At length, early in September, the first detachment of Swiss levies reached Vercelli, and on the 12th the king himself arrived in the camp. His first act was to hold a council of war, which decided in favour of peace, and Commines was sent to treat with the Marquis of Mantua. The allies insisted on the unconditional surrender of Novara, while Charles VIII. asked for the restitution of Genoa as an ancient fief of the French crown. Nothing was concluded, but a truce of eight days was agreed upon, and prolonged conferences were held at a castle between Vercelli and Cameriano.
On the 21st of September, Lodovico returned to the camp of the league, bringing Beatrice with him, and rode out to meet the French commissioners. Commines gives a minute account of the conferences, which took place in the duke's lodgings at Cameriano during the next fortnight.
"Every day the duke and duchess came to meet us at the end of a long gallery and conducted us to their rooms, where we found two long rows of chairs prepared, and we sat down on one side, and the representatives of the league on the other. First came the ambassadors of the King of the Romans and the King of Spain; then the Marquis of Mantua and the Venetian Provveditori and envoy; then the Duke of Milan and his wife the duchess, seated between him and the ambassador of Ferrara. On their side, the duke was the only spokesman, and on our side one only. But our habit is not to speak as quietly as they do; two or three of us often began to speak at the same time, which made the duke say, 'Ho! ho! if you please, one at a time.' And two secretaries, one of ours and one of theirs, wrote down the articles agreed upon, and before we took leave, read them aloud, the one in Italian, the other in French, to see if there was anything that could be altered or shortened."
Beatrice was present at all the deliberations, and surprised the other commissioners by her cleverness and quickness, and the ready tact she invariably showed. The duke was now sincerely anxious for peace, and only cared to recover Novara, and to see the French safely out of his dominions, where the presence of Louis of Orleans could not fail to prove a disturbing element. Both he and Commines directed all their efforts to bring matters to a favourable conclusion, but the other commissioners made difficulties, and the Venetian, Spanish, and German ambassadors would decide nothing without consulting their separate governments. The evacuation of Novara, however, was unanimously agreed upon, and on the 26th of September, Orleans and his garrison marched out with the honours of war, and were escorted by Messer Galeaz and the Marquis of Mantua to the French outposts. More than two thousand men had already died of sickness and starvation. Almost all their horses had been eaten, and the survivors were in a miserable plight. Many perished by the roadside, and Commines found fifty troopers in a fainting condition in a garden at Cameriano, and saved their lives by feeding them with soup. Even then one man died on the spot, and four others never reached the camp. Three hundred more died at Vercelli, some of sickness, others from over-eating themselves after the prolonged starvation which they had endured, and the dung-hills of the town were strewn with dead corpses. Yet still Orleans, who, as Commines remarks, had caused all this mischief, was eager for war, and entreated the king to make no terms with Signor Lodovico. He had a strong supporter in the Milanese captain, Jean Jacques Trivulzio, who had entered the French king's service after Alfonso's flight from Naples, and had never forgotten his old griefs against Lodovico and his son-in-law. And on the selfsame day that Novara was evacuated, the bailiff of Dijon arrived at Vercelli with ten or twelve thousand more Swiss mercenaries, bringing up the whole number to upwards of twenty thousand. So large a body had never been assembled before, and the presence of these rude mountaineers, greedy for spoil and ready to quarrel with friends or foes, created general alarm. The Duke of Milan was now more eager than ever to conclude peace, and when Louis of Orleans and Trivulzio urged the king to break off negotiations and march at the head of the Swiss on Milan, Charles replied curtly that it was too late, for the preliminaries of peace were already signed. He himself had no wish but to return home and send help to his distressed troops in Naples.
