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This letter was the cause of great joy to the Holy Father: the
aid of
four or five thousand Turks would be insufficient under the
present
circumstances, and would only serve to compromise the head
of
Christendom, while the sum of 300,000 ducats—that is, nearly a
million
francs—was good to get in any sort of circumstances. It is true that,
so
long as D’jem lived, Alexander was drawing an income of 180,000
livres,
which as a life annuity represented a capital of nearly two
millions;
but when one needs ready mangy, one ought to be able to make a
sacrifice
in the way of discount. All the same, Alexander formed no definite
plan,
resolved on acting as circumstances should indicate.
But it was
a more pressing business to decide how he should behave to
the King of
France: he had never anticipated the success of the French
in Italy, and we
have seen that he laid all the foundations of his
family’s future grandeur
upon his alliance with the house of Aragon. But
here was this house
tattering, and a volcano more terrible than her own
Vesuvius was threatening
to swallow up Naples. He must therefore change
his policy, and attach himself
to the victor,—no easy matter, for
Charles VIII was bitterly annoyed with the
pope for having refused him
the investiture and given it to Aragon.
In
consequence, he sent Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini as an envoy to
the king.
This choice looked like a mistake at first, seeing that the
ambassador was a
nephew of Pius II, who had vigorously opposed the house
of Anjou; but
Alexander in acting thus had a second design, which could
not be discerned by
those around him. In fact, he had divined that
Charles would not be quick to
receive his envoy, and that, in the
parleyings to which his unwillingness
must give rise, Piccolomini would
necessarily be brought into contact with
the young king’s advisers. Now,
besides his ostensible mission to the king,
Piccalamini had also secret
instructions for the more influential among his
counsellors. These were
Briconnet and Philippe de Luxembourg; and Piccolomini
was authorised to
promise a cardinal’s hat to each of them. The result was
just what
Alexander had foreseen: his envoy could not gain admission to
Charles,
and was obliged to confer with the people about him. This was what
the
pope wished. Piccolomini returned to Rome with the king’s refusal,
but
with a promise from Briconnet and Philippe de Luxembourg that they
would
use all their influence with Charles in favour of the Holy Father,
and
prepare him to receive a fresh embassy.
But the French all this
time were advancing, and never stopped more than
forty-eight hours in any
town, so that it became more and more urgent to
get something settled with
Charles. The king had entered Siena and
Viterbo without striking a blow; Yves
d’ Alegre and Louis de Ligny had
taken over Ostia from the hands of the
Colonnas; Civita Vecchia and
Corneto had opened their gates; the Orsini had
submitted; even Gian
Sforza, the pope’s son-in-law, had retired from the
alliance with
Aragon. Alexander accordingly judged that the moment had came
to abandon
his ally, and sent to Charles the Bishops of Concordia and Terni,
and
his confessor, Mansignore Graziano. They were charged to renew
to
Briconnet and Philippe de Luxembourg the promise of the
cardinalship,
and had full powers of negotiation in the name of their master,
both in
case Charles should wish to include Alfonso II in the treaty, and
in
case he should refuse to sign an agreement with any other but the
pope
alone. They found the mind of Charles influenced now by the
insinuation
of Giuliano della Ravere, who, himself a witness of the pope’s
simony,
pressed the king to summon a council and depose the head of the
Church,
and now by the secret support given him by the Bishops of Mans and
St.
Malo. The end of it was that the king decided to form his own
opinion
about the matter and settle nothing beforehand, and continued
this
route, sending the ambassadors back to the pope, with the addition
of
the Marechal de Gie, the Seneschal de Beaucaire, and Jean de
Gannay,
first president of the Paris Parliament. They were ordered to say to
the
pope—
(1) That the king wished above all things to be admitted
into Rome
without resistance; that, an condition of a voluntary, frank,
and
loyal admission, he would respect the authority of the Holy
Father
and the privileges of the Church;
(2) That the king desired
that D’jem should be given up to him, in
order that he might make use
of him against the sultan when he
should carry the war into Macedonia
or Turkey or the Holy Land;
(3) That the remaining conditions were so
unimportant that they could
be brought forward at the first
conference.
The ambassadors added that the French army was now only two
days distant
from Rome, and that in the evening of the day after next Charles
would
probably arrive in person to demand an answer from His
Holiness.
It was useless to think of parleying with a prince who acted in
such
expeditious fashion as this. Alexander accordingly warned Ferdinand
to
quit Rome as soon as possible, in the interests of his own
personal
safety. But Ferdinand refused to listen to a word, and declared that
he
would not go out at one gate while Charles VIII came in at another.
His
sojourn was not long. Two days later, about eleven o’clock in
the
morning, a sentinel placed on a watch-tower at the top of the Castle
S.
Angelo, whither the pope had retired, cried out that the vanguard of
the
enemy was visible on the horizon. At once Alexander and the Duke
of
Calabria went up an the terrace which tops the fortress, and
assured
themselves with their own eyes that what the soldier said was
true.
Then, and not till then, did the duke of Calabria mount an
horseback,
and, to use his own words, went out at the gate of San Sebastiana,
at
the same moment that the French vanguard halted five hundred feet
from
the Gate of the People. This was on the 31st of December 1494.
