treasure was now exhausted. New
confabulations had gone on between the outposts, and this time, thanks to
the money sent by Louis XII, it was the Swiss in the service of France
who were found to be the better fed and better paid. The worthy
Helvetians, since they no longer fought far their own liberty, knew the
value of their blood too well to allow a single drop of it to be spilled
for less than its weight in gold: the result was that, as they had,
betrayed Yves d'Alegre, they resolved to betray Ludovico Sforza too; and
while the recruits brought in by the bailiff of Dijon were standing
firmly by the French flag, careless of the order of the Diet, Ludovico's
auxiliaries declared that in fighting against their Swiss brethren they
would be acting in disobedience to the Diet, and would risk capital
punishment in the end--a danger that nothing would induce them to incur
unless they immediately received the arrears of their pay. The duke, who
a spent the last ducat he had with him, and was entirely cut off from his
capital, knew that he could not get money till he had fought his way
through to it, and therefore invited the Swiss to make one last effort,
promising them not only the pay that was in arrears but a double hire.
But unluckily the fulfilment of this promise was dependent on the
doubtful issue of a battle, and the Swiss replied that they had far too
much respect for their country to disobey its decree, and that they loved
their brothers far too well to consent to shed their blood without
reward; and therefore Sforza would do well not to count upon them, since
indeed the very next day they proposed to return to their homes. The
duke then saw that all was lost, but he made a last appeal to their
honour, adjuring them at least to ensure his personal safety by making it
a condition of capitulation. But they replied that even if a condition
of such a kind, would not make capitulation impossible, it would
certainly deprive them of advantages which they had aright to expect, and
on which they counted as indemnification for the arrears of their pay.
They pretended, however, at last that they were touched by the prayers of
the man whose orders they had obeyed so long, and offered to conceal him
dressed in their clothes among their ranks. This proposition was barely
plausible; far Sforza was short and, by this time an old man, and he
could not possibly escape recognition in the midst of an army where the
oldest was not p