gainst the
almost unanimous advice of his generals, laid siege to the
strongly fortified city of Pavia, only to meet before it the
crushing defeat which for centuries settled the fate of
Italy. Pavia was held by a strong imperialist force under
Lannoy.

Francis prosecuted the siege with obstinacy equal to the rashness with
which he had undertaken it. During three months everything known to the
engineers of that age, or that could be effected by the valor of his
troops, was attempted, in order to reduce the place; while Lannoy and
Pescara, unable to obstruct his operations, were obliged to remain in
such an ignominious state of inaction that a pasquinade was published at
Rome offering a reward to any person who could find the imperial army,
lost in the month of October in the mountains between France and
Lombardy, and which had not been heard of since that time.

Leyva, well acquainted with the difficulties under which his countrymen
labored, and the impossibility of their facing, in the field, such a
powerful army as formed the siege of Pavia, placed his only hopes of
safety in his own vigilance and valor. The efforts of both were
extraordinary, and in proportion to the importance of the place with the
defence of which he was intrusted. He interrupted the approaches of the
French by frequent and furious sallies. Behind the breaches made by
their artillery he erected new works, which appeared to be scarcely
inferior in strength to the original fortifications. He repulsed the
besiegers in all their assaults, and by his own example brought not only
the garrison, but the inhabitants, to bear the most severe fatigues, and
to encounter the greatest dangers, without murmuring. The rigor of the
season conspired with his endeavors in retarding the progress of the
French. Francis, attempting to become master of the town by diverting
the course of the Tessino, which is its chief defence on one side, a
sudden inundation of the river destroyed, in one day, the labor of many
weeks, and swept away all the mounds which his army had raised with
infinite toil as well as at great expense.

Notwithstanding the slow progress of the besiegers, and the glory which
Leyva acquired by his gallant defence, it was not doubted but that the
town would at last be obliged to surrender. Pope Clement, who already
considered the French arms as superior in Italy, became impatient to
disengage himself from his connections with