At
three in the afternoon the whole army had arrived, and the vanguard
began
their march, drums beating, ensigns unfurled. It was composed,
says Paolo
Giove, an eye-witness (book ii, p. 41 of his History), of
Swiss and German
soldiers, with short tight coats of various colours:
they were armed with
short swords, with steel edges like those of the
ancient Romans, and carried
ashen lances ten feet long, with straight
and sharp iron spikes: only
one-fourth of their number bore halberts
instead of lances, the spikes cut
into the form of an axe and surmounted
by a four-cornered spike, to be used
both for cutting like an axe and
piercing like a bayonet: the first row of
each battalion wore helmets
and cuirasses which protected the head and chest,
and when the men were
drawn up for battle they presented to the enemy a
triple array of iron
spikes, which they could raise or lower like the spines
of a porcupine.
To each thousand of the soldiery were attached a hundred
fusiliers:
their officers, to distinguish them from the men, wore lofty
plumes on
their helmets.
After the Swiss infantry came the archers of
Gascony: there were five
thousand of them, wearing a very simple dress, that
contrasted with the
rich costume of the Swiss soldiers, the shortest of whom
would have been
a head higher than the tallest of the Gascons. But they were
excellent
soldiers, full of courage, very light, and with a special
reputation for
quickness in stringing and drawing their iron
bows.
Behind them rode the cavalry, the flower of the French nobility,
with
their gilded helmets and neck bands, their velvet and silk
surcoats,
their swords each of which had its own name, their shields each
telling
of territorial estates, and their colours each telling of a
lady-love.
Besides defensive arms, each man bore a lance in his hand, like
an
Italian gendarme, with a solid grooved end, and on his saddle bow
a
quantity of weapons, some for cutting and same for thrusting.
Their
horses were large and strong, but they had their tails and ears
cropped
according to the French custom. These horses, unlike those of
the
Italian gendarmes, wore no caparisons of dressed leather, which
made
them more exposed to attack. Every knight was followed by
three
horses—the first ridden by a page in armour like his own, the two
others
by equerries who were called lateral auxiliaries, because in a fray
they
fought to right and left of their chief. This troop was not only
the
most magnificent, but the most considerable in the whole army; for
as
there were 2500 knights, they formed each with their three followers
a
total of 10,000 men. Five thousand light horse rode next, who
carried
huge wooden bows, and shot long arrows from a distance like
English
archers. They were a great help in battle, for moving rapidly
wherever
aid was required, they could fly in a moment from one wing to
another,
from the rear to the van, then when their quivers were empty could
go
off at so swift a gallop that neither infantry or heavy cavalry
could
pursue them. Their defensive armour consisted of a helmet
and
half-cuirass; some of them carried a short lance as well, with which
to
pin their stricken foe to the ground; they all wore long cloaks
adorned
with shoulder-knots, and plates of silver whereon the arms of
their
chief were emblazoned.
At last came the young king’s escort;
there were four hundred archers,
among whom a hundred Scots formed a line on
each side, while two hundred
of the most illustrious knights marched on foot
beside the prince,
carrying heavy arms on their shoulders. In the midst of
this magnificent
escort advanced Charles VIII, both he and his horse covered
with
splendid armour; an his right and left marched Cardinal Ascanio
Sforza,
the Duke of Milan’s brother, and Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, of
whom
we have spoken so often, who was afterwards Pope Julius II.
The
Cardinals Colonna and Savelli followed immediately after, and
behind
them came Prospero and Fabrizia Colonna, and all the Italian princes
and
generals who had thrown in their lot with the conqueror, and
were
marching intermingled with the great French lords.
For a long
time the crowd that had collected to see all these foreign
soldiers go by, a
sight so new and strange, listened uneasily to a dull
sound which got nearer
and nearer. The earth visibly trembled, the glass
shook in the windows, and
behind the king’s escort thirty-six bronze
cannons were seen to advance,
bumping along as they lay on their
gun-carriages. These cannons were eight
feet in length; and as their
mouths were large enough to hold a man’s head,
it was supposed that each
of these terrible machines, scarcely known as yet
to the Italians,
weighed nearly six thousand pounds. After the cannons came
culverins
sixteen feet long, and then falconets, the smallest of which shot
balls
the size of a grenade. This formidable artillery brought up the rear
of
the procession, and formed the hindmost guard of the French
army.
It was six hours since the front guard entered the town; and as it
was
now night and for every six artillery-men there was a torch-bearer,
this
illumination gave to the objects around a more gloomy character
than
they would have shown in the sunlight. The young king was to take up
his
quarters in the Palazzo di Venezia, and all the artillery was
directed
towards the plaza and the neighbouring streets. The remainder of
the
army was dispersed about the town. The same evening, they brought to
the
king, less to do honour to him than to assure him of his safety,
the
keys of Rome and the keys of the Belvedere Garden just the same
thing
had been done for the Duke of Calabria.
The pope, as we said,
had retired to the Castle S. Angelo with only six
cardinals, so from the day
after his arrival the young king had around
him a court of very different
brilliance from that of the head of the
Church. Then arose anew the question
of a convocation to prove
Alexander’s simony and proceed to depose him; but
the king’s chief
counsellors, gained over, as we know, pointed out that this
was a bad
moment to excite a new schism in the Church, just when preparations
were
being made for war against the infidels. As this was also the
king’s
private opinion, there was not much trouble in persuading him, and
he
made up his mind to treat with His Holiness.
But the negotiations
had scarcely begun when they had to be broken off;
for the first thing
Charles VIII demanded was the surrender of the
Castle S. Angelo, and as the
pope saw in this castle his only refuge, it
was the last thing he chose to
give up. Twice, in his youthful
impatience, Charles wanted to take by force
what he could not get by
goodwill, and had his cannons directed towards the
Holy Father’s
dwelling-place; but the pope was unmoved by these
demonstrations; and
obstinate as he was, this time it was the French king who
gave way.
