'To make your ingratitude more public, you have allowed that the most Christian king is your true and legitimate lord, to whom you owe love and obedience, according to the laws of God and man; for the wise regulation of the Spartans says, 'Populum in obsequia principum, principes ad justitiam imperatorum infirmabit.' In addition to the most Christian king being your natural and lawful lord, he has conferred upon you numberless benefits: he came in person to deliver you from slavery,—not out of a disorderly ambition to gain kingdoms, but from the pity he felt for you as subjects of duke John Galeazzo, your first duke, whose most excellent daughter, the princess Valentina, was his grandmother. He recalled Justice to your country, which had been banished thence. He secured to you your lives and properties, which before no one could call his own. He allowed you the liberty to marry your children as you should please, which before this could not be done; for a father could not marry a daughter, nor a mother a sister, but according to the will and appetite of the lord. Offices which were temporary he made perpetual. He abolished all pillories, concussions, and exactions.
'Besides these and numberless other benefits that he showered upon you, you were bounden by your oaths of allegiance to be faithful unto him: nevertheless, many of you, even when taking these oaths, were plotting to deceive him. All of you, ye Milanese! forgetful of the salvation of your souls and honour, and regardless of the danger into which you threw your wives, your children, and your town, have conspired against your true lord in favour of a tyrant, quitting the first of kings in Christendom for a mean fellow of low birth,—a most potent prince for one as poor in courage as in wealth and friends. Had I the powers of language to display the extent of such a crime, I should be incapable to do it under two days; but your own consciences will make you more sensible of it than I can,—and you may apply to yourselves what is written, 'Populus dure cervicis,' when you committed that base act of recalling your Ludovico in opposition to your true lord.
'What was the consequence? Did he not instantly seize all the effects of private persons, and not only their wealth but even the crosses, chalices, and jewels from the churches? What was said of Cambyses, king of Persia, may be said of him, 'Difficile enim erat ut parceret suis, qui contempta religione grassatus etiam in Deos fuerat.' Although from so great a crime many may attempt to exculpate themselves, yet I do not see how they can well do so, for it would have been easy at first to have resisted such treason: nor can one in Milan excuse himself for the joyous reception given to Ludovico, as if he had been a god descended from heaven on earth. The people of Milan assisted the lord Ludovico with money and men. Feasts and entertainments were every where displayed to welcome his arrival, and for his short-lived victories when he gained Novara.
'Observe now, O Milanese! how strongly the justice of God, the Creator, has been made manifest, and the great power that it has pleased Him to invest the king our lord with: for when you thought that you had done every thing by gaining Novara, at that moment you lost the whole, and your idol, the lord Ludovico, carried away a prisoner,—so that what was said of the Persians may be applied to him, 'Servit alteri cui nuper mediolanum serviebat.'
'O Milanese! notwithstanding your enormous offences, the great fountain of mercy of our good king has not been dried up by your ingratitude to him: and the uncommon benignity of his lieutenant general, my lord cardinal, has been fully shown to you, from his respect and reverence to this day, on which it pleased our Lord to suffer an ignominious death on the cross for our salvation. He, in the king's name, pardons your lives, your honours, and your property, exhorting you, at the same time, to be more careful, henceforward, not only to avoid committing similar offences but to avoid even the being suspected of them: for should you ever relapse again into rebellion, you will be punished with such severity the remembrance thereof shall endure to the latest ages of the world. By acting as loyal subjects towards your lord, your town and country will be daily improved, and you will live happy and contented; for it must be a great satisfaction to live under a true and legitimate prince.
'With regard to the requests you have made to my lord cardinal, you will deliver them to him in writing, and he will return you such answers as shall content you. It must, however, be understood, that from this pardon all the principal actors and instigators of the late rebellion are excepted.'
When this harangue was ended, all the children passed the cardinal in procession, crying out 'France, France! France and mercy!'
On St George's day, the queen of France set out from Lyon, to go to St Claude, with a very handsome company. Before she returned, she stood godmother with the prince of Orange,—for the princess had, at that time, been brought to bed of a son.
On the 2d of May, the lord Ludovico was brought to Lyon. He wore a robe of black camlet, after the fashion of Lombardy, and was mounted on a small mule. The provost of the royal household, and the seneschal of Lyon, went out to meet him, made him a prisoner in the king's name, and confined him in the castle of Pierre-en-Cise. Great numbers of people were collected in the streets to see him pass. The king was then in Lyon.