{"collection":"ritual-magic","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_53475/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_53475","id":"gutenberg_53475","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53475","summary":null,"tags":["Beghards","Beguines","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)","Category: History - Medieval/Middle Ages","Gertrude, the Great, Saint, 1256-1302","Italy -- History -- 1268-1492","Malatesta family","Medici, Piero di Lorenzo de', 1472-1503","Milan (Italy) -- History","Mysticism -- History -- Middle Ages, 600-1500","Pisa (Italy) -- History","Schism, The Great Western, 1378-1417","Visconti, Valentine, duchesse d' Orl\u00e9ans, 1366-1408"],"text":"------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n                          Transcriber\u2019s Note:\n\nThis version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.\nItalics are delimited with the \u2018_\u2019 character as _italic_. Superscripts,\ne.g. the abbreviation for \u2018folio\u2019, are indicated as \u2018f^o\u2019 or \u2018f^{os}\u2019,\nwhere there are more than one character.\n\nMinor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please\nsee the transcriber\u2019s note at the end of this text for details regarding\nthe handling of any issues encountered during its preparation.\n\nFootnotes, which appeared at the bottom of the page, have been moved to\nappear after the paragraph in which they are referenced. They have been\nrenumbered sequentially for uniqueness.\n\n                               THE END OF\n                            THE MIDDLE AGES\n\n                    ESSAYS AND QUESTIONS IN HISTORY\n\n\n\n\n                                   BY\n                          A. MARY F. ROBINSON\n                      (_Madame James Darmesteter_)\n\n\n\n\n                                 LONDON\n                             T FISHER UNWIN\n                         26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE\n                              MDCCCLXXXIX\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n                              DEDICATION.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nMY DEAR MR. SYMONDS,\u2014_I send you a little book; different from the many\nvolumes, plump with documents and the dignity of History, which I\nintended for you long ago. But, since I have no better thing to offer,\ntake\u2014dear Master\u2014these rough and scattered pages. For to whom, if not to\nyou, should I dedicate the book? When I look back, I see you at my side\nin all my studies; for the last ten years, there is not one of them\nwhich has not been confided to you, and, most of all, my dreams of\nHistory. So that whatever I write belongs in some sort to you; but\nespecially this little volume of which we talked so much in your study\nat Davos two years ago. Do you remember how you guided me through the\ninnumerable pages of Litta and of Muratori in quest of the secret of the\nFrench Claim to Milan? We did not find much of that, but we found so\nmany better things; and, best of all, the happy hours which you\nilluminated! Hours in which you evoked for me, as we plunged deeper and\ndeeper into your Chronicles, the great figures of the Past. At first\nthey rose before me, pale and mute\u2014silent and immaculate as the white\nrecesses of your Alps; but, at the touch of your wand, they assumed\ntheir ancient colour and consistence\u2014the very smile, the gait, the\naccent, the passions, that had moved them once beneath this sun that has\nsurvived them; their voices magically issued out of the silent yellow\npages; the sound of their battles clashed anew along your windless\nvalleys and eagle-haunted mountain tops. And, once alive, they remained\nalive for me._\n\n_As I sat and wondered, a new desire awoke in me, an eager wish to seize\nthese brilliant apparitions, to strip them of their faded purple, to\nstrip them of their form and colour, to lay them bare to their innermost\ntissue and catch the reason and the secret of their being._\n\n_And, first of all, to understand exactly what they did, and when, and\nwhy. Our beautiful chronicles were not always quite precise. I began to\nsee that what I wanted must be sought in manuscripts and foreign\narchives. And, half afraid, I told you of my project for exchanging a\ncheerful holiday in Switzerland against a week or two of dull research\nin Paris. Since then I have worked long and hard, in Paris, in London,\nin Florence, and the writing of dead hands has grown familiar to me; but\nI have never forgotten that it was first in the solitude of your lofty\nvalley, that my task grew plain before my mind. And now to whom, if not\nto you should I offer these scattered ruins of the thing undone\u2014these\nfirst ineffectual sketches of that_ History of the French in Italy,\n_which still I mean to write? From Davos they took their flight; let\nthem seek the nest again!_\n\n_If I had better profited by your lessons and your example, it would not\nhave been a mere sheaf of fragments that I should have offered you\nto-day, but a Book, a solid and coherent whole consistently animated, in\nall the complexity and the unity of its subject, by an epoch, an idea, a\nman, or an event. Nothing else is really durable, permanently useful. It\nis true that I have tried (and may the candour of this avowal excuse its\nweakness!)\u2014yes, I have tried, after the manner of essayists, to give an\napparent unity to my fragments by means of a title, large and\ncomfortable as the cloak of charity which covers in its vague expanse a\nhost of strangers._\n\n_For, after all, what has Schwester Katrei to do with Charles VIII., or\nIsotta of Rimini with Mechtild of Magdeburg? Shall I avow that the\nvolume is really the fragmentary essays towards two unwritten\nhistories\u2014one of the house of Hohenstaufen, the other of the French in\nItaly? Also I can imagine you remarking that, from the thirteenth\ncentury to the sixteenth, my Middle Ages take long a-dying:_\n\n           \u201c_Les gens que vous tuez se portent assez bien._\u201d\n\n_And you might add that in a book on the end of the Middle Ages, it is\nstrange to find not a line on the Loss of Constantinople, and not a\nchapter on the invention of Printing or the Discovery of America._\n\n_What can I do but acknowledge my incompleteness? Nay, I will even\nconfess to you that I have my private doubts whether the Middle Ages are\nover yet\u2014whether any period comes to an end at a given epoch, but does\nnot rather still subsist, diminished yet puissant, stealing in unnoticed\ncurrents along the vast veins and secret fabric of the world. In many a\nturn of thought and habit, in many a disregarded constitution\u2014in May Day\nand Manor Court, in the Land laws and the Judenhetze\u2014the Middle Ages are\nnot over yet. Here and there they reappear and startle us in unexpected\ncorners. That form of Nature which we know as History is, like every\nother evolution of Nature, too complex to be accurately fixed in words.\nWords only give the vague surroundings; they are the ill-fitting,\nready-made clothes of a thought._\n\n_Therefore, despite their official end, we may doubt whether we be done\nwith the Middle Ages. And yet you will agree with me that the personages\nof my essays belong no longer wholly to the age in which they lived.\nSomething came to an end then; something slowly began. Race of Cain and\nrace of Abel, mystics lost in ecstasy, or captains of prey and\nplunder,\u2014yet Eckhart, the forerunner of Hegel, and the sinister\nGiangaleazzo dreaming in a different fashion the dream of Count Cavour,\nwas each unconsciously a precursor of the Modern Age._\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\n_The Beguines, bringing the dissolvent of mysticism to the authority of\nRome; the Pope, in quitting his true capital for Avignon; the Cardinals\nby opening the Schism: these, between them, have invented the\nReformation.... Giangaleazzo Visconti, when he made his daughter of\nOrleans his heir, prepared the battles of Marignano and Pavia, and\ncondemned Francis I. to his captivity in Spain. Even as the Feud of\nOrleans and Burgundy began the long rivalry of Francis and the Emperor,\nthe great descendants of those angry houses.... Meanwhile the numerous\ninvasions of Italy under the Dukes of Orleans, and still later, the\ntriumphal journey of Charles VIII., brought back to France the splendour\nof the Renaissance. Thus Hallam closes the Middle Ages with the taking\nof Naples, in 1494. However this be, if you are indulgent, dear Master,\nyou may consider my essays a very humble and inadequate Introduction to\nthe study of your Sixteenth Century._\n\n_Perhaps I am the only reader who will have learned anything from the\nlittle book. And, after all, I am contented that it should be so. It is\nso much pleasanter to learn than to instruct; and in learning one meets\nwith so many friends and helpers. I cannot tell you here of all who have\nbefriended me, but I must at least mention to you the names of Canon\nCreighton, unfailing critic and sympathizer; of Mr. Bryce, who reached\nout an experienced hand to me and spared me several more mistakes in\nFeudal Law; of Mr. H.F. Brown of Venice, who procured me my Venetian\ntranscripts; of Professor Villari and Professor Paoli of Florence (it\nwas the latter who taught me Pal\u00e6ography); and of Comte Albert de\nCircourt of Paris, in whom I have found a quite invaluable adviser and\ncorrespondent,\u2014for probably no historian in Europe is so familiar with\nthe Lombard schemes of Louis d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans as he._\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\n_To you I owe the largest debt of all. It is not only for the writing of\na book I thank you here--_\n\n                                     _Ever sincerely yours_,\n\n                                             A. MARY F. DARMESTETER.\n\n\n\n\n                               CONTENTS.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n                 THE BEGUINES AND THE WEAVING BROTHERS.>\n                                                                    PAGE\n\n In 1180, Lambert of Li\u00e9ge founds the first Beguinage; the             8\n    rapid spread of the Order; invention of the kindred\n   guild of the Beghards or Fratres Textores\n\n In 1216 the invention of the Tertiary Orders of St. Dominic          12\n      and St. Francis supplies a monastic equivalent for\n   Beguinism\n\n Beguinism is awhile preserved from decadence by the prestige         14\n       of Mechtild of Magdeburg\n\n After her death, heresy and mysticism swiftly undermine              24\n   the Beguine Orders\n\n Opinions of the Beguines                                             25\n\n The Church resolves on their suppression                             29\n\n The plague of the Wandering Orders                                   30\n\n The Beguines are absorbed into the Tertiary Orders                   31\n\n The Beguines of Strasburg join the Dominican Order                   32\n\n And heresy begins to appear among the Dominicans of                  33\n   Strasburg\n\n Meister Eckhart and his doctrines                                    33\n\n Swester Katrei                                                       34\n\n The Beguines are suppressed; but their ideas, stealthily             38\n   kept alive in quiet places, burst out again in the XVI.\n    century\n\n                        THE CONVENT OF HELFTA. >\n\n Religious distinction of Thuringia in the 13th century               45\n\n Gertrude of Helfta enters the Convent of Rodardesdorf                46\n   about 1234; arrival of her sister Mechtild\n\n Life in the Convent                                                  48\n\n In 1251 Gertrude is elected Abbess                                   55\n\n And removes the Convent to her Castle of Helfta                      56\n\n Mechtild of Magdeburg enters the Convent, 1265                       57\n\n The miracles of St. Gertrude                                         61\n\n Death of Mechtild of Magdeburg                                       67\n\n Illness of St. Gertrude                                              68\n\n Her death                                                            71\n\n                     THE ATTRACTION OF THE ABYSS. >\n\n The science of Mysticism                                             74\n\n The bottom of the Soul                                               75\n\n The Soul and God alone real, the world non-existent                  75\n\n The bottom of the Soul is Nothingness                                 8\n\n God is the supreme Non-Existence                                     82\n\n And created Matter _purum nihil_                                     84\n\n The world is Nothing                                                 85\n\n Superiority of the position of the Mystics to the position           87\n   of     Theologians\n\n                              THE SCHISM. >\n\n The Pope comes to Avignon. The Popes remain there                    95\n   seventy years. In 1377 the Pope re-enters Rome\n\n Changed aspect of Rome                                               96\n\n Robert of Geneva leads the Papal armies against the Italians         97\n       on revolt\n\n Death of Gregory XI. The Conclave in Rome                            97\n\n Bartolommeo Prignano is elected                                      97\n\n Triumph of the Italian party                                         98\n\n The unpopularity of Prignano as Urban VI.                            99\n\n The rumour grows that his election was invalid. In                  100\n   September,     1378, Robert of Geneva is elected Pope at\n     Fondi as Clement VII.\n\n The Schism                                                          100\n\n                          VALENTINE VISCONTI. >\n\n Birth of Valentine Visconti, 1366                                   102\n\n Her parentage and childhood                                         103\n\n The rise of her father, Giangaleazzo                                104\n\n Description of Valentine                                            107\n\n Conquests of Giangaleazzo                                           110\n\n Valentine Visconti is betrothed to Louis, only brother of           111\n    Charles VI. of France\n\n Reasons for the marriage                                            112\n\n The dowry of Valentine                                              113\n\n Antagonism of Prince Louis to his uncle of Burgundy                 115\n\n Burgundy resists the marriage                                       116\n\n Valentine arrives at Court                                          118\n\n Description of the King and Orleans                                 119\n\n Medi\u00e6val Paris                                                      122\n\n Ascendancy of Valentine over the King                               127\n\n Her husband acquires the Duchy of Orleans, 1391                     128\n\n The King goes mad                                                   129\n\n The people suspect Orleans                                          131\n\n And say the Duke of Orleans is a wizard                             133\n\n Madness of the King                                                 134\n\n People say that Valentine is a witch, and that she and her          137\n     husband compass the King\u2019s madness\n\n Reasons for popular irritation against Valentine                    138\n\n Rivalry of France and Visconti in Genoa                             139\n\n Visconti and Orleans play into each other\u2019s hands                   140\n\n The Kingdom of Adria                                                145\n\n Death of Clement VII.                                               146\n\n France checkmates Orleans and Visconti in Genoa                     147\n\n There is talk in France of a Lombard campaign                       149\n\n But the disaster of Nicopolis compels the French to keep            150\n   friends with Milan\n\n Nicopolis                                                           151\n\n Tyranny of Orleans in France                                        156\n\n Death of Giangaleazzo Visconti                                      162\n\n Orleans leads an army into Lombardy                                 164\n\n And suddenly returns to Paris                                       165\n\n The King bestows on him the royal claim to Pisa                     165\n\n The Florentines take Pisa                                           167\n\n And Orleans turns his ambition towards Luxemburg, to the            169\n   detriment of Burgundy\n\n Orleans is murdered in Paris                                        170\n\n Burgundy avows the deed                                             173\n\n Valentine struggles to vindicate her husband\u2019s memory               174\n\n She dies broken-hearted                                             178\n\n                      THE FRENCH CLAIM TO MILAN. >\n\n Valentine Visconti brings the Milanese succession into the          181\n     House of Orleans\n\n Her marriage contract provides that on extinction of male           184\n    descent she shall inherit Milan\n\n The Duke of Milan thus disposes of an Imperial fief                 186\n\n Ambiguity of his conduct and intention                              189\n\n He intends to secure himself equally against France and             190\n   against the Empire\n\n Unsubstantiality of Imperial power                                  192\n\n The will of Giangaleazzo Visconti confirms the French claim         193\n      to Milan\n\n Fate of the children of Valentine                                   196\n\n Orleans and Angoul\u00eame, in 1441, send Dunois to Milan to             197\n   demand the restitution of Asti from their uncle Filippo\n    Maria Visconti\n\n Illness of the Duke of Milan                                        199\n\n The rival claims of his heirs                                       200\n\n He talks of adopting the Dauphin Louis                              202\n\n Meanwhile Louis and Savoy plan the conquest of Milan                203\n\n League between the Dauphin and the Duke of Milan                    205\n\n Death of the Duke of Milan                                          206\n\n His will                                                            207\n\n The French prepare to assert the rights of Orleans                  209\n\n Raynouard du Dresnay begins the campaign                            210\n\n The Duke of Orleans arrives at Asti, October 17, 1447               213\n\n He sends an embassy to Venice asking aid                            215\n\n The Venetians procrastinate                                         217\n\n Intrigues of Savoy                                                  220\n\n The Venetians determine to assassinate Francesco Sforza             221\n\n Suddenly the Milanese accept Sforza                                 229\n\n His position as regards Orleans, and before the feudal law          231\n\n The Venetians again determine to assassinate him                    233\n\n Efforts of Sforza to legalize his position                          237\n\n The Dauphin promises the Venetians to invade Italy, and             240\n   dispossess Sforza\n\n In December, 1453, Venice incites the Dauphin to seize              241\n   the Milanese and expel Sforza\u2014She professes her\n   readiness to aid him with men or money; or she will     do\n   as much for the Duke of Orleans in the same undertaking.\n     (A note quotes Venetian documents to show     how, about\n   the same time, Genoa, Milan, Venice, and     Florence were\n   taking measures to secure Italy against     invasion.)\n\n In April, 1459, Venice makes peace with Sforza                      242\n\n Opposite policy of Charles VII. and the Dauphin                     243\n\n Death of King Charles VII.                                          245\n\n Louis XI. becomes the firm ally of Sforza, but discards             245\n   Savoy, Orleans, Dunois, and Anjou\n\n In December, 1463, Louis XI. cedes to Sforza the French             245\n   claim to Genoa\n\n Death of Charles, Duke of Orleans                                   246\n\n Death of Louis XI., August 30, 1483                                 247\n\n January 16, 1484. Venice sends to Charles VIII. and to              250\n   the young Duke of Orleans pointing out the French\n   claim to Venice and to Naples\n\n The Embassy is renewed in February; but a new peace in              251\n   Italy and the struggles of Orleans for the Regency in\n   France postpone any further plans for a French invasion\n\n The invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. takes place in 1494          252\n     at the instigation, not of Naples, but of Milan\n\n Illness detains Orleans at Asti, within a league or two of          252\n     Lodovico Sforza at Milan\n\n Venice and Florence begin to intrigue with Orleans, and             254\n   suggest that the French take Milan instead of Naples\n\n Giangaleazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, dies in prison                  257\n\n Rights of the Regent, Lodovico il Moro                              257\n\n A diploma from the Emperor declares him Duke                   256, 257\n\n The relation between the French and Lodovico Sforza                 258\n   become strained\n\n In March, 1495, Venice, Milan, the Emperor, Castile, and            260\n   Arragon unite in a league to expel the French, unless\n   they retire without offence\n\n In June Orleans takes Novara                                        263\n\n The blockade of Novara. Orleans is released by composition          264\n\n Peace between France and the League is concluded in                 265\n   October, 1495\u2014The French evacuate Italy\n\n Florence entreats Orleans to invade Italy, and insists upon         266\n      his rights to Milan, 1497\n\n Orleans refuses to leave France                                     266\n\n Death of Charles VIII.                                              267\n\n Orleans becomes King of France as Louis XII.                        267\n\n Louis XII. conquers Lombardy, 1499                                  268\n\n The Emperor confirms his victories, and annals the                  269\n   privileges     bestowed on Lodovico Sforza\n\n Rights of Louis XII. and of Francis I. to Milan                     269\n\n The French lose Milan at the Battle of Pavia                        270\n\n Efforts to regain Milan, 1527-1536                                  271\n\n The treaty of Cr\u00e9py                                                 271\n\n The death of Charles II. of Orleans leaves Milan to the             272\n   Spaniards\n\n                      THE MALATESTAS OF RIMINI.  >\n\n Carlo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, being childless, adopts his        274\n       dead brother\u2019s three natural sons in 1427\n\n And procures their legitimation before his death in 1429            275\n\n He is succeeded by the eldest, Galeotto, a visionary ascetic        276\n\n In 1430 Gismondo, his younger brother, drives back the              279\n   Papal armies and delivers Rimini, being at the time\n   twelve years of age\n\n Galeotto expels the Jews                                            279\n\n And dies                                                            280\n\n Gismondo succeeds, drives back the armies of Urbino and             281\n   Pesaro, betroths himself to the daughter of Carmagnola,\n    and marries Ginevra of Este, 1432\n\n He rebuilds the Rocca, and becomes acquainted with Isotta           284\n    degli Atti\n\n Character of Isotta                                                 285\n\n In 1440 the wife of Gismondo dies suddenly\u2014In 1442 he               287\n   marries, not Isotta, but the daughter of Sforza\n\n He rebuilds the church of Rimini in honour of Isotta                287\n\n Architecture and decoration                                     287-294\n\n Sudden death of Polissena Sforza                                    294\n\n Triumphs and treacheries of Gismondo as a captain                   295\n\n He deserts from Arragon to Anjou                                    296\n\n His reverses begin                                                  296\n\n At this moment his enemy, \u00c6neas Sylvius Piccolomini, is             296\n   elected Pope, 1453\n\n The effigy of Gismondo is buried in the streets of Rome, and        297\n   he is excommunicated\n\n He seeks help in vain of the Angevines at Naples                    297\n\n He marries Isotta, and leaves her as Regent in Rimini               297\n\n He hires himself to the Venetians, conducts the campaign            298\n   of the Morea, and brings home the bones of Gemisthus\n   Pletho in 1465\n\n Ruin and death of Gismondo Malatesta                                299\n\n                         THE LADIES OF MILAN. >\n\n Murder of Galeazzo Maria Sforza in 1476                             300\n\n The Duchess Bonne and her children leave the conduct of             300\n   affairs to Cecco Simonetta, secretary of the late Duke\n   and of his father, the great Francesco Sforza\n\n Simonetta exiles the brothers of the late Duke                      301\n\n He falls out with the favourite of the Duchess, who                 302\n   persuades     her to recall her brother-in-law, Lodovico\n   il     Moro\n\n Lodovico returns secretly to Milan; beheads Simonetta               303\n\n And shuts his two little nephews in the Tower                       303\n\n He rules Milan by the title of Regent, and exiles the               304\n   Duchess\n\n His nephew, Giangaleazzo Sforza, marries Isabel of Arragon,         305\n      granddaughter of the King of Naples\n\n Lodovico Sforza marries Beatrice d\u2019Este, daughter of the            306\n   Duke of Ferrara\n\n Jealousies of Beatrice and Isabel                                   306\n\n Isabel appeals to Naples, and induces her father and                306\n   grandfather     to declare war on Lodovico in defence of\n   the     rights of Giangaleazzo\n\n Lodovico invites the French to invade Italy in support of           307\n    the French claim to Naples, 1494\n\n Death of the Duchess Beatrice, January, 1496                        309\n\n Sforza and Visconti portraits                                       312\n\n                   THE FLIGHT OF PIERO DE\u2019 MEDICI.  >\n\n Charles VIII. invades Italy, 1494                                   315\n\n Enthusiasm of the people and of Savonarola for the              315-319\n   French\n\n Savonarola                                                          319\n\n Piero Capponi                                                       320\n\n Piero de\u2019 Medici                                                    321\n\n His light-minded and frivolous government leaves Florence           322\n    at the mercy of the French\n\n Piero secretly leaves Florence and goes to make terms with          325\n     Charles VIII.\n\n Assents to the extravagant demands of the King                      331\n\n Indignation of Florence                                             335\n\n Piero is expelled the city                                          337\n\n                         THE FRENCH AT PISA.  >\n\n Gabriel\u2019 Maria Visconti, Lord of Pisa, declares himself the         340\n      vassal of the King of France, 1404\n\n Marshal Boucicaut is sent as French Governor to Genoa,              341\n   1402\n\n Character of Boucicaut                                              341\n\n His schemes for capturing a town in Lombardy                        341\n\n But his allies, the Florentines, are too busy in laying             342\n   siege     to Pisa\n\n Louis of Orleans marches towards Lombardy, 1403                     343\n\n And suddenly returns to France                                      343\n\n Boucicaut having accepted Visconti as the vassal of the             345\n   King for Pisa\n\n The King transfers to Orleans all the royal rights on Pisa          345\n\n Florence remonstrates with Boucicaut, her ally, asserting         345-8\n    that she has more right than the French have to Pisa\n\n Meanwhile the Pisans expel Gabriel\u2019 Maria Visconti, who             350\n   takes refuge at Genoa, and demands succour of the\n   French King, his liege lord\n\n Boucicaut attempts to arrange affairs _a l\u2019amiable_                 351\n\n The Pisans refuse to accept Gabriel\u2019 Maria, but offer to            351\n   give themselves directly to France, even as Genoa had\n   done before\n\n Boucicaut induces Gabriel\u2019 Maria to accept a compensation,          352\n     and sends a French garrison and a galley of provisions\n     to Pisa\n\n The Pisans seize the crew of the galley, cast them into             352\n   prison, and provision the city for a long resistance at\n    Boucicaut\u2019s expense\n\n Visconti sells Pisa to the Florentines                              353\n\n Boucicaut persuades the King of France to accept the                354\n   Florentines as his vassals for Pisa\n\n The King agrees and signs a treaty to that effect; yet in           365\n    the next year he declares Burgundy and Orleans Lords\n   of Pisa, and bids Boucicaut help them against the\n   Florentines. Boucicaut refuses\n\n The Florentines take Pisa. Anger in France. The Duke     of\n   Orleans casts the Florentine ambassadors into     prison:\n   they are released by his widow after his death\n\n Seventy years of slavery for Pisa                                   367\n\n But when, in 1494, Charles VIII. of France invades Italy            368\n\n He undertakes to maintain the Pisans in their liberties             369\n\n The Pisans expel the Florentines, and constitute themselves         369\n      a Free Republic\n\n Divided opinions in the camp of Charles                             370\n\n Charles solemnly swears to Florence that he will restore            371\n   Pisa on his return from Naples\n\n The Pisans send an advocate to the King in Rome, beseeching         373\n      him not to deliver them to Florence\n\n Louis de Ligny\u2014Luxemburg, with other adherents of the               376\n   party of Orleans, favours the Pisans\u2019 cause\n\n Savonarola meets the King at Poggibonsi, and summons     him        378\n   to return by Florence\n\n But the King returns by Pisa, and does not yield the city,          380\n\n The King promises to let the Florentines know his decision          385\n     so soon as he arrives at Asti\n\n Meanwhile he leaves Entragues with a French garrison in             385\n   Pisa\n\n The King, arrived at Turin, summons Entragues to yield              388\n   Pisa to the Florentines\n\n Entragues refuses                                                   390\n\n He treats with the Pisans                                           391\n\n Pisa becomes nominally a Free Republic                              393\n\n Distress of the French in Naples                                    394\n\n Distress of Florence                                                395\n\n Milan and Venice intrigue for Pisa                                  396\n\n And Pisa never forgives the French her liberty                      396\n\n\n\n\n                      THE BEGUINES AND THE WEAVING\n                              BROTHERS.[1]\n\n\n                                   I.\n\nWith the approach of the thirteenth century, the world awoke from its\nlong and dreamless sleep. Then began the age of faith, the miraculous\ncentury, starving for lack of bread and nourished upon heavenly roses.\nSt. Louis and St. Elizabeth, Dominic the eloquent and the fiery\nBonaventura, Thomas Aquinas and Francis the _glorioso poverello di Dio_,\nproclaim the enthusiastic spirit of the age. It is an age of chivalry no\nless in religion than in love, an age whose somewhat strained and\nmystical conception of virtue is sweetened by a new strong impulse of\nhuman pity. The world begins to see; and the green growth of the earth,\nthe birds of the air, the fishes of the sea, become clear and noticeable\nthings in the eyes of the saints. The world awakes and feels. Jean de\nMatha and F\u00e9lix de Valois, gentlemen of Meaux, visit the prisons of\nFrance, and redeem many hundred captives from Morocco. On all sides men\nbegin to love the sick, the poor, the sinful; even to long for sickness\nand poverty, as if in themselves they were virtuous; even to wonder\nwhether sin and evil may not be a holy means for mortifying spiritual\npride. To rescue the captive, to feed the hungry, to nurse the leper, as\nunawares Elizabeth of Hungary tended Christ in her Thuringian city\u2014this\nis the new ideal of mankind. And this age of feeling is no less an age\nof speculation, of metaphysical inquiry, of manifold heresies and\nschisms. No new Bernard stops with his earnest dogma the thousand\ntheories which everywhere arise and spread.\n\nFootnote 1:\n\n  The principal sources for this and the two following articles are as\n  follows:\u2014Mosheim, \u201cInstitutiones Histori\u00e6 Ecclesiastic\u00e6;\u201d Dr.\n  Schmidt\u2019s \u201cStrasburger Beginen-h\u00e4user im Mittelalter\u201d and other pages\n  by this master of medi\u00e6val religious thought; Dr. Preger\u2019s \u201cGeschichte\n  der deutschen Mystik im Mittelalter;\u201d the volume on \u201cLe Panth\u00e9isme\n  populaire au Moyen Age\u201d of M. Auguste Jundt; Stockl\u2019s \u201cGeschichte der\n  Philosophie: Meister Eckhardt;\u201d the writings on the School of\n  Alexandria of M. Vacherot and M. Barth\u00e9lemy Saint Hilaire; Mr.\n  Vaughan\u2019s \u201cHalf-Hours with the Mystics;\u201d and last, not least, the\n  sermons of Eckhardt, the poems of Mechtild of Magdeburg, and the\n  meditations and lives of Saint Gertrude and Saint Mechtild of Helfta.\n\nThe modern age has begun. The saints of the preceding years had been men\nof a more militant or monastic turn, dogmatic minds like Bernard of\nClairvaux, Norbert, Thomas \u00e0 Becket. The era of charity and speculative\nthought begins when the twelfth century is drawing near the close.\n\nFrom the last year of the eleventh century until the Christians were\nfinally driven out of Syria in 1291, there had been scarcely a break in\nthe continual crusade. Throughout the twelfth century this enthusiasm of\npity for the dead Redeemer left in the hands of infidels was maintained\nat fever heat. Later it was softened and widened by the new spirit of\ncharity towards ailing and erring humankind. But during the first\nhundred years of the Holy War it absorbed all that was holiest and\npurest, most ardent and noblest in European manhood. All went to fall\nupon the fields of Palestine, or to return strangely altered after many\nyears. France, England, Germany, and Flanders, each in her turn\ncommanded the pious host; but just as these countries were glorious in\nthe East were they barren and empty at home. Whole districts of corn\nland and pasture lapsed again into moss and marsh. Whole countrysides\nwere thinned of their hale and active men. A vast distress and indigence\nspread over Europe. Those were hard years for desolate women. Their\nspinning and broidery could not buy them bread, and bitter was the\neffort to live until their bread-winners returned. Even when the armies\ncame back from Palestine there were many who did not return: many had\ndied of strange Asiatic pestilences, many had not survived the long\njourney; the bones of some were bleached on the desert sand, and others\nwhitened in the sea. And some of them had gained the crown which every\npious soul then strove and yearned to win. They had fallen, as Mechtild\nof Magdeburg wished to fall, their heart\u2019s blood streaming under the\nfeet of heathen. And when the thinned and feeble ranks of the survivors\ncame to their own country, a very dreadful cry went up from all the\ndestitute widows in Europe.\n\nCruel indeed was their condition. Some, truly, sought for rest and quiet\nin the cloister; but in those days the cloister was death to the world.\nThe charitable orders of Francis and Dominic were as yet undreamed of.\nOnly the great meditative orders offered absolute renunciation and\nabsolute seclusion. Timid and clinging hearts could not so utterly\nforego their world; many busy energetic spirits felt no vocation for the\ndreamy quiet of the cloistered nun. And for these the world was hard.\nThey must beg the bread which their labour could very seldom earn. One\ndreadful trade indeed, which the desires of men leave ever open to the\ndespair of women, one trade found many followers. But there were pure\nand holy women, and venerable women, and dying women, who could not live\nin sin. And there might be seen in every market-place miserable and\nhungry petitioners, crying, \u201cFor God\u2019s sake, give us bread; bread for\nthe love of Christ!\u201d\n\n_Swestrones Brod durch Got._ Sisters of bread for the sake of God. The\nname often strikes us in later writing. The singular title has become\nfamiliar. For when we read of piteous uncloistered piety, and when we\nread of humble merit rebuking the sins of arrogant Churchmen, and in the\naccount of strange mystical heresies, and in the lists of interdicts and\nburnings, we shall often meet in the monkish Latin of Germany and\nFlanders that outlandish phrase: we shall hear again of the _Swestrones\nBrod durch Got_.\n\n\n                                  II.\n\nIn the year 1180, there lived in Liege a certain kindly, stammering\npriest, known from his infirmity as Lambert le B\u00e8gue. This man took pity\non the destitute widows of his town. Despite the impediment in his\nspeech, he was, as often happens, a man of a certain power and eloquence\nin preaching. His words, difficult to find, brought conviction when they\ncame. This Lambert so moved the hearts of his hearers that gold and\nsilver poured in on him, given to relieve such of the destitute women of\nLiege as were still of good and pious life. With the moneys thus\ncollected, Lambert built a little square of cottages, with a church in\nthe middle and a hospital, and at the side a cemetery. Here he housed\nthese homeless widows, one or two in each little house, and then he drew\nup a half-monastic rule which was to guide their lives. The rule was\nvery simple, quite informal: no vows, no great renunciation bound the\n_Swestrones Brod durch Got_. A certain time of the day was set apart for\nprayer and pious meditation; the other hours they spent in spinning or\nsewing, in keeping their houses clean, or they went as nurses in time of\nsickness into the homes of the townspeople. They were bidden to be\nobedient; and to be chaste so long as they remained of the sisterhood,\nbut they might marry again at will with no disgrace. If rich women chose\nto join the new and unsanctioned guild, they might leave a portion of\ntheir riches to any heir they chose. Thus these women, though pious and\nsequestered, were still in the world and of the world; they helped in\nits troubles, and shared its afflictions, and at choice they might\nrejoin the conflict.\n\nSoon we find the name _Swestrones Brod durch Got_ set aside for the more\nusual title of Beguines, or Beghines. Different authorities give\ndifferent origins for this word. Some, too fantastic, have traced the\nname to St. Begge, a holy nun of the seventh century. Some have thought\nit was taken in memory of the founder, the charitable Lambert le B\u00e8gue.\nOthers think that, even as the Mystics or Mutterers, the Lollards or\nHummers, the Papelhards or Babblers, so the Beguines or Stammerers were\nthus nicknamed from their continual murmuring in prayer. This is\nplausible; but not so plausible as the suggestion of Dr. Mosheim and M.\nAuguste Jundt, who derive the word Beguine from the Flemish verb\n_beggen_, to beg. For we know that these pious women had been veritable\nbeggars; and beggars should they again become.\n\nWith surprising swiftness the new order spread through the Netherlands\nand into France and Germany. Every town had its surplus of homeless and\npious widows, and also its little quota of women who wished to spend\ntheir lives in doing good, but had no vocation for the cloister. The\nBeguinage, as it was called, became a home and refuge to either class.\nBefore 1250 there were Beguines, or Begging Sisters, at Tirlemont,\nValenciennes, Douai, Ghent, Louvain, and Antwerp in Flanders; at all the\nprincipal towns in France, especially at Cambray, where they numbered\nover a thousand; at B\u00e2le and Berne in Switzerland; at L\u00fcbeck, Hamburg,\nMagdeburg, and many towns in Germany, with two thousand Beguines at\nCologne and numerous beguinages in the pious town of Strasburg.\n\nSo the order spread, within the memory of a man. Lambert may have lived\nto see a beguinage in every great town within his ken; but we hear no\nmore of him. The Beguines are no longer for Liege, but for all the\nworld. Each city possessed its quiet congregation; and at any sick-bed\nyou might meet a woman clad in a simple smock and a great veil-like\nmantle, who lived only to pray and to do deeds of mercy. They were very\npious, these uncloistered sisters of the poor. Ignorant women who had\nknown the utmost perils of life and death, their fervour was warmer,\nfonder, more illiterate than the devotion of nuns; they prayed ever as\nbeing lately saved from disgrace and ruin and starvation. Their quiet,\nunutterable piety became a proverb, almost a reproach; much as, within\nour memories, the unctuous piety of Methodists was held in England. When\nthe child Elizabeth of Hungary fasted and saw visions in the Wartburg,\nthe Princess Agnes, her worldly sister-in-law, could find no more cruel\ntaunt than this: \u201cThink you my brother will marry such a Beguine?\u201d This\nis in 1213, only eight-and-thirty years since Lambert built the first\nasylum for the destitute widows of Liege.\n\n\n                                  III.\n\nThe success of the Beguines had made them an example; the idea of a\nguild of pious uncloistered workers in the world had seized the\nimagination of Europe. Before St. Francis and St. Dominic instituted the\nmendicant orders, there had silently grown up in every town of the\nNetherlands a spirit of fraternity, not imposed by any rule, but the\nnatural impulse of a people. The weavers seated all day long alone at\ntheir rattling looms, the armourers beating out their thoughts in iron,\nthe cross-legged tailors and busy cobblers thinking and stitching\ntogether\u2014these men silent, pious, thoughtful, joined themselves in a\nfraternity modelled on that of the Beguines. They were called the\nWeaving Brothers. Bound by no vows and fettered by no rule, they still\nlived the worldly life and plied their trade for hire. Only in their\nleisure they met together and prayed and dreamed and thought. Unlettered\nmen, with warm undisciplined fancies, they set themselves to solve the\ngreatest mysteries of earth and heaven. Sometimes, in their sublime and\ndangerous audacity, they stumbled on a truth; more often they wandered\nfar afield, led by the will-o\u2019-the-wisp of their own unguided thoughts.\nIn the long busy hours of weaving and stitching they found strange\nanswers to the problems of human destiny, and, in their leisure,\nbreathless and eager, discussed these theories as other men discussed\ntheir chance of better wage. Such were the founders of the great\nfraternity of Fratres Textores, or Beghards as in later years the people\nmore generally called them. And their philosophy is so strangely\nabstract and remote that we could not explain it, did we not know that\nfrom time to time some secular priest or wealthy and pious laymen joined\nthe humble fraternity. And the priest would bring, to their store of dim\nwonderings, the Alexandrian theories of the pseudo-Dionysius, then, in\nall the monasteries of Christendom, deemed the very corner-stone of\nsacred philosophy. We can imagine how eagerly these simple folk would\nseize the hallowed fragments of Erigena and of the Areopagite, and how\nthey would treasure them as holy secrets in the depth of their tender\nand mystical souls. We know that now and then a consecrated priest would\njoin the unsanctioned but pious order of the Beghards; it is no great\nstretch of fancy to suppose that from time to time, some Crusader, fresh\nfrom the East, would bring them his memory of Eastern theories; that\nsome scholar would add a line from Avicenna or Averroes. Through some\nchannel, it is evident, the Beghards received the last feeble stream of\nAlexandrian theory. Their vague, idealistic pantheism is but an echo of\nPlotinus and his school. From the monasteries, from the Arabian\ncommentators on Aristotle, or directly from the East, these fragments of\nneoplatonist philosophy must have reached them; and out of them there\nshould be evolved, first of all, the great metaphysical heresies of the\nMiddle Ages; and, later on, the habit of mind that should produce the\nGerman Reformation.\n\n\n                                  IV.\n\nWhile the Beghards and the Beguines were slowly, imperceptibly nearing\nthe great abyss of heresy, the creation of two new orders at Rome\ninsidiously took from them the greater part of their prestige. Until the\nFranciscans and Dominicans obtained the sanction of the Pope, the\nbeguinage had seemed the natural mean between the life of the cloister\nand the life of the world. But the new charitable orders had all the\nactivity, the beneficence of the Beguines, and therewith the friendship\nand protection of Rome. For some time longer the Beguines flourished,\nstill orthodox and reputable; but the order had received its death-blow\non the day when Francis and Dominic obtained the Papal sanction for\ntheir Tertiary Orders of Penitence.\n\nThe tertiary orders of Dominic and Francis were a new departure from the\nexclusive theories of Roman monasticism. They were invented for men and\nwomen of holy life, married and still living in the world, who wished\nfor some nearer association with the Church than belongs to the ordinary\nmember of a congregation. They took their part in worldly joys and\nsorrows, triumphs and failures; but they prayed longer than other\nworldly folk, did more good works, looked more for heaven. The\ninstitution of these orders was a wide breach in the barrier which\ndivides the cloister from the world, the sacred from the profane. They\nwere, in fact, as the reader has perceived, merely an hierarchic version\nof those fraternities which the unconsecrated poor had made among\nthemselves: Beguines and Beghards protected by the Church.\n\nThus the idea of the secular beguinage was transformed into a sacred\nthing. The example of the Beguines had been followed by the Church, who,\nin consecrating these new orders, made an immense reform in the old\nexclusive monastic ideal, a tremendous concession to the new democratic\nspirit inspiring all men. Hitherto the cloister had been a refuge and\nasylum from the noisy nations without. It had been as an ark, floating\nover the stormy waters, offering safety indeed to those inside it, yet\nnot concerned with the clamorous multitude that drowned and struggled\nbeyond it in the increasing flood. The aim of Francis and of Dominic was\nto quit this aloof and lofty shelter, to go and reprove the erring and\nrescue the ignorant, to be the friend and brother of sinners and\npublicans, of Magdalens and lepers, to revert, in fact, to the old\ndemocratic ideal of the Christian Church. They were to be poor among the\npoor, armed only with the armour of faith. They were to be in the world\nthe heralds of God. The sisters of the orders were to be humble women,\nthe brothers mendicant friars. At first they took no more from the world\nthan the wandering Beguines took in later days\u2014only water, bread, and a\ngarment. But this strict rule of absolute poverty was soon removed, and\nthe Dominicans, at all events, were never destitute.\n\nEach order had its different mission. The Dominicans, the preaching\nbrothers, should persuade the hard of heart, strengthen the failing,\nconsole the desolate, warn the erring, and exterminate the heretic. Yet,\nsingularly enough, this most orthodox order, these watch-dogs of the\nLord, were to become in Germany a centre of mystical heresies. The order\nof St. Francis, the Lesser Brothers, had a more tender and ecstatic\nideal. They went begging through the world, tending the sick, loving the\nhelpless, preaching to the birds and the fishes, full of a quaint\ncompassionate unworldliness, a holy folly. There were few hearts so hard\nthat, though unshaken by the storms of Dominic, they did not melt before\nthe sweet Franciscan sanctity. And so the two orders traversed the\nworld, twin forces and voices of pity. But the chivalrous and militant\npity of Dominic, eager to avenge the outraged Christ continually\ncrucified by infidels, too often took the form of wrath and burnings,\nwhile Francis loved the erring with a simple human pity. In return the\nworld bestowed, and still bestows, upon him something of the wondering\ncompassionate reverence which Eastern nations give to the Pure Fool, the\nman unsoiled by the wisdom of the world and still wrapped round with the\nsimplicity of God. Between them, the two orders were to divide the\nChristian world. Sanctioned in the same year and under the same\nhospitable rule of Augustine, they went out triumphantly upon their\ndifferent missions. Inspired, it is most probable, by the example of the\nBeguines, they would soon absorb the secular order into their mighty\nforces. And the real decline of Beguinism begins, not in 1250, when\nfirst the secular fraternities became conspicuous for heresy, but on\nthat day of the year 1216 when the learned Dominic and the visionary\nFrancis met and embraced each other in the streets of Rome.\n\n\n                                   V.\n\nAt first the external position of the Beguines and the Beghards appeared\nin no danger and no disadvantage. Their fraternity had always been a\nsecular fraternity; their condition of pious laymen was one which\noffered sanctity with independence. The beguinages still thrived and\nmultiplied. In the Low Countries especially, and in Cambray, Strasburg,\nand Cologne,\u2014places where mysticism has ever been dear, and\necclesiastical authority never a welcome yoke\u2014Beguinism grew apace. But\nthere is no doubt that one great cause which for thirty years averted\nthe ruin of the secular fraternities was the presence in their midst of\none of the most remarkable women of her century; a woman who, to the\nBeguines, was all that St. Elizabeth was to the Franciscans, or that\nCatherine of Siena should become to the order of St. Dominic. This\ngifted and singular creature was the prophetess Mechtild of Magdeburg.\n\nWe do not know the name of the castle where, in the year 1212, Mechtild\nof Magdeburg was born. It cannot have been very far from the city which\nwas to be her refuge, and whose name she bears. The title of her father\nis also lost; but it is certain she came of noble and courtly stock. Her\nfamily were probably religious people, for we know that her brother\nBaldwin became one of the Dominicans of Halle.\n\nMechtild was, as she herself recalls, the dearest of her parents\u2019\nchildren; and these courtly and pious Thuringian nobles seem to have\nbeen as proud as they were fond of their little daughter. She received a\nliberal education. Her book on the flowing light of Godhead is written\nwith an energy, sweetness, and variety of style strongly in contrast\nwith the Gertrudenbuch and the Mechtildenbuch of Helfta. The music of\nher verse proves her familiar with the lyrics of the Minnesingers. They\nmay no doubt have visited her father\u2019s castle. But the little Mechtild\ndid not dream of poetry and of knights-at-arms. It was later that she\nwould deplore the poor vain minstrels who in hell weep more tears than\nthere are waters in the sea.[2] Her thoughts in childhood were all for\nthe saints in heaven. When she was twelve years old, the little girl was\n(as she records it) visited by the Holy Spirit; and from that moment she\ndesired to quit the world.\n\nFootnote 2:\n\n  \u201cDer viel arme Spielmann der mit hohem M\u016dthe s\u00fcndliche Eitelkeit\n  machen kann, der weint in der H\u00f6lle mehr Thr\u00e4nen denn alles Wassers\n  ist in dem Meer.\u201d I like to give the reader a line of Mechtild\u2019s\n  book\u2014from what I have read of it, that is to say, in the pages of Herr\n  Preger and elsewhere\u2014to show him the musical lilt of her style, the\n  emotional charm (foreshadowing Heinrich Suso), and a certain easy\n  lightness of heart I remember in no other mystical book, except in the\n  exquisite Fioretti di San Francesco.\n\nIt was a moment of intense spiritual exaltation, this year 1224. Close\nat hand in the Wartburg the seventeen-year-old Landgravine Elizabeth was\nexciting the wonder of her people by her pieties and sweet austerities.\nThe bread miraculously turned into heavenly roses, the leper whom she\ntended transformed into the shining Christ, the stories of her visions\nand her scourgings would certainly be familiar to the little Mechtild.\nThe Emperor Frederic II. was already collecting his nobles for his\nill-starred and heretic crusade. On Monte Laverna, in this very year,\nSt. Francis received the stigmata. Blanche of Castile and the child St.\nLouis were ruling Paris as King Arthur might have ruled his court at\nCamelot, by the authority of love and gentleness. At the same time the\nghastly prevalence of leprosy and pestilence, of war and hideous famine,\nmade the world as dreadful as heaven was desirable. Those who recall the\ncondition of Eisenach, as revealed by the life of St. Elizabeth, may\nimagine the sights of human suffering which little Mechtild must have\nencountered every day. And close by, in the vast woods of Prussia, dwelt\nheathen folk who knew of nothing better than this cruel world. In that\nvery year some of the crusader knights had set out to conquer that pagan\nkingdom. Thus with on one hand holy Thuringia and with heathen Prussia\non the other, with war, famine, and pestilence frequent petitioners at\nher gates, it is not surprising that the little Mechtild shared the\nspiritual fervours of her time, and longed to give herself to Heaven.\n\nBut she did not, like Gertrude and Mechtild of Hackeborn, enter a\nconvent in her infancy. Most likely she yielded to the entreaties of her\nfamily, \u201cof whom she was ever the dearest.\u201d Year after year passed on,\nand Mechtild still dwelt in her father\u2019s castle. Yet, after that one\nchildish moment of ecstacy, the sweetness and honour of the world were\nto her as vain and perishable things. And still she was not visited\nagain with trance or vision. She was no dreamer, this eager Mechtild,\nbut a vigorous and healthy girl, in the flower of her beautiful and\nlusty youth, alert, passionate, with a mind awake to all the questions\nand interest of the world around her. Such a nature is not by instinct a\nmystical nature; but the strange contagion of the time had touched her,\nand worked slowly through her innermost being. Stronger and stronger\ngrew the strenuous unworldly prompting: \u201c_without sin, to be disgraced\nbefore the world_.\u201d\n\nFor eleven years the desire waxed and strengthened; for eleven years did\nMechtild combat this desire. Daily it grew more impelling, more\nsubduing. At last, in the year 1235, the year of the canonization of\nElizabeth, when Mechtild was twenty-three years old, she secretly left\nher father\u2019s house, and fled to Magdeburg. She left all behind\nher\u2014brothers and sisters, father and mother, \u201cof whom she was the\ndearest,\u201d and the courtly honourable life, and the quiet happiness of\nlove and safety. _Frau Minne, ihr habt mir benommen weltlich Ehre und\nallen weltlichen Reichthum!_ Everything indeed she left, to follow the\ngoading impulse of Sacred Love.\n\nWhen she reached the strange city, when she had left far behind her the\ndistant home where even now her kinsmen would wonder, and miss her, and\nmake a search, when the night fell on her in Magdeburg, Mechtild desired\na shelter. Weary with her flight, she resolved to ask some nunnery to\nlend her its asylum. Within those holy walls she could more truly yield\nherself to God.\n\nShe knocked at a convent door, and begged for shelter, saying she\ndesired to become a nun. But the quiet sisters distrusted this\nbeautiful, travel-stained young woman of three-and-twenty, without\nmeans, or friends, or reference, alone at night in the turbulent city\nstreets\u2014this girl who, by her own confession, had fled her father\u2019s\nhouse. Soon those doors were closed against her. There were, however,\nmany convents in a great archiepiscopal city such as Magdeburg. To\nconvent after convent went the despairing girl, finding at each, no\ndoubt, rest for the limbs and food for the body, but in none of all of\nthem a home. For no religious house would admit this unfriended and\nsuspicious creature into its pure community. When the last doors had\nclosed upon her, Mechtild stood in the street, alone in Magdeburg. It\nmust have come upon her then, I think, that at last her great desire was\ngranted\u2014_Without sin, she was disgraced before the world._\n\nWhen Mechtild left her parents\u2019 castle, she had chosen Magdeburg to be\nher hiding-place, because in that town there lived a friend of her\nfamily. She had thought to stay her heart upon the thought of this\nunvisited friend, who might be her last resource in case of extremity.\nBut now the need was felt, Mechtild did not seek him. He would, she\nknew, endeavour to persuade her from the path that she had chosen, and\nMechtild was in need of all her courage.\n\nSo, unfriended, alone, she stood in the streets of Magdeburg. Then she\nbethought her of another shelter, humble indeed, but safe. And she had\nleft home only to be humbled. What humiliation would there have been in\nentering, like the dear St. Elizabeth, the holy order of St. Francis? Or\nwhat abasement had she, like her brother, embraced the rule of Dominic,\n\u201cdearest to me,\u201d she avers, \u201cof all the saints\u201d? Here there was no\nspiritual sacrifice. And what sacrifice of life, of social habit, of\nesteem could she have made had she entered one of the great Cistercian\nor Benedictine convents, where the nobles of Saxony and Thuringia were\nproud to send their daughters? Mechtild was glad that they had rejected\nher; it seemed to her that at last, pure of pride, free of weak desire,\nshe saw her own will made plain and the directing will of God.\n\nShe moved now; she knew what to do and where to go; she was no longer\nunguided and alone. She went to the beguinage, the home of mendicant\nwidows, the almshouse of the holy poor who gave themselves to God. At\nthat door, which debarred no one from the outer world, Mechtild knocked.\nA poor woman opened to her, clad in a plain smock and a great mantle\ncovering head and shoulders. Such another gown and cloak was lying by,\nready for the welcome Mechtild. She entered the house.\n\nThat night Mechtild stood in her little cell. It was much like any\nconvent cell; but it was without a convent\u2019s restrictions or its\nprivileges. Mechtild might quit those walls this year, next year, any\nyear. She might marry and have children. She had, after all, offered up\nno sacrifice of her own body; she was not dead to the world, but was to\nlive and labour in it more nearly now than in her father\u2019s castle. No\ngreat barrier should stand henceforth between her soul and sin. The\nbattle was not over; it was but just begun.\n\nFar easier had been the greater sacrifice, done once and done for ever!\nFar more peaceful the quiet nunnery, hallowed to rapture and seclusion!\nMechtild was now the servant only, and not the bride of Christ. She was\na Beguine, not a nun. The accomplished daughter of nobles, she was the\ncompanion of the destitute and lowly. It was better thus, better to be\nlowly and despised, even as Christ was despised. All these thoughts of\ndismay, rapture, weariness, and exaltation, rushed and clashed through\nthe tired breast of Mechtild. Then, for a second time, the trance crept\nover her, and she sank unconscious into the ever-present arms of God.\n\nThen, in a vision, Mechtild saw how henceforward her life should be\ndoubly glorious and doubly beset with peril. For she beheld the angel\nand the devil, who to this moment had been permitted to guide her and\nassail her, each miraculously changed into twain. Now at her right there\nstood a cherub, with gifts and holy wisdom on his azure wings, and a\nseraph bearing her a heart of love. But on the left two devils watched\nher\u2014two devils who, in all times, have lain in wait for the mystic and\nthe solitary visionary. And the name of the one was Vain-Glory, and that\nof the other Vain-Desire.\n\n\n                                  VI.\n\nFrom the night of that vision begins the career of Mechtild and the\nhistory of her visions and her prophecies. At first, indeed, occupied in\nconquering her strong and lusty youth, the visions of Mechtild of\nMagdeburg are little different from those of any convent saint. Angels\nand devils, the beautiful manhood of our Lord, fragments from the Song\nof Solomon, the rapture of the Spiritual Nuptials\u2014such are the\ninevitable themes. But this woman, we feel, is no mere Gertrude or\nMechtild of Hackeborn. The whole world interests her, and the destinies\nof the world. In reading the book in which she wrote her visions, the\nbook of the flowing light of Godhead, we soon pass over this initial\nstage to a second and wider phase.\n\n                     \u201cIch habe gesehen ein Stat;\n                     Ihr Name ist die ewige Hass.\u201d\n\nThese pregnant words begin Mechtild\u2019s \u201cVision of Hell.\u201d The plan of this\ngreat vision, which beholds, built in succeeding and widening terraces,\nthe habitations of sinners, with fire and darkness, stench and cold, and\npain in the bottommost pit, no less than the scheme of the poem, which\nlashes many a prevalent sin of the Church, both alike recall a far\ngreater poet yet unborn, one who should also explore the depths of hell\nand the heights of heaven, one who should accept as his guide towards\nParadise a certain mysterious Matilda,\n\n                   \u201cCantando come donna innamorata,\u201d\n\nin whom the learned Herr Preger has recognized our earnest minstrel of\nheaven, the loving and singing Mechtild of Magdeburg.\n\nThe form of Mechtild\u2019s visions did not make her popular among the\nchurchmen of her city. The people caught up the lilting, dancing\nmeasures of her songs. The pious sang her visions. And girls, to whom a\nnun had ever seemed a cold and sacred being, could understand the happy\nverses of the fearless love of God, in which Mechtild claims for herself\nan impulse as natural, as irresistible, as any maiden\u2019s love of her\nbetrothed:\u2014\n\n             \u201cDas ist eine kindische Liebe,\n             Dass man Kinder sa\u00fcge und wiege;\n             Ich bin eine vollgewachsene Braut,\n             Ich will gehen nach meinem Traut.\n\n             \u201cIch st\u00fcrbe gerne von Minnen\n             Seine Augen in meine Augen,\n             Sein Herz in mein Herze,\n             Sein Seele in meine Seele\n             Umfangen und umschlossen.\n\n             \u201cDer Fisch mag in dem Wasser nicht ertrinken,\n             Der Vogel in den L\u00fcften nicht versinken,\n             Das Gold mag in dem Feuer nicht verderben;\n             Wie m\u00f6chte ich denn meiner Natur widerstehn?\u201d\n\nIn the convents of Helfta and Quedlinburg these songs spread and\nfurthered the great renown of Mechtild. Heinrich von Halle, the famous\nDominican, went to see her, and became her friend. But the secular\npriests did not love her, this Beguine reformer, this new unsanctioned\nAbbess Hildegard, who saw so clearly and bewailed so explicitly the many\ncorruptions which had crept upon the Church even in that age of faith,\neven in the century of St. Francis and St. Dominic, of King Louis and\nElizabeth of Hungary. Some of these secular priests tried to burn her\nbook; thereupon Mechtild saw a vision and heard the voice of God crying\naloud: \u201c_Lieb\u2019 meine, betr\u00fcbe dich nicht zu sehr, die Wahrheit mag\nniemand verbrennen._\u201d\n\nProfound and touching phrase, motto of all martyrs and of every cause:\nNo one can burn the Truth! Had the world but learned by heart this one\npoignant sentence, uttered in the very age which began the persecution\nof heretics, how many wars, deaths, angers, cruelties, centuries of\nremorse and hatred had not the world been spared! All honour to this\nwoman, who, six centuries ago, perceived how vain it is to hunt, slay,\nburn, exterminate an idea. This sentence should be immortal.\n\nMechtild continued to speak what seemed to her the most necessary truth.\n\u201cPope and priests,\u201d she cries, \u201care going the road to hell. Unless they\nquit their sensuality, their spiritual negligence, their temporal greed,\nfearful disasters will overwhelm them.\u201d \u201cIn this book,\u201d she says, \u201cI\nwrite with my heart\u2019s blood.\u201d She is no unfilial antagonist threatening\nthe power of Rome, but a daughter striving to lead her parent back into\nthe holy way. She has a vision, and sees perverted Christendom lying,\n\u201clike an impure virgin,\u201d far from the throne of God. She takes it in the\narms of her soul, and strives to lift it nearer. \u201cLeave hold!\u201d cries the\ntremendous voice of God; \u201cshe is too great a weight for thee.\u201d And\nMechtild looks up and smiles. \u201cEia, my Lord!\u201d she cries; \u201cI will carry\nher to Thy feet with Thine own arms that Thou didst outspread upon the\ncross for her!\u201d\n\nSuch is the aim of Mechtild: to bring the over-powerful and worldly\nRoman hierarchy back to the primitive and democratic ideal of\nChristianity. She has the courage of her intention, and shrinks not from\nrebuking error, however high its place. She, the Beguine, the sister of\nthe poor, wrote to the Dean of Magdeburg censuring the notoriously idle\nand voluptuous lives of his clergy. \u201cLet him sleep upon straw, and his\ncanons take and eat it for their fodder!\u201d Perhaps it is not wonderful\nthe clergy of Magdeburg did not love the prophetess.\n\nAlso she wrote to the Pope, to Clement IV., whose tolerance of the\nmurder of Conradine had lost him many loyal German hearts, whose lax and\nirreligious court was Gomorrah in the sight of Mechtild. And these\npriests and prelates, this all-powerful Pope, if they do not reform and\nobey, yet listen they humbly to the words of this unsanctioned nun, this\nsecular sister of Magdeburg.\n\nNever again have the Beguines attained so fine, so pure an eminence.\nThey are indeed still poor, still lowly, still unrecognized, still\nBeguines. But these negations are become their glory and their\ndistinction. Which life is nearer the ideal life of Christendom, the\nlife of a great prelate or the life of the Beguine? The priests hear and\nlisten, for the moment abashed because of their splendour and their\npower. The Beguines are poor, unlettered, unprotected; but they are\nnearer the simplicity of God, that _reine heilige Einfalt_ which the\nBeguine Mechtild well knows how to praise.\n\nSo for thirty years Mechtild preached against error and prophesied\npunishment, sang of the love of God, and saw visions of a hell where\nwicked ecclesiastics burn for persecuting the innocent. For thirty years\nshe lived, in her beguinage, the strenuous, earnest, indignant life of\nthe reforming seer, the life of Dante, the life of Savonarola. And then\nthe vigorous frame wore out. In her fifty-third year even Mechtild saw\nthat an end must be put to this unrelaxed endeavour. Fain would she have\ngone, like Jutta von Sch\u00f6nhausen, into the wild woods to preach to the\nheathen Prussians. But this could not be; the body was too weak. She\nretired to the Cistercian cloister of Helfta, the home of the great\nAbbess Gertrude, and of her sister, the younger Mechtild. But even there\nshe did not rest. \u201cWhat shall I do in a cloister\u2014I?\u201d she demanded in\nagonized prayers. \u201cTeach and enlighten,\u201d answered a heavenly voice. And\nso for twelve years longer Mechtild lives, and teaches the cloister of\nthe great world beyond its walls, and finishes her book on the flowing\nlight of Godhead, till, honoured and loved by all, she ends her eventful\nlife in the year 1277.\n\n\n                                  VII.\n\n_Reine, Heilige Einfalt_; such is the phrase in which Mechtild praised\nher God. _Pure, holy simplicity_; it is the praise of the Beguines and\nthe Mystics, the beginning of pantheism. But Mechtild is no pantheist;\nshe strenuously believes in the personality of the soul, the reality of\nChrist, the existence of the world, and in heaven and in hell. She is an\northodox and Catholic Christian; yet she is stirred by the spirit of her\ntime.\n\n\u201cGod,\u201d she says, \u201cis pure simplicity; out of the eternal spring of Deity\nI flowed, and all things flow, and thence shall all return.\u201d These\nearnest phrases of mystical pantheism escape her lips, though they do\nnot touch her heart. She does not consider all that they imply; for if\nall things, having arisen in the Deity, flow back to their source when\nlife is over, how can Evil have a real existence, how can sinners be\npunished for ever in the city of Eternal Hate? If God be the one thing\nreal, there is no evil and there is no hell. If all souls released from\nexistence return to that pure and holy simplicity, there is no personal\nimmortality either for bliss or for bale. Mechtild did not perceive the\nbearings and the consequences of her phrase; but the Beguines pushed the\nmeaning to its term. The pantheism of Alexandria, the pantheism of the\nsuppressed Almarician heresy, stirred and quickened in the thoughts of\npious and schismatic Beguinism. And pantheism, with its two extremes of\nausterity and sensualism, increased and deepened in the sect.\n\nMystical pantheism, which asserts that God is all and matter nothing;\nthe spirit all, the body but a transitory veil; thought and mind\neternal, sense and sensuous pleasure of no account for evil or for good;\nthis doctrine is capable of two interpretations. It may be the religion\nof Plotinus and pure souls. It may absolutely ignore the body; it may\nmean the life of the mind and the soul carried always to the highest\npossible pitch. Or it may be, and too often is, the excuse of the basest\nsensualism. There is a page of psychology in the changed meaning of the\nword Libertine. Since, neither for sin nor for sanctity, the body can\naffect the soul, since sensuous pleasures are quite independent of the\nspiritual existence, the lower pantheism may excuse debauch as a\npermissible relaxation not affecting the spirit. And this is what it\ngenerally does come to mean among communities of undisciplined and\nill-educated enthusiasts.\n\nThis is gradually what it came to mean among the Beghards and the\nBeguines, or at least among a large proportion of them. Some, indeed,\npraying to the Pure and Holy Simplicity, endeavoured to live only in the\npureness of their souls, and thus to become one with that inspiring\nspirit. Such were the Beguines of Strasburg. And a section of the\nsecular communities, dreading these continual inroads of heresy,\nentrenched themselves in Catholic orthodoxy, and enlisted in the third\norders of Dominic and Francis. But the great remainder was absorbed by a\nvague mystical pantheism, which, placing the soul too high to be\naffected by the matters of the flesh, made this opinion an excuse for a\ncomplete independence of the moral law.\n\nTowards the close of the life of Mechtild the prestige of Beguinism had\nseriously declined. Innocent IV. and Urban IV. had taken the secular\norder under their peculiar protection, but in 1274, Pope Gregory X.\nrenewed against it the sentence of the Lateran Council and declared the\nBeguines unrecognized by Rome. Following this official condemnation, the\nblame of lesser men came thick and fast; and by the end of the\nthirteenth century the secular fraternities were popular only among the\npoor, only among the laymen and the people. They were discredited and\nheretic among the clergy.\n\nFor thirty years before the sentence of Gregory complaints of the\nBeguines and the Beghards had been sent to Rome from the prelates of\nGermany and Flanders. The two demons foreseen by Mechtild, the demon of\nvainglory and the demon of sensual sin, had entered in among these quiet\nhomes of prayer. Already in 1244 there were scandals among the younger\nsisters, and the Archbishop of Mayence decreed that the beguinages of\nhis diocese should receive no women under forty years of age. Already in\n1250 Albertus Magnus at Cologne had met with heretic Beghards, men whose\nvague pantheism was to grow and spread among the order, until all\ndistinction should be lost between the Beghards and the heretic Brothers\nof the Free Spirit. Already they had returned to their old habits,\nwandering through the streets, ragged as an Eastern fakir, praying aloud\nand begging of the passers-by: \u201cBread, for the sake of God!\u201d Too much\nignorance with too much liberty had gone far to destroy and pervert the\nreal uses of the order. The great moment of Beguinism, its time of\nindependent poverty and secular piety, the time of Mechtild of\nMagdeburg, was past and gone. The third stage of vagabondage and heresy\nhad begun.\n\nThat period, we must remember, was one which, in the Church itself, was\na period of corruption and of schism. There is no charge brought against\nthe secular order, which might not equally be brought against the\nregular monks and nuns. The long wave of pantheism which preceded the\nReformation engulfed the ignorant Beguines in a hundred perversions of\nan idea ill explained, misunderstood; but that same wave overwhelmed\nMaster Eckhart and the Dominican Mystics. Only the Roman Church, jealous\nof the unrecognized order, was swift to hear the low voice of the\nBeguines murmuring, \u201c_God is all that exists._\u201d\n\nThis one phrase caught, repeated, whispered, half understood,\nmisunderstood, often not understood at all, spread with the swiftness\nand authority of gospel among the Beghards and the Beguines of Europe.\nSoon in Italy, the vagrant sect of Apostolici, the followers of\nSegarelli, and the Franciscan Fraticelli in France, and the Beghards and\nBeguines of Northern Europe, all were murmuring together that one\nphrase, that key-word of pantheism, \u201c_Deus est formaliter omne._\u201d\n\nIt is not easy to prevent the growth of an idea among a community so\nwidely spread, so constantly changing. Segarelli was burned at Parma all\nin vain. His doctrines had percolated everywhere. Inspired by the\nexample of the mendicant orders, many of the Beghards and Beguines had\nreturned to the vagabond life. Pious vagrants all in rags, staffless,\nscripless, they wandered through the country from beguinage to\nbeguinage, begging for their food along the way. It was a change indeed\nfrom the early habits of the order, so busy, so hard at work, so pious,\nso responsible. But in the hearts of the lowest classes the secular\nfraternities were never so dear, never so much revered as now. In 1295\nthe Council of Mayence forbad them to wander through the streets,\nexciting public pity and crying, \u201c_Brod durch Got!_\u201d and Guillaume de\nSt. Amour lamented that the people were blinded by the rags, the hunger,\nthe false piety of these vagrants. This, of course, is the view of\nchurchmen who did not entertain such strict opinions with regard to the\nmerit of Franciscan mendicants. Indeed, much of the ill-favour with\nwhich the Church regarded the wandering Beghards and Beguines of these\nlater days may be set down to a jealousy lest the piety of these\nirregular brothers should defraud the begging orders of their due. From\none cause or another the thunders of the Church began to fall heavy and\nfrequent upon the secular fraternities.\n\nIn 1310 the Council of Treves disposed of the pretensions of the\nBeghards in what appeared a sufficiently decisive manner. The Beghards\nwere called an imaginary congregation, idle fugitives from honest\nlabour, false interpreters of Scripture, mendicant vagabonds\nunsanctioned by the Church.\n\nIn 1311, at the Council of Vienna, Clement V. decreed the total\nsuppression of Beguinism. But the sentence was severe. Too many innocent\nmust suffer with the guilty. In the same year the Pope revoked his\nsentence, and allowed the orthodox and irreproachable among the Beguines\nto live \u201caccording to the inspiration of the Lord.\u201d\n\nBut from this time Beguinism as an institution was at an end. The\n\u201corthodox and irreproachable\u201d were Beghards and Beguines who had joined\nthe Tertiary Order of Francis or of Dominic. The secular order was no\nlonger secular; the aim of the Beguines was falsified and changed.\n\n\n                                 VIII.\n\nIn the year 1328 nearly fifty Libertines or Brothers of the Free Spirit\nwere publicly burned at Cologne.\n\nThe persecution of the wandering Beguines and Beghards had thoroughly\nbegun. In the history of the time, in the chronicles of any town along\nthe Rhine or in the Low Countries, we may meet the dolorous little\nentry: On such a day so many Beghards were burned or imprisoned in\nperpetual _In pace_. A special German Inquisition was instituted against\nthem.\n\nIt is the old cruel war of intolerance and heresy, the vain and shameful\nstruggle with which six centuries are full. But there was here a more\nthan usual excuse for the excessive severity of Rome. Europe was fast\nbeing ruined by these mendicant wanderers. Begging friars of St.\nFrancis, Carmelites, Dominicans, numerous new orders which flourished\nfor a while, and died, and are forgotten, all these flooded the country\nwith pious vagrants for whom the impoverished laymen must provide. And\nin addition to all these orthodox idlers, there was now a countless\nhorde of wandering Beghards, no less ignorant, no less incapable of\nwarfare or of labour, and, in addition, pestilent heretics. Such was the\nview of the Church.\n\nFifty years before, Gregory X. had tried to reduce \u201cthe unbridled throng\nof mendicants, who are a heavy burden alike on Church and people;\u201d but\nhis efforts had been in vain. The poor of every nation and of every time\nare quick to ascribe piety to those who, ragged and homeless, assert\nthat the life to come shall repay them for their sufferings here. Half\nstarved, down-trodden, little better than slaves, the peasants of\nGermany would share their squalid meal thankfully with the wandering\nfriar. It was little less than sacrilege to refuse a portion to the holy\nman. This was the natural attitude of the people. They gave, and did not\ncomplain.\n\nThey gave, and the friars took, and the Beghards took, and still the cry\nwas \u201cGive.\u201d The Fratricelli, Apostolici, Beghards, Beguines, Brothers of\nthe Free Spirit, overran the whole of Europe. These all must be fed no\nless than the orthodox fraternities. And year by year the number of the\nmendicants increased. The careless wandering life without responsibility\nor consequence, the absence of ties or of toil, the prestige in\nidleness, attracted the vagabond and lazy. And many of the pious really\nbelieved it the noblest human life. Since the idea of Divinity was\nsimplicity, mere simplicity, then the more the saint was simplified and\nthe less heed he took for apparel or for food the nearer he was to\nheaven. These men and women, strange descendants of the spinning sisters\nand the Fratres Textores, were like the lilies of the field inasmuch as\nthey toiled not, neither did they spin. They thus fulfilled the popular\nideal of piety. Year by year labour and forethought grew more\ndiscredited, as it was discovered that, if you did not feed yourself, a\nmore worldly person would always feed you; until in 1317 we read in the\nsentences collected by Johann von Ochsenstein that no exterior motive,\n_not even the desire of the kingdom of heaven, should tempt a good man\ntowards activity_.\n\nIt was in vain for even the Pope to preach, for Guillaume de St. Amour\nto attack all mendicants alike, for councils and bishops to thunder\nagainst the indolence, the mendicancy, the lax morals and loose opinions\nof these men. The mendicants grew more and more. The nations groaned\nunder the holy burden. Then, about 1310, unable to contain her\ndispleasure any longer, the Church bursts forth into interdicts and\npersecution. Fifty Beghards are burned at Cologne. At Magdeburg some\nBeguines are cast into prison. At Strasburg, at Constance, at Mayence,\nthe Beguines and Beghards are punished unless converted within three\ndays. It is war to the knife against the wandering heretics.\n\n\n                                  IX.\n\nUnder the pressure of a displeasure so severe, the greater number of the\nBeghards and Beguines accepted the rule of the tertiary orders. The\nmother became submissive to her children. The larger party of the\nfraternity, including all the Flemish beguinages, accepted the\nFranciscan rule; but the Beghards and Beguines of Strasburg, the most\nsuspected of any, joined the Tertiary Order of Dominic. Thus the heresy\nof Beguinism appeared for a while overcome.\n\nBut at the same time a strange mystical pantheistic tendency became\nnoticeable in many sermons and lessons of the Church herself. All this\nmultitude of heretic Beguines, suddenly made orthodox within three days,\nall this vast accession of vague Almarician piety was not without an\ninfluence on the conquering faith. Among the Dominicans of Strasburg the\nmystical bent grew more decided year by year. These much-admired doctors\nand magisters were lights of the Church, men of influence and learning;\nbut the mysticism which was orthodox in them was really identical with\nthe neoplatonist theories of the Beghards. And, indeed, these\nmen,\u2014Eckhart, Tauler, Rulmann Merswin\u2014went further in the way of\npantheism than the heretic brotherhood had gone before.\n\nIt is impossible to exterminate an idea. It must live its course, grow,\nflourish, and die. Be it wise or foolish, orthodox or heterodox, let it\nbut have some new aspect of truth in it; let it but be fresh, profound,\nand striking; let it be truly and verily an idea: it will live its life\nbefore it dies its natural death.\n\nThus the idea of the Beguines, arbitrarily suppressed, yet flourished\nonly the more. Like a brier budded on a rose tree, it brought out its\nwild and fragile blossoms among the ordered beauties of the\necclesiastical garden. In the great Dominican mystics of Strasburg the\ncentral thought of heretic Beguinism (\u201c_Deus est omnia_\u201d) flourished\nmore completely than before.\n\nGod is all: the world is nothing. This is what the mystics of Strasburg\nand the mystics of the Netherlands now began to preach to the world.\n\n\n                                   X.\n\nFrom the year 1312 until 1320 Master Eckhart, the great Dominican\npreacher, was living in Strasburg. His deep and original mind, which so\nvastly was to influence the speculation of his time, was now itself\nbrought under the influence of Beguinism. From 1312 to 1317 he preached\nand visited in the Dominican beguinages of Strasburg. Always a mystic\nand a neoplatonist, before that date he was not suspected of heresy. The\ntheories of the Dominican Beguines agreed perfectly with the convictions\nof this singular being, who preached in accents of strenuous sincerity\nthe doctrine of the unreality of matter.\n\nAmong the Beguines of his diocese was one whom Eckhart adopted to be his\nspiritual daughter. But the relation of the Beguine Sister Katrei to the\ngreat Vicar-general of the Dominican order was scarcely that attitude of\nsubmission which we expect from a penitent to her confessor. She leads\nhim on to new audacities of faith, suggests new penances, refuses all\nrestraint. She shows him how an earnest nature can reduce to practice\nhis special tenet that the world is nothing, that God alone exists.\n\nKatrei was the daughter of worthy Strasburg townspeople. Not necessity,\nbut an enthusiasm for self-humiliation drove her to the beguinage. Ever\nin doubt of her own salvation, she multiplied her fasts and penances\ntill even her director beseeched her to take some pity on her starved\nand shattered body. But Katrei would not be persuaded; not yet, she\ndeclared, was the old Adam slain in her; not yet was she \u201cdead all\nthrough.\u201d As Mechtild of Magdeburg is the great active type of the\norder, so Katrei represents the passive Beguinism. She had no reforming\nzeal; she belonged to the later school, to those who said: \u201cNot even the\ndesire of the kingdom of heaven must tempt a good man towards activity.\u201d\n\nTo free herself from the world and the claims of the world, to leave\nbehind the flesh and all the needs and desires of the flesh, this was\nthe overmastering preoccupation of Swester Katrei. She left the\nsheltering beguinage, the faces too familiar to be easily forgotten, the\nneighbourhood of father and of mother, and set out alone upon the\nwandering Beguine\u2019s life. With her she took neither staff nor scrip.\n\u201cAll that I ask of the world,\u201d she said, \u201cis a spring, a crust, and a\ngarment\u201d (_brunnen, brod, und ein rock_). So for many months she went,\nabsorbed in her own soul, forgetting men and women, earthly pleasure,\nearthly love, and earthly duty, and at last returned to Strasburg to be\nknown by no one there.