This article, therefore, was set aside, and the following
conditions
were agreed upon:
That there should be from this day
forward between His Majesty the King
of France and the Holy Father a sincere
friendship and a firm alliance;
Before the completion of the conquest of
the kingdom of Naples, the King
of France should occupy, for the advantage
and accommodation of his
army, the fortresses of Civita Vecchia, Terracina,
and Spoleto;
Lastly, the Cardinal Valentino (this was now the name of
Caesar Borgia,
after his archbishopric of Valencia) should accompany the king
in the
capacity of apostolic ambassador, really as a hostage.
These
conditions fixed, the ceremonial of an interview was arranged. The
king left
the Palazzo di Venezia and went to live in the Vatican. At the
appointed time
he entered by the door of a garden that adjoined the
palace, while the pope,
who had not had to quit the Castle S. Angelo,
thanks to a corridor
communicating between the two palaces, came down
into the same garden by
another gate. The result of this arrangement was
that the king the next
moment perceived the pope, and knelt down, but
the pope pretended not to see
him, and the king advancing a few paces,
knelt a second time; as His Holiness
was at that moment screened by some
masonry, this supplied him with another
excuse, and the king went on
with the performance, got up again, once mare
advanced several steps,
and was on the point of kneeling down the third time
face to face, when
the Holy Father at last perceived him, and, walking
towards him as
though he would prevent him from kneeling, took off his own
hat, and
pressing him to his heart, raised him up and tenderly kissed
his
forehead, refusing to cover until the king had put his cap upon
his
head, with the aid of the pope’s own hands. Then, after they had
stood
for a moment, exchanging polite and friendly speeches, the king lost
no
time in praying His Holiness to be so good as to receive into the
Sacred
College William Bricannet, the Bishop of St. Malo. As this matter
had
been agreed upon beforehand by that prelate and His Holiness, though
the
king was not aware of it, Alexander was pleased to get credit
by
promptly granting the request; and he instantly ordered one of
his
attendants to go to the house of his son, Cardinal Valentino, and
fetch
a cape and hat. Then taking the king by the hand, he conducted him
into
the hall of Papagalli, where the ceremony was to take place of
the
admission of the new cardinal. The solemn oath of obedience which was
to
be taken by Charles to His Holiness as supreme head of the
Christian
Church was postponed till the following day.
When that
solemn day arrived, every person important in Rome, noble,
cleric, or
soldier, assembled around His Holiness. Charles, on his side,
made his
approach to the Vatican with a splendid following of princes,
prelates, and
captains. At the threshold of the palace he found four
cardinals who had
arrived before him: two of them placed themselves one
on each side of him,
the two others behind him, and all his retinue
following, they traversed a
long line of apartments full of guards and
servants, and at last arrived in
the reception-room, where the pope was
seated on his throne, with his son,
Caesar Borgia; behind him. On his
arrival at the door, the King of France
began the usual ceremonial, and
when he had gone on from genuflexions to
kissing the feet, the hand, and
the forehead, he stood up, while the first
president of the Parliament
of Paris, in his turn stepping forward, said in a
loud voice:
"Very Holy Father, behold my king ready to offer to your
Holiness that
oath of obedience that he owes to you; but in France it is
customary
that he who offers himself as vassal to his lord shall receive
in
exchange therefor such boons as he may demand. His Majesty,
therefore,
while he pledges himself for his own part to behave unto your
Holiness
with a munificence even greater than that wherewith your Holiness
shall
behave unto him, is here to beg urgently that you accord him
three
favours. These favours are: first, the confirmation of
priveleges
already granted to the king, to the queen his wife, and to the
dauphin
his son; secondly, the investiture, for himself and his successors,
of
the kingdom of Naples; lastly, the surrender to him of the person of
the
sultan D’jem, brother of the Turkish emperor."
At this address the
pope was for a moment stupefied, for he did not
expect these three demands,
which were moreover made so publicly by
Charles that no manner of refusal was
possible. But quickly recovering
his presence of mind, he replied to the king
that he would willingly
confirm the privileges that had been accorded to the
house of France by
his predecessors; that he might therefore consider his
first demand
granted; that the investiture of the kingdom was an affair that
required
deliberation in a council of cardinals, but he would do all he
possibly
could to induce them to accede to the king’s desire; lastly, he
must
defer the affair of the sultan’s brother till a time more opportune
for
discussing it with the Sacred College, but would venture to say that,
as
this surrender could not fail to be for the good of Christendom, as
it
was demanded for the purpose of assuring further the success of
a
crusade, it would not be his fault if on this point also the king
should
not be satisfied.
At this reply, Charles bowed his head in sign
of satisfaction, and the
first president stood up, uncovered, and resumed his
discourse as
follows.
"Very Holy Father, it is an ancient custom among
Christian kings,
especially the Most Christian kings of France, to signify,
through their
ambassadors, the respect they feel for the Holy See and the
sovereign
pontiffs whom Divine Providence places thereon; but the Most
Christian
king, having felt a desire to visit the tombs of the holy apostles,
has
been pleased to pay this religious debt, which he regards as a
sacred
duty, not by ambassadors or by delegates, but in his own person. This
is
why, Very Holy Father, His Majesty the King of France is here
to
acknowledge you as the true vicar of Christ, the legitimate successor
of
the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and with promise and vow
renders
you that filial and respectful devotion which the kings his
predecessors
have been accustomed to promise and vow, devoting himself and
all his
strength to the service of your Holiness and the interests of the
Holy
See."
