w the smoke arise, began to sing a psalm, and
the flames enwrapped them on all sides with a glowing veil, while their
religious song was yet heard mounting upward to the gates of heaven.

Pope Alexander VI was thus set free from perhaps the most formidable
enemy who had ever risen against him, and the pontifical vengeance
pursued the victims even after their death: the Signoria, yielding to his
wishes, gave orders that the ashes of the prophet and his disciples
should be thrown into the Arno. But certain half-burned fragments were
picked up by the very soldiers whose business it was to keep the people
back from approaching the fire, and the holy relics are even now shown,
blackened by the flames, to the faithful, who if they no longer regard
Savonarola as a prophet, revere him none the less as a martyr.

CHAPTER X

The French army was now preparing to cross the Alps a second time, under
the command of Trivulce. Louis XII had come as far as Lyons in the
company of Caesar Borgia and Giuliano della Rovere, on whom he had forced
a reconciliation, and towards the beginning of the month of May had sent
his vanguard before him, soon to be followed by the main body of the
army. The forces he was employing in this second campaign of conquest
were 1600, lances, 5000 Swiss, 9000 Gascons, and 3500 infantry, raised
from all parts of France. On the 13th of August this whole body,
amounting to nearly 15,000 men, who were to combine their forces with the
Venetians, arrived beneath the walls of Arezzo, and immediately laid
siege to the town.

Ludovico Sforza's position was a terrible one: he was now suffering from
his imprudence in calling the French into Italy; all the allies he had
thought he might count upon were abandoning him at the same moment,
either because they were busy about their own affairs, or because they
were afraid of the powerful enemy that the Duke of Milan had made for
himself. Maximilian, who had promised him a contribution of 400 lances,
to make up for not renewing the hostilities with Louis XII that had been
interrupted, had just made a league with the circle of Swabia to war
against the Swiss, whom he had declared rebels against the Empire. The
Florentines, who had engaged to furnish him with 300 men-at-arms and 2000
infantry, if he would help them to retake Pisa, had just retracted their
promise because of Louis XII's threats, and had undertaken to remain
neutral. Frederic, who was holding back hi