\n\nShe was not yet satisfied. Her ideal was not yet reached. \u201cNot yet,\u201d she\npersisted, \u201cam I dead all through.\u201d \u201cNay,\u201d answered the confessor\n(behind whose cowl we see the face of Eckhart), \u201cnot so long as thou\nrememberest who was thy father and who thy mother; not so long as thou\nshalt care if thy priest refused to confess thee or absolve thee; not so\nlong as it shall disturb thee if thou mayest not taste the body of God;\nnot so long as thou shalt grieve when none will shelter thee, and all\ndespise thee; not until then, my sister, canst thou know the real death\nunto self.\u201d Then again, Katrei retired into the wilderness, and for a\nlong time she wandered to and fro across the face of the earth. When she\nreturned she was strangely changed; even her confessor did not know her.\nAt last, her cataleptic trances growing daily longer and more profound,\nshe being permanently raised into a strange hysteric insensibility to\npain or hunger, she lay the whole day long without food or drink or\nmovement in a corner of the great cathedral. Now she was dead to outer\nthings. \u201cNow,\u201d she said, \u201cI am God.\u201d Her father and her mother came and\ncried to her, half abashed at her holiness, half agonized at her\ncondition. But Katrei did not know them now. She no longer recognized\nwhat she looked upon; the world and all within it was a blank to her.\n\nAt last, one day, the trance deepened; she ceased to breathe. Some\npeople of the church, thinking her dead, took her away to bury her. But\nwhen they returned to the church with Katrei on the bier, her confessor,\napproaching, perceived she was not really dead. \u201cArt thou satisfied?\u201d he\ndemanded; and she answered, \u201cI am satisfied at last.\u201d She would have let\nthem bury her.\n\nQuietism can go no further than this. When this singular woman died,\nbetween 1312 and 1320, though the Church already began to censure the\nmystical errors of Beguinism, yet her piety was deemed so great that\nMeister Eckhart wrote a memoir of her life as an example and an\nexhortation to the pious. She is the saint of the later Beguinism, even\nas the vigorous Mechtild of Magdeburg is the patron of the older style.\n\n\n                                  XI.\n\nBut sister Katrei had too many followers, and gradually the sense of the\nreligious world revolted from this numb and dead ideal. Already, in the\nwritings of Suso (1335), of Ruysbrock, and Rulmann Merswin, men whose\nidealist mysticism was little different from the Beguine heresy, the\nquietism of these \u201cfalse freemen\u201d is utterly condemned. Suso, in his\nBook of Truth, recounts how he met on a journey one of these wandering\nBeghards, who, to all his questions, responded much as Parsifal responds\nto Gurnemanz. Whence he came and whither going, the wanderer does not\nknow. He is called the Nameless Savage. He is Nothing abysmed in the\nDivine Nothingness. Without will or desire he obeys his natural\ninstincts, since any conflict with them would destroy the quiet of his\nsoul. Such is the latest type of the secular brotherhood; but this,\nunlike Sister Katrei, meets no approval from the marvelling Church.\n\nIndeed, the Beghards and the Beguines, with their lax morals, their\nmendicant insolence, had become an insupportable burden. So, in despair,\nin 1328 the Church, as we have said, delivered fifty of them to the\nsecular arm, and these were burned, as an example, in Cologne. The\npersecution was now steadfast and continuous; but still in secret\nplaces, and by strange underground channels, the pantheist idea spread\non unseen\u2014pantheism which now was no longer vague and veiled. \u201c_We do\nnot believe in God, and we do not love Him, and we do not adore Him, and\nwe do not hope in Him, for this would be to avow that He is other than\nourselves._\u201d Thus speak these heretics of the fourteenth century. So far\nhave they pushed the phrase, God is all that exists.\n\nFrom this time the cohesive force of Beguinism rapidly diminishes. In\n1365 Pope Urban V. still speaks of the \u201cchildren of Belial, Beghards and\nBeguines,\u201d but their name slips gradually out of the chronicles of\nedicts and of councils. Or it is applied to any new sect of heretics. In\n1373 we hear of \u201cthe Beghards or Turlupins,\u201d and in the next century\nBeghard is frequently synonymous with Lollard. The great heresy of the\nFree Spirit was divided into a hundred unimportant divisions. By the\nmiddle of the fifteenth century, the Beghards and Beguines were either\northodox communities of some tertiary order, or scattered hermits,\nliving in woods and forests, and stealthily keeping red the few embers\nleft of pantheistic heresy. It seemed as if the movement were really\nstamped out. But the phrase of Mechtild was not so easily confuted. No\nman can burn an idea.\n\nWe hear no more, it is true, of the Beguines or of the Weaving Brothers;\nbut in the sixteenth century, when at Wittenberg and at Strasburg, at\nBasle and at Meaux, the great idea of the Reformation simultaneously\nawoke, in that period of spiritual ferment, the pantheism of the secular\nfraternities flamed out again, and more fiercely than before. The\nlibertines, the anabaptists, and familists of the sixteenth century\npreserved in a coarser form the persecuted tradition of the Beghards and\nthe Beguines.\n\n\n\n\n                         THE CONVENT OF HELFTA.\n\n\nThe great ideals of the world save themselves by strange disguises.\nThough the advance of progress threaten their existence, none the less\nthey perpetuate themselves in unsuspected shelter. If to-day we see\nreligion mask itself as devotion to humanity, it is but the reversal of\nthe great masquerade of the Middle Ages, when whatever impulse of\ngood-will to man was destined to survive assumed for safety\u2019s sake the\ngarb of the Church. Benevolence, science, logic, philosophy, and all the\narts put on the hood and cowl. And the time came when love also entered\nreligion. Indeed, the convent was the one safe place of refuge in a\nstruggling, dark, chaotic world\u2014a world for which centuries of careful\nnurture had ill-fitted the sentiment of love. The Middle Ages had\nexisted, one might say, for its development. During the century\nsucceeding the invention of the Immaculate Conception (1134), the cultus\nof the Virgin became dominant in the Church, and, _pari passu_, the\nposition of women grew nobler in the world\u2014was, indeed, elevated and\nspiritualized to a dangerous artificial beauty. Then a thousand devices\nwere discovered to hide from the yet imperfect man and woman the\nbrutality of the one and the meanness of the other. The Courts of Love,\nwhere no husband might be the lover of his wife, the gross and strained\ndevotion of the minnesingers, the worship of Mary and the saints, were\nexpedients unreal or ugly in themselves, but they imposed on mere\nbrutish passion a beautiful sentiment of reverence and service. For they\nshowed the woman beloved as a creature aloof and apart, separated from\nthe disenchantment of possession by the distance of heaven or the\nbarriers of earth.\n\nThus through the Middle Ages love grew and flourished; a plant delicate\nyet and scarcely acclimatised, but watered and tendered and sheltered.\nWithout this care it could not grow, being still young and not\nwell-rooted. Then in the thirteenth century a terrible convulsion\ndisturbed the world, and the fate of all tender, exquisite things hung\nfor a while in awful balance. For in that eventful century, which rounds\nthe old world and begins the new, the long-gathering jealousy of pope\nand emperor burst into a fearful storm. The tempest of over twenty years\nwhich destroyed the empire of the house of Hohenstaufen left Rome,\nthough victorious, none the less a prey to her own champion, Charles of\nAnjou. For three years he would not suffer the election of a pope,\nholding the keys of Peter in his unrelaxing clutches; and even when the\npapal see was nominally filled, the Angevine adventurer guided its\ncounsels and prompted its decrees. One shipwreck engulfed both papacy\nand empire, nor could any foresee that from those wrecks far nobler\nvessels should be built. The hierarchic and feudal order of things had\nfallen, and the spirit of law and federation was yet unknown. All over\nEurope spread darkness and confusion: Rome was paralysed, France crazed\nwith superstition and communistic panic, Italy a mere disorganised prey\nfor the next comer; and Germany, most piteous of all, with the convert\u2019s\nearnestness and the loyalty of a serf, not yet fit for the sudden\nwithdrawal of the hierarchy and the feudalism to which she clung for\nsupport, Germany reeled heavily. It seemed that the end of the world was\nat hand; and truly, in this terrible interregnum, the whole fabric of\nthe Middle Ages began to crack and gape in ominous ruin.\n\nNow that the Courts of Love were wasted, his tournaments battle-fields,\nhis minstrels shouting battle-cries, what had become of Love? Where\nshould his ladies, sung so long and honoured, look for their knights?\nThey are gone to fight for God and the king; they are gone far away, but\nno longer to the Holy Sepulchre; they are gone to ravage and ruin\ndistant cities, or to lay low the power of Rome. Many never return; some\nafter years\u2014ten, fifteen, twenty years\u2014come home again, tanned and\ngrey\u2014swearing troopers, whose talk is all of battle, whose camp jests\nand lewd stories fall like filth into the pure fountain of a woman\u2019s\nsoul. What knight is this for a delicate lady to love! She must change\nthe very nature of her love if this shall satisfy her heart. The frail\nideal, nourished so long with care and patience, must die, so it seems.\nBut, as in ancient legends, where the lustful lover pursues a pure\nnymph, gaining hold upon her, stretching out his hands for the prize, to\nfind them empty, to find her out of reach, safe in the inviolable\ngreenness of the laurel, even so the tender spirit of love, with one\nviolent effort, set itself beyond the lusts of the imbruted world,\nsheltered, transformed into the mystical love of God.\n\nA natural impulse was given to religion by the divisions and disasters\nof society. We have shown by what channels the mystical spirit of\nAlexandria permeated the religion of the West. The knight from his\ncaptors or his captives, the scholar from his studies, the monk from his\nperusal of the most popular of saintly authors, might all become imbued\nwith a like spirit. Throughout the West there spread, partially, indeed,\nand not to all alike, a scorn of science and understanding, and a sense\nof mystery, an aspiration to ecstasy, a desire to merge all personality\nin the infinite. Such influences did not create, they did but direct the\nmovement. They were\u2014as M. Vacherot has shown us\u2014a source of inspiration,\na reserve of tradition for a natural instinct which, even without them,\nmust have satisfied itself. Owing partly to these semi-religious\ninfluences, partly to the external condition of affairs, the\nmovement\u2014which might have established another School of Alexandria,\nmight have believed in astrology or the philosopher\u2019s stone, might have\nmerely ended in jugglery and witchcraft\u2014instead of this became a school\nfor visionaries and ecstatics. How strong the movement was may be\ninferred by the length of its duration, and by our finding in its ranks\nnot merely hysteric virgin saints, not merely the two priors of St.\nVictor, not merely the poetic Suso, the fervid Ruysbrock, the\ncontemplative Tauler, but the wide intellect of Albertus Magnus, the\nstrength of Eckhart, the practical wisdom of Gerson.\n\nThe doctrines of Neoplatonism, received through the medium of a saint,\nwere translated into another sense by men of less intellect and stronger\naffections than the Alexandrines. Science is little to these later\nmystics, the inward spring of peace is much; they question with\nBonaventura not doctrine but desire, not the human mind but heavenly\ngrace. Not light they ask, but fire. By ecstasy they seek to unite\nthemselves not only with the abstract wisdom, but with a supreme love.\nFor ecstasy is to them the _ars amandi_, and to them the one thing\nneedful not intelligence, but feeling. \u201cAmor oculus est,\u201d says Richard\nof Saint Victor, \u201cet amare videre est.\u201d To behold with this eye the\nthings that are hidden from earthly vision; to die to the world, in\norder to live to Christ; to lose one\u2019s soul; to drown self, conscience,\nreason, virtue, feeling, in a flood of ecstasy, this had become the\nambition of the nobler spirits of the world.\n\nIn this apotheosis of ecstasy, this contagion of love, the feminine\nelement naturally predominated. The movement, which the gracious and\npathetic figure of Elizabeth of Hungary announced, was to be, above all,\na movement of women. Far beyond the glory of Eckhart and Gerson, above\nthe eminence of thinker and teacher, shone, in this strange hierarchy of\ndreamers, the beatitude of the visionary and prophetess. Prophets of God\nsome, others prophets of evil; so the Church decided. But it is hard to\ndivide the spiritual abnegation of Bridget, of Catherine, of the two\nGerman Elizabeths, of Mechtild of Magdeburg, Gertrude and Mechtild von\nHackeborn, from the heresy which declared that to the soul lost in God\nthe sins of the body are as naught. That heresy is but the others\u2019\nholiness, pushed to its logical consequence.\n\nThe saints were chiefly women\u2014women of vague, imperious, unsatisfied\nemotion, sick of a world given over to rapine, interdict, and slaughter,\nwhere no choice was left between disloyalty and damnation; women young\nand active, living for the most part the passive, temperate eventless\nlife of the convent; women who imposed on themselves long fasts and\nvigils, whose tender flesh was bruised with the stone flags of the cell\nwhere they would lie of winter nights for penance, and torn with the\nlashings of the self-inflicted scourge. In this life no hope for them;\nin this world no love, no happiness, no possessions. As starving people\ndream of delicious feasts and banquets, they found in a vision the\nthings withheld from them awake.\n\n_Amor rapit, unit, satisfacit_: the practical Gerson lets fall the fiery\nphrase. Each of these virgin visionaries had said as much. Open the\nbooks of their exercises, their revelations; the dusty pages exhale a\nviolence and tenderness of passion that the minnesingers never caught,\nthe troubadors never felt, in their earthly singing. For these saintly\nvisions are all of love\u2014love which ravishes; nay, love which drowns,\nannihilates, swallows up. Love in a dream, and yet the one real thing in\na cramped and narrow life; love which fills every interstice and cranny\nof a void and aching heart; love unseen, untouched, unheard, for which\nthe visionary waits hour by hour, in an anguish of tense devotion, waits\ntill the muttered monotony of her prayers, the fixed, unvaried straining\nof her eyes, shall have lulled the body to a death-like trance, shall\nset free the soul to show her the mirage of her own unsatisfied desire.\n\n\n                                   I.\n\nThroughout the thirteenth century Thuringia continued the centre and\nstronghold of German sanctity. The life of St. Elizabeth at the Wartburg\nhad gone up from its midst like a purifying altar-flame to heaven. When\nshe died in 1231, hundreds of men and women came in tears to honour the\nwasted body wrapped in its worn Franciscan cloak, lying dead in the poor\nlittle house at Marburg. From the memory of her life, from the\npilgrimages to her tomb, a tradition and ideal of saintliness spread\namong the people. Fifteen years later, it was in Thuringia that the Pope\nfound his champion. Even his oppression, and the defeat and death of\nthat ill-starred defender of the faith did little to abate the popular\nardour.\n\nThe convent of Rodardesdorf, near Eisleben, and the great princely\nconvent of Quedlinburg, gave an especial religious distinction to\nThuringia; but not until about the year 1234, when the rich and noble\nFreiherr von Hackeborn of Helfta placed at Rodardesdorf his little\nfive-year-old daughter Gertrude, was the specially illustrious future of\nthat house decided. Rodardesdorf was a convent of Cistercians, a\nthoughtful and peaceful place. The little Gertrude was happy there. She\nwas a serious and earnest child, \u201cnot content,\u201d says the chronicle,\n\u201cwith childish innocence, but, even when a babe, gifted with a constant\ngravity and prudence of demeanour.\u201d Indeed, that childish head was\ntroubled with many things, for the little girl was passionately eager to\nlearn all that came in her way: science, liberal arts, grammar,\ntheology. So that she became no less honoured for her acquirements than\nbeloved for her docility and modesty of bearing.\n\nBut the convent was to acquire another infant saint. The mother of\nGertrude again visited the convent, and on one occasion brought with her\nher younger daughter, Mechtild, then seven years of age, and as many\nyears younger than her sister. \u201cThey came for honest diversion,\u201d says\nthe chronicle, probably to see little Gertrude, and certainly with no\nthought of leaving Mechtild behind. But the child was so delighted with\nthe strange place, the large rooms, the little cells, the chapel with\nits altar lights, the children in the garden, the nuns who made much of\nher, that she declared she would willingly remain there for ever. Nor\nwould she leave, though her mother bade her come. Then the sisters,\ndelighted with so much holiness so young, instantly beseeched the mother\nto leave her little girl in their company for awhile, and to this she\nconsented. Poor mother, did no pang go through her heart when the\nconvent doors shut on both her children? It was for ever; no prayers, no\ncommands could bring her back her wilful, loving, eager little Mechtild\nany more, for the _Vita_ relates, \u201cafter this holy and blessed embrace\nher parents could never withdraw her from that place for all the\ncaresses and endearments that they knew how to make.\u201d With bruised ties\nand bleeding hearts the career of saintliness begins. \u201cOnly he,\u201d runs\nthe Scripture that child would often hear, \u201cthat hateth father and\nmother can become my disciple.\u201d\n\nOf the daily routine of life in the convent we may gain an idea from\nAbelard\u2019s directions to the nuns of the Paraclete, and, setting against\nthe difference of date the difference of culture in the two countries,\nwe may not unfairly suppose the Thuringian Cistercians of 1250 to have\nfollowed much the same rule of life as the Benedictines of Heloise\nadopted a century earlier.\n\nAccording to the code of Abelard the convent was divided into six\nfunctions, all alike subject to the direction of the abbess. The\nsacristan was responsible for the convent treasury; she kept the keys,\nand had the care of the church plate and sacred vessels; and it was her\nduty to set the virgin sisters to prepare the wafers for the Host, which\nmust not be made by widows. The chantress taught singing and reading,\nhad care of the choir and of the library, to which she was expected to\nadd by copying and illuminating manuscripts. The head of the infirmary\nhad charge of the sick. Another sister was mistress of the wardrobe, and\nresponsible not only for all the spinning, weaving, and sewing necessary\nfor the convent, but also for the tanning and cobbling. The cellarer had\nin her charge the wines for the altar and the sick, the provisioning of\nthe table, and the management of whatever the convent possessed in\norchards and garden-land, flocks and herds and hives, trout streams and\nmills. Lastly, the doorkeeper, who was especially chosen for courteous\nmanners, judgment, and trustworthiness, was responsible for the keeping\nof the gate, the entertainment of guests, and the distribution of\nhospitality.\n\nLife in the convent was not hard, but monotonous, eventless beyond\ndescription\u2014a perpetual alternation of broken sleep, repeated tasks, and\nprayer. In the middle of the night the sisters rose for Matins, and the\noffice over, trooped back through the darkness to the dormitory. There\nthey slept till Lauds, which are sung at the break of day; in summer,\nwhen Lauds are early, the sisters slept again till Prime. At Prime they\nleft the dormitory, having first washed their hands, and taking their\nbooks repaired to the cloister to read and sing until the office should\nbegin. Service over, they all assembled in the chapter-house, where a\nlesson out of the Martyrology was read to them and expounded. On leaving\nthe chapter each nun was sent to fulfil her allotted task\u2014singing or\nsewing, nursing or baking\u2014until the hour of Tierce, when mass was said.\nThey then resumed their work till noon, the sixth hour, which was the\nconvent dinner-time, except on fast-days, when it was postponed till\nNones, or in Lent, when nothing was eaten till after Vespers at four.\nThe convent fare was simple and spare. Save for the sick, no wine; stale\nbread of coarse flour; roots and greens, and at discretion of the abbess\na portion of unflavoured meat on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. From\nthe autumn equinox till Easter, on account of the shortness of the days,\nthis one meal was considered sufficient for all save the infirm.\n\nAfter dinner, in summer-time, the sisters slept till Nones; in the two\nhours between that office and Vespers they were set to finish their\ntask, but at four the day\u2019s work was done. Between the spring and autumn\nequinoxes the sisters were permitted a light refreshment after Vespers.\nIt was the only time when fruit might be eaten. This light supper over,\nCompline began. Then they all sought the dormitory again. On Saturday\nevenings they were a little later, as then the sisters were enjoined to\npurify themselves\u2014that is to say, to wash their hands and feet, a\nfunction which the abbess or lay-sisters were specially directed to\nsupervise. This done, they slept till the midnight matin-bell should\nclang them from their beds.\n\nOut of such a life of dreary monotony, the same task day by day, or\nanother exactly like it, the same prayer, the same lesson, always of\nsaints and martyrs; out of this life of forced privation, this\nhalf-starved life of chants and broken dreams, who can wonder that\n(\u039c\u03bf\u03c1\u03c6\u03ae \u03bc\u03af\u03b1) visions, mysteries, scandals, witchcraft continually arose.\nThe two little children prospered in the convent which was at first\nmerely a school for them, and an excellent school. Gertrude, the silent,\nstudious, ambitious scholar, found there more books and better teachers\nthan she could have had at home; and, so long as her soul was set on\nlearning and studying, the homage paid her as a child set apart for God\nonly served as a spur to her ambition. \u201cShe ever would increase her\nnatural beauty of soul by saintly customs, adding to it the splendour\nand the sweetness of all manner of flowered virtues, so that she should\nbe more pleasing in the eyes of every one,\u201d says the chronicle in which\nafter her death the nuns of Helfta embalmed her virtues. But while\nlittle Gertrude laboured so hard to make herself desirable, Mechtild,\nquite simply and without effort, won all hearts to herself. Although she\nwas not so learned nor so grave as her sister, though once she had told\na lie (the one lie of her life), boasting to her companions that she had\nseen a thief in the court, where thief was none; though, judging from a\nlater vision, she had sometimes looked back from the plough and longed\nfor her mother\u2019s love: ay, though no early holiness had, as with\nGertrude, foretold the saint, and only after her entrance to the convent\nhad manifested itself in her; despite all this, Mechtild was the loved\none. While Gertrude in the library was toiling hard at grammar that her\nmind might be worthy of God and the love of her companions, Mechtild\nstanding in the garden was surrounded with listeners, hanging on the\nwords of her fanciful allegories as she expounded the message of God.\nWhile Gertrude was making extracts from the Fathers and compiling\ntreasuries of Scripture to help the souls of the sisterhood, Mechtild,\nlike a little mother, was going among the sick, speaking, ministering to\neach, giving help and comfort to all in affliction. As they grew older\nit was still the same\u2014Gertrude putting her soul into her studies,\nMechtild into her life; Gertrude absorbed and wise, with no one friend\npreferred to any other; Mechtild every one\u2019s darling, beset with every\none\u2019s confidences \u201cto the impediment of the sweet quiet of her soul.\u201d\nGertrude the humanist, Mechtild the human.\n\n\n                                  II.\n\nSo far all was right and fair. Each child naturally selected the\neducation fitted to its wants, and became wise or loving as the need\nwas. But when they came to full girlhood they did not quit this school\nwhose teaching they had outgrown. These girls were, since their\nchildhood, cloistered nuns dedicated to God. But only when their\nchildhood was over could they appreciate the meaning of their vow. To\nMechtild it did not greatly matter; her life in the world might have\nbeen fuller and richer, in the convent it was not wasted. She was so\neasily interested in others, so gifted to soothe the sick and suffering,\nso naturally humble and unselfish, that even the consciousness of\nsanctity could not injure her nature; in her visions, even, she rarely\nannounces her own glory. It is Gertrude that she sees in the bosom of\nthe Father, and she hears the Divine Voice proclaim, \u201cGertrude is far\ngreater than this Mechtild.\u201d More often her visions are messages of\nconsolation to those she has pitied and laboured for awake. She sees the\ndead baby of a certain sorrowing mother clad in scarlet and gold, and\ngreatly glorified in heaven. She beholds God and the Virgin standing by\nthe bed of one of the sisters who is sick unto death; or else her\nvisions are tender and poetic fancies. She sees the Father giving all\nthe saints to drink of the Fountain of Mercy. She sees the Heart of God\nburning like a lamp; or, again, she beholds the sacred rose that blooms\nin the Heart of God; or, lastly, her visions supply the needs of her\nmaimed and stinted life. Kneeling on the floor of her cell, this loving\nwoman, with no natural ties, often sees God come to her as a little\nchild of five years old, and, in a dream, God gives her His love, at\nlast, to be her mother, \u201cto care for her and lead her as a mother her\nchild.\u201d Or she dreams, this woman with her love of colour and beauty, of\nbeautiful women in splendid raiment. Mary comes to her in a gown the\ncolour of air, sewn all over with tiny flowers of gold, and embroidered\nround the neck and sleeves with the holy monogram of Jesus. Or she comes\nin a pale green cloak, latticed over with gold, with the head of Christ\nin every lattice. St. Catherine of Alexandria appears in dull crimson,\ncovered over with gold embroidery of little wheels, fastened at the\nbreast with a clasp of two meeting hands of gold. Christ appears young\nand beautiful, in rose-coloured silk, stiff with gold and jewels, \u201cyet\nnot to be thrown away because so heavy, but rather ennobled,\u201d as the\nsoul with the heavy gems of grief. Or she sees the least saint in\nParadise, a youth of middle height, wonderfully lovely, most fair of\nface, his hair crisply curling, of a colour between green and white,\nclad all in green. Never, out of Meister Stefan\u2019s pictures, were there\nsuch deep colours, such quaintly-patterned gowns and mantles, such\njewels and embroideries as figure in the visions of this poor little\nsallow saint, asleep herself in her darned serge and yellowed linen, and\nalways clad, by her own choice, in the worst clothes of the convent,\ntorn and patched in all corners.\n\nThe real dangers of mysticism have little power over a soul so sweet and\nna\u00efve as this. But it was otherwise with Gertrude. She was a woman of\npassionate intensity of imagination, of an ever-active and ambitious\nmind. During her childhood this had been wisely exercised in study. Had\nshe gone then into the world life and learning would have employed it\nfor her. Had she been a secular sister like Catherine of Siena, a\nwandering preacher and prophetess, like Mechtild of Magdeburg, or an\navowedly learned and reforming abbess, like Heloise or Teresa, she\nwould, perhaps, have been most useful and happiest of all. But, when she\ngrew up, when she perceived the real aim of her cloistered life, her\nlearning became odious to her. What had the vain lore of this world to\ndo with the appointed spouse of Christ? \u201cWhile this virgin was\ncontinuing the study of the humanities,\u201d relates the _Vita_, \u201cshe became\naware that this study was a region too remote from the similitude of\nChrist, perceiving that too hungrily she had longed after human\nlearning, for which reason she had not until that moment disposed her\nheart to receive Divine illumination. She knew then (and not without\npassionate sighs coming from the heart) that until this time she had\nbeen deprived both of the consolations and of the illuminations of\nDivine wisdom, since she had remained intent on human things.\u201d\n\nA terrible conflict, a terrible temptation. With Gertrude\u2019s earnest\nnature there could be but one end. She cut off from her the hungry and\npassionate love of human learning as she would have cut off a limb or\nplucked out an eye to enter, maimed but holy, into Paradise. With tears,\nand anguish, and bitter agony of prayer, she maimed her soul. But not\nalways does the mutilated member heal. Woe to those whom nature punishes\nfor their temerity with mortification, with numb and creeping death.\n\nNow that Gertrude had, of her own will, shut off from herself all her\nformer means of progress and employment, how should she spend her time?\nShe was not, like Mechtild, by nature a sick-nurse and a confidant; she\nhad not, like Mechtild, a beautiful voice which she could cultivate for\nthe service of God; and to her dominant eager nature it was necessary to\ndo something and to do it better than any one else. The one remnant of\nall her studies which she permitted herself was the translation of Latin\nprayers into German for the benefit of more ignorant sisters, and at\nthis she would persevere the whole day long. But this oft-repeated,\nalmost mechanical employment could not fill her mind, could open no\nvista to her ambition. There was, indeed, only one road that she could\nfollow; all the circumstances of her life converged to the same\nvanishing point.\n\nWhen she remembered, in the long vacant hours of sleeping or copying,\nthe books she used to read, what thoughts would they naturally suggest\nto her? She had, we may be sure, read no books that would give her\nvisions of the world outside\u2014poems of Virgil the magician, or the\nminnesingers. To her the humanities were themselves books of theology;\nthe writings of the fathers of the Church, a tract of St. Bonaventura\u2019s\nit may be, or one of the sermons of Eckhart or of Albertus Magnus (then\nat the prime of their renown), certainly the works of Dionysius\nAreopagita. What would they have taught her, these books which she had\ngiven up to imitate the lowliness of Christ? They told her, one and all,\nhow much more desirable was feeling than reason, ecstasy than care for\nothers, faith than works; how far above all natural tenderness of human\ncharity was the _virtus infusa_, the theological virtue, the love of\nGod. Every hour of her life must have repeated the lesson. The eight\noffices of the day, the lesson from the _Martyrology_, which was all the\nfood this hungry and active mind was given to fast upon; the daily task\nof copying prayers; the long, weary misery of being no one, in no true\nposition. All these things must have spoken to this earnest,\nself-preoccupied Gertrude, who had toiled so long to make herself\npleasing in the eyes of every one; and, now, knowing so well what was\nnecessary, would she not strive in prayer for this last, dearest gift?\nWould she not set herself to learn this one thing needful? Most likely\nshe had not long to pray, nor ever consciously began to learn, before\nthe gift was granted, the science acquired, the strong mind weakened and\nperverted, the student an ecstatic.\n\n\n                                  III.\n\nFrom that first moment of vision the fame of Gertrude grew so high and\nso rapidly, that when in 1251 the abbess of Rodardesdorf expired, this\ngirl-ecstatic of nineteen was elected her successor. It is strange that\nthe duties of her new position, the great responsibilities of so famous\na convent, did not draw her from her visions; but the influence of the\ntime was strong, and the abbess of Rodardesdorf was beset by no\nimperious need for reform. There was no cleansing work of righteousness\nto be performed in that well-ordered house of high-born mystical ladies.\nAll that Gertrude could do was, seven years after her nomination, when\nthe springs of Rodardesdorf dried up, to remove the convent to her own\ncastle of Helfta, an act which naturally increased her own position in\nthe convent, and tripled her glory of abbess, benefactress, and\necstatic. Gertrude, however, was not the only saint in Helfta. Besides\nher sister, the sweet, fanciful Saint Mechtild, there was Gertrude the\nNun,[3] sometimes confounded with the abbess, who in all probability\nwrote the concluding book of the _Vita_, certainly finished after St.\nGertrude\u2019s death. The two daughters of the Count of Mansfeld were also\nprofessed in the convent, and were gifted disciples of its mystical\ndoctrines. Sophia spent her life in enriching the already valuable\nlibrary of Helfta, and Elizabeth painted, probably in the chapel.\n\nFootnote 3:\n\n  Herr Preger, notwithstanding the authority of other scholars, and the\n  entire tradition of the Church, maintains the _Gertruden-buch_ to be\n  the work not of Gertrude von Hackeborn, but of a certain Gertrude the\n  Nun, living at the same time in the same convent. He also, in an\n  argument of great ingenuity, separates Mechtild the chantress from our\n  Mechtild von Hackeborn, to whom, however he leaves the authorship of\n  her works; but as in the Venetian edition of the _Vita_ (1583 and\n  1605), I find the words, \u201cNow Gertrude, with her sister Mechtild the\n  chantress, managed all the affairs of the convent,\u201d with constant\n  indications of the identity of Gertrude the abbess and Gertrude the\n  saint; and as Lansperg, the earliest chronicler, expressly states them\n  both to be the daughters of the Graf von Hackeborne, I have decided in\n  this one matter not to accept the dictate of a scholar, to whom all\n  students of the subject must remain indebted.\n\nIn 1265 the convent, already the high school of ecstasy in the north of\nGermany, received a more famous woman than any of these. This was our\nMechtild of Magdeburg, whose earnest faith and flashing, passionate\neloquence, whose songs inspired with a wild, strange tenderness, whose\nlife of hardship and adventure for the love of Christ, had rendered her\none of the noblest and most endearing figures of her age. She chose\nHelfta to be the home of her declining years, and added another glory to\nthe convent of St. Gertrude and St. Mechtild.\n\nSuch a house, it may be supposed, did not exhaust the spiritual energies\nof a nature so full of force and so ambitious as that of its young\nabbess. Her surroundings were but an added incentive to her aspiring\nsoul. She worked hard, it is true, aided by her sister Mechtild. Every\nday she visited the infirmary and saw that the sick were well and\ncleanly treated. She ruled her nuns with thought and care; but when the\nhours of leisure came, the many daily periods set apart for prayer and\nmeditation, then her old ecstasy overpowered her with a strength and\nvividness the more forcible for the obstacles it had to overcome. More\npassionate, more personal become her revelations as she lies abandoned\nto trance and vision in the arms of the spiritual Lover. So strong, so\nhot, so fierce, so tender are the words that fall from her lips, that we\ncannot bear them now unmoved. Ah me! what vain and fruitless passion\nthis dreaming love of the saint for a dream!\n\nIt was not until nine years after the bestowal of the \u201csingular grace of\ndivine familiarity,\u201d says the _Vita_ that Gertrude wrote down the\ndescription of her visions. But the visions, themselves recorded in the\nfive books of her revelations, seem to have begun almost immediately\nafter her renunciation of human learning. \u201cFrom that time she began to\nhold as vile all visible and external things, and verily not without a\ncause, for from that time the Lord opened to her the ways of Mount Zion,\na place of joy and consolation. Leaving the study of grammar, in which\nshe was greatly instructed, she turned to theology, that is to say, Holy\nScripture and the lives of the saints, using them with infinite\ndiligence.\u201d\n\nAnd soon the saint herself began to speak from the mount, in her own\nlanguage. None of the tender consolations and quaintly pictured fancies\nof Mechtild are here. The revelations of Gertrude manifest the ambition,\nthe activity, the emotion of a crushed and passionate nature forced into\nan unnatural channel. Tragic and miserable spectacle: the strong\npassion, the earnest will so sorely wanted in the world outside, are\nspent vainly, vilely, in inducing terrible disease. The saint grows\nweaker as her visions increase in force; her mind, warped and broken,\ncan bend but one way. And that way is towards inertia, madness, and\nannihilation. An old tale, oft-repeated, yet needed, perhaps, in these\ndays of mesmerism and spiritual _s\u00e9ances_. An old tale, well-known to\nthe Yogis of India, to the monks and nuns of medi\u00e6val Europe, to all who\nhave deliberately made themselves the victims of catalepsy and hysteria.\nFor deliberately they did it. Many of the receipts have come down to us:\nthe absolute cessation from practical affairs, the emptiness of mind and\nheart; the regulated diet, neither too little nor too much; the lack of\nsleep; the quiet, which no joy or woe of others may disturb, when,\nseated or kneeling in his cell, at an hour when digestion is well over,\nsighing lugubriously in deep, regular sighs, the eyes are fixed on one\npoint too high or too low for perfect comfort, the arms are to beat the\nbreast in monotonous routine, as Gerson and other mystical doctors\nprescribe, until a heavy trance involves the body, until the brain\nbecomes deranged by this appalling and stultifying monotony, and\ncreeping death or madness end the vision.\n\n\u201cIt happened once,\u201d says the _Vita_, \u201cthat by reason of sickness,\nGertrude was prevented from attending vespers; and, longing for these,\nand feeling sick at heart, she turned to the Lord, and said: \u2018O my\nMaster, were it not more praiseworthy that I should now be singing in\nthe choir with my other companions and hearing the prayers and the other\nregular exercises than to be lying in this weakness, in which I consume\nin negligence so many hours?\u2019 To which He answered: \u2018Oh, dost thou\nbelieve the bridegroom holds his bride less dear, when he stayeth at\nhome to taste the familiarity of his domestic pleasure, than when he\nglories to lead her forth, well adorned, before the gaze of the crowd?\u2019\nfrom which speech she understood that, in the divine service, the soul\nappears as a bride going forth; but, when heavily laden with bodily\ninfirmities, then as a bride sleeping in the secret chamber; for the\nmore that man is weak, shorn of all pleasures of the sense, destitute\nand impotent, the more is he made to delight the Lord.\u201d\n\nSuch a theory was naturally productive of fasts and vigils, nor, if the\nfavour of her Lord depended on the sickness of her body, could it ever\nhave been far from this poor ailing and an\u00e6mic girl. A revolting amount\nof suffering is na\u00efvely and incidentally revealed in her works of\nspiritual grace. Scarce a chapter but opens, \u201cBeing again sorely weak\nfrom want of sustenance,\u201d \u201cLying again in bed helpless with sickness,\u201d\n\u201cBeing sorely oppressed with a burning of the liver,\u201d or with some\nsimilar avowal of the connection between her revelations and the\nweakness of her health. Often she piteously implores the Lord to restore\nher to her former soundness and well-being, but the answer is always the\nsame. \u201cThy sickness is a dance and a festival for me,\u201d responds the\nCelestial Spouse; nor ever is there any hope given her of a cessation to\nher pain. In her wandering senses the poor tormented saint dimly guessed\nthat her spiritual gifts were dependent on the utter prostration of her\nbody and her mind.\n\nThe spectacle of her suffering convinced the whole convent of Gertrude\u2019s\nsanctity. They believed her in daily communication with their unseen\nHead. It was natural, therefore, that they should bring their sorrows to\nher and entreat her intercession, as men ask a minister to counsel the\nking, or a steward to remedy the carelessness of the absent master, or a\nfavoured mistress to beg that, for her love\u2019s sake, a piece of justice\nmay be granted that otherwise were withheld. It was natural, also, that\nGertrude should believe herself capable of guiding the will of God;\nnatural that the strange vanity of the visionary and the hysteric should\nobscure the eyes of her mind, and lead her further on the road she had\nchosen. After visions, miracles.\n\n\n                                  IV.\n\nMiracles exist in the mind of the witnesses. \u201cLe miracle,\u201d said\nLamennais, \u201cexiste quand on y croit.\u201d To the latter-day sceptic, the\nmarvels which procured the canonization of Gertrude are such natural\ntrifles that it is difficult to imagine they could ever have filled a\nwhole countryside with rapture and thanksgiving. A sudden downfall of\nrain, the ceasing of a shower, the finding of a needle\u2014such are her\nmiracles. But hear with what pomp and circumstance the chronicler\nnarrates them.\n\n\u201cOne evening when the nuns had finished supper, they went into the court\nto finish a certain piece of work that they were set to do, and it\nhappened that at this time the sun still shone, notwithstanding that in\nthe sky there were several clouds which threatened rain; wherefore she,\nsighing, began heartily to converse with the Lord, I hearing all she\nsaid, as follows: \u2018O Lord God, Creator of everything, I do not wish that\nthou, as if compelled, should obey the will of me unworthy; none the\nless would it be very dear to me, if pleasing to Thee, if Thy most\nliberal goodness shouldst prevail against Thine honest justice to retard\na little, for my sake, this rain. None the less, Thy will be done.\u2019 She\nsaid these latter words resigning herself into the hands of God, not\nthinking of aught but the fulfilment of His good pleasure; a marvellous\nthing it must certainly be accounted, that scarcely had she finished\nspeaking when lightning, thunder, and great drops of rain burst forth\nwith great fury; for which cause, moved with pity for the other sisters,\nshe remained altogether filled with fear, and again she said to the\nLord, \u2018Let Thy goodness, O most clement God, last at least so long as\nwhile we finish our appointed task.\u2019 At these words the most clement\nGod, to show how in everything He was pleased to grant her prayer, held\nup the rain until the nuns had finished the task they were at work upon;\nwhich done, they returned to the convent, and scarcely had they reached\nthe gate when there began a tempest of rain and thunder and lightning,\nso that some of the sisters who had lingered behind could not enter the\ndoor before they were soaked to the skin.\u201d\n\n\n                                   V.\n\nGertrude was the saint of the convent, and yet her ambition cannot have\nbeen wholly realized. She, who ever since her childhood had laboured\nhard to acquire \u201call manner of flowered virtues in order to please the\neyes of every one,\u201d she, the favoured of God, was nevertheless in the\nconvent less beloved than simple Mechtild. The fact is revealed\nunconsciously in every page of her life, in all the numerous revelations\nwhen God declares that notwithstanding the convent\u2019s suffrage, Gertrude\nis greater than Mechtild. And greater she was\u2014more passionate, strong,\nand earnest, suffering anguish and burning with great desires that her\nsweet and happy sister could not conceive. Love was necessary to her,\nlove and approbation. They were the very food of her soul. Reading side\nby side her revelations and her life, one easily comprehends how in\nproportion as she failed to gain the love and tenderness of her\ncompanions, her visions become erotic and passionate. To give such a\nnature respect, esteem, awe, as a reward for its sacrifice, is in\nbitterest truth to give a stone to the child crying for bread. Gertrude\nbeing hungry dreamed of a feast; phantasmal banquets which nourish not,\nbut madden.\n\nAs time went on, Gertrude transferred all her earnestness, all her\npowers of feeling, from the outer world to this dream-born inner life.\nCensorious, abstracted, caring little for physical suffering, she was\ntender and anxious to the last degree in all matters that concerned the\nsoul. And this without any interest in the personality of the creature\nshe longed to save. She had, says her biographer, not one friend so dear\nthat to save her she would by so much as one word commit an offence\nagainst perfect justice, and would declare that rather would she consent\nto the injury of her own mother than harbour an evil thought against an\nenemy. Her conversation was in heaven, and the things of the world were\nas dust to her. Nay, as poison. She was as careful as Pascal[4] by no\nword of hers ever to draw to herself the heart of any person; it was not\nfor her who was beloved of God to unite herself in earthly friendship,\nand as one would fly a person stricken with a pestilent disease, she\nfled from any one who sought her affection. Never now could she endure\nto hear a word of earthly love; rather would she remain deprived of the\nservices and the goodwill of all the world than ever consent that, by\nreason of human favour the heart of any should be joined to hers.\n\nFootnote 4:\n\n  \u201cLa vraie et unique vertue et donc de se ha\u00efr. Il est injuste qu\u2019on\n  s\u2019attache \u00e0 moi, quoiqu\u2019on le fasse avec plaisir et volontairement. Je\n  tromperais ceux \u00e0 qui j\u2019en ferais na\u00eetre le d\u00e9sir; car je ne suis la\n  fin de personne et n\u2019ai pas de quoi les satisfaire:\u201d Pascal told his\n  married sister she ought not to caress her own children or suffer them\n  to caress her.\n\nSo says the chronicle. Yet with all this bitter indifference, this love\nturned sour in her heart, she kept a great tenderness for erring or\ntormented souls, praying and watching for them, warning and consoling;\nand though the sinner proved obdurate, not yet would she relax her care;\nnay, when the sisters besought her not to afflict herself for the sins\nof the ungodly, she would answer that she would rather suffer death than\nconsole herself for the misery of those who would only understand their\nown perdition when at last they should stand in face of the eternal\nexpiation. So great was her compassion, that did she only hear of any\none sick in spirit, be he never so far away, she could not rest without\nendeavouring to console his sorrow. And as men laid low with fever exist\nfrom day to day in the hope of recovery, watching themselves to see if\nthey are not a little better, so she longed and watched from hour to\nhour that the Lord might console the mourner and ease him in his\naffliction.\n\nStrange and pathetic this zeal for the indefinable and impersonal soul,\nconcerning itself nowise with character or feeling, with mind or\nphysical well-being. Strange and awful this transmuted love, this\ntransformed humanity and kindness, which deal with unrealities while all\naround a world sickens and dies. Yet not so strange if we remember that\nto exchange the reality for the shadow, the thought for the dream, and\ntruth for a phantasm, is the principle of mysticism.\n\n\n                                  VI.\n\nMeanwhile Mechtild, a mystic by doctrine and circumstance, but not by\ntemperament, concerned herself, even in the convent, chiefly with the\naffairs of reality. She was, as we have seen, every one\u2019s friend, nurse,\nand confidant, and but slenderly concerned with saintly glories for\nherself. She never wrought any miracles, nor did God ever tell her that\nshe was His most favoured among women. It was Gertrude\u2019s glory that she\ndeclared. The saintly acts that are recorded of her have a pathetic\nhuman grotesqueness never to be found in Gertrude\u2019s doings or sayings.\nFor instance, out of a great pity for the sins of the mummers and\ndancers at carnival, she filled her bed full of potsherds and broken\nglass, and rolled in them till she was a mass of cuts and sores, begging\nGod to accept her suffering as a set-off to the merry-making of the\nworld outside. This is not the true mystical temper, which ignores all\nbut the union of the soul with God. Mechtild sought no advancement for\nher own soul, she sought to palliate the offences of the guilty and to\nsave them from punishment rather than bring them to repentance; moreover\nshe felt herself responsible for their errors. The true ecstatic, lost\nin God, abjures human responsibility. Nevertheless, even in the convent,\nMechtild, with her merry patience in suffering, her care for the sick\nbody no less than the sick soul, her humility and lovingness, was\nnaturally dearer than her austere, abstracted sister-saint. And, none\nthe less, the sisterhood was aware that Gertrude not Mechtild was their\nreal title to honour.\n\nAs the mystical life spread like a contagion through the convent, many\nof the younger sisters, underfed, deprived of air and exercise, had not\nstrength to support the abnormal existence of the visionary. Sickness\nwas frequent in this convent of ecstatics, and whether at Rodardesdorf\nor at Helfta its mortality was excessive. The nuns died young of\nundefined diseases. We are always meeting allusions to their short,\ndream-visited lives, to their early and inexplicable dying. They perish\nof an\u00e6mia, before the acknowledgedly consumptive sisters; and the nuns\ncan find no reason for their death unless it be that God was anxious to\nremove so much sweetness to flourish perpetually in His presence. The\ndiseases of the convent are such physical ills as are induced by mental\nstrain and by bodily inanition\u2014consumption, hysteric convulsions, or\nparalysis, disturbances of the liver. Such as cannot die\u2014such as, like\nGertrude herself, have too strong a fibre to perish in girlhood\u2014linger,\ntormented by sickness, prematurely old and useless. All they have to\nconsole them is the phrase, vouchsafed by her heavenly bridegroom to\nGertrude in vision, \u201cLo! ye that fain would hasten into my presence, ye\nare as a spouse that bare and unadorned would venture into the nuptial\nchamber; know, that after this death which ye so much desire, no further\ngrace can accrue to the soul, nor can it suffer any more for God\u2019s\nsake.\u201d\n\nMechtild of Magdeburg, Dante\u2019s Matilda, was the first of the greater\nsaints to succumb. A long life of hardship, of energetic striving with a\nguilty world, years of Beguine Prophecy, much labour of writing and\npreaching, and the pain of bodily weariness, had worn her out. At the\nage of sixty-seven the strongest and sweetest of all the German\nwomen-mystics departed from a world which she had not shrunk to face,\nwhich even from her cloister she had striven to ennoble. The strong,\nreforming spirit was stilled at last. The one woman in the convent of\nHelfta who knew the world as it is, its sins and aspirations, its\ngenerosities and crimes, was dead. A window was shut in that house, a\nwindow showing the world beyond the chapel walls, and letting in upon\nthe heavy smell of flickering candles and swinging censers the free\nbreath of the wind. Henceforth there was no reminder of the larger\nworld, the purer air outside: Mechtild of Magdeburg was dead.\n\n\n                                  VII.\n\nNo such release was appointed for Gertrude; the easy death of the body\nwas not for her, though for death she prayed by day and by night,\nfinding that her prayers for health and strength were never granted.\nNailed to her mattress by exceeding weakness, she watched the younger\nnuns die, one by one, \u201cadmitted to the celestial marriage-chambers,\u201d\nwhile she, faint, palsied, useless, lingered on. \u201cO, my God,\u201d she cries,\n\u201ccould I not serve Thee better with my old strength than thus?\u201d And ever\nthe soul-heard answer comes, that the more humbled the body, the poorer\nthe proud intellect of man, so much the dearer to God is his spiritual\nessence. Thus dragged on year after year, and the great abbess filled\nher five books of revelations and her eight books of spiritual\nexercises. Her life was spent and she was old. The later hagiographers\nrelate of Saint Gertrude that she died of a languor of Divine love.\nModern science would call by another name this long palsy of the body\nthrough the prostration of the mind. But no diagnosis, saintly or\nscientific, can add to the sense of misery and waste with which we\nrecall that strong life so early broken, those twenty-five years of\nstrained nerves and aching limbs, that six-months-long daily death of\nhysterical paralysis.\n\n\u201cThis elect of God,\u201d relates the _Vita_, \u201cfull of the Holy Spirit and\nworthy to be embraced by the arms of Divine charity, Gertrude, most\nbenign abbess, all-praiseworthy, having laboured for forty years and as\nmany days in the honour and praise of God, ruling her abbey wisely and\nwith much prudence, sweetly, and with much discretion, being by reason\nof all these virtues flowery as a fresh rose in this world, and\nmarvellously gracious and worthy to be loved, not by God only, but by\nmankind as well, at last, after forty years and forty days, fell into a\ngrievous sickness, which is known as minor palsy, a form of apoplexy.\u201d\n\nThe narrators of the life, who knew Gertrude and had often seen her, say\nno word, it will be perceived, of the celestial love-sickness which a\nmore sentimental taste gave out afterwards to be the cause of her death.\nAnd, indeed, such a superstition could not rise, even round so great a\nsaint, while the physical details of her last weakness remained fresh in\nthe minds of the nuns of Helfta. They mourned her truly, and believed\nthat never a holier saint had been translated to those pleasant fields\nof heavenly green for which she had so often longed. But, with an\nadmirable _na\u00efvet\u00e9_, even while they believed that God had drawn her\nmiraculously from her sick bed into His arms, they knew that she had\ndied of palsy. To them there was nothing incongruous in the two ideas;\nthey had no thought of concealing\u2014they would rather display\u2014the\ndegradations and infirmities of the mere human body which had so long\nenchained the heavenly soul. At first her senses remained to her, only\nshe could not move her limbs, could not stir the wasted hands that once\nhad been so swift to sew, to write, to put in order whatever was out of\nplace. She could lie still and dream, the poor, dying mystic.\n\nFor she had given to her now, as a gift that should not be taken away,\nthat perfect quiescence and immobility of body which she had practised\nso often, so patiently, by day and night, in times gone past. And soon\nshe was to be granted that other wing of ecstasy, complete abstraction\nof the mind from all human thoughts and affairs. So heavy became the\nburden of her infirmity that she could no longer order the affairs of\nthe household, no longer care for others. At last she could not speak,\nshe could not pray, she could not think. She was perfected in the\nmystical way; annihilated, stultified, palsied, she had attained the\nsummit of her desire. Never moving, never changing, dead-alive, she lay\nthere month by month, a helpless burden upon the community. Worshipped\nas one indeed highly favoured of the Lord by those whose feet were all\nset on the same sterile and deadly road, she could give utterance to no\nother words but these, \u201cMy soul!\u201d And this phrase she repeated over and\nover again, finding it marvellously ample and sufficient to express all\nthe movements of the spirit. O pitiless ideal, O cruel and revolting\ndoctrine, is it to this you would reduce the living, thinking, active\nhuman mind? Is the end of such continued sacrifice, such years of\nhourly, daily labour nothing but this\u2014a palsied useless body, a dumb,\nnumb soul, with no thought and no desire beyond itself? At length the\nhour of dissolution was at hand, the night in which no man shall work;\nand in waiting for this the days of life had gone by fruitless and\nwasted; in hoping for this the sun had risen and set in vain, the\nseasons had changed unnoticed; in preparation for this soul and heart\nand mind and physical powers had deliberately hamstrung their noblest\nfaculties; and now the long-awaited night was at hand, the night in\nwhich all mistakes are forgotten, all cares and anguish set at rest.\n\nThe last time that Gertrude spoke these two all-sufficing words, \u201cMy\nsoul!\u201d was one evening when Compline was at an end. Then began her\npassage to the other life. At this time, fables the author of the end of\nthe _Vita_, in quaint allegorical eulogy, not only the chamber of the\ndying abbess, but the whole of the monastery, was crowded and thronged\nto excess, since among the praying and weeping sisterhood knelt all the\nvirgin company of heaven.\n\n\u201cAt length the happy hour was come when the Celestial and Imperial\nSpouse should receive His beloved in His house of love, finally, after\nso much longing, set free of the prison of the world.\u201d The nuns knelt\nround praying and weeping; the watching sisters saw angels kneeling too.\nAnd we, do we not see the ghosts of stillborn pity, and joy, and love,\nand help, standing white-eyed and shadowy there? Yet wherefore should\nall or any weep? The end is at hand; the labour is over and gone, and\nsoon she will rest so well that, even if she could, she would not quit\nher quiet bed. Well may she sleep, poor, troubled soul, mistaken and\nmost noble in its errors; well may she sleep who, being dead, yet speaks\nwith a clearer and surer voice than she spoke with on earth, telling of\npatience and sacrifice borne willingly for love\u2019s sake, of faithful\nendurance through pain and toil, teaching an example and a warning in\none word. And in the middle of their praying none heard at what moment\nthe sleeping spirit went. The abbess was dead; but the convent went on\nas though she had been still alive. Another abbess took her place;\nanother nun saw visions and worked miracles in her stead, a lesser saint\nbut of the same quality. Even after Mechtild\u2019s death some years after,\nthe old life went on\u2014the old routine of sleep and prayer, or of forced\nwakeful nights and baneful ecstasy; and the old life of insufficient\nfood and insufficient thought begot the old aberrations and diseases.\nThe fever had not yet run its course.\n\nWe standing here, safe, as we imagine, from the deadly epidemic,\ncuriously studying these eight hundred closely printed pages as records\nof morbid hysteria, may feel our hearts melt with a melancholy regret\nfor the shipwreck of so many noble lives. For the worst of this malady\nwas that it attacked the loftiest spirits, as phylloxera the oldest and\nmost fruitful vines. We may pity and praise them in a breath; we may\ngive a kindly wonder to their belated love and say that, but for them,\nthe sentiments that fills our hearts to-day would have been less\npatient, less tender, less exalted. And this is well, that we should\nhonour the best in them. But let us take care that we ourselves are free\nand whole; let us not deem ourselves too safe, but place a quarantine on\nour own souls lest the sweet and fatal poison of mysticism penetrate\nthither unawares.\n\n\n\n\n                      THE ATTRACTION OF THE ABYSS.\n\n\n                                   I.\n\nAs an island is surrounded by water, as night surrounds the stars, and\nair the globe, so beyond the region of the known there stretches an\nillimitable space of darkness and of silence. All minds know that it is\nthere; to many of us it is a background of repose to the busy scene of\nlife; to some the hidden tract has its chart of faith or dogma. But\nthere are others to whom that vast and dark Unknown is more present than\nthe small and shining certainty of the Universe. They are sucked into\nthe eddy of its vastness and its darkness. These natures turn from the\nsubstance to dream of the shadow, they leave the narrow fields of\nscience and go out boldly over those unsounded waters beyond. Souls such\nas these are never quite at home in life: the dark, the undreamed of,\nthe infinite has enchanted them. They are drawn by the attraction of the\nAbyss.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\nMysticism allures different men by different methods. It draws by\nvarious lines the passionate heart, the broken and humbled will, the\nheated fancy, the indignant spirit wroth at the hardness and evil of the\nworld. It draws no less the reasoning and metaphysical mind, repelled by\ndogma and yet desirous of the Deity. For Mysticism is not only an affair\nof dreams, of miracles, and visions, it is not only a satisfaction to\ndisordered imaginations, to diseased and stunted passions; it includes a\nsystem of philosophy so logical that who accepts the first easy thesis\narrives without negation or amazement at the last. The Mystics have, in\nfact, made a science of the soul, an elaborate system of abstractions,\nquite logical in itself, although in contradiction to the truths of\nphysical nature. No one, indeed, is readier to admit this contradiction\nthan the Mystic himself, for the soul, he says, is exactly the contrary\nof the body. It is therefore natural that as bodily life rises in the\nscale from simple to complex, so the soul\u2019s existence should be purest\nwhen least differentiate. For the soul and the body meet on one level\nfor a moment, but they come from different positions. The human body is\nthe highest evolution of the animate world; the human soul, the Mystics\nassure us, is the lowest and last descent of Infinite Being. In fact,\nthe soul of man is to Divinity in the same relation as the zoophyte is\nto us. Only, unfortunately for the simile, in this strange supernatural\ncosmos the zoophyte is higher than the man. Let us rather say that man,\nhaving progressed from the zoophyte to humanity in body, must now in\nsoul ascend from the man to the zoophyte. For the soul, we must\nremember, is divinest when most simple. It is the last descent of God,\nand God (the Mystics say) is absolute unity and simplicity. \u201cGod,\u201d says\nMeister Eckhart, \u201cis the simplest essence of existence; and who,\nthinking of God, sees any distinction from utter simplicity, be sure he\nseeth not God.\u201d\n\n\n                                  II.\n\n\u201cBut how\u201d (we can imagine one of Eckhart\u2019s audience exclaiming), \u201chow\ncan the absolutely simple be the manifold? God, you say, is the Simple\nand the One; and yet you say that every soul descends from God. If God\nis absolutely simple and single, He cannot divide Himself into many\nsouls.\u201d Eckhart here, we may be sure, would smile and praise the\ndiscretion of his assailant; for this objection brings us to the central\ntheory of Speculative Mysticism, the dearest dogma of Plotinus, of\nDionysius, of Scotus Erigena, as of Master Eckhart.\n\nSpirit is everywhere one. Spirit is in the Godhead and indivisible. The\nGodhead exists, our Mystics tell us, above and beyond all Divine\ntheophanies; the Godhead exists as a vast and unfathomable ocean,\nrolling its seas of emptiness and silence from pole to pole. But\neverywhere the ocean is bordered by the land; and its waters, in the\ncircle of their tides, wash over a hundred shores, and fill a thousand\nbays and creeks and little rocky pools. Even as the deep sea sends its\nshallower waters over the sands, and then withdraws them into its\neternal and unfathomable fulness, so the waters of God flow into every\nsoul. And when the sea withdraws its tide, it withdraws not merely the\ncontents of this pool and yonder creek, but the sea itself, eternally\nundivided, though for the space of a tide it filled the limits and the\nhollows of the shore.\n\nBut not all the strand, is washed by the sea; above a certain line the\nsands grow their rank, stiff grass, and grey-green thistles; the sands\nare almost land. And not the whole of the soul is visited by the Divine\nsimplicity; only the water-line, the arid depth of the soul, is swept\nover and filled by the infinite being of God. \u201cThere is something in the\nsoul,\u201d taught Meister Eckhart, \u201cuncreated and uncreatable; there is\nsomething in the soul which is beyond the soul, Divine, simple, an utter\nnothingness; there is a place in the soul where God inhabits, and this\nbase of the soul is one with the base of God. And to reach this obscure\nretreat of the Eternal and Divine, where the unconscious Godhead\ndwells\u2014this is the supreme and final goal of all created things.\u201d\n\n\n                                  III.\n\nAnd how shall the Mystic reach this obscure and inner depth, this\nsilence where the soul is one with God? By sinking into himself. For the\nMystic there exists no exterior world. Since God is within us, what\nvalue is there in the world without? \u201cOmnes creatur\u00e6 sunt purum nihil,\u201d\nformulates Master Eckhart. For the Mystic the body is only a prison, a\ndistortion, a hindrance; its senses, its experience cannot teach him.\n\u201cBeing freed from the folly of the body,\u201d said Plato, \u201cwe shall of\nourselves know the whole real essence.\u201d \u201cMatter,\u201d says Plotinus, \u201cis the\nprinciple of individuation, and who would seek the one must quit the\nthings of matter.\u201d Without the body, then, we were no longer personal,\nno longer separate; we were all One and all God. It is the body which\ndetermines our character; there is no personality in the soul. We must\nconceive it as pure water poured into a coloured vase, which becomes\nred, or blue, or green, according to the colour of the vase. The colour\nis not a principle of the water, and does not affect the water. So the\nsoul poured into the body appears to take a note and colour of its own,\nbut, poured out again, is seen to be unaltered. The first aim of the\ntrue Mystic is to purify his spirit from this extraneous and earthly\ntint; to make the vase, if he can, as colourless, as simple and uniform\nas that infinite Being, of which, in Erigena\u2019s phrase, the Soul is the\nlast descent.\n\nSince the soul is God the world is nothing. No more than the eye can\ntaste or the ear handle, can the created comprehend the Divine. \u201cIf we\nare to know anything purely,\u201d we read again in Plato, \u201cwe must be\nseparate from the body.\u201d And Plotinus adds that he who enters in quest\nof the One must ascend to the First Principle of his own nature. The\nFirst Principle of Plotinus is the same as Meister Eckhart\u2019s Foundation\nof the Soul. It is the One. Intellect may be a means to reach it, but it\nis certainly not an end. The Mystic philosopher thinks himself into an\necstasy; and the ecstasy, not the thought, is his goal.\n\nOur Mystic has therefore abandoned the world, and abandoned his own\nexperience in the endeavour to attain to God. He must be quite still,\npassive, dumb; the mystic should be as a new-born child who has not yet\nsmiled in his mother\u2019s face. He must not even _will_ to be made one with\nGod. \u201cHe must have no seeking for himself more than has a corpse,\u201d\nwrites Eckhart. \u201cLet him be as one dead,\u201d counsels Suso. \u201cHe must not be\nsatisfied with any deed or virtue,\u201d adds the Flemish Ruysbroch, \u201cbut\nonly in the Abyss.\u201d And Tauler rises to a passionate eloquence: \u201cSink\nthou into thy Depth and thy Nothingness, and let the tower and all its\nbells fall down upon thee; yea, let all the devils in Hell storm out\nupon thee; let Heaven and Earth with all their creatures assail thee,\nyet shall they all but marvellously serve thee.... Sink thou only into\nthy Nothingness, and the better part is thine.\u201d\n\n\n                                  IV.\n\nDeath in life is the aim of the Mystic, and his consolation is the\nthought of his annihilation. There is not any rest for him, and no\nsolace save in that which Suso calls \u201cthe desolate wilderness and deep\nchasm of unsearchable Deity.\u201d To us of a later age to whom the greatest\nand most alluring promise of religion is the hope of Personal\nImmortality, it is hard to realize a fact which must strike every\nstudent; namely, that throughout the Middle Ages the most passionate\nmotive of a hundred passionate sects, the dearest thesis of the deepest\nthinkers in the Church, was this intense desire of personal\nannihilation. As a fact, this frenzy after Nothingness cost the Church\nmore heresies than any corruption in herself. The very doctors of the\nChurch were tainted with it. The lowest of the people\u2014poor, starved, and\nhunted fanatics\u2014formed themselves into bands and brotherhoods to preach\nthis comforting gospel of extinction. The books of Dionysius the\nAreopagite carried the Alexandrian theories of the One into every\nmonastery in Europe. The Almaricians, the Vaudois, the followers of\nOrtlieb, the Beguines, the brothers and sisters of the Free Spirit, and\nmany other sects of poor and wandering people, spread their fantastic\ncorruptions of the same, throughout the working classes. From the\ntwelfth to the sixteenth centuries, the desire of many a mystical saint\nwas identical with the despair of atheists to-day. It was the extinction\nof the personal soul. The whirligig of time brings strange revenges.\n\nMysticism throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries occupied,\nin the thinking and religious world, a position almost identical with\nthat of Spiritualism in our day. Like its modern offshoot, medi\u00e6val\nMysticism could be superimposed on any cult or habit; like Spiritualism,\nit lent itself equally to a grossly sensual, or an abstract and idealist\ninterpretation. And Mysticism, therefore, appealed to an immense\naudience; to the ignorant and pretentious, dissatisfied with the\nChurch\u2019s authority, merely because it was authority; to the pure\nreformers, anxious to preserve religion and quit the formal and\ncorrupted shows of it; to tender, pious, and dreaming souls, with no\ngreat hold upon the world of fact; to the abstract reasoner, eager to\npreserve his faith while letting untenable dogma slip away. The\nauthorized religion occupied a singular position towards these Mystics,\nwho formed, as it were, a Church within the Church. Afraid to quite\ndisown them or, indeed, to openly disapprove, lest she might thereby\nweaken her own hold, yet conscious all the while that these theories of\nher children were scarcely less subversive of her own supremacy than\nthose of any heretic or atheist, the Church burnt one Mystic and\ncanonized another, with an impartiality born of vacillation. The\ninfluence of the Mystics was indeed immense, and too serious to be\nlightly regarded. They promised to destroy the prison, the canker, the\ndisease of _Self_\u2014to let the freed soul loose from the body, to vanish\nfor ever in the Divine darkness of the unimaginable Abyss; they made the\ncomfort of many a dreaming soul, tortured by the ineradicable memory of\nhuman sin. They offered to the tired thinker, the starved and weary\nlabourer, the broken nun, the harassed townspeople, an attraction which\nthe Church herself dared not openly afford; and many who had wandered\naway from the hard-and-fast, strict-and-narrow fold of Rome, found a\nrefuge in Mysticism, who might else have thrown aside all claim to\nfaith. Even as to-day, many are Spiritualists who otherwise would\ncertainly be Agnostics. For Spiritualism insists on none of the bonds or\ndogmas of religion, and offers a palpable proof to its believers of that\nwhich religion only promises; that is to say, the Immortality of the\nSoul, that golden mirage-fountain of our thirsty modern world. This was\nprecisely the position of medi\u00e6val Mysticism, only, as we know, it was\nRest, not Life, that she offered; extinction, and not continuance; not\nParadise, but the Abyss.\n\n\n                                   V.\n\nThat a great many people everywhere at one time ardently desire one\nthing is certainly no proof that their desire shall be satisfied; but it\nshows a real want in the heart of man\u2014a want which may be stopped by\naltered conditions, if not by the actual things desired. As many people\nlonged for extinction in the harassed Middle Ages as pine for\nimmortality to-day. I do not mean to say they formulated this desire,\nfor most of them were fervent Christians. But life was bitter then, and\nthey hoped to extinguish their weary and craving souls in the\nunconscious Godhead. When life is bitter now, we say \u201cEternal Justice\nowes us a happier experience to discharge our sufferings here.\u201d But in\nboth attitudes the same one fact remains, that so long as life is\nbitter, men will crave and will complain. No modern preacher has spoken\nmore fervently of the joys of immortality than these medieval Mystics\nspoke of the Abyss. Each to each has been the final and immeasurable\nrecompense for all the wrongs that ever there were in the world. By many\nardent Churchmen, and many saints, and many thinkers in the Middle Ages,\nGod was chiefly worshipped as the Abyss. He was the Supreme\nAnnihilation. The soul must plunge, says Eckhart, into pure Nothingness.\nThe soul must sink, says Tauler, in the Divine Darkness, into the secret\nplace of the Divine Abyss. \u201cThere is no safety,\u201d says Guillame\nBri\u00e7onnet, \u201csave in the Abyss\u201d (\u201cl\u2019abysme qui abysme en d\u00e9sabysmant\u201d).\nAdventitious reward, says Suso, may come in the consciousness of having\nconquered evil and done good; but true reward, essential reward, is only\nin the wild waste and deep abyss of inscrutable Deity, in the union of\nthe soul with sheer impersonal Godhead. This Godhead, says Eckhart, is a\nsimple stillness without quality or distinction. God is neither this nor\nthat. Who can distinguish and say, \u201cThis is good, sees not God; for all\nthat is in the Godhead is absolutely one, and formless, and void, and\ninterminable, and passive.\u201d And the names under which God is chiefly\nworshipped show this strange impersonal attitude. The Divine Dark, the\nObscure Night, the Desert, the Abyss, the Unimaged Nakedness, the\nInfinite Essence, the Hidden Darkness, the One, the Supreme Nothing:\nthese are the names of this remote, abstract Jehovah of the medi\u00e6val\nMystics.\n\n\n                                  VI.\n\nTo lose themselves in this unconscious beatitude was the religious ideal\nof a thousand souls. To lose themselves, to drown, extinguish, break\nthrough and beyond the hateful imprisoning Ego\u2014this was the motive of\ntheir mood. But what, we may ask, remains of a man after he has lost\nhimself so utterly? How can he distinguish the bliss of which he dreams?\nHow can he even know he is resting? We are suspicious that these Mystics\ndid not quite realize their own desires, that they meant some residue of\nthemselves to remain and enjoy the sensation of their own Nirvana. And\nso we ask of them what they mean by the Abyss. \u201cThereof,\u201d says Eckhart,\n\u201cwe cannot speak. It is the simplest essence of existence, it is\nunknown, and must ever be unknown. It is the simple darkness of the\nsilent waste. It is the utmost term.\u201d\n\nBut yet we are unsatisfied and persist in questioning. How can the\nspirit of man, deprived of virtue, cognition, will, personality and\nlife, remain immortal? Still more, how can he enjoy such immortality?\nThe dim feeling of such eternal rest we all can understand, who have\ngone suddenly from a lighted room into the vast night, and have felt our\nsouls suddenly invaded and possessed by a sense of mystery and silence.\nWe have felt this; but in his final beatitude the Mystic must not feel:\n\u201cHe must be as one dead.\u201d We also can understand the dizzy rapture of\nunwinding abstraction from abstraction, till we weave a net that seems\nto hold the heaven and all its stars. But the Mystic may not think. \u201cHe\nmust see neither distinction nor difference.\u201d And the passionate upward\nspring of the soul towards a God, unseen, unknown, in which it still\nbelieves; thus might we pray. But the Mystic does not pray. \u201cSo long as\na man desires to do the will of God, so long he is not truly fit; he who\nmay seek the Godhead, he neither wills, nor knows, nor cares.\u201d\n\nWhat then, we ask again, what is the satisfaction that draws your souls\nso firmly towards the Abyss? Will no one answer? And Tauler, the great\nMystical Dominican, replies, \u201cThere remains to a man, the fathomless\nannihilation of himself; and an absolute ignoring of his personal\nself\u2014of all aims, of all will, heart, purpose, use, or way.\u201d\n\n\n                                  VII.\n\nIt is not, then, a personal delight that awaits the Mystic in the abyss;\nit is the sense of absorption in his Deity. It is hard to define the\ncharacter of this Godhead for which the man so gladly lays down his soul\nand his life. Since it is identical with the foundation of the soul (and\nthis, Eckhart assures us, is not only Divine and simple, but an Utter\nNothingness), it is difficult to lay hold of the idea of its divinity\u2014or\nindeed of its difference from created matter which is also _purum\nNihil_, and it is easy to see how, by this path of negation, Mysticism\nalways diverges into Pantheism.... The essence of the Mystical Divinity\nappears to be its very incomprehensibility; and it would be rash and\nvain indeed to form an idea thereof. But we may at least attempt to\nunderstand what that divinity appeared to its worshippers.\n\n\u201cThe One,\u201d begins Plotinus, \u201cis neither substance, nor quality, nor\nreason, nor soul, neither moving, nor at rest, not in place and not in\ntime; neither is it of any sort or kind.\u201d Thus we learn what things were\nnot intrinsic to the Deity; we learn that we must conceive a bodiless,\nunqualified, impersonal, interminable Void; an eternal, undifferentiate\nessence of existence; an infinite Being not to be approached by reason\nor by soul. Eckhart goes a step further, and affirms not only what the\nGodhead is not, but even what it is. \u201cThere is a Godhead,\u201d he says,\n\u201cabove God. The Godhead neither moves nor works.... It is a simple\nStillness, an eternal Silence.\u201d\n\nIf this were all we might comprehend the longing for quiet, the\npassionate desire for rest which made the wearied and the\ntrouble-harried of all times deify silence and repose. Mysticism has\never flourished best in starved or stormy ages. It is the shrinking of\nthe soul from a perplexed and hideous outer life; it is in some the\ndesire for love and peace, in some the desire for rest, in some for\nimmortality elsewhere. But in logical and speculative minds it is more\nthan this; the God of the Speculative Mystics is not merely Sleep, not\nmerely Dreams, not merely Stillness. They carry their reasoning\nfearlessly to its natural conclusion, and this is worthy of all praise\nin them; but that they should worship that conclusion is surely\nstrange\u2014for \u201cGod is non-being,\u201d writes Scotus Erigena; and, Eckhart adds\nthat when the soul penetrates the pure uncreate essence of the Godhead,\nthen Nothingness is at last in the presence of Nothingness.\n\n\n                                 VIII.\n\nGod, then, is Nothing; Erigena has given us the phrase, for _Nihilum_,\nhe says, is the infinite essence of God. The soul is Nothing; \u201ca\nfathomless annihilation of self,\u201d in Tauler\u2019s words, \u201can utter\nnothingness,\u201d in Eckhart\u2019s sentence. And, lastly, the world is nothing,\n_purum Nihil_, and as unreal as the rest. Already, in the close of the\ntwelfth century, David of Dinant had declared that Everything is at the\nsame time Spirit, Matter, and God. The later Mystics added a new line to\nhis Thesis: All is One and All is Nothing.\n\nSuch is the result of this strange Idealism, which sacrifices from first\nto last the idea of personality to the conception of God. These are the\ndogma of this singular phase of thought and feeling; a phase which\nunites all that is cold and formal in philosophy with all that is\nunreasoning, perfervid, and hysterical in a Religious Revival. The\ndoctors and preachers of Speculative Mysticism, have trances no less\nreal than those of Saint Francis; but what they contemplate with rapture\nis not the idea of Infinite Love. It is Infinite Nothing which fills\nthem with ecstasy. And these Mystical thinkers are as precise and as\nliable to become the mere pedants of a system, as any follower of Kant\nor Comte. And yet, though they seek to use only their reason, they\ndespise reason. These philosophers look upon reason as the humble\nhandmaiden of ecstasy. And that divine ecstasy is excited by the thought\nof a Nihilum.\n\nThis indeed appears almost an absurd position; and yet the position of\nthe Mystics was honourable and intelligent. They attempted to answer\nquestions which even to-day the theologians elude (see Newman, \u201cGrammar\nof Assent,\u201d p. 210). \u201cWhence comes Evil?\u201d Evil, they reply, is not\ncreated by God, but, so to speak, the blanks and spaces not filled up by\nHis creation. Evil and pain have no Real Existence; they are but a\ndeficiency of vitality; they are negative and temporary qualities\nunrecognized by an unconscious God innocent of inflicting them. \u201cWhy are\nwe created responsible beings without our own consent?\u201d Our bodies are\nnot created by God and we are not responsible to Him for their errors.\nThey are the expressions of our Eternal souls\u2014their own expressions at\ntheir own desire as a _modus vivendi_ in the world. \u201cHow can God need\nour action if He is omnipotent? If omnipotent, how tolerant of Evil? If\npermitting suffering, sin, and Hell, how then All-loving? If All-loving,\nhow Just?\u201d These questions are all answered by the mystical conception\nof God as a Divine Passivity, an unconscious Fund of Existence. All that\nis impossible and absurd in the theories of the Mystics is caused by\nadapting them to religious ideas. They had to explain the immortality of\nthe soul, ... and they spoke of eternal absorption into an Infinite\nNothing. They had to explain a good and omnipotent God creating an evil\nand impotent humanity. They made the one nothing and the other nothing.\n\n\n\n\n                              THE SCHISM.\n\n\nIn the year 1377 the Pope was at Avignon. Seventy years ago a Pope had\ncome there, as the guest of the Count of Provence, in order to arrange\nwith the King of France the iniquitous extermination of the Templars. He\nhad come to Avignon in the hour of Papal triumph; for in the tragic ruin\nof the Hohenstaufens, the prestige of the empire was destroyed at last.\nBut in reality this fatal victory had left the Pope no longer the\narbiter between France and Germany, but the dependent of the sole\nsurviving Power. The attraction of successful France drew the Pope from\nRome to Avignon.\n\nAt Rome the Pope had left his Vatican, his authority, his tradition. At\nAvignon, a chance guest, hastily lodged in the Dominican monastery, he\nwas little better than the Political Agent of Philippe-le-Bel. Yet he\nshowed no hurry to return. Clement was a Frenchman of the South, a\nGascon, at home in Provence but cruelly expatriated among the\ndissensions, the enthusiasms, the treacheries of foreign Italy. Year\nafter year found him still at Avignon, and there he died in the year\n1315. His successor, John XXI. or XXII., was another Gascon; and\nBenedict XII. (1334-1342) and Clement VI. (1342-1352) were Frenchmen\nalso. They built a mighty palace at Avignon, immense, with huge square\ntowers, and walls\u2014four metres thick\u2014scarce broken by the rare small\npointed windows rearing their colossal strength high into the air. The\ngreat golden-brown palace was less of a palace than a prison, less of a\ncloister than a castle. It was, in fact, a baron\u2019s fortress of the\nfeudal age; for the Pope had almost forgotten that he was Pope of Rome;\nhe was the Count of Venaissin and Avignon.\n\nHe was rich; he was a great lord; he lived luxuriously within those\nfrowning gates. His rooms were full of money-brokers, weighing and\ncounting out their heaps of gold; and there arose no Christ to drive\nthem from the Temple. France, England, Germany, Italy, groaned in vain\nbeneath the exactions of the unscrupulous financial ability that\nfurnished the Court of Avignon with its soft living, its delicate\nmanners, its attention to the Arts. In the beautiful house upon whose\nwalls Simone Memmi had painted a host of his sweet and melancholy\nangels, men forgot the trumpet clang of the name of Hildebrand; and when\nthe officers of Clement VI. dared to remonstrate with him upon the\nOriental magnificence of his palace, deprecating an expenditure beyond\nthat of any of his predecessors\u2014\u201cNone of my predecessors knew how to be\na Pope,\u201d replied the Count of Venaissin. The Papal ideal had changed.