The pope arose with a joyful heart; for this oath, so
publicly made,
removed all his fears about a council; so inclined from this
moment to
yield to the King of France anything he might choose to ask, he
took him
by his left hand and made him a short and friendly reply, dubbing
him
the Church’s eldest son. The ceremony over, they left the hall, the
pope
always holding the king’s hand in his, and in this way they walked
as
far as the room where the sacred vestments are put off; the pope
feigned
a wish to conduct the king to his own apartments, but the king would
not
suffer this, and, embracing once more, they separated, each to retire
to
his own domicile.
The king remained eight days longer at the
Vatican, then returned to the
Palazzo San Marco. During these eight days all
his demands were debated
and settled to his satisfaction. The Bishop of Mans
was made cardinal;
the investiture of the kingdom of Naples was promised to
the conqueror;
lastly, it was agreed that on his departure the King of France
should
receive from the pope’s hand the brother of the Emperor
of
Constantinople, for a sum of 120,000 livres. But—the pope, desiring
to
extend to the utmost the hospitality he had been bestowing,
invited
D’jem to dinner on the very day that he was to leave Rome with his
new
protector.
When the moment of departure arrived, Charles mounted
his horse in full
armour, and with a numerous and brilliant following made
his way to the
Vatican; arrived at the door, he dismounted, and leaving his
escort at
the Piazza of St. Peter, went up with a few gentlemen only. He
found His
Holiness waiting for him, with Cardinal Valentino on his right, and
on
his left D’jem, who, as we said before, was dining with him, and
round
the table thirteen cardinals. The king at once, bending on his
knee,
demanded the pope’s benediction, and stooped to kiss his feet. But
this
Alexander would not suffer; he took him in his arms, and with the
lips
of a father and heart of an enemy, kissed him tenderly on his
forehead.
Then the pope introduced the son of Mahomet II, who was a fine
young
man, with something noble and regal in his air, presenting in
his
magnificent oriental costume a great contrast in its fashion
and
amplitude to the narrow, severe cut of the Christian apparel.
D’jem
advanced to Charles without humility and without pride, and, like
an
emperor’s son treating with a king, kissed his hand and then
his
shoulder; then, turning towards the Holy Father, he said in
Italian,
which he spoke very well, that he entreated he would recommend him
to
the young king, who was prepared to take him under his
protection,
assuring the pontiff that he should never have to repent giving
him his
liberty, and telling Charles that he hoped he might some day be proud
of
him, if after taking Naples he carried out his intention of going on
to
Greece. These words were spoken with so much dignity and at the
same
time with such gentleness, that the King of France loyally and
frankly
grasped the young sultan’s hand, as though he were
his
companion-in-arms. Then Charles took a final farewell of the pope,
and
went down to the piazza. There he was awaited by Cardinal Valentino,
who
was about to accompany him, as we know, as a hostage, and who
had
remained behind to exchange a few words with his father. In a
moment
Caesar Borgia appeared, riding on a splendidly harnessed mule,
and
behind him were led six magnificent horses, a present from the
Holy
Father to the King of France. Charles at once mounted one of these,
to
do honour to the gift. The pope had just conferred on him, and
leaving
Rome with the rest of his troops, pursued his way towards Marino,
where
he arrived the same evening.
He learned there that Alfonso,
belying his reputation as a clever
politician and great general, had just
embarked with all his treasures
in a flotilla of four galleys, leaving the
care of the war and the
management of his kingdom to his son Ferdinand. Thus
everything went
well for the triumphant march of Charles: the gates of towns
opened of
themselves at his approach, his enemies fled without waiting for
his
coming, and before he had fought a single battle he had won for
himself
the surname of Conqueror.
The day after at dawn the army
started once more, and after marching the
whole day, stopped in the evening
at Velletri. There the king, who had
been on horseback since the morning,
with Cardinal Valentine and D’jem,
left the former at his lodging, and taking
D’jem with him, went on to
his own. Then Caesar Borgia, who among the army
baggage had twenty very
heavy waggons of his own, had one of these opened,
took out a splendid
cabinet with the silver necessary for his table, and gave
orders for his
supper to be prepared, as he had done the night before.
Meanwhile, night
had come on, and he shut himself up in a private chamber,
where,
stripping off his cardinal’s costume, he put on a groom’s dress.
Thanks
to this disguise, he issued from the house that had been assigned
for
his accommodation without being recognised, traversed the
streets,
passed through the gates, and gained the open country. Nearly half
a
league outside the town, a servant awaited him with two swift
horses.
Caesar, who was an excellent rider, sprang to the saddle, and he and
his
companion at full gallop retraced the road to Rome, where they
arrived
at break of day. Caesar got down at the house of one Flores, auditor
of
the rota, where he procured a fresh horse and suitable clothes; then
he
flew at once to his mother, who gave a cry of joy when she saw him;
for
so silent and mysterious was the cardinal for all the world beside,
and
even for her, that he had not said a word of his early return to
Rome.
The cry of joy uttered by Rosa Vanozza when she beheld her son was
far
mare a cry of vengeance than of love. One evening, while everybody
was
at the rejoicings in the Vatican, when Charles VIII and Alexander
VI
were swearing a friendship which neither of them felt, and
exchanging
oaths that were broken beforehand, a messenger from Rosa Vanozza
had
arrived with a letter to Caesar, in which she begged him to come at
once
to her house in the Via delta Longara. Caesar questioned the
messenger,
but he only replied that he could tell him nothing, that he would
learn
all he cared to know from his mother’s own lips. So, as soon as he
was
at liberty, Caesar, in layman’s dress and wrapped in a large
cloak,
quitted the Vatican and made his way towards the church of Regina
Coeli,
in the neighbourhood of which, it will be remembered, was the
house
where the pope’s mistress lived.
