After he had, in compliance with orders from the Signory, disbanded their infantry, and disposed of their cavalry in the mainland garrisons, he proceeded to the maritime capital. At Padua, the rectors had been premonished to pay him every attention; at the mouth of the Brenta, and on the outskirts of the city, he was met by two deputations, each consisting of thirty young men of distinction, and was addressed in a Latin oration, "which he did not understand." He was then escorted to the Rialto; and, after being welcomed by the Doge, and all the foreign ambassadors, except the French, he was led on board the Bucentaur, an honour paid only to highest rank or rarest merit; and thus, amid a flotilla of state galleys and gondolas, crowded with a lively population in gala attire, their princely guest was conducted along the grand canal, its palaces glittering with brocades and arrases, its windows radiant with sparkling eyes and rich carnations, such as Titian and Pordenone loved to commemorate in glowing tints. The Duke wore a suit of black velvet, with frock and cap of scarlet, and was housed in an apartment prepared at the Casa di San Marco, near San Giorgio Maggiore, with fifty ducats a day for his expenses.
This festive welcome took place on the 25th of June. Next day being Sunday, the Duke presented himself at the Collegio, dressed in black damask over a white doublet, with a rose-coloured cap; a small person, of indifferent presence [poca presentia]. He was received outside of the audience-hall by the Doge and Signory; when admitted, he spoke in a few words, and with low voice, of his constant readiness to serve their state with life and limb. To which the Doge replied, that he had acquitted himself well, but it was their trust that he would do still better in future, and that, being fully assured of his fidelity, they had selected him for captain-general. The privileges of citizenship had been given him many years before, in compliment to his uncle Guidobaldo, but the general's baton was to be conferred upon him on the 2nd of July. In deference, however, to the predictions of an astrologer, he requested that his investiture might take place on the 29th of June, being St. Peter's day. Accordingly, the magnates and diplomatic functionaries of the most luxurious city in Christendom being assembled within its picturesque and time-honoured cathedral, Francesco Maria, was led in, magnificently arrayed in gold lama and damask, amid the din of trumpets and bagpipes. After celebration of high mass, during which he was seated on the Doge's left, the insignia, consisting of a silver baton, and crimson standard with the lion in gold, were blessed at the high altar, and consigned to his hands by the Doge, as badges of authority, which he then swore to employ for the glory of God, and for maintenance and defence of the Republic. This solemnity was hailed by the spectators' shouts, the clang of bells, the crash of martial music, the roar of artillery, and, as the Duke was conducted to his gondola by a long procession of military and civil dignitaries, the gorgeous piazza and gay canals displayed a splendour unwonted even in Venice.
Unfavourable rumours of the Duchess's health rendered him impatient to be done with these honours, and were probably the true reason for his desiring that the installation might be accelerated. But the fashionable club or company della Calza so urged his remaining for their festival, which had been fixed for the 3rd in compliment to him, that he could not well refuse a short delay in order to be present.[299] The sports were enacted on that usual scene of Venetian magnificence, the grand canal, decked out in many-tinted draperies, and thronged by gay parties. The club, with the Duke of Urbino and other honoured guests, were conveyed in two large flat barges, lashed together and beautifully curtained, wherein assembled the most distinguished youths of both sexes, who revelled in music and dancing as they glided along the glassy surface. At length they stopped at the massive, but now crumbling, Foscari palace, to witness a race of four-oared gondolas, and concluded the entertainment with a supper on the Rialto. Next day their sports were renewed, with addition of a déjeuner, where fancy confections were presented to the principal guests—a triumphal chariot to Francesco Maria, an eagle to the imperial ambassador, and so forth.
On the 5th of July, after ten days spent in these monotonous gaieties, the Duke returned to Pesaro in his twelve-oared barge; but his repose there was brief, for the second act soon opened of that bloody drama wherein the ambition of Charles and Francis involved Italy. An incursion of imperialists into Provence under the renegade Bourbon had shifted the scene to France; but the French monarch, by a sudden movement across the Alps, transferred it once more into Lombardy, and took possession of Milan. The Signory hastily summoned their general from his duchy, to guard their frontier. The established order of Italian policy, however, rendering it probable that new and contradictory combinations would speedily arise, his instructions were to act upon the defensive; and a like temporising spirit prevailed in the councils of his Holiness, who secretly lent an ear to proposals of Francis for a combined effort to shake off the Spanish domination in Naples. The Duke's undecided tactics, so condemned by Sismondi, were therefore in accordance with orders, which the ever-present Proveditore took care were complied with. He thus had no share in the great battle of Pavia, which crushed the chivalry of France, accelerated the climax of Italian subjugation, and rendered Spanish influence fatally paramount in Southern Europe. It was fought on the 25th of February, 1525, and left Francis prisoner in his rival's hands. Francesco Maria thereafter retired to Casali, suffering from a combined attack of gout and tertian fever, in which he was attended by his Duchess, who had hastened to see him.[*300]
[CHAPTER XXXVIII]
New league against Charles V.—The Duke’s campaign in Lombardy—His quarrels with Guicciardini—Rome pillaged by the Colonna—The Constable Bourbon advances into Central Italy—The Duke quells an insurrection at Florence.
THE papal policy since the accession of Julius had been directed to two leading objects. The first was to prevent any ultramontane power from attaining a decided preponderance in Europe; the second, to recover Italy from the barbarians, and restore its Neapolitan and Milanese states to native dynasties.[*301] The only effective check upon the unprecedented dominion of the Emperor having been annihilated by the overthrow and imprisonment of his sole rival, it became necessary for the Pontiff, in conformity with the former of these purposes, to support the cause of France. The other object was more than ever important, now that Milan was virtually at the conqueror's mercy; and a proposition for confirming the sovereignty of Sforza in that duchy, and placing the Marquis of Pescara on the throne of Naples, appeared to His Holiness happily to meet the exigencies of the case. Clement, possessing neither the discernment of Julius nor the finesse of Leo, saw no difficulty in effecting this convenient scheme, by simply uniting the independent states in a conspiracy to expel Charles beyond the Alps. But he reckoned without his host. The Marquis of Pescara, who was high in the imperial service, betrayed the plot in time to frustrate its execution. His death occurred soon after, from wounds received at Pavia, or possibly from poison, and the year was spent in intrigues and counterplots, which concern our present subject only as giving occasion to this letter, addressed by Francesco Maria to Cardinal Wolsey:—