lieutenant in Calabria; Etienne de Vese, commander at Gaeta; and Don
Juliano, Gabriel de Montfaucon, Guillaume de Villeneuve, George de Lilly,
the bailiff of Vitry, and Graziano Guerra respectively governors of Sant'
Angelo, Manfredonia, Trani, Catanzaro, Aquila, and 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,