ave and popular prince.
Fortunately, his uncle and successor Frederic, the fifth king who had
reigned over Naples during the last three years, proved a wise and
capable monarch. By degrees he succeeded in capturing the few remaining
castles still held by the French, and once more restored peace to his
distracted kingdom. Such was the state of affairs that autumn, when the
German emperor landed at Pisa on the 21st of October. The citizens
received him with acclamations, and, pulling down the French king's
statue, as they had broken the lion of Florence in pieces two years
before, placed the imperial eagle on the top of the column in the public
square. But they were once more doomed to disappointment. Maximilian,
finding himself, as usual, ill supplied with both men and money, and
being inadequately supported by his allies of Venice and Milan, was
unable to prosecute the war against Florence with any vigour. He
attempted to besiege Leghorn; but his fleet was scattered and many of
his ships were wrecked by a violent storm, after which he gave up the
undertaking, saying that he could not fight against both God and man.
One day towards the end of November, he suddenly took his departure,
and, leaving Pisa, returned by Sarzana to Pavia. The Venetians saw the
failure of this expedition and the fruitless result of their large
expenditure of men and money, with great dissatisfaction, and attributed
most of the blame to Duke Lodovico.

"Things go badly for the Signory at Pisa," wrote Malipiero, who was
himself on board the Venetian fleet that sailed with Maximilian against
Leghorn, "and the cause of this is Lodovico Duke of Milan.... His pride
and arrogance are beyond description. He boasts that Pope Alexander is
his chaplain, the Emperor Maximilian his condottiere, the Signory of
Venice his chamberlain, since they spend their money largely to attain
his ends, and the King of France his courier, who comes and goes at his
pleasure. Truly a fearful state of things!"

And Marino Sanuto remarked, "The Duke of Milan is one of the wisest men
in the world, but his success has rendered him very ungrateful to
Venice, whose secret enemy he will always remain. He made a great
mistake in allowing the Duke of Orleans to escape from Novara, and some
day he will be punished for his bad faith. For he never keeps his
promises, and when he says one thing, always does another. All men fear
him, because fortune is propitious to him in everything. B