t the citadel, which was defended by Frenchmen: thus the
enemy's army was recruited by 3000 men. Then Ludovico made the mistake
of stopping to besiege the castle instead of marching on to Mortara with
the new reinforcement. The result of this was that Louis XII, to whom
runners had been sent by Trivulce, understanding his perilous position,
hastened the departure of the French gendarmerie who were already
collected to cross into Italy, sent off the bailiff of Dijon to levy new
Swiss forces, and ordered Cardinal Amboise, his prime minister, to
cross the Alps and take up a position at Asti, to hurry on the work of
collecting the troops. There the cardinal found a nest-egg of 3000 men.
La Trimouille added 1500 lances and 6000 French infantry; finally, the
bailiff of Dijon arrived with 10,000 Swiss; so that, counting the troops
which Trivulce had at Mortara, Louis XII found himself master on the
other side of the Alps of the first army any French king had ever led
out to battle. Soon, by good marching, and before Ludovico knew the
strength or even the existence of this army, it took up a position
between Novarra and Milan, cutting off all communication between the
duke and his capital. He was therefore compelled, in spite of his
inferior numbers, to prepare for a pitched battle.

But it so happened that just when the preparations for a decisive
engagement were being made on both sides, the Swiss Diet, learning that
the sons of Helvetia were on the paint of cutting one another's throats,
sent orders to all the Swiss serving in either army to break their
engagements and return to the fatherland. But during the two months
that had passed between the surrender of Novarra and the arrival of the
French army before the town, there had been a very great change in the
face of things, because Ludovico Sforza's 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 th