leave to lay down their arms and return to their own country.

Antonio Grumello, who was in Novara at the time, describes how late one evening, when the duke sat playing chess with Fracassa in the bishop's palace, where he lodged, a spy was led in, who told him that Trivulzio had boasted that the Moro would be his captive in less than a fortnight. "What do you say?" asked Lodovico of Almodoro, the astrologer, who had followed him into exile. But Almodoro shook his head. It was impossible; no planet foretold such a disaster; on the contrary, all the signs were propitious, and he spoke confidently of coming victory. "On Wednesday in Holy Week," continued the chronicler, "the betrayal of Judas began." That day, as Galeazzo was preparing for another sally, the Swiss came to him in a body and laid down their arms, saying they would not fight against their comrades in the other camp. Already one of the gates had been treacherously opened, and the French were in the city. In this extremity an Albanian captain offered the duke a fleet Arab horse and begged him to escape. But Lodovico refused to desert his friends, and would only accept the proposal of the Swiss captains that he and his companions should assume the garb of common soldiers and mingle in the ranks. He covered his crimson silk vest and scarlet hose, hid his long hair under a tight cap, and took a halberd in his hand. In this disguise he was preparing to file out of the camp in the ranks of the Grison troops, when a Swiss captain named Turman, and called Soprasasso by the Italians, betrayed him to the French. The Swiss, it is said, received 30,000 ducats as the price of blood from Trivulzio, but were discontented with the sum, and quarrelled violently over the gold among themselves; while the traitor had his head cut off on his return home, and such were the execrations heaped upon him by his comrades, that his wife and children were forced to change their name. "E lo quello"—"There he is"—were the words in which Turman pointed Lodovico out to a French captain, who immediately laid his hand on the duke's arm and arrested him in the name of King Louis. "Son contento," replied Lodovico, calmly; and made no further resistance. "I surrender," he said afterwards, "to my kinsman, Monsignore de Ligny." Accordingly he was delivered to Ligny, who treated him with all respect, and provided him with a horse and apparel suited to his rank.