en
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