o had made no
stipulation in favour of him and his generals. They were to go over the
next day with arms and baggage right into the French army; so the last
hope of the wretched Ludovico and his generals must needs be in their
disguise. And so it was. San Severino and his brothers took their place
in the ranks of the infantry, and Sforza took his among the baggage,
clad in a monk's frock, with the hood pulled over his eyes.

The army marched off; but the Swiss, who had first trafficked in their
blood, now trafficked in their honour. The French were warned of
the disguise of Sforza and his generals, and thus they were all four
recognised, and Sforza was arrested by Trimouille himself. It is said
that the price paid for this treason was the town of Bellinzona; far
it then belonged to the French, and when the Swiss returned to their
mountains and took possession of it, Louis XII took no steps to get it
back again.

When Ascanio Sforza, who, as we know, had stayed at Milan, learned the
news of this cowardly desertion, he supposed that his cause was lost and
that it would be the best plan for him to fly, before he found himself
a prisoner in the hand's of his brother's old subjects: such a change of
face on the people's part would be very natural, and they might propose
perhaps to purchase their own pardon at the price of his liberty; so he
fled by night with the chief nobles of the Ghibelline party, taking
the road to Piacenza, an his way to the kingdom of Naples. But when he
arrived at Rivolta, he remembered that there was living in that town an
old friend of his childhood, by name Conrad Lando, whom he had helped to
much wealth in his days of power; and as Ascanio and his companions were
extremely; tired, he resolved to beg his hospitality for a single night.
Conrad received them with every sign of joy, putting all his house and
servants at their disposal. But scarcely had they retired to bed when
he sent a runner to Piacenza, to inform Carlo Orsini, at that time
commanding the Venetian garrison, that he was prepared to deliver up
Cardinal Ascanio and the chief men of the Milanese army. Carlo Orsini
did not care to resign to another so important an expedition, and
mounting hurriedly with twenty-five men, he first surrounded Conrads
house, and then entered sword in hand the chamber wherein Ascanio and
his companions lay, and being surprised in the middle of their sleep,
they yielded without resistance. The prisoners were