La
Tremouille as another Clovis or Charles Martel in his despatches. The
Pope gave the messenger who brought the news a gift of a hundred ducats,
for joy, he said, that the traitor-brood was annihilated. The Orsini
lighted bonfires, and the jubilee rejoicings waxed louder and longer
through the night. Cardinal Ascanio's palace, with all his treasures of
art, was seized by Alexander VI., and his benefices were divided among
the pontiff's creatures. In Venice the Piazza was illuminated and all
the bells rung, while the children and boatmen sang--

"Ora il Moro fa la danza,
Viva Marco e 'l re di Franza!"

and dancing and pageants celebrated the downfall of the Republic's most
dreaded foe. Even in Florence the citizens rejoiced over the fall of
another tyrant, and raised a crucifix at the doors of the Palazzo
Pubblico to commemorate the victory of freedom. Had they known it, they
were in reality celebrating the loss of national independence, the
beginning of a long reign of slavery and foreign rule. Seldom has the
cause of freedom and civilization suffered a worse blow than this
betrayal of the Moro at Novara, which left the Milanese a prey to French
invaders, and planted the yoke of the stranger firmly on the neck of
Northern Italy.

At the news of his brother's capture, Ascanio Sforza left Milan to seek
refuge across the Alps, but was himself taken prisoner, with his nephew
Ermes, at the Castle of Rivolta, near Piacenza, by the Venetians, who
delivered them up to the French king. Both were taken to France, and the
cardinal was detained in honourable captivity in the citadel of Bourges,
until, in January, 1502, he was released to take part in the conclave
that elected Pius III. With Trivulzio's return to Milan a reign of
terror began. The city was heavily fined, the partisans of the Sforza
were exiled or imprisoned, Niccolo da Bussola and Leonardo's beloved
friend, Jacopo Andrea, were hung, and their limbs drawn and quartered
and exposed to view on the battlements of the Castello, in spite of Duke
Ercole's intercession on behalf of the distinguished architect. Pavia
was sacked by the French, and Lombardy paid with tears and blood for
its loyalty to the race of Sforza. The period of anarchy and confusion
which followed is described in mournful language by the Milanese
chroniclers. During the next forty years, the city was continually taken
and sacked by contending armies, her fair parks and gardens were
trampled