f the next day.

From the top of the mountain where the Marechai de Gie had pitched his
tents, the king beheld both his own camp and the enemy's. Both were on
the right bank of the Taro, and were at either end of a semicircular
chain of hills resembling an amphitheatre; and the space between the two
camps, a vast basin filled during the winter floods by the torrent which
now only marked its boundary, was nothing but a plain covered with
gravel, where all manoeuvres must be equally difficult for horse and
infantry. Besides, on the western slope of the hills there was a little
wood which extended from the enemy's army to the French, and was in the
possession of the Stradiotes, who, by help of its cover, had already
engaged in several skirmishes with the French troops during the two days
of halt while they were waiting for the king.

The situation was not reassuring. From the top of the mountain which
overlooked Fornovo, one could get a view, as we said before, of the two
camps, and could easily calculate the numerical difference between them.
The French army, weakened by the establishment of garrisons in the
various towns and fortresses they had won in Italy, were scarcely eight
thousand strong, while the combined forces of Milan and Venice exceeded a
total of thirty-five thousand. So Charles decided to try once more the
methods of conciliation, and sent Commines, who, as we know, had joined
him in Tuscany, to the Venetian 'proveditori', whose acquaintance he had
made when on his embassy; he having made a great impression on these men,
thanks to a general high opinion of his merits. He was commissioned to
tell the enemy's generals, in the name of the King of France, that his
master only desired to continue his road without doing or receiving any
harm; that therefore he asked to be allowed a free passage across the
fair plains of Lombardy, which he could see from the heights where he now
stood, stretching as far as the eye could reach, away to the foot of the
Alps. Commines found the confederate army deep in discussion: the wish
of the Milanese and Venetian party being to let the king go by, and not
attack him; they said they were only too happy that he should leave Italy
in this way, without causing any further harm; but the ambassadors of
Spain and Germany took quite another view. As their masters had no
troops in the army, and as all the money they had promised was already
paid, they must be the gainer in either