As he approached his mother’s
house, Caesar began to observe the signs
of strange devastation. The street
was scattered with the wreck of
furniture and strips of precious stuffs. As
he arrived at the foot of
the little flight of steps that led to the entrance
gate, he saw that
the windows were broken and the remains of torn curtains
were fluttering
in front of them. Not understanding what this disorder could
mean, he
rushed into the house and through several deserted and
wrecked
apartments. At last, seeing light in one of the rooms, he went in,
and
there found his mother sitting on the remains of a chest made of
ebony
all inlaid with ivory and silver. When she saw Caesar, she rose,
pale
and dishevelled, and pointing to the desolation around her,
exclaimed:
"Look, Caesar; behold the work of your new
friends."
"But what does it mean, mother?" asked the cardinal. "Whence
comes all
this disorder?"
"From the serpent," replied Rosa Vanozza,
gnashing her teeth,—"from the
serpent you have warmed in your bosom. He has
bitten me, fearing no
doubt that his teeth would be broken on
you."
"Who has done this?" cried Caesar. "Tell me, and, by Heaven,
mother, he
shall pay, and pay indeed!"
"Who?" replied Rosa. "King
Charles VIII has done it, by the hands of his
faithful allies, the Swiss. It
was well known that Melchior was away,
and that I was living alone with a few
wretched servants; so they came
and broke in the doors, as though they were
taking Rome by storm, and
while Cardinal Valentino was making holiday with
their master, they
pillaged his mother’s house, loading her with insults and
outrages which
no Turks or Saracens could possibly have improved
upon."
"Very good, very good, mother," said Caesar; "be calm; blood shall
wash
out disgrace. Consider a moment; what we have lost is nothing
compared
with what we might lose; and my father and I, you may be quite
sure,
will give you back more than they have stolen from you."
"I ask
for no promises," cried Rosa; "I ask for revenge."
"My mother," said the
cardinal, "you shall be avenged, or I will lose
the name of
son."
Having by these words reassured his mother, he took her to
Lucrezia’s
palace, which in consequence of her marriage with Pesaro was
unoccupied,
and himself returned to the Vatican, giving orders that his
mother’s
house should be refurnished more magnificently than before the
disaster.
These orders were punctually executed, and it was among her
new
luxurious surroundings, but with the same hatred in her heart,
that
Caesar on this occasion found his mother. This feeling prompted her
cry
of joy when she saw him once more.
The mother and son exchanged a
very few words; then Caesar, mounting on
horseback, went to the Vatican,
whence as a hostage he had departed two
days before. Alexander, who knew of
the flight beforehand, and not only
approved, but as sovereign pontiff had
previously absolved his son of
the perjury he was about to commit, received
him joyfully, but all the
same advised him to lie concealed, as Charles in
all probability would
not be slow to reclaim his hostage:
Indeed, the
next day, when the king got up, the absence of Cardinal
Valentino was
observed, and as Charles was uneasy at not seeing him, he
sent to inquire
what had prevented his appearance. When the messenger
arrived at the house
that Caesar had left the evening before, he learned
that he had gone out at
nine o’clock in the evening and not returned
since. He went back with this
news to the king, who at once suspected
that he had fled, and in the first
flush of his anger let the whole army
know of his perjury. The soldiers then
remembered the twenty waggons, so
heavily laden, from one of which the
cardinal, in the sight of all, had
produced such magnificent gold and silver
plate; and never doubting that
the cargo of the others was equally precious,
they fetched them down and
broke them to pieces; but inside they found
nothing but stones and sand,
which proved to the king that the flight had
been planned a long time
back, and incensed him doubly against the pope. So
without loss of time
he despatched to Rome Philippe de Bresse, afterwards
Duke of Savoy, with
orders to intimate to the Holy Father his displeasure at
this conduct.
But the pope replied that he knew nothing whatever about his
son’s
flight, and expressed the sincerest regret to His Majesty,
declaring
that he knew nothing of his whereabouts, but was certain that he
was not
in Rome. As a fact, the pope was speaking the truth this time,
for
Caesar had gone with Cardinal Orsino to one of his estates, and
was
temporarily in hiding there. This reply was conveyed to Charles by
two
messengers from the pope, the Bishops of Nepi and of Sutri, and
the
people also sent an ambassador in their own behalf. He was
Monsignore
Porcari, dean of the rota, who was charged to communicate to the
king
the displeasure of the Romans when they learned of the cardinal’s
breach
of faith. Little as Charles was disposed to content himself with
empty
words, he had to turn his attention to mare serious affairs; so
he
continued his march to Naples without stopping, arriving there
on
Sunday, the 22nd of February, 1495.
Four days later, the unlucky
D’jem, who had fallen sick at Capua died at
Castel Nuovo. When he was
leaving, at the farewell banquet, Alexander
had tried on his guest the poison
he intended to use so often later on
upon his cardinals, and whose effects he
was destined to feel
himself,—such is poetical justice. In this way the pope
had secured a
double haul; for, in his twofold speculation in this wretched
young man,
he had sold him alive to Charles for 120,000 livres and sold him
dead to
Bajazet for 300,00 ducats....
