er uncle help. Maximilian kept
his word, and before the month was over despatched a strong German force
to the duke's relief. But the sorely needed succour came too late. When
the Germans reached the Italian frontier, Milan had already surrendered,
and they met Lodovico flying for his life. There were traitors in the
Moro's camp and court. Not only had the Marquis of Mantua broken faith
and refused to defend the Milanese against the Venetians, but two of the
Sanseverino brothers, Fracassa and Antonio Maria, had for some time past
threatened to enter the Venetian service; while Francesco Bernardino
Visconti, the Borromeos, and Pallavicini were secretly corresponding
with Trivulzio, and the Count of Caiazzo was out of temper and jealous
of his younger brother Galeazzo, if he was not, as Corio and other
contemporaries affirm, already in league with the French. Galeazzo
himself, who had the supreme command of the Milanese forces and held
Alessandria with 5000 men, was a brilliant carpet-knight and gallant
soldier, but had little experience as a general, and had no confidence
in his ill-paid and half-starved troops. When the duke, in a moment of
irritation, reproached his son-in-law with thinking too much of fine
clothes and fair ladies, Galeazzo boldly told him that his subjects were
disaffected and tired of his rule, and that if he did not take vigorous
measures, he would lose his state. His words proved all too true. One by
one the fortresses of the Lomellina opened their gates to Trivulzio's
victorious army, Antonio Maria Pallavicini surrendered Tortona without a
blow, and when Galeazzo prepared to relieve Pavia, his troops refused to
follow him. At the head of a handful of cavalry, he made a gallant
attempt to reach Pavia, but the citizens, alarmed at the approach of the
French, closed their gates and refused to admit any armed men.

Alessandria was now the only fortified town in the district which could
arrest Trivulzio's onward march, and Lodovico, trusting to Galeazzo's
valour, was confident he would be able to hold the town until the
arrival of Maximilian's reinforcements. But, to the amazement of friend
and foe alike, on the night of the 28th of August, Galeazzo, attended by
only three horsemen, left Alessandria at nightfall, crossed the Po, and,
after cutting the bridge behind him, rode as fast as he could go to
Milan. There had been dissensions in the garrison, and the soldiers
clamoured for pay and refused to fig