\n\nYet it would be wrong to regard the Popes at Avignon as Oriental satraps\ndreaming away, among enchanted reveries, a life of luxury. They were\nabove all things French and very French; active, keen, humane, with a\ngenius for prosperity, a natural quickness for organization. They had a\npractical piety, of which they made a good income, not without an honest\nexpenditure of pains. Their missions were established in Egypt, India,\nChina, Nubia, Abyssinia, Barbary, and Morocco. Yet, though so eager to\nconvert the heathen, they kept no rancour in their hearts against the\nunconverted. Cruel they were sometimes, for their age was cruel, but\noften they were amazingly humane. John XXII. launched Bull after Bull in\ndefence of the unhappy Jews, massacred by Christian greed, and the\nperverted pity of Christian superstition. \u201cAs Jews they are Jews, as men\nthey are men,\u201d said the Pope. \u201cAbhor their doctrines, respect their\nlives and their wealth.\u201d And Clement VI., when France and Germany\ntortured and expelled the abominated nation, threw open wide the gates\nof Avignon, and at the knees of the Vicar of Christ, he made a momentary\nsanctuary for the Wandering Jew.\n\nClement was followed by Innocent VI., another Frenchman, equally content\nwith Avignon. When he died it was nearly sixty years since any Pope had\ntrodden the holy stones of Rome. But his successor, Urban V., for all\nhis Gallic blood, revolted against the position of St. Peter as chaplain\nto the King of France. He saw that the Church lands in Italy were\nslipping continually from the Pope\u2019s control, while Papal vicars\nestablished themselves as hereditary masters of their fiefs, and city\nafter city declared itself with impunity no longer the vassal of St.\nPeter, but a free Republic.\n\nIn Germany the doctrines of Marsiglio and Occam had enduringly ruined\nthe prestige of the Pope. For they declared the Bishop of Rome a simple\nbishop, subject to the law, subject to the Council, subject to\ndeposition at the hands of the faithful; his thunders were pronounced\nillegitimate and harmless since no priest, but only a Council General,\ncould excommunicate or even interdict a nation or a king. In Germany the\nReformation had begun, as it was to continue, upon the lines of theory\nand dogma; in England it was already a political revolt, a declaration\nof national independence. In 1365 England refused to pay the tribute of\n1,000 marks which John had promised to the Pope as to his lawful\nsuzerain. England at that moment was triumphant. Ten years ago the\nbattle of Poictiers had secured her hold on France. The French king had\ndied a captive in the Savoy in London, and Europe was not yet aware that\nthe new king of France was Charles the Wise.\n\nAt that moment, indeed, France, in reality so near the top of the wheel\nof fortune, appeared at her lowest. Nations and men forget how quick\nthat wheel revolves; and the Pope, beholding France his sole protector\nagainst the world, and France the prey of England, felt himself no\nlonger safe at Avignon. In 1361 a company of freebooters had defeated\nthe Papal troops at the very gates of the Papal city; the Pope had\nbought them off with a ransom, and had redoubled the fortifications. But\nhe had realized his insecurity. It was evident that the real interests\nof the Church demanded the return of the Pope to Rome.\n\nUrban made a courageous, a heroic effort. He dragged his reluctant Court\nof luxurious French Cardinals across the seas to Rome. But in that black\nand savage haunt of robbers, the Pope remembered Avignon too well. He\ncame home at Christmas time in 1379; but it was only to die in the\nbeautiful familiar palace; and, out of France, the faithful called his\ndeath the judgment of the Lord upon him who looks back from the plough.\n\nA brighter epoch opened for his successor, Gregory XI. The genius of\nKing Charles and his brothers, the Dukes of Anjou and Burgundy, had\nrestored the fortunes of France; and Anjou, at any rate, was aware of\nthe advantage which the House of France might reap from the partnership\nof a Pope at Avignon. For the Pope, of course, was a Frenchman and\nwilling to assist in the triumph of his country, a triumph he could best\nassist by remaining at Avignon to further and inspire the policy of his\nking. Every tie, indeed, united to detain Gregory in Provence. He was no\nascetic, indifferent to glory or to comfort; but an affectionate,\nnatural man, loving his ease, loving his family, loving the land where\nhe was born. At Avignon he dwelt among his friends, his kinsmen, his\nfather the Comte de Beaufort, his mother, his four sisters. The stories\nof his Cardinals could only add to his own horror of that distant Italy\nwhose language he could not speak. He was ill, and he dreaded the miasma\nof Rome; he needed the comforts of that Court whose luxurious memory\nshould long survive in France. \u201cYou should have come to Europe a few\nyears ago, before the Schism,\u201d writes the anonymous author of Ma\u00eetre\nJehan de Meun\u2014\n\n                  \u201cN\u2019a pas longtemps mour\u00fbt Gregoire\n                  Je te dis que toute la gloire\n                  Du plus hault seigneur terrien\n                  Vers son estat n\u2019estoit plus rien.\n                  L\u00e0 ne falloit ne pompe ne mise\n                  Que herault sceult \u00e0 devise,\n                  Richesse du tout surmontant\n                  Tout prince que lors fut vivant.\u201d[5]\n\nFootnote 5:\n\n  Paris: Bib. Nat. Fran\u00e7ais, 811; No. 7203; \u201cL\u2019Apparicion de Jehan de\n  Meun.\u201d\n\nYet it was Gregory the Eleventh who was to restore the Papacy to Rome.\n\nIt was no longer so easy to return as it had been in the days of Urban.\nThat Pope had not removed to Rome until the energy of Gil Albornoz had\nreduced the princes of Italy into submission. But now Albornoz was dead,\nand Italy was more than ever tumultuous and discordant, for the French\nGovernors whom Urban had left behind him had filled the Papal states\nwith horror of the French Pope. Petrarch also was dead, whose pen no\nless than the sword of Albornoz had been a potent instrument for the\nreturn of Urban. The times were changed, and Italy, who had mourned so\nlong the Papal tiara fallen from her forehead, was no longer willing to\nreceive it. After seventy years of exile the Papacy had become a foreign\npower, and by many of the Italian princes the restoration of Gregory\nseemed little less than a French invasion. Of all the Papal states only\nOrvieto, Ancona, Cesano, and Jesi remained true to him. Florence, of old\nso faithful to the Church, was now united against her with the\nGhibelline Viscontis of Milan; and the Arch-Guelf clasped with a mailed\nhand her new crimson banner written in golden letters with the one word\n_Libertas_.\n\nThe Italians seemed as capable of shaking off the Pope as they had been\ncapable of shaking off the Emperor. Only a few voices still lamented the\nexile of St. Peter. Gregory knew very well that the return to Rome meant\nstrife and bitterness, and that he must re-enter his dominions bringing\nin his hand not peace, but a sword. This prospect inspired him with\ndisgust and fatigue; while every principle of habit, affection,\npatriotism, loyalty, and selfish interest conspired to keep him in\nAvignon. All this in one scale; but there lay in the other the\nconscience of the Pope and the voice that inspired that conscience. It\nwas the voice of a young Italian nun. Europe, distracted with wars,\nperplexed, unguided, heard at last one voice that proclaimed the will of\nGod, and acknowledged her conscience in St. Catherine of Siena.\n\nThe letters of St. Catherine came frequently to Avignon, and with them\ncame other letters from the French Governors telling of the increasing\ndifficulty of keeping together the little that was left of the patrimony\nof St. Peter. Gregory became visibly disturbed. His conscience urged him\nto return to Rome. In July the Duke of Anjou[6] came to Avignon to\ndissuade the Pope from an enterprise so disastrous, as he believed, to\nthe future of France. Of all the royal princes Anjou was the one\nspecially concerned with Italian policy. He was a man handsome,\nimpressive, with a breadth of view and a force of ambition that made him\nmany followers. This son of St. Louis could not fail to influence the\nPope. He made it harder to go from Avignon; but the persuading voice of\nCatherine would not be stilled. The Pope was ill and afraid, a timid\nman; his sisters and his parents clung to him, entreating him to stay;\nhis Cardinals opposed him; his king commanded: yet on the 13th of\nSeptember he quitted Avignon. Evil omens added to the discouragement of\nhis spirit; his horse stumbled under him at starting, and fearful\ntempests delayed him on the sea. But on January 17, 1377, the Pope\nre-entered Rome.\n\nFootnote 6:\n\n  July 17, 1376.\n\nThe seventy years which had made the beauty of Avignon had ruined Rome.\nNo longer the pilgrims brought her the custom of foreign countries; the\nCourt of the Vatican no longer gave an impetus to trade; the prestige of\nthe Pope had ceased to make of Rome the centre of Europe; and the\ndeserted city had realized her intrinsic poverty. Thirty years ago\nRienzi had proclaimed her a cave of robbers rather than the abode of\ndecent men. The churches were in ruins,[7] many of them wholly roofless;\nand in St. Peter\u2019s and the Lateran the flocks nibbled the grass of the\npavement up to the steps of the altar. Row after row of ruined\ndwelling-places gave way to wild fields and heaths\u2014scars of desolation\nupon the depopulated enclosure of Aurelian. If medi\u00e6val Rome lay in\nruins, the Rome of antiquity was yet more ruthlessly destroyed, and the\ntemples and theatres of the pagans were used as a quarry or a limekiln\nby their savage and impoverished successors. For with prosperity, peace\nand order had deserted Rome. The fierce clans of Colonna and Orsini\nterrorized the starved and fever-stricken populace; and there was no law\nbeyond their tyranny. Murder was frequent, vendetta an honoured custom,\nand the Eternal City the shambles of unpunished bloodshedding.\n\nFootnote 7:\n\n  Pastor, \u201cGeschichte der P\u00e4pste,\u201d i. 63, after Gregorovius.\n\nIn such a place decency, quiet, or even safety were naturally strangers.\nThe Cardinals, unwilling martyrs, mourned day and night for Avignon. The\nPope himself became disenchanted, ungentle, and embittered. But he was\nresolved not to quit this odious Italy until the patrimony of St. Peter\nwas regained. Albornoz was dead, it is true; but in the Cardinal of the\nTwelve Apostles the Pope found a spirit no less militant, resolute and\ncruel to lead his armies against the revolted cities and to re-establish\nin Italy the vanished prestige of Rome.\n\nRobert of Geneva, Cardinal of the Twelve Apostles, was, like the Pope\nhimself, a Frenchman of good family and aristocratic prejudice. His\nfather was the Count of Geneva, his mother Mahault of Auvergne and\nBoulogne. In his eyes the revolt of subjects was a crime beyond excuse;\nand when, as in the present case, there was added to the denial of the\ndivine right of sovereigns a heretic apostasy from the dominion of the\nChurch, his indignation dried the founts of pity in his heart. The\nhistory of his whole life proves the Cardinal to be not naturally cruel,\nnor even vindictive; but his campaign in Italy was terrible. With the\nFrenchman\u2019s distrust of the Italians, Robert refused to engage Italian\ncondottieri; he knew that these companies, changing masters continually,\nwere gentle to the enemy of the moment, the brother-in-arms of yesterday\nand to-morrow. The Cardinal, fiercely in earnest, engaged the Breton\nJehan de Malestroit who had cried, \u201cWhere the sun can enter, I can\nenter!\u201d and the Englishman, Sir John Hawkwood, with his White Company\nthe most terrible of the day. Supported by these pitiless auxiliaries,\nRobert of Geneva quenched in blood the fierce resistance of Florence,\nBologna, Cesena, Faenza, and other rebellious cities. Massacre after\nmassacre, sack and pillage innumerable marked his progress; but the\nvoice of the Churchman was never heard to cry for mercy. He had no\nadmiration for the obstinate courage of the besieged; they were rebels,\nand beyond pity. \u201cI will wash my hands in their blood!\u201d he cried at\nBologna and at Cesena there were 5,000 slain. These things made the name\nof the young Cardinal an abomination in Italy. But they secured in one\ncampaign the submission of the Italians.\n\nThe laurels of Robert of Geneva still were green when, on March 27,\n1378, Gregory the Eleventh died at Anagni. The Pope had been on the\npoint of returning to Avignon; and the necessity of their prolonged\nresidence in savage Rome, and the fact that the Conclave must be held\nthere, fell with the weight of misfortune upon the impatient Cardinals.\n\nIt was the first Conclave that had been held in Rome for fifty-seven\nyears, and the Roman populace clamoured in the streets for a Roman Pope.\nBut among the sixteen Cardinals of the Conclave, eleven were French.\nThey might easily have carried the necessary majority of two-thirds had\nthey been of one mind among themselves; but the hatred of North and\nSouth did not merely divide the French from the Italians; it divided the\nFrenchmen among themselves. Gregory and Clement had both been Limousins,\nand the majority of the French Cardinals decided to continue this\ntradition. The remnant, however\u2014the Gallicans, as they called\nthemselves\u2014preferred even an Italian to a Limousin; and their spokesman,\nRobert of Geneva, made overtures to the Trans-Alpines. The result was\nthe election of a man of no party, a man who was not even a Cardinal.\nBartolommeo Prignano, Archbishop of Bari, was an Italian; but he was\nsomething more than an Italian; he was a Neapolitan, a subject of Queen\nGiovanna, and therefore presumably in favour of the French. He had lived\nat Avignon, and was familiar with French customs and French policy. It\nwas hoped that he might prove a bond of union. Scarcely was his election\naccomplished, in haste, amid the noises of the shouting mob outside,\nwhen the impatient Romans burst into the Conclave, clamouring for a\nRoman Pope. The Cardinals dared not confess their choice of a\nNeapolitan, and in their terror they lied, imposing on the people the\nCardinal of St. Peter\u2019s, a Roman born. This fraud, together with the\nconstraint put on the Conclave by the violence of the mob, were a few\nmonths later alleged against the validity of the election of Prignano.\n\nBut at first no conscience was troubled by this irregularity. For six\nmonths the Archbishop of Bari wore an undisputed tiara, and Urban VI.\nsucceeded quietly to Gregory. Urban was zealous for reform, passionately\ndetermined against simony, pure in his life, energetic, resolute; but\nvirtue has seldom been manifest in so unlovable an Avatar. The man was a\nNeapolitan peasant: short, squat, coarse, and savage. He flung rude\nwords and violent speeches like mud in the faces of his elegant French\nCardinals. \u201cFool!\u201d \u201cBlockhead!\u201d \u201cSimoniacal Pharisee!\u201d\u2014such were the\nhard nails with which he studded the ever unpalatable word Reform; and\none day, had not Robert of Geneva caught the holy father by the sleeve,\nhe would have struck a Cardinal in the assembled Consistory.\n\nRobert of Geneva was thirty-six years old; he was tall, commanding, with\na handsome face and fine manners. His aristocratic urbanity veiled a\nnature that did not scorn to do and dare. There could be no greater\ncontrast to the Pope than he, and he became the idol of the Cardinals,\nalthough, in fact, he, the Arch-Gallican, was the distant cause of the\nelection of Urban. His reputation for ferocity in battle added a\nprestige to his pleasant courtliness: it was he who should have been the\nPope! He would not have kept the College, throughout the sweltering\nsummer, in Rome where the detested Urban declared that he would live and\ndie. Something must be done, and at once, for Urban threatened to create\na majority of Italian Cardinals. One by one the Cardinals left Rome for\ntheir health. Their resort was first Anagni, thence they went to Fondi.\nIt was an open secret in Rome wherefore they found the air so good\nthere. Urban got wind of their conferences, and on the 18th of September\nhe created twenty-eight Italian cardinals. Two days later there was a\ngreat ceremony in the church at Fondi. The French Cardinals announced to\nthe world that at last a legitimate Pope had been elected in succession\nto Gregory. He was, of course, a Frenchman; he was Robert of Geneva; he\nwas Clement VII., the first Antipope of the great Schism.\n\nThe Church was terribly divided by this news\u2014Clement, elected by all the\nFrench, was not repudiated by the Italian Cardinals, who, playing the\nwaiting game of their nation, remained neutral. Yet the contest was a\ncontest not of persons, but of nationalities. \u201cThe significance of\nUrban\u2019s election lay in the fact that it restored the Papacy to Rome,\nand freed it from the influence of France.\u201d[8] Catharine of Siena\nclearly perceived this significance, and wrote of Clement, who was to\nundo her sacred mission, as \u201ca devil in the shape of man.\u201d In the North\nof Italy the campaign of Clement in the previous year persuaded the\ndecimated cities of the truth of this opinion; but the South was not\nfirm for Urban, and Naples openly declared herself the champion of his\nrival. The confusion was not only in Italy. The Church everywhere was\nshaken to its foundations. In many bishoprics there were two bishops;[9]\nthere was a terrible doubt in the minds of the Faithful, for of the two\nPopes, one must be Antichrist, his followers heretics, and consigned to\neternal damnation. It is not too much to say that the authority of the\nChurch never recovered from this long and terrible questioning. The\nminds of the pious turned from the Church to God; Mysticism and heresy\nconsoled the uncertain; and false prophets were common in the land.\n\nFootnote 8:\n\n  Creighton, \u201cHistory of the Papacy,\u201d vol. i. p. 64.\n\nFootnote 9:\n\n  Especially in Germany\u2014Mayence, Breslau, Constance, Metz, Loire,\n  Breslau, L\u00fcbeck, &c. See Pastor., _op. cit._, book ii. p. 108, _et\n  seq._\n\nConfusion in the Church was echoed by confusion in the State. England,\nbecause of the war with France, was passionate for Urban. The Empire\nalso was for Urban; and Brittany, and all whose hand was against the\nFrench. \u201cFrance desires not merely the Papacy, but the universal\nmonarchy of the globe,\u201d wrote Urban to the Emperor.[10] But among the\nsmaller states France had still her supporters; Scotland, Savoy, Naples,\nLeon, and Castile followed in her wake, and declared for Clement. There\nwas great joy in France. Louis of Anjou, perhaps the first of European\nprinces to send in his adhesion to the Antipope, was consoled for the\ndeparture of Gregory; and when the news was brought to the king, he\nexclaimed, \u201cI am Pope at last!\u201d But the joy was the joy of princes, not\nthe joy of the people. The nation mourned the confusion that had fallen\non the Church, and the University of Paris wrapped itself in a\nmelancholy neutrality.\n\nFootnote 10:\n\n  Sept. 6, 1382. _Vide_ Pastor., p. 108.\n\n\n\n\n                          VALENTINE VISCONTI.\n\n\n                                   I.\n\nValentine Visconti, greater than Helen as the cause of battles, was born\nin the Abbey of Pavia, in the year 1366. Her grandfather, Galeazzo\nVisconti, had left Milan rather suddenly, being ill with gout and\n\u201ctemendo la severit\u00e0\u201d of one so skilled in the use of succession-powders\nas Bernab\u00f2 his brother, co-tyrant with him of Lombardy. He had designed\na safe and splendid castle for himself in Pavia. While it was still\nunfinished Valentine was born in the hospitable old Certosa there.[11]\n\nFootnote 11:\n\n  At the same time there dwelt in Milan another little Valentine\n  Visconti, daughter of Bernab\u00f2, in after years the widowed Queen of\n  Cyprus, and herself an interesting and pathetic figure.\n\nGaleazzo Visconti had taken with him from Milan his wife, Blanche of\nSavoy, his little daughter Iolanthe, and his married son Giangaleazzo,\nwith his wife Isabelle. These last were the parents of Valentine. When\nshe was born her mother was sixteen and her father fifteen years of\nage.[12] At her nativity there were, we are told, incredible rejoicings;\nfor the pride of Galeazzo Visconti was gratified by the birth of a\ngrandchild who was no less the grand-daughter of a King of France.\n\nFootnote 12:\n\n  Corio on different pages puts the date of the birth of Giangaleazzo as\n  1352 and 1343. The first date, 1352, agrees with the account of\n  Galeotto del Caretto and the Deed of Majority in Corio.\n\nThe mother of Valentine was that little French princess who, six years\nago, had been sold into Lombardy to help to raise the golden millions of\nher father\u2019s ransom. John the Good had received for his daughter the sum\nof five hundred thousand golden florins, a sort of inverse marriage\nportion, the price of a royal alliance. But Galeazzo had not paid for\nbarren honour only: Isabelle had brought her husband the county and the\ntitle of Vertus in Champagne. Though the little girl had gone weeping\ninto Italy, her tears were soon dried. She had left a devastated and\nruined country; she came into a land of sumptuous tyranny, of riches and\nmagnificence. Life was easy at Milan and at Pavia, where Galeazzo was\nbusied with his new university, where Giangaleazzo\u2014a timid,\nintellectual, orderly creature\u2014spent day after day in his study full of\nenormous parchment ledgers, directing the staff of secretaries who\ncopied into them his accounts, his memoranda, and duplicates of his\ncorrespondence. Priests and friars from the old Certosa, professors of\nlaw and learning from the new college, poets also\u2014the English poet,\nMaster Geoffrey Chaucer, and the prince of poets himself, Messer\nFrancesco Petrarca,\u2014learned men like Philippe de M\u00e9zi\u00e8res, visitors from\nso far away as England, France, or Cyprus\u2014these were the guests of the\npalace. Gradually the stately home echoed with children\u2019s voices.\nValentine was born in 1366. One brother grew strong and playful at her\nside; another died in babyhood. When the third was born, in 1373,\nIsabelle died, and a few months afterwards her baby followed her.\n\nThe immense castle of Pavia was very quiet now. Iolanthe, the girl-widow\nof the Duke of Clarence, had married, in 1372, the Marquis of Monferrat.\nThere were only the old Visconti and his wife, and the studious young\nCount of Vertus and his two little children. It was quieter still when,\nin 1378, Galeazzo Visconti died. He had been a terrible old man: cruel,\nunscrupulous, scholarly. It was he who obtained from the Emperor,\nCharles IV., in 1361, the privilege to found the University of Pavia,\nand he who protected it by an edict threatening with heavy punishments\nthe Milanese who dared to study in another school. And he it was, also,\nwho threw alive into a fiery furnace two priests who came to him on an\nunwelcome message; and he who, with his brother Bernab\u00f2, had poisoned a\nthird brother, co-heir and co-tyrant with them in Lombardy. They had\ndivided his share, Galeazzo taking Piacenza, Pavia, the west to Novara,\nand as far as Como in the north; while Bernab\u00f2 possessed the rich\nprovince of the east. Both ruled alike in Milan. Both should have been\nequally powerful. But Galeazzo had left all his share to the sole Count\nof Vertus, and he, too, had only one son to follow him, whereas the\nsignory of Bernab\u00f2 was strengthened and divided by eleven turbulent and\nviolent young sons.\n\nValentine\u2019s father remembered the fate of his uncle. He kept very quiet,\nsurrounded himself with priests and guards, ate of no dish before a\nscore of stewards tasted of it, and dissimulated his ambition. This he\ndid so well that the timid Count of Vertus became a by-word and a\nlaughing-stock in the house of Bernab\u00f2. Although the young man had taken\ncare to obtain from the Emperor investitures which conferred upon him\n_absolute_ authority;[13] although by his judicious protection of the\npeople he made himself the desired deliverer of the unhappy Milanese,\nstill Bernab\u00f2 and his children could not take their kinsman seriously.\nAnd the better to lull their suspicions, in 1380 the young Count of\nVertus came a-courting to the noisy Castello di Porta Giovio, where\nBernab\u00f2 kept house with such of his nine-and-twenty children as still\nremained in Milan. It was a great riotous house full of voices, full of\nsplendid young men in armour (Palamedes, Lancilotto, Sagramoro), full of\nbeautiful women and fair young girls with lovely names (Achiletta,\nVerde, Damigella), and not less radiant for their easy familiarity with\nevil. One of these dangerous maidens, Caterina, the Count of Vertus took\nto be his second wife. In the next year, in 1381, on the 4th of October,\nhis boy, Astorre, died.\n\nFootnote 13:\n\n  Tu, spectabilisque Azo, natus tuus ... auctoritate, bayli\u00e2, nec non\n  Regi\u00e6 Potestatis plenitudine, tam ordinari\u00e2 quam absolut\u00e2, &c., Feb.,\n  1380. Luenig. De Ducatu Mediolanense, in the \u201cCodex Itali\u00e6\n  Diplomaticus,\u201d No. xxvii. See also Investiture of Asti, 1383, to\n  Giangaleazzo (vos et heredes vestri) in the Archives Nationales, K.\n  53, dossier 22.\n\nValentine was now his only heir, for during the first eight years of\ntheir marriage Caterina Visconti had no children. Valentine was fifteen\nyears old, of an age to be dowered and married. Her father, however,\nkept her at home with him, teaching her many things\u2014too much, some\npeople said, for they thought her as wise as Medea. She could invent\nposies; she could read not only Italian books, but Latin, French, and\nGerman. Into whatever court she might hereafter marry, she would be not\nonly the daughter of the Duke of Milan, but his diplomatic agent. I do\nnot know if she could speak English, but in those years of warfare the\nEnglish were often at Milan, and Valentine when a little girl had seen\n(a brilliant, sudden vision) her English uncle of Clarence, who had died\nso strangely at Alba, and was buried at Pavia. She was a scholarly\nmaiden, possessing of her own no less than eleven books; more than her\ngrandfather, King John, had ever owned in his royal library at Paris.\nAnd she could write as well as read\u2014a clear, excellent hand, of which\nthe signature still exists in the Paris archives. Froissart in later\ndays remarked on the frequent letters that she wrote to her father:\n\u201cMadame Valentine wrote him all she knew.\u201d\n\nI do not know if Valentine was beautiful. A line in \u201cLe Pastouralet\u201d\nspeaks of her as\n\n                      \u201cMaret, qui le miex dasoit,\u201d\n\nand mentions the courtesy of \u201cla touse mignotte\u201d\u2014the dainty dame. This\nconveys an impression of nothing more positive than elegance and grace.\nWe can fill up the frame with a couple of portraits which still exists\nin the Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale: small grisaille illuminations adorning a\nmanuscript poem[14] in defence of Valentine. There is nothing very\ndistinctive in either portrait\u2014no accent of striking personality or\nresemblance. They represent the same young and slender woman, rather\ntall, with a long neck and slim arms, and a bust both full and delicate.\nThe head is small, the hair parted from ear to ear across the middle of\nthe head, the back locks being tied in a Greek knot, the front ones\ndivided again in the middle and looped in pendant braids above the ear.\nUnder this severe coiffure we discern a serious gentle placid face\u2014long\nnarrow eyes, a high forehead, a full mouth with pretty pursed lips; a\nface too closely following the medi\u00e6val ideal for it to impress us very\nstrongly as a likeness. Valentine is clothed in a low-cut, tight gown\ngirdled round the hips, with long, tight sleeves descending to the\nknuckles of the slim and delicate hands\u2014over this she wears a very ample\ntrained surtout, also low in the neck, falling in rich folds to her feet\nand buttoned down the front to the hips, where it is sewn together, but\nsplit up at the arms in immense wide sleeve-holes, a yard long,\nrevealing the under dress. If the young duchess was not precisely\nbeautiful, yet certainly she was beautifully attired. The catalogue of\nher gala-dresses is a thing to wonder on: scarlet, and silver, and cloth\nof gold, and rich embroidery; cloths of peacock-green and mulberry\ncolour; tissues of netted pearls. And she had as many pearls, diamonds,\nsapphires, and balass-rubies as any princess in a fairy-story. She wore\nthem sewn all over her caps, round her girdles, encircling her young\nthroat, and showered broadcast across the brocades and embroidery of her\ngowns. With all this, at sixteen, and with the subtle sweetness of the\nnatural Lombard grace, it is not necessary to be beautiful.\n\nFootnote 14:\n\n  \u201cL\u2019Apparicion de Maistre Jehan de Meun,\u201d Fr. ii., 7203. MSS. Bib. Nat.\n\n\n                                  II.\n\nIn 1382 certain guests came to Milan, who marvelled at the magnificence\nof these Viscontis, who talked much with Valentine\u2019s father, and who\nspread abroad the tale of his daughter\u2019s wisdom and her splendour. They\nmust also have impressed on the mind of this young girl the strength,\nthe beauty, and the wealth of France. And they must no less have spurred\nthe silent and vigilant ambition of her father; for in the late May of\n1382, along the roads of Lombardy, four thousand men rode together to be\nthe guests of Milan. They were all mounted on beautiful chargers\ncaparisoned in silk and precious metals; they were all clad in suits of\nburnished armour; light aigrettes floated from their helmets. \u201cThey\nseemed the army of Xerxes,\u201d wrote the Monk of St. Denis; \u201ctheir beasts\nof burden went slowly under loads of gold and treasure. Those that\nbeheld them, astrologers and prophets, read in the future the records of\ntheir fabulous glory.\u201d In truth, they were a host of heroes. Knights\nlike the Count of Savoy and the Count of Polenza went in the ranks. At\ntheir head rode a tall, square-shouldered man, with fair locks beginning\nto grizzle, and a handsome countenance. He was magnificent in his cloak\nof woven gold and lilies. This was Louis of Anjou, King of Sicily,\nsetting out for Naples to conquer his new kingdom.\n\nA kingdom in Italy! It was the dearest vision of the age. The kingdom of\nAdria, a dream never realized; the kingdom of Naples, a phantom eluding\nfor two hundred years the eager grasp of France. In the subtle mind of\nGiangaleazzo Visconti, a third, a vaster kingdom, was already taking\nshape\u2014a kingdom dead and buried for near five hundred years\u2014the kingdom\nof Italy!\n\nBut to gain Italy it was necessary to be secure in Milan. While his\nguests rode on triumphantly to famine and disaster, the Count of Vertus\nelaborated his plan. When the King of Sicily, wrapped in a remnant of\nhomespun daubed with painted yellow lilies, lay dead in his unconquered\nkingdom, defeated in his grave at Bari, Giangaleazzo Visconti ruled\nsupreme in Lombardy.\n\nHe had plotted so well that one sole death secured this change. On the\n6th of May, 1385, Giangaleazzo, apparently _en route_ for the shrine of\nour Lady of Varese, passed by the gates of Milan. His uncle and his\ncousins went out to meet him, smiling at the immense guard which ever\nattended the timid Hermit of Pavia. But now Giangaleazzo dropped the\nmask. In an hour Milan was his, his cousins his prisoners, and his\nuncle, with his _dilettissima amante_, fast in the Castle of Trezzo.\nGiangaleazzo, no less skilled in poisons than his father, had him\npoisoned there, and buried him in Milan in a sepulchre of splendid\nmarble. But he showed no wanton cruelty. His cousins escaped, destitute\nindeed, but unharmed. No unnecessary pain attended the murder of the\ntyrant Bernab\u00f2, decently executed by a well-cooked dish of vegetables.\nAmbition, not revenge, nor the blood-mania of his race, was the master\npassion of the new Lord of Lombardy. If any questioned his proceedings,\nhe could produce the investiture of Wenzel, granting him absolute\nauthority and final judgment. The children of Bernab\u00f2 were stupefied and\ndid not rebel; most of the sons went to fight in the ranks of Sir John\nHawkwood; and the people of Milan hailed the Count of Vertus as a\ndeliverer. He taxed them heavily, indeed, but without disorder; and his\npolice were so excellent that he used to smile and say, \u201cI am the only\nrobber in my provinces.\u201d Giangaleazzo was now master of a great domain,\nimmensely rich, three-and-thirty. He meant to go far. In 1386 he sent to\nPope Urban, demanding the title of _King of Italy_.\n\nUrban refused, and in future the Ghibelline Count of Vertus addressed\nhis requests to the Emperor, or else to the Anti-Pope at Avignon, who\nasked nothing better than to make himself a party in Italy. But first of\nall, Giangaleazzo began to conquer his kingdom. Verona, Padua, Pisa,\nSiena, Perugia, Assisi, Bologna, Spoleto, fell like ninepins before his\ngathering force. Florence began to tremble. Foreign countries began to\ntalk of this new conqueror, of his force, his wealth, his one young\ndaughter. Clement the Pope of Avignon, among others, perceived that with\nAnjou in the south and Visconti in the north, a great Gallic party might\nbe formed in Italy. Clement was at once the creature and the patron of\nthe kings of France. In the winter of 1386-87, while the Milanese\nmessenger still were in the saddle arranging a marriage between\nValentine and the Emperor\u2019s brother, suddenly the Governor of Vertus\narrived at Pavia. He brought a message from the King of France, the\nyoung Charles VI. The King demanded the hand of Valentine for his only\nbrother, Louis.\n\nThis was an important step. The two first children of the King of France\nhad died as soon as they were born, and Louis was still the heir to the\nCrown. Valentine, six years after her father\u2019s second marriage, was\nstill his only child. It was current in France that the Count of Vertus\nturned to his daughter and said, \u201cWhen I see you again, fair daughter, I\ntrust you will be Queen of France.\u201d\n\n\n                                  III.\n\nThis proposal, which came as a surprise to Europe and almost as an\noutrage to the Emperor, was no surprise to the Lord of Milan. Months\nbefore Giangaleazzo had laid his plans. There exists at Paris in the\nArchives Nationales (K. 554, No. 7) the summary of a Project of Marriage\nbetween Louis and Valentine, dated the 26th of August, 1386.\n\nIt is interesting to note that in this early draft there is no thought\nof any possible French claim to Milan. Valentine is dowered with Asti\nand its revenue\u2014for which her husband was never to be constrained to pay\nhomage; she was also to bring her husband 450,000 golden florins, and to\ncome to him \u201cbien joyell\u00e9e et aorn\u00e9e de joyaulx.\u201d And, only after the\ndeath of her father, she was to succeed to the county of Vertus in\nChampagne.\n\nThis was a great deal, but this was not enough. There was in France a\nstrong party so hostile to the Lord of Milan, that riches, and mere\nriches, were not enough to overpower their opposition. Visconti desired\nabove all things a Royal alliance. He saw that the Guelf\u2014the national\nparty\u2014in Italy was strong and was unrepresented. He would be Head of the\nGuelfs, until he secured something better, and his best title to that\nHeadship was a French alliance. Moreover, self-preservation, no less\nthan ambition, rendered the marriage desirable. Isabel of Bavaria,\ngranddaughter of the murdered Bernab\u00f2 Visconti, was Queen of France. How\ncould Giangaleazzo suffer that his exiled cousins should possess so\ntremendous an advantage over him? He may have felt himself insecure in\nhis usurped sovereignty, so long as France was united by blood and\ninterest only to the Disinherited. If Valentine married Louis, Milan was\nsafe from France. So at Christmas, 1386, Giangaleazzo offered the\nhusband of Valentine the county of Vertus, in his lifetime as well as\nafter his death, and included in the marriage contract the astounding\nclause of the succession of Valentine to Milan.\n\nEven without this, Valentine was a very wealthy heiress; she brought\nback to France her mother\u2019s dowry, the county of Vertus in Champagne. In\naddition to this she took into the kingdom 450,000 golden florins, a\nfreight of golden ornaments and jewels, furniture to the amount of\n70,000 florins, gold and silver plate, and the county of Asti in\nLombardy, with a yearly income of nearly 30,000 golden florins.[15]\n\nFootnote 15:\n\n  This was the estimate of Giangaleazzo. The actual revenues proved to\n  be a little less, and an arrangement _\u00e0 l\u2019amiable_ was made between\n  him and his son-in-law (Arch. Nat., K. 554, dossier 6).\n\nThe county of Asti comprised a whole province of towns, villages, and\ncastles. Thirty signories were in its fief; forty-eight villas paid\nhomage to the Count of Asti; Brie and Cherasco, two large towns in\nPiedmont, belonged directly to him. In the politics of those times few\nthings are more striking than the singular lightmindedness with which a\nking of France bestows upon a Lombard adventurer a county in the very\nheart and centre of his own kingdom; or the confidence with which an\nItalian conqueror hands the key of his position to a wealthy neighbour.\nThe situation of the French at Asti turned out to have the very gravest\npolitical consequences. It assured them Savona, Genoa, Pisa for a\nmoment, and a century of wars about the Milanese. For this secure\nfooting in Lombardy gave a point of reality to their vision of an\nItalian kingdom, and made the subtraction of Italy from the Empire\nappear not only desirable but possible. On the other hand, it\nfamiliarized Italy with the French. Henceforth the Italian princes, in\nany dispute among themselves, would call in the protection not only of\nthe King of France but of their French neighbour, the powerful Count of\nAsti.\n\nBut at first the Lombards did not like it. \u201cI Lombardi,\u201d says Corio,\n\u201cfurono di mala voglia.\u201d What they really dreaded was the succession of\nValentine and her French husband to Milan. This is too complicated and\nintricate a question to dispose of here. I will only say that the\nItalians believed that in some fashion Giangaleazzo had secured Milan to\nhis daughter, in case he should have no sons, or (as actually happened)\nin case all his sons should die childless. But the question of the\nFrench claim to Milan deserves a history to itself.\n\n\n                                  IV.\n\nIn April, 1387, Valentine of Milan was married by proxy and parole to\nLouis, Duke of Touraine. The bride was twenty-one, the bridegroom just\nsixteen; but, as Juvenal des Ursins remarked, \u201cAssez caut, subtil et\nsage de son aage.\u201d But not until the 3rd of June, 1389, did the Lord of\nMilan send his married daughter to her home in France.\n\nFor in France a powerful faction opposed the marriage. The king\nwas little more than a lad; entirely\u2014or, of late, _almost_\nentirely\u2014submissive to his uncle, the Duke of Burgundy. When the\nwise King Charles expired in the autumn of 1380, he left the\ncustody of his two children to this younger brother of his, who in\nall his battles and adventures had been his right-hand man. But\nthe King left the Regency of the Kingdom to the elder of his\nbrothers, the Duke of Anjou. In every sense the brothers were\nrivals and antagonists; the interests of Anjou lay to the South,\nthe interests of Burgundy to the North. Anjou was a man of\nculture, made by nature to be the head of a society of nobles;\nwhile Burgundy, the Captain, was the champion of popular rights.\nIn nothing were they at one. When Anjou left the kingdom to\nconquer Naples, and when the news came to France that he would\nnevermore return, the supremacy of Burgundy appeared secure. But\nAnjou had left behind him a successor\u2014not his son, the child-king\nof Sicily. No, the real successor to his aims and policy was his\nnephew, the Prince Louis, the younger of the two sons of the dead\nking.\n\nLittle harmony between this lad and his uncle of Burgundy! At ten years\nold the child fights like a hero at Rosebecque; but the old captain, his\ntutor, keeps all his smiles for the other nephew, the docile and amiable\nking. He feels in Louis a spirit of danger, a breath of insubordination.\nAnd, in truth, one after the other, the ancient counsellors and\nservitors of Anjou take shelter in the household of the prince. Burgundy\nfeels that Louis is Anjou Redivivus\u2014he must be kept low. And for this\nthe testament of Charles V. gives ample warrant: for that king,\nwell-named the Wise, feeling that the danger of France lay in the\ngreatness of her princes, had conquered his fatherly heart and decreed\nthat his younger son should have no more than a pension of 12,000 livres\na year. But this was not to be. As time went on, and the Regency came to\nan end, Louis stimulated his placid brother to a sense of independence.\nAnd the young king, less Roman than his father, and glad perhaps to feel\nin the kingdom another power than that of Burgundy, began to enrich his\nonly brother, giving him the counties of Valois and Beaumont, lands in\nCotentin, Caen, Champagne, and Brie: then the Duchy of Touraine; the\npromise of the inheritance of the old Duchess of Orleans; finally, this\nrich marriage with Valentine Visconti.\n\nBurgundy resisted with might and main. Not only would this marriage make\nLouis too strong, but of all brides Valentine was the bride least to his\nmind. For Burgundy had married two of his own children into the House of\nBavaria, and had given a Bavarian princess\u2014the vivacious Isabel\u2014as wife\nto the young king. Now all these Bavarians were the grandchildren of\nBernab\u00f2, murdered by the father of Valentine. Also the niece of\nBurgundy, B\u00e9atrix d\u2019Armagnac, \u201cla gaie Armagnageoise,\u201d had married in\n1382. This Carlo Visconti, Lord of Parma, heir of Bernab\u00f2, had been\nstripped of all his goods by Giangaleazzo and Beatrice, no longer\nlaughing, had returned to eat the bread of exile in her brother\u2019s house.\nThus the Queen, and Burgundy, and Armagnac, and Berry (the other brother\nof the dead king) were bound by every instinct of natural anger and\nhonourable vendetta to look upon Giangaleazzo as the spoiler of their\nkinsmen\u2014of mother, children, niece, or husband\u2014and in their eyes the\nriches of Milan were the price of blood. Not one of these but hoped to\noust the usurper and restore the rightful line. And so for two years\nthey contrived to defer the marriage.[16]\n\nFootnote 16:\n\n  See Comte Albert de Circourt, \u201cLe Duc d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans, fr\u00e8re du roi Charles\n  VI.: ses entreprises au dehors du royaume.\u201d Paris: Victor Palm\u00e9, 1887.\n\nMeanwhile the influence of Burgundy weakened, that of Prince Louis\nincreased, with the king. In the autumn of 1388 the disastrous \u201cVoyage\nd\u2019Allemagne\u201d deeply discredited Burgundy, its author. In their tent at\nCorenzich, far from Queen and Court, the two brothers held long\ncolloquies. Not in vain did Louis plead for his bride. In the summer of\n1389, Philippe de Florigny was sent into Lombardy to bring her home.\n\nValentine took away with her an escort of knights, a burden of gold and\ngems, the possession of Asti, and the promise of Milan. She had in her\ncaskets three hundred thousand pearls of price, beside the pearls upon\nher gala-dresses. Her plate was valued at more than one hundred thousand\nmarks Parisis. Her jewels, ornaments, and tapestries were estimated at\nnearly seven hundred thousand golden florins.[17] Giangaleazzo had found\nnothing too costly or too radiant for his only daughter. When at last he\nlet her go, he rode with her out of the gates of Pavia, saying never a\nword of farewell, looking not once into her beloved face, lest he should\nfall a-weeping. In the saddest hour of her tragic life, Valentine\nremembered with tears that silent parting.\n\nFootnote 17:\n\n  The florin, the Venetian ducat, and the French franc were\n  interchangeable coins worth about nine-and-eightpence of our money.\n  They are the equivalent of our half-sovereign, the French crown that\n  of our half-guinea; the Burgundian noble being, I think, the only coin\n  that reached the value of the modern guinea. See the tables for\n  1384-1394 in De Wailly.\n\nIt was the 17th of August, 1389, according to the dates of the Monk of\nSt. Denis, when Valentine rode into Melun to meet her bridegroom. The\nKing was there as well as all the Court\u2014a Court full of kinsmen for\nValentine. The Viscontis counted their alliances with the kings of\nFrance back into those mythical ages when \u00c6neas, ancestor of either\nHouse, founded the city of Angleria. Valentine found plenty of more\nrecent connections. The King and her husband were both her first\ncousins, and so was the young King of Sicily; the Dukes of Burgundy and\nBerry were her uncles. She was also, as I have said, first cousin once\nremoved to the King\u2019s young wife, Isabel of Bavaria. She was cousin also\nto Madame de Montauban, cousin by marriage to Madame d\u2019Armagnac. But\nthese three kinswomen looked on her with horror, and all her splendour\nseemed to them unholy spoil fresh from the unclean hands of her father,\nthe triumphant assassin of his kinsmen.\n\nThe jealousy and suspicion of the Queen must have been the earliest\ngreeting of Valentine at Melun. Queen Isabel was the idol of the Court.\nRadiantly beautiful, eighteen years old, she was not satisfied with the\ndevotion of her husband. Charles VI. was a gentle, kind-hearted,\nstalwart young man, at two-and-twenty already rather bald, clear of eye\nand cheek, generous, slow-witted, unapt to State and dignity. He was\nlovable and sweet in temper; \u201che emitted, like an odoriferous flower,\nthe ingenuity of his perfect character,\u201d writes the anonymous Monk of\nSt. Denis. But at his side, more brilliant and more eloquent than he,\nrode the first knight of chivalry, the King\u2019s only brother, Louis, Duke\nof Touraine. This young man was eighteen years old, extremely handsome,\nso witty and so wise that in the University of Paris there were no\ndoctors who were proof against his _bonne memoire et belle loquelle_.\nOften at night, in the H\u00f4tel de Saint Paul at Paris, he and the young\nMarshal Boucicault would sit into the grey hours of the morning,\ndevising and arguing the nature of the soul, or making rondels, songs,\nand ballads. Other days and nights were spent in less innocent\namusements; for the beautiful Duke of Touraine was so irresistible a\nlover that popular fancy endowed him with a magic wand and an enchanted\nring, making him absolute master of all women. None the less\u2014though in a\nknight it were more noble to succour than to enslave fair ladies\u2014the\nDuke was considered (a woman has pronounced it) \u201cthe very refuge and\nretreat of chivalry.\u201d And the charm of his youth and beauty, of his\nrhetoric and laughter, of his gentle manners and brilliant knightliness,\nstill exhales from the dusty pages of Christine de Pisan and Juvenal des\nUrsins. These two loved him. But the hostile Monstrelet, the critical\nMonk of St. Denis, the unenthusiastic Froissart\u2014even these assure us of\nhis enchanting presence.\n\nAccording to Burcarius the King was handsomer than his young brother;\nbut we must allow for a natural Burgundian hostility to Louis, and a\nnatural Burgundian preference for force and valour, fresh colour, sweet\ntemper, good humour, and all vigorous northern qualities, in preference\nto the subtler charms of their enemy. The stalwart Fleming thinks the\nKing the finest man at Court, and handsomer than any there, far\nhandsomer than his wife, \u201cjolie et avenante,\u201d indeed, but \u201cbasse et\nbrunette\u201d: fatal defects in the eyes of a Fleming! Her indisputable\nempire over men he ascribes not to her face, but to her lively manners.\n\u201cFolle et l\u00e9g\u00e8re,\u201d was she:\n\n                     \u201cTouse n\u2019y avoit tant jonette\n                     Plaine de sy grant gai\u00e9t\u00e9\n                     Ny de sy grant jolivet\u00e9\n                     Sy amoureuse, ne sy lie,\n                     Que cette Berg\u00e8re jolie.\u201d[18]\n\nFootnote 18:\n\n  Le Pastoralet. A Burgundian satire, in the form of a Pastoral, written\n  by one Burcarius in the first half of the fifteenth century, and\n  published of late years in the Baron Kervyn de Lettenhove\u2019s collection\n  of Belgian chronicles.\n\nAs for Louis, the Burgundian has no word in favour of this melancholy\nfree-lover, this _Tristifer_ (for such is the name he goes by among\nshepherds) who sins with no pleasure in sin; who spends his days in the\npursuit of love, yet keeps a heart of iron; whose joys are such as are\nnot to be found in the real world, but the fantastic joys of art,\nrepugnant to the Philistine:\n\n                   \u201cTristifer, tristi\u00e8ce portant.\n                   ... Et tout fut-il jolis,\n                   Trop sembloit-il mirancolis;\n                   Qui le coer a plus dur que fer.\n\n                   .    .    .    .    .    .   \\.\n\n                   Bien nouvelette chanson\n                   S\u2019en va tout chantant \u00e0 hault son,\n                   Qu\u2019il avoit, par un soir bruyant\n                   Et bel, rimoi\u00e9 en riant.\u201d\n\nThus the Burgundian ... unaware that this portrait of his enemy is the\nonly one that awakens curiosity and stimulates the fancy. And, by way of\nadding a blacker touch than all, he tells us that this singing Tristifer\nis the paramour of the gay Queen Bellig\u00e8re.\n\nI have said that Louis was held to possess an unearthly ring, a magic\nwand, of desire. For a perfect knight it was said that he had put them\nto strange uses. He had fascinated with his wand, he had bewitched with\nthe circle of his ring, the young wife of his brother, the beautiful\nQueen Isabel. And he was the bridegroom of Valentine Visconti. Queen\nIsabel was at Melun to greet her new kinswoman. We can imagine with what\ncritical eyes she ran her over. Valentine, though not beautiful, was a\nnovel and irradiating vision in her veil of gems. She was wise too; she\ncould talk with her husband over the poems he made, the verses of Lord\nSalisbury and Ma\u00eetre Eustache Deschamps, the romances of Wenzel of\nLuxembourg, or of Ma\u00eetre Jean d\u2019Arras, all the literature of the Court.\nShe could argue with him, this subtle Lombard, in the tenuous and\nfanciful dissertations that he loved. Queen Isabel could not endure to\nsee this stranger, by reason of her splendour and her novelty become the\ncentre of attraction. The marriage festival was scarcely over when\nIsabel persuaded her husband to ordain a greater festivity for herself.\nShe had been married four years, she was known by sight to every clerk\nin the Rue St. Denis, yet the King, obedient to her behest, proclaimed\nthe Royal Entry of the Queen into Paris.\n\n\n                                   V.\n\nThis Paris that Valentine entered as a stranger was a beautiful city.\nThe streets and bridges had been largely rebuilt by her uncle, Charles\nthe Wise. Between the new Bastille and the river he had raised an\nimmense royal palace, the H\u00f4tel de St. Paul. Close at hand stood the\nPalais de Tournelles, the great hotel of the King of Sicily, the H\u00f4tel\nClisson, and the H\u00f4tel de Behaigne, where the husband of Valentine\nsometimes lived. A little farther off (in the Rue de Turbigo) the castle\nof the Duke of Burgundy still rears its out-dated menace. On the left\nbank of the Seine another group of palaces surrounded N\u00f4tre Dame. At the\nextremity of the city stood the Louvre. Rebuilt by Charles the Wise, it\nwas endowed by him with a library of nine hundred and ten volumes\n(chiefly illuminated missals, legends, miracles, and treatises on\nastrology). There a silver lamp burned always day and night in the\nservice of students, to whom the library was ever open.\n\nParis was a beautiful city; but it seemed a paradise upon the occasion\nof the royal entry. The Rue St. Denis was draped from top to bottom in\ngreen and crimson silk scattered with stars. Under the gateway angels\nsang in a starry heaven, and to the sweet sound of instruments little\nchildren played a miracle. There were towers and stages raised along the\nstreets, where the legend of Troy-town and other pleasant matters were\nenacted. There were fountains also, flowing with milk or flowing with\nclaret. Maidens, in rich chaplets of flowers, stood beside them and out\nof golden cups they gave the passers-by to drink, and sang melodiously\nthe while; up and down this magic city went the citizens\u2019 wives and\ndaughters in long robes of gold and purple. The citizens themselves were\nclad in green, the royal officers in rose colour. But all these\nsplendours paled and dwindled when the royal procession came in sight.\nIn the middle, in an open litter, sat the Queen, the beautiful, smiling\nidol of the feast; she was dressed in a gown of silk, sewn over with\nFrench lilies worked in gold. Behind her, in painted cars, went the\ngreat ladies of the Court. Only the Duchess of Touraine had no litter;\nValentine rode on a fair palfrey, marvellously caparisoned; she went on\none side of the Queen\u2019s litter among the royal dukes. The people of\nParis, says Froissart, were as anxious to see the new Duchess as the\nQueen, whom indeed they had often seen. For Madame Valentine was\nimmensely rich, the daughter of a great conqueror, and she had only just\ncome out of Lombardy, a mysterious country where wonderful things came\nto pass. What impression did Valentine make on the people of Paris,\npressing and craving to see the foreign duchess?\n\nWhich of her gala-dresses did she wear? The scarlet one sewn thick with\npearls and diamonds, with a cap of pearls and scarlet for her dusky\nhair? Or the robe of gold brocade with sleeves and headdress of woven\npearls? Or the flashing crown of balasses and sapphires, and the dress\nof scarlet sewn with jewels and embroidered with pale blue borage\nflowers? In any of these this splendid Italian stranger must have\nappeared to the burghers of Paris as a vision of Southern luxury, of\nmysterious outlandish enchantment. At least it is certain that never\nafter they looked upon her as a mere mortal woman. Just at that season\nevery one was reading the \u201cM\u00e9lusine\u201d of Ma\u00eetre Jean d\u2019Arras. Valentine\nof Milan with her fairy splendours, her subtle wisdom, her Lombard\ntraditions\u2014Valentine, with the Visconti snake on her escutcheon\u2014must\nhave seemed to these Parisians much such another mysterious\nserpent-woman, another M\u00e9lusine. For the Italian character, never\nfanatic and yet so prone to spiritual passions; seldom bestial, yet so\nguilty of unnatural vices\u2014Italy has ever been a mystery, a hateful\nenigma to the practical French; and of all Italians the Lombards, the\nborder people, are most unlike their Gallic neighbours. A century later,\nwhen the French poured into Italy, no blazing mountain of Vesuvius, no\nwonderful Venetian city swimming in the seas, no antique and glorious\nruins of Rome, so much astonished the foreign soldiers as the learned\nand subtle ladies of Lombardy. Those later chroniclers who have been in\nItaly relate with wonder their fables of ecstatic virgins, and gifted\nwomen wiser than their sex; they have seen one Anna, a woman forty years\nof age, who never eats, drinks, or sleeps, and who bears on her body the\nmystical wounds of Christ, breaking out and bleeding afresh on every\nFriday. In Milan, a demoiselle Trivulce, \u201cde son grant jeune aage,\u201c\nwrote letters in Latin and was eloquent in oratory; \u201celle estoit aussi\npoeticque\u201d (adds the author of La Mer des Chroniques) \u201cet scavoit moult\nbien disputer avecques clercs et docteurs.\u201d And also she was virtuous,\nso that her holy life seemed a thing to marvel on. At Venice, Ma\u00eetre\nNicole Gilles encountered a certain Virgin Cassandra, the daughter of\nAngelo Fideli, a maiden expert in the seven liberal arts and in\ntheology, all of which matters she expounded in public lectures. At\nQuiers, near Asti, a \u201cjeune pucelle,\u201d the daughter of Ma\u00eetre Jehan\nSolier, received the king with a public and most eloquent oration.\nLearned and subtle and virtuous as these Lombard ladies were,\nenthusiastic and spiritual as were many of their countrymen, yet this\nstrange Italy, where the women taught the men, where Jesus Christ in\nFlorence was the official head of the Republic, inspired a secret dread\nand horror in the French. Like men in an enchanted country, they feared\nwhat might lurk behind the shows of things. Above all, the French could\nnever rid themselves of a haunting suspicion of poison\u2014poison and\nsorcery, underhand and terrible weapons, such as these frank and\npassionate Gauls associated with the subtlety and wisdom of the people\nthey had conquered. \u201cAnd yet,\u201d says Commines, \u201cI must here speak\nsomewhat in honour of the Italian nation, because we never found in all\nthis voyage that they _did_ seek to do us harm by poison, and yet, if\nthey had chosen, we could hardly have avoided it.\u201d\n\nThis attitude of suspicion towards Italy, of reluctant admiration,\ncharacterized the French of 1494. Minus the admiration, it is quite as\nsignificant of the French to-day; and in 1387 the same distrust was\nthere, but sharper, more anxious, and the same wonder, but intensified.\nValentine the Italian, seemed to these alert, honest, practical\nParisians a marvel of strangeness and wisdom; but to them these\nattributes suggested chiefly a fatal potency for evil.\n\nAnd, in truth, there was in Italy a wickedness such as for another\nhundred years should not penetrate into France. The Italians were a\nnation of secret poisoners; and the French bourgeois vaguely guessed\nthat this splendid young lady was acquainted with a world terribly\ndifferent from their ingenuous and turbulent Paris. No need for\nturbulence in Italy. Valentine\u2019s father poisoned the uncle who, for his\npart, had, poisoned his own brother. And Giangaleazzo, who, as Corio\nrelates, had been nearly poisoned by Antonio della Scala, disposed of\nthat enemy by the self-same means. The Florentines[19] (but theirs is\nthe evidence of an enemy) said he paid his official poisoner a hundred\nflorins monthly. These it was murmured were the traditions of the new\nDuchess.\n\nFootnote 19:\n\n  Lamansky: \u201cSecrets de l\u2019Etat de Venise,\u201d pp. 157-159. Also \u201cArchivio\n  di Firenze,\u201d Signori Legazione Commissioni, &c. Filza 28, folio 7 t.\n\nThus, after all, Queen Isabel played but the second part in the pageant\nof her entry. Soon, however, she forgot her jealousy of the Italian\u2014a\njealousy which on that holiday kept her sick in her chamber, while\nValentine danced with Touraine and the King in the royal ball below. But\nValentine was no rival of the beautiful, bright little Queen: she was a\npersistent, ambitious, and devoted woman, never vain and never timid.\nFrom the first she lavished on her boyish husband that passionate\ndevotion of an elder woman which asks no return from the radiant young\ncreature she adores. She did not grudge Louis the love of Isabel, if,\nindeed, that love was his. A stranger thing happened: Valentine united\nwith her rival to push the fortunes of Touraine. These two women were\never together, ever scheming, and planning the welfare of the unfaithful\nhusband of the one, whom an unbroken tradition has regarded as the\ncriminal lover of the other. An unnatural league; but it served to\nstrengthen Touraine.\n\nFor Valentine and Isabel alike had the ear of the King. Charles VI., a\nlittle slow, a little dull, neglected in his Court, betrayed by his wife\nfor his more brilliant brother\u2014this gentle, kindly, unimportant creature\nwas irresistibly drawn to his sister-in-law. Of all her royal kinsfolk\nin France, the King was the only one who from the first had welcomed\nValentine. \u201cMy dear sister, my beloved sister,\u201d the words were ever on\nhis lips. Valentine, like him, was set aside; like him she suffered.\nShe, too, was patient and gentle; but she was strong, she was prudent.\nThe King of France was a great heavy lad, over-boyish for his years,\nloving jests and disguises, hating ceremony, and only very dimly feeling\nthe wrongs that perplexed him; he sought from the sweet and quiet\nItalian her protection no less than her compassion.\n\nIn 1390, at Montpellier, the King could not support his absence from\nher. \u201cI am too far from the Queen and Madame Valentine,\u201d he said to his\nbrother. \u201cLet us ride post haste to Paris.\u201d Unaccompanied and for a\nwager, they rode all the way, four nights and nearly five days in the\nsaddle.... A little later the physicians said that such violent\nexercises as this had unsettled the feeble reason of the King.\n\n\n                                  VI.\n\nIn 1391, the young Duke of Touraine acquired the succession of the\nDuchess of Orleans. He was now as rich as he was ambitious. Could the\nold king, his father, have seen his eminence and his ambition, he would\nhave risen from his grave, and have returned to the salvation of France.\nBut the dust was in his ears and eyes, and it was not to be so.\n\nFor some time the King had been ailing with a hot fever. He was, says\nthe Monk of St. Denis, strange, languishing, and bewildered. When, in\nthe summer of 1392, the French invaded Brittany, the Dukes, his uncles,\nconjured him to remain at home. But Charles was not to be persuaded. He\nstarted with them upon the long, fatiguing journey.\n\nOn the 5th of August, near the town of Mans, after some hours of riding\nin armour under a beating sun, the royal party passed the\nLepers\u2019-village. A beggar, a leper, dressed in rags, the outcast of the\nworld, the lowest human thing, came out and accosted the young King of\nFrance: \u201cGo no farther, noble King, they betray you!\u201d The King was\nstartled, and though the Royal Guards interfered they could not at once\nshake off the loathsome prophet. Clinging to the King\u2019s bridle, the\nleper cried again, \u201cGo no farther, noble King, they betray you!\u201d... They\nbetray you! Louis and Isabel, his nearest and dearest, what else did\nthey? The King said nothing.\n\nAbout an hour afterwards, suddenly, the King set upon his brother, his\nspear a-tilt, as hunters hunt a stag.... The more distant of the royal\nparty thought the King had spied a hare or a hart in the forest....\nThen, as the truth dawned, there was a dreadful scene. Cries, wounds,\nmen falling from their horses, and a fanatic madman who none the less\nwas still a sacred and irresistible presence! The King of France was\nfuriously and murderously mad.\n\nFour men were slain, others saved themselves by simulating death.\nOrleans fortunately was not hurt at all. For four days the King\u2019s frenzy\nlasted, with fits of delirium and lapses into death-like exhaustion. The\nmost cruel part of his sickness was the evident anguish of his spirit.\n\u201cWill no one pluck out of my heart the dagger that my fair brother of\nOrleans has planted there?\u201d the poor mad youth would cry; and he would\nmutter to himself, \u201cI must kill him! I _must_ kill him!\u201d It was useless\nto instruct the people that there is no reason in the sick hatred of a\ndistempered mind. Nor would they find sufficient motive in the rumoured\nunfaithfulness of Isabel with Louis. They sought a darker, a more subtle\nexplanation, and their suspicions were fostered, for political ends, by\nthe enemies of Orleans\u2014the faction of his uncle, the Duke of Burgundy.\n\nFor when the King recovered from his frenzy, his mind remained weak and\ndisabled. It was necessary to hand over to his uncles for a while the\ndirection of affairs. This made the strongest of them, Philip, Duke of\nBurgundy, more than ever strong; he was in fact, though not in form, the\nregent. Against his rule one voice was ever raised in protest, the voice\nof the young ambitious brother of the King.\n\nLouis of Orleans was now twenty-one years of age; through his marriage\nand the gifts of the King he had become formidably rich; through the\nweakness of the King he was formidably powerful. He was the nearest to\nthe throne and he desired the regency. But the people suspected Orleans;\nhe had too much to gain by the death or the incapacity of his brother.\nThe people, in their passionate pity for the gentle monarch they adored,\nbegan to hate and fear the Queen and Orleans. In later days they did not\nscruple to declare their misgivings, but at first they dared not\ndirectly accuse the Queen, they would not directly accuse the young,\nbeautiful Louis, their pride from his childhood, eloquent, religious,\ngay, slow to anger. With Juvenal they found him \u201cbeau prince et\ngratieux;\u201d and, like Christine, they accounted him, \u201cen ces jeunes faiz\net en toutes choses tr\u00e8s-avenant ... car il aime les bons ... nul\nfellonie ni cruaut\u00e9 en luy.\u201d But he was young; he had been led away\n(Juvenal finds the phrase for them) \u201c_by the means of those who were\nnear to him_.... He had strange youthful follies that I will not\ndeclare.... _There were those about him_, young people, who induced him\nto do many things he had better have left undone.\u201d This vague and\nmysterious excuse is the veil of a terrible accusation. The people began\nto say that the Duke of Orleans was a sorcerer.\n\nThe King mad; the King\u2019s brother a wizard! There was a contagion of\nhorror in France. \u201cMany nobles and poor people,\u201d writes the Monk of St.\nDenis, \u201cbegan to change and sicken with the same strange malady that had\nattacked the King.\u201d The fanatic terror of supernatural evil spread and\ndeepened.\n\nThings, at that critical season, fell out unfortunately for Orleans. On\nthe 29th of January, 1393, there was a wedding festival at the H\u00f4tel de\nSt. Paul for one of Queen Isabel\u2019s German maids of honour. The bride was\na widow, and thrice a widow; therefore a subject for the grotesque\nlicence of the age. At night, in the great hall among the dancers,\nsuddenly there burst in a company of six satyrs dressed in tight linen\nvests, with flakes of tow fastened with pitch upon their backs. These\nhideous merry-makers sprang and danced about the bride, with leaps and\ngestures, in a sort of diabolic frenzy. Five of them were chained\ntogether, the sixth disported loose. The sixth was the King. Stung by\nsome unlucky madcap prompting, Orleans took a flaming torch from its\nbearer, and held it close to the face of one of the maskers to see who\nhe was. A flake of fire from the torch dropped among the tow and pitch.\nUp and down the hall, dancing a wilder and more terrible saraband, the\nflaming satyrs went. Two were burned to ashes, two died of their burns\nin agony, one saved himself by leaping into a water-butt. The King was\nrescued by the Duchess of Berri, who wrapped him in her mantle. But the\ndanger and the fearful spectacle had upset his tottering reason. The\nKing was mad again.\n\nThe people were furious against Orleans. Had Charles been burned, his\nbrother\u2019s life must have answered for it; for the people loved the King.\nThe party of Burgundy\u2014the popular party\u2014did not hesitate to accuse the\nunfortunate young Duke of a fiendish plot to murder his brother. It was\nin vain that Louis raised a magnificent chapel of marble in the Church\nof the Celestines, to expiate his involuntary guilt. The people murmured\nthat the Duke of Orleans went too often to the Celestines. It was said\nhe went there every day. So much devotion was uncanny in so wild a\nliver.\n\nCharitable souls like Demoiselle Christine declared in vain\u2014\u201cC\u2019est\nimpossible que son \u00e2me et ses m\u0153urs n\u2019en vaillent mieux.\u201d Charitable\nsouls are rare. The mass of the people did not hesitate to say that\nLouis visited the Celestines the better to conspire with a certain monk\nthere\u2014an old counsellor of his father\u2019s\u2014one Sire Philippe de M\u00e9zi\u00e8res.\nThis person was acknowledged to be wise, experienced, able, and a man of\nscience, according to the age. \u201cCestui vieil solitaire\u201d for forty years\nhad been the counsellor of princes. For thirty years he had been the\nlife and soul of the policy of Cyprus, of Rhodes, of the Christian East.\nThen disgraced by an ungrateful king\u2014Pierre II. de Lusignan\u2014he took\nrefuge in France, bringing to the service of Charles V. his enthusiasm,\nhis political wisdom, his minute and extensive acquaintance with the\nCourts of Italy and the East. In 1379 he entered the Convent of the\nCelestines in Paris; not too secluded to remain the trusted counsellor\nof Charles V., and in his turn, of his son Louis of Orleans. But though\nthe good Sire was a monk, the crowd doubted of his religion, for it was\ncommon rumour that he said there was no truth in sorcery. Let him say\nit! Sire Philippe de M\u00e9zi\u00e8res was none the less no judicious companion\nfor the Duke of Orleans. The Sire had lived too long in Lombardy: \u201ca\ncountry,\u201d as Juvenal describes it, \u201cwhere they practice magic and the\ncasting of spells.\u201d\n\nAbout the same time a malignant rumour grew in France concerning the\nfather of Valentine. People said the Seigneur of Milan had asked the\nFrench Ambassador for news of the King. \u201cHe is very well,\u201d replied the\nFrenchman. Whereupon Visconti grew pale, and staggered. \u201cHe is the\nDevil!\u201d he said, with great admiration; or, according to another\nversion, \u201cDiabolicum recitas et quod est impossibile\u2014You tell me a\ndiabolic thing, and one that is impossible! _The King can not be well!_\u201c\n\nNow, it was generally known in Italy that the Duke of Milan, like every\nother successful prince or Signory, was a secret poisoner. But in France\na more terrible and a yet more hateful accusation was rumoured against\nhim. The people began to whisper that the Duke of Milan was a wizard.\n\n\n                                  VII.\n\nThe King was mad again; he had fallen into the first of innumerable\nrelapses. Henceforth, for thirty years, any moment of too poignant\nfeeling would throw him back in agony and madness. At such times he\nsuffered much. It would happen (says the Monk of St. Denis), that as he\nsat in his council chamber, receiving his ambassadors and discoursing\nwith sense and clearness, a sudden shudder would pass over him, the\nactual world would drift into oblivion. Again the forest near Mans, the\nleper\u2019s warning, would rise on his tormented vision. He would shriek out\nfor help against his enemies, and yet, poor king, be still aware these\nenemies were phantasms. At such moments he would cry and wail and sob,\ntill all the Court fell a-weeping to hear him. \u201cO not madness. Death,\nany pain, anything but madness!\u201d and joining his hands he would look\neagerly in face after face of his kinsmen. \u201cI pray you, for the love of\nChrist, if any of you be party to this magic, then let me die at once\nand end it.\u201d But no prayers avail, and as the fantastic world of lunacy\ngradually eclipsed the receding truth, the King\u2019s last entreaty showed\nthe unaltered sweetness of his tormented nature. \u201cKeep away all the\nknives,\u201d he would cry. \u201cI had rather die than hurt any one.\u201d For no\nlapse of time, no suffering effaced in his gentle character the stamp of\nthat terrible moment of Mans when he had awoken to find his innocent\nhands stained henceforth for ever with innocent and loyal blood.\n\nWhile the King wailed in desperate protest against his oncoming madness,\nall the Court wept with him. But, once that eclipse accomplished, the\nCourt forgot the King. Part of the royal palace of St. Paul\u2019s had been\nturned into a safe asylum. There the King lived, sometimes for many\nweeks unwashed, eaten with filth and vermin, suffering no attendant to\napproach him. He was then a mere wild beast, tormented with canine\nhunger, fierce, suspicious, and sometimes wild with fear. Then he would\npace from end to end of his apartments, fleeing his imaginary pursuers,\nuntil he dropt exhausted in senseless lethargy.\n\nBut more often, and especially in the first years of his illness, he was\nnot sunk so low as this. He was then an aimless, laughing, boyish\nimbecile. He was no longer the King even in his own fancy; he had\nforgotten himself as others had forgotten him. Did he see his own arms\nor the Queen\u2019s emblazoned anywhere upon the walls, he would smear out\nthat heraldry, laughing the while and dancing in a burlesque, unseemly\nfashion. \u201cThese are not my arms. I am not King Charles. My name is\nGeorge,\u201d he would cry, \u201cand my arms are a lion pierced with a spear.\u201d\nThe poor King was himself transfixed with that intangible spear his fair\nbrother of Orleans had planted in his heart for ever. But in his\nmadness, his jealousy had undergone a subtle change. Sometimes he could\nnot endure the sight or mention of the Queen and Orleans, but more often\nhe utterly forgot them. Once they brought Isabel into his presence. He\nshook his head and swore he did not know the lady.\n\nThere was in all the world one only creature whose presence shed a\nlittle balm and solace on his unhappy lunacy. This was his\nsister-in-law, Madame Valentine. She was the only person he ever fully\nrecognized. Absent and present he called upon her, \u201cOh, my dearest\nsister! Oh, my beloved sister!\u201d and if Valentine left him a single day\nunvisited, the poor king would wander up and down for hours in aimless\nregret and complaining.\n\nValentine was kind and pitiful. Although at this time she was ailing\n(her second son was born in August, 1393), she did not fear to bring her\ndelicate magnificence into the filth and peril of the mad king\u2019s\npresence. For hours she would sit with him, playing at cards: those\npainted Saracen Naibi which Covelluzzo noticed at Viterbo (the first\nknown in Europe) in 1379. Perhaps Valentine had brought them out of\nItaly; they were the only pastime of the haggard king; and for hours the\npainted images of Death, Love, Fortune, Madness, and the Angel, would\nsilently fall from the hands of these two unhappy people, keeping each\nother melancholy company in the dismantled chambers of the barred and\naltered palace.\n\nValentine was ill herself; she was a woman; and yet she was not afraid\nof this tall, broad-shouldered young man of twenty-five, subject to\nviolent mania, who in one fearful paroxysm had slain four men in armour.\nHis attendants dared not come too near. But Valentine seemed to bear a\ncharmed life, she did not even tremble. This unnatural courage of hers,\nthis fascination, this mastery which she exercised upon their king ...\nall this was terribly explicable to the people of Paris.\n\nWho was this lady?\u2014Valentine of Milan. \u201cNow,\u201d says Juvenal, \u201cher father\nwas the Duke of Milan,[20] who was a Lombard, and in his country they\npractise magic and the casting of spells.\u201d \u201cThe common people,\u201d says the\nMonk, \u201cdeclared the King was bewitched. They accused the Duke of Milan,\nand in confirmation of this ridiculous proposition they said the Duchess\nof Orleans was the only person the King recognized or cherished in his\nsickness. They did not scruple to say she was a witch, though that so\ngenerous a lady should commit so great a crime is a fact that never has\nbeen proved.\u201d \u201cThe King\u2019s physicians, arioles, and charmers,\u201d says\nFroissart, \u201caffirmed the King was poisoned or bewitched by craft of\nsorcery; they said they knew it by the spirits that had showed it to\nthem. Of these diviners, arioles, and charmers, certain were burned at\nParis and at Avignon. They spake so much, and said the Duchess Valentine\nof Orleans, daughter to the Duke of Milan, had bewitched the King.\u201d\n\nFootnote 20:\n\n  Giangaleazzo in 1395 obtained the title and investiture of the Duchy\n  of Milan from Wenzel, King of the Romans, for 100,000 florins.\n\nIn those days the accusation of sorcery was terrible and ominous. To\nbewitch the King was the most damnable of crimes, for witchcraft in\nitself was treason against God. It was indeed no less than taking out of\nheaven the tremendous issues of life and death, apportioning them with\nprofane and mortal hands, and breaking the heavenly order of the\nuniverse. God was mocked. This side of sorcery excited the horror of\ntheologians, but it was not this that infuriated with helpless terror\nthe shuddering populace. We know how the Polynesian islanders will die\nto-day of a fatal langour if they believe their enemy has prayed against\nthem. The citizens of Paris in the Middle Ages died as easily.\n\u201cThroughout the kingdom,\u201d says the Monk of St. Denis, \u201cmany nobles and\npoor people are attacked with the same strange malady as the King\u2019s.\u201d A\ncontagion of fear paralysed the sources of life. \u201cFor they can bewitch\nyou,\u201d said, in 1407, Ma\u00eetre Jean Petit, a very learned doctor in\ntheology; \u201cand they can bewitch the King, and make him die in a very\nsubtle manner, quite unapparent, by the casting of a spell.\u201d \u201cA word is\nenough,\u201d said two Augustine friars who suffered for sorcery in 1397, \u201ca\nword, a touch; it is no natural malady.\u201d To those who suffered, and saw\ntheir near and dear ones suffer of this incurable, inexorable\nenchantment, there was no death too cruel for the wizard.\n\nThe Duke of Milan was a very powerful magician. By spells and sorcery\nhe, the weakest of his clan, had made himself the most astute and potent\nof all the princes of the West; by spells and sorcery he would make his\ndaughter queen of France. \u201cIl n\u2019y avait qu\u2019une bouche \u00e0 clore,\u201c said\nJean Petit. Valentine, the people thought, was helping her father, for\nthe Duchess of Orleans was a witch.\n\nThe powers of the Prince of the Air were in high places. Valentine was\nnot only protected by Satan\u2014not only served by Hermas and Astramin the\ntwo livid demons of Montjoy that obeyed the House of Orleans\u2014she was\nalso sheltered by the effulgence of the throne. Every power, every\nprotection was hers. Hell and earth obeyed her, and heaven smiles upon\nthe sins of princes. Yet with the cruel heroism of pity the people of\nParis rose against her, pouring down the streets, reaching out their\nfanatic hands to tear in pieces no omnipotent demon in a violent aureole\nof flame, but a pale neglected foreign woman far from home. They\ndetermined to save the King, and at last the peril of the duchess grew\nso great that Marshal Sancerre and many other nobles advised her husband\nto send her out of Paris. So in great pomp, nowise abashed, but with all\nthe splendour of a royal progress, Valentine left the city. She went to\na fair castle of her husband\u2019s near Pontoise, and then to Neufchatel\nupon the Loire. She went alone, for Orleans was kept by State affairs in\nParis. There was a subtle political reason for the irritation of France\nagainst the Milanese. In the complex recesses of the human heart an\nactual terror of supernatural evil, a crusader\u2019s passion to avenge the\nhonour of God, may co-exist with the most sordid calculations of a\nworldly advantage to be gained. It was not only for the love of God that\nthe Jews and Moors of Spain, the Protestants of Flanders, the\nmonasteries of England, were made to enrich their persecutors. It was\nnot entirely for thirty pieces of silver that Judas delivered a heretic\nto the secular arm. And it was the easier to condemn the Duke of Milan\nthat he was not only a wizard, but the political rival of France for the\nrich suzerainty of Genoa.\n\n\n                                 VIII.\n\nThe French had counted upon Giangaleazzo Visconti rather as a captain\nthan as a rival. Visconti had looked upon the French as the tools of his\nambition, and not as serious competitors. In reality each was in pursuit\nof the same thing; each desired to be supreme in Italy.\n\nVisconti had easily acquired the direction of his son-in-law\u2019s policy.\nIt is not surprising. A lad of eighteen, poor, kept under,\nsystematically neglected, Orleans before his marriage had known little\nof power, nothing of supremacy. He was nominally Duke of Touraine; but\nhis estates were administered by the King. Until a few months before his\nmarriage he had not even a house of his own, but lived with his retinue\nin a corner of his brother\u2019s palace. In February, 1389, he appeared for\nthe first time at the Royal Council. Valentine brought him wealth,\nconsideration, and ambition; for, with the possession of Asti, and under\nthe guidance of his father-in-law, the young Duke began to dream of\nbattles and signiories in Italy.\n\nVisconti was very willing to adopt his daughter\u2019s husband in place of\nthe clever and valiant son he should have had. His own son was a baby at\nthe breast. And Orleans brought him not only a clear young mind, a fresh\nand eager will and the courage that the great Visconti never had, but\nalso the influence of France. Thus the great Ghibelline saw within his\nreach the support of the Guelfs. To reconcile all parties for his own\ninterest was ever the aim of this unrivalled statesman, as magically\ngifted to make peace as to foment a discord. Ghibelline and Guelf,\nEmperor and King of France, Pope and Antipope, aye, even Orleans and\nBurgundy, should join hands to fight his battles.\n\nHis first move was a whisper of ambition in the ear of his son-in-law.\nAnd Louis forgot his love-making and ballad-making, his jousting and\nfeasting, and turned to other thoughts. Asti was his; Asti should be the\ncentre of his operations, and in swiftness and silence a French army\ngathered in Asti.\n\nIn 1389, the very year of Orleans\u2019 marriage, there was peace with\nEngland; hence, leisure in Court and camp; hence troops of riders and\nmen-at-arms infesting every countryside, preying on the ruined peasants,\nand loitering hungry for another war. Nothing easier than to enlist a\ncompany! In 1389 Orleans sent to his new county Fran\u00e7ois, Seigneur de\nChassenage, as governor with twenty men-at-arms and two chamberlains,\neach with twenty men-at-arms and thirty archers. Fifty-five other\nmen-at-arms and as many archers were added to these, and formed the\nnucleus of a rapidly increasing army. By the end of June more\nmen-at-arms and squires joined the service. Enguerrand de Coucy,\nLieutenant of the Duke and Captain-General _\u00e8s parties d\u2019Italie_, went\nto keep his state at Asti in July.[21]\n\nFootnote 21:\n\n  Arch. Nat. (K K. 315 f^{os}. 9-52): \u201cNotes \u00e0 compter faiz \u00e0 certaines\n  gens d\u2019armes et archiers retenus par Monsieur le Duc \u00e0 son service\n  avant la venue de M. de Coucy \u00e8s parties d\u2019Ytalie.\u201d\n\nFrom this moment, long pages of the manuscript account book of\nChassenage are filled with lists of captains, men-at-arms, and archers.\nArchers under Braguet, archers, under Viezville, a concentration of\ndevoted Orleanists, once Angevines, in Italy. Italian names, also, begin\nto crop up in the French harvest: Messire Othe Tusque, des parties\nd\u2019Italie, Messire Jehan Visconti, escuier, Messire Aloyset de Plaisance,\nalso Luquin Rusque, Francesquin Martin demourant \u00e0 Pavey, Hannibal\nLommelin of Genoa and his troop, others from as far as Florence and\nVenice. Then a great name, commander of many others, a name that means\nbusiness: _Messire Facin Can and his company_.\n\nThe red towers of Asti\u2014still here and there existing, a bouquet of\nwine-red stems slenderly streaking the pale and radiant Lombard sky\u2014the\nred towers of Asti, innumerable then, grew home-like and familiar to\nmany a French lord. No dreary exile this\u2014large houses, wine-red also\n(\u201cnon hanno acqua ma vino per impetrargli,\u201c laugh the men of Alba),\nbeautiful churches, a rich plain, streaked with the wide Tanaro, and\ngirt with hills. At night, the Alps come out, invisible by day; they\nappear at sundown even as a rose-red heavenly wall divinely dividing the\nLombard country from the unseen land of France.\n\nYet here are the French and quite at home. Plenty of wine, red and\nwhite; beautiful women; plenty of money. Orleans pays fifteen francs a\nmonth to every man-at-arms (but a man-at-arms, we must remember, is more\nthan a man, being at least the soldier himself, his page and his\nvarlet), eight francs a month to every archer; two hundred francs a\nmonth to Chassenage and the chamberlains; four hundred and fifty to\nEnguerrand de Coucy. All this serves at least to bring wealth and custom\nto Puielhez, mine host of the Cross of Asti, who supplies the wine. But\nfor what other purpose does Orleans thus dissipate his new-got treasure?\nThe \u201cDance of Fools,\u201d sculptured on a wall in the market place, by some\ngay ironic band not long dead then, looks down with silent bells and\nsilent laughing lips that answer not.