But there was a certain delay
about the second payment; for the Turkish
emperor, as we remember, was not
bound to pay the price of fratricide
till he received the corpse, and by
Charles’s order the corpse had been
buried at Gaeta.
When Caesar
Borgia learned the news, he rightly supposed that the king
would be so busy
settling himself in his new capital that he would have
too much to think of
to be worrying about him; so he went to Rome again,
and, anxious to keep his
promise to his mother, he signalised his return
by a terrible
vengeance.
Cardinal Valentino had in his service a certain Spaniard whom
he had
made the chief of his bravoes; he was a man of five-and-thirty or
forty,
whose whole life had been one long rebellion against society’s laws;
he
recoiled from no action, provided only he could get his price. This
Don
Michele Correglia, who earned his celebrity for bloody deeds under
the
name of Michelotto, was just the man Caesar wanted; and
whereas
Michelotto felt an unbounded admiration for Caesar, Caesar had
unlimited
confidence in Michelotto. It was to him the cardinal entrusted
the
execution of one part of his vengeance; the other he kept for
himself.
Don Michele received orders to scour the Campagna and cut every
French
throat he could find. He began his work at once; and very few
days
elapsed before he had obtained most satisfactory results: more than
a
hundred persons were robbed or assassinated, and among the last the
son
of Cardinal de St. Malo, who was en his way back to France, and on
whom
Michelotto found a sum of 3000 crowns.
For himself, Caesar
reserved the Swiss; for it was the Swiss in
particular who had despoiled his
mother’s house. The pope had in his
service about a hundred and fifty
soldiers belonging to their nation,
who had settled their families in Rome,
and had grown rich partly by
their pay and partly in the exercise of various
industries. The cardinal
had every one of them dismissed, with orders to quit
Rome within
twenty-four hours and the Roman territories within three days.
The poor
wretches had all collected together to obey the order, with their
wives
and children and baggage, on the Piazza of St. Peter, when suddenly,
by
Cardinal Valentino’s orders, they were hemmed in on all sides by
two
thousand Spaniards, who began to fire on them with their guns and
charge
them with their sabres, while Caesar and his mother looked down upon
the
carnage from a window. In this way they killed fifty or perhaps
sixty;
but the rest coming up, made a charge at the assassins, and
then,
without suffering any loss, managed to beat a retreat to a house,
where
they stood a siege, and made so valiant a defense that they gave
the
pope time—he knew nothing of the author of this butchery—to send
the
captain of his guard to the rescue, who, with a strong
detachment,
succeeded in getting nearly forty of them safely out of the town:
the
rest had been massacred on the piazza or killed in the house.
But
this was no real and adequate revenge; for it did not touch Charles
himself,
the sole author of all the troubles that the pope and his
family had
experienced during the last year. So Caesar soon abandoned
vulgar schemes of
this kind and busied himself with loftier concerns,
bending all the force of
his genius to restore the league of Italian
princes that had been broken by
the defection of Sforza, the exile of
Piero dei Medici, and the defeat of
Alfonso. The enterprise was more
easily accomplished than the pope could have
anticipated. The Venetians
were very uneasy when Charles passed so near, and
they trembled lest,
when he was once master of Naples, he might conceive the
idea of
conquering the rest of Italy. Ludovico Sforza, on his side,
was
beginning to tremble, seeing the rapidity with which the King of
France
had dethroned the house of Aragon, lest he might not make
much
difference between his allies and his enemies. Maximilian, for his
part,
was only seeking an occasion to break the temporary peace which he
had
granted for the sake of the concession made to him. Lastly,
Ferdinand
and Isabella were allies of the dethroned house. And so it came
about
that all of them, for different reasons, felt a common fear, and
were
soon in agreement as to the necessity of driving out Charles VIII,
not
only from Naples, but from Italy, and pledged themselves to
work
together to this end, by every means in their power, by negotiations,
by
trickery, or by actual force. The Florentines alone refused to take
part
in this general levy of arms, and remained faithful to their
promises.
According to the articles of the treaty agreed upon by the
confederates,
the alliance was to last for five-and-twenty years, and had
for
ostensible object the upholding of the majority of the pope, and
the
interests of Christendom; and these preparations might well have
been
taken for such as would precede a crusade against the Turks,
if
Bajazet’s ambassador had not always been present at the
deliberations,
although the Christian princes could not have dared for very
shame to
admit the, sultan by name into their league. Now the confederates
had to
set on foot an army of 30,000 horse and 20,000 infantry, and each
of
them was taxed for a contingent; thus the pope was to furnish
4000
horse, Maximilian 6000, the King of Spain, the Duke of Milan, and
the
republic of Venice, 8000 each. Every confederate was, in addition
to
this, to levy and equip 4000 infantry in the six weeks following
the
signature of the treaty. The fleets were to be equipped by the
Maritime
States; but any expenses they should incur later on were to be
defrayed
by all in equal shares.
The formation of this league was made
public on the 12th of April, 1495,
Palm Sunday, and in all the Italian
States, especially at Rome, was made
the occasion of fetes and immense
rejoicings. Almost as soon as the
publicly known articles were announced the
secret ones were put into
execution. These obliged Ferdinand and Isabella to
send a fleet of sixty
galleys to Ischia, where Alfonso’s son had retired,
with six hundred
horsemen on board and five thousand infantry, to help him to
ascend the
throne once more. Those troops were to be put under the command
of
Gonzalvo of Cordova, who had gained the reputation of the
greatest
general in Europe after the taking of Granada. The Venetians with
a
fleet of forty galleys under the command of Antonio Grimani, were
to
attack all the French stations on the coast of Calabria and Naples.
