athering-point the ground beneath the walls of Brescia, forty miles from
the field of battle. "Few men-at-arms," says Guicciardini, "were slain
in this affair; the great loss fell upon the Venetians' infantry, which
lost, according to some, eight thousand men; others say that the number
of dead on both sides did not amount to more than six thousand." The
territorial results of the victory were greater than the numerical losses
of the armies. Within a fortnight, the towns of Caravaggio, Bergamo,
Brescia, Crema, Cremona, and Pizzighitone surrendered to the French.
Peschiera alone, a strong fortress at the southern extremity of the Lake
of Garda, resisted, and was carried by assault. "It was a bad thing for
those within," says the Loyal Serviteur of Bayard; "for all, or nearly
all, perished there; amongst the which was the governor of the Signory
and his son, who were willing to pay good and heavy ransom; but that
served them not at all, for on one tree were both of them hanged, which
to me did seem great cruelty; a very lusty gentleman, called the
Lorrainer, had their parole, and he had big words about it with the grand
master, lieutenant-general of the king; but he got no good thereby." The
_Memoires of Robert de la Marck,_ lord of Fleuranges, and a warrior of
the day, confirm, as to this sad incident, the story of the Loyal
Serviteur of Bayard: "When the French volunteers," says he, "entered by
the breach into the castle of Peschiera, they cut to pieces all those who
were therein, and there were left only the captain, the proveditore, and
the podesta, the which stowed themselves away in a tower, surrendered to
the good pleasure of the king, and, being brought before him, offered him
for ransom a hundred thousand ducats; but the king swore, 'If ever I eat
or drink till they be hanged and strangled! 'Nor even for all the prayer
they could make could the grand master Chaumont, and even his uncle,
Cardinal d'Amboise, find any help for it, but the king would have them
hanged that very hour." Some chroniclers attribute this violence on
Louis XII.'s part to a "low and coarse" reply returned by those in
command at Peschiera to the summons to surrender. Guicciardini, whilst
also recording the fact, explains it otherwise than by a fit of anger on
Louis's part: "The king," he says, "was led to such cruelty in order
that, dismayed at such punishment, those who were still holding out in
the fortress of Cremona might not defend