At Pavia the Moro was received with the same enthusiastic joy, and during the fortnight that he remained there the Castello was bombarded and taken by his artillery. The next week his native town of Vigevano welcomed him with open arms, and the French garrison was forced to quit the citadel. But the Venetians held Lodi and Piacenza, and the Duke of Ferrara and Marquis of Mantua, however much they wished their kinsman well, and secretly disliked the French, did not dare to incur their vengeance by any rash action. In vain the Moro wrote passionate appeals to Francesco Gonzaga from Pavia and Vigevano, urging him to come to his help before it was too late, and pointing out how the safety and well-being of Mantua depended upon that of Milan. All the marquis ventured to do was to send his brother Giovanni, with a troop of horse, to help Lodovico in the siege of Novara, which he now attacked with the aid of fifty pieces of artillery sent from Innsbrück.
Meanwhile his foes were every day gaining strength. King Louis had hastily collected a large army of French lances and Swiss mercenaries under La Trémouille at Asti, who entered Lombardy, and marched to relieve Trivulzio and Ligny at Mortara. On the other hand, the French troops who had gone with Yves d'Allégre to assist Cæsar Borgia in the siege of Forli and conquest of Romagna, speedily retraced their steps to relieve the garrison of Novara. But they could not hold out against the furious assaults of the Germans and Burgundians, and on the 21st of March the castle surrendered, and the garrison marched out with the honours of war. Two days afterwards La Trémouille reached Vercelli at the head of his powerful army, and succeeded in effecting a junction with Trivulzio's forces. This put an end to the Moro's brilliant successes, and it became evident to all that the unequal contest could not be maintained much longer. Seeing himself outnumbered and surrounded on all sides, Lodovico threw himself into Novara, and early in April was besieged there in his turn. But the Swiss, who formed the bulk of his force, murmured because they were not allowed to pillage the towns, and began to communicate secretly with their comrades in the hostile camp. The Moro had sent Galeazzo Visconti to Berne, and at his request the Helvetian Diet issued orders to the Swiss in both armies, forbidding them to fight against their comrades. But the French envoy, Antoine de Bussy, bribed the herald who bore the message to Novara, and only the Swiss in the Moro's service received orders to lay down their arms. The result was that when Lodovico's captains led them out to meet the enemy, they refused to fight, and withdrew in confusion into the city. In vain the duke offered them his silver plate and jewels, till he could obtain money from Milan, and begged them to return to the battle. In vain Galeazzo, at the head of his Lombards, charged the foe gallantly, killing many of them with his artillery and putting the others to flight. He and his brothers fought desperately, till the sword was broken in Galeazzo's hands and Fracassa was badly wounded. But all their heroism was of no avail. Trivulzio was already in secret treaty with the Swiss, who sent a deputy to the French camp, asking for leave to lay down their arms and return to their own country.
Antonio Grumello, who was in Novara at the time, describes how late one evening, when the duke sat playing chess with Fracassa in the bishop's palace, where he lodged, a spy was led in, who told him that Trivulzio had boasted that the Moro would be his captive in less than a fortnight. "What do you say?" asked Lodovico of Almodoro, the astrologer, who had followed him into exile. But Almodoro shook his head. It was impossible; no planet foretold such a disaster; on the contrary, all the signs were propitious, and he spoke confidently of coming victory. "On Wednesday in Holy Week," continued the chronicler, "the betrayal of Judas began." That day, as Galeazzo was preparing for another sally, the Swiss came to him in a body and laid down their arms, saying they would not fight against their comrades in the other camp. Already one of the gates had been treacherously opened, and the French were in the city. In this extremity an Albanian captain offered the duke a fleet Arab horse and begged him to escape. But Lodovico refused to desert his friends, and would only accept the proposal of the Swiss captains that he and his companions should assume the garb of common soldiers and mingle in the ranks. He covered his crimson silk vest and scarlet hose, hid his long hair under a tight cap, and took a halberd in his hand. In this disguise he was preparing to file out of the camp in the ranks of the Grison troops, when a Swiss captain named Turman, and called Soprasasso by the Italians, betrayed him to the French. The Swiss, it is said, received 30,000 ducats as the price of blood from Trivulzio, but were discontented with the sum, and quarrelled violently over the gold among themselves; while the traitor had his head cut off on his return home, and such were the execrations heaped upon him by his comrades, that his wife and children were forced to change their name. "E lo quello"—"There he is"—were the words in which Turman pointed Lodovico out to a French captain, who immediately laid his hand on the duke's arm and arrested him in the name of King Louis. "Son contento," replied Lodovico, calmly; and made no further resistance. "I surrender," he said afterwards, "to my kinsman, Monsignore de Ligny." Accordingly he was delivered to Ligny, who treated him with all respect, and provided him with a horse and apparel suited to his rank.
