efence; his own
guard took possession of the guard-posts; and the watch was doubled
during the night. Ludovic appeared to take no notice, and continued to
accompany the king as far as Piacenza, the last town in the state of
Milan. Into it Charles entered with seventy-eight hundred horse, many
Swiss foot, and many artillerymen and bombardiers. The Italian
population regarded this army with an admiration tinged with timidity and
anxiety. News was heard there to the effect that young John Galeas,
nephew of Ludovic the Moor and lawful Duke of Milan, was dead. He left a
son, five years old, for whom he had at Pavia implored the king's
protection; and "I will look upon him as my own," King Charles had
answered as he fondled the child. Ludovic set out in haste for Milan;
and it was not long before it was known that he had been proclaimed duke
and put in possession of the duchy. Distrust became general throughout
the army. "Those who ought to have known best told me," says Commynes,
"that several, who had at first commended the trip, now found fault with
it, and that there was a great inclination to turn back." However, the
march was continued forward; and on the 29th of October, 1494, the French
army encamped before Sarzana, a Florentine town. Ludovic the Moor
suddenly arrived in the camp with new proposals of alliance, on new
conditions: Charles accepted some of them, and rejected the principal
ones. Ludovic went away again on the 3d of November, never to return.

From this day the King of France might reckon him amongst his enemies.
With the republic of Florence was henceforth to be Charles's business.
Its head, Peter de' Medici, went to the camp at Sarzana, and Philip de
Commynes started on an embassy to go and negotiate with the doge and
senate of Venice, which was the chiefest of the Italian powers and the
territory of which lay far out of the line of march of the King of France
and his army. In the presence of the King of France and in the midst of
his troops Peter de' Medici grew embarrassed and confused. He had gone
to meet the king without the knowledge of the Florentines and was already
alarmed at the gravity of his situation; and he offered more concession
and submission than was demanded of him. "Those who treated with him,"
says Commynes, "told me, turning him to scorn and ridicule, that they
were dumbfounded at his so readily granting so great a matter and what
they were not prepared for." Feelings