s troops for the defence of his
own States, because he supposed, not without reason, that, Milan once
conquered, he would again have to defend Naples, sent him no help, no
men, no money, in spite of his promises. Ludovico Sforza was therefore
reduced to his own proper forces.

But as he was a man powerful in arms and clever in artifice, he did not
allow himself to succumb at the first blow, and in all haste fortified
Annona, Novarro, and Alessandria, sent off Cajazzo with troops to that
part of the Milanese territory which borders on the states of Venice, and
collected on the Po as many troops as he could. But these precautions
availed him nothing against the impetuous onslaught of the French, who in
a few days had taken Annona, Arezzo, Novarro, Voghiera, Castelnuovo,
Ponte Corona, Tartone, and Alessandria, while Trivulce was on the march
to Milan.

Seeing the rapidity of this conquest and their numerous victories,
Ludovico Sforza, despairing of holding out in his capital, resolved to
retire to Germany, with his children, his brother, Cardinal Ascanio
Sforza, and his treasure, which had been reduced in the course of eight
years from 1,500,000 to 200,000 ducats. But before he went he left
Bernardino da Carte in charge of the castle of Milan. In vain did his
friends warn him to distrust this man, in vain did his brother Ascanio
offer to hold the fortress himself, and offer to hold it to the very
last; Ludovico refused to make any change in his arrangements, and
started on the 2nd of September, leaving in the citadel three thousand
foot and enough provisions, ammunition, and money to sustain a siege of
several months.

Two days after Ludovico's departure, the French entered Milan. Ten days
later Bernardino da Come gave up the castle before a single gun had been
fired. Twenty-one days had sufficed for the French to get possession of
the various towns, the capital, and all the territories of their enemy.

Louis XII received the news of this success while he was at Lyons, and he
at once started for Milan, where he was received with demonstrations of
joy that were really sincere. Citizens of every rank had come out three
miles' distance from the gates to receive him, and forty boys, dressed in
cloth of gold and silk, marched before him singing hymns of victory
composed by poets of the period, in which the king was styled their
liberator and the envoy of freedom. The great joy of the Milanese people
was due to the fact