\n\nIn August, Orleans sends one of his men (Blaru), on a secret embassy to\nhis father-in-law at Milan, another (Craon) to the Antipope Clement.[22]\nThey have scarcely gone when he sends another (Garanci\u00e8res) to Pavia. In\nFebruary of the next year (1390) there is much prate at Court of a\nvoyage to Italy\u2014voyage being then the polite name for an invasion\u2014in\norder to establish Pope Clement in his see of Rome.\n\nFootnote 22:\n\n  De Circourt, _op. cit._, p. 48.\n\nAnd now, little by little, the great plan disengages itself\u2014audacious,\nsimple, as befits the brain of Visconti. Orleans and Burgundy themselves\nstart for Pavia, and arrive there in March, 1391. Brilliant Visconti, to\nhave persuaded Burgundy that the expansion of Orleans in Italy will\nleave him free to extend his grasp at home! Great things also, as we\nknow from a passage in Walsingham,[23] are vaguely held out to Burgundy.\nAs for Orleans, there are no bounds to his ardour; he defrays the entire\nexpense of the journey, 60,000 francs, lavished magnificently to astound\nhis new ally and his subjects of Asti. The Royal Dukes remain but a week\nin Lombardy, and then return\u2014recalled by rumours of Armagnac\u2019s\ndisturbance. But the week was long enough.\n\nFootnote 23:\n\n  Walsingham, \u201cHistoria Anglicana,\u201d vol. ii. p. 201.\n\nThe first step of the affair was to persuade Giangaleazzo Visconti to\ngive in his adherence to the Antipope Clement. The Lord of Milan was\nstill in name an Urbanite; but he had suffered the Antipope Clement to\narrange the marriage of his daughter and to grant the dispensation that\nmade it lawful; and his wife Caterina was a devoted Clementine. Visconti\ngives it to be understood that he will fight for Clement if it be made\nworth his while. Meanwhile the king takes fire:\u2014honest, practical,\nreligious, the idea of thus forcibly putting an end to heresy and schism\ngreatly commends itself to him. There were three Royal visits to Avignon\nthat year. The Antipope suggests to Charles VI. an Imperial Crown for a\nsecond Charlemagne.[24] Froissart hears of the royal intention, \u201cde\nmener notre Saint P\u00e8re \u00e0 Rome,\u201c and on the 23rd of February, 1391, the\nKing signs a quittance of 2,000 francs, \u201cpour nous aider \u00e0 abiller et\nmestre est estat pour aller en la compagnie d\u2019icelui seigneur au voyage\nqu\u2019il a intencion de faire au pa\u00efs de Lombardie.\u201d\n\nFootnote 24:\n\n  Clairambault. sceaux, vol. cxiii. p. 8821. See De Circourt, _op. cit._\n\nBut nothing can be done without the indispensable Visconti. What is his\nplan? At first he holds back, loving by nature the attitude of suspense.\nBut in 1392 the moment came to decide. Armagnac at that moment was\ninvading Italy in defence of the rights of his sister Beatrice and the\nelder branch of Visconti. He suffered defeat, indeed, and death at the\nhands of Milan, but not before he had inflicted so severe a check upon\nhis victor that Giangaleazzo no longer saw his triumph clear. Nay,\nunwelcome as the ghost of Banquo at the board of Macbeth, the pale\nfigures of the dead Armagnac, the once laughing Beatrice, the poisoned\nBernab\u00f2, intrude themselves between him and his end. Do not such sights\nas these clamour for revenge?\u2014and Armagnac and Beatrice have a living\nbrother; Bernab\u00f2 Visconti has left a troop of sons. Milan may yet be\nsnatched from his grasp. He is not safe in Lombardy, and he would fain\nbe King of Italy. But how to obtain that crown? Already Armagnac has\nforced him to restore Padua to the Carraresi. And Florence, the\nirreconcileable enemy, is grouping round her a league of hostile states.\nIn August, 1392, Florence, Padua, Faenza, Ravenna\u2014a little later the\nMalatestas and Forli\u2014are united against Visconti. He is not safe in\nMilan till he wear the crown of Florence too.\n\nThen he sends to the Pope and to the King of France and announces his\nplan. How did the Lord of Milan hear of the secret Adrian project? Did\nAnjou, passing through Pavia, drop a word? Did one of the many Angevines\nsheltered in the house of Orleans, familiar with Asti and Milan, broach\nthe plan? We know not, but this was the scheme of Visconti: _Naples for\nAnjou_; _Rome for the Frenchman Clement VII._; _Adria_, that is to say\nthe centre of Italy from Spoleto to Ferrara, and from Massa to Ancona,\n_Adria for Orleans, the North for Visconti_. That is to say, Italy for\nthe father of Valentine and his allies.[25] As Walsingham tells us\nVisconti secured for himself the double crown of Tuscany and Lombardy.\nBut in the very moment when the reluctant Pope (less hasty and less\negoistic now than at Sperlonga), had promised thus to alienate the\nChurch lands as the price of his restoration, a Divine Hand, as it must\nhave seemed, interposed to save the Church. On the 28th of August, 1394,\nPope and Cardinals had approved the Schedule of Orleans. A fortnight\nlater, on the 16th of September, suddenly, Clement VII. died at Avignon.\n\nFootnote 25:\n\n  For all this question of the kingdom of Adria, too vast for this\n  incidental line, see the excellent paper of M. Paul Durrieu in the\n  \u201cRevue des Questions Historiques\u201d for July, 1880; also the scarce\n  volume of Champollion-Figeac, \u201cLouis et Charles, Ducs d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans,\u201d\n  Paris, 1844; and especially the box of Manuscripts in the Paris\n  National Archives labelled Carton J. 495. I may also indicate an\n  interesting passage in Walsingham\u2019s \u201cHistoria Anglicana,\u201d vol. ii. p.\n  201, communicated to me by Comte Albert de Circourt, \u201cItem Dominus\n  Papa significat Regi per pr\u00e6dictum nuncio, qualiter Rex Franci\u00e6 et\n  Antipapa pacta inierunt hinc inde: Videlicet quod idem Rex, per\n  fortitudinum Ducum (Burgundi\u00e6 et Turoni\u00e6, poni faciat Antipapem in\n  Sedem Petri et Antipapa promisit Regem Imperio coronare, et Duci\n  Burgundi\u00e6) magnalia et investiet Ducem Turoni\u00e6 de omnibus terris\n  ecclesi\u00e6 in partibus Itali\u00e6, et _quendam alium_ coronare Regem Tusci\u00e6\n  et Lombardi\u00e6, et Ducem Andexaci\u00e6 (Andegavi\u00e6) firmare in Regno\n  Sicili\u00e6.\u201d The passage in brackets exists only in the Brit. Mus. MS.\n\nHis successor was less able; and the scheme of Adria was abandoned.\nValentine would never reign as Queen of Adria. Yet, as Duchess of Genoa,\nshe would be nearer home. Then in all manner of subtle and secret ways\nOrleans and Visconti immediately man\u0153uvred to secure the Ligurian\nprovince. Armies in the field, diplomats in the Cabinet, worked for one\nend alone. In November, 1394, Savona had submitted to Orleans. Now Genoa\nmust be gained. The young Duke had already a strong faction in his\nfavour. The Lomellini, Spinole, Flischi, figure in the rolls of Orleans\u2019\narmy.[28] But, at the same time, they were intriguing with an\nunsuspected enemy.[29] In August, 1395, the Doge of Genoa sent to Paris\noffering to Charles himself the suzerainty of Genoa. There was in France\na strong current of popular opinion running in favour of Italian\ncolonization. Why should Orleans have Genoa?\u2014asked the people. Why not\nthe King? Why not all of us? Why not France? The King, as we know, was\nnever a very solid creature. Honest, but feeble, he let himself be\ndominated by the nearest influence. The Duke of Burgundy was in Paris,\nand he, it is probable, persuaded Charles[26] to abandon his brother and\nto accept the gift of the Doge. In October, Genoa was united to the\nCrown of France. In December the King bought from Orleans his rights in\nSavona and Genoa.[27] This was checkmate both to Orleans and Visconti.\n\nFootnote 26:\n\n  \u201cArch. Nat.,\u201d K K. 315.\n\nFootnote 27:\n\n  \u201cArch. Nat.,\u201d J. 497, No. 15. February, 1392, Lomellini, Flisco, and\n  other nobles of Genoa sign an instrument offering Genoa to the King of\n  France.\n\nFootnote 28:\n\n  Paul Durrieu, \u201cLe Royaume d\u2019Adria.\u201d See also an important passage,\n  \u201cReligieux de St. Denis,\u201d t. ii. p. 402.\n\nFootnote 29:\n\n  \u201cArch. Nat.,\u201d K. 54, No. 37. December 12, 1396: \u201cComme depuis que\n  nostre tr\u00e8s-cher et tr\u00e8s am\u00e9 fr\u00e8re le Duc d\u2019Orleans eut, pour les\n  causes et les concideracions qui le meurent, entrepriz d\u2019avoir la\n  Seigneurie des cit\u00e9, pays et territoire de Gennes. Et tant fait pour\n  venir \u00e0 son entencion.... Savoir faisons que pour contenter et\n  deffraier nostre dit fr\u00e8re des tr\u00e9s-grans fraiz missions et despenses\n  par luy en plusieurs mani\u00e8res faiz et soustenuz ... nous avons avec\n  nostre dit fr\u00e8re traict\u00e9 et accord\u00e9 sur de et pour ces choses et leurs\n  dependances la somme de trois cents mile frans d\u2019or pour une foiz.\u201d\n\nBurgundy and the Queen were triumphant. The Queen wrote to the\nFlorentines that affairs were going well, that her enemy and theirs was\nfallen in disgrace, and on the 29th December the King joined the\nFlorentines against his late ally. For there was now great irritation in\nFrance against Visconti, who, furious at the treachery which had\noutwitted his plans for Genoa, played a double game with France. Signing\nwith one hand a fraternal alliance with King Charles,[30] with the other\nhe stirred up the Genoese to rebel against his yoke. But the Genoese\nsuspected his counsels, and revealed the whole intrigue to the Court of\nParis. Hence fury among the nobles, an ardent desire to punish the false\nfriend.[31] Hence among the populace the best will in the world to\nbelieve the Duke of Milan a wizard and his daughter a witch, an infernal\nspirit bringing death and madness upon the beloved King.\n\nFootnote 30:\n\n  August 31, 1395. L\u00fcnig Codex Itali\u00e6 Diplomaticus, i. col. 421.\n\nFootnote 31:\n\n  \u201cReligieux de St. Denis,\u201d ii. p. 436, _et. seq._\n\n\n                                  IX.\n\nThus the machinations of Milan served to exasperate the French. And the\nindignity and insult offered to Valentine were as great a cause of\nirritation to Visconti. He and his daughter, with their Lombard\nindifference to superstition, could have nothing but contempt for the\npanic of the French. \u201cEt l\u2019une des plus dolentes et courrouc\u00e9es qui y\nfust, c\u2019estoit la Duchesse d\u2019Orleans,\u201c writes Juvenal des Ursins. Twice\nor thrice the Duke of Milan sent his ambassadors to the King of France,\noffering to find a knight to fight at outrance with any man who would\naccuse Madame Valentine of any treason. So sore and angry were the\nfather and the brother-in-law of Valentine that there was a talk of a\nMilanese invasion. Great counter preparations were made in France, and\nthe League was signed with the Florentines against Milan. The King,\nbeing in good health then, went to Boulogne to celebrate the marriage of\nhis daughter Isabel, a child of seven, with Richard II. of England, a\nman some years older than himself. Richard was very bitter against\nMilan. He offered to send an English contingent to the King\u2019s aid, if he\ninvaded Lombardy. He warned the King again and again against the spells\nand sorceries of Lombardy; and he produced so strong an impression upon\nthe enfeebled mind of Charles, that on the 29th of October, as the two\nkings were sitting together at dinner, the King of France perceiving\namong the heralds one with the Serpent of Milan on his shield, had him\nstripped of his arms, menaced with death, and chased out of the royal\npresence. The Duke of Milan retaliated with the famous Investiture of\n1396, which excludes the children of Valentine of Orleans from the\nsuccession to Milan. With things at this pitch of hostility, war seemed\nimminent, and the route was made out for the invasion of Lombardy. But\nthat war never took place. \u201cAnd that journey,\u201d says Froissart, \u201ctook\nnone effect; for the discomfiture of the battle before Nicopoly in\nTurkey, and the death and the taking of the Lords of France. And also\nthey saw well that the Duke of Milan was in favour with the Great Turk,\nLamorabaquy; wherefore they durst not displease him, so let him alone.\u201d\nIt became immediately necessary to make peace with Milan,[32] the one\npower in Europe that could mediate with Turkey. The ambassadors of the\nKing, Burgundy, Orleans, and the Sultan, caused a continual come-and-go\nin Milan. Visconti took his position of peace-maker in good part. In\nMarch, 1397, he procured a third and less hostile investiture. The talk\nof magic was hushed for a while, and Valentine returned in peace to\nCourt.\n\nFootnote 32:\n\n  \u201cDelaville Le Roulx. La France en Orient,\u201c vol. i. p. 290-304.\n\nYet now, perhaps, for the first time the French people, not\nunjustifiably, might have heaped their odium on Valentine. For her\nlatest historian supports a theory suggested long ago by Froissart.[35]\nWhile the French were projecting their invasion of Lombardy\u2014while the\nson of that Burgundy who had advised the King in the affair of Genoa was\nleading against the Turks a French Crusade which might easily return\nhomewards _vi\u00e2_ Lombardy and Milan\u2014Giangaleazzo, furious and humiliated,\nsought any means of salvation and revenge. He, like many another\nItalian, was in correspondence with the Turk; and an idea, successfully\npractised by many another Italian,[34] may not unnaturally have\nsuggested itself to him. If France joined the Florentine League then\nadieu for ever to the hopes of Visconti. And Burgundy, as he knew, was\nin favour of Florence. And the son of Burgundy was captain of the French\narmy. Small hope here; yet, if the French army could be destroyed in\nTurkey, Milan would be safe! Then the astute Visconti would smile to\nthink of his daughter in France. Valentine who wrote him everything\u2014also\ntold him doubtless (as the author of Maistre Jehan de Meun tells us[33])\nof the vain young aristocrats, ruined by free living and fine carousing,\nwho were starting on that terrible journey, thinking of nothing more\nserious than the elegant spectacle of their departure:\n\n                    \u201cMais que le partir soit joly\n                    Vous ne regardez point la fin!\u201d\n\nGay young gallants, unfit for privation, who, when they reach Palestine,\nwill be too weak to strike three strokes with the magnificent swords so\nmuch too heavy for their hands.\n\n                    \u201cLes Sarrazins s\u2019arment l\u00e9gier;\n                    Sy c\u2019est bon courage et fier.\u201d\n\nBut the panoply of these splendid youths\u2014these _gens de paraige_\u2014was for\ndecoration rather than for battle. Valentine, the confidant of her\nfather\u2014who in the long afternoons of exile would turn with the expansion\nof relief to her one kinsman, her staunch protector\u2014would tell him of\nthe weakness that underlay the glory of this martial going-off. She\nwould write to him the plan of campaign, the route decided on, the means\nof attack and defence. She would inform him not only of the quality but\nof the number of the army. And Giangaleazzo was aware that these details\ntransmitted to the Turks would ensure the disaster of the French, and\ndraw away the gathering storm that threatened to break on Milan.\n\nFootnote 33:\n\n  _Vide_ \u201cJean sans Peur, Duc de Bourgogne, Lieutenant et\n  Procureur-g\u00e9n\u00e9ral du Diable c\u00e8s parties d\u2019Occident,\u201d par M. Paul\n  Durrieu, Paris, 1887.\n\nFootnote 34:\n\n  For example Carlo Zeno in 1403, Gattilusio in 1399, each of whom\n  informed the Turks concerning the plan of campaign of a Christian\n  enemy.\n\nFootnote 35:\n\n  \u201cL\u2019Apparicion de Maistre Jehan de Meun.\u201d Bib. Nat. Fr. 811, No. 7203.\n  This is an illuminated manuscript in defence of Valentine of Orleans,\n  and dedicated to her.\n\nThe Duke of Milan was not scrupulous; he was \u201cmoult bien\u201d in the\nfriendship of the Turk. The Turk gained a singular acquaintance with the\ndisposition of the French army. No need to dwell here on the terrible\ndisaster of that unforgotten battle: the twelve to twenty thousand dead;\nthe rare fugitives stealing homewards, dukes and barons, in the dress of\nbeggar-men; the harder lot of those taken by the Turks, sold into\nslavery, or massacred in vengeance for the Faithful slain at Christian\nhands; of the heartsick waiting of the few\u2014a very few, of the richest\nand noblest\u2014set aside for ransom. One of these, Jacques de Heilly, was\nsent by the Sultan on parole to France, to inform the King of the\ndisaster and to bring back the news of their intentions with respect to\nransom. He was bidden to pass by Milan[36] in order to convey to\nGiangaleazzo Visconti the salutations of the Sultan. On Christmas night\nhe arrived in Paris; the Court were feasting and dancing. In the prison\nof the Ch\u00e2telet, hungry and cold, there were men who spent their\nChristmas in a dungeon for having spread false news, as it was said, of\na great defeat in Turkey. But the tale of D\u2019Heilly told, all that was\nchanged: the prisoners were freed, the Court was in tears. The bells\nrang in all the churches for the dead. The universal thought was how to\nredeem the flower of France from a savage captivity. On the 20th of\nJanuary, 1397, a French embassy was sent to Milan. A few days earlier\nJacques de Heilly, laden with propitiatory gifts, had returned to the\nSultan. Nothing was spoken of but mediation and reconciliation. And\nValentine\u2014so long the innocent scapegoat of her party\u2014was recalled to\nfavour in the very hour when all men might have suspected her as the\ninvoluntary origin of misery.\n\nFootnote 36:\n\n  \u201cDelaville Le Roulx. La France en Orient,\u201d Paris, 1886, vol. i. p.\n  291.\n\n\n                                   X.\n\nActual war with Milan was averted; but the rumours against the King\u2019s\nbrother continued still in France.\n\nOn the 24th of March, 1403, Ives Gilemme, a priest; Demoiselle Marie de\nBlansy, Perrin H\u00e9mery, a locksmith, and Guillaume Floret, a clerk, were\npublicly burned for sorcery. And still the King was mad. Were those who\nbewitched _him_, the head of the State, to keep their immunity? There\n_was_ such a crime as witchcraft, and people legally suffered for it.\nThe King was bewitched: who was the wizard?\n\nTo this incessant question Burgundy ever helped to point the answer. Who\nwas the person who profited most by the sickness of the King?\n\nThe Duke of Orleans had become very powerful. In January, 1393, an\nordonnance had promised him the Regency in case of the death of the\nKing.[37] His prestige, his wealth, his faction increased with every\nyear. This young man who, in 1385, possessed no more than 12,000 livres\na year, was Duke of Orleans (1391), Count of Valois and Count of\nBeaumont (1386), Count of Asti and Count of Vertus (1387), Count of\nSoissons (1391), Count of Blois (1391), Count of Dreux, Count of\nAngoul\u00eame (1394). In 1394 he was very nearly King of Adria. He was Count\nof Perigord in 1398. He was Seigneur of Savona (1394), Seigneur of Coucy\n(1391); he possessed both lands and castles in Hainault, at Pierrefonds,\nand at Fert\u00e9-Millon (1392). The Duchy of Luxembourg (1402), the Duchy of\nAquitaine (1407) lay immediately before him.\n\nFootnote 37:\n\n  \u201cOrdonnances des rois de France,\u201d t. vii. p. 535. The Duke of Orleans\n  was never Regent, despite the line of the Monk of St. Denis which\n  assures us that in 1402 the King made his brother Lieutenant-General\n  of the Kingdom. During the frequent relapses of Charles VI. the\n  kingdom was governed by a Council. There was no Regency before the\n  year 1415.\n\nThe princes of Europe appealed to the Duke of Orleans as to an\nindependent sovereign. The Duke of Guelders concluded a separate\nalliance with him (1401). The King of the Romans offered him for his son\nthe heiress of Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland (1397). Henry of Lancaster,\nan exile in Paris (1399), paid more court to him than to the King of\nFrance. And in 1405 the Venetians sent two secret ambassadors to\nOrleans, who in return despatched a certain Pierre de Scrovignes with\nprivate despatches to the Signory of Venice. Since 1401 the Venetians\nhad never sent a message to the King. Burgundy began to fear that\nOrleans would induce the new Antipope at Avignon to depose Charles VI.\nin his own favour.\n\nThere is, I think, no evidence of such an intention, and yet the\nsuspicions of Burgundy may not impossibly have been correct. In 1400 the\nGermans deposed their drunken Wenzel, in 1398 the English had deposed\ntheir incapable Richard. Why should not France depose a king continually\nlapsing into madness? In the year 1399 the king had six relapses.\nOrleans may have been no less ambitious than his sworn friend and\nbrother, Henry of Lancaster, who had so lately conquered for himself the\nthrone of England.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\nOrleans and Burgundy turn by turn usurped the direction of affairs.\nVainly King and Queen and Court attempted to assuage their rivalry. On\nthe 14th of June, 1401, the Queen of France (the King being mad), the\nKing of Sicily, the Dukes of Berri and Bourbon, made a League \u201cpour\napaiser les Ducs d\u2019Orl\u00e8ans et de Bourgogne.\u201d[38] In vain. The King\nhimself was powerless, and could only bid his subjects\u2014as in 1405 he\nbade the Bailly de Caux\u2014to stand aside and take no part nor lot in the\ndiscord existing between the Dukes of Orleans and Burgundy.[39] This\nimpartiality was only apparent. The growing influence of Burgundy was\ndreaded by Berri and the Queen, no less than by Orleans himself. And in\nthe winter of 1405, these three persons joined themselves together in an\n\u201cAlliance d\u00e9fensive et r\u00e9ciproque, pour se maintenir au pouvoir.\u201d[40]\nThus, if Burgundy had the nation on his side, the authority of the\nQueen, the influence of Valentine (all-powerful with the King), was with\nOrleans. In 1404 Philip of Burgundy died, and his faction gained new\nvigour with the accession of his son, a man less temperate, less\naristocratic than his father. The blood of his Flemish mother worked in\nthe veins of the young man, restless, violent, demagogic as a burgher of\nGhent. The young Duke of Burgundy had no woman to work for him; it was\neven rumoured that the portrait of his own wife hung in that locked\nchamber where Orleans kept the pictures of his mistresses. But\nJean-sans-Peur did not need any feminine advocate. He was young, he was\nrich. In 1404 his father\u2019s death bequeathed him Burgundy, next year his\nmother died and left him Flanders. A small ugly man, alert, blunt,\nbrutal even, serving public interests to reach his own ends,\nJean-sans-Peur of Burgundy was the hero of the people. \u201cBrun et barbu et\nbien aim\u00e9,\u201c writes Burcarius.\n\nFootnote 38:\n\n  Arch. Nat. K. 55, No. 16, June 14, 1401.\n\nFootnote 39:\n\n  Arch. Nat. K. 55, No. 39, Aug. 21, 1405.\n\nFootnote 40:\n\n  Arch. Nat. K. 55, No. 36, Dec. 1, 1405.\n\nMeanwhile the people groaned under the tyranny of Orleans. _Jugum\nintollerabile plebis._ And Orleans, sceptical and embittered, had no\nrespect and no pity for the ignorant populace that reviled him, that\nmenaced his virtuous wife, that mocked the death of his little child\nwith cruel and insulting calumnies. The people to him were odious, or,\nat best, indifferent; a cup to drain, a fruit to squeeze and throw away\nthe rind. In 1403 he laid upon them an impost of three hundred thousand\ncrowns. Out of this he builded for himself two famous castles,\nPierrefonds and Fert\u00e9-Millon, beautiful as the towers of heaven in a\npicture by Van Eyck.\n\nIn 1407, not content, he levied a new tax. The money thus gained\nenriched the State far less than him, and great personages accused him\nand the Queen of leaving no single florin to rattle in the empty\ntreasury. When Orleans suggested the new impost, Jean-sans-Peur opposed\nhim in the royal council: \u201cI ask pity of the poor people. It is tyranny\nto aggravate their intolerable yoke.\u201d Jean-sans-Peur declared that, in\n_his_ domains at least, the impost should not be collected; rather would\nhe forfeit the entire amount himself. Struck by this generosity, the\nyoung Duke of Brittany volunteered to postpone his wife\u2019s dowry until\nthe treasury was full again.\n\nThe tax was levied all the same. It was a war levy, and really\nnecessary. Every man and woman in France was mulcted according to the\nvalue of his goods. In this way a vast sum was raised\u2014twenty-seven\nmillions. It was lodged in a tower of the Louvre. One night, when the\ntown was quiet, Orleans, with a band of armed men, entered this tower\nand carried off at least two-thirds of the treasure.\n\nWhen the people heard of it\u2014the people who (the Monk assures us) had\nsold the straw of their beds to pay the levy\u2014they prayed publicly in\nevery town and hamlet: \u201cJesus Christ in heaven, send thou some one to\ndeliver us from Orleans!\u201d\n\nOrleans smiled no less bitterly than when he had heard the public\nwhisper accuse him of sorcery and devil-worship. He proclaimed that\nwhosoever did not pay the taxes should be cast into prison; to prevent\nassassination, no man was to carry another knife than he used for his\neating; a fourth of the provisions of the royal household was to be\nsupplied daily, without payment, by the people of Paris. These\nprovisions, as the people knew very well, did not go to feed or clothe\ntheir beloved King. He, in his palace, was as poor, as suffering as\nthemselves. The Dauphin was no richer: \u201cin penury and want,\u201d says the\nMonk, \u201cif such words may be used for so great a personage.\u201d The\ninsatiable Orleans, the avid little Queen, grasped and kept everything.\n\u201cJesus Christ in heaven,\u201d prayed the people, \u201csend some one to deliver\nus from the Duke of Orleans.\u201d\n\nOrleans should have listened. The air was full of warnings to tyrants.\nRichard and Wenzel had fallen miserably. The Duke of Milan had died of\nthe plague; in six months his vast kingdom had fallen into ruins.\nTyranny is, so often, a personal accident\u2014a possession, not an\ninheritance. Was it worth while? The King himself added to the list of\nthese monitions. In August, 1404, he married his eldest son to\nBurgundy\u2019s daughter, his daughter to the son of Burgundy.\n\nIn the year 1405, on Ascension Day, the people found a voice. An\nAugustine monk, Jacques Legrand, preached then before the Court. The\nQueen, Valentine, and Orleans were present, but not the King. \u201cO Queen!\nO Duke!\u201d said the monk, \u201cyou are the curse and derision of your people.\nDo you not believe me? Go into the streets and hear them!\n\n\u201c_Tua curia, Domina Venus solium occupans_, thy court, O Queen! where\nLady Venus fills the throne, thy Court, by day and night, is the scene\nof debauch and drunkenness. Dissolute dances do honour to the goddess.\nFrequent bathing enervates your bodies. Fringes to your sleeves, and\nlong sleeves to your garments; yet are ye clothed upon with the sighs\nand tears of the poorest of your people. Your hearts are corrupt and\nyour minds are all unmoved: _Domina Venus solium occupat_.\u201d\n\nThere was a flutter of indignation in the Court. The monk\u2019s sermon was\nreported to the King, but to the surprise of all, Charles answered that\nhe was glad of it. On Whit-Sunday Legrand was commanded to preach again,\nand in the royal presence. The monk repeated his sermon, but with larger\nreference to a certain noble duke, \u201conce good and dear, but hated now\nfor his oppression and his vice.\u201d The King left his chair and sat down\nface to face with the monk, listening earnestly, who can tell with what\ncruel suspicions, what resolutions for inquiry and reform, in his dim\nand altered mind. When the sermon was over, the King spoke to Legrand\nfor some moments. He thanked him earnestly.\n\nCharles was deeply impressed with the words of the Augustine friar.\nStruggling against continual relapses, he made a brave effort to do the\nbest he could for his disordered kingdom. When Orleans asked for the\ngovernment of Normandy, for the first time he was refused. Another day\nthe poor King called the Dauphin to him. \u201cHow long, my lad, is it since\nyour mother kissed you?\u201d\n\n\u201cThree months,\u201d the boy replied.\n\nThe King was much affected. His children were evidently pinched,\nneglected, uncared for. He called the boy\u2019s nurse to him, and gave her a\ngold cup. \u201cLook after my son when I am ill. If God grant me life I will\nreward you later.\u201d\n\nThis was in July, 1405. Burgundy was absent on his own estates. The King\nwrote to him and implored him to return to Paris.\n\nOrleans and the Queen were at St. Germains. They paid no heed to any\nwarning. On the 13th of July there was a fearful storm; torrents of\nrain, eddies of wind. The Queen and Orleans were riding in the forest\nwhen they were overtaken by the tempest. The Duke took refuge in the\nQueen\u2019s litter, but the frightened horses nearly drowned them in the\nSeine. The people declared that it was the judgment of heaven upon\ntyrants, and Orleans himself appeared impressed. He sent a herald to\nParis, and proclaimed that whosoever of his creditors should come on\nSunday next to the H\u00f4tel de Behaigne should have his debt discharged in\nfull. On Sunday the halls and anterooms of the ducal palace were crowded\nwith eager burghers. Many, tired and anxious, had travelled from the\nprovinces. The Duke\u2019s stewards laughed in their face and shut the doors.\nThis was the final touch to the exasperation of the people.\n\nAll this while Jean-sans-Peur was travelling to Paris. He came at the\nhead of six thousand men-at-arms. The King was mad again, and could not\nsupport him; but none the less the Queen and Orleans feared an\ninsurrection in Burgundy\u2019s favour. They decided to flee secretly away\ninto Luxembourg with the royal children. Valentine was with them; and\nthey had got as far as Pouilly when the troops of Burgundy suddenly\nsurrounded the litter of the Dauphin, some hours\u2019 journey to the rear.\nThe boy was delighted; he embraced his father-in-law, and was carried in\ntriumph back to Paris. Isabel, with Valentine and Orleans, fled to the\nCastle of Melun. Civil war seemed eminent; but when the two armies were\nactually in the field, peace was arranged, and on the 15th of October\nthe Queen and Orleans re-entered Paris.\n\nOrleans had learned nothing by his lesson. He was more than ever\narrogant, more than ever secure in his tyranny. Early in the next year\nhis young son Charles was married to the King\u2019s daughter Isabel, the\nwidowed Queen of England, a girl of sixteen. In the first months of 1407\nthe King gave his brother the rich duchy of Aquitaine. Orleans began to\nthink again of the governorship of Normandy. He was richer and stronger\nthan the King.\n\nAnd yet, if Valentine, if Orleans, had really read the future as the\npeople thought they did, or had they even cared to read the present,\nthey might well have paused. In that age the fate of tyrants was not\nprosperous. The King of England was a leper. The King of France was mad.\nThe little Duke of Milan was mad also, with a furious Italian hemomania.\nThe King of Scotland was a prisoner in the hands of his enemies. There\nwere two Popes, things for scorn and laughter, held in derision of all\nnations, and a song to the people all day long.\n\nAlready, in 1380, Miles de Dormans, Chancellor of France, had declared\n\u201cA government has no force save in the obedience of the people, for\nkings only rule by the suffrage of their subjects: _Nam et si centies\nnegent, reges regnant suffragio populorum_.\u201d\n\nThe judgment of heaven, the liberties of man, seemed to conspire alike\nagainst the rule of tyrants.\n\n\n                                  XI.\n\nNotwithstanding his deceptions in the affair of Genoa, and in spite of\nhis supremacy in France, Orleans still cherished designs on Lombardy;\nand perhaps the chief cause why his Italian enterprises are less\nnoticeable in the fifteenth than in the seventeenth century is due, not\nso much to his engrossment with affairs at home, as to the fact that in\nBenedict XIII. he found an ally infinitely less subtle and less\nbrilliant than he had known in Clement VII. Benedict was little more\nthan a captive in the hands of Orleans;[41] Clement had been an\naccomplice.\n\nFootnote 41:\n\n  \u201cArch. Nat.\u201d Carton K. 55, No. 10: \u201cLettres par les-quelles le Roi\n  commect la garde du Pape B\u00e9noist 13 au Duc d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans, au-quel il donne\n  cent hommes de sa garde. No 14 bis: Lettres du Roy Charles VI.\n  d\u00e9claratrices que loin de tenir le Pape B\u00e9noist XIII. prisonnier, il\n  l\u2019a pris sur sa sauve garde et que pour plus grande s\u00fbret\u00e9 de sa\n  personne et de ses biens il a \u00e9tabli son fr\u00e8re le Duc d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans pour\n  en avoir garde.\u201d\n\nA greater than Clement failed him a little later. In the autumn of 1402,\nin the very flush and zenith of victory, Giangaleazzo Visconti died. A\nscore of his captains soon were fighting for his kingdom. That vast\nterritory, whose coherence existed only in the brain of one man, fell\nrapidly into fragments: city after city threw off the unwilling yoke of\nunion, and what had almost begun to be a national Italy reverted in a\nfew weeks to the old conditions of fragmentary independence. His two\nsons ruled in a narrowed Lombardy, and with no vista, as it seemed, on\nthe ambitions of their father. In the very same year that the great\nVisconti died, Charles VI. sent to Genoa a small, restless, quixotic man\nof much ability, who to some extent filled the empty place of the dead\nGiangaleazzo. But if Marshal Boucicaut had much of the ambition, and all\nthe audacity of the late Duke of Milan, he possessed nothing of his slow\nwise mind, of the deep and subtle duplicity that Machiavelli may have\nenvied, or of the powers of combination, the cool tenacity to a grand\nidea, which foreshadowed the genius of another North Italian, Count\nCavour. Moreover, while such share as Visconti meant to allow the French\nin Italy was destined by him for his son-in-law of Orleans, Boucicaut\nworked for the King. Thus, for the second time in his experience, the\nFrenchman found his greatest rival in France.\n\nOf the two legitimate sons of the great Duke of Milan\u2014one was a handsome\nyoung Nero, blood-mad, inept, given over to passion and cruelty; the\nother an astute child, timid, unscrupulous, who later should develop a\ntrace of the genius of his father. At first their hold on their\ninheritance was so slight that Orleans determined on invading Lombardy,\nwhether to defend or to supplant his nephews, who shall say? In October,\n1403, he started for Lombardy, accompanied by 13 knights-banneret, 43\nknights, 212 squires, 28 archers, 20 crossbow-men, and other\nsoldiers.[43] On the way south he passed by Beaucaire, and had an\ninterview with his charge, the Antipope Benedict. He took into his\nservice the famous captain of adventure, Bernardon de Serres. He made\nfriends with another mighty captain\u2014an ancient enemy\u2014the Count of\nArmagnac.[42] Vast and serious appeared his project of invasion, but, on\nthe very verge of the Alps, suddenly, on January, 1404, he abandoned the\nprosperous enterprise, turned right about, and faced home for Paris.\n\nFootnote 42:\n\n  Communicated by Comte Albert de Circourt from transcripts in his\n  possession.\n\nFootnote 43:\n\n  See M. Paul Durrieu, \u201cLes Gascons en Italie,\u201d p. 214.\n\nWhat is the meaning of this sudden change of course, unexplained, and\nperhaps inexplicable? What was the object of the Lombard invasion? What\nwas the cause which so unexpectedly suppressed it? Orleans believed\nhimself to have a certain claim on Pisa, bequeathed by the great\nVisconti to his bastard son Gabriello-Maria. Gabriello Visconti was ill\nat ease in Pisa. A little later, in 1404, as we know, he offered his\nunruly city first to France, then to Florence. It is possible\u2014it is even\nfrom the nature of things a necessary hypothesis\u2014to suppose that in 1403\nGabriello had come to terms with Orleans, and that the rights on Pisa\nwhich Orleans vaunted as his own through Valentine Visconti were\nsupported by some cession of the actual lord, her half-brother. But\nOrleans was not the only Frenchman capable of adventure and practice in\nItaly. By the time his army reached the frontier he found himself\noutwitted by a higher bidder, nearer at hand.\n\nJehan le Meingre, Marshal Boucicaut, Governor of Genoa, had intrigued\nwith Gabriello and procured the city of Pisa for the King. A few months\nlater, on the 15th of April, 1404,[44] a deed was drawn up declaring\nPisa henceforth a fief of France.\n\nFootnote 44:\n\n  Dumont, Corps Diplomatique. II. ccxvii. and ccxxxi.\n\nAt the first word of the matter Orleans had turned his back on his\ncontemplated campaign and marched back to Paris, fury in his heart.\nProbably behind the interference of Boucicaut he divined the inspiration\nof Burgundy, his enemy;\u2014Burgundy who, as events should prove, had\nunsuspected designs of his own upon the State of Pisa. Back in wrath\nmarched Orleans: stalked indignant into Paris his men at his heels:\nfound the King in his senses, and docile as was his wont. From him, on\nthe 24th of May, Orleans extracted the deed which we append,[45] a deed\nthat repudiates the action of Boucicaut, and transfers all the rights of\nFrance in Pisa to Orleans, who henceforth shall meet with neither let\nnor hindrance in his projects.\n\nFootnote 45:\n\n  Avd Nat. K. 55, No. 11, bis July 26, 1404. \u00c0 tous ceulx qui ces\n  pr\u00e9sentes lettres verront, Guilles, Seigneur de Tignonville,\n  chevalier, conseiller, chamberlain du Roy nostre seigneur et garde de\n  la pr\u00e9vost\u00e9 de Paris, Salut! Savoir faisons que nous l\u2019an de grace\n  1404, ce Mercredi 26 jour du mois de Juillet, vismes une lettre du Roy\n  nostre seigneur scell\u00e9e de son grant scel sur double couronne, des\n  quelles la teneur s\u2019ensuit:\n\n  Charles par la grace de Dieu Roy de France, \u00e0 tous ceulx qui ces\n  lettres verront, Salut! Savoir faisons que apr\u00e8s la supplication et\n  requeste \u00e0 nous faictes par nostre tr\u00e8s-cher et tr\u00e8s-am\u00e9 fr\u00e8re Loys\n  Duc d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans, contenant que comme \u00e0 cause de nostre tr\u00e8s ch\u00e8re et\n  tr\u00e8s am\u00e9e soeur, sa femme, fille du feu nostre oncle le Duc de Milan,\n  plusieurs villes terres et seigneuries situ\u00e9es es parties d\u2019Italie et\n  de Lombardie, entre lesquelles est et doit estre la ville et cit\u00e9 de\n  Pise avec toutes ses appartenances, la seigneurie de laquelle nostre\n  dit fr\u00e8re dit estre et appartenir au dit feu Duc de Milan auparavant\n  qu\u2019il alla de vie \u00e0 tres-passement appartiennent et doivent appartenir\n  \u00e0 iceluy nostre tr\u00e8s-cher fr\u00e8re. Il nous a expos\u00e9 et il ait entendu de\n  nouvel que la dicte ville et cit\u00e9 de Pise et aucuns chasteaulx\n  appartenant d\u2019icelle, par certains moyens sont \u00e0 nous acquis et venues\n  en nostre main. Et ont \u00e9t\u00e9 bailliz pour nous par nostre tr\u00e8s-f\u00e9al\n  Chevalier Chambellan et conseiller Jehan le Meingre dit Boucicaut,\n  Mar\u00e9schal de France, et Gouverneur pour nous de nostre cit\u00e9 et\n  seigneurie de Jennes, pour quoy il nous a requis en tout le droit que\n  nous avons et pouvons avoir de la dicte ville et cit\u00e9 de Pise et \u00e8s\n  aultres cit\u00e9s et appartenances qui furent au dit Seigneur de Milan,\n  nous veuillons bailler et d\u00e9laisser. Et tout empeschement mis de par\n  nous en la dicte ville et cit\u00e9 de Pise et \u00e8s dictes chateaulx et\n  aultres appartenances d\u2019icelles, veuillons faire oster et cesser, sans\n  y plus proc\u00e9der, ny faire proc\u00e9der, en sa pr\u00e9judice. Nous voulons\n  toujours condescendre au justes requestes de nostre-dit fr\u00e8re, comme\n  raison est. Qui avons baillie et d\u00e9laissi\u00e9 de une certaine science par\n  ces pr\u00e9sentes tout le droit et seigneurie par nous acquis de nouvel et\n  que nous avons et pouvons avoir en dicte ville et cit\u00e9 de Pise et \u00e8s\n  aultres chasteaulx et appartenances d\u2019iceulx. Et voulons et ordonnons\n  par ces pr\u00e9sentes que l\u2019empeschement mis par et en nostre nom en la\n  dicte ville, cit\u00e9 et Seigneurie de Pise et \u00e8s chateaulx et aultres\n  appartenances d\u2019icelles, soit ost\u00e9. Si donnons en mandement par ces\n  pr\u00e9sentes et envoyons tr\u00e8s-expressement au dit gouverneur de nostre\n  dicte cit\u00e9 de Jeunes et \u00e0 tous nos aultres justiciers et conseillers\n  ou \u00e0 leurs lieutenants et \u00e0 chaseur d\u2019eulx, si que di luy appendra,\n  que de nostre bailli et d\u00e9laissements dessus ditz faient, sueffrent et\n  laissent jouer et user paisiblement nostre diet fr\u00e8re. En mectant au\n  d\u00e9livrement de luy ou \u00e0 ses ditz gens officiers commis et d\u00e9put\u00e9s de\n  par lui tous les ditz droit et seigneurie par nous acquis de nouvel \u00e8s\n  ditz ville cit\u00e9 et chasteaul dessus ditz. Et en ostant tout\n  l\u2019empeschement qui en iceulx a est\u00e9 mis de nostre part. En tesmoing de\n  ce nous avons fait mettre \u00e0 ces lettres nostre scel. Donn\u00e9 a Paris le\n  24 jour de May l\u2019an de grace mil quatre ans et quatre et le 24 de\n  nostre r\u00e8gne. Aussi sign\u00e9es par le Roy en son rayson. Messigneurs les\n  Ducs de Berry et de Bourbon, le Connestable, le Comte de Tancarville,\n  le grand maistre d\u2019ostel et aultres.\n\n  Et nous a ce pr\u00e9sent transcript in tesmoing de ce que usismes le scel\n  de la dicte pr\u00e9vost\u00e9 de Paris l\u2019an et jour dessus promis et dietz.\n  Manessier.\n\nThe deed was granted in Council, the King being then in his senses, and\nassisted by Berri, Bourbon, Tancarville, and others. The reader will\nremark the noteworthy absence of Burgundy. He will remember also that\nBerry, in 1405, will join Orleans in a defensive league against\nJean-sans-Peur. It is possible that Burgundy knew nothing of the deed\ndrawn up behind his back.\n\nBut it was too late for Orleans to profit by the King\u2019s good-will. The\nFlorentines were in Pisa, and an invasion against so powerful an enemy\ncould not be undertaken.\n\nFor a moment Orleans was obliged to pause in his Italian policy\u2014to pause\nonly, not to abandon it, since in 1406[48] he still reclaimed authority\non Pisa, and in the very year of his death was taking an active part in\nthe affairs of Lombardy.[47] That pause was filled in a manner\ndisastrous, fatal, yet natural enough in a man suffocating under a sense\nof bitter indignation and revolt. Burgundy had interfered with Orleans\nabroad. Very well; Orleans would interfere with Burgundy at home.\nAlready the first steps were taken. In 1401, Orleans had married his\ncousin Mary Harcourt to the Duke of Gueldres, the enemy and the\nneighbour of Burgundy, with whom his rival now concluded an alliance and\na league. In 1402, Orleans purchased from the King of the Romans the\nDuchy of Luxembourg. In 1405,[46] he assembled at Melun the entire\nstrength of his faction, sending even to Asti for the Governor and his\nmen. In 1405 also he allied himself with Berri and the Queen against\nJean-sans-Peur. With the Court on one hand, and on the other Gueldres,\nthe most reckless captain of his age;\u2014with an army at his heels, and\n(through the county of Soissons, and down the banks of the Oise and the\nMarne), an uninterrupted passage through his own possessions into his\nnew Duchy of Luxembourg: Orleans was a deadly enemy to Burgundy. A\nglance at the map will show the reader how, like a wedge or like a\nrivet, Luxembourg must split apart or hold together the domains of the\nNetherlands and the provinces of Franche Comt\u00e9 and Burgundy. In the\nhands of Orleans, Luxembourg was a wedge; and the domains of Burgundy\nwere no longer a compact and formidable territory, but two\nprincipalities with Brussels for the capital of the one, and Dijon for\nthe capital of the other. Should Orleans march an army into Luxembourg,\nshould Gueldres come to his aid with an armed force, the suppression of\nthe Dukedom of Burgundy would fall within the range of practical\npolitics.\n\nFootnote 46:\n\n  A strange document in the Carton K. 55 Arch. Nat., under date July 27,\n  1406, in the form of a letter from the King in Council (Tancarville\n  \u201cet autres\u201d being present), notifies that that day the King has\n  received conjointly the Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans, who have made\n  him their united homage for Pisa. In 1407 the Signory of Florence,\n  having taken Pisa (a French fief), sent to the King, Orleans, and\n  Burgundy to justify their conduct. Orleans seized the Florentine\n  ambassadors and cast them into prison\u2014a high-handed proceeding which\n  he probably considered warranted by his position as suzerain of the\n  captive city. In so doing Orleans probably meant to underline the fact\n  that _he_, not the King or Burgundy, was lord of Pisa, though all had\n  claims to suzerainty. There is a long correspondence on this subject\n  (Archives of Florence, filza xviii. della Signoria. Cancelleria 27).\n\nFootnote 47:\n\n  It is in 1407 that the Italian projects of Orleans appear in vigorous\n  renascence. On the 6th of October he proclaimed himself Protector of\n  his nephews, Giovanni Maria, Duke of Milan, and Filippo Maria, Count\n  of Pavia, \u201cfr\u00e8res de Dame Valentine \u00e9pouse du Duc\u201d (Arch. Nat. K. 56,\n  No. 16). He made the Governor of Asti their guardian, and appeared to\n  meditate an armed intervention. Was this conduct purely and merely\n  disinterested? Did Orleans in October at Beaut\u00e9-sur-Marne contemplate\n  a great French protectorate in Lombardy of which he should be the soul\n  and centre? A month later a tragic silence suddenly interrupted any\n  answer to these questions.\n\nFootnote 48:\n\n  See \u201cArch. Nat.\u201d K K. 267 fo. 97. Also the chapter on Bernardon de\n  Serres in M. Paul Durrieu\u2019s valuable work, \u201cLes Gascons en Italie.\u201d\n\nHenceforth, between these two princes the struggle for power should take\non a new character and become the very struggle for existence. And while\nthe people, abject, all in tears, prayed to Heaven: \u201cJesu Christ, send\nthou some man to deliver us from Orleans,\u201d the hero of the people,\nJean-sans-Peur the Belov\u00e8d, was urged by every motive of self-interest,\nevery instinct of self-preservation, and with the assurance of popular\nimmunity, to interrupt for ever the fatal progress of the tyrant.\n\n\n                                  XII.\n\nOne Wednesday evening\u2014it was St. Clement\u2019s day, the 23rd of November,\n1407\u2014Orleans was supping with the Queen. Isabel was ill and dispirited.\nTen days ago her new-born baby had died at its birth, and she sorrowed\nfor this child and loved it as she had never loved her other children.\nIsabel was away from her husband in her new H\u00f4tel de Montaigu, near the\nPorte Barbette. It was here that Orleans came every day to see her, and\nhere they \u201csupped right joyously together,\u201d says the Monk of St. Denis.\nOrleans had been ill all autumn at his Castle of Beaut\u00e9, and had only\nrecently come back to Paris. Valentine, with her four children and the\nPrincess Isabel, was still in the country.\n\nAs these two persons, both ill, both weary, forgot their troubles for a\nwhile in each other\u2019s company, a page came to the door with a feigned\nmessage: the King earnestly beseeched his brother to come and see him at\nthe palace of St. Paul. Orleans arose at once and left the Queen. He had\nat least six hundred men of his own lodged that day in Paris, as\nMonstrelet informs us. Orleans, however, took none of them with him. He\nleapt on his mule and rode away with two squires on horseback at his\nside. Two or three footmen with torches ran after him. No gentleman\ncould go more simply than the King\u2019s brother in his plain suit of black\ndamask, riding with no more than five attendants, quickly and gaily down\nthe frosty street. It was the coldest winter ever known, and muffled in\ntheir cloaks the little party rode briskly ahead, looking neither to the\nright or left. Orleans was singing softly to himself and playing with\none of his gloves. He feared no enemies. Last Sunday he had taken the\nSacrament with Burgundy, and yesterday they two had dined together.\n\nIt was eight o\u2019clock. All was dark and silent in the Rue Vieille du\nTemple, then an outlying and quiet district. Orleans and his two squires\nrode along so fast that the runners with the torches were left some way\nbehind. At last they came to a wider place in the street where there was\na well. As the three horsemen passed the H\u00f4tel de l\u2019Image de Notre-Dame,\nseventeen or eighteen men sprang suddenly out of the shadow of the\nhouse. One with an axe chopped off the bridle hand of Orleans. The\nKing\u2019s brother gave a cry of surprise and pain. \u201cI am the Duke of\nOrleans!\u201d \u201cIt is he we seek.\u201d\n\nIn another moment the Duke was beaten off his mule on to the frozen\npaving-stones. Seventeen axes were aimed at him; blow after blow fell\nheavily; his head was cloven, his brains gushed out into the street. His\nservants had all fled and left him there, save one of his squires who\nhad been his page (a German, says Monstrelet; a Fleming, says the Monk),\nwho, more constant than Orleans\u2019 compatriots, flung himself upon the\nbody of his master, and was pierced and slaughtered there. When both\nwere murdered the assassins dragged the body of Orleans across the\nstreet, propped it up against a heap of mud that was standing frozen\nthere, and lighting a torch of straw, they looked to see if he were\nreally dead. A woman, a cobbler\u2019s wife, looking from a garret window,\nsaw it all, and set up a shriek of \u201cMurder, murder!\u201d \u201cPeace, harlot,\u201d\ncried the armed men in the street, and began to shoot their arrows at\nthe open casement. At that moment a man with a scarlet hood drawn well\nover his face, came out of the house opposite, and struck the dead body\nwith his club. \u201cPut out the light. He\u2019s dead. Let us go.\u201d The eighteen\nassassins rode away in great merriment, sowing caltrops after them; but\nbefore they left they set fire to the house where, for the last\nfortnight, Jean-sans-Peur had kept them hidden. The flames of the\nburning H\u00f4tel de l\u2019Image streamed up through the darkness of the night,\nawakening the city, and shedding a strange light on the murdered body of\nOrleans, still propped up in a sitting posture, his wounded head hanging\non one side. Just then a nephew of Mar\u00e9chal de Rieulx, whose great H\u00f4tel\nstood opposite, a young man, one of Orleans\u2019 squires, rode up as he left\nhis uncle\u2019s house, and saw his master sitting thus dead, the left hand\noff, the right arm hanging by a thread. A little distance off, on the\nstones of the street, lay the page, dying in his faithful youth,\nmurmuring still in his German language, \u201cAch, my master!\u201d At his side,\non the ground, was a white hand severed from the wrist. Close by there\nlay a fallen glove. The young squire gave the alarm and the dead bodies\nwere carried into the H\u00f4tel de Rieulx.\n\nThere was wailing and mourning in the house of Orleans, grief and horror\nin the house of the King. The deed was soon known, though as yet it was\nonly surmised that one Raoul d\u2019Actonville, a dismissed steward, had\nwreaked in this ghastly fashion his spite against his master. The next\nday the royal princes, all in black, with a great multitude of the\npeople of Paris, brought the murdered Duke to the church of St.\nGuillaume, close at hand. He who had ever loved the good through all his\nwickedness, lay now among the watching friars, who sang psalms and\nrepeated vigils day and night for his soul; there he lay until they took\nhim to be buried in his own chapel of the Celestines, which is called\nthe Blancs-Manteaux to-day. The people followed him with torches,\nremembering only his gay and gracious qualities, his capricious\ngenerosity, his gentle raillery, his rhetoric and eloquence, how he had\nloved learning, and that he had often lived as a monk for days among the\nCelestines. All Paris wept, those also who had prayed Jesus Christ in\nheaven to deliver them from Orleans; even Burgundy went in the funeral\nprocession, all in black, weeping also. But when the funeral was over\nJean-sans-Peur took Berri and the King of Sicily aside: \u201cI had it done.\nI slew him. It was an inspiration of the demon\u2019s.\u201d\n\n\n                                 XIII.\n\nThere were two women, who were not at the burial, to whom the death of\nOrleans came nearer than to any mourner there. When Isabel heard that\nOrleans was slain she went in terror of her life. Ill as she was, she\nhad herself carried in a litter to St. Paul\u2019s, taking shelter there in\nthe arms of her mad husband, and so soon as she was fit for travel the\npoor, light, beautiful, little Queen went out of Paris, far away from\nBurgundy, far, too, from that maimed and slaughtered body lying in the\nchapel of the Celestines. Terrified, indifferent, she could think of\nnothing but her own imaginary danger.\n\nThe mistress and the wife took the matter in a very different spirit. At\nfirst, in her transports of sorrow, Valentine could not act. She tore\nout her hair and shred her garments; she sobbed so much, that for weeks\nafterwards her voice was hoarse. But when the first paroxysm was over\nher strong Italian character centred itself upon one fixed idea\u2014justice,\nvengeance for her murdered husband. Valentine had no thought of her own\nsafety. She sent her two elder sons and her girl into Blois, and then,\nwith the Princess Isabel and little John, her youngest child, on either\nhand, the Duchess of Orleans set out from Ch\u00e2teau-Thierry for Paris.\n\nTravelling was slow that terrible winter. It was not till the 10th of\nDecember that Valentine entered the capital. She, her children, her\nservants, were all dressed very plainly and roughly, and, of course, in\nblack. The King of Sicily and the Duke of Berri came out to meet them.\nWhen they reached the palace Valentine threw herself upon her knees\nbefore the King, demanding justice. The poor Charles (_azzez subtil pour\nlors_) raised her up and kissed her, while they both wept together. He\npromised strict justice upon Burgundy. Again, ten days later, he\ndeclared, \u201cWhat is done to my only brother is done to me.\u201d Valentine and\nher children, satisfied of vengeance, retired to their great hotel in\nthe Marais.\n\nThe King fell ill again so soon as Valentine had left him. \u201cThey say,...\nbut I affirm nothing,\u201d suggests the Monk. Valentine the witch stayed on,\nhowever, among the people who had murdered her husband. One thing that\nwe learn of Valentine at this moment shows us how profound, how selfless\nwas her love of Orleans. She sought out his bastard\u2014the little John,\nafterwards Count of Dunois, the son of Mariette de Canny\u2014and brought him\nup with her own children. It even seemed as though she loved him more\nthan the others. Glancing from the poetic Charles, the delicate Philip,\nthe child John, to his determined and eager little face, she exclaimed,\n\u201cNone of your brothers is more fit than you to avenge your father.\nNature has cheated me of you!\u201d\n\nTo avenge your father! This had become the unique preoccupation of\nValentine. But that promised vengeance tarried long. On the 8th of March\na learned doctor of theology, the chosen advocate of Burgundy, a certain\nMa\u00eetre Jean Petit, excused the murder of Orleans before the King. \u201c_Il\nest licite d\u2019occire un Tyran._\u201d\n\nIt was not only of tyranny that the Burgundians accused their victim.\nThe tremendous accusation of Jean Petit (which every student of the past\nhas read in Monstrelet) enumerates attempted regicide, and secret\npoisoning, sorcery, necromancy, charms, incantations. \u201cSorcery, high\ntreason against God, and regicide, high treason against the King. There\nis also tyranny,\u201d says Ma\u00eetre Jean Petit. It was of course for this\nthird cause, treason against the people, that Orleans\u2019 murder was\ncondoned in Paris.\n\nFor the people never hid their support of Jean-sans-Peur. Those who had\nwept at the funeral of Orleans were ready now to cry again the cry of\nBurgundy. The King, whose mind was again overcast, although he was not\nactually mad, the King himself on the 9th of April, 1408, signed letters\npatent granting pardon to Jean-sans-Peur. \u201cOur very dear and\nwell-beloved cousin of Burgundy, _who for the public good and out of\nfaith and loyalty to us, has caused to be put out of this world our said\nbrother of Orleans_.\u201d This was the last insult to his memory. Valentine\nwould not brook it; she rallied to the charge. Though she herself had\nbeen seriously implicated in the tissue of villainy which his murderers\nhad woven about the memory of her husband, Valentine had no thoughts to\nspare for her own safety. All through July and August she kept agitating\nagainst Burgundy. Bringing her children with her she sought the King and\ncried on her knees for justice. Twenty years\u2019 exile for Burgundy! Her\ntwo advocates, S\u00e9risi and Cousinet pleaded eloquently for her; refuting\nthe vile accusations of poison and sorcery with a candour, a logic, a\nfine and modern spirit worthy of the intellect of the dead man they\ndefended. It was all no use. \u201cThe Parisians,\u201d says Monstrelet, \u201cloved so\nwell this Duke of Burgundy; because they believed that if he undertook\nthe government, he would put down throughout the kingdom all salt taxes,\nimposts, dues, and subsidies which were to the prejudice of the people.\u201d\nThough nearly all the royal Princes were openly on the side of\nValentine, the King did not _dare_ avenge his brother. The Court was\nimpotent against the people.\n\nIn the early autumn Valentine left Paris. Life was over for her. \u201cRien\nne m\u2019est plus. Plus ne m\u2019est rien,\u201d ran her melancholy motto. Anger and\nbereavement and hopeless sorrow had worn her to a shadow. She took the\nlittle Dunois with her children to the Castle of Blois. There were four\nof them, Charles, the Poet, who should be the father of King Louis XII.;\nand little John, the grandfather of Francis I.; Philip, Count of Vertus;\nand Margaret, in later years the grandmother of Anne of Brittany. These\nchildren, three of whom should be the grandparents or great-grandparents\nof Henri II., Valentine ceaselessly instructed. All her contemporaries\nbear witness to her untiring vigilance over them. \u201cThey are marvellously\ngood, and well-instructed for their years,\u201d says Monstrelet: \u201cMoult\nnotablement conduits et indoctrin\u00e9s.\u201d But there was one lesson, dearer\nthan the others, that Valentine perpetually taught her sons. \u201cAvenge\nyour father,\u201d she continually cried.\n\nThese children, so different in character and destiny, were the dearer\nto their mother that she felt she had not long to love them. Valentine\nwas dying of a broken heart, \u201cof anger and mourning,\u201d writes Juvenal;\n\u201cof anger and impotent vengeance,\u201d says Monstrelet. Her eyes were quite\ndim with useless tears, and still she resented the very grief that\ndrained her life; for she did not want to leave her little children and\nher unaccomplished task. \u201cIt was pitiful,\u201d says Juvenal, \u201cbefore she\ndied to hearken to her regrets and her complaints, so piteously she\nregretted her children, and a bastard, called John, whom she could not\nsuffer out of her sight, saying none of her children was fitter to\navenge their father.\u201d... \u201cSince the tragic end of her husband,\u201d says the\nMonk, \u201cthis Duchess spent her days in tears, and many say the bitterness\nof her heart induced that unhealthy languor of which she died.\u201d\n\nThis was in November. Upon St. Clement\u2019s day, upon that heart-sickening\nanniversary of her husband\u2019s murder, Jean-sans-Peur rode into Paris. It\nwas a triumph. As he passed the people, and their little children cried,\n\u201cNoel, noel au bon Duc.\u201d\n\nIt was near a week before the news came down to Blois. When she heard\nit, Valentine felt that all was over. No vengeance was possible. On the\n4th of December the unhappy woman died, with her last breath entreating\nher little children never to forget their father\u2019s murder. But these\nchildren were only children, and they were orphans. The death of\nValentine seemed to secure the triumph of her enemy. Jean-sans-Peur did\nnot seek to hide his rejoicing: \u201cCar icelle Duchesse continuoit moult\nasprement et diligemment sa poursuitte.\u201c But already Retribution at her\ngrindstone was sharpening the fatal battle-axe of Montereau.\n\n\n\n\n                   THE CLAIM OF THE HOUSE OF ORLEANS\n                               TO MILAN.\n\n\nLet us recapitulate.\n\nWhen, on September 16, 1380, Charles V. of France expired, he left\nbehind him two young sons. One was twelve years old, tall, stalwart,\nhealthy, amiable; the other was a lad of nine, less regularly handsome\nthan his brother, slighter, darker, more agile, more acute, and more\nengaging.\n\nCharles V. had left his younger son no more than the pension of a\nprivate gentleman; the elder was the king of France. The dying monarch,\na man of many brothers, had seen the dangers that arise when royal\nprinces are too rich. But he had died before his time; and of his two\nheirs the king was gentle, dull, and generous; the gentleman, brilliant,\ngrasping, and ambitious. The result was calculable. Twenty years later\nthe younger son was king in all but name; he was rich, puissant,\nterrible, and hated; while his brother, impoverished and neglected,\nstarved on the throne, the best-beloved man in France. Circumstances had\nmade the rise of the younger son singularly easy. In his twenty-fourth\nyear King Charles VI. became violently mad, and henceforward till his\ndeath there were long regencies (the subject of angry contests between\nhis uncle and his brother) interrupted by periods of lax and kindly\ngovernment. His younger brother, Louis, Duke of Orleans, became, as\nfirst prince of the blood, more powerful than the king. He was too\npowerful; and his arrogance and his extortions raised many enemies\nagainst him. On November 23, 1407, he was cruelly murdered as he was\nriding by night through the streets of Paris. He had made himself so\nterrible that even the brother who loved him did not seek to avenge him,\nbut praised the murderer \u201cwho, for the public good and out of faith and\nloyalty to us, has caused to be put out of this world our said brother\nof Orleans.\u201d No one mourned the murdered man absolutely and completely\nexcept his devoted widow and his orphaned children.\n\nA year and a week later the duchess died. Her three sons, her one\ndaughter, with Dunois, the natural son of Orleans, whom his widow had\nadopted, were left fatherless and motherless in a kingdom full of\nenemies, where their father\u2019s murderers triumphed. They entered the\nworld as a battlefield; but, though so young, they entered armed and\nmounted. From their father they inherited the duchies of Orleans,\nLuxembourg, and Aquitaine, the counties of Valois, Beaumont, Soissons,\nBlois, Dreux, P\u00e9rigord, and Angoul\u00eame, with the seigneuries of Coucy and\nSavona. Through their mother they acquired the county of Vertus in\nChampagne, the county of Asti in Lombardy, and certain pretensions to\nthe ducal crown of Milan.\n\n\n                                   I.\n\nIn the year 1387 their father, Louis of France, not yet the Duke of\nOrleans, had been contracted to the Duke of Milan\u2019s only daughter,\nValentine Visconti, whom two years later he espoused. In relation to the\nestablished monarchs of his time, the father of Valentine stood in much\nthe same situation as afterwards the great Napoleon, in the first years\nof his empire, towards the kings of Germany. He was rich, too powerful\nto be safely opposed, a conqueror of whom the end was still beyond\nprediction; hence a man to conciliate and appease. Yet in their hearts\nthey despised him as a parvenu and an adventurer, and deplored and\ndeprecated the moral flaws that marred the beauty of his prosperity.\n\nGiangaleazzo, first Duke of Milan, was the only son of Galeazzo\nVisconti, who, in conjunction with Bernab\u00f2, his brother, swayed the city\nof Milan and the greater part of Lombardy. They had murdered their own\nbrother, and divided his inheritance between them\u2014Bernab\u00f2, the elder,\nholding his state in Milan, Galeazzo in the city of Pavia.\n\nBernab\u00f2 had no less than nine-and-twenty children. Galeazzo had but two,\nbut for these he was ambitious. He married his daughter to the son of\nthe King of England; his son he married to the daughter of the King of\nFrance. This was in 1360. The bride and bridegroom were still of\nchildish age. Six years later their eldest child was born. It was a\ngirl, Valentine. The three brothers who followed her died in their\nminority; but Valentine flourished, grew to womanhood, and brought into\nthe house of Orleans the tangled question of the Milanese succession.\n\nAt her birth and during her childhood her father was but one of several\nrulers in Milan. The Visconti ruled as a clan rather than as an\norganized dynasty. They were the descendants of a certain Captain\nEriprando, who, in the year 1037, defended Milan against the Emperor\nConrad. Notwithstanding this beginning the Visconti were eminently\nGhibelline, and depended for all their subsequent fortunes on the\nemperor. In 1277 they chased the Guelfs from Milan, and made themselves\nmasters of the state. They became lords or _domini_ in Milan, lords of\nan imperial fief, but with no pretence to an imperial investiture. The\nemperor recognized them only as his captains, his viscounts, or his\nimperial vicars.\n\nIn 1372 the Emperor Charles IV., alarmed at the pretensions of the\nVisconti clan, deprived them of their office. The rich tyrants, not\nafraid of a distant emperor beyond the Alps, paid little heed to this\npunishment. The emperor died, and his son succeeded\u2014the dissolute\nWenzel, who was to do so much for Milan. Almost his first act was to\ncreate the youthful father of Valentine Imperial Vicar of the Milanese.\n\nThis taste of power whetted the ambition of the young man, left\nfatherless now to confront the faction of his uncle Bernab\u00f2 and his\nnumerous children. Lax and irregular forms of government favour a\nviolent ambition. By one bold stratagem Giangaleazzo took his uncle\nprisoner, dispossessed his cousins, and established himself as lord of\nMilan.\n\nMilan was not enough. Fire and sword cleared the way before him, and his\nterritory stretched to the Apennine ridges. Florence, on the other side,\ntrembled for her independence. The Lombard kingdom was alive again, and,\nthough the Pope refused the indomitable conqueror the title of King of\nItaly, in 1395 the Emperor Wenzel invested him with the duchy of Milan.\n\nMeanwhile, in 1389, Valentine Visconti had gone to her husband in\nFrance. When she left Milan she was no longer her father\u2019s only child. A\nfew months before, her stepmother, Caterina Visconti, had given birth to\na son. A little later a second son was born. The greatest conqueror of\nhis age could now divide his possessions between two sons born in\nwedlock, a bastard boy named Gabriello, and his only daughter Valentine,\nthe child of his first wife, the Princess Isabelle of France. The first\nquestion that confronts us is this: What provision did Giangaleazzo\nVisconti make for his daughter Valentine of Orleans?\n\nFor many centuries there has been much debate concerning the claim of\nOrleans to Milan. Much argument and little evidence has confused the\nquestion; it is only the evidence that we shall examine here. In the\nNational Archives of Paris[50] there exists the original\nmarriage-contract of Valentine Visconti. A copy of this document is\ncontained in a brown leather folio, stamped with the Visconti serpent,\nexisting in the British Museum.[49] It is an instrument granted by the\nAntipope, Clement of Avignon, on January 27, 1387, in favour of Louis of\nOrleans and Bertrand de Guasche, Governor of Vertus, as representing the\nfather of Valentine. To the marriage contract are appended a\ndispensation (Louis and Valentine were cousins), a deed of transfer for\nthe bride\u2019s dowry of Asti and its dependencies, and a declaration of her\nright to succeed her father in Milan, in case his direct male line\nshould become extinct. The clause which chiefly concerns us runs as\nfollows: \u201c_Item est actum et in pactum solempni stipulatione vallatum et\nexpresse deductum quod in casu quo pr\u00e6fatus dominus Johannes Galeas\nvicecomes, comes Virtutum, dominus Mediolanensis, decedat sine filiis\nmasculis de suo proprio corpore ex legitimo matrimonio procreatis, dicta\ndomina Valentina, nata sua, succedat et succedere debeat in solidum in\ntoto dominio suo presente et futuro quocumque, absque eo quod per viam\ntestamenti, codicillorum, seu alicujus alterius ultim\u00e6 voluntatis, aut\ndonatione inter vivos, ipsa aliquid faciat seu facere possit in\ncontrarium quovis modo._\u201d\n\nFootnote 49:\n\n  J. 409, No. 42. Contrat de Mariage. 42 _bis_, Vidimus du Contrat et\n  Acte de la remise d\u2019Asti. Pavia, April 8, 1387. 42 _ter_, Confirmation\n  du Contrat par Clement VII. \u00e0 Avignon. For further documents on the\n  subject see Carton K. 553.\n\nFootnote 50:\n\n  Additional MSS., No. 30,669, fo. 215.\n\nThe husband of Valentine was for many years the tool with which the\nastute Visconti hoped to assure his own supremacy in Italy. In 1393 and\nin 1394 Visconti had no dearer scheme than that Clement, the Antipope at\nAvignon, should make the Duke of Orleans king of Adria. With Clement at\nRome, Anjou at Naples, Orleans ruling the centre from Spoleto to\nFerrara, Visconti beheld the annihilation of Venice and the Tuscan\nrepublics\u2014a united Italy north of Rome. Doubtless he intended the\nkingdom of Adria and the kingdom of Lombardy to lose themselves in one\nmonarchy: but whether that result was to be attained by the subsequent\nspoliation of Orleans or by his adoption as heir to Milan, was a\nquestion which probably depended on the living or dying of the sons of\nGiangaleazzo. Orleans, however, though so young, proved himself no\nfacile instrument. He had no intention that Adria and Lombardy should\nunite to his own disadvantage; and silently he contemplated another\nscheme\u2014to secure the docility of Lombardy by bounding it on the south by\nAdria and on the north by another French principality, to be formed by a\nfusion of Asti and Genoa. Orleans, therefore, determined to begin by the\nconquest of Genoa; and for three years he displayed so much ability that\nGiangaleazzo began to suspect this count of Asti and seigneur of Savona,\nwhom the Genoese implored to become the governor of the Ligurian\nrepublic. Then came the scandal of the acquisition of Genoa by Charles\nVI., to the detriment of his brother. From 1395 to 1397 there is a\nmoment of division between the interests of Orleans and Visconti; but,\nas we shall see, the last act of Visconti was to enforce the claims of\nOrleans to Milan, and the Duke of Orleans in his will[51] expressly\nbequeaths to his eldest son \u201c_la comt\u00e9 d\u2019Ast et autres terres que j\u2019ay\net puis avoir au pays de Lombardy et d\u2019outre les monts_.\u201d As far as\nOrleans and Visconti could decide, there is no doubt of the claim of\nOrleans to Milan. But it is more difficult to decide by what right\nGiangaleazzo Visconti disposed of the emperor\u2019s fiefs of Milan; for\nalthough, when Visconti signed his daughter\u2019s marriage-contract, he was\nsimply the illegal despot of Milan, eight years later the emperor made\nhim duke and received tribute at his hands. The lands which Visconti had\ngained by succession, by fraud, and by conquest, which he had ruled by\nforce and national custom, were now indubitably his by feudal right. But\nin order to acquire the security of this legality, the Duke of Milan, in\ntheory at all events, had sacrificed a certain portion of his\nindependence.\n\nFootnote 51:\n\n  Champollion-Figeac, \u201cLouis et Charles ducs d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans,\u201d p. 253. The\n  will is dated Oct. 17, 1403: Pisa was probably counted in the \u201cautres\n  terres que puis avoir.\u201d\n\nThe first investiture was granted him on Sept. 5, 1395. From this date\nhe held his duchy of Milan as an imperial fief. But as what manner of\nfief? And which class of fiefs admits a woman to be her father\u2019s heir?\n\nThese questions, seemingly simple, are in reality difficult to answer,\nbecause feudal law was quite indefinitely modified by provincial custom.\nIt was chiefly custom which decided if an hereditary fief could be\ninherited by a woman in default of males. Thus in France the provinces\nof Burgundy and Normandy were strictly masculine fiefs; but Lorraine,\nGuienne, and Artois descended to daughters in default of sons; and the\nduchy of Brittany, the kingdoms of Cyprus, Navarre, and Naples (a Papal\nfief), will occur to every mind; while in Germany itself, in the\nstronghold of feudalism, the duchy of Mecklenburg descended to daughters\non extinction of the masculine branch; many fiefs in Swabia, Zutphen,\nPomerania, and Saxony, followed this example.\n\nIn the North of Italy the distinction between legitimacy and\nillegitimacy had become so trivial a thing, that sons, born in or out of\nwedlock, were generally forthcoming in sufficient numbers to distance\nany feminine claim; and the Imperial investiture\u2014save in the case when\nit carried with it the Imperial Vicariat\u2014was rather a rose in the\nbuttonhole of the tyrant than a necessary legalization of a tyranny\nstronger than the law. Yet the marquisate of Montferrat was brought into\nthe house of the Pal\u00e6ologi through a feminine succession; and in 1387\nValentine Visconti brought the country of Asti (no less than Milan an\nImperial fief) unquestioned to her husband, and with only the Pope\u2019s\ninvestiture. A century later Caterina Sforza ruled in Pesaro. The custom\nin Italy, then, though dubious, various, and full of irregularities and\nconfusions was, on the whole, the same as the custom in Mecklenburg,\nPomerania, Swabia, Hungary, Brittany, Navarre, and other places: on\nextinction of the male descent a woman might succeed. If her succession\nwere provided for by the terms of the investiture; or, in other cases,\nunless she were deliberately excluded.[52]\n\nFootnote 52:\n\n  In the ordinary imperial fiefs, which, even so late as the end of the\n  fourteenth century, still in many cases preserved their original idea\n  of military service granted in return for territorial possessions, a\n  woman could not succeed without direct and especial mention of this\n  fact in the investiture, or in some subsequent privilege. But in a\n  purchased fief daughters were admitted to the succession in default of\n  males. Milan was an imperial fief, derived directly from the emperor,\n  and held by the peculiar sort of tenure known as _Fahnlehen_, from the\n  homage of a banner or standard paid by its possessor to his feudal\n  lord; it was destined, even if not explicitly reserved, for masculine\n  operation only. Giangaleazzo Visconti paid the enormous price of\n  100,000 florins (about \u00a350,000 sterling) for the title and\n  investiture, but I am not aware whether this is or is not sufficient\n  to grant the fief the looser privileges of a _feudum emptum_.\n\nIn the investiture of 1395 which made Giangaleazzo duke of Milan there\nis no mention of Valentine, but neither is there any direct mention of\nthe sons of Giangaleazzo. The duchy of Milan is bestowed on him, _sui\nheredes et successores_. Now this term in Italy, where the Pandects were\nstill the model of civil law, might be held to include _all_ the\nchildren of the possessor; and, on failure of the male line, the\ndaughter would be entitled to put in her claim. I am not aware how much\nwas implied in Germany at this date by the employment of this term; but\nprobably there also it was at least ambiguous, since, under the\nHohenstaufen emperors, Roman law had made a great advance through\nGermany, and since, later on, it was found necessary to formulate a\nspecial clause that the use of the expression _sui heredes_ should not\nbe considered sufficient to authorize females to claim succession to a\nmasculine fief.\n\nAny ambiguity was dispelled the following year. There was then a\npossibility of war between France and Milan, grievously estranged at\nthat date by the presence of the French in Genoa, and by the rumours of\nwitchcraft which defamed the reputation and endangered the safety of\nMadame Valentine in France. At this juncture Giangaleazzo, probably\nalarmed at the terms of his daughter\u2019s marriage-contract, procured a\nsecond imperial investiture,[54] distinctly limiting the succession to\nmale heirs. But this was not the end. In 1396 news came to Paris of the\nbattle of Nicopolis, which necessitated an immediate _rapprochement_\nwith Milan; for Giangaleazzo Visconti, feared and hated because of his\nfriendship with the Turk, was at this juncture the one necessary man,\ncapable of mediating between the French and the East. Great court was\npaid to him, and he accepted the French advances. Peace and amity being\nrestored between the two countries, on March 30, 1397, he obtained a\nthird and last investiture from Wenzel,[53] which restored the\nconditions of inheritance to their original footing, and bestowed the\nduchy of Milan on Giangaleazzo Visconti, _descendentes et successores\nsui_.\n\nFootnote 53:\n\n  \u201cAnn. Med.,\u201d in Muratori, \u201cRer. Ital. Script.\u201d xvi.\n\nFootnote 54:\n\n  Dumont, ii. clxxxix.\n\nThis ambiguity of phrase may possibly have been designed. The fact that\nthe fief was a _pm corr 189.17 Fahnlehn Fahnlehen>_, directly dependent\non the emperor, and that (so far as I can discover) no special Imperial\nprivilege had been granted to Madame Valentine, would in Germany itself\nappear as strong evidence in favour of a solely masculine succession as\neven the second investiture could afford. But in Italy, by the custom of\nthe country and the authority of contract and testament, the children of\nValentine would be included among the heirs and descendants of her\nfather; and, in case the whole race of his sons expired, the vague terms\nof the investiture would allow the line of Orleans to put in a claim\nwhich would prevent so important a part of Italy from relapsing to the\nforeign emperor. Such at least, as it appears to me, must have been the\ndesign of the duke in obtaining this last investiture, a two-edged\nweapon in the hands of him who has been described as the wisest and the\nmost astute among all the princes of the west.\n\nHis position, therefore, seems to have been as follows. To secure\nhimself against any inconvenient pretensions of the French, he had the\nrestrictions of the feudal law; and yet he was equally protected against\nthe encroachments of the empire. He had the sanction of local custom,\nthe ambiguity of the terms of investiture; and, in addition to this, a\npapal privilege, conceding to Valentine the right to succeed her\nbrothers or her nephews in the state of Milan.\n\nThe right of a Pope to dispose of an Imperial fief appears upon the face\nof it a very questionable matter, even when the Empire be really vacant.\nWhen Valentine Visconti was contracted to her husband, Clement VII. had\nmerely declared an interregnum in the empire, on account of the\nadherence of Wenzel, King of the Romans, to the faction of Urban the\nPope at Rome. Such was the supremacy of the Church over Imperial affairs\nat this period, that, notwithstanding the absurdity of this plea and the\nfact that Clement was an Antipope, none was ever found to question the\nlegality of the French claim to Asti, which was not granted to Orleans\nby any Imperial privilege until the investiture of 1413. An intriguing\nadventurer anxious to consolidate a new and unpopular dynasty by every\nlegal claim, Giangaleazzo cultivated Emperor, Pope, and Antipope. Urban\nand Clement and Wenzel were all in turn solicited to confirm the tenure\nof Visconti. Corio appears to believe that the succession of Valentine\nto Milan was granted by Urban, who was certainly in Lombardy in the year\n1387. But Urban had denied to Giangaleazzo the coveted title of king of\nItaly; and there are as yet no documents discovered which prove the\nalluring hypothesis that the astute Visconti held in his possession a\ndecree of the Pope no less than a decree of the Antipope granting the\nsuccession to Milan to his daughter.\n\nEnough, however, remains to show by what a cunning opposition of France\nto Germany, and Germany to France, the Duke of Milan strove to secure\nItalian independence. If the Germans, then but the shadow of a power,\nchose to assert their over-lordship, the claim of the French was strong\nenough to insure them two enemies instead of one; and _vice versa_:\u2014as,\nindeed, a later century too adequately proved. Hoping to hold each\nneighbour in check and fear of the other, Giangaleazzo meant to insure a\nperiod of quiet growth for his own principality of Lombardy.\n\nThus the contract securing Milan to Valentine by a papal transfer made\nfor France; the second investiture was absolute for Germany: the first\nand third were so worded that they conveyed a different meaning on\neither side of the Alps. Besides papal privileges and imperial\ninvestitures there is, however, a third way of conferring property: I\nmean the way in which Naples was transferred to Anjou\u2014the way of\nbequest.\n\nBut, the reader will exclaim, can a feoffer dispose of a fief without\nthe written consent of his feodary? Here, as in the question of feminine\nsuccession, the matter was chiefly decided by the custom of the\nprovince. In certain countries\u2014as, for example, Nassau, Friedland, Ober\nLausitz\u2014a feoffer might dispose of his possessions by will, although a\ncontrary law held good in other countries.\n\nBut whatever the local law, the tendency was strong, even in feudal\nGermany, to diminish the rights of the empire to the advantage of the\nfeudatory powers. As Menzel puts it, \u201cthe emperor grasped but a shadowy\nsceptre ... the princes increased in wealth and power, while the emperor\nwas gradually impoverished. Imperial investiture had become a mere form,\nwhich could not be refused except on certain occasions; and the\npfalzgraves, formerly intrusted with the management of Imperial allods,\nhad seized them as hereditary fiefs.\u201d What was done with impunity in\nGermany, was done with audacity beyond the Alps. And the Duke of Milan,\nwho had received his principality as a vassal, intended to dispose of it\nlike an hereditary monarch. If we impeach his right to pursue this\ncourse, it is not only the claims of the Visconti, but of almost every\nnoble family in Italy, Germany, or Flanders that must submit to be\ndenied or censured.\n\nYet claiming and acting upon his own authority to dispose of Milan,\nGiangaleazzo Visconti involved his testament in the same web of intrigue\nand counter-intrigue which characterized his earlier policy. No less\nthan three wills, entirely different, are open to us; and as the most\nimportant of these is only known in an undated copy, it is difficult to\ndecide which was his final disposition of affairs. The first, familiar\nenough to the student of Corio, was drawn up in 1397, and was modified\nin 1401; it makes no provision at all for Valentine. The second (No.\nccxxiii in the first volume of Osio\u2019s documents), undated, but probably\ncomposed in 1397, confirms her _in all possessions previously bestowed_,\nbut grants her nothing else, unless she should fall into a state of\npoverty or widowhood, in which case she was to have sufficient and\nprincely nurture in her brother\u2019s home at Milan, with a dowry in case\nshe should contract a second marriage. This is all, yet this is enough\nto confirm the contract of 1387. But it is the latest-found of the\ntestaments of Giangaleazzo Visconti which is most important to the\nstudent of the French claim to Milan. This will, discovered in 1872 by\nSignor Luigi Osio in the Milanese Archives, gives an entirely new force\nto the pretensions of Orleans. Yet it exists only in copy and in\nextract\u2014like a passage of Sappho saved by some unconscious\ngrammarian\u2014quoted by a Sforzesco advocate in a letter of warning\naddressed to Lodovico il Moro on Jan. 10, 1496.\n\nAt this date, the usurper Lodovico (possessed by the family conviction\nthat at some time his grandfather, Filippo Maria Visconti, must have\nmade a will bequeathing Milan to Lodovico\u2019s mother) had entrusted his\nfriend and kinsman Giason del Maino _elegantissimo et celeberrimo\nlegista_, (if we may trust the verdict of Corio) with the task of\nsearching the Milanese Archives to this end. Del Maino discovered\nnothing concerning Madonna Bianca; but instead he found two highly\ncompromising copies of the will of Giangaleazzo Visconti, which had come\nto light in the house of Messer Giovanni Domenico Oliari, notary of\nPavia, son of Andriano Oliari (an obstinate and honest servant of the\nVisconti dukes), of whom my readers will hear more upon a future page.