the Emperor, of whose
designs he was extremely jealous, and to enter into terms of friendship
with Francis. As Clement's timid and cautious temper rendered him
incapable of following the bold plan which Leo had formed of delivering
Italy from the yoke of both the rivals, he returned to the more obvious
and practicable scheme of employing the power of the one to balance and
to restrain that of the other.

For this reason he did not dissemble his satisfaction at seeing the
French King recover Milan, as he hoped that the dread of such a neighbor
would be some check upon the Emperor's ambition, which no power in Italy
was now able to control. He labored hard to bring about a peace that
would secure Francis in the possession of his new conquests; and as
Charles, who was always inflexible in the prosecution of his schemes,
rejected the proposition with disdain, and with bitter exclamations
against the Pope, by whose persuasions, while Cardinal di Medici, he had
been induced to invade the Milanese, Clement immediately concluded a
treaty of neutrality with the King of France, in which the republic of
Florence was included.

Francis having, by this transaction, deprived the Emperor of his two
most powerful allies, and at the same time having secured a passage for
his own troops through their territories, formed a scheme of attacking
the kingdom of Naples, hoping either to overrun that country, which was
left altogether without defence, or that at least such an unexpected
invasion would oblige the viceroy to recall part of the imperial army
out of the Milanese. For this purpose he ordered six thousand men to
march under the command of John Stuart, Duke of Albany. But Pescara,
foreseeing that the effect of this diversion would depend entirely upon
the operations of the armies in the Milanese, persuaded Lannoy to
disregard Albany's motions, and to bend his whole force against the King
himself; so that Francis not only weakened his army very unseasonably by
this great detachment, but incurred the reproach of engaging too rashly
in chimerical and extravagant projects.

By this time the garrison of Pavia was reduced to extremity; their
ammunition and provisions began to fail; the Germans, of whom it was
chiefly composed, having received no pay for seven months, threatened to
deliver the town into the enemy's hands, and could hardly be restrained
from mutiny by all Leyva's address and authority. The imperial generals,
who were no s