s, who carried banners whereon was
inscribed the motto, 'Aut Caesar aut nihil'.

Finally, an the fourth Sunday, in Lent, the pope conferred upon Caesar
the dignity he had so long coveted, and appointed him general and
gonfaloniere of the Holy Church.

In the meanwhile Sforza had crossed the Alps and passed the Lake of Como,
amid acclamations of joy from his former subjects, who had quickly lost
the enthusiasm that the French army and Louis's promises had inspired.
These demonstrations were so noisy at Milan, that Trivulce, judging that
there was no safety for a French garrison in remaining there, made his
way to Navarra. Experience proved that he was not deceived; for scarcely
had the Milanese observed his preparations for departure when a
suppressed excitement began to spread through the town, and soon the
streets were filled with armed men. This murmuring crowd had to be
passed through, sword in hand and lance in rest; and scarcely had the
French got outside the gates when the mob rushed out after the army into
the country, pursuing them with shouts and hooting as far as the banks of
the Tesino. Trivulce left 400 lances at Novarra as well as the 3000 Swiss
that Yves d'Alegre had brought from the Romagna, and directed his course
with the rest of the army towards Mortara, where he stopped at last to
await the help he had demanded from the King of France. Behind him
Cardinal Ascanio and Ludovico entered Milan amid the acclamations of the
whole town.

Neither of them lost any time, and wishing to profit by this enthusiasm,
Ascanio undertook to besiege the castle of Milan while Ludovico should
cross the Tesino and attack Novarra.

There besiegers and besieged were sons of the same nation; for Yves
d'Alegre had scarcely as many as 300 French with him, and Ludovico 500
Italians. In fact, for the last sixteen years the Swiss had been
practically the only infantry in Europe, and all the Powers came, purse
in hand, to draw from the mighty reservoir of their mountains. The
consequence was that these rude children of William Tell, put up to
auction by the nations, and carried away from the humble, hardy life of a
mountain people into cities of wealth and pleasure, had lost, not their
ancient courage, but that rigidity of principle for which they had been
distinguished before their intercourse with other nations. From being
models of honour and good faith they had become a kind of marketable
ware, always ready for sale to