\n\n\u201cAs for these copies,\u201d wrote Messer Giasone, \u201cthough they are only\ncopies, and by no means according to the terms, I entreat you to have\nthem seized at once, as well as three other copies which I have reason\nto believe are in the possession (1) of the brothers of the Certosa of\nPavia, (2) of Manfredo da Ozino, and (3) of the Signore della Mirandola.\nYou will do well to keep them safe, for they would be of the greatest\nvalue to the Duke of Orleans, since this testament and fidei-commissio\nprovides that, should the sons of Giangaleazzo die without male heirs,\none of the sons of Madonna Valentine shall succeed to Milan. And, though\nI could find it in my heart to maintain that the Duke of Orleans has no\nright to obtain anything, as to Milan, from you or your illustrious\nchildren, none the less you will do well to keep these copies safe.\u201d\n\nLodovico took the hint. Of the five copies mentioned not one exists\nto-day. Only the forgotten letter remains to show the intention of\nGiangaleazzo Visconti. Sudden death and swift oblivion rudely damaged\nhis dexterous intrigues\u2014so much here for France, so much there for\nGermany\u2014an even balance held neatly in a steady hand. The plague numbed\nthat cunning hand for ever in the autumn of 1402. Murder soon removed\nthe elder son of the great duke; and the bastard Gabriello died on the\nexecutioner\u2019s scaffold in hostile Genoa. Both died childless, and Milan\nfell to their younger brother, Filippo Maria. He ruled in peace and\nsplendour for more than thirty years in Milan. But two marriages brought\nhim no sons; only one daughter, and she illegitimate, cheered his\nmagnificent palace. As the Duke grew old, men began to ask each other\nwho should succeed him in Milan: his natural daughter, married to the\ngreat captain Francesco Sforza? or his nephew, his sister\u2019s son, the\nDuke of Orleans? or his wife\u2019s relations of Savoy? or, after all, must\nMilan return, a lapsed fief, into the foreign hands of the German\nemperor.\n\n\n                                  II.\n\nMeanwhile a melancholy fate had pursued the French heirs to Milan, the\nchildren of Valentine and Orleans. This is not the place to explain how\ntheir young dissensions with their father\u2019s murderers summoned the\nEnglish into France; or how the youngest, John of Angoul\u00eame, was sent to\nEngland, a mere child, in 1412, as a hostage for his brother\u2019s debt; or\nhow, three years later, the defeat at Agincourt sent Charles of Orleans\nto join him there. The sons of Valentine remained in prison all their\nyouth. When, in 1440, the son of their father\u2019s murderer, the gentle\nDuke of Burgundy, ransomed the Duke of Orleans out of bondage, Charles\nwas a man of forty-six,[55] who returned home to find his estates half\nruined by disastrous wars; his brother Philip dead; his half-brother a\nhero\u2014Dunois, the restorer of his country. It was late to regain his\nposition in this altered world, but at least he lost no time. In the\nsame month of the same year (November, 1440) Charles married a niece of\nBurgundy, Mary of Cleves. In 1445 his brother, John of Angoul\u00eame, newly\nreleased from England, married a neighbour of his sister\u2019s\u2014Marguerite de\nRohan, to whose elder sister he had been contracted in his youth. The\ntwo princes were determined to recover their inheritance, to raise up\nchildren, and restore the ancient dignity of their house. Much of\nAngoul\u00eame and much of Orleans and much of the inheritance of Bonne\nd\u2019Armagnac was still in the hands of the English. The estates of Orleans\nin France were grievously diminished. And outside France Asti had been\nlost also.\n\nFootnote 55:\n\n  He was born 24th of November, 1394. See for the release of Orleans the\n  excellent chapter in the Marquis de Beaucourt\u2019s \u201cHistoire de Charles\n  VII.\u201d t. iii., Paris, 1885.\n\nIn the year 1422, when Charles of Orleans had lain already seven years,\nand John ten years, in an English prison, when Philip of Vertus was\ndead, when France was paralysed, and Henry VI. of England crowned the\nking of France in Paris, the county of Asti, in great fear of the\nEnglish (those Goths of the Riviera) and of the nearer jealousies of\nambitious Montferrat, sent to Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, and\nbegged him to receive Asti under his guardianship and protection[57]\nuntil such time as either of his nephews should be released from\nEngland. The Duke of Milan consented willingly. Asti was the Calais of\nItaly, and from the Italian point of view it appeared intolerable and\nunnatural that this one county should remain a little island of France\nin Lombardy, a _pied-\u00e0-terre_ across the mountains for invading Gaul.\nAnd now, after twenty years of undisturbed possession, the Duke of Milan\nturned a deaf ear to his nephew\u2019s reminder that he was home again and\nready to reassume his inheritance. As a fact the Duke did not dare to\nrestore Asti. In 1438 he had made Francesco Sforza his lieutenant there;\nand he was afraid of Sforza. It was in vain sending letters and\nrequisitions; so in the beginning of the year 1441 the princes of\nOrleans sent Dunois to Milan.[56]\n\nFootnote 56:\n\n  See M. Leopold Delisle, Collection Bertrand d\u2019Estaing, a long note\n  about F.M. Visconti\u2019s protection of Asti, and secret instruction of\n  Orleans to Cousinot, p. 135-40.\n\nFootnote 57:\n\n  \u201cThe Bastard came with this requisition in the year 1442 to Milan,\n  where I, Secundinus Ventura, saw him\u201d (\u201cMemoriale Secundini Ventur\u00e6\u201d).\n  Dunois went twice, February, 1441, and in 1451. In spite of Ventura\u2019s\n  line, the date is fixed by a document communicated to me by Count\n  Albert de Circourt (Pi\u00e8ces Originales Fontanieu, dossier 1185, No.\n  38): \u201cPayez 200 \u00e9cus d\u2019or \u00e0 nostre comis et f\u00e9al fr\u00e8re le bastard\n  d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans sur ung voiage qu\u2019il a fait pour nous au pais de Lombardie\n  partant de nostre dicte ville de Blois au dict mois de F\u00e9brier dernier\n  pass\u00e9.\u201d Blois 22nd Mai 1441.\n\nThere were other matters more important even than the restitution of\nAsti, upon which it was well that a man so wise, so experienced, so\npersuasive as Dunois should confer with the uncle of his half-brothers.\nThe Duke of Milan had no sons, one daughter only, and she was\nillegitimate. Therefore the princes of Orleans considered themselves the\nheirs to Milan. But they were not alone in expecting this inheritance.\nThe Emperor pointed to the clause in the investiture of 1396 which\ndeclared that, in default of males, Milan should revert to the empire.\nJacopo Visconti, a distant cousin of the Duke\u2019s, brought forward some\npretensions of his own. Sforza, the husband of the Duke\u2019s natural\ndaughter, thought of the house of Este and of other Italian houses where\nmore than once a bastard, if courageous and beautiful, had succeeded to\nhis father before legitimate heirs; and as to the fact that Madonna\nBianca was a woman, had not Giovanna I. of Naples succeeded to King\nRobert, even in defiance of a Salic law? Meanwhile the princes of Savoy\nremembered that when the Duke of Milan had married the Savoyard princess\nhe had made, upon receipt of her dower, a promise to her father and her\nbrother that if no children sprang from this union, he would bequeath\nthe titles of Milan to Savoy. It is significant of the strange confusion\nof the laws of inheritance in Italy that all these princes believed in\nthe right of a Duke of Milan to bestow by testament, or deed or gift, or\nmarriage-contract, that which was, in fact, a fief of the Holy Roman\nEmpire. But the rights of the empire had fallen into long disuse across\nthe Alps, where a strange confusion of kinship, bequest, investiture, or\nelection by the people regulated the succession to Papal and Imperial\nfiefs. Some princes succeeded in one way, some in the other. To the eyes\nof contemporaries they all appeared justifiable alternatives, giving\nsome shadow of right to that which a strong hand meant to grasp and\nmeant to keep. \u201cMost of the princes in Italy,\u201d wrote Commines fifty\nyears later, \u201chold their lands by no title unless it be given them in\nheaven, which we can but divine.\u201d\n\nThus eyed suspiciously by rival heirs, Dunois, as the representative of\nOrleans, crossed the Alps in 1441 and came to Milan, both to require the\nrestitution of Asti, and also, as Ventura remarks, to confer on other\nmatters with the Duke. The Duke of Milan was a sad, timid, indifferent\nman, old at five-and-fifty and harassed by an almost lunatic suspicion\nof danger from his friends. As he grew older his fears and doubts grew\nstronger, and he saw no motive for any sort of conduct beside the desire\nto succeed him in Milan. Oppressed by hypochondria, corpulent to\ndeformity, fatigued by the weight of his body, and exhausted by the\nheaviness upon his spirits, this timid and sceptical Volpone of Lombardy\nfound his sole amusement in weaving into a complicated perplexity the\nexpectations of his heirs. Sitting immovable in his corner at Milan,\nlike some huge spider spinning in the dusk, he crossed and recrossed,\ntwisted and confused, in his dreary web, the hopes of Sforza and of\nOrleans, of Savoy and of the bastard cousins of his house.\n\nNo one could be sure of the succession. Sforza, the object of his senile\nfondness, was the object also of his insane suspicion. The Duke had\ntried a score of times to shuffle out of a promise to give him his\nnatural daughter; and the very week that he had finally consented to\ntheir marriage, he sent a private messenger to Lionello d\u2019Este, offering\n_him_ the hand of Madonna Bianca. Nevertheless, in 1441 Sforza married\nBianca, a mere girl, but bringing in her dowry the Signories of Cremona\nand Pontremoli, in addition to his lieutenancy of Asti. After the\nmarriage he was no more sure of the Duke of Milan than he had been\nbefore. The uncertain seesaw of the Duke\u2019s caprices continued as\nunsteady as of old. On the one hand, the Duke was aware that Sforza,\nthough the son of a peasant, was the most remarkable Italian of his day,\ncourageous, frank, spirited, kind of heart, and cunning. His immense\nstrength of will both attracted and repelled the vacillating and\nsuspicious Visconti. He admired Sforza, and Sforza was the husband of\nhis only child. Still more, Sforza was secretly supported by Agnese del\nMaino, the mother of Bianca, the sole woman whose influence had ever\ntouched the indifferent and preoccupied heart of Filippo Maria. On the\nother hand, the Duke was afraid of Sforza\u2014and to fear, in timid natures,\nis to hate.\n\nWhen fear and suspicion sank the scale, Visconti inclined to his wife\u2019s\nrelations of Savoy, who, having no right at all except such as he chose\nto give them, presented no cause for fear. Or he encouraged the claims\nof Jacopo Visconti. Osio, in a note, informs us that this Jacopo\nVisconti was the son of Gabriello, the bastard of Giangaleazzo, and had\nthis been the case Jacopo Visconti would have had a certain claim. But\nGabriello left no children, and Jacopo must have been the son of one of\nthe numerous children of Bernab\u00f2. Nevertheless he considered himself to\nhave pretensions. When all these had been weighed in the balance and\nfound wanting, there remained the princes of Orleans.\n\nIn early life the Duke of Milan had been inclined to France; and he had\nbeen a suitor for that Princess Marie d\u2019Anjou, who afterwards married\nKing Charles VII. From 1420 to 1427 the pages of Osio abound in messages\nand treaties. Then the vexed question of Asti began to embitter his\nrelations with France, and to increase that fatal suspicion which ever\nmade him turn with sudden loathing from his former friends. While his\ndiscontent with Anjou was still undecided, the Genoese handed into his\ncustody the enemy of Anjou, the prince of Arragon, taken prisoner at\nsea. In their suzerain Visconti, the ally of Anjou, the Genoese imagined\nthat they had found a sure custodian for Arragon. But they had not\nreckoned upon the personal charm of Alfonso the Magnanimous, nor upon\nthe capricious indifference of Visconti. Young, handsome, engaging,\nfearless, their chivalrous captive won the heart of his timid jailer,\nand easily turned his fluctuating policy from Anjou towards Arragon.\nVisconti suddenly deserted his own subjects, released Alfonso without\nconsulting the Genoese, and supported him upon the throne of Naples.\n\nWith some thought in his heart, doubtless, of the success of Alfonso,\nDunois turned his steps to Milan. He also was handsome, persuasive,\nrhetorical; and if no longer young, his comely head was encircled by the\naureole of heroic victory. But Dunois lacked the enthusiasm, the\nspontaneity, that, in Arragon, had warmed for a moment the numb and\nchilly heart of the Duke of Milan. Dunois was as cold, as sceptical, as\nwise, as worldly as himself. His flowers of speech made no real effect\nupon the weary Duke, who, to get rid of him, made, doubtless, some\nmagnificent promise for the future; for Dunois did not insist on his\ndemand for Asti, but returned almost immediately to France, hoping to\nsettle matters by the friendly intervention of the Emperor Frederic; but\nat that time the customary _malentendu_ as to the occupation of Alsace\nestranged France and Germany, and Frederic declined to interfere with\nthe projects of the Duke of Milan.\n\nDunois had not impressed the Duke, who was impressed only by youth,\nfearlessness, and a never-daunted will. He thought he perceived these\nqualities in the young Dauphin, half in disgrace on his estate in\nDauphin\u00e9. Him also Visconti determined to drag into the tangled web of\nthe Milanese succession; and about this time negotiations with the\nDauphin Louis began to complicate the difficulties of Transalpine\npolicy.\n\nAlready in the spring of 1445[58] a minute in the Archives of Milan,\ntranscribed by Signor Luigi Osio, records the willingness of the Duke of\nMilan to further the Dauphin in his plan of an Italian invasion,\nprovided that Louis agree to help the friends and not the enemies of\nVisconti. Asti should be confided to a person equally trusted by Orleans\nand Milan, and after the expiration of a given term should be freely\nhanded back to the eldest son of Valentine. Notwithstanding this\nfair-spoken scheme, Visconti finds it necessary to caution his young\nally against certain persons on the French side of the Alps who use\nthreats and menaces towards the Crown of Milan. By these it is clear\nthat he intends his nephews of Orleans. He has no friendship for them.\n_Noluit restituere_, briefly remarks Secundino Ventura.\n\nFootnote 58:\n\n  Feb. 23 (The Milanese began the year upon Dec. 25). Osio, vol. iii.\n  cccxviii.\n\nThe negotiations with Louis proceeded briskly, and in May the Milanese\nambassador arrived in Paris, where he found _grande garra e divisione_\nbetween the restless Dauphin and King Ren\u00e9 of Sicily, who he remarks (to\nour unfeigned surprise) _\u00e8 quello che governa tucto questo reame_.\nMeanwhile Louis, young as he was, had already learned a maxim as true in\npolicy as in almsgiving: he let not his right hand divine the secrets of\nhis left; and while on the one side he treated with the Duke of Milan,\non the other he practised with Savoy. According to the latter plan Savoy\nand the Dauphin, aided by Montferrat and Mantua and Ferrara, were to\nconquer between them the north of Italy; France was to take Genoa, the\nLucchese, Parma, Piacenza, Tortona\u2014all south of the Po and east of\nMontferrat; Savoy was to gain Milan and keep the Riviera; Alessandria\nwas to be handed over to Montferrat, and the Duke of Ferrara and the\nMarquis of Mantua were, _for the present_, to keep their actual\npossessions; but this significant phrase was followed by one more\nsignificant still: \u201cAll future conquests are to be divided at the rate\nof two shares to France and one share to Savoy.\u201d[59]\n\nFootnote 59:\n\n  B. de Mandrot. See also MSS. of Bib. Nat., Lat. 17779, fos. 53-56; and\n  for the correspondence of Pope Felix with his son, Duke Louis of\n  Savoy, upon this subject, an exhaustive article by M. Gaullier in the\n  eighth volume of the \u201cArchiv f\u00fcr schweizerische Geschichte.\u201d\n\nAn intimate acquaintance with documents inspires little confidence in\nthe rectitude of human nature. Of all these personages, Charles of\nOrleans, a simple lyric creature, kept fresh and wholesome in arrested\nyouth behind his prison bars, and Sforza, an honest, grasping and\nambitious soldier, alone inspire respect or sympathy. This old duke,\nconscious that in a few months his immense possessions will have\ndwindled to a single grave, amusing the last hours of his sceptical,\nindifferent existence by juggling the expectations of a dozen heirs;\nthis child-prince, without an impulse or an illusion left of youth,\nsuccessfully deceiving a couple of enemies who each believes himself his\nsole ally\u2014these unfortunately are no exceptions to the rule of the game.\n\nSavoy, in the act of drawing up this project of conquest, was\nencouraging the Milanese to trust him to secure them a free republic on\nthe death of the Duke. Montferrat and Mantua, pledged on the one hand to\nconquer Italy with the Dauphin, were as deeply pledged to Venice[60] to\noppose the invader and preserve the peace. Each had been careful to risk\nsomething on every possible event, so that no sudden turn of the wheel\nof Fortune could bring about complete disaster.\n\nFootnote 60:\n\n  Feb. 14, 1447. Reg. 17, fol. 106, Secreta, Venice. This document\n  records the dismay of Florence and Venice upon learning the league of\n  France and Milan. These two cities with Montferrat, Mantua, Angleria,\n  and the other Lombard powers, joined in a solemn convention to oppose\n  the common enemy and to preserve the peace.\n\nOn the 9th of February, 1447, an indiscreet French squire, riding to\nRome upon a message, let out to the Florentines that a league had been\nformed between the Dauphin of France and the Duke of Milan.[61]\nAccording to this report Visconti had offered to aid the lad to recover\nGenoa, and had volunteered, in defiance of the rights of Orleans, to\nmake him lord of Asti. A document in Osio (t. iii. ccclxxiii.) dated the\n20th of December, 1446, and a series of letters in the Biblioth\u00e8que\nNationale,[62] confirm this remarkable statement, which, if it spread\nhorror throughout Italy, caused no less indignation among the heirs of\nValentine. Strangely enough it was Sforza, at that time the Milanese\ngovernor of Asti, who advocated the cause of the Dauphin. \u201cGive him\nAsti, and he will do you excellent service. Pay him well; and yet\ncontrive it in such a way that none but your Highness shall be cock or\nhen in this country.\u201d This advice was rendered still more unpalatable to\nthe Italians and to the house of Orleans by a rumour that the Duke of\nMilan intended to adopt the Dauphin as his heir. Before the month was\nout the north Italian princes formed themselves into a counter-league\nagainst France and Milan, and Orleans and Dunois had despatched to Milan\nthe baillie of Sens, a certain Reynouard du Dresnay, with a demand for\nthe immediate restitution of Asti. This time they would brook no\nrefusal, they would be tempted by no future benefits. Indignant and\ndisenchanted, they instructed their lieutenant to press the matter home;\nand on the 4th of May, Asti again returned to France. The conditions of\nthe surrender were peculiar. The county was not directly given back to\nOrleans, but yielded to Du Dresnay as the lieutenant of the king, so\nlong as the said king should preserve the good will and consent of\nCharles of Orleans, _directus dominus ipsius civitatis et patri\u00e6_.\n\nFootnote 61:\n\n  Desjardins, \u201cN\u00e9g. dipl. avec la Toscane,\u201d t. i. p. 60.\n\nFootnote 62:\n\n  Bibl. Nat. MSS. Ital. 1584, Nos. 21 and 84, quoted by the Marquis de\n  Beaucourt in the \u201cRevue des Questions Historiques\u201d for October, 1887.\n\nIn this matter at least the shifty Duke of Milan was outwitted. Asti had\nslipped from his grasp; France had again her hand upon the key of\nLombardy. Much of his interest in the game was gone. As the summer waxed\nand waned, the Duke grew more than ever heavy, indifferent, and\nlethargic. He was not seriously ill, but, as I have said, his interest\nin the game was over. In August his health, always feeble, sank in the\ngreat heat of the summer. Immense in his unwieldly corpulence, the Duke\nsat in a darkened chamber of his palace brooding over his unfinished\ntestament. He suffered no physician near him, and his illness\u2014a low\nfever\u2014was kept a secret. But the faint heart of Filippo Maria could no\nlonger animate the weight of his body. On the 13th of August, 1447, he\ndied\u2014less of his illness, it was said, than of utter indifference, as\none who, weary of the spectacle of existence, left his seat and retired\nwhence he came.\n\nAbove the corpse, scarcely yet cold, the rival heirs, in eager\nexpectation, gathered to the reading of the will. The Duchess-dowager\nrepresented Savoy; Madonna Bianca appeared for the absent Sforza;\nRaynouard du Dresnay came to Milan on behalf of Orleans; while, at a\ndistance, Montferrat and Jacopo Visconti looked to their own interests;\nthe Venetians had hopes of their own; the Milanese, as we know, intended\nto inaugurate a republic; the emperor, serene above these petty\nquarrels, declared that by feudal law Milan had already devolved to him.\nAbsent or present, there was not one of these, save him, but had some\npromise of Filippo Maria\u2019s in his mind when at length the testament was\nopened. The will was dated August 12th,[63] the day before the death of\nthe Duke. There was no mention in it of his daughter, Madonna Bianca,\nnone of his wife, none of any of his nephews or kinsmen. He left Alfonso\nof Arragon his universal heir.\n\nPerhaps, as Guicciardini suggests, love of his people induced the dying\nDuke to leave his city to a distant tyrant; perhaps, in his suspicion of\nhis present friends, his fancy turned with pleasure to the good bright\nyouth who had been his captive long ago; perhaps his defeat at Asti made\nhim like to think of the evil turn that once he had done the French in\nNaples; or, it may be, the mere desire of outraging the detestable\n_cohue_ of his quasi-legal heirs proved irresistibly fascinating to the\nsceptical old man. At least so it was. Every right was outraged;[64] the\nKing of Naples was left the Duke of Milan. \u201cNevertheless come here as\nsoon as you can,\u201d wrote Antonio Guidoboni to Sforza[65] on the 14th;\n\u201conce on the spot and half the game is won.\u201d\n\nFootnote 63:\n\n  \u201cArchivio Storico Lombardo,\u201d Anno iii. fasc. iv.\n\nFootnote 64:\n\n  Osio, ii. note to p. 2. In the hour of his death, on August 14th, the\n  Duke drew a codicil leaving everything to Alfonso. Two days before he\n  had left Alfonso _erede universale_, and Bianca _erede particolare_.\n  Of course in either case she remained mistress of Cremona and\n  Pontremoli.\n\nFootnote 65:\n\n  Osio quotes this letter, which exists in the Archives of Milan: _Fece\n  el Re d\u2019Arragona erede del tutto, non facta mentione veruna di M.B.\n  [Madonna Bianca] ne de la mogliere ne d\u2019altri.... Vegnate pur voi via\n  senza veruna dimora; zonto siate qua lo mezo del giocho e vincto._\n\n\n                                  III.\n\nIt was at this moment that for the first time the French claim to Milan\nbecame a question for practical politics. Frederic the Pacific was not\nthe man to press the rights of the German Empire in Italy, rights which\nat this time were continually disregarded, and which nothing less than a\nmilitary occupation could enforce. Even the Ghibellines in Lombardy\ndeclared, not for the Emperor Frederic, but for Count Francesco Sforza.\nYet the Emperor Frederic was, so far as the legal and abstract side of\nthe matter was concerned, the one really serious rival of the Duke of\nOrleans.\n\nFor Alfonzo of Arragon showed no inclination to take up arms in defence\nof his unexpected bequest. Although, in the city of Milan itself, he had\na considerable party in his favour, at this time neither Alfonso nor his\nrivals appear to have regarded the will of the late duke in any serious\nspirit. The story ran in Milan that, in the week before his death, when\nthat astounding testament was made, Filippo Maria had smiled and said,\n\u201cIt will be good to see how it will go to pieces when I am dead.\u201d A\ncynical pleasure in aggravating as much as possible this imminent ruin\nmust, I think, have prompted the Duke to leave Milan to Alfonso. And if\nhis detached, amused, malevolent soul could really from any\nextra-mundane point of vantage have watched the events which quickly\nfollowed his decease, he would have found the spectacle as exciting and\nas novel as he wished. The Milanese at once declared themselves a free\nrepublic, governed by various Princes of Liberty. Whereupon all the\nsubject cities announced that if Milan was a republic, so was each of\nthem, for they would not submit to bear the yoke of a city no nobler\nthan the rest. Hereupon such of the cities as were not strong enough to\nstand alone gave themselves, some to the Venetians, some to Savoy, some\nto Genoa, some to Orleans, some to Montferrat, some to Ferrara; and all\nthese powers sent armies into Lombardy to protect their rights. Matters\nwere still further complicated by the dissensions of the Bracceschi and\nSforzeschi, the Guelfs and Ghibellines. In Pavia alone, for instance,\nthe Guelfs declared, some for Venice, some for Orleans, some for the\nKing of France, some for the Dauphin; the Bracceschi declared for\nAlfonzo of Arragon; Savoy and Montferrat each had a faction at their\nservice, but the great body of the Ghibellines were in favour of Count\nFrancesco Sforza, to whom finally the city submitted. This was a blow to\nthe free republic of Milan next door; but in the miserable state of\ntheir dominions, the unfortunate Princes of Liberty did not dare to\nremonstrate with their too potent commander, and Count Francesco,\nsovereign at Pavia, continued to be the servant of the Milanese\nrepublic.\n\nSo soon as the news of the death of the Duke of Milan came to France,\nthe French prepared to assert the rights of Orleans. On September 3rd\nCharles VII. wrote from Bourges to Turin, recommending the rights of\nOrleans to Savoy:\u2014\n\n\u201c_Nostre tres-cher et tr\u00e8s-am\u00e9 fr\u00e8re, le Duc d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans, \u00e0 pr\u00e9sent Duc de\nMilan_ [asserts the king] _par le d\u00e9c\u00e8s du feu Duc son oncle, qui est\nnagu\u00e8res all\u00e9 de vie \u00e0 trespas, comme son plus prochain hoir, nous a\nbien expr\u00e8s faict dire et remonstr\u00e9 le bon droict qu\u2019il ha au dict Duch\u00e9\nde Milan._\u201d[66]\n\nFootnote 66:\n\n  This letter is quoted in M. Gaullieur\u2019s interesting collection of\n  documents from the correspondence of Duke Louis of Savoy, published in\n  the eighth volume of the \u201cArchiv f\u00fcr schweizerische Geschichte.\u201d Also\n  in M. de Beaucourt\u2019s \u201cHistory,\u201d _op. cit._\n\nAnd Savoy, in all his further proceedings to obtain the protectorate of\nMilan for himself, excepts the French claim, against which he avows\nhimself powerless to protest. This claim, theoretically so strong, had\nalso in its favour the devotion\u2014the veneration, says Corio\u2014which the\nroyal name of France inspired in the Guelfs of Lombardy; and in this\nmoment of revolution the Guelfs, the democratic party, were\nexceptionally powerful. The governor of Asti, Raynouard du Dresnay,\ninfected by the ardour of the times, could no longer await the coming of\nhis master, but on September 22nd, furnished with 3,300 golden ducats of\nAsti, at the head of a little force of 1,500 men-at-arms, sallied out to\nplant the royal lilies of Orleans upon the soil of Milan.\n\nAlmost at once the inhabitants of Felizzano, Solero, Castellaccio, and\nBergolio yielded to his arms. So many of the fortresses in the\nAlessandrino followed suit that Alessandria and all the country round\nwere filled with fear. The force of Raynouard was very small, but\ninspired with so much fury, such fervour and cruelty of battle, that the\nsofter Italians did not dare resist him. The smaller cities opened at\nhis knock, and even in the larger cities there was a party which, afraid\nof his vengeance, and fascinated by the prestige of France, would have\nwelcomed him with open arms. Yet there were many, hating the stranger\nand his barbarian ferocity, who sent messenger after messenger to\nSforza, bidding him arrive and deliver them. \u201cPatience!\u201d said Count\nFrancesco. \u201cIn the first onslaught the French are more than men. Soon\nthey will weary, and then we will attack them.\u201d But meanwhile, with\nundiminished energy, day after day the victories of Raynouard proceeded,\nand further and further into Lombardy advanced the banners of the king\nof France.\n\nOn October 1st an embassy from the unhappy republic of Milan arrived in\nVenice requesting aid and counsel. This, of a truth, was seeking\nsweetness in the jaws of the lion; for Lodi, Codogno, and other cities\nhad already revolted to the Venetians, who hoped in time, by skilful\nmanagement, to possess the greater part of Lombardy. But the bewildered\nPrinces of Liberty knew not in whom to place their trust. Venice and\nFlorence were leagued together, and each hoped to obtain something from\nthe dismemberment of the territories of Milan; Montferrat, Mantua,\nSavoy, Genoa, and France, in open arms, were spoliating the corpse of\ntheir neighbour\u2014for a corpse indeed it seemed\u2014and of the captain-general\nof their own forces these heads of the republic were more profoundly\nsuspicious than of any open foe. Too many of the nobles in Milan were\nsecretly in favour of this adventurer. Only the people, the Guelfs,\nsustained their republican ardour with violent rhetoric, and declared\nthat they would rather be the servants of the Turk, or of the Devil,\nthan of Count Francesco Sforza.\n\nThere was this in favour of Venice, that she detested Count Francesco\n(who had left her service for the Duke of Milan\u2019s) as bitterly as any\nGuelf in Lombardy. And Venice, the most aristocratic of oligarchies, was\nfor complicated political reasons greatly favoured by the Guelfs.\nTherefore, not without hope in their hearts, the delegates of Milan\nawaited the answer of the Venetian senate. Three practicators, or\nagents, were deputed by the Ten to confer with the ambassadors\nconcerning the proposed alliance between Milan and Venice; but these\nagents were secretly bidden in no way to commit or bind the Venetian\ngovernment (_nichil obligando nos_); for the conference really was to be\nonly a means of extracting information as to the true condition of\naffairs in Milan.[67] And it would be as valueless to us, as to the\nhapless, bamboozled Milanese, were it not that here we get, I think, the\nfirst evidence of the Venetian inclination to pronounce for France.[68]\n\nFootnote 67:\n\n  Secreta, Reg. 17, fol. 171, tergo.\n\nFootnote 68:\n\n  _Sed si in colloquiis fieret mentio per ipsos oratores de serenissimo\n  Rege Francorum, et de Januense, qui occupassent de locis que fuerant\n  quondam ducis, in hoc casu, praticatores ipsi iustificare debeant, in\n  modesta et convenienti forma verborum, factum pr\u00e6fati Regis, et\n  Januensis; videlicet, quod per nos, contra eos, honeste et\n  convenienter fieri non possit._\n\nThere was no help here from the violence of Raynouard. Venice especially\ndeclared that against France and Genoa she would do nothing. And every\nday recorded the conquests of the French. The Milanese ambassadors\nreturned very sadly, \u201cdespised by the Venetians,\u201d says Corio, \u201cand\ntreated as perniciously as possible.\u201d In vain they bade Francesco Sforza\ngive battle to the audacious little force of Raynouard. Count Francesco,\nwho had ever been favourable to France, pursued his waiting game,\nalthough Bosco Marengo, closely besieged by the French, was almost at\nthe end of possible resistance, and the fall of Bosco meant the loss of\nAlessandria. At last the Milanese succeeded in scraping together about\nfifteen hundred soldiers, and these, under Coglioni, they sent to\nAlessandria to harass the enemy. The French were taken between two\nfires\u2014on the one side Coglioni, on the other the Alessandrian\nreinforcements; yet at first they gained the day, but so furious was\ntheir anger, and so long they dallied in the slaughter of their enemies,\nthat before they had despatched the last, a further reinforcement of the\nMilanese, and a successful sally on the part of the besieged,\nintercepted their return. Raynouard was taken prisoner with many of his\nmen; the cities which had revolted to him returned to the allegiance of\nthe Milanese republic; and the royal troops, leaderless and disbanded in\nthe very hour of victory, fled home as best they might to Asti.\n\nThis was on Oct. 17, 1447. Twelve days later the Duke of Orleans himself\narrived in Asti. There he made a solemn entry on Oct. 26th, riding under\na d\u00e4is borne by the notables of the city robed and hooded all in white,\n_pro majori letitia adventus ipsius domini ducis_. Charles of Orleans\nwas now a man of fifty-seven, amiable and sanguine. Something of the\ncharm and of the inefficiency of youth appeared to linger around this\naging poet, who, taken captive a youth of twenty-four, issued into the\nworld again almost a man of fifty. Those intervening years had held for\nhim none of the serious business of life: and his experience was still\nthe experience of charming, ardent, and unhappy youth. Since Agincourt\nhe had counted his years by lyrics, not by battles; and now perhaps one\nof the serious things to him in this contentious Lombardy was his\nfriendship with Antonio Astesano, professor of eloquence and poetry at\nAsti, himself no inconsiderable versifier, and author of a poetic\nepistle on the victories of the Maid of Orleans, which in 1430 he had\nsent to the Duke in his English prison. Charles, with his serene\nunpractical temper, his interest in literature, his inexperience of\nlife, hoping all things, doing nothing, appears a strange figure in that\ndistracted Lombardy: a garlanded maypole stuck in the front of battle.\n\nAt first the arrival of the Duke of Orleans appeared an event of\nimmeasurable importance. The Guelfs in every Lombard town, who at first\nhad thought only of Venice, began, more loudly even than during the\ncampaign of Raynouard, to declare for France. The Duke came armed with\npromises from France, from Burgundy, from Brittany, from England. There\nwere no bounds to the magnificence with which he declared himself about\nto take the field. But perhaps it would not be necessary to take the\nfield at all. The Duke sent a deputation to the Milanese republic; the\nlord of Cognac, one of the nobles of Ceva, Caretti (whose family all the\nwhile were practising none too secretly with Montferrat), Secondino\nNatti, Antonio Romagnano, and Francesco Roero, requested the Milanese to\nsubmit to the allegiance of their lawful duke. But the Milanese were all\ntoo well aware of the hateful consequences of tyranny. Men were still\nalive whose brothers and whose children had been torn to pieces, limb by\nlimb, by the hounds of Giammaria Visconti, the uncle of this man. The\nsuspicion, the cunning, the timid fear of Filippo Maria had succeeded to\nthat oppression. \u201cThis time,\u201d said the people of Milan, \u201cwe will\npreserve ourselves a free republic.\u201d\n\nA show of force would at least be necessary to induce them to change\ntheir minds; and in December, 1447, Charles of Orleans sent an embassy\nto Venice,[69] requesting the Council to enter into an arrangement with\nhim, and to furnish him with troops. He repeated his assurances of aid\nfrom France, England, and Burgundy; and if such aid as this were really\nforthcoming, Venice, animated by a limited Venetian and not by a\nnational Italian patriotism, would certainly hesitate to cross his path.\nSo bitter was the hatred of Venice towards Sforza, that any other\ncandidate appeared preferable to him; and this douce, unready Charles\nwould be easier to manage than a man of that heroic and ambitious type.\nYet in a matter so important it was, before all things, necessary to be\ncircumspect; and the Venetians put off the Duke of Orleans with many\nassurances of their devoted adherence and affection, many warnings\nagainst the cunning and the machinations of Sforza, while they wrote to\ntheir allies of Florence requesting an opinion. At this instant Sforza\nwas so dreaded in Italy, and his victory appeared so imminent, that if a\nfew of the promised battalions had appeared in Piedmont the Venetians\nwould gladly have espoused the cause of Orleans. But Sforza, left almost\nwithout money, with no ally that he was really sure of except his\nvaliant wife, found the situation untenable. He had not a friend in\nItaly, nor a friend across the mountains. Peace, if only the feint of\npeace, was imperative while he collected his unvanquished forces for a\nfurther struggle. Early in January he wrote to Florence, proposing\npeace. The Florentines and the Venetians were bound in so close a league\nthat peace with the one meant truce with the other; and though, at least\ntwice, in solemn terms, the Council of Ten warned the Florentine Signory\nthat there was no substance in this matter, for peace was contrary to\nthe real interests of Count Francesco, yet in the end Venice agreed to\naccept this peace for what it was worth, using the hour of respite to\nfurther her stratagems in other quarters.\n\nFootnote 69:\n\n  Reg. 17, fol. 194, tergo. Dec. 30, 1447.\n\nThe peace was not worth much. On May 9th Andriano Ricci of Asti arrived\nin Venice with a message from the Duke of Orleans.[70] \u201cThe French\nreinforcements will soon be here,\u201d said the sanguine Duke; \u201cwill you\nalso be my auxiliary?\u201d The Venetians, though still cautious, replied in\nterms of alacrity\u2014\n\n\u201cWe are ready to grant you all possible aid and favour, and there is no\nother prince on earth whom we so warmly desire to be our neighbour in\nMilan. Hasten the King of France, for if any good effect is to follow\nour endeavours, the troops should come at once. And rely upon it, so\nsoon as your French auxiliaries are in readiness, we also will provide a\nsatisfactory contingent to help in the conquest of Milan. And we are the\nreadier to do this, since the peace which we had begun to treat with the\nMilanese republic is already broken, and we at this moment are in open\nwar with Milan.\u201d\n\nFootnote 70:\n\n  Reg. 17, fol. 221, tergo.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut, just at the instant when it would have given most pleasure to\nVenice to support the claims of Orleans, she began to feel grave doubts\nas to the solidity of his pretensions. Those promised armies of France,\nEngland, Burgundy, and Brittany, which had been on the road ever since\nlast December, would they never cross the Alps? As yet not a single\nsoldier had appeared. How far could Venice trust the assertions of the\nfanciful and sanguine Orleans? A strain in him of the Visconti\nshiftiness mingled with the rhetoric of his father, and for all his\namiable simplicity Charles of Orleans was not a man to inspire\nconviction. The Venetians were, however, aware that Burgundy was really\nin his favour. It was Burgundy who had paid the ransom of Orleans, and\nBurgundy had twice sent his ambassadors to Venice, entreating the Ten in\nfavour of his cousin. There was a great friendship between the good Duke\nPhilip and the gentle Duke Charles; it seemed as if, having overcome the\ntremendous barrier of an hereditary vendetta, these two men, whose\nfathers had each been murdered to satisfy the feud, entertained for each\nother an affection that had gained by the obstacles it had surmounted.\nIf Burgundy, the richest duke in Europe, supported Orleans, it might be\nwell to aid him even in the absence of France, England, and Brittany.\nBut it would be disastrous to support the inefficient duke alone against\nsuch mighty odds. Yet some aid against Sforza was immediately desirable.\nTo the Venetians, to have two strings to your bow was the first axiom of\npolicy; and on May 20, 1448, the Ten despatched to Asti a secret\nmessenger, one Messer Bernardo Neri, who was to interview the Duke,[71]\nto obtain all possible information as to his army and his auxiliaries,\nand then, in the utmost privacy, to proceed to Savoy in order to judge\nin which direction it best would suit the Venetian cat to jump.\n\nFootnote 71:\n\n  Reg. 17, fol. 220. Secreta del Senato, MS.\n\nMesser Bernardo stayed over a fortnight at Asti, although his commission\nwas only for five days; and from this we may suppose that at first he\nreally had expectations of the success of Orleans. But on June 10th[72]\nhe left, ostensibly to return to Venice in order to receive the answer\nof the Senate; but in reality he went only a little way on the Venetian\nroad and turned aside at once into Savoy, for at Turin he knew he should\nfind further instructions from the Senate. He could only spend a day or\ntwo over his negotiations with the Duke there, for he had to return to\nAsti on the day when an answer might reasonably be expected to reach\nthat place from Venice. But his interview with Duke Louis was evidently\nsatisfactory, for it is the first of a long series of negotiations.\n\nFootnote 72:\n\n  Reg. 18, fol. 3, Secreta del Senato, MS.\n\nMeanwhile Orleans in Asti found his affairs did not progress at all. The\nVenetians, though so prodigal of offers of assistance, declined to come\nforward until he had an army at his back. The Milanese refused to\nrecognize him. Worst of all, the French appeared to have forgotten him.\nIt seemed best to return to France and collect his forces. So on Aug.\n10th, after a stay of nine months in Asti, Charles of Orleans with all\nhis household went home again across the mountains. The Duke took back\nwith him his friend Antonio Astesano, and ever afterwards he retained a\nstrong affection for the country of his mother. The visit of Charles of\nOrleans to Asti was important as an introduction of Italian fashions,\nItalian architecture, Italian arms, jewels,[73] and vestments into\nFrance. It caused a pure whiff of Italy to breathe across the Gothic\nstyle of Charles VII. But it made little or no effect on the furthering\nof the French claim to Milan.\n\nFootnote 73:\n\n  Viollet-le-Duc, \u201cMobilier Fran\u00e7ais,\u201d iv. 454.\n\nOrleans had scarcely crossed the Alps before he was as completely\ndisregarded as though he had never seemed the most dangerous pretender\nto the throne of Milan. Savoy had taken his place. The claim of Savoy\nwas quite childish and ridiculous. He pretended that, on the payment of\nhis sister\u2019s dowry to the late Duke of Milan, Filippo Maria had promised\nto leave his duchy, in default of sons, to the Duke of Savoy.[74] It was\nevident that the Duke had done nothing of the sort; he had left his\nthrone to Arragon. Besides, it is difficult to see how his testament\ncould dispose of property which, by his father\u2019s will and his sister\u2019s\nmarriage contract, was entailed on his nephews of Orleans, and which, by\nfeudal law, must return to the Holy Roman Empire. But, however shadowy\nhis claims, the Duke of Savoy was a great person to the Milanese. He was\nloved by them and he was feared by them; and had he hazarded a bold\nstroke instead of counteracting his own efforts by a perfect maze of\npetty intrigues, he might easily have made himself, if not the Duke of\nMilan, at any rate protector of the Milanese republic.\n\nFootnote 74:\n\n  Olivier de la Marche, \u201cM\u00e9moires,\u201d livre i. chap. 17.\n\nBut Duke Louis was afraid to hazard all his chances on any single throw.\nIn 1446 he had intrigued with the Dauphin to divide the Milanese with\nFrance; on the 3rd of May, 1448, he drew up a secret and solemn contract\nwith the Milanese to protect their republic, in consequence of which, a\nfew months later, the grateful city privately elected him her chief. In\nJune, 1449, he was arranging with the King of Arragon to conquer the\nestates of Milan with this ally, and divide them at the rate of\nthree-fifths for Arragon and two-fifths for Savoy;[75] and in the autumn\nof the same year he was making a very similar proposal to the Venetians.\nIn the pains he took to win something, however little, Savoy effectually\nsafeguarded himself from winning all. Yet at one time he appeared to\nhave great chances in his favour.\n\nFootnote 75:\n\n  Secreta del Senato, Reg. 18, fol. 106, MS.\n\nIn the summer and early autumn of 1448, both Venice and the Milanese\nbelieved that a republic under the joint protection of Venice and Savoy\nmight flourish in Milan, were it not for the undying energy and\nresolution of Count Francesco Sforza. To be rid of this man was to be\nrid of war; and twice in August and once in September the Ten wrote to a\ncertain Lorenzo Minio, captain of the Brescia, that they accept a\ncertain proposal he had made: \u201cIf the person he suggests will in truth\ndeal death to Count Francesco we shall be his debtors.\u201d[76] According to\nthe discretion of Minio they offered his candidate from ten thousand to\ntwenty thousand ducats; or, should he be of the sort that stoops not to\nmoney, he should have the captaincy of a regiment, of from two hundred\nto four hundred lances. \u201cBut,\u201d they proceeded, \u201clet not the matter stick\nfor a trifle\u2014cheer him and inspirit him so that his resolution come to a\ngood effect, and that speedily; put him in heart with his work and let\nit be done well.\u201d The plain English of these phrases means that the\nVenetian Council was willing to pay a great sum of money to any one who\nwould undertake to poison Count Francesco Sforza.\n\nFootnote 76:\n\n  Lamansky, \u201cSecrets d\u2019Etat de Venise,\u201d p. 160.\n\nBut before the proposal was carried out, a second message, five months\nlater, bade the friend of Minio stay the destruction in his hand. \u201cCount\nFrancesco having entered into good and faithful relations with the\nSenate, we withdraw the order for his death.\u201d As suddenly as before and\nfor as short a time an alliance was declared between the Venetians and\nthe Milanese.\n\nThis alliance, as before, was merely an occasion for the resumption of\nintrigues. Arragon and Savoy, Savoy and Venice, Venice and Milan were\nsecretly determining an arrangement which should exclude Francesco\nSforza. It seems scarcely worth while to have countermanded the order\nfor his death, since by some means or another to be rid of this\nadventurer was the aim and end of all this policy. The Guelfs of Milan\nsent to Venice a certain Arrigo Panigarola, who throwing himself upon\nhis knees before the Ten, with tears and prayers implored the Venetians\nto defend his hapless city from Count Francesco. The Council was\nimpressed, but decided to reserve its answer for a little while.\n\nA few months after the arrival of Panigarola, the Duke of Savoy sent an\nambassador to Venice upon a similar errand. How was it possible that the\nVenetians, so respectable a state, could support a wearisome adventurer\nlike Count Francesco? Savoy gave the Venetians to understand that if\nthey continued to supply soldiers to the camp of Sforza he should reckon\nhis behaviour on their part a _casus belli_. How much better it would be\nif the Venetians would acquiesce in an honourable peace between the\nMilanese republic and Savoy and Venice! This threefold league would\neffectually crush Francesco Sforza, and would establish plenty and\nsecurity in devastated Lombardy; whereas if the present dissensions\ncontinue, both Orleans and Arragon would certainly come across the\nmountains to seek their profit here, and so should a great fire be lit\nin Italy which much effusion of blood would never quench. The Savoyard\nambassador waxed really eloquent over the blessings of peace; for at\nthis very time his master was writing to his father the Antipope at\nLucerne: \u201cThe Milanese have secretly elected me chief, but what am I to\ndo with Italy for Sforza, Germany for the emperor, and France for\nOrleans?\u201d All indeed that he could do was _faire entretenir les Milanais\npar tous moyens, sans avoir dict encore ne_ non, _ne_ ouy; _et, d\u2019aultre\npart, envoyer \u00e0 Venise, et aussi envers le Comte Fran\u00e7ois, et aultres o\u00f9\nil est n\u00e9cessaire practicquer quelque bons moyens par voye\nd\u2019accord_.[77] Of all these various plots the most successful for Savoy\nwould have been a peace strong enough to set at naught Francesco Sforza,\nto restore prosperity to Lombardy, and to enable the Milanese to elect\nhim, with apparent spontaneity, protector of their state. The first step\nwas to secure peace with Venice; and he found the Venetians in an\nacquiescent mood. The important city of Crema had followed the lead of\nLodi and Codogno, and had declared itself the subject of Saint Mark; and\nthe Venetians, who could not keep Crema and continue to ally of Count\nFrancesco, suddenly came to terms with Panigarola, declared themselves\nthe champions of the Milanese republic, and offered the Duke of Savoy\nnot merely a friendly neutrality but an offensive alliance.[78] They\nresumed their negotiations for the assassination of Count Francesco,\nand, \u201cwithout a thought,\u201d says Corio, \u201cof the league or law divine,\u201d\ndespatched him a message informing him that they, his comrades in arms\nof yesterday, should become to-morrow his enemies upon the field of\nbattle.\n\nFootnote 77:\n\n  Gaullieur, _op. cit._\n\nFootnote 78:\n\n  Reg. 18, fol. 83. April 21, 1449. Secreta del Senato, MS.\n\nCount Francesco received the news with great gravity, without a sign of\nanger, or sorrow, or displeasure; although his situation was becoming\nreally desperate; for, as the Venetian legate maliciously informed him,\nthe Venetians were negotiating alliances with Savoy, with Arragon, and\nwith the Pope. As to Savoy, Sforza forestalled them; for he forthwith\ndespatched a messenger to Turin with terms so advantageous to Duke Louis\nthat that unstable personage put the Venetians out of mind and settled\ninto peace with Sforza: who, enabled to turn his entire force against\nVenice, drove his late allies back beyond the Adda, defeated them\nutterly at Caravaggio, made peace with them as a victor with success\nbefore him, and in the middle of October turned his arms against the\nMilanese republic.\n\nSforza had disarmed Savoy and conquered Venice; but he had not yet come\nto an end of his enemies. In November, 1447, Charles of Orleans\nseriously resumed his intentions of a Milanese campaign. Already in\nJuly, Burgundy had rewritten to the Venetians entreating them to favour\nOrleans; and the council had replied[80] that though their _acts_ of\nlate may have appeared hostile to the cause of Orleans, yet nothing but\nthe instinct of self-preservation had ever induced them to make peace\nwith Francesco, and their _sentiments_ were still most loyal to the\nhouse of France. Nothing appeared more likely than a French invasion;\nSavoy already had warned the Venetians of it. On the 14th of November\nthe Duke of Orleans wrote to the city of Asti,[79] saying that he was\nnow positively certain of the alliance with Brittany and Burgundy, and\nthat before Christmas, his army, under Jean Focaud, would arrive in\nLombardy. This letter, written in a tone of the cheerfullest high\nspirits, was followed a week later by one equally sanguine and happy:\n_Dei gratia, omnia negotia Lombardie ad nos spectantia sunt in his\npresentibus optime disposita_. Jacques C\u0153ur has pronounced himself\nfavourable to the affair. And on the 4th of December Orleans writes that\nthe companies of Foix and Bourbon are on the point of departure; and\nthat John of Angoul\u00eame is arranging with the king for the reinforcement\nfrom the royal troops.\n\nFootnote 79:\n\n  Secreta del Senato, MS. Reg. 10, fol. 93. July 3. 1449.\n\nFootnote 80:\n\n  These four letters are quoted by M. Maurice Faucon from the Milanese\n  Archive in his report of his two missions in Italy in the years 1879\n  and 1880, pp. 35-37.\n\nBut Christmas came, and the phantom armies of the expectant Orleans\nremained as visionary as before. Yet on the 7th of January he writes,\nstill sanguine, still bent on conquering his castle in the air: \u201cThe\narmy will be larger than we thought; for all the French princes will\nlend their aid. Burgundy is sending great sums of gold and abundant\ntroops into Lombardy.\u201d The Duke is as full as ever of his schemes and\nhopes. But this is the last of his letter; and before his messenger\ncould bring an answer home from Asti, Milan had found a master among the\nranks of Italy.\n\nFor famine and weariness and civil discord had broken the spirit of the\nMilanese republic. Even Savoy, even Venice, were seized with pity, and\nmurmured to each other that almost any change would be desirable, _ut\nhec afflicta et misera Lombardia, dudum guerrarum disturbijs lacessita,\naliquando quiescere possit; tot populis, tot calamitatibus, totque\noppressorum vocibus compatiendum et miserandum erat_. Anything short of\nthe success of Count Francesco would be a happy alternative to such\ndisaster. And in Milan itself the discontent was as pronounced. The\nGuelfs still vociferated against Francesco, but the Ghibellines, the\nparty of the nobles, grew slowly and strongly in favour of the Count.\nAll parties at last were out of conceit with this miserable liberty,\nwhich was but another name for civil disunion and ruin. Some were for\nthe Pope, and some for Charles of France, and these were the Guelfs.\nSome were for Savoy, some for the King of Naples. But all these princes\nlived a long way off; they had no armies ready to combat the Venetians,\nwhom each and every faction dreaded now and hated worse than famine.\nWhen one day Gasparo de Vimercato rose up in public conclave, and\nsuggested that Milan should give herself to Count Francesco Sforza, it\nwas incredible how suddenly the whole mind of the city turned towards\nthe Count. The Count was the son-in-law of the late duke. The city was\nfamiliar with him. He was known to be humane and generous and strong.\nShould the city elect him, in one day he could dissipate the famine, the\nbattles, the fear of enemies, and the suspicion of treachery, which for\nthirty months had made the misery of Milan. Leonardo Gariboldo, Aloigi\nTrombetta, and Gasparo da Vimercato were sent at once to acquaint Count\nFrancesco, that by the free voice of the people he had been elected lord\nof Milan.\n\nAmong the innumerable conspirators, intriguing diplomatists, and\nsuccessful tradesmen who filled the high places of the Italy of that\nday, Francesco Sforza appears at least a man. Simple, direct, and brave,\nno sudden honour and no reverse of fortune took from him that natural\ndignity of a balanced mind which is one of the finest attributes of the\nItalian. Good sense and kindness made a moral force of this captain of\nadventure. He disciplined his troops, erected a court-martial, and\npunished offences of rape and violence by death; so that while the\nmiserable populations of Lombardy had everything to fear from the other\narmies that occupied their soil, gradually they learned to feel\nthemselves secure in the rough, mailed hands of Count Francesco. Among\nthe soldiers his reputation was more than mortal. We have to leap over a\ndozen generations before the prestige of the Little Corporal present an\nanalogy to such devotion. But Count Francesco was loved and respected\neven by his enemies; and there is a story of him which has ever struck\nme as among the most charming in military history. It was at the siege\nof Como, in that very February of 1450, when, unknown to him, the\nMilanese who had so long and so furiously resisted him, were crying,\n\u201cSforza! Sforza!\u201d in an ecstasy of hungry enthusiasm in the great\npiazza. Meanwhile Sforza and his men were occupying Monte Barro; by\nmeans of a little hill in front, overlooking the Adda, and fortified by\nfive bastions, they kept in check the troops of Venice and Milan, ranged\nin impotent lines along the further side of the river. The bulwarks of\nthe little hill were but slight, improvised in a few days for the\noccasion, and the poor Italian artillery of the fifteenth century,\nwrought no great destruction; yet such was the spell of Sforza\u2019s name,\nthat the two armies across the Adda never ventured to try the place by\nassault. One night, however, it leaked out that Count Francesco was not\nin the fort; he had gone up the mountain to arrange a fresh disposition\nof his troops upon the summit of Monte Barro. In his absence it was\ndecided to attack the hill, and in the late February dawn the Venetians\nand Milanese poured under the slender bulwarks, armed with artillery,\nwhich silenced that of the fort, and, planting their scaling ladders\nagainst the ramparts, they soon were in possession of the place. Now, as\nit happened, unknown to either army, late at night Count Francesco had\nreturned home, and hearing the clamour in the place, he started out of\nsleep and strode at once to the ramparts, ignorant that the enemy had\ntaken the place by surprise and that his soldiers, unaware of his\npresence in their midst, had already given the sign of surrender.\n\u201cDefend yourselves, for I am here!\u201d rang out the clear voice of the\nCount; and at that moment he perceived that he stood alone in the midst\nof his foes. But the mere fact of his presence was a better defence to\nhis bastions than a world of soldiers. The assailants, like chidden\nchildren, withdrew from their positions, dropped the guns and pieces\nthey were carrying away, and with uncovered heads made for their\nscaling-ladders. As they passed the Count, standing alone there, they\nmade for his hand\u2014kneeling, crowding to touch it. \u201cFather and ornament\nof Italian arms we salute you,\u201d cried the soft Venetian voices; and in\nlittle knots and groups, as quickly as they might, they dropped over the\nwalls into the moat again, leaving Count Francesco the master of his\nramparts. It was to this man, so eminently the hero of his hour, that\nthe three Milanese delegates brought their news of the submission of the\ncity.\n\nOn Feb. 25, 1450, Count Francesco Sforza rode into Milan. He rode at the\nhead of his troops, and he had taken care that his future subjects\nshould welcome the army; for every soldier was hung all over, from\ncorslet, from waist, from shoulder, and from arm and hand, with loaves\nof bread\u2014great clustering rolls and loaves that hid the armour\nunderneath, as much as every man could carry. It was fine, wrote Corio,\nto see how the famished Milanese fell upon the troops, avidly tearing\nthe longed-for food from neck and arm, and falling to at once (_con\nquanta ingordigia!_) upon the delicious bread. \u201cSforza! Sforza!\u201d cried\nthe citizens, a thousand times more eagerly than before. Some of them\ncried out in the words of the Psalms _H\u00e6c est dies, quam fecit Dominus;\nexultemus et l\u00e6temur in ea_! Sforza was in the city; his troops and his\nbread had effectually secured his future. The Venetians might brew\nanother poison. Charles of Orleans at Chauny might return that loan of\nmen and gold which his cousin of Burgundy had lent him. Louis of Savoy\nwrote to his father at Lucerne: _Le Comte Fran\u00e7ois a obtenu ceste ville\npar intelligence, d\u00e9ceptions et pratiques et non mie par force de\nguerre_. All these pretenders, who had felt the bird already in the\nhand, must dissemble as best they might their disappointment. But\nGenoa[81] and Florence welcomed the chance of peace, and in November,\n1451, joined in a defensive league with Milan against the Dauphin, King\nof France, the Duke of Savoy, and the Venetians. Lombardy was no longer\nthe devastated battlefield of doubtful victory. Count Francesco Sforza\nwas effectually the master of Milan.\n\nFootnote 81:\n\n  Archives of Genoa. Materie Politiche, mazzo 12, 3. See also Charavay\u2019s\n  \u201cReport on the Italian Letters of Louis XI.,\u201d 1881.\n\n\n                                  IV.\n\nIt is one thing to have a thing by might, another to hold that thing by\nright. The theory that might is right appears sufficient in the hour of\nconquest, yet it is but a slender basis for future government; and\nFrancesco Sforza, safely lodged in Milan, hedged round with troops,\ngreeted as duke by the very citizens who had so long repulsed him, was\nnone the less aware that men regarded him merely in the light of a\nsuccessful usurper. Even in Milan there were many who regretted the loss\nof a legitimate dynasty; there were those who looked to the King of\nNaples, the adopted heir of the late duke; and there was a party anxious\nto proclaim the suzerainty of the Emperor; and a larger party still who\nplaced their faith in Charles of Orleans, the legitimate descendant of\nthe great Giangaleazzo. In the eyes of such men as these what claim had\nCaptain Francesco Sforza, _soi-disant_> Duke of Milan? He was merely a\nsuccessful soldier, the husband of the late duke\u2019s bastard daughter,\nunmentioned as heir to Milan in any testament or codicil, who by force\nand famine had succeeded in imposing himself, as the alternative to\nstarvation, upon the miserable Milanese. In the sight of the Emperor,\nFrancesco Sforza had compromised whatever shadow of right he might once\nhave had by accepting from the illegal hand of the people the imperial\ngift of his duchy.\n\nBefore the feudal law Francesco Sforza was merely a usurper, and a\ncompromised usurper. To Orleans he appeared the representative of the\nillegitimate branch defrauding the legal heirs of their just claims. To\nArragon, Sforza was the man who pockets treasure bequeathed expressly to\nanother. The humiliation of this position is apparent. Yet Sforza, with\nmuch magnanimity, refused to ruin his subjects with taxes in order to\nbuy the imperial investiture\u2014a purchasable commodity, as his successors\nand his predecessors knew, and one which would have legalized his\nsituation. At first, in the triumph of success, he appears to have\nenjoyed his illegal honours, his glory as a popular hero; and he\naffirmed that he preferred to rest his claims upon the people\u2019s voice.\nOn March 25, 1450, they pronounced him Duke of Milan.\n\nSforza made a good ruler. Under him Milan ceased to be the prey of\nmiserable dissensions and disorder, and the streets no longer ran with\nthe cries of Guelf or Ghibelline. The soldier proved an excellent\ndespot; not harsh or selfish, as might have been expected from a man\nsprung from so little and taught in so rude a school. He governed the\npeople for the good of the people, making his own gain but an accident\nof their advantage; and that magnanimous and disastrous impulse which\nmade him refuse to tax the poor in order to purchase his investiture is\ncharacteristic of the man.\n\nYet even in Milan there were many ill content to thrive under the\norderly government of this benevolent usurper. Many voices that famine\nhad silenced soon began to whisper\u2014Republicans, Orleanists, Guelfs,\nGhibellines were alike jealous and ill at ease under the military\ndictatorship of Sforza. Another party in the city headed by the\nDowager-duchess still kept alive the pretensions of Savoy, and he was\nable to write to Lucerne that on the whole the news from Milan was not\nbad, for the people were already beginning to dislike Francesco Sforza,\nand that Madame de Milan proved herself an efficient supporter of his\nclaims.\n\nBut if there was discontent in Milan, outside the walls the success of\nSforza was regarded with unqualified hatred and desire for vengeance.\nSavoy wished to oust him from his seat. France and Orleans and Arragon\nand Germany thought it sufficient for the present to brand him as\nusurper. But the hatred of the Venetians for the man who once had been\ntheir servant was of a deeper kind, and they did not shrink from\nplotting his murder. On April 22, 1450, they had already decreed his\ndeath, and by August 26th the plan was in full train. The Council had\nheard through that gentleman and soldier, Ser Giacobo Antonio Marcello\nof Crema, that Vittore dei Scoraderi, the squire of Francesco, _est\ncontentus occidere Comitem Francescum; et sicut omnes intelligere\npossunt, mors illius comitis est salus et pax nostra et totius Itali\u00e6_.\nNothing was to be sent in writing to this person which might compromise\nthe Venetian Senate, but Marcello was instructed to offer him ample\nterms. Further injunctions were despatched on September 2nd, and early\nin December we hear again of a candidate, _una persona intelligente et\ndiscreta_, not a Venetian subject, who promised to despatch Count\nFrancesco with _aliqua venenosa materies_.[82] To this intelligent\nassistant the Council recommended the use of certain little round\npellets which, thrown upon the fire, exhale a most sweet and delectable\nodour; but before they were despatched for experiment on so illustrious\na subject a secret trial was to be given them in Venice on the person of\na prisoner condemned to death for larceny. In May, 1451, the Council\nadded three other persons to the conspiracy, and by June the proffered\nreward had grown to the extravagant sum of 5,000 ducats, with a yearly\nrevenue of 1,000 ducats in addition, and liberty to recall four exiles.\nIn return for so much munificence it is expected that Count Francesco\n\u201cshall by your industry be despatched before the end of October.\u201d But in\nAugust an extension of leave was granted until December. Then the\nmessages became frequent; and it is easy to divine that the noble person\nwho is to despatch the Count is none other than Innocentio Cotta, a man\nof one of the great Guelf houses of Milan, who, despite his blue blood,\nwas the most ardent champion of popular rights, and who is familiar to\nthe readers of Corio\u2019s history as the head and front of that little\ngroup of _nobili audacissimi_, who in 1459, unbroken by famine and long\nmisery, spurred the people of Milan on to resist the arms of Sforza, and\nplundered the party of the Ghibellines for money to furnish troops to\ndefend the city. The success of Count Francesco had added ruin to the\nchagrin and hatred of this man, and one of the conditions that Cotta\ndemanded of the Venetians was that he should regain _quelle forteze,\nterre e possessioni mie chio goldeva al tempo de la felice memoria del\nduca passato_. To this man, even as to the Council, it appeared that the\ndeath of Count Francesco could only be useful and fertile in good\n(_practica non potest esse nisi utilis et fructuosa, quum ex ea nullum\ndamnum sequi potest_), and with the sentiments less of an assassin than\nof a lofty classic tyrannicide\u2014a character ever dear to the\nItalians\u2014Innocentio Cotta received, in his Brescian exile, the little\nround and perfumed pellets of poison.\n\nFootnote 82:\n\n  See the documents in Lamansky, \u201cSecrets d\u2019Etat de Venise,\u201d 161, 14,\n  &c.\n\nNo less than eighteen times between the August of 1448 and the December\nof 1453 did the Venetian Council instigate their assistant to the deed.\nPoisons were despatched to him and apparently administered. But the\nvenom of the Venetians was more odious than fatal. Their poisons,\nsublimated from an irrational medley of volatile substances, had no\nregular chemical action, and the receipts of them which remain exhibit\nan incoherent confusion of mercury, sal-volatile, copperas, cantharides,\nburned yeast, salts of nitre and arsenic, from which, after the endless\nsimmerings and powderings of their preparation, the most deadly\nqualities had evaporated, and which left (according to the analysis of\nProfessor Boutlerow) a comparatively harmless combination of ammoniacal\nchlorides.\n\nThe sedative prescription made no perceptible effect upon the iron\nconstitution of the _soi-disant_ Duke of Milan. He probably remained in\ntotal ignorance of the poison so frequently administered in the unbroken\nVenice glasses; but he could not remain equally unaware of the distaste\nand suspicion which environed him, and he grew to desire some superior\nshow of legality. The troops and bread, with which he had convinced the\nMilanese, were admirable agents, but they could not do everything.\nFrancesco Sforza had six young sons, and in his heart there increased\nthat invincible longing to found a dynasty which has overcome so many\nconquerors. Somewhere in the Archives, he began to think, in some\nunfound testament or neglected codicil, there must be surely some\nmention of his wife, the late Duke\u2019s only child. With possession already\nin its favour, the slightest mention in the old Duke\u2019s will would serve\nto legalize the dynasty of Sforza. But nowhere in will or codicil was\nthere any last reversion in favour of Madonna Bianca. The searchers only\nbrought to light the testament of Giangaleazzo, which bequeathed Milan,\nfailing direct male heirs, to the sons of his daughter Valentine.\n\nStill, if Francesco Sforza could not legalize his own succession, he\ncould at least secure himself against the raising of better-founded\nclaims. On February 19, 1452,[83] Count Francesco wrote to Andriano\nOliari of Pavia (the Oliari were a family of notaries to whom for\ngenerations the Archives of Milan were entrusted) commanding him to come\nat once to Milan and to bring with him to the palace the original will\nof Giangaleazzo Visconti,\n\n        \u201cfor [he explained], because of certain matters\n        which fall out at present, it is necessary that we see\n        the testament made by the illustrious quondam duke\n        the first.... Thou must come to-morrow, Sunday,\n        the twentieth of the present month, here, to our\n        presence, and bring with thee the said original will....\n        And we advise thee, that for the viewing of the\n        said will we will deal with thee according as thou\n        wouldst.\u201d\n\nOliari and his father before him had been servants of the legal Dukes.\nSomething in the tone of Sforza\u2019s letter, its awkward mingling of the\nmenace and the bribe, gave pause to the faithful notary. He had no mind\nto render up so sacred a deposit to the tender mercies of this blunt old\nsoldier, who signed himself \u201cCichus\u201d (Frank), and who was wholly without\nthe dignity of the legitimate tyrants. Oliari wrote back and said that\nhe believed a copy of the original will would be found to answer every\npurpose.\n\nFootnote 83:\n\n  Ghinzone, in the \u201cArchivio Storico Lombardo,\u201d Anno ix, Fasc. 2, 1882,\n  quotes the original documents from the Milanese Archives, Reg. Miss.\n  N. 12, foglio 40. The letters are all of the greatest interest.\n\nThe so-called Duke of Milan was irate, and despatched a curt letter to\nthe suspicious and insubordinate lawyer, and by the same messenger he\nsent a line to the Castellan of Pavia, informing him that Oliari had not\ncome, and bidding him despatch the notary at once, _cum dicto testamento\net non cum la copia_. But neither the Duke nor the constable of the\ncastle could induce Oliari to go back from his decision. \u201cI really\ncannot come,\u201d he replied to Sforza on February 24th, \u201cfor I have neither\nmoney nor horses.\u201d Now Pavia is not so long a journey from Milan, but\nthat, to serve a sovereign, a man might borrow his neighbour\u2019s hackney.\nThe same day, the 24th, the Duke replied in anger, both to Oliari and to\nthe castellan, that he could not conceive why it should be so difficult\nto come at the said testament. \u201cAnd forasmuch as you hold dear our\nfavour, and under pain of rebellion, you must be here with us to-morrow\nwith the said will, for if you dost not come we will make you repent\nit.\u201d Oliari dared not hold out against so ominous a command. He made in\nsecret five copies of the precious document, and then we may suppose\nthat he took the original to Sforza, for no more letters require it from\nhis custody. Thus the original will of Giangaleazzo Visconti was\ndestroyed.\n\nBut while Sforza was stooping to a crime in order to protect himself\nagainst the rivalry of Orleans, as a fact that pretender was less\ndangerous than he had been before. However good his claim might be, his\ninefficiency was a terrible counterpoise. When,[85] at the new year of\n1454, Alfonso the Magnanimous wrote to Venice requesting the government\nto continue their relations with Orleans, the Venetians replied that\nOrleans was too far off and too unready. They were as desirous as\nArragon to get rid of the usurper. A month before they strove to enlist\nArragon in favour of their novel candidate, they had written to\nSavoy,[84] asking Duke Louis to join with them in requesting the Dauphin\nof France to invade Italy and suppress Francesco Sforza. They proposed\nthat the Dauphin should conquer the Ticinese and Piacenza for himself,\nand the Duchy of Milan for the Duke of Orleans. In case the Duke was not\nminded to go to this expense and danger for a cousin\u2019s sake, the\nVenetians let it be understood that any French prince would be agreeable\nto them upon the throne of Milan.\n\nFootnote 84:\n\n  Reg. 20, fol. 1. Secreta del Senato, MS. January 3, 1454.\n\nFootnote 85:\n\n  Reg. 19, fol. 232. Secreta del Senato, MS. December 11, 1453.\n\n\n                                   V.\n\nThe House of Orleans had no more dangerous enemy than the royal house of\nFrance. Matters had greatly changed since, immediately after the\nliberation of Orleans, Charles VII. had seconded his claim to the\nMilanese. The reduction to insignificance of the great feudal houses in\ngeneral, and particularly the reduction of Orleans, was now the policy\nof the French crown; and at that moment the policy of the already\ninscrutable Dauphin appears to have been the conquest of a kingdom which\nshould comprise the Dauphiny, the Ticinese, Asti, the Piacentine angle\nof the Emilia, and the entire stretch of Liguria. To the restless\ncontriver of a plan so bold the claims of Sforza and of Orleans came\nequally amiss; and, in secret, the chief enemy of either credulous\npretender was the Dauphin.\n\nSforza, however, had little to fear from Orleans, and less from the\nFrench. In fact, in King Charles he found at this difficult period his\nablest friend. The records of the Archives of Milan, from the year 1452\nuntil the death of King Charles, abound in friendly letters, and are\nevidence of the cordial relations existing not only between the Duke of\nMilan and the King of France, but between the House of Sforza and the\nroyal Governor of Asti. In 1459 the King besought Francesco to ask the\nhand of the little Princess Marie d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans for his only son; but we may\npresume that Orleans would not consent to so much recognition of the\nusurper, for the negotiation came to nothing. Yet with the Court of\nFrance Francesco continued on terms of affectionate friendship and\nmutual respect.\n\nIn 1453 the Dauphin still had designs on Italy, and offered to the\nVenetian Signory his aid in Italy to combat Count Francesco.[86] It was\narranged that he should come with from eight to ten thousand men,\ndispossess Sforza, and conquer for himself a Duchy of Milan to extend\nfrom Adda to Ticino, from Padua beyond Piacenza. Or, if the King and the\nDauphin would guarantee the army, Venice professed herself willing to\naid the Duke of Orleans in the same undertaking. But while these princes\nwere arranging their future conquests, a spirit stronger than they was\nmaking these conquests impossible\u2014a spirit which, a score of years ago,\nhad begun to draw together Scotland and England, those ancient enemies,\nto the alarm of France; a spirit which had estranged Burgundy and\nBrittany from their English companions in so many battles, and which was\nleading them to the feet of the long-despised and outraged King of\nFrance; a spirit which now should reconcile Venice with Sforza, Florence\nwith Milan, and make, for a brief moment of millennium, those immemorial\nfoes at peace together; a spirit which awoke in these middle years of\nthe fifteenth century\u2014aroused Heaven knows whence or how\u2014and strangely\nchanged the world it breathed across: I have named the spirit of\nNationality.\n\nFootnote 86:\n\n  \u201cSecreta,\u201d tome (_sic_ Reg?) xix. fol. 211, under date August 31,\n  1453, quoted M. \u00c9tienne Charavay in his \u201cRapport sur les Lettres de\n  Louis XI. conserv\u00e9es dans les Archives d\u2019Italie.\u201d The following\n  documents from the Venetian Archives\u2014as yet, I believe,\n  unpublished\u2014form the natural sequel to this interesting letter:\n\n  \u201cSenato\u201d I., Reg. 19, fol. 232, under date December 11, 1453.\u2014The\n  Venetians send Venier to ask Savoy to join with them in requesting the\n  Dauphin to invade Italy: \u201cVenier must ascertain the views of the Duke\n  of Savoy as to Sforza, since King Ren\u00e9 comes into Italy. Let him\n  clearly understand that Sforza is a most ambitious man, and that if he\n  continue to prosper as he does he will certainly turn his thoughts\n  towards Savoy. Venice not only intends to secure her own estate, but\n  for the sake of her friends and allies will as much and as resolutely\n  as possible repress the said Count Francesco Sforza, who may become\n  the Common Enemy. And to this end Venice has determined to request the\n  aid of France, and among others the aid of the Dauphin, asking the\n  said Dauphin for the common good to invade Italy with a force of from\n  8,000 to 10,000 men. And we of Venice entreat Savoy to send a suitable\n  ambassador along with ours to persuade the said Dauphin to this\n  undertaking. And our intention is to grant the said Dauphin a suitable\n  subvention in money and whatsoever he may conquer from Adda to Ticino,\n  and from Padua to Piacenza, except the domains of Savoy and\n  Montferrat.... Let Venier then discover how many men and of what sort\n  and when Savoy could supply to the field.... And if my Lord Dauphin\n  stand out for the consent of his father, you shall offer on our part\n  to implore it and procure it for him. And if he wish you to go to the\n  King you shall go, and, as best you can, procure his consent.... And\n  if the said King or Dauphin say to you this undertaking regards the\n  Duke of Orleans, say it is true that on the death of Filippo Maria he\n  sent to us notifying his claims (and fain would we see a prince of the\n  house of France on the throne of Milan!), and saying he expected\n  supplies from France, and we assured him of our delight and pleasure;\n  and if indeed the King or the Dauphin, at your instance, will supply\n  the said Lord Duke with an army of from viii. thousand to x. thousand\n  men, we will aid and assist him upon the same terms and conditions as\n  my Lord the Dauphin. And go then to the Duke of Orleans and persuade\n  him to the enterprize.\u201d\n\n  Reg. 20, fol. 26, July 23, 1454.\u2014This document concerns a League meant\n  to secure Italian peace by means of an offensive and defensive\n  alliance, against all breakers of the peace, to be made between\n  Venice, Milan, Florence, and Naples. Florence desires an exception in\n  favour of the house of France. At this Milan, much alarmed, desires\n  Venice by a secret and separate agreement to sign the First Clause at\n  least with him. Venice sends ambassadors to Florence and to Milan,\n  pointing out that the First Clause is absolutely necessary, since,\n  without it, there is no reason why the King of Arragon should enter\n  the League. Indeed if an exception be made in favour of France, it\n  will only and justly irritate him, and thus the alliance would bring\n  rather discord than peace into the Peninsula. No specific mention need\n  be made of the house of France, to which Venice entertains the most\n  friendly feelings. But if the First Clause were signed and Arragon\n  induced to enter the League Italy might look forward to many years of\n  peace and tranquillity.\n\n  Reg. 20, fol. 103, October 8, 1456.\u2014The Marquis of Varese, ambassador\n  to the Duke of Milan, informs the Venetians that the Doge of\n  Genoa\u2014notwithstanding his open alliance with France and apparent\n  subjection to her\u2014has made a second and secret alliance with Arragon\n  and Milan, in which Venice is prayed to join, against the French. The\n  Venetians reply that, owing to the mutability and diversity of Genoese\n  affairs, it is impossible to give any solid advice.\n\n  Reg. 21, fol. 21, October 10, 1465.\u2014The descendants of Valentine\n  Visconti\u2014_i.e._, the Dukes of Orleans and Brittany and the Count of\n  Angoul\u00eame\u2014sent secret ambassadors to Venice to treat concerning the\n  recovery of the Duchy of Milan from the hands of Count Francesco\n  Sforza. Venice replies with compliments, but expresses herself\n  desirous to keep the peace.\n\n  Reg. 22, fol. 176, July 28, 1466.\u2014French ambassadors have been\n  received at Venice from Louis XI., King of France. Venice assures him\n  of her excellent disposition towards the new Duke of Milan as well as\n  of her \u201cantiqua benivolentia\u201d towards his father. Venice believes a\n  resumption of the Italian League is not at that moment necessary,\n  extols King Louis for his intention to proceed against the Turk, and\n  congratulates him on the quiet of his realm.\n\n  The Latin originals of these documents will be included in the volume\n  of \u201cPi\u00e8ces Justificatives,\u201d for my History of the French in Italy,\n  1378-1530.\n\nAt Christmas-time in 1453 the Venetians spared neither pains nor prayers\nnor promise to induce the Dauphin to come and suppress Count Francesco\nSforza. In April of the next year[89] they sent to tell him, as\ndelicately as possible, that they had no further need of his services (a\nrefined way of informing him that they would oppose him), since they had\nmade peace with the man whom four months ago they had called the Common\nEnemy of his countrymen, and whom they had so many times endeavoured to\nassassinate. And probably the Dauphin was not sorry. For the spirit that\nanimated these Italians inspired him also. Already it had touched his\nintelligent and sensitive spirit. Already, in 1447,[88] he had laughed\nfor joy when the French lost Genoa, and had declared \u201cle Roy se\ngouvernoit si mal qu\u2019on ne pouvoit pis.\u201d In the five years between 1445\nand 1450 the Dauphin had passed from the friendship of Orleans to the\nfriendship of Burgundy, and his ideal had changed. He raged to see the\nKing prefer Italy to the north, and amuse himself with taking Genoa and\nsecuring Asti when he should have set to conquering Normandy. He said\naloud that the true place for such a King as that was in such a\nHermitage as the Duke of Savoy\u2019s. He plotted to seize the government of\naffairs himself, and leave the King, in prosperous desuetude, to amuse\nhimself with his Belle Agn\u00e8s and his pleasures. As we know, the plot\nfell through, and the impatient Dauphin, a discomfited fugitive, was\nhimself the one to seek a hermitage at the Court of Burgundy. There he\nspent five years of chafing exile and mortification while his father\nruled France, not unsuccessfully, after his own fashion, pursuing\nshadows indeed in Italy, yet at home administering affairs and inventing\na regular army with no less zeal and skill for this extraneous ambition.\nLouis was still at the Court of Philip of Burgundy when, in 1461, he\nheard the news of his father\u2019s death. And the prince who, of all others,\nshould do most for the reintegration of his country ascended the throne\nof France.[87]\n\nFootnote 87:\n\n  Reg. 20, fol. 17, April 26, 1454.\u2014\u201cOrdre \u00e0 Francesco Veniero de\n  pr\u00e9venir le dauphin, avec tous les m\u00e9nagements possible, qu\u2019ils ont\n  faiz la paix avec Francesco Sforza et qu\u2019ils n\u2019ont plus besoin de ses\n  services\u201d (Charavay, _loc. cit._).\n\nFootnote 88:\n\n  Quoted by the Marquis de Beaucourt, iv. p. 244, from the \u201cProc\u00e8s de\n  Mariette.\u201d\n\nFootnote 89:\n\n  \u201cProc\u00e8s de Mariette\u201d in the Preuves de Matthieu d\u2019Escouchy, p. 290.\n  See Marquis de Beaucourt, \u201cHistoire de Charles VII.,\u201d pp. 207 _et\n  seq._\n\nAs we know, the law of historic necessity required that the Dauphin\nshould renounce his ambition of a North Italian state\u2014he had, in fact,\nalready renounced it; that he should abandon his early visions and his\nearly friends, and adopt for his counsellors the very men who once had\nruined him. Henceforth he must bend the whole strength of his spirit to\nthe furthering of that policy which he had so long, and at so great a\nsacrifice, resisted and attempted to destroy. The interests of the time\nrequired that France should forego all ambitions foreign to herself in\norder to consolidate herself; that she should sacrifice the south in\norder to insure the north; that she should also sacrifice the\naristocracy to the people; and Louis XI., who, as a prince, had paid so\ndear for his adherence to the rights of the nobles, became the monarch\nwho more than any other was governed by men of low and base\ncondition\u2014who more than any other oppressed and resisted the pride of\nfeudalism. Those who had been his friends became his enemies; those\nlikewise who had been his enemies became his friends. Francesco Sforza,\nfrom whom he had been so eager to take his duchy, became the one man\nalive whom he admired and respected. Yes, this successful captain of\nadventure, who for years had prevented him in Milan, in Naples, and in\nGenoa, who once had been the chief stumbling-block in the path of the\nDauphin, became the corner-stone of the policy of the King. Like\nCatherine de\u2019 Medici, like Rodrigo Borgia, like most unscrupulous\nrulers, there was something oddly magnanimous in the moral indifference\nof Louis IX. Sforza never suffered for his enmity of yore. The new King\nof France was a being as destitute of rancour as devoid of gratitude.