was to keep the people
back from approaching the fire, and the holy relics are even now shown,
blackened by the flames, to the faithful, who if they no longer regard
Savonarola as a prophet, revere him none the less as a martyr.

CHAPTER X

The French army was now preparing to cross the Alps a second time,
under the command of Trivulce. Louis XII had come as far as Lyons in
the company of Caesar Borgia and Giuliano della Rovere, on whom he had
forced a reconciliation, and towards the beginning of the month of May
had sent his vanguard before him, soon to be followed by the main body
of the army. The forces he was employing in this second campaign of
conquest were 1600, lances, 5000 Swiss, 9000 Gascons, and 3500 infantry,
raised from all parts of France. On the 13th of August this whole body,
amounting to nearly 15,000 men, who were to combine their forces with
the Venetians, arrived beneath the walls of Arezzo, and immediately laid
siege to the town.

Ludovico Sforza's position was a terrible one: he was now suffering from
his imprudence in calling the French into Italy; all the allies he had
thought he might count upon were abandoning him at the same moment,
either because they were busy about their own affairs, or because they
were afraid of the powerful enemy that the Duke of Milan had made for
himself. Maximilian, who had promised him a contribution of 400 lances,
to make up for not renewing the hostilities with Louis XII that had been
interrupted, had just made a league with the circle of Swabia to war
against the Swiss, whom he had declared rebels against the Empire. The
Florentines, who had engaged to furnish him with 300 men-at-arms and
2000 infantry, if he would help them to retake Pisa, had just retracted
their promise because of Louis XII's threats, and had undertaken to
remain neutral. Frederic, who was holding back his troops for the
defence of his own States, because he supposed, not without reason,
that, Milan once conquered, he would again have to defend Naples, sent
him no help, no men, no money, in spite of his promises. Ludovico Sforza
was therefore reduced to his own proper forces.

But as he was a man powerful in arms and clever in artifice, he did not
allow himself to succumb at the first blow, and in all haste fortified
Annona, Novarro, and Alessandria, sent off Cajazzo with troops to that
part of the Milanese territory which borders on the states of
Venice, and collected on the Po as m