It is said that at first he declined to meet Trivulzio, but the chronicler Prato describes an interview which took place between the duke and his former captain soon afterwards. Trivulzio, in whose heart the old wrong still rankled, greeted his captive with the words, "It is you, Lodovico Sforza, who drove me out for the sake of a stranger, and, not content with this, have stirred the Milanese to rebellion." Lodovico merely shrugged his shoulders, and replied quietly, "Who among us can tell the reason why we love one man and hate another?"
"And so," adds Grumello, "poor Lodovico was taken captive, and with him Galeazzo and Fracassa; but Galeazzo became the prisoner of the Swiss, and was led away by these Helvetians on a black horse without a saddle, riding on a sack. And I saw this with my own eyes."
All three of the Sanseverini brothers were claimed by the Bailiff of Dijon as his prisoners, but Antonio Maria managed to escape from their hands, and both Fracassa and Galeazzo were ransomed by their relatives for one thousand ducats a-piece at the end of a few weeks. Fracassa sought his wife at Ferrara, and Galeazzo took refuge with the other Milanese exiles at Innsbrück. The Marchesino Stanga, who was also taken captive at Novara, was imprisoned in the Castello of Milan, and died there before the end of the year.
On the evening of his capture, Wednesday, the 10th of April, Lodovico was taken to the citadel of Novara, where he remained for a week. His faithful friends, the good friars of S. Maria delle Grazie, supplied their illustrious patron with a set of silk and gold and silver brocade vests, hats and shoes to match, scarlet hose, and fine Reims linen shirts. All Lodovico himself asked for was a copy of Dante's "Divina Commedia," that he might study it during his captivity. On the 17th he was conducted by La Trémouille, accompanied by four servants and two pages, to Susa, where he became so ill that he was unable to continue the journey. After a few days' rest he recovered, and was taken over the mountains to Lyons, in charge of M. de Crussol and the king's band of archers.
Great were the rejoicings among the Moro's enemies when the news of his capture was made known. King Louis ordered solemn Te Deums to be chanted in Notre Dame of Paris, and himself went in state to give thanks in the church of Our Lady of Comfort at Lyons, while he extolled La Trémouille as another Clovis or Charles Martel in his despatches. The Pope gave the messenger who brought the news a gift of a hundred ducats, for joy, he said, that the traitor-brood was annihilated. The Orsini lighted bonfires, and the jubilee rejoicings waxed louder and longer through the night. Cardinal Ascanio's palace, with all his treasures of art, was seized by Alexander VI., and his benefices were divided among the pontiff's creatures. In Venice the Piazza was illuminated and all the bells rung, while the children and boatmen sang—
"Ora il Moro fa la danza,
Viva Marco e 'l re di Franza!"
and dancing and pageants celebrated the downfall of the Republic's most dreaded foe. Even in Florence the citizens rejoiced over the fall of another tyrant, and raised a crucifix at the doors of the Palazzo Pubblico to commemorate the victory of freedom. Had they known it, they were in reality celebrating the loss of national independence, the beginning of a long reign of slavery and foreign rule. Seldom has the cause of freedom and civilization suffered a worse blow than this betrayal of the Moro at Novara, which left the Milanese a prey to French invaders, and planted the yoke of the stranger firmly on the neck of Northern Italy.