e lost in admiration
at the thought of these discoveries of islands, inhabited by unknown
peoples, living without clothes and satisfied with what nature gave
them, and they were consumed by desire to be kept regularly informed.
Ascanio, whose authority never allowed my pen to rest, was degraded
from the high position he occupied when his brother Ludovico[1] was
driven by the French from Milan. I had dedicated the first two books
of this decade to him, without mentioning many other treatises I had
selected from my unedited memoirs. Simultaneously with his overthrow I
ceased to write, for, buffeted by the storm, he ceased to exhort me,
while my fervour in making enquiries languished; but in the year 1500,
when the Court was in residence at Granada, Ludovico, Cardinal of
Aragon, and nephew of King Frederick, who had accompanied the Queen
of Naples, sister of King Frederick, to Grenada, sent me letters
addressed to me by the King himself, urging me to select the necessary
documents and to continue the first two books addressed to Ascanio.
The King and the Cardinal already possessed the writings I had
formerly addressed to Ascanio. You are aware that I was ill at the
time, yet, unwilling to refuse, I resolved to continue. Amongst the
great mass of material furnished me at my request by the discoverers,
I selected such deeds as were most worthy to be recorded. Since you
now desire to include my complete works amongst the numerous volumes
in your library, I have determined to add to those of my former
writings by taking up the narrative of the principal events between
the years 1500 and 1510, and, God giving me life, I shall one day
treat them more fully.

[Note 1: His downfall was greeted with rejoicing throughout Italy.
In Venice the joy-bells rang and the children danced and sang a
_canzone_ in Piazza San Marco

_Ora il Moro fa la danza
Viva San Marco e il re di Franzia_.

Milan fell a prey to Louis XII., and all northern Italy passed under
the French yoke. The Pope rewarded the bearer of the news with a
present of one hundred ducats, and at once seized Cardinal Ascanio's
palace with its art treasures. The Cardinal was captured near Rivolta
by the Venetians, who delivered him to the French. He was kept in the
citadel of Bourges until 1502, when he was released at the request of
the Cardinal d'Amboise to take his place in the conclave which elected
Pius III. He died in 1505; and his former enemy, Guiliano della
Rov