Accordingly, on the 9th of October a separate convention was concluded between the King of France and the Duke of Milan, leaving the other Powers to settle their differences among themselves. Novara was restored to Lodovico, and his title to Genoa and Savona recognized, while Charles renounced the support of his cousin Louis of Orleans' claims upon Milan. In return the duke promised not to assist Ferrante with troops or ships, to give free passage to French armies, and assist the king with Milanese troops if he returned to Naples in person. He further renounced his claim on Asti, and agreed to pay the Duke of Orleans 50,000 ducats as a war indemnity, and lend the king two ships as transports for his soldiers from Genoa to Naples. A debt of 80,000 ducats, that was still owing to Lodovico, was cancelled, and the Castelletto of the port of Genoa was placed in the Duke of Ferrara's hands, as a security that these engagements would be kept on both sides. The king, we learn from Commines, still retained a friendly feeling for the Duke of Milan, and invited him to a meeting before he left Italy; but Lodovico had taken umbrage at certain offensive remarks made by the Count of Ligny and Cardinal Briconnet, and excused himself on plea of illness, while he declared in private that he would not trust himself in the French king's company unless a river ran between them. "It is true," says Commines, "that foolish words had been spoken, but the king meant well, and wished to remain his friend."
The Marquis of Mantua was better disposed towards his Most Christian Majesty, and gladly accepted an invitation to visit the king at Vercelli before his departure. He wrote to his wife in great haste, begging her to send him his finest linen shirts and best gold brocade vest and mantle, together with different sorts of choice perfumes, and the next day duly made his obeisance to the king. He was highly gratified at the courtesy with which he was received, and at the familiar way in which his Majesty conversed, not only with himself, but with his servants, "treating them exactly as if they were his equals" and condescending to lift his hand to his cap each time they saluted him." What impressed this rough soldier most of all was the sight of three cardinals standing among the crowd at the door, "just as the chaplains may be seen in any other house," and among them the cardinal of S. Pietro in Vincula (afterwards Julius II.), "who dares contend with the Pope, and who yet stood here in the humblest and most respectful fashion." Before the marquis left, the king made him a present of two valuable bay horses, remarkable for their fine shape and speed. One of the two was an excellent jumper, and delighted Francesco by the way in which he could clear wide trenches and lofty fences at a single bound, "jumping with all four feet in the air at once."
At the same time Gonzaga's secretary, Jacopo d'Atri, informed the Marchesa that the priest Bernardino d'Urbino and a troop of Mantuan singers had been sent that evening to amuse the king. Charles questioned the chaplain closely about his master's wife, asking for an exact description of her person, height, and features, and being especially anxious to learn if Isabella at all resembled the Duchess Beatrice, and if, like that illustrious lady, she was as charming and gracious as she was beautiful. Don Bernardino replied discreetly that the Marchesa was, to say the truth, even more beautiful than her sister, and surpassed all other ladies by her charm and brilliancy. This roused the king's curiosity to the highest pitch, and he insisted on having a full and particular account of Isabella's talents and accomplishments, as well as of the gowns she usually wore and the fashion of her clothes, and rejoiced to hear she was not very tall, since he himself was short of stature and admired small women. "In short," adds the secretary, "his Majesty appeared quite in love with my description of your Excellency, and if he meets you, will, I am sure, seek to kiss your cheek, not once, but many times. And this being the case, I am glad to be able to tell you that the King of France is less deformed than people say."[62]
The desired meeting, however, was never effected. Immediately peace was signed, Charles VIII. left Vercelli, crossed the Alps with the remnants of his army, and reached Lyons on the 7th of November. Commines, meanwhile, was sent on a further errand to Venice, where he vainly endeavoured to negotiate a treaty, but found the Signoria determined to maintain the cause of Ferrante of Naples. The Venetians were not sorry to disband their army and see the French cross the Alps; but none the less their indignation was great at the Duke of Milan's breach of faith in concluding a separate peace, and sharp words passed between the ambassadors of Spain and Naples and the Milanese envoy at Venice.
"The best thing, in my opinion," remarks the annalist Malipiero, "would have been for Contarini to give the Stradiots orders to cut to pieces both Duke Lodovico and Ercole of Ferrara, who are the Signory's worst enemies. And the truth is, you should never take part in another's quarrel, or enter the country of a foreign ally, for in these matters no one is to be trusted."