that at least, under the many evils oppressing us, we may derive some
gratification from telling thee how and by whom they have been produced.
Thou canst not have forgotten thy wretched condition at the death of the
duke Filippo; the king and the pope were both thine enemies; thou hadst
abandoned the Florentines and the Venetians, who, on account of their
just indignation, and because they stood in no further need of thee,
were almost become thy declared enemies. Thou wert exhausted by thy
wars against the church; with few followers, no friends, or any money;
hopeless of being able to preserve either thy territories or thy
reputation. From these circumstances thy ruin must have ensued, but for
our simplicity; we received thee to our home, actuated by reverence for
the happy memory of our duke, with whom, being connected by marriage and
renewed alliance, we believed thy affection would descend to those
who had inherited his authority, and that, if to the benefits he had
conferred on thee, our own were added, the friendship we sought to
establish would not only be firm, but inseparable; with this impression,
we added Verona or Brescia to thy previous appointments. What more could
we either give or promise thee? What else couldst thou, not from
us merely, but from any others, have either had or expected? Thou
receivedst from us an unhoped-for benefit, and we, in return, an
unmerited wrong. Neither hast thou deferred until now the manifestation
of thy base designs; for no sooner wert thou appointed to command our
armies, than, contrary to every dictate of propriety, thou didst accept
Pavia, which plainly showed what was to be the result of thy friendship;
but we bore with the injury, in hope that the greatness of the advantage
would satisfy thy ambition. Alas! those who grasp at all cannot be
satisfied with a part. Thou didst promise that we should possess the
conquests which thou might afterward make; for thou wert well aware that
what was given at many times might be withdrawn at once, as was the case
after the victory at Caravaggio, purchased by our money and blood, and