thousand strong, while the combined forces of Milan and Venice exceeded a
total of thirty-five thousand. So Charles decided to try once more the
methods of conciliation, and sent Commines, who, as we know, had joined
him in Tuscany, to the Venetian 'proveditori', whose acquaintance he had
made when on his embassy; he having made a great impression on these men,
thanks to a general high opinion of his merits. He was commissioned to
tell the enemy's generals, in the name of the King of France, that his
master only desired to continue his road without doing or receiving any
harm; that therefore he asked to be allowed a free passage across the
fair plains of Lombardy, which he could see from the heights where he now
stood, stretching as far as the eye could reach, away to the foot of the
Alps. Commines found the confederate army deep in discussion: the wish
of the Milanese and Venetian party being to let the king go by, and not
attack him; they said they were only too happy that he should leave Italy
in this way, without causing any further harm; but the ambassadors of
Spain and Germany took quite another view. As their masters had no
troops in the army, and as all the money they had promised was already
paid, they must be the gainer in either case from a battle, whichever way
it went: if they won the day they would gather the fruits of victory, and
if they lost they would experience nothing of the evils of defeat. This
want of unanimity was the reason why the answer to Commines was deferred
until the following day, and why it was settled that on the next day he
should hold another conference with a plenipotentiary to be appointed in
the course of that night. The place of this conference was to be between
the two armies.

The king passed the night in great uneasiness. All day the weather had
threatened to turn to rain, and we have already said how rapidly the Taro
could swell; the river, fordable to-day, might from tomorrow onwards
prove an insurmountable obstacle; and possibly the delay had only been