The
Duke of Milan promised for his part to check all reinforcements as
they
should arrive from France, and to drive the Duke of Orleans out of
Asti.
Lastly, there was Maximilian, who had promised to make invasions on
the
frontiers, and Bajazet, who was to help with money, ships, and
soldiers
either the Venetians or the Spaniards, according as he might be
appealed
to by Barberigo or by Ferdinand the Catholic.
This league was
all the more disconcerting for Charles, because of the
speedy abatement of
the enthusiasm that had hailed his first appearance.
What had happened to him
was what generally happens to a conqueror who
has more good luck than talent;
instead of making himself a party among
the great Neapolitan and Calabrian
vassals, whose roots would be
embedded in the very soil, by confirming their
privileges and augmenting
their power, he had wounded their feelings by
bestowing all the titles,
offices, and fiefs on those alone who had followed
him from France, so
that all the important positions in the kingdom were
filled by
strangers.
The result was that just when the league was made
known, Tropea and
Amantea, which had been presented by Charles to the
Seigneur de Precy,
rose in revolt and hoisted the banner of Aragon; and the
Spanish fleet
had only to present itself at Reggio, in Calabria, for the town
to throw
open its gates, being more discontented with the new rule than the
old;
and Don Federiga, Alfonso’s brother and Ferdinand’s uncle, who
had
hitherto never quitted Brindisi, had only to appear at Tarentum to
be
received there as a liberator.
CHAPTER
VI
CHARLES learned all this news at Naples, and, tired of his
late
conquests, which necessitated a labour in organisation for which he
was
quite unfitted, turned his eyes towards France, where victorious
fetes
and rejoicings were awaiting the victor’s return. So he yielded at
the
first breath of his advisers, and retraced his road to his
kingdom,
threatened, as was said, by the Germans on the north and the
Spaniards
on the south. Consequently, he appointed Gilbert de Montpensier, of
the
house of Bourbon, viceroy; d’Aubigny, of the Scotch Stuart
family,
lieutenant in Calabria; Etienne de Vese, commander at Gaeta; and
Don
Juliano, Gabriel de Montfaucon, Guillaume de Villeneuve, George
de
Lilly, the bailiff of Vitry, and Graziano Guerra respectively
governors
of Sant’ Angelo, Manfredonia, Trani, Catanzaro, Aquila, and
Sulmone;
then leaving behind in evidence of his claims the half of his Swiss,
a
party of his Gascons, eight hundred French lances, and about
five
hundred Italian men-at-arms, the last under the command of the
prefect
of Rome, Prospero and Fabrizio Colonna, and Antonio Savelli, he
left
Naples on the 20th of May at two o’clock in the afternoon, to
traverse
the whole of the Italian peninsula with the rest of his army,
consisting
of eight hundred French lances, two hundred gentlemen of his
guard, one
hundred Italian men-at-arms, three thousand Swiss infantry, one
thousand
French and one thousand Gascon. He also expected to be joined by
Camillo
Vitelli and his brothers in Tuscany, who were to contribute two
hundred
and fifty men-at-arms.
A week before he left Naples, Charles
had sent to Rome Monseigneur de
Saint-Paul, brother of Cardinal de
Luxembourg; and just as he was
starting he despatched thither the new
Archbishop of Lyons. They both
were commissioned to assure Alexander that the
King of France had the
most sincere desire and the very best intention of
remaining his friend.
In truth, Charles wished for nothing so much as to
separate the pope
from the league, so as to secure him as a spiritual and
temporal
support; but a young king, full of fire, ambition, and courage, was
not
the neighbour to suit Alexander; so the latter would listen to
nothing,
and as the troops he had demanded from the doge and Ludavico Sforza
had
not been sent in sufficient number for the defense of Rome, he
was
content with provisioning the castle of S. Angelo, putting in
a
formidable garrison, and leaving Cardinal Sant’ Anastasio to
receive
Charles while he himself withdrew with Caesar to Orvieto. Charles
only
stayed in Rome three days, utterly depressed because the pope
had
refused to receive him in spite of his entreaties. And in these
three
days, instead of listening to Giuliano delta Rovere, who was
advising
him once more to call a council and depose the pope, he rather hoped
to
bring the pope round to his side by the virtuous act of restoring
the
citadels of Terracina and Civita Vecchia to the authorities of
the
Romagna, only keeping for himself Ostia, which he had promised
Giuliano
to give back to him. At last, when the three days had elapsed, he
left
Rome, and resumed his march in three columns towards Tuscany,
crossed
the States of the Church, and on the 13th reached Siena, where he
was
joined by Philippe de Commines, who had gone as ambassador
extraordinary
to the Venetian Republic, and now announced that the enemy had
forty
thousand men under arms and were preparing for battle. This
news
produced no other effect an the king and the gentlemen of his army
than
to excite their amusement beyond measure; for they had conceived such
a
contempt for their enemy by their easy conquest, that they could
not
believe that any army, however numerous, would venture to oppose
their
passage.
Charles, however, was forced to give way in the face of
facts, when he
heard at San Teranza that his vanguard, commanded by Marechal
de Gie,
and composed of six hundred lances and fifteen hundred Swiss, when
it
arrived at Fornova had come face to face with the confederates, who
had
encamped at Guiarole. The marechal had ordered an instant halt, and
he
too had pitched his tents, utilising for his defence the
natural
advantages of the hilly ground. When these first measures had
been
taken, he sent out, first, a herald to the enemy’s camp to ask
from
Francesco di Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, generalissimo of
the
confederate troops, a passage for his king’s army and provisions at
a
reasonable price; and secondly, he despatched a courier to Charles
VIII,
pressing him to hurry on his march with the artillery and rearguard.
