left to send, only widows weeping for their husbands, whose bones were
whitening on the Italian plains. The Venetian ambassador, Commines, who
was strongly in favour of peace, had already opened negotiations with
some of his friends in Venice, and Charles lent a willing ear both to
his proposals and to those of the Duchess of Savoy, who on her part
offered to mediate between him and the Duke of Milan. But Briconnet, the
Cardinal of S. Malo, Lodovico's old enemy and a staunch partisan of
Orleans, defeated these plans by his intrigues, and the French army,
leaving Asti, advanced to Vercelli, in the duchy of Savoy, and prepared
to take the field. Both parties, however, were growing weary of this
prolonged warfare, and Commines declares that in the French camp no one
wanted to fight, unless the king led them to battle, and that Charles
himself had not the slightest wish to take the field.

At length, early in September, the first detachment of Swiss levies
reached Vercelli, and on the 12th the king himself arrived in the camp.
His first act was to hold a council of war, which decided in favour of
peace, and Commines was sent to treat with the Marquis of Mantua. The
allies insisted on the unconditional surrender of Novara, while Charles
VIII. asked for the restitution of Genoa as an ancient fief of the
French crown. Nothing was concluded, but a truce of eight days was
agreed upon, and prolonged conferences were held at a castle between
Vercelli and Cameriano.

On the 21st of September, Lodovico returned to the camp of the league,
bringing Beatrice with him, and rode out to meet the French
commissioners. Commines gives a minute account of the conferences, which
took place in the duke's lodgings at Cameriano during the next
fortnight.

"Every day the duke and duchess came to meet us at the end of a long
gallery and conducted us to their rooms, where we found two long rows of
chairs prepared, and we sat down on one side, and the representatives of
the league on the other. First came the ambassadors of the King of the
Romans and the King of Spain; then the Marquis of Mantua and the
Venetian Provveditori and envoy; then the Duke of Milan and his wife the
duchess, seated between him and the ambassador of Ferrara. On their
side, the duke was the only spokesman, and on our side one only. But our
habit is not to speak as quietly as they do; two or three of us often
began to speak at the same time, which made the duke say, 'Ho! ho