They refused to comply, and made preparations
to prosecute their design with greater vigor than they had hitherto
done; and having routed the forces of the duke and the marquis at
Argenta, they approached Ferrara so closely as to pitch their tents in
the marquis's park.

The League found they must no longer delay rendering him efficient
assistance, and ordered the duke of Calabria to march to Ferrara with
his forces and those of the pope, the Florentine troops also moving in
the same direction. In order to direct the operations of the war with
greater efficiency, the League assembled a diet at Cremona, which was
attended by the pope's legate, the Count Girolamo, the duke of Calabria,
the Signor Lodovico Sforza, and Lorenzo de' Medici, with many other
Italian princes; and when the measures to be adopted were fully
discussed, having decided that the best way of relieving Ferrara would
be to effect a division of the enemy's forces, the League desired
Lodovico to attack the Venetians on the side of Milan, but this he
declined, for fear of bringing a war upon the duke's territories, which
it would be difficult to quell. It was therefore resolved to proceed
with the united forces of the League to Ferrara, and having assembled
four thousand cavalry and eight thousand infantry, they went in pursuit
of the Venetians, whose force amounted to two thousand two hundred
men at arms, and six thousand foot. They first attacked the Venetian
flotilla, then lying upon the river Po, which they routed with the loss
of above two hundred vessels, and took prisoner Antonio Justiniano, the
purveyor of the fleet. The Venetians, finding all Italy united against
them, endeavored to support their reputation by engaging in their
service the duke of Lorraine, who joined them with two hundred men at
arms: and having suffered so great a destruction of their fleet, they
sent him, with part of their army, to keep their enemies at bay, and
Roberto da San Severino to cross the Adda with the remainder, and
proceed to Milan, where they were to raise the cry of "The duke and the
Lady Bona," his mother; hoping by this means to give a new aspect to
affairs there, believing that Lodovico and his government were generally
unpopular. This attack at first created great consternation, and roused
the citizens in arms; but eventually produced consequences unfavorable
to the designs of the Venetians; for Lodovico was now desirous to
undertake what he had refused to do