and mourned by all her people. The next notable event was the marriage of
the Princess Claude, her daughter, to the young Duke of Angoulème, who was
to succeed to the throne under the name of Francis I.

He had not long to wait for his inheritance as Louis XII., having made an
alliance with England, was induced for political reasons to marry the
Princess Mary, sister of Henry VIII. The poor King was already in
ill-health, and he only survived his wedding three months, dying on New
Year's day, 1515. He had a splendid funeral at St. Denis, which was
scarcely over before all the great nobles of the realm put off their
mourning and hastened in splendid magnificence to Rheims to the coronation
of the new King, Francis I., a gay and handsome youth of twenty.

The young King at once set about carrying out the desire of his heart--the
conquest of Milan. Charles de Bourbon was made Constable of France, and a
great army was collected at Grenoble. But secret news was received that the
Swiss were guarding on the other side the only passes which were then
thought possible for the crossing of armies. One was the Mont Cenis, where
the descent is made by Susa, and the other was by the Mont Genèvre.
Bourbon, however, heard of a new way by the Col d'Argentière, and meantime
sent several French generals and the Chevalier Bayard to cross the
mountains by the Col de Cabre and make a sudden raid upon Prospero Colonna,
who with a band of Italian horsemen was awaiting the descent of the French
army into Piedmont. The gallant little company rode across the rocky Col,
where cavalry had never passed before, descended by Droniez into the plain
of Piedmont, crossed the Po at a ford, where they had to swim their horses,
inquired at the Castle of Carmagnola and found that Prospero Colonna and
his company had left barely a quarter of an hour before.

The captains considered what they should do: some were for advancing,