housand
men, and then waiting a day and a half to give them time to take their
revenge; so two hours before daybreak he had the fires lighted, that
the enemy might suppose he was remaining in camp; and every man mounting
noiselessly, the whole French army, almost out of danger by this time,
proceeded on their march to Borgo San Donnino.

While this was going on, the pope returned to Rome, where news highly
favourable to his schemes was not slow to reach his ears. He learned
that Ferdinand had crossed from Sicily into Calabria with six thousand
volunteers and a considerable number of Spanish horse and foot, led,
at the command of Ferdinand and Isabella, by the famous Gonzalva de
Cordova, who arrived in Italy with a great reputation, destined to
suffer somewhat from the defeat at Seminara. At almost the same time the
French fleet had been beaten by the Aragonese; moreover, the battle of
the Taro, though a complete defeat for the confederates, was another
victory for the pope, because its result was to open a return to France
for that man whom he regarded as his deadliest foe. So, feeling that
he had nothing more to fear from Charles, he sent him a brief at Turin,
where he had stopped for a short time to give aid to Novara, therein
commanding him, by virtue of his pontifical authority, to depart out of
Italy with his army, and to recall within ten days those of his
troops that still remained in the kingdom of Naples, on pain of
excommunication, and a summons to appear before him in person.

Charles VIII replied:

(1) That he did not understand how the pope, the chief of the league,
ordered him to leave Italy, whereas the confederates had not only
refused him a passage, but had even attempted, though unsuccessfully, as
perhaps His Holiness knew, to cut off his return into France;

(2) That, as to recalling his troops from Naples, he was not so
irreligious as to do that, since they had not entered the kingdom
without the consent and blessing of His Holiness;

(3) That he was exceedingly surprised that the pope should require his
presence in person at the capital of the Christian world just at the
present time, when six weeks previously, at the time of his return from
Naples, although he ardently desired an interview with His Holiness,
that he might offer proofs of his respect and obedience, His Holiness,
instead of according this favour, had quitted Rome so hastily on his
approach that he had not been able to come up wi