Pagina 15 di 310

King Louis was brought into Italy by the ambition of the

Venetians, who desired to obtain half the state of Lombardy by

his intervention. I will not blame the course taken by the king,

because, wishing to get a foothold in Italy, and having no

friends there-seeing rather that every door was shut to him owing

to the conduct of Charles-he was forced to accept those

friendships which he could get, and he would have succeeded very

quickly in his design if in other matters he had not made some

mistakes. The king, however, having acquired Lombardy, regained

at once the authority which Charles had lost: Genoa yielded; the

Florentines became his friends; the Marquess of Mantua, the Duke

of Ferrara, the Bentivogli, my lady of Forli, the Lords of

Faenza, of Pesaro, of Rimini, of Camerino, of Piombino, the

Lucchese, the Pisans, the Sienese-everybody made advances to him

to become his friend.