\n\nWith Savoy, Orleans, Dunois, and Anjou the new king was ill-disposed to\ntreat. He had learned the secret of their intrigues and their ambitions.\nOn May 10, 1463, he wrote to Sforza that he was content to come to an\nunderstanding with Milan, if Milan would utterly disavow Savoy. This\nconspirator, versed since boyhood in all the dismal ins and outs of\ntreachery, was too well aware of the tricks of his confederates.[90] It\nstill might be possible that his enemies were honest. They at least were\nthe only people he could trust; and more than any other he confided in\nFrancesco Sforza. In December, 1463, he made to the _de facto_ Duke of\nMilan the significant cession of the French claim to Genoa.[91] He also\narranged for the cession of Savona. Negotiations were even begun for\nyielding Asti to Francesco Sforza; but the inhabitants declared that\nthey would stand by the house of Orleans.\n\nFootnote 90:\n\n  March 14, 1451, Am\u00e9d\u00e9e of Savoy had promised to assist the Dauphin\n  against all, \u201ceven against the King of France\u201d (Charavay, _l. c._ p.\n  34). This had a different aspect after Louis\u2019 coronation.\n\nFootnote 91:\n\n  Dumont, iii. ccxxviii.\n\nAt first the cousins of the King could not believe that he had actually\nabandoned them\u2014he who had begun his career as the pupil of Dunois, and\nhad suffered so long as the champion of the nobles. So late as October\n10, 1465, the descendants of Valentine Visconti sent a very secret\nembassy to Venice[92] to propose to the Ten a league between their\ngovernment and the Duke of Orleans, the Count of Angoul\u00eame, and the Duke\nof Brittany, for the purpose of ousting the usurper, Count Francesco,\nand delivering the Duchy of Milan to Charles of Orleans. This league,\nwhich could not be confirmed by the Pope, a political adversary, might,\nit was suggested, be headed by the King of France. Probably the\nVenetians were better informed as to the real intentions of Louis XI.\nCertainly they knew that it was too late or too early to dream of\ndislodging the Sforzas from Milan. They replied that they loved the\nhouse of France, but that peace also was dear to them: they begged to be\nexcused from attacking Count Francesco.\n\nFootnote 92:\n\n  Secreta del Senato, MS. Reg. 21, folio 21.\n\nAfter this for many years the house of Orleans ceased to struggle.\nBefore the year was out Charles of Orleans was dead, and the French\npretender to the crown of Milan was only an infant, three years old.\nBefore the child was six Dunois was also dead. Dunois\u2014who had not\nsuffered the children of his adoptive mother to be cheated of their\ninheritance in Asti\u2014would, had he lived, have instructed his nephew in\nthe details of his claim to Milan. But Louis II. of Orleans, born in his\nfather\u2019s seventy-second year, was naturally doomed to lose in infancy\nhis father\u2019s contemporaries. As the child grew up every link was severed\nthat might have bound him to the past, and he knew little or nothing of\nthe pretensions of his house. His mother, who had a romantic worship for\nthe memory of Valentine Visconti, related to her son many a legend of\nthe quasi-royal power which during the last century his ancestors\npossessed. But that supremacy seemed at an end for ever. In France, in\nItaly, the star of Orleans suffered a long eclipse. By his own\nexperience in rebellion Louis XI. was aware how dangerous to the Crown\nand how disastrous to the kingdom was the power of the great feudal\nhouses. Alen\u00e7on and Armagnac and many another he diminished by\nconfiscation and captivity; Dunois, Bourbon, Saint-Vallier, Sancerre, he\nattached to the Crown by royal marriages. Kinship in subjection,\nindependence in imprisonment: these were the two alternatives presented\nby the King to the nobles of France. Among the most unfortunate of those\nwho accepted the former gift was the young Louis d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans. Louis XI.\nhad decided that with this young man the house of Orleans should end;\nand when its representative was eleven years of age, the King married\nhim to Jeanne of France, a gentle girl, deformed, incapable of\noffspring, and so ugly that when she was brought to court for her\nwedding the king himself exclaimed: _Je ne la croyais pas si laide_. To\nthis bride the young duke was married in 1473. \u201cThey will have no\nexpense with a nursery,\u201d wrote the malicious King to Dammartin: _ils\nn\u2019auraient gu\u00e8res \u00e0 besoigner et nourrir les enfans qui viendraient du\ndit mariage: mais toutefois se feroit-il_.\n\nMeanwhile the six sons of Sforza had grown to manhood; and the eldest\nruled in Milan, accepted, by the mere fact of his unchallenged\nsuccession, as the lawful inheritor of his father\u2019s duchy.\n\n\n                                  VI.\n\nWhen Louis II. of Orleans had reached the age of twenty he was the best\narcher, the most dexterous horseman, the most adroit and brilliant\nman-at-arms about the Court of France. He was handsome, fond of the\narts, and well instructed. He had an engaging manner, gentle, gracious,\nand benign. A brave and eager cavalier, he was ready for adventures; but\na strong hand kept him down, a hand whose cruel restraint was never\nlifted from that audacious brow. Suddenly the pressure ceased: the hand\nwas gone; on August 30, 1483, King Louis died.\n\nHe was succeeded by a child of fourteen, an ugly, ignorant youth, who\nhad grown up neglected in the castle of Amboise, far from the Court,\nalone with his gentle forsaken mother, Charlotte of Savoy, who had\ntaught him the only thing she knew, the plots of innumerable romances of\nchivalry. For Louis XI., partly afraid of injuring the delicate\nconstitution of his only heir, and partly remembering his own dangerous\nand rebellious childhood, denied any solid education to his son. He\nnever saw the boy, leaving him for years at a time to grow up as best he\nmight alone with his mother at Amboise. \u201cLet the body grow strong\nfirst,\u201d said the King; \u201cthe mind will look to itself.\u201d And, according to\ntradition, the sole food that he provided for the eager mind of his son\nwas one single Latin maxim: _Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare_.\nThis was all the Latin that was taught to Charles VIII., and on this\nsolitary morsel of classic attainment he was never known to act. Louis\nXI., for all his subtlety, had forgotten that by simply withholding one\nsort of education you cannot insured vacuity. The child at Amboise knew\nnothing of history, nothing of geography, nothing of the classics. But\nhis mind was stuffed with the deeds of Roland and Ogier, and the beauty\nof _La belle dame sans merci_. Suddenly one summer day, unwonted\nmessengers knocked at the gates of Amboise; they fetched the child away\nto see an old, misshapen, suspicious man, whom he did not know\u2014who was\nhis father. The next day Charles VIII. was king of France under the\nregency of his married sister, Anne de Bourbon. Madame Anne inherited\nher father\u2019s dislike and distrust of Orleans; but her sister was his\nwife and adored him, and her brother, the king, admired him. She did her\nbest to repress Orleans in France; but her hand, though firm, had not\nthe solidity of her father\u2019s. Orleans grew and expanded.\n\nJust at this moment Venice was in sore distress. Almost every power in\nItaly was against her, and she turned for help to France. On January 16,\n1484, she sent Antonio Loredan to Charles VIII., complaining of the\naggressions of Naples, Milan, and Ferrara, and desiring a resumption of\nthe Franco-Venetian league of Louis XI. That league had been a very tame\nand passive piece of policy; the Venetians hoped a bolder favour from a\nyounger king. Loredan was bidden to insist upon the suggestion that the\nkingdom of Naples occupied by Ferdinand of Arragon, belonged in fact to\nFrance.[95] \u201cNor content with that,\u201d run the instructions of the Senate,\n\u201cthis king it was who instigated Lodovico Sforza to the usurpation of\nMilan.\u201d Lodovico il Moro,[94] the fourth son of Count Francesco Sforza,\nhad, as a matter of fact, usurped the position of his nephew in 1481,\nand, though nominally regent, conducted himself as Duke of Milan. But\nthis intrusion was not the seizure which now the Venetians meant to\nblame. They wished to suggest, as the lawful claimant, not the young son\nof Galeazzo Sforza, but the Duke of Orleans.\n\n\u201cExpress to the Duke of Orleans in secret our desire for his exaltation\n[run the instructions given to Loredan], and explain to him how good is\nthe opportunity for him to recover the Duchy of Milan, which belongs to\nhim by right; and how his claim would be favoured by the differences and\ndissidences at present existing between ourselves and Milan, as also by\nthe discontent of the Milanese with their tyrants. Inform the Duke that\nLodovico Sforza aspires to seize the sovereignty for himself, amid the\nmurmurs of his people, and that he will certainly massacre all who\nuphold the claim of the Duchess Bona. Inflame and excite as best you can\nthe Duke of Orleans to pursue this enterprise, ... and if the French\nshould choose to make good their claim to Naples as against the tyrant\nFerdinand, they could not find a better time than now.\u201d[93]\n\nFootnote 93:\n\n  MSS. Secreta del Senato, Reg. 31, fol. 123, tergo.\n\nFootnote 94:\n\n  Many reasons have been given for the assumption of this surname. As a\n  fact it appears to have been a baptismal name. In February, 1461,\n  Bianca Maria Sforza sent to the shrine of the Santo at Padua the\n  silver image of a child, _ex voto_ for the recovery of her fourth son,\n  Ludovicus Maurus, _filius quartus masculus_, aged five years.\n  (\u201cArchivio Storico Lombardo,\u201d Anno xiii; Caffi on B.M. Sforza.)\n\nFootnote 95:\n\n  Reg. 31, fol. 131, tergo.\n\nThis is the programme of the great invasions of 1494 and 1500; but the\ntimes were not yet ripe. On February 4th the Ten despatched a second\nmissive to the Duke of Orleans,[96] instigating him to the speedy\nconquest of Milan, and offering him the entire Venetian army for this\nservice. The young Duke appears to have taken these proposals very\nseriously, and the project created some disturbance and quarrelling at\nCourt. But the Venetians were incapable of any sustained policy in\nforeign affairs; to serve Venice in the way that at the moment appeared\nmost advantageous was their only aim, and thus their attitude was one of\nconstant unrest. In August they made peace with Naples and Milan, and\nsent word to Orleans that they were glad to hear that all disunion was\nat an end between him and the King. The same thing had happened in\nItaly. Peace had set in under the happiest auspices, and a fraternal\naffection united the King of Naples and the Regent of Milan with the\nVenetian Senate.\n\nFootnote 96:\n\n  Reg. 32, fol. 87.\n\nSo ended the project for a French succession. Louis of Orleans, thwarted\nof his foreign ambition, strove for greatness at home, and contested the\nregency with Anne of Bourbon. The civil war, the flight into Brittany,\nthe pretensions of Louis to the hand of his beautiful cousin (the\nheiress to that duchy), the defeat of the Orleanist troops at\nSaint-Aubin on July 28, 1488, and the three years\u2019 captivity of the\nDuke, are matters of common knowledge. But as Charles VIII. grew out of\nthe tutelage of his sister, more and more he grew to favour his\nimprisoned cousin. There was little to fear from him now that the King\nwas a major, and Anne of Brittany the Queen of France. In 1491 the Duke\nwas released; and when in 1494 Charles at the head of his troops invaded\nItaly, Louis of Orleans preceded him across the mountains, chief in\ncommand, master of the fleet, destined to drive the Neapolitans from\nGenoa, and thence to lead the fleet of France into the port of Naples.\n\n\n                                  VII.\n\nThe invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. appeared, even to contemporaries,\na miracle. The young King, ill advised, without generals, without money,\nwith the impromptu army of a moment\u2019s whim, traversed hostile Italy as\nglorious as Charlemagne. Charlemagne, in fact, was the true leader of\nhis forces: for that glorious phantom marched before him, filling with\ndread the hearts of the enemy, and blinding them to the actual penury of\nthe invader. With the events of that romantic campaign we have no\nbusiness at this moment, for, notwithstanding his commission to lead the\nfleet to Naples, the Duke of Orleans did not go south of Lombardy. While\nOrleans was gaining the battle of Rapallo, suddenly the King arrived at\nAsti. It was Sept. 9th, a malarious season. Across the wide plain, the\nmarshy fields of Lombardy, Orleans galloped, fresh from victory, to a\ncouncil with the King. He had scarcely arrived at Asti when Charles fell\nill of the small-pox. The attack was slight, and within a fortnight he\nrecovered. But the very day the King began to mend, Orleans sickened of\na quartan ague, and when his cousin was well again and ready, on Oct.\n6th, to set out for Naples, Orleans was still unfit to take the road. He\nsent his company south with the royal troops, and with a handful of\nsquires and servants remained behind in his hereditary county of Asti,\namong the subjects who had loved his father, and who had served himself,\nfar-off, unseen, through years of peril and intrigue, with as devoted\nand chivalrous a spirit of loyalty as ever the highlanders of Jacobite\nScotland dedicated to an absent Stuart.\n\nSforza and Orleans were now the nearest neighbours, bound to each other\nby their interest in the King. Fate has seldom brought about more ironic\ncomplication. When Lodovico Sforza, out of revenge and anger towards\nKing Ferdinand, had revived the French claim to Naples, and had\ninstigated Charles to enter Italy, he had not foreseen the accident that\nleft the Duke of Orleans within a league or two of Milan. Charles VIII.\nentered Italy as the friend and guest of Lodovico il Moro, the Regent of\nMilan. To the external and uninitiated world the French claim to the\nduchy appeared about as actual as the claim of the English kings to\nFrance. Lodovico il Moro, familiar with the France of Louis XI., knew\nthat the claims of Orleans were not likely to be countenanced by the\nthrone.\n\nThe present is never clear to us. Its Archives, its Secreta, are not\ngiven over to our perusal. Lodovico il Moro was probably uninstructed in\nthat secret policy of the Venetian Senate which, in 1483, had so\nstrongly urged the half-forgotten rights of Orleans. But we, familiar\nwith those silent manuscripts, are not surprised to find that no sooner\nhad the King gone south than Venice and Florence began to interfere with\nOrleans. The very day the King left Asti,[97] a secret messenger from\nPiero de\u2019 Medici entered the city. His errand was to Orleans. In their\ndesire to stop the progress of Charles VIII., and in their hatred of\nLodovico who had invoked the stranger, the Italian princes proposed to\noffer Milan to the French in place of Naples. Orleans himself suggested,\nunknown to his chivalrous young cousin, that the King would be satisfied\nif Ferdinand would pay him homage for Naples, and, besides a war\nindemnity, a yearly pension such as the kings of France pay to England.\nFor himself, and as a just fine on Lodovico, he intimated that the Duchy\nof Milan might be divided between the houses of Orleans and Sforza. But\nas time went on, and the arms of France were everywhere successful, he\ngrew bolder in his demands, and \u201cMilan for the heir of the Visconti\u201d was\nhis cry.\n\nFootnote 97:\n\n  The messenger left Florence Oct. 3, 1494. See for further details of\n  these schemes the first vol. of Desjardins\u2019 \u201cN\u00e9g. dip. dans la\n  Toscane.\u201d\n\nBut Charles, ignorant of the intrigues of Orleans and Florence, of\nVenice and of Sforza (who also for his private ends wished the King to\nkeep this side the Apennines), crossed the southern range as he had\ncrossed the Alps, and by the new year he was in Rome. Then, afraid of\nthe French success, the Italians began to draw back from their\nconspiracy with Orleans. They had wished the French to take Milan\ninstead of Naples, but Milan as well as Naples was too much.\n\n\n                                 VIII.\n\nWhen the French had entered Italy, Orleans had had no legal rival to his\nclaim, unless, indeed, the Emperor be called his rival. To the people of\nLombardy, oppressed by taxes, hating their tyrant, he appeared as the\nrightful heir, the last of the Visconti. Round the history of a past not\nyet remote there had grown a mist through which all things appeared of\nvague, heroic, and mysterious proportions, of which the King Arthur, the\nlegendary glory, was the first duke\u2014\u201cSaint Giangaleazzo,\u201d as one of the\nbrothers of Pavia called him in the presence of Commines. \u201cThis saint of\nyours,\u201d cried the amused historian, \u201cwas a great and wicked, though most\nhonourable, tyrant.\u201d \u201cThat may be,\u201d said the brother; \u201cwe call him saint\nbecause he did good to our order.\u201d\n\nThis was also the feeling of the Milanese, for whom Giangaleazzo had\ninvented security and peace, for whom he had conquered immense\npossessions. They forgot his sins, his crimes, and the first duke became\nthe hero of the place. To be the last descendant of this man seemed in\nitself a claim to inherit his possessions, to sit in his place, to expel\nthe usurper. While this was their feeling, in October the usurper died.\n\nGiangaleazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, a youth of five-and-twenty, kept in\nprison by his uncle, the Regent Lodovico, died no less suspiciously than\nthe little princes in the Tower. He left behind him a son four years\nold, his legitimate successor. But, with ominous prevision, a year\nbefore this time, Lodovico the regent had negotiated with the Emperor to\nobtain the reversion of the duchy. He had admitted that his father, his\nbrother, his nephew were no more than illegal usurpers: moreover they\nhad prejudiced the rights of the empire by receiving their titles only\nfrom the people. Thus the infant son of Giangaleazzo was the son, not\nmerely of a usurper, but of a man who had forfeited whatever rights he\noriginally had. Conceding this, Lodovico besought the Emperor, of his\nfree grace and bounty, to bestow the duchy on himself and his\ndescendants, even as once before an emperor had bestowed Milan upon a\nman who had no legal claim\u2014namely, on Giangaleazzo Visconti. Maximilian\nconsented, and on Sept. 5, 1494, the Imperial letters of promise[98]\nwere despatched from Antwerp, letters for which the Regent paid the sum\nof 100,000 ducats.\n\nFootnote 98:\n\n  The copy is to be found in Corio, 457-59. I do not know where to find\n  the original document, but MSS. copies, evidently from the Archives of\n  Pavia, are to be found among the British Museum documents, Additional\n  MSS., 30, 675. Giovio mentions a report that after the death of\n  Francesco Sforza II., Count Massimiliano Sforza found the deed and\n  restored it to the Emperor. Lodovico il Moro ever insisted that he\n  received Milan, not by succession, but direct from the Emperor. He\n  called himself the fourth, and not the seventh, duke.\n\nThis document, kept in the deepest privacy, can have arrived in Milan\nbut a few days before Giangaleazzo died. Every one believed that the\nyoung man had died of poison. It was a piteous thing. But the son of the\nmurdered man was only four years old; and the French were in\nLombardy\u2014the guests of Lodovico. \u201cTo be short,\u201d says Commines, \u201cLodovico\nhad himself declared Duke of Milan, and that, as I think, was his only\nend in bringing us across the mountains.\u201d Terrorised by the presence of\nthe French, the people hailed the Regent as their duke, \u201cand crying\n_Duca! Duca!_\u201d (wrote Corio), \u201cand having robed him in the ducal mantle,\nthey set him on horseback, and he rode to the temple, the men of his\nfaction proclaiming him the while, and they set the joy-bells ringing,\nwhile all this time the dead body of Giangaleazzo was lying still\nunburied in the great cathedral.\u201d\n\nConscious of the secret diploma in his pocket, Lodovico could enjoy the\npleasure of this ceremony with a feeling of security. Yet his crown did\nnot sit quite smoothly on his brows. Orleans in Asti was assuming an\nintolerable air of patronage. And behind that thin row of partisans\nshouting with their hired voices, \u201c_Duca! Duca!_\u201d there was a sullen,\nsilent crowd. Those, and the rest of Italy, believed that Lodovico had\npoisoned the father in order to usurp the inheritance of the child,\nFrancesco. Of the three pretenders, by far the most popular was the\nunconscious infant, who bore so quaintly in his mother\u2019s arms the\nbeloved and redoubtable name of his grandfather, the great condottiere.\n\u201cNearly all the Milanese,\u201d wrote Commines, \u201cwould have revolted to the\nKing had he only followed Trivulzio\u2019s advice and set up the arms of the\nchild-duke.\u201d But Charles refused to injure the claims of his cousin of\nOrleans.\n\nMeanwhile the relations between the French and Lodovico were growing\ndifficult and strained. The presence of Orleans in Asti, the miraculous\nsuccess of Charles, inspired the Duke of Milan with the bitterest regret\nthat ever he had called his allies across the mountains. He had used\nthem as a weapon, and now their use had passed. When, on Feb. 27, 1495,\nhe heard the news that the French had entered Naples, he simulated every\nsign of joy. But while the bells were still ringing in the steeples, he\ndrew aside the Venetian envoy. \u201cI have had bad news,\u201d he whispered.\n\u201cNaples is lost. Let us form a league against the common enemy.\u201d\n\nThis was in the end of February. During the next month there was much\nsecret business in the diplomatic world. Ever since the entry of the\nFrench into Rome the great powers had looked unkindly on the triumph of\nCharles VIII. The Emperor beheld with dismay the alliance of Ghibelline\nMilan and the Ghibelline Colonna with the King of France. The Pope\nbelieved with reason that France, the Colonna, and the Savelli might\ndepose a pontiff so unpopular as Alexander VI. Ferdinand and Isabella\ndeclared that the intention of Charles was nothing less than to make\nhimself the king of Italy and then proceed to conquer Spain. So likely\ndid it seem that this ungainly, limping, ill-instructed youth might\njustify the name he had assumed\u2014_Carolus Octavus, Secundus Magnus_.\n\nAt Venice in the dead of the night the secret council used to meet.\nThere, with the Venetian Senate, the ambassadors of Germany, Castile and\nArragon, and Milan conferred together. They were negotiating a league to\nexpel the French from Italy. On March 31st, while Charles was still shut\nin the Neapolitan trap, the quintuple alliance was proclaimed. The last\nname among the allies was the name of the man who had called Charles\ninto Italy, now given for the first time among his equals his new\ndignity of Duke of Milan. Lodovico hastened to legalize this official\nrecognition. In May the Imperial privilege, formally promised in the\npreceding autumn, arrived at Milan. In presence of the Imperial envoys\nthe privilege was read aloud at Lodovico\u2019s solemn coronation.\n\n\n                                  IX.\n\nLodovico had sprung a disagreeable surprise upon the Duke of Orleans,\nfor his title, derived directly from Maximilian, was now as good as that\nof Giangaleazzo Visconti himself. To conquer Milan by arms, to force the\nEmperor into revoking the privilege of 1495, to induce him to grant a\nnew one confirming the Visconti succession\u2014this was the only course that\nremained to Orleans.\n\nSecret as the Council had been at Venice, it had not escaped the notice\nof Commines, who wrote in March to Orleans bidding him look to the walls\nof Asti, and sent a messenger to Bourbon in France bidding him despatch\na reinforcement to the scanty force of Orleans. The young Duke at Asti\nwas not sorry to receive the message. He had now been six months in\nLombardy; he had done nothing; and he was eager to come to battle with\nLodovico. To all the French, by this time, Il Moro appeared a traitor\nand a secret poisoner. To Louis of Orleans he appeared all this and also\nthe usurper of his inheritance.\n\nGreat were the pomp and beauty of Milan in the year 1495, humbled as yet\nby no centuries of foreign servitude, ruined by no battles and untouched\nby time. Wonderful in the fresh whiteness of its stately cathedral;\ndelicate with the unblurred beauty of the new frescoes by Lionardo; rich\nwith statuary, broken now and lost for ever; gay with the clear fine\nmoulding of its rose-red palaces, Milan in the rich plain was a fountain\nof wealth to its possessor. When Orleans beheld this earthly paradise of\nthe Renaissance, his claim to Milan, which had been at first but a\nshadowy pretension, took certainty and substance in his mind. And as the\nattention of the young man was drawn to his Visconti ancestors, and to\nthe marriage of his grandfather with the daughter of the Duke of Milan,\nhe and his counsellors began to reconstruct the half-forgotten title\nthat he had to Milan.\n\nNo one was very clear as to the point. The ducal secretaries found\nthemselves compelled to suppose, to invent. Nicole Gilles, the chief of\nthem, declared that Filippo Maria Visconti had married Madame Bonne,\ndaughter of King John of France (a lady who had she existed, would have\nbeen a good forty years older than her husband), by whom he had two\ngirls, Valentine, who married the Duke of Orleans, and Bonne, who\nmarried the lord of Montauban in Brittany. Besides these he had a\nbastard child, Bianca Maria, the wife of Sforza.\n\nThis is perhaps the clearest of these singular genealogies _pour rire_.\nLouis was glad to escape from their confusion and bewilderment to the\nplain issues of the field of battle. There seemed a good chance for him.\nLodovico was so hated by his subjects[99] that they would welcome almost\nany change. Almost at the same moment that Piacenza offered herself to\nKing Charles if he would undertake to support the child Francesco, the\ncities of Milan, Pavia, and Novara were secretly practising with\nOrleans, and Commines declares he would have been received in Milan with\ngreater rejoicings than in his town of Blois.\n\nFootnote 99:\n\n  \u201cEra molto odiato dai popoli a cagione dei denari.\u201d\u2014\u201cBello Gallico,\u201d\n  i. p. 176.\n\nOn April 17th Lodovico il Moro insolently summoned Orleans to quit Asti\nand cross the Alps again with all his men. Thanks to the warning of\nCommines, Orleans already had fortified the town.\n\n\u201cThis place,\u201d he replied,[100] \u201cand its dependent castles are a part of\nmy inheritance, and to put them in other hands, and to go away and leave\nmy own possessions, is a thing that I never meant to do. Tell your\nmaster,\u201d he added to the messenger, \u201cthat he will find me ready for\ncombat, either waiting for him here or going forth to meet him on the\nfield of battle. I have received a commission from the King, and it is\nmy intention to fulfil it.\u201d\n\nFootnote 100:\n\n  For this letter, and for the letters of Orleans to Bourbon, quoted\n  from the Library of St. Petersburg, _vide_ vol. ii. of Cherrier\u2019s\n  \u201cHistoire de Charles VIII.,\u201d p. 184, _et seq._\n\nUnfortunately, the real commission that Orleans had received from his\ncousin was to keep quiet and on no account to break the peace (for the\nleague was defensive, and did not menace the royal troops if they\nretired without offence) until Charles and his diminished army had\narrived at Asti. They would be in imminent peril if any rash act of\nOrleans should let loose upon them, amid the bewildering passes of the\nmountains, the eager concourse of their vigilant enemies. But Orleans\ndid not remember this. He was burning for personal conflict with his\nrival, indignant at his treachery, and persuaded that he could easily\nsecure the whole of Lombardy to France. Thrice in April he wrote to\nBourbon entreating succour. \u201cOnly send me the reinforcements at once,\nand I think I shall do the King a service that men will talk of many a\nyear.\u201d The forces came; and Orleans saw himself the master of 5,000\nfoot, 100 archers, 1,300 men-at-arms or thereabouts, and two fine pieces\nof artillery.[101] He was aware that Lodovico was so out-at-elbows that\nhe could not pay his army. He knew the discontent of Lombardy. He felt\nhimself so much older and wiser than the King that he found it hard to\nobey his commands. His secret practice with the nobles of the Lombard\ncities informed him that all was ripe for a sudden stroke. On the last\nnight of May, in the safety of the dark, twenty men-at-arms under Jean\nde Louvain rode out from Asti across the Lombard plain, until at\ndaybreak on June 1st they reached the gate of San Stefano at Novara. The\ngate was opened to them by the factors of the Opicini, two nobles of the\nplace; the citizens ran out to meet the French; the handful of Sforzesco\ntroops within the town barred themselves in the citadel. By June 13th,\nOrleans, with the flower\n\nFootnote 101:\n\n  This is the Venetian estimate. Guicciardini says, 300 lances, 3,000\n  Swiss, and 3,000 Gascons.\n\nNo sooner was he there than, first Pavia, then Milan, offered to receive\nhim. He ought to have gone at once, before the armies of his enemies\ncould encircle him in Novara. But his whole soul was invaded by a deep\ndistrust of the Italians. It seemed safer to temporise until the royal\ntroops came up. Long before these could possibly arrive, on June 22nd,\nthe Venetians protected Milan with 1,000 Grecian stradiots, 2,000 foot,\n1,000 cuirassiers.[102] It was now impossible to take Milan, which a\nlittle boldness might easily have gained. It was impossible even to\nevacuate Novara. And when, after many difficulties heroically overcome,\nthe little army of Charles arrived in Asti on July 27th, sorely in need\nof rest and of refreshment, a new and arduous task awaited it; for\nOrleans and his soldiers were perishing of hunger in besieged Novara.\n\nFootnote 102:\n\n  This is the Venetian estimate. For the figures of Giovio and Corio,\n  see Cherrier, ii. 197.\n\n\n                                   X.\n\nCommines has set dramatically before us the division between the army\nand the council of the King. He himself warmly espoused the cause of the\narmy, which frankly declared a battle impossible against such\noverwhelming odds: unless reinforcements arrived from Switzerland,\nOrleans must be released by composition from Novara. But the council\ninsisted on an immediate engagement. The soldiers commonly said that\nOrleans had promised Bri\u00e7onnet an income of 10,000 crowns for his son,\nif Milan should still be gained and the siege of Novara raised. The\nSwiss did not come; the army was too small. In September there began to\nbe a serious talk of peace. On the 26th of that month, Orleans and his\narmy were released by composition from Novara. Over 2,000 of them had\ndied of hunger, and many fell by the roadside from sheer weakness and\ndied there as they lay. (Commines found fifty of them dying in a garden,\nand saved their lives by a timely mess of pottage.) Most of those who\nlived to reach the camp perished of the dangerous abundance. More than\nthree hundred of their wasted corpses were cast upon the dunghills of\nVercelli.\n\nThis was a heavy price to pay for one man\u2019s disobedient ambition. All\nthe harder did it seem to buy nothing with so great expense. There were\nmany who were still unwilling for peace. Orleans had endeared himself to\nhis troops by his conduct during the hunger of Novara, where he had\nfared and fasted like any common man-at-arms, setting aside the ducal\nmess for the use of the sick in hospital. His mess-fellows were willing\nstill to die for him. By an ironic turn of fate, on the very day on\nwhich the army evacuated Novara, 20,000 Swiss came to the relief of the\nking. With such a reinforcement as this, cried Orleans, Ligny, D\u2019Amboise\nand their men, Charles might not only conquer Milan, but make himself\nmaster of the whole of Italy. But the negotiations for peace already\nwere begun; Novara was lost; the French soldiers were few and much\nenfeebled; and it was rumoured that the Swiss meant no less than to\ncapture King Charles with all his nobles, carry them off into the\nimpregnable fastness of the Alps, and then exact a fabulous ransom for\ntheir liberty.\n\nThe King thought it best to dismiss at once these dangerous allies, and\ntake his homesick soldiers back to France. On Oct. 10th peace was\nconcluded. The king promised\u2014on condition that Lodovico Sforza renounced\nall claim to Asti, made no obstacle to the relief of the French in\nNaples, and paid to Orleans a war indemnity of 50,000 ducats\u2014not to\nsustain his cousin\u2019s right to Milan. Orleans was enraged and\ndisappointed. In secret he negotiated for the support of the Swiss\ncaptains, and with these and with 800 of his men-at-arms he meant to\nmarch from Vercelli upon Milan. But the night before he was to leave,\nwhen all was ready, suddenly he demanded the consent of the King.\nCharles refused to sanction this breach of the peace, and bade his\ncousin join the army in marching back to France. By Nov. 7th Orleans,\nnone the richer for his endeavours, was with the King at Lyons.\n\nA little more than a year after this the King would gladly have sent his\ncousin of Orleans to conquer Milan: it was the Duke who made excuses and\nwould not go. For soon after the French returned to France, the Dauphin\ndied. Charles, who had inherited that terrible distrust of his own\nchildren from which he had suffered in his father, did not greatly\nmourn, or so at least Commines assures us. But if the quickness of a\nlittle child of three\u2014his own son\u2014had given him concern, much more did\nhe dread his new heir, the Duke of Orleans. The queen, bewailing the\nloss of her child, had fallen into a lamentable melancholy, and Charles,\nwith an absurd idea of cheering the poor mother, ordered a masque of\ngentlemen to dance before her. Orleans was among them, and he danced to\nsuch purpose, with such lightness of heart and heel, such buoyancy and\ngladness, that the sorrowing queen was seriously offended; and Charles\nhimself determined, if possible, to send his cheerful heir a little\nfurther from the throne.\n\nAn opportunity soon offered. Florence, faithful against all the world to\nFrance, sent to the King at Amboise, asking him to come and uproot the\nSforza out of Milan. She offered to furnish 800 men-at-arms and 5,000\nfootmen at her own cost. The cardinal of St. Peter in Vinculis, the\nOrsini, Bentivoglio of Bologna, Este of Ferrara, Gonzaga of Mantua, all\nhad promised to hire their forces to the King. Genoa was to be conquered\nby Trivulzio while Orleans marched on Milan. The plan of campaign was\nsettled, the troops were all drawn up, Trivulzio had already entered\nItaly with 6,000 infantry and 800 men-at-arms, when, on the very night\nof his departure, Orleans suddenly abandoned his post. On his own\nprivate quarrel, he declared, he could not and he would not go; as the\nKing\u2019s lieutenant, and at his express command, he was ready to\ndepart\u2014not otherwise. \u201cI would never force him to the wars against his\nwill,\u201d exclaimed Charles, and, though for many days the Florentine\nambassadors besought him to exercise the authority of the throne, he\nrefused to interfere with Orleans. \u201cThus was the voyage dashed,\u201d relates\nCommines, \u201cspite of great charges and all our friends in a readiness.\nAnd this was done to the King\u2019s great grief, for Milan being once won,\nNaples would have yielded of itself.\u201d\n\nWhat, then, had happened to change the mind of Orleans\u2014Orleans,\ndisobedient at Novara, and disobedient again to-day for so opposite a\nreason? \u201cHe shunned this enterprise,\u201d continues our historian, \u201cbecause\nhe saw the King ill-disposed of his body, whose heir he should be if he\ndied.\u201d \u201cHe would not go,\u201d relates Guicciardini, \u201cfor he saw that the\nKing was ill, and to himself belonged the succession of the crown.\u201d\n\nJust a year after this, on the morning of Palm Sunday (April 8, 1498),\nLouis of Orleans, fallen into a sort of undetermined half-disgrace, was\nstanding at a window in his house at Blois, when he saw in the street\nsome soldiers of the royal guard, running quickly. \u201cGod save the King!\u201d\nthey cried; \u201cVive le roi Louis XII.!\u201d This was the first King Louis\nheard of the sudden death of his cousin. The day before, Charles VIII.\nhad fallen down, suddenly stricken to death, as he and his wife were\nwatching a game of tennis from the gallery at Amboise.\n\n\n                                  XI.\n\nThe French claimant to Milan was now the King of France. From this\nmoment the pretensions of Orleans became a factor in European history.\nThe plans of the first Duke of Milan went so grievously astray, that,\ninstead of France and Germany each holding the other in check, for half\na century their armies occupied the soil of Lombardy, nor, when they\nwithdrew, was the land left at peace, but, baffled and paralyzed, the\nhelpless prey of Spain.\n\nThis Iliad is too important to be contained within the slender limits of\nan essay. We can but briefly indicate the events which developed and\nthen extinguished the right of the French to Milan. Conquered in 1499,\nby Louis XII. of France, Lombardy remained for five and twenty years an\nintermittent province of that kingdom, continually revolting,\ncontinually reconquered. During this time several privileges and\ninvestitures, extracted from the Emperor, confirmed the victories of\nFrance, and annulled the claims of Lodovico Sforza. These investitures\nare worthy of at least our brief consideration, since, from the moment\nof their bestowal, the French claim to Milan, already emphasised by the\nrights of heredity, testamentary bequest, and contract, received the\nfinal sanction of the feudal law.\n\nThe first of these Imperial investitures was bestowed on King Louis XII.\nby the hand of Maximilian on April 7, 1505.[103] It secured the Duchy of\nMilan (_non obstante priore investitura illustri Ludovico Sfortia prius\nexhibita_) to the King of France and to his sons; or, in default of\nmales, to his daughter Claude. At this time, through the influence of\nQueen Anne, Claude was most unnaturally betrothed to the permanent enemy\nof her country, the future Charles V., and in this document he is\nmentioned as her husband and co-heir\u2014a fact he did not allow to slip.\nBut fortunately the heiress of Brittany, Orleans, and Milan, was not\nallowed to marry the great rival of France. On June 14, 1509, a second\ninvestiture confirmed the inheritance of Claude, and associated with her\ntherein her future husband, Francis of Angoul\u00eame, her cousin, equally\nwith herself the offspring of Valentine and Orleans.[104] This Imperial\ndocument explicitly admits the right of feminine succession to a Lombard\nfief,[105] for Claude, it affirms, is the heiress to Milan through her\nfather, the grandson of Madame Valentine. But it says nothing of the\ndescent of Francis of Angoul\u00eame, although it provides that if Claude\nshould die in childhood, and the King have no other children born to\ntake her place, then Francis of Angoul\u00eame shall be recognized as in his\nown right Duke of Milan because he is the heir of the King of France.\n\nFootnote 103:\n\n  Luenig, sectio ii. classis i.: \u201cDe Ducato Mediolanesi,\u201d xliv.\n\nFootnote 104:\n\n  See in Luenig, June 14, 1509, No. xlv., and also, with some\n  unimportant variations of text, Bib. Nat. Paris, MS. 2950, Ancien\n  Fonds Fran\u00e7ais.\n\nFootnote 105:\n\n  _Pr\u00e6fatus rex ex ducibus Mediolani originem trahit, medio illustris\n  quondam domin\u00e6 Valentin\u00e6 avi\u00e6 su\u00e6, fili\u00e6 quondam illustris Johannis\n  Galeatii Mediolani ducis._\n\nThese are the rights of Francis I. to Milan, rights absolute and\nimpregnable. But it was only by continual conquest that the French could\nkeep their hold upon the Milanese. For the tendencies of ages go to show\nus that there is a natural right more potent than the claims of blood,\nsuccession, testament, adoption, or investiture. The French dukes of\nMilan were, in their own dominions, foreigners. And, as the wise\nCommines foresaw\u2014\n\n\u201cThere is no great seniorie but in the end the dominion thereof\nremaineth to the natural countrymen. And this appeareth by the realm of\nFrance, a great part whereof the Englishmen possessed the space of four\nhundred years, and yet now hold they nothing therein but Calais and two\nlittle castles, the defence whereof costeth them yearly a great sum of\nmoney. And the self-same appeareth also by the realm of Naples and the\nIsle of Sicily, and the other provinces possessed by the French, where\nnow is no memorial of their being there, save only their ancestors\u2019\ngraves.\u201d\n\nIt was the fatal battle of Pavia which really lost her Italian\ndependencies to France. The treaty of Madrid, extorted by compulsion,\nwhich proved so powerless to restore to the Emperor Burgundy (already\nbecome an integral part of France), resigned to him for ever the\ndominions of the French in Italy; not, however, without a struggle. No\nsooner was Francis released from Madrid than he declared that extorted\ncontract void. He despatched protest after protest[106] to all the\ncourts in Europe: but what availed to retain his hold on Cognac, proved\nvain to regain him the Milanese.\n\nFootnote 106:\n\n  See for example \u201cProtestations de Fran\u00e7ois 1^{er},\u201d Bib. Nat. MS.\n  2846.\n\nImmediately after the battle of Pavia, Charles V. had invested Francesco\nSforza II., the son of Il Moro, with the duchy of his fathers. But what\nshould happen on the death of Francesco Sforza, a childless man?\nForeseeing this event, the hopes of the king of France were not\nextinguished; and the ten years between 1530 and 1540 are filled with\nthe various endeavours, menaces, persuasions, by which he strove to\nobtain from the emperor the Duchy of Milan for the second son of France.\nSince it was evidently impossible to induce Charles V. to let Milan be\nan adjunct to the French Crown, the ambition of the king persevered upon\na lower level, and a French Duke of Milan became the sum of his desires.\nAt two different moments the realization of this scheme appeared\npossible. In 1535, after the death of Francesco Sforza II., negotiations\nwere set on foot to obtain the Milanese for Orleans. A document still\nexisting in the National Library at Paris[107] proves how lively and how\nsanguine at this moment was the hope of Francis I. to recover Milan. The\nking offered a promise never to unite this duchy to the Crown of France,\nand declared himself ready to expend an immense sum on its investiture.\nBut the Venetians,[108] aware of the danger to themselves which a great\nFrench state must create in Italy, temporized and man\u0153uvred so well that\nthe matter came to nothing; for Charles V. was in a humour to credit\ntheir assertions, that any time was better than time present. The\naffairs of Italy were dull and dead to him. All his energies were fixed\nupon the idea of the crusade against Algiers. It was proposed that\nOrleans should join him in this enterprize,[109] and that, hand to hand\nin this holy fight, emperor and prince might consent to forget the\nbitter memory of bygone days. But in 1536 the eldest son of Francis\ndied, and Orleans became the Dauphin of France. The schemes, the policy\nwhich during several years had endeavoured to secure for the husband of\nCatherine de\u2019 Medici an Italian principality, collapsed before that\nunexpected stroke of fate. Orleans was not to be the head of an Italian\nkingdom reaching from the Alps to Rome, and in 1540 Charles V. invested\nhis own son, Philip of Spain, with the Duchy of Milan. Yet France could\nnot acquiesce in this alienation of her transalpine inheritance, and in\n1544 the disastrous treaty of Cr\u00e9py provided that, in two years from\nthat date, either Milan or the Netherlands should be bestowed upon the\nthird son of Francis. But before the time of the engagement had expired,\nPrince Charles was dead, and Milan fast in the grasp of the Spaniards.\n\nFootnote 107:\n\n  Bib. Nat. MS. 2846, No. 57: _Instruction baill\u00e9e au Seigneur\n  d\u2019Espercieu apr\u00e8s la mort du duc de Milan, Sforce, &c._\n\nFootnote 108:\n\n  Ibid.: _Les V\u00e9nitiens ont practiqu\u00e9 bien avant cette matti\u00e8re et\n  laissent, ce semble, le dict Sieur de Granvelle entendre qu\u2019ils\n  parlent autrement que le roy, par aventure, ne pense; l\u2019ambassadeur\n  parle assez publiquement de diviser le dict estat en plusieurs\n  pi\u00e8ces_.\n\nFootnote 109:\n\n  Ibid.\n\n\n\n\n                       THE MALATESTAS OF RIMINI.\n\n\n                           NOTES AND DETAILS.\n\nIt is a centre for many memories, this little town of Rimini, set in the\nplain by the Adriatic. Here ruled and ravaged the Mastin Vecchio of\nDante. The eyes of Francesca and her lover remember eternally these\nyellow sands. Here Parisina left her innocence. Here dwelt Gismondo,\nprince of traitors. And there are older memories than these. Yet in the\ncity whence C\u00e6sar crossed the Rubicon, whence Augustus began the great\nFlaminian Way, we remember, not C\u00e6sar or Augustus, but that strange,\nbrave, cruel, perfidious race of petty despots, whose encroaching\npersonality and whose genius for architecture has left an enduring trace\non the cities of Romagna.\n\nPesaro, Fano, Cesena, Verruchio, and many another town owned the unquiet\nsway of these Malatestas, and found them a perverse and twisted race,\nshot with opposite qualities. They were a race of wrongheads, as their\nsurname tells us. Criminal often and yet not merely vicious, having some\ngreat thought in them mostly, some fine intention still manifest through\nthe error of their lives, many of their vices were due to circumstance.\nA dominant, courageous race of princelings, mostly illegitimate, never\nsure of their tenure, it was only by unquestioned autocracy and a\nnever-relaxed grasp that they could secure their state from inner and\nouter ravage. Their hand was against every man, and every man\u2019s against\nthem. Not only the Pope anxious to enlarge his Venetian frontier, and\nVenice eager for another province on the Adriatic seaboard; not only the\nDuke of Urbino, the hereditary foe, perched like an eagle on the hills\nabove, watching the unguarded moment to pounce upon his prey: not only\nthese, and Sforza and Arragon, but every brother or cousin of the house,\nfrom his petty stronghold in the plain, was ready to snatch from the\nlord of Rimini, his dearly held supremacy.\n\nSuch absolute power in the present, with such uncertain future, is above\nall things dangerous to heady natures. The Malatestas grew mad sometimes\nwith their unrestrained indulgence, mad with cruelty and wild debauch;\nbut we repeat they were not merely vicious. They were strong, cunning,\nbrave unto death, ambitious; they knew how to make their subjects love\nthem; they left their little seaside village a monument of art, and made\ntheir few miles of plain a power in Italy.\n\nIn 1427 there was no lawful heir to this long-enriched possession. Carlo\nMalatesta, twice married, lived in childish state at Rimini: Pandolfo of\nFano, dying in 1427, left no heir from his three brides; but, in\nbequeathing to his brother Carlo his estate of Fano, he also sent to him\nthree natural children, still young boys, for whom both uncle and father\nhad in vain attempted to obtain a bull of legitimation. Powerful enemies\nstood in their path. By excluding these children, Malatesta of Pesaro on\nthe one hand, and Frederic of Urbino on the other, hoped to succeed to\nRimini and Fano; and for long they persuaded the Pope to their own\ninterests. But Carlo Malatesta was not easily thwarted.\n\nThis Carlo was in many ways the most honourable of his race; a\nrighteous, moral, pious soldier and captain, much such another as those\nwho saved England under Cromwell. It is recorded of him that, entering\nMantua in triumph on the morning of Virgil\u2019s birthday, he found the\ngreat irregular square there full of revellers, dancing and singing and\ncrowning with wreaths of flowers the statue of the poet. Whereat,\nincensed at such worship paid to a vain heathen idol, he led up his\nsoldiers to the pedestal and bade them throw the statue into the Mincio;\nwhich being done, or reported to be done, such a chorus of blame and\nindignation rose throughout the humanistic Hellenist Italy of that day\nas not one of the orgies, crimes, brutalities, and lusts of Carlo\u2019s\nkinsmen had ever wakened. All this gave little discomfiture to Carlo,\nhimself in his way a connoisseur of art and letters, and the first\npatron of the young Ghiberti, whom he employed to decorate the Gattolo\nat Rimini. Seldom indeed was Rimini so enviable as during the long and\nprosperous reign of Carlo. But in 1429 Carlo died.\n\nJust before his death he had procured the legitimation of his nephews.\nHe was succeeded by Galeotto, the eldest, a lad of seventeen, who found\na heavy load in the much-battered helmet and sheath left empty for him.\nMany hungry eyes adverse to him were fixed already on that jacent helm;\nFrederic of Urbino and the faithless cousin of Pesaro were ranked close\nbeneath the city gates; the more ready to snatch his inheritance because\nEugene IV., the newly elected Pope, discussed with much dislike and\ndoubt the legitimation granted to Carlo by his predecessor. The Pope,\nrepresented by Urbino, claimed Rimini as devolving to the See; Sforza\nand Pesaro, each for himself, were ready to contest it with him. What\nchance against such tremendous odds had Galeotto, seventeen years old,\nweak in health, illegitimate, with no great ally to enforce his claims?\n\nA more inadequate champion the mind cannot imagine. No David eager to\nfight the giant, this Galeotto Malatesta, but a wan, emaciated youth,\nhalf-crazed, half-saint. In the middle of the panic, with the horror of\na triple sack maddening the miserable Riminese, this prince left the\ncity to dwell in the monastery of Arcangelo, outside the gates. There he\npassed his days serene, scathless in the midst of peril; neither for\nhimself nor his kingdom taking any thought.\n\nSo strange this spectacle, so awful, that the very enemies of Rimini\nstopped in their onslaught amazed. The lion, it is said, will not attack\na sleeping prey. Eugene, the Pope (in his temporal character the deadly\nfoe of Rimini), wrote to its lord, bidding him remember the imperative\nduties of his position. The letter reached that \u201cmagnificent man and\npotent prince\u201d in the monastery at Arcangelo, where clad in the coarse\nrobes of a Franciscan friar, he led an ascetic, starved, and mutilated\nlife. What was the magnificence of earth to him? So harsh were his\nself-inflicted penances that the wounds on his body never ceased to\nbleed. What had he to do with rule and governance? The brothers of the\nmonastery, and the young virgin wife who drooped and paled at his side,\nwere all of mankind he knew or saw; and he himself the chief of sinners.\nNeither Pope nor armies could force him back to earth. Thus friends and\nfoes alike failed to touch him; there was no pity in the heart of\nGaleotto the Saint.\n\nOr rather\u2014common, yet tragical transmutation of the Middle Ages\u2014his pity\ntook a retrospective turn; dead and dry to the present woes it might\nrelieve, it rushed back in a mighty impotent tide to the foot of that\nsacred and awful Cross, whose divine tragedy was the continual spectacle\nof the saintly life. Pity for the dead Christ\u2014throbbing, yearning,\nhelpless, and indignant pity for the agonized Saviour\u2014this surely lay at\nthe bottom of all crusades, tortures, persecutions, inquisitions of the\nMiddle Ages. Living ever with the crucifix in sight, dwelling ever and\nsolely in presence of that dread expiation-such fanatics as Galeotto\nforgot the example of the life of Christ in the terror and pity of\nGolgotha. Vengeance on the enemies of God! vengeance on the traitors who\nstill stab and crucify the ever newly sacrificed God and Victim! so ran\nthe tenor of medi\u00e6val piety. And the contagion of this fanatic sentiment\nslaughtered the armies of the East, tossed Albigensian babies on to\nlance-points, and roasted before a ribald soldiery the pious Vaudois\nwomen; the martyrs of Saint Bartholomew and the martyrs of Smithfield\nwere hewn and burned by the strength of it; and from its armoury the\nInquisition drew its deadliest weapons.\n\nThus Galeotto, unmoved by the misery of the people who, owing allegiance\nto him, died, starved, and sorrowed for his sake, was nevertheless, not\nwithout his private schemes of sanctity and militant devotion. High\nthoughts were born in that narrow mind, as in the intervals of penance\nand office the lord of Rimini paced the monastery garden. Monk as he was\nby life and feeling, he too had his ambition; he too had his work to\nfulfil. And here solved that the Jews should be cast out from Rimini.\n\nMonths went on, and the details of his scheme matured in the brain of\nthe cloistered prince; but, meanwhile, his foes pressed closer and\ncloser round him, and there was no leader to lead the few forlorn troops\nout to battle; yet ruin stared upon the city nearer every day, and now\nor never must the decisive step be taken. Still Galeotto prayed and\ndreamed in his cell at Arcangelo. But an unsuspected deliverer was in\nRimini. One autumn night in 1430, secret to most of the citizens, a\ndesperate sally was made from the gates of the town. A short, brisk\nuncertain conflict in the terrifying darkness, and the surprised armies\nwere driven back, ignorant of the small number of their assailants. And\nas in the dawn, the conqueror led his troops back inside the gates,\nflushed and triumphant, the people crowded out into the streets to look\nat him and bless him, crying that the great days of Carlo and of\nVerruchio had returned; and behold this saviour of the city was the\nbrother and heir of Galeotto\u2014was the boy Sigismond, or Gismondo,\nMalatesta, not yet thirteen years old!\n\nWhether the Pope and the oncoming armies perceived that at last they had\na substantive enemy to deal with, or whether touched with compassion by\nso much youthful daring, they concluded a peace with Rimini only a few\ndays after the successful sally. A ruinous peace indeed; forfeiting many\nbroad lands and territories in return for the acknowledgment of the true\nright to Rimini, Fano, and Cesena of these legitimized Malatestas. But\nthe people were thankful for any peace, and Galeotto easily yielded,\nseeing here the needed opportunity to prove his piety. He signed the\ntreaty on consideration that the Holy Father would authorize him to\nexpel the Jews from Rimini.\n\nIt was a cruel step. This plain by the Adriatic had long been a refuge\nto the outcast nation, who brought thither their genius for wealth,\ntheir industry, and their abundance. It was represented to Galeotto that\nthe fortunes of Rimini were bound up with the presence of these patient\nand long-enduring exiles. They had given no cause for just offence; they\nhad, indeed, offered to defray the heavy amnesty exacted by the Pope;\nand to banish them would yet further enfeeble the war-shattered city.\nThe Pope, indeed, perceived these thing; but neither gratitude, policy,\nnor compassion, weighed with the fanatic Galeotto. \u201cBetter starve,\u201d\nthought he, \u201cthan favour the enemies of Christ.\u201d So the law went forth,\nand when the winter made doubly dreary the wide sandy war-ravaged\nplains, a melancholy train of miserable outcasts set out from the city\nthey had enriched; banished and ruined for no fault of their own, with\nno home before them, and leaving behind them, uprooted and strengthless\nas it seemed, the fortunes of the little town.\n\nSo the edict ran, and many went out in exile scarcely was the exodus\ncompleted when Galeotto died. His fasts and scourgings, his\nlong-continued vigils had worn out his life at twenty years of age. No\nhermit of the Thebaid had lived more sparsely or hardly than this prince\nof the pagan renaissance. He was borne to his grave in the monastery\nchurchyard as simply as any other brother; four monks of the order bore\nhis bier, holding flaming torches. They laid him to rest the poor\nhalf-mad, self-absorbed visionary. And all the people mourned him,\nforgiving his injuries because he was a saint; and also, it may be, for\nsome endearing quality in his thwarted nature which does not reach us\nacross the gulf of years. For his virgin widow Margaret of Este loved\nhim and mourned him through all the days of her long life, never\nmarrying again, and praying on her deathbed to be buried at his feet;\nand the city was proud of Galeotto the Saint. Nevertheless, life\nappeared more possible now that he was dead.\n\nGaleotto was scarcely buried when new troubles burst upon the city.\nUrbino and Pesaro laid siege to Lungarino, one of the fiefs of the\nRiminese. Grief and fear again awoke in the harassed and impoverished\ntown; but in this trouble Sigismond saw his opportunity. He had chafed\nand fumed and wasted under the regency of the two widows, his\nsister-in-law and his aunt. He, a conqueror at thirteen, was surely at\nfifteen able to rule a city. A daring scheme presented itself to the\nimpatient boy; a scheme which, chance what might, would he knew but\nincrease his favour with the people, however the Ladies-Regent might\nbewail it. He escaped in disguise from Rimini, and having given notice\nto his old adherents, collected them outside the walls, and gaining new\nbattalions as he marched towards Lungarino, won a tremendous victory\nthere\u2014a victory which utterly routed Urbino and Pesaro, and proved\nSigismond Malatesta one of the most valiant champions in Italy.\n\nAfter this there could be no question of petticoat-government. At home\nand abroad this lad of fifteen had established his right both to govern\nand to combat. In this same year (1432) he reconciled Rimini with the\nPope, and concluded an alliance with Venice. In his new friendship with\nthe great sea-city he engaged himself to the daughter of Carmagnola,\nreceiving a portion of the dowry in advance. But quickly on this\nbetrothal followed the disgrace and execution of Carmagnola, and it is\ncharacteristic of Gismondo (no less perfidious than brave, grasping than\nlavish), that, refusing to ally himself with a traitor\u2019s daughter, he\nequally refused to restore her dowry.\n\nA better-omened betrothal, as it seemed, followed this next year, when\nSigismond engaged himself to Ginevra, the sister of Margaret, his\nbrother\u2019s widow, and daughter of his friend and ally the powerful\nMarquis of Este. There was high festival both at the betrothal and the\nmarriage; Sigismund the Emperor stayed the same year in the town; it was\nan occasion of much pageantry. New and better days seemed dawning on\nRimini; and when the Pope gave the seventeen-year-old Gismondo the\ncommand of the troops of the Church, and restored some of his\nconfiscated territory, it was evident that good fortune was secure.\n\nGismondo knew how to be generous and prudent. Before departing on his\ncampaign he bestowed the city and lands of Cesena on his brother\nDomenico, premising that, in any imminent battle where both were\nconcerned, Domenico should range himself with the powers opposed to\nGismondo, so that in any case fortune should not desert the Malatestas.\nA prudent, balanced tactic, well worthy of those slow-moving Condottiere\nbattles, when war was as much a game as chess, and to keep the rules of\nthe game as important as to win. Leaving his city, therefore, with a\nbeneficed protector close at hand, Gismondo set out on his career as a\nsoldier of fortune.\n\nFor three years he fought almost continuously, gaining great glory for\nhimself in the cause of the Church, besides in his own cause opposing\nthe Duke of Urbino. And in 1438, having at last the leisure to sit at\nhome for a while in peace, he found a new labour ready to his hand.\nBuilt for a palace rather than as a fort, the Gattolo of the Malatestas\noffered them little security in case of war. Gismondo, no less active as\nmilitary engineer than as captain or art-patron, determined to have it\ndown and build in its stead a Rocca from his own design, to rank among\nthe strongest in Italy. Calling to his aid Roberto Valturio, the great\nmilitary engineer of Romagna, Sigismond began that famous Rocca of which\nto-day only a tower remains, mellowed and faded by the sea winds of\ncenturies, grown over with lichen and sprouting wallflowers: only a\ntower in the sand, disfigured and insulted by the modern prison built\nagainst it, and of which it forms a part.\n\nFor the Rocca soon outlived its purpose. By some strange want of\nforesight, some hapless piece of amateurish ignorance, this great pile,\nthe first built in Italy since the invention of artillery, was planned\nwith no regard to the changed conditions of warfare. Not till sixty\nyears after did some wiser engineer invent the system of bastions; so\nthat, for all its strength, the mighty Rocca of Sigismond was to some\nextent a waste of labour. Yet by the building of it hangs a tale;\nthrough it we approach the greatest influence of Gismondo\u2019s life; a\nmemory imperishably united with his own.\n\nWhile the Gattolo, or palace of the Malatestas, was being levelled to\nmake way for the new fortress, Sigismond removed his household to the\nPalazzo Roelli in the Via Sta. Croce. Besides his servants and his\nsecretary, he brought with him his miserable wife. Constantly outraged\nby his infidelities, Ginevra d\u2019Este had cause not only for grief, but\nfor fear. One child had died, and Gismondo had no heir by the woman whom\nhe had married to unite his still unstable house with the powerful lords\nof Ferrara. He chafed at her presence, useless and undesired.\n\nClose to the Palazzo Roelli stood the Palazzo del Cimiero, where\nFrancesco degli Atti, a merchant of noble birth, lived in sufficient\nstate and splendour with his young son and his motherless daughter\nIsotta.\n\nA strange girl this neighbour of Sigismond\u2019s. Not beautiful, according\nto the busts and medals that record her features\u2014an imperious, resolute,\ntenacious creature, imposing her personality like a yoke upon all who\nknew her. Hard-featured, long-necked, and thin, with perhaps in the\nlarge eyes burning under the tense raised eyebrows, a certain feverish,\neager beauty to excuse the general panegyric of her contemporaries. An\nexpression of patience, of great constancy, and endurance in the\nlong-lipped, close-shut mouth, with the strong lines round it, in the\nlong square of the face, in the beautiful resolute chin. The face\nexpresses character rather than genius; we behold in it far-seeing\nresolve, and patience. The reputation of great learning remains with\nIsotta, despite the modern authorities who, on somewhat insufficient\nevidence, assure us that she could not write. By some means, at all\nevents, by reading and writing, or by learned conversation and lonely\nthought, this Isotta gained an eminence among the women of her age for\nlearning and talent, for prudence, and the faculty of government.\n\n_F\u0153mina belligera et fortis_: thus the chronicle of Rimini describes\nher. A nature not immoral, but unscrupulous, a woman in whom will,\npassion, and intellect were strong enough each to balance the other.\nIsotta gained an influence over the perverse, defiant, passionate\nGismondo which raised her to a position in the state far superior to\nthat of the lawful wife; a position in which the lax morality of her age\nsaw little disgraceful or revolting.\n\nThat Isotta felt it there is ample evidence. Taking Battaglini\u2019s date\n(1438) as the true commencement of her relations with Gismondo she must\nhave been young, certainly under twenty, when she took the first fatal\nall-involving step on that road of dishonour she was so long to tread.\nYoung in age, she was younger probably by circumstance; this silent,\nsequestered, thoughtful girl, with neither mother nor sister to confide\nin. Her father raved and stormed, and then forgave her: I think,\nremembering a certain beseeching, miserable, unfortunate letter of hers\nwritten fifteen years later, that she did not forgive herself. Not the\npublic union of her cipher with Gismondo\u2019s, not the corps of courtly\npoetasters occupied in chanting _Isott\u00e6_ to her glory, not the medals\nstruck in her honour, nor the eternal monument prepared, could make this\nstern proud woman forget that she was her lover\u2019s mistress only, after\nall. Nay, would she not silently, bitterly resent in her inmost heart\nthis blazoning of her shame? \u201cVoliatte avere chompasione a mi poveretta,\ndiate vero spozamento piui presto che viui posette\u2014Take pity on me, poor\nme,\u201d she cries; \u201cgive me true marriage as quickly as you can. Ah, put an\nend to this thing, which always keeps me enraged. Sempre me tene\narabiatta.\u201d So she cries in her flat, soft dialect; and must cry long\nenough, poor Isotta.\n\nYet he was in his fashion faithful to her. He always returned to her,\ntrusted her, counted on her service and her sacrifice. There was none\ncould govern the city so well in his absence, counsel him, give up all\nfor him\u2014jewels, safety, honour itself. And in return he summoned great\nartists to do her honour, and instituted the elegiac _Isott\u00e6_, strained\nand fanciful praises, according to the fashion of the time, of which\nnone are so pregnant, so full of meaning as those of this fierce,\nunfaithful, constant-lover himself. Through the quaint out-dated garb we\ncatch here and there a glimpse of the man\u2019s own nature\u2014of his defiant\nwill, his acute and painful sensibility to beauty, his almost sublime\nself-preoccupation and intensity. We discern that he is a man who ever\nfelt the eyes of posterity upon him, and yet a fierce, passionate,\nshameful man; suddenly falling into crime, sceptical of punishment, yet\ninherently superstitious; vibrating through and through with passion,\ntainted through and through with hereditary perfidy; half mad, yet with\na touch of genius and greatness in this chaotic mass of wickedness and\nfraud.\n\nSuddenly an end came, for the moment, to this rhyme-repentance. A\nfearful crime stopped for a day or two the verse-making and recitations.\nOn the 8th of September, 1440, the poor ineffectual Ginevra d\u2019Este died,\nhaving taken (so the rumour went) her fatal draught of poison from her\nhusband\u2019s hands.\n\nSigismond was now free to marry a wife who would bring him legal heirs;\nIsotta cannot have doubted that she would be that woman. But Gismondo,\nthe ardent lover and writer of verses, was not of the character to throw\naway so valuable a chance of alliance. He possessed Isotta already, and\nshe had no powerful supporters. In 1442 he married Polissena Sforza, the\nnatural daughter of Francesco Sforza, that magnificent soldier of\nfortune, already on the alert to seize (when death should offer him the\nchance) his father-in-law\u2019s rich Duchy of Milan.\n\nThe chance was to come soon enough; but for a year or two after\nGismondo\u2019s marriage old Visconti lingered on, and Polissena\u2019s father\nheld his peace. Meanwhile, war being slack, Gismondo progressed\nadmirably in his work of remodelling Rimini. In 1446 the Rocca was at\nlength complete; and in the same year he began a yet bolder and more\nsplendid undertaking. The old church of San Francesco, a Gothic building\nof no great beauty, displeased his Hellenicized humanistic culture. To\nhim it represented nothing\u2014that simple Gothic church raised by the monks\nto God. Gismondo resolved to convert it into a temple, a temple still\ndedicated nominally to St. Francis, but in reality to become an eternal\nmonument of Sigismondo and Isotta.\n\nGismondo called to his aid some of the greatest artists of this time:\nMatteo da Pasti, the medallist, to execute the great marble medallions\nof himself, to be set up everywhere in the holy place; Ciuffagni for the\nstatutes (a miserable choice), Simone Ferrucci for the bas-reliefs of\nplaying children, Agostino Duccio, that exquisite draughtsman in marble,\nto carve in low relief the yellow-white plaques with allegorical\nfigures, whose flowing lines of floating and twisted drapery, small\nwell-poised heads, wonderful grace of attitude, and refined exotic type,\nrecall the late Greek bas-reliefs rather than the solid, somewhat squat\nforms of Donatello and his school, or the angular delicacy of Mino. Over\nall these Gismondo set Leon Battista Alberti, a man almost as universal\nin his attributes as Leonardo himself. Alberti was to be the architect,\nand assign with Matteo\u2019s aid their several parts to each of his\nco-operators. No easy task, this of Alberti\u2019s; for Gismondo\u2014with a flash\nof the native superstition which shot so strangely athwart his\npaganism\u2014refused to destroy the consecrated walls of the older building.\nThe architect must build his Hellenic temple on to the framework of a\nthirteenth-century Gothic church. Fortunately, the form of the early\nedifice, its wide nave and simple sanctuary not greatly differing from\nthe Roman Basilica, rendered the conversion within the limits of\npossibility, and Alberti appears to have enjoyed the difficulty of his\ntask. Perhaps he saw in this endeavour to fuse into one splendid whole\nthe opposite characters of Gothic medi\u00e6valism and Greek antiquity, the\nopportunity to immortalize the spirit of his time\u2014and the result was\nsuccess. It is built, this temple of Rimini, of Roman stones from\nClassis, antique slabs from Greece, and of the Adriatic clay fused long\nago by pious hands. Augustan arches rise without, sheltering the\nsarcophagi of philosophers, and within, the light from medi\u00e6val windows\nfalls on the altar of a Christian saint. A pagan church, with pointed\nGothic arches raised on sculptured classic pillars, a splendid anomaly,\nchiefly original by its combination of opposing elements, it is a type\nof the Italian Renaissance.\n\nFinding it impossible to turn the Gothic front with its deep porch and\nrosace to any classical account, Alberti resolved to inclose it in a\nmarble casing, distant at all points by nearly four feet from the\noriginal structure. He was now free to plan his fa\u00e7ade, singularly\nsimple in design, yet solemn, beautiful, and stately in its plainness.\nFrom a breast-high plinth, giving a noble base to the whole structure,\nstart three engaged arches, the central one larger than the others and\nhigher in relief; the span of all three is extremely wide, their\nproportions being borrowed from the Roman arch of Augustus close at\nhand. At the corners of the fa\u00e7ade and on either side of the central\narch stand four fluted columns with florid capitals; rising from the\nplinth they support a heavy, deep-shadowed cornice. Sculptured votive\nwreaths, six in all, are hung between the capitals of the columns and\nthe spandrel of the arches. From the deep cornice above rises the\npediment, unfinished and irregular, its supporting columns incomplete.\nAbove this again should have sprung a cupola, vaulting the entire church\nin its wide span; but in its stead a temporary roof still patches the\nnever-finished masterpiece.\n\nIn the hollow space between the fa\u00e7ade and the old brick fronting is\nplaced the tomb of Sigismond, accessible from the interior. But on the\nlateral fronts there is no such space, for here the round wide arches\nare not merely in relief, but detached: and in the recesses great stone\nsarcophagi are placed, standing on the red-cornered plinth. In these\nrepose the bones of the humanists and philosophers of Gismondo\u2019s court.\nWhen the temple was built there was made room for fourteen sarcophagi to\nstand there to inclose the most honourable ashes in Italy; but the fate\nof incompletion which has overtaken the temple has not spared this\ngrandiose design. Only seven tombs stand upon the plinth, seven other\nempty arches keep no illustrious dead.\n\nPassing through the low door under the central arch of the fa\u00e7ade we are\namazed by the rich and strange impression of the interior\u2014doubly\nimpressive after the severity outside. The nave is furnished with eight\nside chapels inclosed by a high balustrade; there are four on each side,\nthe two central ones being in double bays, while a considerable wall\nspace divides the first and last on either side from these. The wall\nbetween the arches, divided by slender columns, is tinted alternately\nwith pale sea-green and the lightest red; the frieze bears the same\ntints; across it are swung heavy festoons of yellow-white marble. The\nsculptured pillars and railings of the chapels are also tinted with like\ndelicate colours. Ferrucci\u2019s bas-reliefs of playing children stand out\nagainst a ground of palest, unglazed, greenish-blue, and below these the\nbalustrade is simply white, while beneath Agostino\u2019s delicate untinted\nlow-reliefs the railing is of the richest deep-red breccia, elaborately\nsculptured with double-headed elephants. Behind Ciuffagni\u2019s rude figures\nthe background is of dull gold, while here and there on all sides a\ntinge of gold faintly lines and splashes the yellowish marble. On the\nfrieze, on the shields of the putti, over the doorways, on the columns\nand the tombs, above the very heads of the saints in their chapels, we\nfind the double cipher of Sigismond and his mistress. The saints\nthemselves are not safe. Isotta wears the robes and wings of St.\nMichael. Over the chapel balustrades flourishes her rose, and the image\nof Sigismond is carved upon the pillars. So that from pedestal to\ncornice the whole great church is one memorial of the passion that\ndefied it.\n\nMany great artists worked to complete the beauty of Sigismond\u2019s temple;\nbut until quite lately the name of the sculptor of the most perfect of\nthese panels was undetermined.[110] M. Yriarte has told us that we owe\nthem to a certain Florentine cutpurse, Agostino di Duccio. The fact is\npatent. Never having read M. Yriarte\u2019s learned and precious volume, I\ncame to Rimini straight from Perugia, straight from Duccio\u2019s wonderful\nfa\u00e7ade of San Bernardino. That fa\u00e7ade, those figures so admirable in\ntheir poise, that sweeping drapery full of intricate line and harmony,\nthose heads, small, and graceful, with the exotic beauty and rapture of\nexpression, had produced on me the strongest, the most durable\nimpression. A few days after, finding in the decorations of two chapels\nat Rimini the same strange poetic grace, the same exquisite attitude,\nthe same wavy lines, low relief, and classic feeling, I could not but\nrecognize the master. And so, no doubt, has many another chance\ntraveller, such as I, lacking authority without M. Yriarte and his\ndocuments\u2014though without documents the fact itself is surely clear. For\nthe existence of two monuments so strikingly original and singularly\nalike as the San Bernardino of Perugia and the Cappella di San Gaudenzio\nat Rimini must surely be due to one hand. The very details of the\nornament, the characteristic round sweeps of drapery, like a wind-blown\nscarf; the exceeding lowness of relief, almost as if drawn on the stone;\nthe type of head, with inspired glance and lips frequently apart are all\nthe graces\u2014the mannerisms even\u2014of one master. That master one would,\nfrom the strange beauty of expression in these figures, have judged to\nbe a Sienese, were not the authorship of San Bernardino graven across\nits front: Opus Augustini Florentini Lapicid\u00e6, MCCCCLXI. It is difficult\nto imagine how a Florentine, a pupil of Donatello\u2019s, could acquire that\ntall and ripely-slender severity of form, that exquisite freedom of\nhand; nor does he take his style from the school of the Robbias. In its\ndistinguishing characteristics his manner is unlike any of the great\nItalian masters. By a bold hypothesis we might account for it with\nsatisfaction by supposing that among those many slabs and lids of marble\nwhich Gismondo brought from Greece for the building of the temple there\nmay have been some precious fragment of classic bas-relief not\noverlooked by the keen-eyed cutpurse and sculptor; who thence-forwards\nproved himself a master among the masters of his day, first at Rimini\nand later at Perugia.\n\nFootnote 110:\n\n  I take this occasion of expressing much indebtedness to M. Yriarte\u2019s\n  charming and elaborate volume, \u201cUn Condottiere du XV. Si\u00e8cle, Gismondo\n  Malatesta.\u201d\n\nThe subjects of these designs of Duccio\u2019s have troubled many\ngenerations. In the chapel of the Holy Sacrament, the planets, the\ntwelve signs of the Zodiac, and a series of animals magnificently\ntreated, form the decoration. In the Chapel of San Gaudenzio, the\nsubjects are the Muses, Virtues, and other allegorical figures. M.\nYriarte has proved that this strange assemblage illustrates a long\npassage in one of Gismondo\u2019s poems to Isotta; and it appears likely that\nAlberti, himself an author, gave the passage to Duccio for a text. Of a\nseries of thirty-six exquisite bas-reliefs it is impossible to give much\ndescription here; but I would advise all lovers of Renaissance sculpture\nto procure, at least, Alinari\u2019s photographs of the _Diana_, the\n_Agriculture_, the _Medicine_, the _Botany_, and the _Poetry_ from\nRimini, and to compare these with the exquisite designs of a woman\ncatching together at the knees the folds of her wind-blown mantle, from\nthe fa\u00e7ade of San Bernardino.\n\nSigismond compelled haste from the artists who served him. This temple,\nof which the corner-stone was laid in 1446, was, by his most earnest\ndesire, to be fit for service and consecration in 1450, the great\nJubilee year at Rome. And this in fact was done; the dome was not yet\nplanned, and a flat wooden roof crowned the building; the transept was\nscarce begun; the fa\u00e7ade broken off almost at the base of the pediment;\nbut the nave with its bays was finished, a wonder of sculpture and\ncolour. And as it was opened in 1450 so we behold it to-day.\n\nA strange ceremony it must have been, that Jubilee service in the\nnewly-opened temple. The prelates and great dignitaries of the church\nmeet, appalled, in that splendid shrine to Diva Isotta, which a little\nlater the Pope should adduce as absolute and sufficient proof of the\npaganism of its founder. From door to transept, from pedestal to\ncornice, no memento of Christ; only everywhere the I.S. of Isotta and\nher lover mocking the sacred monogram; and the rose of the prince\u2019s\nmistress where there should have been the crown of thorns. Diva Isotta\nherself would be there in all her glory; she had furnished from her\nprivate purse the funds for her chapel of St. Michael, where her\nlikeness filled the robes of the saint, where, shadowed with the blazons\nof Sigismond and standing on the Malatestan elephants, her sarcophagus\nstood ready. There, also, must have been the hapless Polissena,\ncondemned to witness this triumph of her rival, condemned to praise the\nchapel in Isotta\u2019s honour, while seeing nowhere in all that splendid\nchurch a corner dedicated to herself, nor any memorial of the dead\nGinevra.\n\nHapless Polissena! Even then her husband was treating with the Pope to\nlegitimize his children by Isotta. She had no children. Even before that\nominous festival her husband had made the war of succession at Milan\nagainst her father. Her claims on him were breaking, one by one. And\nwhen the peace was made, and the Pope gave Sigismond, with Sinigaglia,\nthe legitimation of his children, she must have thought bitterly of\nGinevra\u2019s end. Indeed a few weeks afterwards she too died suddenly,\nterribly. Not poison this time, the rumour went. Gismondo, they said,\nhad strangled her with a napkin.\n\nNone dared accuse him then. He was at the height of his power and\nformidable triumph\u2014at the summit, the climax, beyond which is no ascent.\nYet even then he had made a deadly enemy, scorned at present, but who\nknew how to wait. Not Sforza, who seems to have taken the loss of his\ndaughter with strange indifference. It was the perfidy and not the\nviolence of Sigismond that wrought his ruin. Engaged to fight for\nArragon in the war of the Milanese succession, he had received in\nadvance a large portion of his pay. Then the Florentines sought to tempt\nhim from his allegiance. With true Tuscan shrewdness they chose for\ntheir agent no Medici, no magnificent money-bag or puissant general\u2014but\nGianozzo Manetti the Humanist. Him and his rare manuscripts they send\ninto Gismondo\u2019s camp; and as the scholar treats with the great captain,\nhe shows him such-and-such a precious Greek fragment, or a perfect copy\nof Virgil\u2014or the Platonists, pointing without too obvious intention the\nsuperior culture of Florence to barbarous Arragon. Gismondo, fascinated,\nstepped into the snare. The next day he deserted to Florence, refusing,\nmoreover, to restore the immense wage he had drawn from the Duke of\nArragon for services never to be rendered. Nor at the time was there any\nredress for that prince; but the time of vengeance was to come.\n\nMeanwhile, incautious, believing that he could compass heaven and earth\nbetween his courage and his perfidy, Sigismond earned yet more of the\ntraitor\u2019s wages. Scarcely was the peace of Lodi signed (in 1454), than\nhe hired himself and his troops to the Republic of Siena in their\nquarrel against the lord of Pittigliano. Again he deserted to the enemy,\nthinking to make a better bargain with him. The Sienese sent him his\ndemission, \u201cin terms of great courtesy and haughtiness,\u201d but denounced\nhis treachery to all the great powers with which they were allied,\nincluding Arragon. He, perceiving in this double proof of treachery,\nsufficient cause for a quarrel, sent Piccinino, the greatest soldier of\nfortune of his day, against the wall of Rimini. Yet all was not lost;\nfor Sforza came to the aid of his son-in-law. Had Sigismond stuck to his\nsword all might have gone well; but of late he had become perilously\nadept in the traitor\u2019s cunning trade. He despatched a secret message to\nRen\u00e9, king of Anjou, offering\u2014in return for present help\u2014to invade the\nkingdom of Naples, oust Alfonso of Arragon and restore it to the\nAngevines. Ren\u00e9 accepted, and landed at Genoa, but only in time to learn\nthe sudden death of Alfonso. Sforza, learning all the details of the\nscheme, withdrew his forces from Rimini, alienated once and for ever\nfrom the traitor who would call the French to settle his quarrels; for\nSforza, as we know, had reasons for wishing the kinsman of Charles of\nOrleans well on the other side the Alps. At this moment the succession\nof a Sienese, \u00c6neas-Sylvius Piccolomini, to the papal throne under the\ntitle of Pius II., left Gismondo without a friend in Italy, five years\nafter his triumphs in war and in peace of the glorious year 1450.\n\nLittle time now for temple-building. Gismondo, before Siena, had amused\nhimself with drawing out plans for the dome in intervals of battles and\ntraitorous despatches. He now found enough to do in keeping Piccinino at\nbay. The Angevines were of no service; they had but estranged the\nsympathies of Italy from his cause. He tried even, it is said, to tempt\nthe universal enemy of Christendom, the Grand Turk himself, to espouse\nhis cause. There is no knowing to what lengths he would not go in his\nlonely, impotent, swift despair, and defiant ruin; and it is possible\nthat he may have remembered the examples of Carlo Zeno and the great\nVisconti. One good and wise thing, at least, Gismondo did in these\nterrible years of friendless battle. He married the faithful Isotta, who\nproved herself a right valiant defender and regent of his city.\n\nMeanwhile the Pope had enrolled himself among the active enemies of\nSigismond. Siena was avenged. Amid great state and ceremony the effigy\nof Gismondo Malatesta was burned in the streets of Rome; interdict and\nexcommunication were pronounced against him. Parricide, murderer of old\nmen and innocent women, committer of adultery and incest, prince of\ntraitors, enemy of God and man: so ran the terms of this tremendous\naccusation. But the Pope was not contented merely to accuse. He\nthreatened not only Gismondo with his anathema, but whatsoever nation or\narmy should arise to help him. Having thus disabled his enemy, he sent\nhis forces against Rimini.\n\nSigismond, maddened and desperate, looked vainly round for an ally.\nSiena, Arragon, Florence, Milan, all were hostile, or at best neutral.