Civita
Vecchia to the authorities of the Romagna, only keeping for himself
Ostia, which he had promised Giuliano to give back to him. At last, when
the three days had elapsed, he left Rome, and resumed his march in three
columns towards Tuscany, crossed the States of the Church, and on the
13th reached Siena, where he was joined by Philippe de Commines, who had
gone as ambassador extraordinary to the Venetian Republic, and now
announced that the enemy had forty thousand men under arms and were
preparing for battle. This news produced no other effect an the king and
the gentlemen of his army than to excite their amusement beyond measure;
for they had conceived such a contempt for their enemy by their easy
conquest, that they could not believe that any army, however numerous,
would venture to oppose their passage.

Charles, however, was forced to give way in the face of facts, when he
heard at San Teranza that his vanguard, commanded by Marechal de Gie, and
composed of six hundred lances and fifteen hundred Swiss, when it arrived
at Fornova had come face to face with the confederates, who had encamped
at Guiarole. The marechal had ordered an instant halt, and he too had
pitched his tents, utilising for his defence the natural advantages of
the hilly ground. When these first measures had been taken, he sent out,
first, a herald to the enemy's camp to ask from Francesco di Gonzaga,
Marquis of Mantua, generalissimo of the confederate troops, a passage for
his king's army and provisions at a reasonable price; and secondly, he
despatched a courier to Charles VIII, pressing him to hurry on his march
with the artillery and rearguard. The confederates had given an evasive
answer, for they were pondering whether they ought to jeopardise the
whole Italian force in a single combat, and, putting all to the hazard,
attempt to annihilate the King of France and his army together, so
overwhelming the conqueror in the ruins of his ambition. The messenger
found Charles busy superintending the passage of the last of his cannon
over the mountain of Pontremoli. This was no easy matter, seeing that
there was no sort of track, and the guns had to be lifted up and lowered
by main farce, and each piece needed the arms of as many as two hundred
men. At last, when all the artillery had arrived without accident on the
other side of the Apennines, Charles started in hot haste for Fornovd,
where he arrived with all his following on the morning o