The
confederates had given an evasive answer, for they were
pondering
whether they ought to jeopardise the whole Italian force in a
single
combat, and, putting all to the hazard, attempt to annihilate the
King
of France and his army together, so overwhelming the conqueror in
the
ruins of his ambition. The messenger found Charles busy
superintending
the passage of the last of his cannon over the mountain of
Pontremoli.
This was no easy matter, seeing that there was no sort of track,
and the
guns had to be lifted up and lowered by main farce, and each
piece
needed the arms of as many as two hundred men. At last, when all
the
artillery had arrived without accident on the other side of
the
Apennines, Charles started in hot haste for Fornovd, where he
arrived
with all his following on the morning of the next day.
From
the top of the mountain where the Marechai de Gie had pitched his
tents, the
king beheld both his own camp and the enemy’s. Both were on
the right bank of
the Taro, and were at either end of a semicircular
chain of hills resembling
an amphitheatre; and the space between the two
camps, a vast basin filled
during the winter floods by the torrent which
now only marked its boundary,
was nothing but a plain covered with
gravel, where all manoeuvres must be
equally difficult for horse and
infantry. Besides, on the western slope of
the hills there was a little
wood which extended from the enemy’s army to the
French, and was in the
possession of the Stradiotes, who, by help of its
cover, had already
engaged in several skirmishes with the French troops
during the two days
of halt while they were waiting for the king.
The
situation was not reassuring. From the top of the mountain which
overlooked
Fornovo, one could get a view, as we said before, of the two
camps, and could
easily calculate the numerical difference between them.
The French army,
weakened by the establishment of garrisons in the
various towns and
fortresses they had won in Italy, were scarcely eight
thousand strong, while
the combined forces of Milan and Venice exceeded
a total of thirty-five
thousand. So Charles decided to try once more the
methods of conciliation,
and sent Commines, who, as we know, had joined
him in Tuscany, to the
Venetian ’proveditori’, whose acquaintance he had
made when on his embassy;
he having made a great impression on these
men, thanks to a general high
opinion of his merits. He was commissioned
to tell the enemy’s generals, in
the name of the King of France, that
his master only desired to continue his
road without doing or receiving
any harm; that therefore he asked to be
allowed a free passage across
the fair plains of Lombardy, which he could see
from the heights where
he now stood, stretching as far as the eye could
reach, away to the foot
of the Alps. Commines found the confederate army deep
in discussion: the
wish of the Milanese and Venetian party being to let the
king go by, and
not attack him; they said they were only too happy that he
should leave
Italy in this way, without causing any further harm; but the
ambassadors
of Spain and Germany took quite another view. As their masters
had no
troops in the army, and as all the money they had promised was
already
paid, they must be the gainer in either case from a battle,
whichever
way it went: if they won the day they would gather the fruits
of
victory, and if they lost they would experience nothing of the evils
of
defeat. This want of unanimity was the reason why the answer to
Commines
was deferred until the following day, and why it was settled that on
the
next day he should hold another conference with a plenipotentiary to
be
appointed in the course of that night. The place of this conference
was
to be between the two armies.
The king passed the night in great
uneasiness. All day the weather had
threatened to turn to rain, and we have
already said how rapidly the
Taro could swell; the river, fordable to-day,
might from tomorrow
onwards prove an insurmountable obstacle; and possibly
the delay had
only been asked for with a view to putting the French army in a
worse
position. As a fact the night had scarcely come when a terrible
storm
arose, and so long as darkness lasted, great rumblings were heard in
the
Apennines, and the sky was brilliant with lightning. At break of
day,
however, it seemed to be getting a little calmer, though the Taro,
only
a streamlet the day before, had become a torrent by this time, and
was
rapidly rising. So at six in the morning, the king, ready armed and
on
horseback, summoned Commines and bade him make his way to the
rendezvous
that the Venetian ’proveditori’ had assigned. But scarcely had
he
contrived to give the order when loud cries were heard coming from
the
extreme right of the French army. The Stradiotes, under cover of
the
wood stretching between the two camps, had surprised an outpost,
and
first cutting the soldiers’ throats, were carrying off their heads
in
their usual way at the saddle-bow. A detachment of cavalry was sent
in
pursuit; but, like wild animals, they had retreated to their lair in
the
woods, and there disappeared.
This unexpected engagement, in all
probability arranged beforehand by
the Spanish and German envoys, produced on
the whole army the effect of
a spark applied to a train of gunpowder.
Commines and the Venetian
’proveditori’ each tried in vain to arrest the
combat an either side.
Light troops, eager for a skirmish, and, in the usual
fashion of those
days, prompted only by that personal courage which led them
on to
danger, had already come to blows, rushing down into the plain as
though
it were an amphitheatre where they might make a fine display of
arms.
Far a moment the young king, drawn on by example, was an the point
of
forgetting the responsibility of a general in his zeal as a soldier;
but
this first impulse was checked by Marechal de Gie, Messire Claude de
la
Chatre de Guise, and M. de la Trimauille, who persuaded Charles to
adopt
the wiser plan, and to cross the Taro without seeking a battle,—at
the
same time without trying to avoid it, should the enemy cross the
river
from their camp and attempt to block his passage. The king
accordingly,
following the advice of his wisest and bravest captains, thus
arranged his divisions. |
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