\nYet help must be found. Almost alone, facing a hundred perils, Gismondo\ntrudged across the Apennines to the kingdom of Naples in search of his\nfatal friends the Angevines. But from them he got no help, not a promise\neven. Back to Rimini, desperate, baited, hurried the miserable\nSigismond. Finding the towns still held out, he took to the sea, and\nwent to Venice\u2014praying in his abject extremity for succour, for\nprotection. And the Venetians, bound to him by old ties, did indeed\nafford him a slender assistance. By the aid of this he escaped death and\nflagrant ruin. The Pope made peace with him, though only on condition\nthat he and his brother Domenico should make public penance for their\nmisdeeds at Rome, resigning all their possessions save their capitals\nand a few castles, which also must devolve to the Holy See after the\ndeaths of their present lords. And to these terms he consented. Nothing\nbut his sword and his city were now left to the once triumphant\nSigismond. Leaving Rimini to the staunch Isotta\u2014_f\u0153mina belligera et\nfortis_\u2014he hired himself to the Venetians, to conduct their forces\nagainst the Turks in the Morea. Here a faint shadow of his former glory\nplayed for a while around him; and in 1465 Gismondo returned to Rimini,\nenriched, and bringing with him as his dearest possession the bones of\nGemisthus Pletho, the Platonist, to place in the first sarcophagus of\nthe temple.\n\nWithin the year Pius II. died, and Paul II. reigned in the Vatican. The\nnew pontiff called Sigismond to Rome, and there concluded with him what\nseemed a most favourable treaty. But Gismondo was no sooner back in\nRimini than the Pope, jealous of Venice, proposed to him to cede his\ncity to Rome, in exchange for Spoleto and Foligno. When Sigismond\ncomprehended this proposal a veritable madness seemed to seize him.\nResign Rimini, the city he had saved at thirteen, had fought for ever\nsince, had spent his whole life and fortune in embellishing! He and\nIsotta and his sons go into exile in the marshes of Foligno! Rimini,\nwith the Rocca and temple of his building, with the tombs of centuries\nof ancestors\u2014Rimini, with its salts and its seaboards\u2014yield _that_?\nSigismond sent no answer to the Pope; but mad, in a burning fever, he\njourneyed by day and night to Rome. His attendants noticed that he never\nslept, that he clutched under his coat a dagger, never relaxed. Arrived\nat Rome, he went instantly to the Vatican, demanding a private audience;\nbut the Pope, warned, it may be, appointed a meeting for the morrow.\nThen he received the lord of Rimini, guarded by a great concourse of\nprinces and cardinals. Sigismond had not foreseen such a reception.\nGazing wildly, and clutching still the ineffectual hidden dagger which\nhe could not use, he made what terms he could, since revenge was\nimpossible. The right to remain in Rimini was finally conceded him, but\nunder the pretext of a captainship of troops the Pope kept him far from\nhome, employed in petty guerilla warfare. A year later the fever had\ngained a fearful hold upon him. He dragged himself back to Rimini, to\nIsotta. Impoverished, friendless, powerless, the city was at least his\nown to die in. His last thoughts were for Isotta and her children, left\nfriendless in an unkind world. Thus he died, the great Malatesta.\n\n\n\n\n                          THE LADIES OF MILAN.\n\n\n                          \u201cCHERCHEZ LA FEMME.\u201d\n\nWhen Galeazzo Maria, Duke of Milan, was murdered in church at Christmas\nby a band of heroes, his brothers, the Duke of Bari and Lodovico il\nMoro, were absent on an embassy in France. The head of affairs was Cecco\nSimonetta, since many years the secretary and minister, first of Count\nFrancesco, and later of his son. Having lived so long in the family,\nSimonetta was aware how much his dead master\u2019s children had to fear from\ntheir uncles. With one stroke of the pen he banished the Duke of Bari\nand Lodovico il Moro.\n\nThis was in 1476. For three years all went well in Milan. Simonetta had\nso long guided the course of affairs that the death of the Duke made\nlittle difference to the external policy of the state. Galeazzo Maria\nhad called himself a Ghibelline, Cecco Simonetta dared at last to avow\nhimself a Guelf; but under one as under the other, the course of Milan\ncontinued Liberal and French. Inside the city there were a few less\nmurders,\u2014less ominous stories than were told in the lifetime of the\nhandsome, cruel, dilettante Duke. His widow, the Duchesse Bonne, had the\nwardship of her children, and lived a pleasant life in her beautiful\npalace, where Commines remembered to have seen her in great authority.\nShe had two little boys and a girl; she had excellent counsellors, a\ncourt full of admirers, beautiful clothes, and a devoted lover.\n\nYet the Duchess was not satisfied. Bonne de Savoie was an empty pate,\nvain and restless, as was the temper of her house. There was in the\npalace a young man who carved before her at table, Antonio Tassino, an\nadventurer from Ferrara, \u201cof very mean parentage,\u201d not handsome, but\nwith a certain grace and air in the way he wore his cloak. This was the\nDuchess\u2019s lover, and there was no matter of state (says Corio) but she\nconsulted her carver before she allowed it to pass. It is not surprising\nthat Simonetta\u2014an old statesman, tenacious of dignity, in spite of his\nLiberalism, was scandalized at the importance of Tassino. It is equally\neasy to imagine how the successful Ferrarese was irritated by the\ndisdain of Simonetta. So it fell out; and rather out of spite than from\nconviction, Tassino constituted himself the chief of the Ghibellines in\nMilan, merely intending to procure the fall of Simonetta. So great was\nhis influence over the Duchess, that he persuaded her at last to privily\nrecall her husband\u2019s brother, Il Moro\u2014a Sforza, and therefore presumably\na Ghibelline\u2014who was at that moment engaged in the war at Genoa.\n\nAll that follows sound like a passage in some ancient novel of\nadventure. The Duchess sends to Genoa to Il Moro, who, coming at night\nto Milan, is secretly admitted by the Duchess and her lover through the\ngarden gate of the palace. Lodovico returns not alone; Bari is dead but,\nin place of the lost brother, Roberto di Sanseverino a great captain,\ndare-devil, incorrigible, comes at his heels: a man whom Simonetta had\nexiled with the sons of Francesco Sforza, a Ghibelline _\u00e0 l\u2019outrance_, a\npersonal enemy of Cecco. These were the men whom Bonne, weary of her\nancient counsellor\u2019s respectability, called home, \u201cthrough great\nsimplicity,\u201d as Commines declares, \u201csupposing they would do the said\nCecco no harm, and the truth is that so they had both of them sworn and\npromised.\u201d\n\nWhen Sanseverino and Il Moro were safe in the palace, the Duchess sent\nfor Simonetta and told him all she had done. She must have been alarmed\nto see the horror and consternation on the faithful secretary.[111]\n\u201cDuchessa Illustrissima,\u201d said the man, with the quiet of despair, \u201che\nwill cut off my head, that is all; a little time more and he will send\nyou packing!\u201d The Duchess probably remembered these words when, the\nthird day after their return, Il Moro and Sanseverino caused the man who\nhad signed their exile to be carried through the streets of Milan in a\nwine barrel, and then\u2014still in this ridiculous tumbril\u2014taken to the\nfortress at Pavia. There was Simonetta imprisoned; but once inside the\ngates his lot appeared to mend. Lodovico il Moro frequently rode across\nto Pavia to take counsel with the wise old statesman and learn his views\nof the world. He went indeed so often that the people of Milan began to\nmurmur and to say that Lodovico, recalled by a Ghibelline _coup d\u2019\u00e9t\u00e2t_,\nwas a Guelf in disguise. To reassure them on that head, in the month of\nOctober, 1480, Lodovico intimated to Simonetta\u2014not without many\napologies\u2014that, in deference to popular prejudice, he must even consent\nto lose his head. And in that very month, the first part of the\nsecretary\u2019s prophecy came true.\n\nFootnote 111:\n\n  \u201cCecco ed i suoi colleghi oltra modo d\u2019animo furono consternati\u201d\n  (Corio, book vii.).\n\nThe second half was for a while delayed. Duchess Bonne found no reason\nto regret the step which had relieved her of an inconvenient old\nservant. \u201cThey used the lady very honourably in her judgment, seeking to\ncontent her humour in all things,\u201d said Commines, who knew them all.\n\n\u201cBut all matters of importance they two despatched alone, making her\nprivy but to what pleased them; and no greater pleasure could they do\nher than to communicate nothing with her. For they permitted her to give\nthis Anthony Tassino what she would; they lodged him hard by her\nchamber; he carried her on horseback behind him in the town; and in her\nhouse was nothing but feasting and dancing.\u201d The Duchess had never led a\nhappier life; but all that jollity endured but half a year. One day\nLodovico took out his little nephews to walk in Milan; children are ever\ninterested in things of warfare; he took them to the Rocca\u2014the\nimpregnable fortress\u2014he took them inside; he did not bring them home.\n\nEnglish readers know what to expect when an ambitious uncle, in the\nMiddle Ages, leaves two little Princes in the Tower. But no midnight\nassassin cut short the days of Giangaleazzo and his brother Ermes. They\nwere more useful to their uncle, living\u2014at least until he had made his\nown position surer: for at present he only ruled in Milan as Tutor and\nRegent of the little Duke. But, by whatever title, he ruled effectually,\nand soon he rid his palace of the tearful and frivolous presence of\nMadame Bonne, whom he exiled from her duchy \u201cfor immorality,\u201d and who\ncarried her inept remonstrances and her tarnished honour to find a none\ntoo chivalrous asylum at the court of her brother-in-law, Louis XI. of\nFrance, a man impatient of unsuccessful women.\n\nMeanwhile Lodovico il Moro flourished in Milan. Under his cultured and\ndignified rule it became a magical city, a capital of masterpieces.\nThere in 1483, Leonardo da Vinci took up his abode, cast his bronze\nstatue of Francesco Sforza, painted pictures, and founded a school of\nLombard painters, little less exquisite, mysterious, and sensual than\nhimself. The Choir of Singers, whom Galeazzo Maria Sforza had brought\nacross the Alps, increased, and the singing and playing of Milan became\na thing of note. Temples and palaces sprang up as by enchantment; and\nlearned humanists\u2014grave Romans, bearded Greeks, astute Orientals\u2014from\nall the centres of knowledge in the world, came to lecture on law,\nscience, and the classics, in brilliant Milan. Nor was the Court of\nVenus, says Corio, less distinguished than the Court of Minerva. \u201cAll\nwere willing to concede their best and fairest to the Court of Cupid;\nfathers their daughters, husbands their wives, brothers their sisters.\u201d\nAnd the laxity of Lombard manners which had scandalized the very Court\nof Lorenzo de\u2019 Medici, in 1471, was not less abandoned, not less\nluxurious, although more natural and freer from cruelty under the\nsceptre of the Regent Lodovico who appears at the head of this princely\nretinue, a man majestic, suave, omniscient, as any Duke of Shakespeare\u2019s\nplays.\n\nAnd yet the real Duke was seldom seen, seldom heard. It was polite to\nsuppose him still a child. None the less every one knew he had been born\nin the year 1469, amid incredible rejoicings; and many had seen the\ngreat Lorenzo de\u2019 Medici when he came to the christening, and had looked\non the magnificent necklace of diamonds which he had given the Duchess.\n\u201cAh, you shall be godfather to all my children!\u201d the Duke Galeazzo Maria\nhad cried with cordial _na\u00efvet\u00e9_. And now\u2014ah, Time\u2019s revenges!\u2014the Duke\nwas murdered, the Duchess in exile, and the babe whom all men had\nwelcomed\u2014a prisoner rather than a ward in the hands of the ambitious\nRegent!\n\nMen began to murmur, and when Giangaleazzo was about eighteen his uncle\nfound himself unable any longer to defer his marriage. Years ago the\nchild had been betrothed to Isabel of Arragon, the granddaughter of the\nKing of Naples. She came to Milan in 1487. A little later Lodovico\nhimself married a young wife, Beatrice, daughter of Ercole d\u2019Este, Duke\nof Ferrara.\n\nSo long as there had been no woman at the head of the Court of Milan,\nthere had been no discord. The young Duke, half a captive, had a doglike\ndocile affection for his tyrant; he was content to yield his place and\nkeep his title; and Lodovico was satisfied to have the place without the\nname. But Isabel of Arragon was a Neapolitan and a Spaniard\u2014a nature\npassionate, arrogant, intense. In vain she urged her husband to assert\nhis rights. He promised what she would, and then confessed their\nconversation to his uncle. When her child was born, and still the bride\nof Lodovico sat on the throne which should have been her throne\u2014Isabel\nwould no longer possess her soul in patience. This time she did not\nappeal to her husband\u2014a beautiful youth, soft as silk, innocent as\nflowers, incapable of revenge or determination; she wrote to her father\nand her grandfather at Naples, men as different from him as men can be.\nShe asserted her rights (\u201cessendo giovane di grand\u2019 animo\u201d); she told\nthem of the intolerable yoke of Lodovico\u2014of her husband, a grown man and\na father, yet kept in tutelage. She told them doubtless by her messenger\n(no word of personal complaint appears in her letter) what Corio tells\nus: that amid all the luxury of Milan, the Duke and the Duchess procured\nwith difficulty the bare necessities of life. There was much indignation\nin her old home, and Alfonso wrote to Il Moro demanding the throne and\ngovernment of Milan for his son-in-law. \u201cYou make a laughing-stock of my\ndaughter\u2014shall we endure to see our blood despised?\u201d[112] Lodovico, as\nhis manner was, returned a soft answer. And a year or two went by in\nprocrastination and recrimination; but in 1493 the house of Naples, in\ndefence of the young Duke, declared war upon the Regent of Milan.\n\nFootnote 112:\n\n  Corio, book vii.\n\nIn another place I have spoken of the dismay and terror of that hour;\nthe still rage of Lodovico\u2014a rage not unmixed with joy and with the\npresentiment of success; the anger of his young wife, determined not to\nquit her throne, determined to take at last from the detested Isabel\nthat one fine thing which as yet she had not dared to take from her: the\ntitle of Duchess. My readers know how, on the one hand, Lodovico sent to\nthe Emperor admitting the illegal nature of the Sforza claim, and\nentreating him (for a consideration) to bestow it on him anew; how, on\nthe other hand, he sent into France reminding Charles VIII. of the\nFrench claim to Naples; and how the French crossed the Alps in\nSeptember; and how, in September also, very secretly, the Emperor\u2019s\nInvestiture arrived in Milan; and how on the morrow after the French\nleft Milan the young Duke died (Teodoro di Pavia discovering in his body\nthe evident signs of poison); and how the people, overawed by the\nneighbourhood of the French, were taught to acclaim Lodovico,\nconsecrated thus alike by Imperial privilege and popular voice; so that\nhe ruled at last as Duke in Milan.\n\nMeanwhile Isabel and her little son had wandered about in exile, vainly\nseeking supporters. Success smiled on her rival, Beatrice, the mother of\ntwo sons who each, after many adventures, should rule as Duke of Milan.\nIn September, 1496, while Isabel, her child in her arms, was discovering\nthe futility of resistance, Beatrice at Vigevano was entertaining\nMaximilian. The great Emperor was at that time a man of thirty-seven,\nwith long whitening hair, dressed in a long black velvet coat, a black\nwoollen French cap, black stockings and sleeves; he wore no ornament\nsave a little gold chain with the order of the Golden Fleece. He was\nunder a vow to wear nothing but black until he could boast a Turkish\nvictory. But, melancholy and grizzled Don Quixote as he appeared,\nMaximilian was no less an Emperor; and the Diary of Marino Sanuto shows\nus the splendour with which the Duke and Duchess of Milan made him\nwelcome.\n\nThat splendour was very costly. Not only did it compel the Duke to levy\ngrievous taxes (_grandissime exstrusione a li so populi_) on his\nsubjects, so that they were like desperate men, desiring any change. If\nthe expense of this entertainment was paid in tears, no less a price\nshould be exacted for its fatigue. In September the Duchess Beatrice was\npregnant: Marino Sanuto will conclude the story.[113]\n\nFootnote 113:\n\n                                     \u201cNuove del mexe de Zener. 1497 O.S.\n\n  \u201cChome a Milano nel Castello a d\u00ec 3, la duchessa, moglie dil ducha\n  presente Lodovico, chiamata Beatrice, figlia dil ducha di Ferrara, poi\n  parturido uno fiol morto; etiam la era morta 5 hore dopo el puto. Di\n  la qual morte el ducha steva in gran mesticia, serade le fenestre in\n  una camera a lume di candela. Et \u00e8 da saper, come vidi una lettera,\n  che detta Duchessa morite a d\u00ec 2 zener, a hora 6 di note, et che in\n  quel zorno era stada di bona voglia in carretta per Milano, et fatto\n  ballar in Castello fin hore 2 di note. Et lass\u00f2 do soli figlioli, uno\n  chiamato Maximiliano ch\u2019\u00e8 Conte di Pavia e l\u2019altro, Sforza, di anni 3.\n  La qual morte el Ducha non poteva tolerar, per il grande amor le\n  portava et diceva non si voller pi\u00f9 curar ne de figlioli, ne di Stato,\n  ne di cossa mondana; et apena voleva viver. Stava in una camera per\n  mesticia tutta di panni negri, et cussi stete per 15 zorni. Et che in\n  questa notte instessa in che la Duchessa morite, casch\u00f2 a terra li\n  muri dil suo zardin, non essendo sta ni vento ni terra moto; el qual\n  da alcuni fu tolto per mal augurio.\u201d\n\n                         \u201cDiarii di Marino Sanudo, January 9, 1496.\u201d\n\n                        \u201cNews of the month of January, 1496 (Old Style).\n\n\u201cHow at Milan, in the castle, on the third day of the month, the\nDuchess, wife of the reigning Duke Lodovico, Beatrice by name, daughter\nof the Duke of Ferrara, was delivered of a still-born son; _etiam_ she\nherself was dead five hours after the child. And the said death hath\nplunged the Duke in heavy sorrow, so that he keepeth his room, the\nshutters closed and candles lit in daytime. And \u2019tis also reported\u2014as I\nsaw it set down in another letter\u2014that the said Duchess died on the\nsecond day of the month, at six o\u2019clock after noon; and that very day\nshe had gone riding in her carriage through the streets of Milan, and\nhad held a ball at the castle until two o\u2019clock after dinner. And she\nhath left only two children behind her, boys\u2014the one, Maximilian, Count\nof Pavey; the other, Sforza, three years of age. And the Duke cannot\nsuffer the sorrow of this loss, for the great love he bore to his wife;\nand he saith he hath no heart for his children, nor his State nor for\naught under the sun; so that almost is he weary of his life. And, out of\nsadness, he keepeth his chamber, which is hung all in black; and there\nfor a fortnight he hath shut himself in. And \u2019tis said that, in the\nselfsame night the Duchess died, the walls of her garden fell crashing\nto the ground, and yet was there neither tempest, wind nor earthquake;\nwhich thing was held by many for a sign of very evil omen.\u201d\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\nLast year I was in Lombardy, and, as a faithful adherent of the\nViscontis, I stayed a little in Pavia. I found it a rather gloomy little\nLombard town, white-washed and paven. Here and there a wine-coloured\nwall or tower broke the pallid monotony of the streets. The famous\nfortress, where Isabel of Arragon eat her heart in bitterness so many\nyears, still exists, much rebuilt and altered indeed, but always a mass\nof fine red colour. In Pavia, however, there was nothing so interesting\nto me as those phantoms of vanished Viscontis and long-supplanted\nSforzas that seemed so strangely out of place in this sad little sordid\nuniversity town. And among these ranks of tragic shadows, the least\nforgiven, the least beloved, was always the Duchess Beatrice.\n\nI had known her too long, the youthful and charming Lady Macbeth of\nLombardy. I knew her as well as one can know a person, familiar through\nthe gossip of acquaintance, although unseen and distant. I had heard of\nher as a haughty and ambitious woman, accepting with a smile the crimes\nthat placed the crown of Milan on her head. She appeared as some\nHerodias of Luini\u2019s, exquisite and sinister. And yet I knew she had been\ndearly worshipped in her lifetime and long lamented in her tomb. There\nare such Sirens, heartless and chill themselves, but capable of seizing\nan honest love with the same hands that grasp at a blood-stained\ntreasure. Such, in my eyes, was the adored and evil wife of Lodovico il\nMoro.\n\nIt was Christmas-time and cold; with difficulty I roused myself to visit\nthe Certosa. It is six miles, I suppose, from Pavia. The wretched\ncarriage slowly dragged along through the muddy country; and from the\nwhitened window one felt rather than saw the immense desolation of the\nview. On either hand of the raised road, a sluggish canal, and beyond a\nmonotonous landscape of brown marshy pastures and bright green rice\nfields flecked with water, across which the scant snow drifted. The road\nseemed to extend for ever in front, unbroken, unturning. Suddenly in the\nmiddle of the country the carriage stopped; I walked a few steps up a\nmuddy lane. To the right over a wall there appeared a great dome, with\nrose-red minarets, with spires of pale red, ivory and marble, among\ninnumerable shaft-like towers tipped with cream-white columns. It is the\nCertosa.\n\nAt another season and in better health I should have found much to\nlinger over in the great fa\u00e7ade of the Certosa, fantastic, incoherent as\na Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream. Every inch of the front is covered thickly\nwith ornament in high relief\u2014Roman emperors and paladins of chivalry,\neagles with praying angels on their outspread pinions, exquisite maidens\nfloating full-length on a dolphin\u2019s back, Sirens suckling their\nunearthly babes, hippogriffs, Prophets of Israel: strange, unexpected as\nthe visions of delirium, they are assembled there. But, alone, in the\nbitter wind, I glanced at it all for a moment and entered the vast\nfoundation of Giangaleazzo Visconti. Great halls, enormous, cold,\nspoiled as much as may be by the seventeenth century; a few good\npictures by Borgognone, many bad ones; posthumous portraits of the great\nViscontis: it was not so interesting as I had supposed.\n\nStill I wandered on, making reflections on the difference of type in the\nSforza and Visconti heads: the older tyrants keen-faced, refined with\ndelicate, bone-less oval faces, and thin firm lips ridged out in a\nnarrow line. There is something wolf-like in the long pointed noses, the\npointed chins, low foreheads, as well as in the keen eyes, narrow and\nhigh in the head; altogether an interesting type, subtle, cruel,\nintellectual, and fierce. The Sforzas with their Wellington noses, their\nstrongly marked eyebrows, prim-pursed lips and rounded chins, seem a\nsquare-faced kindly race of captains. Lodovico il Moro himself is there,\nwith the fat face and fine chin of the elderly Napoleon, the delicate\nbeak-like nose of Wellington; a small querulous neat-lipped mouth, and\nimmense eyebrows, stretched like the talons of an eagle across the low\nforehead, complete the odd, refined physiognomy of the man. I looked at\nhim with interest for a moment. But there, straight before me, stood the\ntomb of the wife he lost so young, the Duchess Beatrice.\n\nTo think that she is dead, and to think she was a woman! Impossible. She\nis a lively child, fallen asleep in playtime: motionless, but full of a\ncontained vivacity. Her tumbled curls hang loosely round her shoulders,\nand stand up in a little frizz above the rounded childish forehead. As\nshe lies there, a look of infantine candour is diffused over the soft,\nadorable, irregular features. She has straight, brief eyebrows like a\nlittle girl, but her closed eyelids are rounded like the petals of a\nthick white flower, and richly fringed with lashes. The little nose is\nof no particular shape\u2014not quite a straight nose, but certainly not a\nsnub; it is the prettiest nose at Court, with a rounded end like a\nchild\u2019s. The cheeks, too, are round apple-cheeks, not in the least like\nthe Herodias of Luini; and round is the neat bewitching chin. But her\nchief beauty is her mouth\u2014a mouth with the soft-closed lips of a dear\nchild pretending to be asleep, yet smiling as if to say, \u201cSoon I shall\njump up and throw my arms round your neck, and you will be so\nsurprised!\u201d\n\nThe round head rises from a long plump throat. The small figure too is\nslender and plump at once, and very small, full of life still, it seems,\nunder the pretty tight silk dress, with the slashed and purfled sleeves,\nand the long train of brocade, so lovingly, so carefully arranged not to\nencumber nor hide those little pattened feet, that were so fain of\ndancing and seem so ready to awake and dance again. This, then, is the\nfamous Beatrice!\u2014I looked and looked, at last I understood not only her,\nbut the love of Lodovico: \u201cAnd so, dear child, thou canst not live\nwithout a crown?\u2014Ah well! What shouldst thou know of murder, dishonour,\nand the ruin of great states? Thou wilt never understand these gloomy\nthings, and I shall pay the price\u2014Ah God in heaven, I thank Thee for the\ngift of an immortal soul, since I may lose it for the pleasure of this\nchild!\u201d\n\nPerhaps it was in this way that Lodovico reasoned; or perhaps it may be\nthat at heart Macbeth is no less ambitious than his wife. Who knows? The\nwife, at least, must stand for something. At least, some share in the\nruin of their country must be accorded to these three women\u2014Bonne, who\nrecalled Lodovico to Milan; Isabel, who inspired the war of Arragon and\nSforza; and Beatrice, whose ambition urged her husband to invite the\nFrench to Italy.\n\n\n\n\n                    THE FLIGHT OF PIERO DE\u2019 MEDICI.\n\n\n                       (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER, 1494.)\n\nWhen, in the October of 1494, the King of France marched south from\nAsti, a torpor of stupefaction fell upon the princes of Italy. For the\nlast three years there was no one of them but had coquetted more or less\nwith France; there was no one of them but was the enemy of that arrogant\nhouse of Arragon which had lost Scutari to Venice, and which had dared\nreprove the usurpation of Milan by Lodovico Sforza. Charles was coming\ninto Italy to dethrone these evil and malignant princes, \u201cfathers of all\ntreason,\u201d as the author of \u201cDe Bello Gallico\u201d has called them; \u201ctyrants\nby whom I think that Nero himself would seem a saint.\u201d But now that the\nFrench were actually in Lombardy, it struck the Italian despots with\nominous force that he might not be content with only Naples. Few of them\nhad any just title to their possessions; none of them, save Venice,\ncould resist the power of France. \u201cThe princes of Italy,\u201d wrote the\nVenetian secretary, \u201caghast at this passing of the mountains, tried to\narrange that the King should pass no farther south, each one doubting\nfor his own estate, and doubting most of all the enthusiasm of his own\nsubjects.\u201d For if the tyrants of Italy dreaded the advent of the French,\nthe populace\u2014the poor, starved, degraded slaves of these illegal\ndespots\u2014welcomed their coming with open arms. \u201cThey were so called and\ncried upon,\u201d goes on our author, \u201cso invoked by all the populace of\nItaly, that there was none who could withstand them, for all the people\nsaid _Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini_.\u201d\n\nSorely he was needed, that _Flagellum Dei_, of whom the inspired voice\nof Savonarola prophesied daily in the great Cathedral of Florence.\nSorely he was required. For that autumnal Italy which at their coming\nthe Frenchmen found so fair, was no more than a waving green enchanted\ngarden full of poisons\u2014poisons for the body, swift or slow, used without\nscruple by Venice and Milan as a means to power, by Rome as an easy way\nto wealth, by Naples for the vile gratification of cruel passions. The\nterrible pages from the \u201cSecreta Secretissima,\u201d published by Lamansky in\n1884, the folios of Marino Sanuto\u2019s \u201cDiaries,\u201d the chronicles which fill\nthe \u201cArchivio Storico,\u201d are full of tragic murders, the more tragical\nbecause so commonplace; and the quiet, impartial voice of Philippe de\nCommines falters when he speaks of \u201cles pitiez d\u2019Italie.\u201d\n\nNot only poison for the enviable, slavery for the conquered, famine and\ncruelty for the poor, and treachery among the princes of the earth; for\nall alike there was a corrupt and horrible dissolution of moral\nrestraints. \u201cThere is no city in Italy,\u201d records the Venetian, \u201cnot Rome\nor Naples, not Bologna, Florence, Milan, or Ferrara, not my own Venice\neven, that is holier than the Cities of the Plain.\u201d Milan, with the\nfrescoes of Leonardo fresh upon the walls; Venice, where the\ngirl-madonnas of Giovanni Bellini were not yet all begun; Florence,\npeopled with the saints of Botticelli, with the angels of the aged\nGozzoli upon the walls of Piero de\u2019 Medici\u2019s palace; Ferrara, where the\nyouthful Ariosto dwelt\u2014these homes of the brightest and the fairest art\nwere morally no better than the Rome of the Borgias or the Naples of\nFerdinand and Alfonso. They were vile dens of corruption. And yet the\npainted angels of Florence, the saints of Lombardy, were _not_ a mere\nexternal fashion, a refined hypocrisy; they were the expression of a\nmovement in Italian hearts deeper than even this permeating evil\u2014pure\nunderneath the mask of their perversion. When the French came into\nLombardy they found a contagion of spiritual enthusiasm among the\npeople; they encountered holy women who neither ate, drank, nor slept,\nbut dwelt in a continual ecstasy; and as they went along the roads the\npoorer inhabitants came out to meet them, bearing palms in their hands,\nand having on their pale and haggard faces a strange exalted smile.\n\u201cBlessed is he,\u201d they sang, \u201cwho cometh in the name of the Lord;\u201d for\nthe people were eager to be quit of the sin that hemmed them round. They\nembraced the knees of their conquerors, and suffered willingly a great\ndeal of hardship at their hands, glad to be purified for ever by the\nScourge of God.\n\nHad it not been for the welcome that they met, the French could never\nhave penetrated into Italy. They came ill-provided, without good\ngenerals, without money. \u201cThere\u2019s not a penny in the treasury,\u201d wrote\nOrleans to Ridolfi, in October, \u201cand I have spent four thousand ducats\nof my own to pay the troops.\u201d The Italian despots trusted that this lack\nof means would cause the French to retire before the winter, and Orleans\nwas in secret treaty with them to this end. Milan, says this interested\nadvocate, would be enough to satisfy the honour of France\u2014Milan and a\nyearly homage paid by Naples to the Crown of France.[114] But these\ndesigns were frustrated by the enthusiasm with which the French were\nreceived in the invaded provinces. The women brought their jewels to pay\nthe troops; the men threw open the gates of the cities; every difficulty\nwas overridden, for, says Commines, touched with the grave exaltation of\nItaly, \u201cGod was Himself our leader: _Dieu monstroit conduire\nl\u2019entreprise_.\u201d\n\nFootnote 114:\n\n  See Desjardins I., \u201cN\u00e9gociations diplomatiques dans la Toscane.\u201d\n\n\u201cAt our first arrival,\u201d he goes on, \u201cthe people honoured us as saints,\nsupposing all faith and virtue to be in us; but this opinion endured not\nlong.\u201d The rude French soldiery\u2014Gascons, Normans, Swiss, and German\nmercenaries\u2014pathetically ignorant of the fancied aureole playing round\ntheir weatherbeaten faces, marched through Italy as through any other\nconquered country. At Rapallo they put the town to the sword; they took\nFivizzano by a murderous assault; they shed much blood at Pontremoli;\nfor they could not understand that they seemed the Elect of Heaven, and\nthey sought by fierce reprisals to keep up a military prestige. But if\nin Lombardy, in Lunigiana, the rude passage of the troops had to some\nextent dispelled the illusions of the people\u2014where the army had not yet\narrived the cities with open gates awaited it in holy awe. Arragon\nretired from point to point without a battle fought. The subjects of\nCatarina Sforza threatened her with rebellion if she refused submission\nto the French; Bologna, against the will of Bentivoglio, insisted on\nmaking peace with Charles. And in the Duomo of Florence, where\nSavonarola preached of the Purifying Scourge of God, the people shouted,\n\u201cFranza, Franza!\u201d where they were only used to sob in bitter patience,\n\u201cMisericordia.\u201d And to these enthusiasts, impatient of Medicean luxury,\nit was no drawback that the King, their deliverer, was a mere ugly\nyouth, \u201cmore a monster than a man,\u201d as Guicciardini plainly states,\nquite uncultured, and knowing neither Greek nor Latin. \u201cIn fact,\u201d as the\nMilanese Corio remarked, \u201can uninstructed person, though none the less\nable to address his soldiery in telling terms, so that for love of him\nthey dash upon the enemy, shouting, \u2018Alive or dead!\u2019\u201d In the autumn of\n1494 this ugly, bright-eyed youth had inspired an equal devotion in the\npopulace of Florence.\n\nThe people were led by the monk Savonarola; but many of the old\nFlorentine families (the Nerli, Gualterotti, Sonderini, Capponi) were no\nless anxious than the people to banish their _parvenu_ tyrant. Out of\nall the crowd of monks, enthusiasts, bankers, patricians, and\npoliticians which made up the popular party, two _silhouettes_ stand\nstrongly forth. One is the preacher Savonarola\u2014a man of middle height,\nof dark complexion, and sanguine, bilious temperament. At forty-two his\nface is lined with seams and wrinkles\u2014a harsh, strong face with a sweet\nexpression, like Samson\u2019s honey in the lion\u2019s mouth; eyes that flash and\nflame from under shaggy black eyebrows and shed their spiritual gleam\nover the heavy Roman nose and the large mouth with the loose, thick lips\nof the orator firmly closed and drawn into a painful smile; a kind,\nnoble, spiritual, tragic face, with something mad in it, or something at\nthe least that must pass for mad in this uninspired and transitory\nworld.\n\nThis was the man who for a good four years was virtually the ruler of\nFlorence; this was the man who, more than any other, helped on the cause\nof France in Italy. \u201cA man of holy life,\u201d says Commines, who knew him.\nAnd Guicciardini describes him: \u201cFull of charity, of natural goodness,\nand religion\u2014so clever in philosophy, one would think he himself had had\nthe making of it; without a trace of lust or avarice; but if he had a\nvice it was simulation, the prompting of a proud ambition.\u201d One more\nvoice arrests us: \u201cA treacherous friar, worthy the end of the wicked.\u201d\nBut it is Marino Sanuto who speaks, the political enemy of Savonarola\nand a personal stranger to his qualities.\n\nBehind the strong profile of the friar we note another head, also worthy\nof remark. This is Piero Capponi, a man of old Florentine family,\nrepublican by descent. Sturdily built and square, with brilliant eyes,\nhe has a certain air of a courser sniffing battle; brief and resolute in\nspeech, vigorously mature in age, he seems the very embodiment of virile\nenergy. He is rich, for an astrologer at his birth having foretold his\ndeath in battle, he was persuaded by his father to devote himself to\ncommerce. The man worked at money-getting with the restless, dominant\nforce he put into everything he did, and made his fortune in a sort of\nfury. Then he threw up his career, having enough, and entered public\nlife at thirty years of age. A republican, his restless need of activity\nmade him accept the Medicean service. He had been ambassador in France,\nand was as French as Savonarola. \u201cSee them near, like ghosts,\u201d he used\nto say, \u201cand there is nothing to be afraid of in these French.\u201d Although\nat this time the right arm of the Republic, his patrician birth, his\nacquaintance with the magnificence of princes, made him recoil from the\nextremer measures of the monk. A man of the greatest spirit, the\nstaunchest energy, the very width of his views and his natural love of\nchange made him a danger to a peaceful but imperfect Government. Born to\nbe a great captain, he loved, above all things, a difficult campaign;\nand he spent his life in fighting alternately his enemies and his\nfriends, until at last the astrologer\u2019s prediction, true in spite of\nhuman prudence, set a bridle on his martial soul.\n\nThese two men represent the two parties who chiefly desired the advent\nof the French\u2014the enthusiasts, the poor, the children of Savonarola, and\nthe powerful burghers, as rich and may be better born than Piero de\u2019\nMedici, who resented their tyrant\u2019s views on the republic, who resented\nalmost more his alliance with the detested Spanish autocrats of Naples.\nOn the other side\u2014the side of the Orsini, of Cardinal Bibbiena, of\nBernard\u00f2 del Nero, and the aristocratic party, there is but one man that\ncan arrest us as Capponi or Savonarola must arrest us, and that is Piero\nde\u2019 Medici himself.\n\nPiero and the King of France were mortal enemies; the King of Naples had\nno more resolved ally than Medici, though the French inclinations of the\ncity prevented him from showing the true colour of his opinions. He was,\nin fact, \u201cimmoderately bound up with Arragon, and determined to chance\nthe same fortune,\u201d as Guicciardini tells us; since in return for this\nalliance he had arranged that Ferdinand of Naples should support him in\nturning his old republic into a new monarchy. Naples in those days\nrepresented in Italy the kingdom as distinguished from the Signory; it\nwas the natural pole-star of the aristocrat. And Piero was drawn to the\nsouth as much by sentiment as by inclination; his mother Clarice, his\nyoung wife Alfonsina, both came of the Roman family of Orsini.\n\nIn 1494 Piero de\u2019 Medici was about four-and-twenty years of age. He was\nbeautiful in person and very vigorous. He was clever at games and\nsports; he had a charming way of pronouncing his words, a winning voice,\nand a great facility in making impromptu verses. But this handsome,\ngraceful personage was not popular in Florence. He was haughty and\narrogant beyond expression, subject to furies of animal anger, proud,\nand cruel. He would have men waylaid at night in the street and beaten\nviolently by private bravos. He was so absolute, that even in matters he\ndid not pretend to understand, he would govern all according to his\nfancy. And this aristocrat of a free republic was as fiery, vain,\ncareless, and impatient as he was presumptuous. While the people\nmurmured \u201cFranza\u201d with white excited faces; while Savonarola was\nthundering his prophecies of the _Flagellum Dei_; while news of the\nmassacres and the irresistible advance of France struck a religious\nterror into Tuscany\u2014the young head of the state left the garrisons\nunprovided and unguarded; not a week\u2019s provisions in Sarzana or Pietra\nSanta; not a handful of infantry in the fastnesses of the hills. While\nwinds of rebellion, war, and outrage swept the city, he, the one man\nunmoved, was to be seen as usual playing _pallone_ in the public\nstreets, a light-minded aristocrat, full of a certain easy and handsome\nbravado, caring for no one\u2019s safety, not even for his own.\n\nBut even Piero, as he knocked the tennis-ball against the palace front,\nmust now and then have felt a certain twinge of anxiety. For every day\nbrought news of the farther retreat of Arragon, and only success, and\nbrilliant success, could justify the Arragonese alliance in the eyes of\nthe Florentines. Already that aristocratic alliance had touched the\nmercantile republic in a sensitive point: in June the King of France had\nexpelled the Florentine bankers and merchants out of his kingdom. This\nmeant ruin to many honourable families, and decided the burghers to join\nthe party of Savonarola, so weakening the Medicean faction that people\nwhispered it was Capponi who had thus advised King Charles, in order to\ndisgust the impoverished merchants with their tyrant. But the documents\npublished in Desjardins contradict this supposition. It was from\nLodovico il Moro, the determined enemy of Florence and of Piero, that\nKing Charles accepted this happy suggestion.\n\nThe burghers were all for France, in order to regain their commerce. The\npeople, under Savonarola, the Republican families under Capponi, desired\nnothing more than the advent of King Charles. The very cousins of Piero\nhimself had become so French, that a year ago he had exiled them to\ntheir country villas, where they lived in comfortable durance,\nsurrounded by the light of popular martyrdom. To resist all these varied\nforces, Piero, on his side, could count a few old friends of his father,\nsuch as Bernard\u00f2 del Nero and his secretary Bibbiena, an ambitious\npriest, and his wife\u2019s brother, Pagolo Orsini, captain of the forces of\nthe republic.\n\nThe situation was grave indeed, but he took it lightly, with a facile\ntemerity that would not condescend to prudence. On the 3rd of October\nhis ambassador at Milan wrote that the French spoke of wintering in Pisa\nand Sarzana. Yet not a single fortress had a week\u2019s provisions. So late\nas the 22nd of October, in answer to a last appeal from France, he sent\nthe Bishop of Arezzo to King Charles with a vague, exasperating,\nindecisive answer. The same week the two cousins of Piero escaped from\ntheir villas, and rode post-haste to the French camp. \u201cSire,\u201d they cried\nto Charles, \u201cbe not angry with Florence. The tyrant is against you, but\nyou have the faithful devotion of the people.\u201d The King was well\ninclined to believe the two young men with whom he had often practised,\nand who had suffered a year\u2019s imprisonment for his sake. \u201cWe do not\nconfuse the people of Florence with the governor,\u201d answered the Council.\n\u201cThe last alone is the King\u2019s enemy.\u201d And, departing from Piacenza, the\narmies of France marched on the Florentine territories.\n\nIn a few days they were on the Tuscan border. At Fivizzano and\nPontremoli they had so avenged a slight resistance that the gates flew\nopen at their approach. Who dare resist the Scourge of God? Terror and\nawe bent every head before them. In Florence the populace surged along\nthe narrow streets, and declared they would not resist the King of\nFrance. Three days after Piero had sent off the Bishop of Arezzo, a\npopular tumult seemed ready to burst at any moment.\n\nWhat could he do? The French were now within fifty miles of Pisa, and\nthough the mountain fortresses ought to have kept them at bay all the\nwinter long, Piero remembered too late that he had forgotten to\nprovision them; that he had neglected to call the Pisan hostages into\nFlorence, and that Pisa hated her cruel mistress, and was certain to\nrevolt to France. Only one course suggested itself to the desperate\nyoung man, and this course was so adventurous, romantic, and unusual,\nthat it captivated at once his unsteady imagination. Many years ago,\nwhen Arragon had worsted Florence on the battlefield, Lorenzo de\u2019 Medici\nhad gone as his own ambassador to Naples, running, it is true, a great\nrisk of steel or poison, but by his fascinating address making a devoted\nfriend of an exasperated enemy. Piero determined to follow the example\nof his father. On the 26th of October he heard that the French were\narriving before Sarzana, within two days\u2019 march of Florence. On the\nevening of that day the tyrant of Florence secretly escaped from his own\npalace, left the city in the dusk of evening, and rode through the chill\nautumn night as far as Empoli.\n\n\n                                  II.\n\n                                             \u201cEMPOLI, _26 Oct., 1494_.\n\n            \u201c_Piero de\u2019 Medici to the Signory of Florence._\n\n\u201cBecause I believe I ought not to suffer imputation or reproach for that\nwhich, according to my mind and feeble judgment, appeared to me the most\nsalutary remedy to preserve my menaced country, I depart from you to\noffer myself to the most Christian king, and to turn on to my own head\nthe storm that menaces my native land. Nor is there any consequent\npunishment, but I would rather suffer it in my own person than behold it\ninflicted on this republic.\n\n\u201cAfter all, I am not the first of my house to go on such an enterprise;\nand since there is no fatigue, hardship, cost, nay not even death\nitself, but, endured for any one of you, it would appear to me a\nbenefit, how much more do I not welcome these rude chances for the sake\nof the universal city!\n\n\u201cBe sure, if I return it will be to bring good tidings to you and to the\ncity; either this, or I shall leave my life in the camp of the enemy.\n\n\u201cTo you, in this extreme moment, I recommend my brothers and my\nchildren. And, for the faith and affection you bare to the bones of\nLorenzo my father, I pray you be content to pray to God for me.\u201d[115]\n\nFootnote 115:\n\n  \u201cN\u00e9gociations diplomatiques dans la Toscane,\u201d vol. i. p. 587, _et\n  seq._\n\n                             --------------\n\n                                                    \u201cEMPOLI, _26 Oct_.\n\n                    \u201c_Piero de\u2019 Medici to Bibbiena._\n\n\u201cComfort, dear Bibbiena, my little household troop till I return; and,\nabove all things, be good to Alfonsina and to poor little Lorenzio[116]\nwho has none of the blame to bear. All of you, pray to God for me and\nfor the city.\u201d\n\nFootnote 116:\n\n  His infant son, born 1492, in after days the father of Catherine de\u2019\n  Medici.\n\n                             --------------\n\n                                                 \u201cPISA, _27 Oct., 1494_.\n\n                    \u201c_Piero de\u2019 Medici to Bibbiena._\n\n\u201cI arrived in Pisa this evening, very weary with the road, with my own\nthoughts, with the rain that has rained the live-long day, and with the\nuncomfortable bed I had last night.... \u2019Tis but a line I send you, only\nthat you may assure my magnificent Messer Marino (the Neapolitan\nAmbassador) of the complete devotion that I bear his master... A\ndevotion which to day _traho ad immolandum_! Perchance it is my fault I\ndid not earlier discover the desertion of the Florentines, the want of\nmoney, arms, and credit that I had; but \u2019tis so difficult to doubt in\nsuch a city as our Florence. Let me be excused before His Majesty, since\nI am not the first sick man who has gone to death\u2019s door before he has\ndiscovered he was mortal. In short, tell him this, that even unto hell I\nwill keep my faith to His Majesty King Alfonso (_insino all\u2019 Inferno\nconserver\u00f3 la fede mia al Signor Re Alfonso_). And perhaps in my present\nlow and humble state, I may serve him better as a private gentleman in\nthe camp of France than I served him as the first in Florence.\u201d\n\n                             --------------\n\n                                              \u201cPIETRA SANTA, _29 Oct_.\n\n                    \u201c_Piero de\u2019 Medici to Bibbiena._\n\n\u201cI beg you ask the Signory to send here at once 500 foot. With so much\naid we might hold out, at least until I have made good terms.... There\nis not much to eat, \u2019tis true, but there is always something. And send\noff the men-at-arms to Pisa.\n\n\u201cI wrote to the Duke of Milan when I was at Pisa. I believe him to have\nreached Sarzana.... Arrange all these matters that there be no hitch.\u201d\n\n                             --------------\n\n                                                     \u201c_30 Oct., 1494._\n\n                    \u201c_Piero de\u2019 Medici to Bibbiena._\n\n\u201cLast night the French lords came here to Pietra Santa, and were most\nhonourably received. The Bishop of St. Malo tells me the King will be at\nFlorence _vi\u00e2_ Pisa in four or five days.\n\n\u201cIt is to fetch _me_ they have come. The King\u2019s herald is with them, I\nam just off to Sarzana with St. Malo and two other gentle lords. Rejoice\nwith me at the honour they have done me. These lords were sent here on\npurpose to receive me! Tell the Eight! Tell Alfonsina! Tell\nMonsignore.[117] Tell Giuliano!\u201d\n\nFootnote 117:\n\n  The boy-cardinal, Giovanni de\u2019 Medici, Piero\u2019s brother, afterwards Leo\n  X.\n\n\n                                  III.\n\nPiero de\u2019 Medici set out for the French camp from Pietra Santa on the\n30th of October. Although the winter was afterwards so mild, the autumn\nhad been severe, and the roads were marvellously deep with snow. All\nround Sarzana there extends a barren country, desolate, and full of\nlittle hills. At last a long ride of thirty miles brought the tired\nhorsemen in sight of the French camp. The tents were pitched all round\nthe frontier-fortress, a strong place in bad repair, which had cost the\nRepublic fifty thousand florins not many years ago. Sarzana was guarded\nby Sarzanello, a fort surrounded by great towers built on a steep hill\nabove the town. When Piero arrived the French were beginning to bombard\nSarzanello with that strange, improved artillery of theirs which caused\nsuch panic in Italy. The young man, alone in the midst of an enemy he\nhad done his best to ruin, assailed by visions of death and prison, was\nexhausted with fatigue, with restrained terror, and with the novelty of\nhis position. The French lords led him at once to the tent of Charles.\nContrary to his expectations, the King\u2014a young man of his own\nage\u2014received him kindly, even benignly. They were not going to kill him\nafter all. In the exquisite relaxation of his dread, Piero sank upon his\nknees before the King, stammered an excuse, and hung his handsome head.\n\u201cI will do everything your Majesty may require!\u201d\n\nWhere was now that devotion to Arragon, which (as he told Bibbiena with\nso proud a swagger) _traho ad immolandum_? Where was that loyalty,\n\u201cwhich I shall preserve in hell itself\u201d? They had vanished to that dim\nlimbo of generous resolutions where they would meet his fealty to the\nRepublic, his love of country, and his self-sacrificing affection for\nhis people. All these golden sentiments had completely vanished from the\nmind of Piero. The warm tent, after the long snowy ride, the kind\nreception, so different from his terrified previsions, the amiable\nfriendliness of the French lords, who showed no humiliating surprise at\nhis visit, all combined to fill him with a sense of genial relief. After\nall, Capponi was right: \u201cLook at these French near, and there is nothing\nto be afraid of.\u201d Piero, if he was afraid at all, was only filled with\nthat pleasant awe which the reverential _parvenu_ experiences when\nreceived on kindly terms in aristocratic society. He had not quite\nrecovered yet from the honour that the French had shown him in sending\nSt. Malo and the King\u2019s herald to receive him. Perhaps on the rack Piero\nmight have kept his word an hour or so. It vanished quite out of\nremembrance as soon as he felt the soft influence of royal converse.\n\nAnd this was the King, the second Charlemagne, the marvel of nations,\nthe terrible _Flagellum Dei_! Piero, accustomed to the kind voice,\nraised his eyes, and beheld a very small man of four-and-twenty,\nunusually youthful in aspect, with high shoulders, a sickly air, and\nextraordinarily thin long legs. He looked not quite grown up; and he was\ncertainly very ugly, with his large head, long nose, wide mouth, and\ntimid, delicate appearance. His ugliness was, however, redeemed by a\npair of singularly beautiful and shining eyes, whose intelligent, kind,\nstraightforward glance promised a liberal and honest nature. The King\nwas, in fact, both liberal and honest; a simple, inconsequent,\nhonourable creature, too nonchalant to make himself obeyed, and too\nincapable of dissimulation to win by art what he could not gain by\nforce. He was, we learn from Commines, \u201cthe gentlest creature alive; of\nno great sense, but of so good a nature it were impossible to find a\nkinder creature; a youth but newly crept out of the shell.\u201d This\ndescription does not promise a very terrible monarch, or an insidious\ndiplomatist, but all the duplicity of Lodovico il Moro could not have\ngained a greater triumph than the careless good-nature of Charles\nachieved over the flattered Florentine.\n\nThe King sat like a quaint elfin child in his tent among his splendid\ncounsellors. These polite and courtly people had rather a more decided\nsmile than usual about their pleasant lips as they glanced towards\nPiero. The young Florentine was submerged, drowned, in his satisfaction\nwith the King and with his own reception. He was on the best terms with\nhis friend, the King of France. Charles, who did not quite understand\nthe situation, asked a great deal more than ever he hoped to obtain from\npenitent Florence, thinking he would have to abate his demands (a few\nweeks in Italy had taught him how to bargain), especially when dealing\nwith a mercantile person like Piero de\u2019 Medici. He put forward in fact\nan extravagant requisition: the Florentine troops were all to be\ndismissed (the troops that Piero had ordered yesterday), the fortresses\nof Sarzana, of Sarzanello, Librafatto, Pisa, Leghorn, and Pietra Santa\nwere to be delivered to the King; his army was to have free passage, and\nhe was to receive a loan of 200,000 ducats. Now the French party of\nFlorence were prepared to allow the King to lodge in Pisa, and to grant\nhim a free passage, but more than this had never been dreamed of by\nSavonarola or Capponi. Piero, however, when he heard the King\u2019s demand,\ndid not abate a jot of it. Who was he to contradict the King? (\u201cI go,\u201d\nhe had said; \u201cI go head down in front of peril to bring you back a\nwelcome message, or else to leave my bones in the camp of the enemy!\u201d)\nHe immediately agreed to grant the whole, yielding the entire force and\nestate of Florence into the power of France. \u201cThose that negotiated with\nthe said Peter,\u201d says Commines, \u201chave often told me, scoffing and\njesting at him, that they wondered to see him so lightly condescend to\nso weighty a matter, granting more than they looked for.\u201d And\nGuicciardini adds: \u201cThere was no Frenchman there that did not greatly\nmarvel that Piero so easily consented to matters of so great importance,\nbecause without a doubt the King would have accepted very far inferior\nconditions.\u201d But Piero, the hero of fidelity, the new Lorenzo, did not\nthink of this. \u201cI require the six fortresses, the dismissal of your\narmy, free passage, and a loan of 200,000 ducats,\u201d repeated the slow,\nstammering, timid voice of the King. \u201cI agree,\u201d said Piero.\n\nThere was a silence in the tent, half-amused, half-painful, a feeling as\nif they had overreached a little child.\n\n\n                                  IV.\n\nPiero de\u2019 Medici was not the only Italian tyrant who had come to visit\nthe camp of Charles before Sarzana. The day after Piero had arrived,\nLodovico il Moro of Milan, who had been called home from Piacenza by the\nmost timely death of his nephew, returned this time as Duke of Milan, to\nthe tents of his allies. He had not expected to encounter there the ally\nof Alfonso, the tyrant of Florence, and the meeting was not pleasant.\nLodovico had an especial dislike to Piero de\u2019 Medici; firstly, because\nFlorence possessed the forts of Pietra Santa and Sarzana, which used to\nbelong to the Genoese, of whom Lodovico was the suzerain; secondly,\nbecause Piero was the staunchest ally of Arragon in Italy; and lastly,\nbecause on one occasion that charming fool had actually outwitted the\nwise Lodovico himself. On this occasion Piero, suspecting Lodovico of a\nJanus face that turned different fronts to Florence and to France, had\nhidden the French ambassador behind a screen in his audience-chamber,\nwhile he made Lodovico\u2019s ambassador protest that Charles had no surer\nenemy than his master. The French envoy had been very properly\nscandalized, but instead of preserving a quiet distrust of Milan, King\nCharles had proclaimed his wrongs from the house-tops; Lodovico had\npersuaded him they were inventions of the enemy, and henceforth had\nvowed an eternal hate to Piero.\n\nThus there was a personal coolness between the Duke of Milan and the\nhead of the Florentine Republic; but on political grounds their meeting\nwas still more awkward. Lodovico il Moro was a man who loved to fish in\ntroubled waters. He had sown dislike and distrust between the French and\nFlorence; he had meant the Florentines to keep the troops of Charles all\nthe winter imprisoned in the fastnesses of their hills. And when in the\nspring, the King, disgusted with the Neapolitan enterprise, should\nreturn to France, he had hoped to obtain for himself whatever places the\nFrench had gained from Tuscany. Lodovico had gained the great object\nwhich had made him call the French into Italy; he was Duke of Milan. He\nnow wished no farther progress for Charles. He hoped that the King might\nwinter in Tuscany, and then retire to France, having handed over to\nMilan Sarzana and Pietra Santa, and leaving behind an intimidated\nNaples, a plundered Florence, a triumphant and victorious Milan. Judge\nof his immense displeasure when he discovered that, in the few days of\nhis absence, Piero de\u2019 Medici had delivered to the King the passes of\nthe Apennines.\n\nLodovico was of that far-sighted order of politicians who, when a\ncherished project fails, have ever an under-study ready to supply its\nplace. It was an unfortunate fact that nothing now prevented Charles\nfrom making himself the lord of Italy; but at any rate Milan might gain\npossession of the towns in the Lunigiana. Lodovico went to Charles, and\nasked him for the six fortresses which Piero had yielded yesterday. But\nCharles, though a very simple and youthful person, was not a fool; he\nwould not close himself in a trap in the South of Italy with all the\npasses homeward shut behind him. He answered Lodovico that he preferred\nto keep the fortresses, at least until after his return from Naples. The\nDuke of Milan was a grave and modest man, quiet in manner and majestic,\nnever irascible or angry; he feigned to agree with his ally the King of\nFrance. Yes, it would certainly be wiser for Charles to keep the passes;\nand, to add a point to his conciliation, he remembered that Milan owed\nthe King the 30,000 ducats due for the investiture of Genoa.\n\nBut, notwithstanding his beautiful manners, the Duke of Milan did not\nsmile when, in the King\u2019s camp, he encountered the man who had spoiled\nall his well-considered policy. He had left Milan at an awkward moment\nin order to get the promise of Sarzana and Pietra Santa. The King had\npromised him nothing; had got beyond his reach, had just cost him 30,000\nducats; and all this was the fault of Piero. The young Florentine saw\nthe look of irritation on Lodovico\u2019s face, and in his eternal\nself-preoccupation he thought it due to the fact that he had received no\nofficial welcome into Tuscany.\n\n\u201cI rode out to meet you yesterday,\u201d cried Piero, \u201cbut I could not find\nyou anywhere. You must have missed the way!\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is true, young man,\u201d said Lodovico, in his grave, sinister voice;\n\u201cit is true that one of us has missed the way. But it is possible that\n_you_ may be the man.\u201d\n\nCharles\u2014looking on, understanding little, thinking far more of the\nfalcon on his wrist than of the man\u0153uvres and intrigues of these\nItalians\u2014Charles was no match for either of these men. And yet, in\ncoming to his camp, each of them had missed the way. Had the merciful\ncurtain of the future been for a moment lifted on that evening, either\nhad swooned with terror to see to what end that mistaken path should\nlead them. What is this? An old French street, surging with an eager\nmob, through which there jostles a long line of guards and archers; in\ntheir midst a tall man, dressed in black camlet, seated on a mule. In\nhis hands he holds his biretta, and lifts up, unshaded, his pale,\ncourageous face, showing in all his bearing a great contempt of death.\nIt is Lodovico, Duke of Milan, riding to his cage at Loches.\n\nAnd there, in the rapidly running Garigliano, where the French soldiery\nare struggling in their all too hasty flight, that dead, comely face,\nswirled here and there by the dark, washing waters\u2014that is the face of\nPiero de\u2019 Medici.\n\n\n                                   V.\n\nBut the end is not yet; a little longer the cunning Lodovico and the\nempty-headed Medici have still their parts to play, and for the next few\ndays the part of Piero is no easy one. He has to answer to Florence for\nhaving delivered her, without her own consent, into the hands of the\nFrench.\n\nFor the Signory were still in ignorance of this sad disposal of their\nfate. So soon as they discovered the flight of Piero they sent off seven\nenvoys to the camp of Charles to treat with the King, \u201cwith Piero or\nwithout Piero,\u201d and to express the thanks of Florence for his honourable\nwelcome accorded \u201cto our fellow-citizen, Piero de\u2019 Medici.\u201d When the\nseven Florentine negotiators arrived at the French camp they found the\nFrench had been three days already in Sarzana and Sarzanello; they found\nthat their fellow-citizen had dispossessed them of all that they had\ngained in a hundred years or more\u2014of Sarzana, their frontier town;\nPietra Santa, which had cost them 150,000 ducats and a two months\u2019\nsiege; of Leghorn and Pisa\u2014her seaports, the two eyes of\nFlorence\u2014without which her commerce were impossible: and he had\npromised, in the name of the Republic, the extravagant subsidy of\n200,000 ducats!\n\nBefore the bad news could reach home the Signory had sent off a second\nembassy of five: Tanai dei Nerli, Savonarola, Capponi, and two other\nstaunch Republicans, Guelfs and democrats, the leaders of the French\nparty. They arrived to discover in their late opponent a more disastrous\nfriend, so French that he had ceased to be Florentine at all. Capponi\nthen and there determined to prevent the continuance of the Medici in\nFlorence. Savonarola spoke words of tragic warning to the astonished\nKing: \u201cIf thou respect not Florence, God shall whip thee with His whips\nand scourges.\u201d But no eloquence and no resolve could change the fact\nthat the French were in the fortresses.\n\nSo the twelve ambassadors mournfully set their faces homewards; and\nPiero also returned to Florence\u2014Piero, brilliant, presumptuous, arrogant\nas ever. There was no sign of shame or sorrow about him; but even he\ncould notice the cold reception of the people. Every man frowned upon\nhim as he passed along the streets; they murmured together and talked of\nbanishment.\n\nIt was the 8th of November when he came home to Florence. On the morning\nof the 9th he rode to the Piazza with his ordinary guard to announce the\nKing\u2019s coming, but when he knocked at the gate of the Palazzo Vecchio,\nyoung Nerli refused to let him in unless he sent away his soldiery.\nPiero, indignant at this behaviour, rode home again and sent a message\nto his wife\u2019s brother, Pagolo Orsini, captain of the horse, to bid him\nlead the troops at once to Florence. Meanwhile, in the streets the\nominous cry of \u201cLiberty, liberty!\u201d gathered and grew. All the\nadventurous temper of Piero de\u2019 Medici was roused. Without waiting for\nthe troops, he armed himself and a few servants, and rushed cavalcading\nalong the hostile streets, crying out the rallying cry of his family,\n\u201cPalle! Palle!\u201d But everywhere he was met with sullen silence\u2014silence\nthat gradually broke into a roar of disapproval, a shout of \u201cLibert\u00e0!\u201d\nBy the time Orsini and the soldiers came, Piero was glad of their\nassistance, not to quell the disaffected Florentines, but to escape from\na town in open mutiny. They left the women behind in the great house in\nVia Larga, and, accompanied by a few cavaliers, the three young Medici\nfled from their city. Piero rode in the middle, disguised as a monk. It\nwas the second time in fourteen days that he had secretly escaped from\nFlorence.\n\nWhen the sun rose on the 10th of November, Florence was in deed, as well\nas in name, a republic. Piero was a fugitive in reproachful Bologna, a\nprice of 5,000 ducats on his head. Nor ever again, in the ten remaining\nyears of his life, did he re-enter Florence; and when his brothers,\nseventeen years after, were readmitted to their ancient home, it was\nthrough the blood of Prato that they waded into Florence.\n\nFlorence would brave any danger rather than receive the Medici. When\nKing Charles, a few days after the escape of Piero, made a brave stand\nfor his guest of Sarzana, the Florentines threatened him with open war.\n\u201cYou can sound your trumpets,\u201d said Piero Capponi; \u201cI will ring my\nbells.\u201d Charles looked out of the window at the narrow streets, at the\nsolemn, strong-walled city that, at the sound of the tocsin, became a\nmysterious and terrible ambush, raining death from every window,\nshooting unsuspected sallies along the tortuous streets. He understood\nthat a plain French soldier could not deal with such an enemy as this.\n\u201cTake off the price upon his head,\u201d he declared, \u201cand I will say no\nmore.\u201d\n\nNevertheless, had Piero gone at once to Charles instead of to Bologna,\nthe King might have forced him back on Florence. But the young man fled\nfrom Bologna to Venice; and when King Charles sent him a message and\nbade him come to his camp, Piero refused to stir. Piero Capponi, he\nsaid, had told him the French King meant only to betray him. Piero\nCapponi was at least resolved that his namesake should no more betray\nthe city, and by his persuasions the Medicean Piero remained at Venice.\n\u201cThere I often saw him,\u201d wrote Commines, \u201cand he discoursed to me at\nlarge of all his misfortunes, and I, as well as I could, comforted him.\nMethought him a man of no great stuff or sense.\u201d\n\n\n                          THE FRENCH AT PISA.\n\n\nIn the eleventh century the King of Tunis asked of the Pisan merchants\nat his Court: \u201cWhat are the Florentines?\u201d \u201cThey are our Arabs of the\ndesert,\u201d replied those prosperous tradesmen. \u201cThey are our poor!\u201d\n\nBut in the next century these Arabs of Tuscany proved themselves\nformidable rivals to their neighbours; though for another hundred years\nPisa, with diminishing resources, retained a superior prestige. That\nsuperiority of hers became the occasion of her final ruin; for in 1197\nwhen Volterra, Lucca, Florence, San Miniato, Arezzo, and Siena united in\nthe Great Guelf League of Independence, Pisa alone stood out resolutely\nGhibelline, isolated in the dignity of her Imperialism. This abstention\nof Pisa, then the first of the Tuscan cities, gave to Florence the front\nplace in the League, and made her the head of the Guelfs in Central\nItaly.\n\nThenceforth, for centuries Florence gloriously flourished, while the\nfame of Pisa dwindled to a mere proverb, an old tale but half believed.\nFirst she lost her supremacy, then her wealth, then her renown, and at\nlast her independence. A family of despots arose in her midst. Soon she\nwas to regret this comparative liberty, for in 1397 Giangaleazzo\nVisconti conquered the city, and left it, on his death in 1402, to his\nmistress, Agnese Mantegazza, and to their son, Gabriello Maria Visconti.\nBut Messer Gabriel\u2019 Maria was not strong enough to keep Pisa single\nhanded against his envious neighbours of Florence, Genoa, and Lucca; so\non April 15, 1404, he agreed to hold the city as a fief of France.\n\n\n                                   I.\n\nFew of the details of history are more involved, perplexed, or dependent\non the revelations of unpublished archives than the delicate intrigues\nof France for the possession of Pisa. A Mediterranean seaport, a link in\nthe precious chain that ran (Marseilles, Genoa, Pisa, Naples) from\nProvence to Sicily, she was an invaluable supporter of the Angevines in\nthe south; and holding the passes of the Apennines, she was scarcely\nless necessary to Orleans in Lombardy, glad indeed of an ally among the\nTuscan republics, so irreconcilably inimical to the Visconti. But, as we\nhave already seen, the plans of Orleans were liable to suffer from the\ncounter plans of France; and as at Genoa in 1395 so it was at Pisa in\n1404.\n\nThe great Visconti died in September, 1402; and in the same year Marshal\nBoucicaut was sent as Governor to Genoa. Boucicaut was an enemy of\nMilan,[118] a hater of the Turk, a man who saw in the Visconti the\nsecret allies of the Sultan, a man who had been a captive at Nicopolis.\nA pure, devoted, honourable spirit, yet officious, yet impatient:\u2014a\nrestless hero working persistently in a nervous and unquiet fashion the\nthing that he believed to be the Will of God\u2014Boucicaut is a figure as\nunusual among the factions and intrigues of fifteenth-century history as\nGordon among the small surroundings of to-day. The Marshal was sent to\nGenoa because that jealous and unaccountable people (\u201cqui n\u2019aime pas\nqu\u2019on aille leur desbauscher leurs femmes\u201d) would no longer endure his\npredecessor. They found in him the man they had prayed to have, a\nsterner master. Boucicaut was as rigid as he was simple: a man soon\ndeceived, but swift and inflexible in the punishment of treachery. His\nimmaculate life, his proved authority, his skill in regulating and\norganizing commercial traffic, gave him a great position in Northern\nItaly, made him the man of men there, the central figure, even as before\nhim had been Giangaleazzo Visconti. For one reason, these two men, so\nunlike in every detail, were alike in the great fact that they were\nthinkers, men with a mission, inspired by an idea that ruled their lives\nand to which they subordinated every consideration. The Duke of Milan\ndreamed of a great United Italian Confederation, of which he should be\nthe head, and of which the Pope should be merely the ornament and crown:\nhis dream was the dream of the Emperor Napoleon III. Boucicaut, a\ncrusader by nature and tradition, above all things a religious spirit,\ndreamed of ending the Schism, of gaining state after state to the\nadherence of the true Pope at Avignon, and, _pari passu_, of extending\nthe dominions of his lord the King of France. The ambition of Boucicaut\nwas all spiritual loyalty and feudal devotion; the ambition of Visconti,\nstained with crimes, was directed only to self-aggrandizement: different\nstars were theirs, shining from different poles. But the men who see a\nstar and follow where it leads them, though they go as far apart as Hell\nand Heaven, have more in common than the mere human bond which ties them\nto the obscure multitude of their fellows, swaying hither and thither,\ndevoid of purpose, will, or way.\n\nFootnote 118:\n\n  On October 30, 1403, he wrote to Florence and offered to take one of\n  the finest cities of the Milanese between Milan and Piedmont if\n  Florence would afford him (as indeed she offered to do) an aid of 200\n  lances (Florence Archives, Filza II. dei Dieci 3). Nothing appears to\n  have come of this arrangement, which appears to have been quite\n  uncountenanced by the King.\n\nAlmost the first act of Boucicaut at Genoa was to write to Florence\ninviting her to assist him in capturing from the young Visconti (the\nSerpent-brood) one of the finest cities between Milan and Piedmont. The\nFlorentines shared to the full the distrust of Boucicaut for the\nchildren of him whom they had called \u201cthe self-dubbed Count of Virtues\n(Vertus), the veritable Count of Vice.\u201d And they consented to the\nenterprise, but yet did not pursue it. For, at that moment, they had\nother work to hand. There was another Visconti than the Lords of Milan\nand Padua whom they must subdue. They were laying siege to Pisa \u201ce chi\nla tiene\u201d: her master Gabriel\u2019 Maria Visconti.\n\nAt the same moment, as we know, Orleans beyond the Alps was mysteriously\nadvancing southwards; his aim, no less than that of the Florentines, the\nreduction of Pisa. For through his wife, Valentine Visconti,[119] he\nhad, as he considered, a prior claim on Pisa, and indeed on all\npossessions of the dead Duke not included in the heritage of the two\nlegitimate sons. Gabriel\u2019 Maria, the bastard, supported only by his\nmother, besieged by the Florentine allies of France, threatened by his\nbrother-in-law the puissant brother of the King of France,\u2014what hope had\nhe? None indeed, save in the disquiet which the news of Orleans\u2019 coming\nmight inspire among his neighbours. For was it only on Pisa intent that\nso great a lord was advancing on Lombardy? At this moment the young\nVisconti of Milan were at open war with Boucicaut, and had declared\ntheir intention to drive him out of Genoa and to obtain for themselves\nthe rich province of which the French had baulked their father. Did\nOrleans also remember with rancour that disappointment of ten years ago?\nDid he intend to join his brothers-in-law of Milan, take Genoa first and\nPisa afterwards? It might be; and yet it were difficult to be at once\nthe ally of the Milanese Visconti, and the usurper of their\nhalf-brother\u2019s possessions. Was it possible that the King\u2019s brother\nintended to unite his army to that of the King\u2019s lieutenant, defeat the\nyoung Visconti before Genoa, drive them from Lombardy as well as out of\nPisa, and make for himself a great territory (Milan, Asti, Pisa)\nalongside of the French protectorate of Genoa? Boucicaut was an ancient\nand intimate companion of the Duke of Orleans; it was rumoured that\nOrleans had frequent interviews with Pope Benedict at Beaucaire; it was\npossible that the three had come to an understanding.\n\nFootnote 119:\n\n  See the preceding chapter on Valentine Visconti.\n\nAnd Orleans marched south. And Florence assailed Pisa. So late as April\n17, 1404,[120] the Florentines believed that by diplomacy, if not by\nforce, they might secure their prey. But in the end of February or the\nbeginning of March the Duke of Orleans turned north in high dudgeon,\nindignantly marching on Paris. And in April it was commonly known that,\non the 4th of that month, Messer Gabriel\u2019 Maria Visconti had been\nacknowledged a vassal of the Crown of France; he was \u201chomme du Roy\u201d and\nthe King\u2019s men henceforth would support him in Pisa.\n\nFootnote 120:\n\n  See a manuscript letter, I believe imprinted, in the Florence\n  Archives, Dieci di Balia, Classe x. dist. iii. No. 2, f^o. 56:\n  _Istruzione data a Pierotto Fidini_: \u201cAndrai a Pisa e sarai con\n  Madonna Agnese e dicele che tu ciai (ci hai) referito quello chella ta\n  detta (ch\u2019ella ti ha detta) e, uditolo, noi siamo contenti seguitare\n  il ragionemento, cio\u00e8 di contrarre con lei buona pace e sicura si che\n  tra lei e noi non abbia da essere guerra. Ma che, per fare contento il\n  nostro popolo, e mostrargli come cosa sia sicura che guerra non gli\n  sia fatta a noi, \u00e8 bisogno chella metta nelle mani del Comune nostro\n  quatro Castella colle loro forteze, di quelle del Terreno di Pisa che\n  per noi si nomineranno et vogliendo ella fare questo noi verremo alla\n  pace e alla concordia realmente.\n\n  \u201cSe ella dinegasse questo volere fare, avendo tu prima provato e\n  riprovato chella il consento, et ella dicesse di volere mettere le\n  dette castelle colle forteze loro in mano di terza persona fidata a\n  lei ed a noi, dirai in ultimo che noi siamo contenti. E se questo ella\n  non movesse a te ma stessesi pure in su la negativa\u2014di non ci volere\n  dare le dette castella\u2014allora moverai tu a lei dicendo che, poi che\n  non le dia piacere mettere le dette castella nelle mani nostre, chella\n  le metta nelle mani di terza persona di lei e di noi fidata. E che a\n  questo ella consente e volere che tu nommassi le castella, dirai\n  Livorno, Librafacta, Casena e Ponteacra. E se d\u2019alcuni di questi ella\n  dicesse non potere fare, saprai quali. E in scambio loro dirai Palaia\n  e Marti se fossino pi\u00f9 d\u2019uno. Se ella ti venisse a domandare chi noi\n  porremo per terza persona, dirai che tu non ne sei informato ma che tu\n  ci lo riferirai, e se ella te ne nominasse alcuno, tiengli a mente. E\n  poi ne vieni subito alla presentia nostra, bene informato d\u2019ogni cosa.\n  Et eziandio d\u2019ogni novett\u00e0 e cosa che sentire puoi\u201d (April 17, 1404).\n\nGreat was the wrath of Orleans, loud the remonstrance of Florence.\nOrleans had scarcely arrived in Paris before the King transferred to him\nall the Royal rights to Pisa (as I have already shown the reader in the\nchapter on Valentine Visconti), and formally disowned the conduct of\nBoucicaut, forbidding him in future to put any obstacle in the path of\nhis brother. Censured at home, Boucicaut was not less fervently\ncondemned by his allies in Italy. The Signory of Florence addressed a\nmost indignant letter to him,[121] accusing him of a dishonest action in\nseizing from the King\u2019s faithful allies the prey they had hunted so\nlong, now, in their very grasp, to be wrested from them by a friend.\n\u201cQuesta non era honesta cosa.\u201d The Florentines could easily have reduced\nPisa, but against the fief of France, their ally, they could do nothing.\nThey withdrew from the siege, protesting and with many murmurs.\n\nFootnote 121:\n\n  Dieci di Balia, Classe x. distinzione iii. No. 2, f^o. 58. I translate\n  the whole of this interesting letter, hitherto, I believe,\n  unpublished:\n\n  \u201c_Istruzione data a Bonaccorso di Neri Pitti ... di quello che abbia\n  fare a Genova._ April 28, 1404: Andrai a Genova. E sarai al\n  Governatore Messer Giovanni Bouciquaut, Luogo tenente del Re. E lui\n  saluterai affetuosamente per parte del Comune nostro.\n\n  \u201cDi poi gli dirai come di questo mese egli manda al nostro comune suo\n  Ambasciatore Maestro Piero di Nantrone, suo secretario. Il quale, per\n  sua parte, ci notifica come egli aveva ricevuto per vasallo e\n  feudatorio del serenissimo Re di Francia Messer Gabriello Maria di\n  Visconti colla citt\u00e0 di Pisa e col suo terreno che possedea. Et aveva\n  presa la sua difesa. E che dar\u00e0 per censo al detto Re ogni anno uno\n  cavallo e uno falcone pellegrino. Secondaria, ci prega che ci piacesse\n  per lo avvenire non offendere la citt\u00e0 nil (ne il) terreno di Pisa\n  predetto, per rispetto del Serenissimo Re predetto. Et agli aveva\n  preveduto che di quelli di Pisa non sarebbe fatta alcuna offesa nel\n  nostro terreno.\n\n  \u201cTertio disse che noi possiamo colle nostre mercatantie usare et\n  trafficare a Pisa sicuramente come a Genova e in qualunque altra terra\n  del Re di Francia.\n\n  \u201cAl quale Ambasciatore fu risposto in effecto che noi ci maravigliamo\n  et dolevamo, come essendo noi in guerra colla dicta citt\u00e0 di Pisa e\n  con chi la teneva\u2014et essendo noi al disopra per liberare la detta\n  citt\u00e0 di tirannia et avendo rispetto quanto noi siamo sempre frati, e\n  siamo servidori della detta Corona di Francia; et egli aveva presa la\n  difesa loro contro a noi; e che questa non era honesta cosa.\n\n  \u201cAlla seconda parte\u2014di non offender\u2014egli fu detto, che in ci\u00f2 noi\n  terremo tali modi come vedessimo convenirsi e che non gli darebbero\n  dispiacere.\n\n  \u201cE alla terza parte, diciamo che l\u2019usare in luogo dove avesse a fare\n  alcuno dei Visconti di Milano non ci fu mai sicuro, non potrebbe\n  essere, considerati le inimicitii e odii antichi stati da detti\n  Visconti al comune nostro; Conchiudendo che sopra le dette cose noi\n  faremo risposta pi\u00f9 pienamente al detto Signor Boucequaut per nostri\n  Ambassadori.\n\n  \u201cE poi gli direte che\u2014se mai noi avevamo maraviglia di alcuna cosa\u2014noi\n  abbiamo dello avere gli, in nome del Serenissimo Re di Francia, presa\n  la difesa di Pisa e di quello che gli possiede, contro a noi, figludi\n  devotissimi della corona di Francia stati sempre, in favore dei Pisani\n  che sempre sono stati inimici della detta Corona. Et maximamente\n  essendo noi in guerra con Pisa e con chi la tiene, non di nascosa ma\n  pubblicamente e non di guerra hora cominciata ma durata lungamente. Et\n  essendo noi con nostro esercito in punto et in ordine per esser\n  intorno alla citt\u00e0 di Pisa, sperando in brevissimo tempo liberarla\n  della Tirannia dei Visconti. E per poter meglio e con maggiore forza\n  cosa fare, abbiamo fatta grandissima spesa nello apparecchio di\n  questo, il quale possiamo dire per cagione sua avere tutta perduta. E\n  con lui di questo vi direste amichevolmente, subiungnendo che noi ci\n  rendiamo certi che quando il Serenissimo Re di Francia e suo Consiglio\n  sapranno questo, essi n\u2019avranno dispiacere come di cosa non honesta et\n  iniusta. Il che non fu mia usanza della Corona di Francia fare, et\n  come di cosa fatta contro a i suoi figluoli e divoti in favore di un\n  Tiranetto e d\u2019una citt\u00e0 stata sempre nemica della Corona di Francia. A\n  presso gli direte, che, per riverentia della Maest\u00e0 Reale la quale\n  egli rappresenta (come che duro e malagevole ci paresse per le ragioni\n  di sopra assegante) gi\u00e0 sono pi\u00f9 di passati, noi facciamo\n  commandamento a tutta nostra gente d\u2019arme e subditi: Che nel terreno\n  di Pisa non dovesseno fare alcuna offesa o cavalcata, e cos\u00ec \u00e8 stata\n  observata: la qual cosa fare grava molto il nostro popolo per gli\n  rispetti scripti di sopra. E mai non si sarebbe creduto per nessuno\n  Fiorentino che Messer Bouciquaut il quale abbiamo reputato a noi e\n  reputiamo amico singolarissimo avesse mai fatta tale cosa contra a noi\n  ma pensiamo che questo sia proceduto da altri con velati colori che\n  gli le hanno dato a dividere; ma veramente questo che fatta ha non \u00e8\n  cosa punto honesta ne iusta ne utile ne honorevole per la Maest\u00e0\n  Reale. E per tutto il pregherate che gli piaccia, veduta la verit\u00e0 del\n  fatto, renonciare questo che ha ordinato in questa materia, ed essere\n  contento che noi possiamo seguitare contro a Pisa, e chi la tiene, la\n  nostra impresa. E questo sar\u00e0 a lui honore et a noi, figluoli della\n  Corona, singolarissimo piacere.\n\n  \u201cAlla parte del trafficare et usare a Pisa i nostri cittadini e\n  mercatanti colle loro mercatantie, direte che niuno cittadino se ne\n  fiderebbe mai ne vorebbero trafficare, essendo Pisa nella mani\n  d\u2019alcuno dei Visconti, come ella \u00e8. E non che ivi\u2014ma in alcuna terra\n  dove alcuno dei Visconti avesse a fare, per che essi sono antichi\n  nostri nemici e molte volte lanno (l\u2019hanno) dimostrato\u2014e romperci la\n  fede e pace e tregua; e bene lo vedevamo dove, essendo colligati colla\n  Serenissima Corona di Francia, il Conte di Vertus ci ruppe la Pace e\n  manifest\u00f2 tradimento contra Dio a vergogna della detta Corona, si che\n  in modo alcuno non ci potremo mai fidare in luogo done alcuno di loro\n  avesse a fare.\u201d\n\n  Here the document leaves politics to defend the quarrel of private\n  Florentine merchants in Genoa, to complain of the conduct of the\n  Pisans who have made a raid on to the lands of Messer Gherardo\n  d\u2019Appiano, feudatory of Florence, and to complain of the sequestration\n  of the goods of certain Florentine merchants of Genoa. The Ten also\n  state that they are sending Messer Rinaldo Gianfigliazzi and Messer\n  Filippo Cosimi on an embassy to France to state their case to the\n  King. F^o. 60 instructs us that Boucicaut liberated the sequestered\n  goods and that a truce was signed between Florence and Pisa for so\n  long as Pisa should continue subject to the King of France.\n\nWhat indeed was the motive of Boucicaut? The Florentines with some\nreason suspected an unseen hand pulling the strings that worked this\nsudden action; \u201cpensiamo che questo sia proceduto da altri, con velati\ncolori.\u201d But what man save the King, who disowned the business, was\nstrong enough to dare to oppose the will of Orleans? Was Burgundy\njealous of those Italian prospects of his rival which freed him from his\nneighbourhood at home? Or was it possible that the Antipope Benedict,\nill-contented with Orleans after their interview at Beaucaire, had\nprivately summoned Boucicaut \u201cce bon Chrestien\u201d to hold Pisa in the\nKing\u2019s name and not in the name of his too powerful guardian? Mysteries!