Sulmone;
then leaving behind in evidence of his claims the half of his Swiss,
a party of his Gascons, eight hundred French lances, and about five
hundred Italian men-at-arms, the last under the command of the prefect
of Rome, Prospero and Fabrizio Colonna, and Antonio Savelli, he left
Naples on the 20th of May at two o'clock in the afternoon, to traverse
the whole of the Italian peninsula with the rest of his army, consisting
of eight hundred French lances, two hundred gentlemen of his guard, one
hundred Italian men-at-arms, three thousand Swiss infantry, one thousand
French and one thousand Gascon. He also expected to be joined by Camillo
Vitelli and his brothers in Tuscany, who were to contribute two hundred
and fifty men-at-arms.

A week before he left Naples, Charles had sent to Rome Monseigneur
de Saint-Paul, brother of Cardinal de Luxembourg; and just as he was
starting he despatched thither the new Archbishop of Lyons. They both
were commissioned to assure Alexander that the King of France had the
most sincere desire and the very best intention of remaining his friend.
In truth, Charles wished for nothing so much as to separate the pope
from the league, so as to secure him as a spiritual and temporal
support; but a young king, full of fire, ambition, and courage, was not
the neighbour to suit Alexander; so the latter would listen to nothing,
and as the troops he had demanded from the doge and Ludavico Sforza
had not been sent in sufficient number for the defense of Rome, he
was content with provisioning the castle of S. Angelo, putting in a
formidable garrison, and leaving Cardinal Sant' Anastasio to receive
Charles while he himself withdrew with Caesar to Orvieto. Charles
only stayed in Rome three days, utterly depressed because the pope had
refused to receive him in spite of his entreaties. And in these three
days, instead of listening to Giuliano delta Rovere, who was advising
him once more to call a council and depose the pope, he rather hoped to
bring the pope round to his side by the virtuous act of restoring the
citadels of Terracina and 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 am