\nIt is as likely, perhaps more likely, that Boucicaut, ever hot-headed,\nwilful, and officious, asked no permission save his own to accept this\nnew vassal for the King of France. His brain was fired by the thought of\nconverting Pisa to the true obedience; and he feared that she would fall\nto heretic Florence ere Orleans could pass the Alps.\n\nGabriel\u2019 Maria Visconti and his mother were ill at their ease in Pisa.\nHe, an elegant, faithless, persuasive _Tiranetto_ (as the Tuscans called\nhim), was often at the Court of Boucicaut, making various negotiations,\namong others handing over the Tower and Fort of Leghorn to France.[122]\nBoucicaut was in high spirits notwithstanding his half disgrace; he had\npersuaded the Genoese to accept the authority of Benedict XII., \u201cthe\ngreatest deed,\u201d writes his biographer, \u201cthat has been done in Italy\nthese 200 years.\u201d He hoped soon to convert Leghorn and Pisa; and, in\ntime, to induce Italy to renounce the heinous Italian Antipope.\n\nFootnote 122:\n\n  Brit. Museum MSS. 30, 669, f. 238; a treaty between the King of France\n  and G.M. Visconti, Lord of Pisa. The Tower and Fort of Leghorn are to\n  be given to the French, the King promising that no one shall be\n  allowed to enter Leghorn against the will of Gabriele Maria Visconti.\n  Also _quod absit_ should the Castle of Leghorn be taken by the enemies\n  of the said Gabriele Maria, or should it in any way rebel against him,\n  the King and his Lieutenant bind themselves to allow free passage to\n  any army the said Gabriele Maria may send for its subjection. The King\n  explicitly promises that if any of Gabriele Maria\u2019s possessions be\n  lost by the treachery of guards or other means, he will make war upon\n  the fraudulent possessors and attempt their recovery. The King invests\n  Gabriele Maria, with a gold ring, in all his possessions save the\n  Tower and Fort of Leghorn.\n\nSuddenly his hold over Pisa ominously slackened.\n\nThe Pisans cared little for Pope or Antipope; they were fanatic for\nliberty. They detested Agnese Mantegazza and her bastard with a Tuscan\nhatred for the Visconti, treacherous alike to God and man. One day in\n1405, while Messer Gabriel\u2019 Maria was absent in Genoa, some Florentine\nsoldiers made a raid on Pisa. The citizens, not without reason,\nsuspected their tyrant of selling them to the Florentines,\u2014old\nneighbours and rivals yet more odious than the Milanese. They rose as\none man fighting for death or liberty in the streets. No sooner had they\ndriven back the Florentines than they rushed on the Fortress, surging\nthrough the narrow corridors, till, in the heart of the palace, they\ncame on Madonna Agnese. A man raised his harquebuss and shot her through\nthe heart. Her son was absent in Genoa. For the moment the Pisans were\nquit of the Visconti.\n\nThe news of the revolt of Pisa flew swiftly to Genoa. The bereaved\nTiranetto dispossessed and orphaned, repaired to Boucicaut as to the\nLieutenant of his liege-lord, the King of France, asking aid because, as\nthe Chronicle reminds us, \u201cseigneur doibt au besoing secourir son vassal\nqui le requiert \u00e0 son aide.\u201d\n\nBoucicaut was dismayed at this first result of his new acquisition. To\nreduce Pisa by arms would be a ruinous affair. The Marshal comforted as\nbest he could the vassal of his master, and promised to go and reason\nwith the rebels. Forth, therefore, he went from Genoa to a very\nbeautiful place called Porto Venere, in the neighbourhood of Pisa. There\na deputation of the insurgents awaited him, and for a long while he\nharangued them as to the virtues of the dead Madonna Agnese and the\nmerits of the kind and amiable young man whom they had banished.\n\nThe Pisans listened respectfully while \u201cmoult leur dict de belles\nparoles,\u201d but when the sermon was over they replied that never should\nMesser Gabriel\u2019 be their lord again, rather would every man of them be\nhewn in pieces; but, they went on to say, the Marshal Boucicaut himself\nshould be welcomed and honoured by all the citizens of Pisa, if he would\naccept her as his fief. \u201cNever,\u201d cried the Marshal, \u201ccould I draw such a\nprofit from a friend\u2019s misfortune\u201d (\u201ccar ce n\u2019est mie l\u2019usaige des\nFran\u00e7ois d\u2019user de tels tours\u201d). And he fell again to praising Messer\nGabriel\u2019, but all in vain, for the last word of the Pisans was that, if\nthe Marshal himself would not accept the city for his own, then they\nprayed him to meet them at Leghorn another day, and there they would\ngive themselves directly to the King of France, accepting a French\ngovernor for their waiter, even as the Genoese had done ten years\nbefore.\n\nBoucicaut went home, sore perplexed between his duty to his liege and\nhis duty to his vassal. He had gone to Porto Venere to plead the cause\nof Gabriel\u2019 Maria: and he had supplanted the young man, as it seemed. On\nthe other hand, since it was clear that the Pisans would never re-admit\ntheir Tiranetto, and since the city was the fief of France, how could he\nhonourably forbid them to give themselves entirely to their lawful\nsuzerain? And the vision grew in him of a great Mediterranean State,\nFrench, supporting French interests in the East\u2014a terror to the Saracens\nand the men of Barbary, a lamp of Christendom, faithful to the True\nObedience, reclaimed for ever from the heresy of the Elect of Rome.\n\nArrived in Genoa he sent for Messer Gabriel\u2019, and told him the case; \u201cde\nquoy feult moult dolent Messire Gabriel,\u201d who doubtless wished that he\nhad sent to Porto Venere, a spokesman less eloquent and less engaging.\nBut Boucicaut persuaded him that since he could not hope to leave the\ncity for himself, \u2019twas better to entrust it to the King of France\u2014who\nwould recompense so generous a vassal with lands as good elsewhere\u2014than\nto let it fall into the power of an enemy or a neighbour. Gabriel\u2019 Maria\nagreed\u2014as he must perforce agree\u2014and Boucicaut set out again to meet the\nrebels at Leghorn.\n\nBut the Pisans had never meant to give themselves another master. To\ngain time, they had played with Boucicaut and had flattered his weak\nside. They said that on second thoughts they preferred that, before they\ngave themselves to the King of France, the men of Messer Gabriel\u2019, who\nwere still in the strong places of Pisa, should be expelled the city,\nand a garrison of French and Genoese sent thither in their stead. The\nrequest appeared the less unreasonable as Gabriel\u2019 Maria was himself the\nKing\u2019s vassal, and the Pisans might suspect that their mutual suzerain\nwould only confirm the power of the rejected _Tiranetto_. Boucicaut\nagreed, returned to Genoa, and arranged for the exchange of garrisons.\n\nThis done the Pisans sent to say the Fortress needed revictualling.\nBoucicaut, eager to ingratiate his new subjects, despatched his nephew,\nsome gentlemen of his household, with many gentlemen and citizens of\nGenoa; and a great galley heaped with provisions. The ship sailed down\nthe coast and up the Arno into Pisa; at the quay the embassy descended.\nThey were immediately overpowered by an ambush of Pisans, who seized\nupon the welcome cargo of the ship, and carried off the crew and the\npassengers into a dark and villainous prison, using their sufferings as\na means to extract higher ransom from the King\u2019s Lieutenant.\n\nThus amply provisioned at Boucicaut\u2019s expense, the Pisans began to feel\nsecure of liberty. They sent to Florence, offering her four of their\ncastles if she would help them to regain Leghorn, where at the moment\nBoucicaut and Gabriel\u2019 Maria were esconced, and to revenge themselves on\nboth these men. But the Florentines returned a dilatory answer, for they\nwere, in truth, pursuing a more fruitful negotiation.\n\nFlorence in 1405 was in the very hey-day of her wool trade, but she had\nno outlet for her tides of commerce, no port from which to ship her\ngoods to Provence or to Barbary. It was not four Pisan castles, but Pisa\nherself and the mouth of the Arno that she required. At the same time\nthat the Pisans proposed their bargain to the Florentine Ten, that\naugust body had received an ambassador from Gabriel\u2019 Maria Visconti\noffering to sell them not only Pisa, but also the frontier castles of\nSarzana and Librafatto, which, from the fastnesses of the Apennines,\nguard the plain in which Pisa and Florence lie. It was worth a great\nprice to secure not only a port, but a fortified frontier in case of an\ninvasion from the north. Florence remembered her ancient terrors when\nshe had lain almost at the mercy of the Duke of Milan. She agreed to pay\nMesser Gabriel\u2019 the sum of four hundred thousand florins for his rights\nover his revolted signory. They stipulated, however, that Boucicaut must\nbe acquainted with the transaction, and give it his sanction, otherwise\nno bargain.\n\nWhen the persuasive Gabriel\u2019 Maria broke the news to his host, at first\nthe Marshal \u201cqui toujours y avoit la dent,\u201d emphatically refused to\nconsent to the alienation of a Royal fief; he even sent to Pisa to\nacquaint the rebels with the designs of their ex-tyrant, hoping by this\nmeans to induce them to declare themselves the subjects of the King. But\nthe Pisans went on shouting \u201cLibert\u00e0.\u201d Meanwhile Gabriel\u2019 Maria and the\nFlorentines set the matter before the Marshal in another light. For\nMesser Gabriel\u2019\u2014a clever person\u2014advised the Florentines to become\nvassals to the Crown of France for the fief of Pisa. The Florentines\nfell in with the suggestion, which carried visible weight with the\nBoucicaut. And the Marshal was left to consider the matter.\n\nThe Florentines asked Leghorn as well as Pisa, but Boucicaut was\nobstinate in his hold on the nearer port. He could not yield Leghorn\nwithout grave prejudice to Genoa. But Pisa was his only in name. Could\nhe not keep Leghorn, the substance, and as the price of Pisa, the\nshadow, exact the fealty of the Florentines to France and to the true\nPope? Illuminated by this bright idea Boucicaut proposed the following\nterms to Florence:\n\n1. The Florentines shall have Pisa and all its lands except the Castle\nof Leghorn; but they must swear not to interfere with the carrying trade\nof Genoa, nor to make traffic by sea in any other ships than those of\nGenoa.\n\n2. A month after the reduction of Pisa the Florentines must declare\ntheir adhesion to Pope Benedict XIII., and charge themselves with the\nconversion of Pisa.\n\n3. If, six months after the said reduction of Pisa, the Elect of Rome\nstill persist in his error, the Florentines, the French, and the Genoese\nshall all make war on him together.[123]\n\nFootnote 123:\n\n  So far I have no documentary evidence for these articles, which are to\n  be found in the \u201cLivre des faicts du Marischal Boucicaut,\u201d part iii.\n  chap. 10. I give them and I believe in them, because in every instance\n  I have found the documents of Archives to confirm or explain the\n  assertions of this particular chronicle; because the articles breathe\n  the very spirit of Boucicaut; and because I think it is to this\n  agreement that the Florentines refer in the letter quoted further on\n  (Spoglio del Carteggio i. ii. fo. 221), under date 15th of August,\n  1406. The act by which the Florentines constitute themselves vassals\n  of France for Pisa is well known. It is printed in Dumont.\n\n4. That the ratification of King and Council shall be asked for this\nagreement.\n\nThe Florentines agreed, and messengers were despatched to France, where\nthere was great joy in Council at thus receiving two Signories for one.\nThe King confirmed the agreement (it is said) by letters-patent, which\nwere sent to Genoa and Florence. The Ten paid certain sums (as we learn\nfrom a later letter), to Gabriel\u2019 Maria, and other moneys to Boucicaut;\nand then in earnest the Florentines resumed the siege of Pisa.\n\nFamine fought with them and pestilence; yet valiant Pisa proved\nirreductible. Month after month sped on in fruitless heroism, and a year\nafter the resumption of the siege the Florentines were still\nindefatigably attacking, the Pisans heroically defending. Then the\nbeleaguered city sent by privy ways a messenger to Ladislas, King of\nNaples, offering herself to him if he would defend her. The King\npromised, but did nothing.\n\nAfter a month or so the Pisans smuggled out a second messenger, this\ntime to France, who offered the city to the Duke of Burgundy on the same\nterms. Mindful of the agreement of last year which assigned Pisa to\nFlorence, Burgundy hesitated; and, perceiving his perplexity, the Pisan\nenvoys \u201cqui assez s\u00e7avoient le tour de leur baston,\u201d addressed\nthemselves to certain of the Councillors of Orleans, and promised the\ncity to him; whereupon the said Councillors induced Orleans and\nBurgundy, enemies as they were, to go hand in hand to the poor\nbewildered King and beseech him to grant them leave to accept the homage\nof Pisa. Charles, doubtless, was not quite in his right mind. The deed\ngranting Pisa to Burgundy and Orleans[124] is signed \u201cFor the King\u201d by\nthe Count of Tancarville and other princes. An ancient dependence upon\nBurgundy, a blind affection for Orleans (\u201crien n\u2019eut refus\u00e9 \u00e0 son\nfr\u00e8re\u201d), united with his perplexed and feeble memory, to obliterate the\ntreaty of last year. The King forgot his new vassals, forgot the Pope,\nthe schemes of Boucicaut, the money that had been paid him by the\nFlorentines on account of the agreement. He granted Pisa to Burgundy and\nOrleans, who wrote to the Florentines that they must raise the siege at\nonce, and sent to Boucicaut bidding him assist the Pisans.\n\nFootnote 124:\n\n  \u201cArch. Nat.\u201d, Paris, Carton K. 55, No. 11, pr\u00e8ce 8; July 27, 1406:\n  \u201dCharles par la Gr\u00e2ce de Dieu Roy de France, \u00e0 nos am\u00e9s et f\u00e9aulx gens\n  de nos comptes et tr\u00e9soriers \u00e0 Paris et \u00e0 tous nos aultres justiciers\n  et officiers ou \u00e0 leur lieutenant, Salut et dilectation!\n\n  \u201cSavoir vous faisons que nos tr\u00e8s-chers et tr\u00e8s-am\u00e9s fr\u00e8re et cousin\n  les Ducs d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans et de Bourgoigne, nous ont au jour dit fait foy et\n  hommaige lige des ville terre et Seigneurie de Pise et de toutes\n  terres appartenans et appendans quelconque, \u00e0 eulx appartenir\n  commun\u00e9ment. Auquel hommaige nous les avons re\u00e7us sauf notre droit et\n  l\u2019autrui. Vous mandons, et \u00e0 chacuns de vous sicomme \u00e0 luy\n  appartiendra que, pour cause du dit hommaige \u00e0 nous faict, vous ne\n  faictes ou souffrey nos ditz fr\u00e8re et cousin ne aulcun d\u2019eulx estre\n  molestez, troublez ou empeschez \u00e8s dictes ville terre el seigneurie de\n  Pise ni es terres appartenans et appendans en aucune mani\u00e8re. Mais si\n  pour la dicte cause elles estoient empesch\u00e9es mettez les leur ou\n  faictes mettre a plaine delivrance. Donn\u00e9 a Paris le 26 jour de\n  Juillet, 1406, et de nostre regne 26. Pour le Roy, le Comte de\n  Tancarville et aultres princes.\u201d\n\nThe previous difficulties of Boucicaut had been as nothing compared to\nthis dilemma. How could he refuse his service to the King, his lord and\nsuzerain? How, on the other hand, could he break his plighted word? The\nvassal and the man of honour struggled together in his breast; and from\nthat long and cruel duel the man of honour emerged triumphant. So\nBoucicaut refused to desert his Florentine allies, refused to assist the\nRoyal fief of Pisa.\n\nAs the Florentines pressed closer and closer round the beleaguered city,\nthe Pisans for the third time contrived to smuggle out a messenger who\nwas to make his way as best he could to Asti (the city of Orleans), and\nthence to France to beseech the King to send a messenger and\nreinforcements.[125] But the Pisan envoy was discovered in the\nFlorentine camp, and Capponi, the General, drowned him in the sea.\n\nFootnote 125:\n\n  Corio.\n\nSo that when the news of his interception came to Paris, it was too late\nfor aught but indignation. \u201cThe Florentine merchants had to suffer for\nit,\u201d says Corio; and Desjardins (in his introduction to the Tuscan\nStatipassers), expresses his astonishment at the obstacles laid in the\nway of Florentine trade by Marshal Boucicaut that year. For human nature\nis not consistent, and though Boucicaut had indignantly refused to\ndesert his allies of Florence, none the less he was wrath at their\nsuccess, which meant the injury of France.\n\nFor on the 10th of October, 1406,[126] a Florentine army marched into\nPisa, garrisoned the citadels, established their government, and marched\nback with many hostages to Florence. Pisa was honourably lost to\nFrance.[127] Pisa was lost, and great was the sting and smart of it.\nRailing and bitter names flung at Boucicaut, detention of the Florentine\nAmbassadors by Orleans,[128] wrath of the King himself, were each and\nall wholly unavailing. Florence was the King\u2019s ally and too great a\npower to be rashly assailed; and Florence was firm in Pisa.\n\nFootnote 126:\n\n  \u201cFilza xxii. della Signoria\u201d: see f^o. 283, Spoglio del Carteggio,\n  October 10, 1406, a Florentine army enters Pisa: \u201cLa citt\u00e0 di Pisa si\n  rende al comune di Firenze: l\u2019esercito vi entra vittorioso nel di\n  senza commettere alcune violenza e prende il possesso di tutte le\n  Fortezze.\u201d On the 14th of October a certain number of Pisans were sent\n  as hostages into Florence; arms of offence and defence were taken from\n  all the Pisans. On the 12th of November a further number of hostages\n  to the amount of one hundred of the Pisan citizens, \u201cdei pi\u00f9 atti alle\n  fazioni,\u201d were ordered to be sent into Florence. Civil order was\n  established under the government of a Magistrate and eight Priors.\n\nFootnote 127:\n\n  \u201cSpoglio del Carteggio,\u201d i. ii., f^o. 221 (Filza xx. della Signoria),\n  15th of August, 1406: \u201cLettera della Signoria responsiva a quella del\n  Re di Francia in commendazione dei Pisani ai quali si annunciava di\n  aver\u2019 data un Signore. _Si lamenta la Signoria di questa procedere\n  dopo che l\u2019acquisto di quella citt\u00e0 fatto della Signoria per compta\n  era stato confermato del Re con figlio e gi\u00e0 erano state pagate\n  diverse somme a Gabriel\u2019 Maria Visconti e a Giovanni Le Meingre_\n  (Boucicaut) _Luogotenente Generale della Corona e Governatone di\n  Genova_.\u201d A replica of this is sent to Orleans, Burgundy, and Berry.\n\nFootnote 128:\n\n  There are a number of documents concerning this detention of the\n  Florentine Ambassadors to be found: \u201cSignori Cart. Miss.\u201d Reg. 1.\n  Cancelleria 27, f^o. 26 _et seq._, in the Florence Archives, under\n  dates 10th of May, 3rd of June, 25th of June, 11th of July. The\n  letters are too long to publish here, see also \u201cSpoglio del\n  Carteggio,\u201d f^o. 286, for summary of an embassy sent by the Signory to\n  the King of France, Orleans, and Burgundy, in justification of the\n  purchase of Pisa and the siege. The Ambassadors \u201cerano stati spogliati\n  e ritenuti dal Duca d\u2019Orliens, per el che, seguito l\u2019acquisto della\n  detta citt\u00e0, si spedisce ivi Bonaccorso Pitti.\u201d Pitti was to join\n  Alberto degli Albizzi already in France, and, going by Avignon, they\n  were to interview the Antipope, to treat of the union of the Church,\n  to expound to him the policy of the Republic, and to obtain from him\n  commendatory letters to the Court at France. But the Antipope was a\n  less formidable ally than in the days of Clement.\n\n  It is curious to observe that the Signory instruct their ambassadors,\n  if they cannot obtain from the King the liberation of the imprisoned\n  Ambassadors, to appeal finally to the Parliament. This is assuming\n  that the Parliament was stronger than the King or even than Orleans\u2014a\n  piece of trans-Alpine provincialism.\n\nHad Orleans lived, he might indeed have undertaken an expedition into\nItaly. But in the middle of his disappointment he was murdered as we\nknow. Messer Gabriel\u2019 Maria went to Milan, where he lived half a\ncaptive,[129] half a traitor for some while; and then took refuge again\nin Genoa. But in the year 1409 being detected by Boucicaut in a plot of\nsingular treachery against the French, he was ruthlessly beheaded. Three\nyears later, in 1412, after Gabriele\u2019s death that plot succeeded.\nBoucicaut and the French were expelled from Genoa; and the wars of\nBurgundy and Armagnac, the woes of Agincourt and the long invasion of\nthe English, for thirty years diverted the French from their endeavours\nto colonize beyond the Alps.\n\nFootnote 129:\n\n  \u201cArchives of Florence: Spoglio del Carteggio universale della\n  Repubblica Fiorentina dell\u2019 anno, 1401-1426,\u201d tome 2, f^o. 273:\n  \u201cRicuse la Signoria di pagare la rata dovuta a Gabriel\u2019 Maria\n  Visconti, non essendo egli in sua libert\u00e0, ma in poter\u2019 del Duca di\n  Milano, che serbava convertire il denaro in suo servigio.\u201d _Vide_\n  \u201cFilza II de\u2019 Dieci,\u201d f^o. 170. June, 1406.\n\n\n                                  II.\n\nThe Florentine conquest was the beginning of ninety years of slavery for\nPisa\u2014a terrible slavery, heavy with exaggerated imports, bitter with the\ntolerated plunder of private Florentines, humiliating with continual\nespionage. Ruin fell upon the lovely city; and as the waters of the sea\ncrept slowly back over the reclaimed Maremma, they sapped the\nfoundations of her fairest palaces. Malaria and decay went hand in hand\nalong the streets; though round the ruined town, the only whole thing\nthere, the strong forts of Florence, proclaimed the wealth and power of\nthe oppressor. It was not that the Florentines were avaricious; they\nspent abundantly and lavishly on fortifications and garrisons for their\nsoldiers; on a university in Pisa for their sons; and they paid the most\nimaginative of living Florentine painters to put his frescoes on the\nwalls of the Pisan Campo Santo. But they spent their money in the\nMaster\u2019s way, declaring and sustaining the glory of Florence rather than\nalleviating the miseries of Pisa. And the Pisans themselves were unable\neither to supply the omissions of Florence, or to direct and advise a\nmore efficient expenditure. They had descended into a nation of poor\nartizans, for all their ancient trades were now forbidden to them.\nFlorence had secured the first place for her own manufactures, by\nabsolutely prohibiting the wool-weaving, silk-spinning, ship-building,\nin which the Pisans had for so many centuries excelled. Moreover no\nPisan might barter merchandise by land or sea. Restricted to the\ncommonest handicrafts, they lost the resource of wealth; deprived of\npublic office, denied the most ordinary civil rights, they sank into a\nmute and long-enduring slavery, secretly nourishing a spark of flame in\ntheir rebellious hearts.\n\nPisa was the Ireland of Florence, captive and yet unvanquished. Ever\nready to revolt, never for an hour forgetful of her antique superiority.\nBy means of the many exiles that Florence expelled from home, she kept\ncontinually in touch with the enemies of Florence. Men expelled for\nprivate crimes\u2014the meanest of the Pisans\u2014turned patriots in exile and\ndedicated the best of their souls to the service of an unhappy country.\nThe Florentines, prosperous and successful, were divided among\nthemselves into half-a-dozen different factions; and patriotism for them\nmeant largely a pious self-satisfaction dashed with party principles.\nBut the magic of an unfortunate glory, the pathos that hangs over the\nplace of one\u2019s birth when it has once been great and is fallen into\nruin\u2014this personal and omnipotent sentiment inspired every rank and\nevery kind of Pisan. There was none of them that would have shrunk from\nany heroism, or (as it seemed to the Florentines) from any treachery, in\norder to reinstate his country in her ancient grandeur.\n\nIt was with Venice and with Milan that the Pisans held especial\npractice. It mattered little to them that at heart these two powers were\ndeadly enemies; that ever since the death of Filippo Maria Visconti the\nVenetians had been plotting with Orleans to destroy the house of Sforza;\nthat Lodovico il Moro left no chance unchallenged to limit the\npretensions of his Adriatic rival. The Pisans were of neither party;\ntheir one political tenet was hatred of their conquerors, and (as a\nlittle later they declared) of the two, they preferred the Devil to the\nFlorentines.\n\nSuch patience as theirs, ceaselessly labouring underground, never\nwearied, militant but not aggressive, does not fail to meet an\nopportunity. At last a favourable chance was offered to the Pisans. The\nKing of France who in 1483 had disregarded the invitation of the\nVenetians, accepted, ten years later, the persuasions of Lodovico of\nMilan; and in the autumn of 1494, the armies of Charles VIII. poured\ninto Italy.\n\nIt had been the custom of the Florentines, in times of war and danger,\nto call the heads of every Pisan household into Florence, as hostages\nfor the good behaviour of their families and fellow citizens.\n\nBut in the autumn of 1494, Piero de\u2019 Medici who forgot everything, who\nhad forgotten to garrison his frontier, forgot to call the Pisan\nhostages to Florence, although the French were steadily advancing on\nTuscany and the Pisans eager to rebel. Every Pisan household was intact\nat home on that memorable 30th of October when, in the snowy camp of the\nFrench outside Sarzana, Piero de\u2019 Medici handed to the King of France\nthe keys of the Tuscan fortresses. It was of course provided that\nCharles should restore the cities to the Florentines on his return from\nNaples: but many things might happen in those troublous times that would\noutweigh the value of an oath. In the advent of King Charles, the Pisans\nfound the opportunity, so long, so patiently, so ardently desired; and\nthe French army and the hope of liberty entered the unhappy city hand in\nhand.\n\n\n                                  III.\n\nIt was the 8th of November, and a Sunday evening towards sunset, when\nthe army of Charles VIII. arrived in Pisa. The slanting rays of the\nautumn sun lit up a brilliant spectacle, bathed in the soft a\u00ebrial\nrichness of the miraculously warm St. Martin\u2019s summer which, in 1494,\nsucceeded to the rigours of the earlier months. Tired with their march\nacross the wintry Apennines, the foreign soldiers found in Pisa a city\nfull of friends. Tables were laid in the streets where all might sup on\nwine and meat and enjoy the hospitality of the city. Under foot the\nbranches of pine and boughs of autumn roses exhaled their fresh aroma;\nand the ruined walls of the cracked and damp-stained palaces were hidden\nby the great squares of pale-crimson silk, gold brocade, and Turkey\ncarpets that were hung from every window.\n\nAlong these altered streets, embellished for the festival, a train of\npriests, in stole and chasuble, carrying their holiest relics, went out\nto meet the King. But this, the arranged and official feature of his\nreception, faded, on the event, into absolute unimportance. All took\nplace at first as had been designed. The great motley travel-stained\ncrowd of the French army came trampling down the boughs of pine and\nroses; the priests met the soldiers; and finally the King came riding on\nhis great black horse, Savoy, under the blue-silk canopy sustained by\nthe nobles of Pisa: but when the people caught sight of this little\nyoung man, with the large head, bright eyes, thin legs, high shoulders,\nand quaint amiable air of elfin ugliness, then they forgot the dignity\nof an official reception. This was the King of France! This was the\nall-potent power which, at different moments of history had stretched\nits invited and benevolent \u00e6gis over Asti, Genoa, Savona, nay, even over\nNaples and haughty Florence, to shelter them from the cruelty of a\ntyrannic neighbour. But instead of the dread magnificent symbolic\nmonarch they had expected to behold, lo, a benevolent, rather grotesque\nlittle youth, with the most shining and enthusiastic eyes, a kind ugly\nface, engaging rather timid manners, and a total lack of that anti-human\nsplendour which these enslaved republicans had expected in a king. A\ngreat wave of love, of anticipated gratitude swept through the hearts of\nall these people: he was, he must be, their hero, their deliverer. It\nwas with tears of passion streaming down their cheeks that men, women,\neven little children, rushed into the ranks of the astonished soldiery,\nseeing round each weather-beaten face the shimmer of an aureole,\npressing, hurrying, thronging towards the King\u2014crying all together in\ntheir sobbing voices \u201cLibertate, Libertate!\u201d while such as could master\na word or two of French, stammered in their soft lisping Pisan accent,\nan appeal in the language of his distant country: \u201cLibert\u00e9, libert\u00e9,\ncher Sire!\u201d There was no affectation in this outburst of enthusiasm,\nnay, almost of idolatry. Any man who was stronger than Florence was a\npossible hero to the Pisans. The great motley army of Charles proved his\nforce, and in the rugged amiable faces of master and of men the Pisans\nrecognized the faculty of sympathy.\n\nThe Pisans had been to some extent prepared to find this virtue in the\nFrench by the correspondence of the Pisan exiles with Lodovico of Milan,\nwhose trump-card was to secure if possible the liberation of Pisa by the\nFrench, and then, after their return to France, to offer himself as\nprotector to the abandoned city. This plan was so well-contrived that,\nif only the first impulse were given, the machine must go on of itself;\nfor the Pisans would certainly accept their liberty, if the French could\nbe moved to grant it them; and, equally certainly, the French, after\ntheir return to France, could not afford to hold Pisa against not only\nFlorence, but Milan, Venice, Genoa, and Lucca, who would none of them\nsubmit to hand a Mediterranean port to Charles. Lodovico was convinced\nthat the Pisans would prefer the untried yoke of Milan to the hated\nbonds of Florence. The great thing was to give the first impulse.\n\nTo this end the Duke of Milan, when he had quitted the French camp the\nprevious Tuesday, had left behind him Galeazzo di San Severino, the\nbrilliant young husband of his natural daughter. Galeazzo had\ninstructions to do his utmost in every way to induce the French to\nprotect the Pisans in a rebellion against Florence. He did not waste so\nexcellent an opportunity. No sooner were Charles and his nobles in the\nMedici palace and the uncouth French soldiers housed like sons and\nbrothers in the homes of Pisa, than the adroit young San Severinesco\ncalled a private council of the chief Pisan nobles. He advised them, as\na son of Milan, and as a friend and well-wisher of their own, to throw\nthemselves at once and utterly upon the generosity of France. This was a\ntempting counsel; yet there were some, and among them the warlike Giulio\ndella Rovere, Cardinal of Saint Peter ad Vincula, that were for\npatience. \u201cWhat shall we do when France has left the city?\u201d they asked\nof one another. \u201cMilan will protect you!\u201d cried Messer Galeazzo, with a\nburst of inspiring confidence.\n\nThe Pisans hesitated only for a moment. From Venice or from Milan they\nhad always hoped to gain their liberty at last, or at the least a change\nof masters. France, backed by Milan, seemed the most desirable\ndeliverer: the ancient suzerain of the city supported by its latest\nfriend. It was difficult at that moment to imagine a stronger\nconjunction in Italy; for in 1494 Charles was spoken of as the second\nCharlemagne, and no one ventured to set a bound to the triumphs of\nLodovico of Milan. \u201cAll that he desires,\u201d the Venetian secretary was\nwriting almost at this very time, \u201call that he desires, Fortune has\nconceded him, and all his plans come true.\u201d For France and Milan to\nprotect Pisa against the rest of Italy in 1494, was as if Russia and a\nstronger Servia to-day were to join their forces to secure Bulgaria\nagainst the anger of the other Balkan States.\n\nVenice for a brief moment had sunk into the shade. She, who had\nman\u0153uvred so deeply to unseat Arragon and Sforza by the help of France,\nbeheld, to her immense chagrin, Charles VIII. following her own\nsuggestions as to the enterprise of Naples with Lodovico Sforza as his\nmentor and ally. Milan had taken the place of Venice in the French\nCouncil; Milan, which the French should have conquered as their earliest\nprey. \u201cIt is extraordinary how that man succeeds,\u201d wrote Marin Sanuto.\n\u201cYet it may chance that he outwit himself at last. Please God, he come\nto a good end! But I for one do not believe it!\u201d\n\nAt Pisa Lodovico registered a new success. It was in vain that Vincula\n(for the first time in his life, says Guicciardini, the author of quiet\ncounsels) represented to the assembled nobles the danger of the step.\nThey were beside themselves with the hope of liberty; and indeed, all\nthe French agree in telling us that their condition was truly desperate.\n\u201cPiteous, and lamentable,\u201d says Desrey, and Commines, a staunch\nFlorentine in principle, allows that they were handled as cruelly as\nslaves. To men in such a plight, and counselled by a person so important\nas San Severino, no risk appears too great to run that leaves a chance\nfor liberty.\n\nAnd so that very night the Pisans, still in their gala-dresses, but with\ntorn hair, faces of mourning, clasped hands and streaming eyes, thronged\ninto the council-chamber of the astonished King. \u201cIt was lamentable,\u201d\nwrites an eye-witness, \u201cto hear them tell the wrongs and grievances they\nendured.\u201d It was as if, in the middle of their gala, one of them, with a\nsignificant irony, had raised the corner of the pale silk gala-hangings\nand had revealed the mouldering stone, the unsightly ruin underneath. As\nthe Pisans exposed the real degradation of their slavery, the facile\nrash humanity of the French was touched to tears; and when Messer Simone\nOrlandi (an accomplished gentleman who could express himself in French)\nhad finished his recital, it was not only the Pisans who, pale with\nindignation and with pity, turned to the King of France on the throne\nseated of Medici, and cried out to him, \u201cLibert\u00e9, libert\u00e9, cher Sire!\u201d\n\nAt this point an accomplished Legist, a Counsellor of the Parliament in\nDauphin\u00e9, named Ribot, who also was a Master of Requests at Court,\nturned to the King and said: it was indeed a lamentable case, and that\nnever, for sure, were any other men so hardly used as these. The King\nhimself\u2014touched to the heart, as were all these frank and simple\nFrenchmen, by the unsuspected misery beneath the gold brocades of this\nfantastic Italy, and not quite understanding (as Commines suggests) what\nit was the Pisans meant by this word Liberty\u2014answered vaguely that he\nwould be content they should enjoy it. This at least is the mild version\nof Commines, who was absent in Venice at the time; but Pierre Desrey,\nactually present at the scene, puts a stronger warrant in the mouth of\nCharles: \u201cIl les assura de les conserver dans leurs franchises.\u201d\n\nThat night the Florentines in Pisa\u2014men in office, judges, merchants, and\nsoldiers of the garrison\u2014were driven at the sword\u2019s point out of the\nrebellious city. The statue of Marzocco on the bridge was hurled in a\nthousand pieces into the muddy Arno; the standard of Florence was\ndragged and trampled in the mire; and bonfires until morning hailed the\ndiscomfiture of the King\u2019s allies. On the morrow after noon Charles left\nthe city. He had placed a garrison of three hundred French soldiers in\nthe new citadel; he had appointed three commissioners to superintend\naffairs; but he had taken no steps to impose the least restraint of\ncivil order upon this impassioned and suddenly enfranchised people.\nFortunately the nobles of the town took the matter into their wiser\nhands. Twenty-four hours after the entry of the French, Pisa was a free\nRepublic governed by a Gonfalonier, six Priors, and a Balia of Ten, with\na new militia of its own, and, for the first time in eight and eighty\nyears, a Pisan garrison in the ancient citadel.\n\n\n                                  III.\n\nIf we ask, What right had the King of France to set at liberty the\nsubjects of his allies, lent to him in his need as a temporary gage? we\nfind the question difficult to answer. To statesmen like Commines or\nBri\u00e7onnet there was something shocking and dishonourable in the\nliberation of Pisa by the King, something that the tenderest palliation\nfor generous youth and inexperience could not attempt to justify. On the\nother hand, to fresh enthusiastic spirits, such as Ligny or the King\nhimself, there was a degree of inhumanity in leaving the Pisans to their\nobvious slavery which no code of political honour could extenuate.\n\nThese two parties, and these two counsels, marched with the King out of\nPisa into Empoli, where he slept that Monday night\u2014doubtless in the same\nbad inn that had so poorly housed the adventurous Medici just fifteen\nnights ago. When, on the Tuesday, the King arrived at Signa he heard\nthat the city of Florence was in revolt. Florence and Pisa, unknown to\none another, had each regained their liberty upon the selfsame day. For\nwhen the King of France came in sight of the group of domes and towers\nalong the Arno, his young guest at Sarzana, so recently the lord of all\nthis beauty, was escaping to Bologna across the mountains in disguise\nwith a price upon his head.\n\nCharles, the pupil of the Duke of Milan, was not well inclined to\nFlorence; and he was not propitiated by the fact that Piero de\u2019 Medici\nhad been expelled the city on account of the great concessions he had\nmade to France at the time of his fugitive visit to Sarzana. A month ago\nthe King had declared that Piero alone was his enemy, and that the city\nwas his friend; since the 30th of October he had changed his mind it was\nthe pliant Medici who now appeared his friend, and his anger was against\nrebellious Florence.\n\nYet what had Florence done more audacious than that which Charles\nhimself had sanctioned in the Pisans? Florence had expelled the Medici;\nPisa the Florentines, almost at the selfsame hour. But the fact that the\nFlorentines condemned the loan of the fortresses hardened the heart of\nthe King, conscious that by the liberation of the Pisans he had\njustified the greatest of their fears. This was, in fact, the direst\nharm with which an enemy could threaten Florence; and Charles had done\nit despite his name of friend. It was only natural that he should\nnourish a grievance against the ally whom he had injured; and when on\nthe 17th of November the French entered Florence, it was remarked that\nthe King rode through the streets, lance on thigh, with the bearing of\nan offended conqueror. His mind was as haughty as his mien, and he was\nprepared to claim from the Republic the independence of Pisa and the\nrestoration of Piero to the chief place in the government.\n\nBut the Florentines were no less resolute than Charles. Capponi made his\nfamous threat, and the King, after ten days of vain parade of force,\nswore a solemn treaty with the Florentines upon the 25th of the month.\nBy the terms of this convention it was arranged that Pisa and Leghorn\nwere to be left in the hands of the King till his return from Naples,\nand then given back to Florence; the King was to decide between Genoa\nand Florence as to the final disposal of Sarzana and Pietro Santa; the\nKing was to say no more till March concerning the restoration of the\nMedici, when the Signory, if he desired, would reconsider the matter,\nand meanwhile, by Royal request, the price was taken off the tyrants\u2019\nheads, and the wife and child of Piero were permitted to remain in\nFlorence. The Signory agreed to pay the King, in three terms, the sum of\n120,000 ducats towards the expense of the campaign; but, for us, the\nmost important proviso of this treaty (which the student may consult in\nthe first volume of Desjardin\u2019s \u201cN\u00e9gociations\u201d) is one that secured a\ncomplete amnesty for Pisa. Moreover Florence promised, in favour of the\nKing, to rule that city in the future with a more liberal and a gentler\nhand.\n\nIt was not three weeks since Charles had promised to maintain the Pisans\nin their liberty, and those unhappy patriots who could not penetrate\n(Commines declares that no Italian ever could) the shifting confusion of\nthe Court, did not know, and would have little cared to understand, that\nBeaucaire and Ligny had held the balance yesterday, but Gannay, Gi\u00e9, and\nBri\u00e7onnet to-day. The only consolation that they could have found in\nthis unstability of favour was the chance that their advocates might\nsoon again succeed to power, and as a fact they had made a great point\nin securing the sympathy of Ligny (the King\u2019s cousin) and Piennes\u2014two\nyoung gentlemen of the King\u2019s own age who were his inseparable\ncompanions, wore armour like his own and the Royal colours. These two\ngallants counted on their side the Seneschal of Beaucaire, one of the\nKing\u2019s two especial counsellors. But the other, Bri\u00e7onnet, supported the\nFlorentine party. The elder and more diplomatic statesmen, such as, Gi\u00e9,\nGannay, and Commines, were all on the side of Florence.\n\nSuch was the position of the Court when, in the January of 1495, the\nPisans sent to Rome, as a last desperate advocate of their extremity, a\ngentleman of their city, skilled in French, one Messer Burgundio Legolo,\nor Lolo as the slurring Pisan voices gave the name. The King received\nthe ambassador graciously, but in the presence of the Florentine envoys;\nand the party of pity, and the party of honour (if so we may name the\nfactions of Ligny and of Bri\u00e7onnet) were both assembled when the Pisan\nadvocate began to address the King:\n\n\u201cNow for nearly ninety years,\u201d[130] began Burgundio Lolo, \u201cthe city of\nPisa, once the greatest in Italy, once carrying her Empire into the\nrecesses of the East, has suffered the yoke of an intolerable servitude.\nThe cruel avarice of Florence has brought our city into so great a depth\nof desolation that her streets are almost empty of inhabitants, for the\nmost of her citizens, unable to endure this grinding slavery, have gone\ninto a voluntary exile abandoning their native land. Those that remain,\nincapable of plucking from their hearts the love of country, have indeed\nrenounced all else that renders life endurable. The acerb and cruel\nexactions of foreign taxes, the insolent rapine of private Florentines,\nthe injustice that forbids us by art or trade or public office to\nrecruit our fallen fortunes, have left us an empty life, plundered of\nall enjoyment: nay, dangerous even and deadly, for the clayey marshes\nthat our ancestors kept with exact and pious diligence, are now so\nlittle drained, so long neglected that the waters of Maremma sap our\nfairest palaces and our churches, our houses, our public buildings fall\ninto ruins while the miasma of those stagnant waters breeds a grievous\nfever in our midst. And where shall we turn to forget our misery and our\ndishonour? we, who are denied an outlet to our energy and our ambition?\nAs we pass the void hours of our leisure in the ruined streets of our\nonce glorious city, shall we not feel the pity of the ruin? shall we\nlook unmoved upon the dishonoured remnant of the magnificence of our\nancestors? Nay, since it is no shame to Pisa, after a long renown to be\nfallen in decay\u2014because in all the eminence of this world there is\ninherent this fatality of corruption\u2014were it not wiser, even for her\nconquerors, in musing on her ancient greatness to turn their hearts to\npity, rather than to use so cruel an advantage over a city in whose\ndecadence they should, in truth, behold the inevitable presage of their\nown?\n\nFootnote 130:\n\n  See the speech\u2014true, we may suppose, in fact if not in phrase\u2014as\n  reported in Guicciardini\u2019s \u201cHistory.\u201d\n\n\u201cAlas, so cruel, so insatiable, so impious has been the Florentine\ndominion that, rather than return to that slavery, we would forfeit life\nitself. And now at last a hope\u2014a dear hope of liberty\u2014has dawned upon\nus; and we beseech you, O King of France, with tears\u2014not only these few\nvisible tears of mine, but, invisible and ample, the lamentations of all\nthe distant city\u2014here at your feet, O King, I beseech you to remember\nwhat justice, what piety, what clemency of a magnanimous prince would\nshine for ever round your name should you choose to be the Father and\nDeliverer of Pisa, rather than the Minister of the slavery of Florence.\u201d\n\nThere was a little silence. In these accents men seemed to hear an echo\nof that natural law that lives immutable behind the convenience of\nnations\u2014\u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u1f76\u03bc\u03b1 \u1f04\u03b3\u03c1\u03b1\u03c0\u03c4\u03b1 \u03ba\u1fb6\u03c3\u03c6\u03b1\u03bb\u1f74 \u03b8\u03b5\u1ff6\u03bd. The King\u2019s face glowed; and the\nenthusiasm of Ligny and Piennes was reflected in the demeanour of\nBeaucaire, a rash and low-born person moved by pity, moved by Pisan\nmoney also (if we are to believe Guicciardini), moved certainly by\nrivalry of Bri\u00e7onnet. The other party waited somewhat anxiously for the\nFlorentine ambassador to answer Lolo. Soderini, Bishop of Volterra, was\na practical and eminent statesman, but on that excited audience his\nwords fell without wings to reach their hearts.\n\nFlorence, he said, had bought Pisa with good money. She had been kinder\nthan she need have been, for when the wilful Pisans yielded, half-dead\nwith famine, she had brought more victuals than firearms to finish their\nsubjection. She had the right to use her chattel as she would, and had\nshe been a thousand times more harsh who should come between a man and\nhis own? It was ridiculous to prate of the ancient grandeur of Pisa\u2014God\nhad made an end of that long before the Florentines, and she had been a\npoor bargain to Florence ever since the hour of her purchase.\n\nSo spoke the hard-headed Bishop of Volterra. But even as reported by a\nFlorentine historian these arguments do not make any great effect; and\nit was quite clear, as he avows, that the Pisan advocate had made a far\ndeeper impression on the King. And as, that very week, Bri\u00e7onnet was\nsent to Florence upon a diplomatic mission, the party of Pisa remained\ntriumphant in the camp where with (Commines in Venice and Bri\u00e7onnet in\nTuscany) Beaucaire and Ligny and Piennes held for the moment the whole\nof Royal favour.\n\n\n                                  IV.\n\nLouis de Ligny-Luxembourg, Grand Chamberlain of France, cousin of the\nKing through his Savoyard mother, was the son of that unfortunate Comte\nde St. Pol decapitated by Louis XI. He was not only one of the great\nnobles of France, but one of the first gentlemen in Europe, for his\nhouse was ancient and illustrious by descent and especially fortunate in\nmarriage. Nevertheless the young man was poor; yet owing to his charming\nmanners, his courage and adroitness, he was a most important factor not\nonly in the Court of the King but in the Court of Orleans. The Count of\nLigny, chivalrous, amorous, and pitiful, flits, for a brief moment, like\nthe figure of Youth in an allegory\u2014across the serious stage of the\nItalian wars; and his tragic childhood and his melancholy marriage seem\nto throw out with a brighter lustre the intrinsic brilliance of that\nscintillating presence.\n\nHe was, say the French chroniclers, \u201cprince gentil vaillant, adroit et\ng\u00e9n\u00e9reux,\u201d a pattern for nobles and the beloved of ladies. Guicciardini,\nlooking from another point of view, calls him juvenile, inexperienced,\nand light. To quote a final authority, Commines briefly gives the reason\nfor our dwelling on him: \u201cAbove all others,\u201d says he, \u201cthis young\ngentleman especially favoured the Pisans\u2019 cause.\u201d\n\nLigny had ever been a politician of Orleans\u2019 party, that earlier faction\nso long stimulated by intriguing Venice, which aimed not only at the\nconquest of Naples, but also at securing Milan. With these two great\npossessions at either end of Italy, it was clear that Pisa would make an\nexcellent half-way house. Pity for the Pisans was probably the essential\nmotor of Ligny\u2019s action, yet there is no doubt he desired to further the\npolicy of Orleans. And before the winter was over, Ligny\u2019s marriage gave\nhim a personal interest in the game.\n\nIn the early spring of 1495, Charles VIII. had arrived in Naples. With\nthat fatal lack of policy which was destined to frustrate a more than\nmortal triumph, he began to lavish the possessions of the Neapolitan\naristocracy upon his favourites and countrymen. A wiser King would have\nconciliated the native barons and wedded their interest to his own, so\nthat when he came to leave the country he should leave behind him a\nwhole nobility of viceroys. But Charles only thought of rewarding his\nfavourites of the hour. The daughter of the Prince of Altamura, the last\nof her house, the heiress of immense possessions, was reserved for\nLigny.\n\nMadonna Lionora was a young princess of more than common interest, the\nlast Altamura in the direct line, the last of that race which claimed to\nbe descended from the Three Kings of the East. It was easy to make the\nCount of Ligny virtually the Prince of Altamura by marrying him to this\nyoung girl. This was done, but Ligny was barely seven days the\nbridegroom of his lovely Mage when the King, alarmed at the preparations\nof the League, determined to march northwards. Ligny of course went with\nhim, leaving his bride behind him in a convent. And on the long road\nnorthwards the desire to be near his young wife and his new possessions\ngave a keener zest to the scheme of a Central Italian French dependency\nof which Ligny himself should be made the governor. When the army\nreached Siena, though the city was a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, and\ntherefore implicated in the Anti-Gallic league, none the less the\nRepublic declared for France, demanding Ligny for her governor. The\nyoung man left a garrison there under Gaucher de Tinteville, and went\nwith the King, hoping to pursue a like policy in Pisa.\n\nThe King had not yet decided whether he would halt in Pisa or in\nFlorence. On the eve of Corpus Christi, Wednesday, the 17th of June, the\nFrench reached Poggibonsi where the roads divide. Here they halted for a\nday to keep the festival, and here the King was met by no less a\npersonage than Savonarola, accompanied by fifty notables of Florence.\nThis at the moment must have appeared terribly against the plans of\nLigny, for if there was a man in Italy whom the French regarded with a\ncurious, half-superstitious respect, it was this authoritative friar,\nwith the harsh sweetness in his voice, the saturnine head, the asper and\nloving expression in his painful smile, who, as one authorized of\nheaven, had foretold their advent before they were persuaded to the\nstep.\n\nPoggibonsi, as I have said, is the last considerable town before the\nways divide that lead to Pisa and to Florence. At such a cross-road was\nalso the mind of Charles. Which turning should he take? \u201cKeep your vows,\nrestore the cities, respect Florence, lest ye incur the awful judgment\nof God, whose name, unless ye keep your oath, ye took in vain upon the\naltar of St. John in Florence!\u201d So thundered Savonarola; and there were\nmany things in favour of this plan; firstly, the strong personal\ninfluence of the prophetic Ferrarese; secondly, the fact that Charles\nwas sore in need of ready money, and hoped to borrow it in Florence;\nthirdly, at Poggibonsi he had heard that war was begun, that Orleans was\nin Novara, and, therefore, he himself and his handful of troops in\ndesperate need of the Florentine army. A little persuasion and no doubt\nthe King would have gone to Florence; but Savonarola scorned to\npersuade, he menaced. The city, he said, was armed to the teeth; she\nwould receive the King rather as a prodigal than a conqueror. If he\nwished to conciliate her, let him keep his word; then, but only then,\nshe would shower her benefits upon the elect of God.\n\nThis accent was not so moving to the King as the entreaties of Burgundio\nLolo. Pisa, as Charles knew very well, would receive him as a hero and a\ndeliverer\u2014but Pisa had neither men nor money.\n\nIn these uncertainties two days went by; the King alternately assuring\nSavonarola that he would keep his word to Florence, and protesting that\nhe had not the heart to break that earlier promise given to the Pisans.\nOut of this hobble there was no way except by broken vows and treachery.\nIt was a delicate question for a chivalrous prince, nourished, like\nCharles, on Amadis and Arthur: for to keep faith with the Pisans would\nbe to ruin his ally; and to keep faith with Florence to hand over to\nslavery a people who had solemnly placed themselves under his\nprotection. Nor were the political advantages quite easy to decide.\nFlorence, of course, offered men and money sorely needed; but Pisa\noffered an asylum in case of reverses further north, or in case the\nFlorentines should prove as faithless as the rest of the Italians. For\nPisa was not merely a friendly city, but a city actually in the hands of\nFrance. This was certainly an argument\u2014\u201cnevertheless,\u201d says\nGuicciardini, \u201cI doubt if anything so logical could influence the King.\nMuch more potent with such as he were the tears, and entreaties of the\nPisans.\u201d Those tears, invisible and ample as the waters of life,\nBurgundio Lolo had quoted to the King at Rome; and after all these\nmonths the memory of the Pisan advocate pleaded successfully against the\nactual influence of Savonarola.\n\nAt last a straw decided the unsteady balance. At a village called\nCampana, or Cassino, near to Florence, the King heard of a cruel raid\ncommitted by the Florentines upon the Pisan town of Pontevalle. There\nhad been French soldiers in the fort; but when the French archers came\nup to the rescue they found the little place untenanted save by dying\nmen, wheeling birds of prey, and corpses. The King was furious against\nthe Florentines; yet it was with the lightness of heart that follows the\ntaking of a difficult decision that he set his back against the town,\n\u201cet gaiement s\u2019en alla dedans Pise.\u201d\n\n\n                                   V.\n\nHistory is not decided by oratory. The eloquence of Lolo, the menaces of\nthe Friar, had conspired with a momentary distress and anger, to lodge\nthe French in Pisa. It still remained to see what Charles would do. The\nfirst move promised little; in order to guard against a second surrender\nto the impulse of the moment Charles sent a messenger to Florence, and\npromised to speak the final word, only when he should have arrived in\nLucca.\n\nBut if history is in fact decided by Necessity\u2014that grim and resolute\nAnank\u00ea who cuts the most different characters to her pattern, making of\na Louis XI., and a Henry V., so individual as princes, no more, when\nonce the coronation day is over, than able continuers of the policy she\nimposes; if Necessity and the slow evolution of ideas control the\nindividual, and leave him scarce more independent than the nail, which\nmoves indeed, but only moves to follow the control of the attracting\nmagnet; yet it is not merely by the unbroken sequence of Law that the\nworld progresses. Comets and cataclysms, plagues and earthquakes, and in\nthe moral world, sudden, fierce contagions of enthusiasm or ecstasy\ninterrupt and modify their course.\n\nDriven by a momentary resentment, a gust of pity and remembrance, into\nPisa, Charles was no sooner in the city than the King resumed his empire\nover the Man. He sent, as I have said, an embassy to Florence,\nreassuring as best he could the potent and wealthy city, putting off his\nanswer, and asking meanwhile for an instalment of money and three\nhundred lances. The Florentines sent no money and only eighty lances,\nand Charles perceived that the least extra strain would break the\nslender thread that still bound her to the French. Henceforth he steeled\nhis royal heart against impolitic pity. It was in vain that he looked on\nthe statue of himself upon the bridge, embellished in sculpture,\nresolute, heroic, Saviour of the City, trampling underfoot the Lion of\nFlorence and the Viper of Milan. It was in vain, that, at the entrance\nof the army, the little children of Pisa dressed in white satin sown\nwith _fleur-de-lis_ rushed to the gates to meet the soldiers, crying in\ntheir high, sweet, confident voices, \u201cViva Francia!\u201d It was in vain\nthat, in the early morning, as the King returned from the intenerating\nSacrament of the Mass, he met in the streets the fairest ladies of the\ntown, barefoot, dishevelled, dressed like slaves in coarse mourning\ngarments, who dropped before him on their knees, sighing and wailing for\nliberty.\n\nThe most that Charles could do was to defer, to temporize, to vacillate;\nhe could not be brought to pledge himself to more. He, with a remnant of\nhis army, was alone in an inimical country, subject at any moment to\nencounter the forces of Venice, Milan, Spain, the Emperor and the Pope;\nmeanwhile Florence was his one efficient friend. Florence to him had\nbeen a leal and honest ally; dare he desert her? ought he to repay her\nsacrifice with ruin? And yet this faithful Florence had behaved to Pisa\nin a fashion cruel and anti-human beyond words. And Pisa also had\ntrusted him; Pisa was tenderly his friend. Could he fling the wounded\nhare which had taken refuge under his royal mantle to the fierce eyes\nand gaping jaws of the hound which served him?\n\nThe question wrung the conscience of the man. But, for the King, the\nmatter was easily decided. His first duty was to his country and his\ntroops; Florence could help him to reach the forces of Orleans in safety\nand with some degree of glory; but Pisa could furnish no active aid at\nall.\n\nMeanwhile, the army had become fired with entirely different\nconvictions. Suddenly King Charles, the adored conqueror, the second\nCharlemagne, the unlettered and ugly little captain whose soldiers\u2019\ndevotion so amazed the Milanese, beheld himself in the midst of his\ntroops almost without authority. The army, like one man, rose and spoke\non behalf of the Pisans.\n\nInsulated in this shelter of Pisa, with the offended Florentines\ncontinually harassing his outposts, with in front the fastnesses of the\nApennines, and (God alone knew where) the five-toothed Trap of the\nLeague into which his little force must fall\u2014in this terrible\ncomplication Charles beheld himself menaced by no less than the mutiny\nof his own army. And for what? Not on account of the light head and\nimprudent heart that had brought this handful of soldiers to fight such\nfearful odds. This rebellion was inspired purely by the pity inspired by\nmen whose situation was certainly less hazardous than the peril of their\nindignant champions.\n\nBut all day long the army surged in front of the palace clamouring\n\u201cLiberty! liberty!\u201d in more virile voices than the Pisans\u2019. The army\ninfected the Court; and one day, when the King sat playing draughts\nalone with M. de Piennes, forty or fifty gentlemen of the Royal\nhousehold with their partisans forced their way into his chamber and\ndeclaimed the woes of Pisa. Charles was indignant, and spoke so roughly,\nthat they took their persuasions and menaces elsewhere. Even the poor\narchers, says Commines, moved by pity for the tears and lamentations of\nthe Pisans, threatened those whom they believed persuaded the King to\nkeep his oath at Florence. A private archer menaced Bri\u00e7onnet; others\nused rude language to Marshal de Gi\u00e9; and for three nights President\nGannay durst not sleep in his lodgings. The Frenchmen infected the\nSwiss; and these ferocious giants, who a few days later should massacre\nman, woman, and child at Pontremoli, proved themselves as passionate in\ntheir apology for liberty. \u201cDo you want money?\u201d cried young Sallezart\ntheir paymaster. \u201cIs it mere money that leads you to this infamy? Take\nrather our collars, our buckles, and our silver ornaments; stop our\nwages and spend the sum of our arrears. We will pay you as well as\nFlorence! only set the Pisans free!\u201d\n\nIn front of such enthusiasm Charles dared not avow a contrary decision.\nIt was in vain that Bri\u00e7onnet and his party urged instant fidelity to\nFlorence. It was useless for Commines to observe that keeping faith with\nFlorence did not preclude a sentiment of tenderest concern for Pisa,\nthough after all, as the excellent diplomat observed, \u201cDivers cities in\nItaly that be in subjection are as evil-entreated as she\u201d\u2014_Sie ist nicht\ndie Erste_. Charles would promise nothing to Pisa, nothing definite; but\nalso he would make no vows to Florence. He knew that the task before his\nlittle army was of the sternest and of the severest, physically\nimpossible to discouraged and disaffected troops. Therefore he wrote to\nthe Florentines saying that he would give his answer, not at Lucca, but\nat Asti; and while, in his heart, as we shall see, he meant to make the\nbest of terms for Pisa, and then restore her to the Florentines, he left\nfor the nonce, a French garrison in the city, three hundred picked men,\ndifficultly spared, under the governorship of Robert de Balzac Seigneur\nd\u2019Entragues. Thus, by a judicious temporizing, Charles hoped to untie\nthe Gordian knot. By turning his back on the difficulty he thought he\nhad suppressed it. And yet, were these three hundred men left behind in\nPisa, likely to become more obedient to an absent monarch? Was\nEntragues, a man of Orleans\u2019 household, Ligny\u2019s candidate, likely to\ncarry out the views of Commines or of Bri\u00e7onnet against the avowed\npolicy of his master and his patron? Charles, it may be supposed, did\nnot ask himself these questions. He bestowed on Entragues, not merely\nthe governorship of Pisa, but the command of the frontier castles, and,\nwithout further hesitation, left the town.\n\nRobert de Balzac, Seigneur d\u2019Entragues, was, says Commines, a very\nill-conditioned fellow. But a similar opinion has been entertained by\nmany historians for the most successful of their political opponents.\nRobert de Balzac was the son of Jean d\u2019Entragues and his wife the sister\nof the famous Comte de Dammartin. Robert was a very young man when the\naccession of Louis XI. brought about the disgrace and exile of his\nall-powerful uncle. Every student of history is familiar with the legend\nof that great disgrace: how the estates of the unhappy minister were\ndivided among the favourites at Court; how his wife with her suckling\nchild was left destitute and hunted out of all her castles; how forsaken\nby all her friends, she wandered like an excommunicated woman along the\nlanes of Dammartin begging for her bread, until a poor day-labourer,\nAnthoine Le Fort, took the abandoned Countess to his hovel and sheltered\nher and her baby, eighteen months old, the starving little godson of the\nDuke of Bourbon. Jeanne was still in the peasant\u2019s hut; her husband had\nfled for his life to Germany; when, as a last effort, Robert de Balzac,\nthe Count\u2019s nephew, was sent to Court to plead his cause. It was no\nlight task to undertake. Men had been banished or odiously imprisoned\nfor entreating the pardon of Dammartin, and many well-meaning friends\nwould have dissuaded the young man. But he went his way, arriving at\nCourt about the end of 1466, and pleaded so well that, after several\naudiences, the King recalled his uncle and placed him high in favour.\n\nSuch was the man\u2014about forty years of age, rhetorical, impulsive, brave,\ngenerous, and audacious whom the King had left in command at Pisa.\n\n\n                                  VI.\n\nThe little army of Charles, dragging its artillery with lacerated hands\nacross the Apennines, cutting its way through the Venetian forces at\nFornovo, arrived at last in Asti; and, when August came, the prospect of\npeace began to brighten before them. The King had come to terms with\nFlorence; and\u2014granted the inevitable treachery of the situation\u2014the\nTreaty of Turin was not unkind. It is true that the King agreed to\nrestore the city of Pisa, with the other Tuscan fortresses, to his ally\nof Florence; but on the express proviso of not merely an amnesty for the\nPisans. Henceforth they were to trade by sea and land on equal terms\nwith Florence, they were to enjoy the same civil rights, their ancient\narts of navigation and ship-building were to be released from embargo,\nand their sequestered property was to be given back to their possession.\nCharles had put his muzzle on the hound; Pisa, though restored to her\nimmemorial energy, should henceforth be protected by the chief ally of\nFlorence.\n\nIt was, in fact, a comparative equality that Charles proposed. Still\nremaining an intrinsic part of the Florentine territory, as indeed the\nsafety and prosperity of that Republic demanded, henceforth the\nadmirable commercial situation of Pisa was not to be turned merely to a\nFlorentine profit, nor were the Pisans to be entirely governed for\nFlorentine ends and by a Florentine Council. In their government\nhenceforth the Pisans themselves should have a place and a right; and\nthe only exclusive advantage which the Florentines should retain would\nbe that superior dignity, that reserve of power, with which a powerful\nmother-country inevitably controls her colonies and her dependencies.\nHenceforth in law, in all that can be assessed by franchise and by\njurisdiction, the Pisans should stand on an equal footing with the\nFlorentines.\n\nThis decided, Charles, satisfied he had been unfair to nobody, on August\n16th, wrote from Turin a letter to Entragues, signed with his own\nsignature and countersigned by Orange, Vincula, Bri\u00e7onnet, Gi\u00e9, De la\nTr\u00e9mouille, Commines, and (somewhat to our surprise) Piennes. This list\nof names is eloquent of the triumph of the diplomatic party; Ligny is\nnot there, nor D\u2019Amboise nor \u00c9tienne de Beaucaire, though these were\namong the nearest of the Royal counsellors. It was, in fact, necessary\nthat something should be done at once. Orleans and his men were still\nstarving in beleaguered Novara; Montpensier and the army were fighting\nat desperate odds in Naples. Peace with Florence would immediately place\nin the hands of the King 70,000 ducats and 250 men-at-arms;[131] besides\nreleasing the soldiers in Pisa, Murrone, Leghorn, Sarzana, Pietra Santa,\nand Librafatta, who with the Florentine contingent would be an efficient\nsuccour to Montpensier. But Florence would not pay the money until the\nfortresses were in her hand.\n\nFootnote 131:\n\n  A man-at-arms was a varying quantity of soldiers, from five in France\n  to three or sometimes one in Italy.\n\nThe King\u2019s letter to Entragues arrived in Pisa on the 29th of August.\n\u201cYou may feel,\u201d the letter ran,[132] \u201c_on account of your oath_, a\ncertain difficulty in placing the new Citadel of Pisa in other hands\nthan ours, but we absolve and discharge you of that oath, and command\nyou, so soon as you receive this letter, incontinent to deliver the said\nCitadel of Pisa into the hand of the Commissioners of Florence, provided\nthat one or any of our Councillors assure you that the Government of\nFlorence have accorded and agreed to our Articles.\u201d\n\nFootnote 132:\n\n  Archives de Florence, No. 52, quoted by Cherrier, ii. 294.\n\n\u201cA cause du serment que vous avez fait, vous pourriez diff\u00e9rer de ne\nmettre la dicte Citadelle neufve de Pise en aultres mains que les\nnostres.\u201d This phrase conveys the suggestion that on leaving Pisa,\nCharles had promised a permanent French protection to the city. At least\nit seems clear that Entragues had sworn to yield his position only to\nthe French.\n\nThese three months Entragues and his men had lived as the saviours of\nPisa with the Pisans, feted by the citizens, lodged not only in the\ncitadel but in the palace of the Medici upon Lung\u2019 Arno; no longer an\ninsignificant portion of the motley hosts of France, but the beloved\nguests and masters of this exquisite Southern city. They had the\nadvantage of the port from which to ship a succour to or from the armies\nin the South; they enjoyed the great pine-woods of the sea, full of game\nfor hunting; they had grown to love the wide, soft views of fertile\nplains bounded by a dim line of blue mountains where their comrades held\nthe frontier castles. The position of the French in Pisa was not only\nfelicitous, but strong; and they were required to abandon it into the\nhands of the Florentines, allies, it is true, of their king, but to them\ndesperate and deadly enemies with whom, in defiance of the truce, they\nhad continually waged an aggravated and embittering guerilla war of\nraids and plunder. And these three months, which had increased the\noriginal suspicion and dislike which the French army entertained of\nFlorence, had been spent in befriending and helping the Pisans, for whom\neven at the first they had felt so divine a rage of pity, and whom they\nwere now commanded to betray. Most of the men had probably made\nrelations in the town. Entragues as we know from Guicciardini, was much\nin love with, and probably deeply influenced by, the daughter of Messer\nLuca del Lante; and a little later he married either this or some other\nPisan lady, for Marin Sanuto speaks of San Cassano, the Pisan Ambassador\nat Venice, as \u201cel cugnato d\u2019Andrages.\u201d Thus passion, no less than\nresentment, and the sense of well-being as well as compassion bound\nEntragues to Pisa. Add to this, incredible as it may seem, the sentiment\nof loyalty; for long as was the reign of Louis XI., it had not been long\nenough to extirpate the feudal idea, and Entragues, although the subject\nof the King, felt himself in a far more intimate degree the vassal of\nOrleans, and the lieutenant of Ligny. Now, as I have said, the names of\nOrleans and Ligny are conspicuously absent from the signatures below the\nletter of the King. To yield Pisa would have been to reverse their\npolicy; and it is possible (to Commines, Guicciardini, Giulini, Porto\nVenere, and other contemporaries, it appeared quite certain) that\nOrleans or Ligny wrote to Entragues, and bade him resist the decision of\nthe King. This much at least is sure: _Entragues refused to yield the\nfortresses_.\n\nVainly the King reiterated his urgent letters\u2014imploring letters, still\npreserved in the Florence Archives under the dates of the 29th and 31st\nof August, the 25th of September, the 1st and 22nd of October\u2014letters,\nbeseeching, commanding the evacuation of the garrisons, but all in vain.\nNot only Pisa, but Sarzana, Pietra Santa, Librafatta, and Murrone,\nobstinately held out against the royal mandate; only the Governor of\nLeghorn, on the 17th of September, yielded to the entreaties of his\nsovereign. Meanwhile in Naples, in Gaeta, Taranto, and Atella, in all\nthe desolate villages of the wild Abbruzzi, the famished and abandoned\narmy looked northwards, in vain, day after day across the mountains.\nWinter began to whistle shrilly across the windy hills; blue mists and\nsubtle fevers rose out of the marshy valleys; corn failed, and a cruel\nfamine began to devastate the land; and still the promised\nreinforcements never came. Of that gallant army nearly every soldier\nshould perish by hunger, shipwreck, or malaria; for the troops that were\nto bring them a succour out of Tuscany never left the cities where they\ndwelt.\n\nOn the 18th of September, Entragues drew up a formal treaty with the\nSignory of Pisa. If in three months the King did not re-enter Tuscany,\nhe bound himself to evacuate the citadel, and leave it in the hands of\nPisa. Meanwhile they were to supply him every month with the two\nthousand ducats necessary to pay and provision the garrison; and on his\nabandonment of the fortress they were to purchase his artillery and to\ngive him the sum of 20,000 (or as Sanuto has it, 30,000) ducats for\nhimself. These terms were not excessive: the Florentines a few years ago\nhad cheerfully paid 150,000 ducats as the price of Pietro Santa, a less\nimportant place. It was, however, as much as Pisa could pay: and to\nraise the sum the ladies of Pisa cheerfully sold the brightest of their\njewels. And the Pisans in their gratitude for the staunchness and\nmoderation of Entragues awarded him a large estate, newly confiscated\nfrom the Florentines, and a palace in the city. \u201cIt cannot be for money\nthat he did it,\u201d remarks Guicciardini, \u201cfor certainly the Florentines\nwould have given him twice as much.\u201d It was probably out of friendship\nand pity, out of a genuine enthusiasm, out of an antiquated sentiment of\nfeudal devotion, combined with a desire to make a profit, that Entragues\ncommitted this fatal and disastrous error.\n\n\n                                  VII.\n\nThe Florentines were indeed in a peculiarly evil case; for Charles, who\nwas their ally, found himself powerless to procure them the restitution\nof Pisa; and the Italian cities were resolved that, at no risk, must\nPisa pass to the ally of Charles. That post, in the hands of the friends\nof France, would mean not merely a door always open from Marseilles into\nTuscany, but a continual supply of help to the French garrisons in\nNaples. It was certain that Pisa must be kept, yet Pisa was too weak to\nstand alone; plot and counter-plot darkened the decision as to which\ngreat State the port of Pisa should belong.\n\nFrom the 16th of September to the 14th of December, Captain Fracassa,\nthe Duke of Milan\u2019s captain, held the town, dogged by the jealous\nsurveillance of a Venetian commissary, while Entragues and his Frenchmen\nshut themselves inside the citadel. A few months later the Sienese,\nLucchese, and Genoese, united in a secret league with Pisa against the\nFlorentines. Milan and Venice wove a ceaseless web of intrigue around\nthe place. And it is quite possible that by persisting in the citadel,\nEntragues may have been animated by a lofty and heroic disobedience,\nhoping by his presence to maintain Pisa in fidelity to France, and to\nprevent it from strengthening the hands of the deadly enemies of his\ncountry.\n\nBe this as it may, on the 1st of January, Entragues, having some days\nago assisted at the expulsion of Fracassa, placed the citadel in the\nhands of the Pisan Signory. Great was the joy. Before the falling of the\nnight, the hated fortress, built by the Florentines to dominate the\ntown, was a shapeless heap of ruins. New money was struck, bearing the\nhead of Charles VIII.; and salvo on salvo of artillery rang right across\nthe plain to the very walls of Florence, announcing with a threat the\ndawn of the New Year, which had begun with liberty in Pisa.\n\nEntragues himself, rich in the price of the gems of Pisan beauty,\nretired for a month or two to Lucca, to conclude his traffic on the\nfortresses. Pietra Santa he sold to Lucca, Sarzana to Genoa. He did a\ngood turn to Pisa, distributing them, for a round sum, among her allies.\nBut if he hoped that Pisa would maintain her independence by the\nprotection of these humbler friends he must easily have been deceived:\nit was no later than the 26th of January when Messer Gianbernardin del\nAgnolo was sent to Venice with a humble message, entreating the august\nprotection of that city for the young Republic. It was Venice, rather\nthan Milan, to whom the Pisans turned\u2014Venice preponderate now in the\nPeninsula, sheltering in secret Pisa and Taranto under her wide-reaching\n\u00e6gis. During thirteen years from this date the shifting fortunes, the\ngreeds and jealousies of the great Italian cities, fostered an\nartificial liberty in Pisa. Thrown like a ball from Milan to Venice,\nVenice to Maximilian, Max again to Venice, and thence to C\u00e6sar Borgia,\nthe unhappy Republic described the whole circle of desperate hope,\nagonized courage, misery, poverty, cunning, and betrayal. But with the\nanguish of her heroic vicissitudes we have, at this moment, no concern.\nThe conduct of Entragues is our affair.\n\nFrom that New Year\u2019s Day all hope was over for the French in Naples.\nGaeta, Taranto, Atella, Ostia fell; Montpensier died of heartbreak, the\ntroops of fever; the great Guelf kingdom, the vision of so many\ncenturies, disappeared like fairy gold as soon as the French had grasped\nit.\n\nIn France, the Count of Ligny, Entragues\u2019 patron, was banished from the\nCourt in disgrace. \u201cHe is gone to his estates in Picardy,\u201d wrote Antonio\nVincivera, \u201clike a desperate creature. The King has disgraced him\nbecause of the affair of Pisa.\u201d Thus Entragues, in the most effectual\nmanner, had ruined his master\u2019s chances: and though in time Ligny was\npardoned by the King, it was not in the lifetime of his bride. In\nFebruary, 1498, the daughter of the Mages expired, far from the arms of\nLigny, in her Nunnery at Naples.\n\nBut if the action of Entragues proved unfortunate to his friends, it had\na more deadly consequence to his enemies in Florence. The party of\nSavonarola never recovered that failure of the French to give back Pisa.\nFor some time, amid famine, pestilence, and ruin, they kept a weakening\nhold upon the city: \u201cAnd still they stand in hope of the things above,\u201d\nmocks Maron Sanuto, in the spring of 1497, \u201cand still they expect the\ncoming of the King.\u201d A year later, in the May of 1498, Savonarola\nexpiated that delusion by the flaming penance of the stake. \u201cQuesta \u00e8 la\nfine dei cattivi!\u201d ejaculates the Venetian Secretary.\n\nOf all the actors in this complicated drama, the one person who suffered\nnot at all was that dishonoured liberator, Entragues himself. He went\nback to live in Pisa where he seems to have displayed an eminent and\nalmost official dignity. Twice in moments of difficulty it was proposed\nthat Entragues should be sent as envoy to Venice, in place of his\nbrother-in-law; but the necessity passed away. He remained in comfort\nand splendour in Pisa, where we read of his receiving the Lucchese\nambassadors and conducting the diplomacy of the Republic. Pisa\nherself\u2014unhappy devotee of liberty!\u2014grew poorer and ever poorer, a\nhumble pensioner on Venetian bounty: \u201cThey adore us,\u201d remarks Sanuto\nwith some fatuity, \u201cand, of a verity, they would starve without us.\u201d\nBut, shorn of all her territories as she was, Pisa housed her liberator\nin a palace, and little did it matter to this voluntary exile that his\nKing declared a readiness to decapitate him with royal hands. Meanwhile\nhe remained the natural centre of all dignity in Pisa. Here we catch a\nlast glimpse of him in that sinister spring of 1498 which witnessed in\nFlorence the martyrdom of Savonarola and in France the sudden death of\nCharles VIII. The whirlwind that destroyed these mighty vessels allowed\nthe idle straw to float unharmed. \u201cEntragues is back in Pisa,\u201d writes\nSanuto, \u201cwhich city is very poor now, having lost all her lands and\nsubsisting only on that which we afford her. He has returned some time\nfrom his visit to Jerusalem. He lives with certain families in Pisa. He\nhas money of his own, and gives himself his pleasures.\u201d\n\nFive years later, when the eminence of Venice was dangerously threatened\nby Italian jealousy, the Pisans began to look about for a new Protector.\n\u201cWe will offer ourselves to the Devil,\u201d they declared, \u201crather than to\nFlorence.\u201d As a matter of fact they offered themselves to C\u00e6sar Borgia.\nThey made very few conditions: two of them are noteworthy in view of the\npresent history:\n\n\u201cThe Pisans will bestow themselves upon Il Valentino if neither he nor\nthe Pope will ever make peace or truce with Florence.\n\n\u201cThe new Duke must promise the city never to make any peace or league\nwith France.\u201d\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n                      =The Gresham Press=,\n                            UNWIN BROTHERS,\n                         CHILWORTH AND LONDON.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n                           Transcriber\u2019s Note\n\nThe footnotes are moved to follow the paragraph within which they are\nreferenced, and are sequenced numerically for uniqueness.\n\nHyphenation of compound words can be variable. Where it occurs on a line\nbreak, the most commonly used form is assumed. Many footnotes contain\nextended transcriptions in 14th or 15th century Italian, and it is\ndifficult to ascertain their correctness. With a few exceptions, noted\nbelow, the text is printed verbatim.\n\nThe name of the Convent of \u2018Roderdesdorf\u2019 in the Contents is everywhere\ngiven in the text as \u2018Rodardesdorf\u2019. The Contents\u2019 entry has been\ncorrected to facilitate searches.\n\nThe page references in the Contents direct the reader to the indicated\ntopics. Be forewarned, however, that those references to the chapter on\n\u2018The French at Pisa\u2019 go astray after p. 354, and one entry is missing\nentirely, but is most likely referring to p. 358.\n\nObvious printer\u2019s errors or printing flaws have been corrected, and are\nnoted here with their resolutions. The corrections are indicated by page\nand line number, or, where the correction is to a note, by note and line\nnumber within the note.\n\n iv.8       and, half afraid, [ /I] told you               Restored.\n\n viii.1     the Convent of Rod[e/a]rdesdorf>               Replaced.\n\n n1.3       Beginen-h\u00e4user [i]m Mittelalter                Restored.\n\n n1.5       Geschic[h]te der deutschen Mystik              Added.\n\n 8.29       the [the ]Alexandrian theories of the          Removed.\n            pseudo-Dionysius\n\n 14.1       the poor vain min[s]trels                      Added.\n\n 33.28      suspected of her[se/es]y.                      Transposed.\n\n 37.17      the panth[ie/ei]st idea                        Transposed.\n\n 38.3       By the middle of the fifteenth century,        Replaced.\n            [T/t]he Beghards\n\n 59.27      so many hours?[\u2019]                              Added.\n\n 64.19      for the sins of the ungo[l]dly                 Removed.\n\n 61.17      thanksgi[v]ing                                 Added.\n\n 82.21      this unconscious bea[u]titude                  Removed.\n\n n5.1       Bib. Nat. Fran[c/\u00e7]ais                         Replaced.\n\n 120.9      Que cette Berg\u00e8re jolie.[\u2019/\u201d]                  Replaced.\n\n 148.17     supers[ti]tition                               Removed.\n\n 149.21     \u201cAnd that journey,\u201d say[s] Froissart           Added.\n\n n41.7      pour en avoir garde.[\u201d]                        Added.\n\n 182.28     of his uncle Berna[d/b]\u00f2>                      Replaced.\n\n 193.27     [(]if we may trust the verdict of Corio)       Added.\n\n n57.6      (Pi\u00e8ces Originales Fontanieu, dossier 1185,    Added.\n            No. 38[)]\n\n 200.13     the Duke was afraid of Sforz[o/a]              Replaced.\n\n 207.16     proved irres[is]tibly fascinating              Added.\n\n 221.5      resolution of Count Francesco Sforz[o/a].      Replaced.\n\n n90.1      promised to assis[t] the Dauphin               Restored.\n\n 262.25     1,300 men-at[ /-]arms                          Replaced.\n\n 277.3      What was the magnificence of earth [ ] to him? _sic_: \u2018to\n                                                           him\u2019?\n\n 282.23     he fought almost contin[u]ously                Added.\n\n 294.4      mocking the sacred mon[o]gram>                 Added.\n\n 302.30     to take counsel with the wise old              Replaced.\n            statesm[e/a]n and learn his views\n\n n113.13    et diceva non si voller p[ui/i\u00f9] curar ne de   Replaced.\n            figlioli\n\n 309.21     he weary of his life[.]                        Added.\n\n 326.1      and to poor [l]ittle Lorenzio                  Restored.\n\n 321.24     in making improm[p]tu> verses                  Added.\n\n 330.25     with the said Peter[./,]>\u201d says Commines       Replaced.\n\n 335.20     Pietra Santa, which [which ]had cost them      Removed.\n            150,000 ducats\n\n 340.15     A Medite[rannean/rranean]> seaport             Replaced.\n\n n120.9     guerra non gli [f/s]ia fatta a noi             Replaced.\n\n n120.24    di questi ell[ /a]                             Restored.\n\n n121.17    la citt[a/\u00e0] nil                               Replaced.\n\n n121.18    del Seren[e/i]ssimo Re predetto.               Replaced.\n\n n121.62    Che nel terreno di Pisa non dovess[o/e]no fare Replaced.\n            alcuna\n\n n122.12    he will make war upon the fra[u]dulent         Added.\n            possessors\n\n 358.13     detention of the Florentine Ambassadors by     Added.\n            Orleans[,]\n\n n129.2     della Repubb[l]ica> Fiorentina                 Added.\n\n 368.2      writes an eye-witness,[\u201d to/ \u201cto] hear them    Replaced.\n\n 369.30     could not attempt to justify[-/.]              Replaced.\n\n 388.4      Gi[e/\u00e9]                                        Replaced.","title":"The End of the Middle Ages: Essays and Questions in History","tradition":"ritual-magic","translated_text":null,"word_count":112322}