France, and here are the Lord of La Palice, and the Lords d'Aubigny and
d'Himbercourt, the flower of the captains of France." Colonna
surrendered, cursing Fortune, "the mother of all sorrow and affliction,
who had taken away his wits, and because he had not been warned of their
coming, for he would at least have made his capture a dear one;" and he
added, "It seems a thing divinely done; four noble knights at once, with
their comrades at their backs, to take one Roman noble!"

Francis I. and the main body of his army had also arrived at the eastern
foot of the Alps, and were advancing into the plains of the country of
Saluzzo and Piedmont. The Swiss, dumbfounded at so unexpected an
apparition, fell back to Novara, the scene of that victory which two
years previously had made them so proud. A rumor spread that negotiation
was possible, and that the question of Milaness might be settled without
fighting. The majority of the French captains repudiated the idea, but
the king entertained it. His first impulses were sympathetic and
generous. "I would not purchase," said he to Marshal de Lautrec, "with
the blood of my subjects, or even with that of my enemies, what I can pay
for with money." Parleys were commenced; and an agreement was hit upon
with conditions on which the Swiss would withdraw from Italy and resume
alliance with the French. A sum of seven hundred thousand crowns, it was
said, was the chief condition; and the king and the captains of his army
gave all they had, even to their plate, for the first instalment which
Lautrec was ordered to convey to Bufalora, where the Swiss were to
receive it. But it was suddenly announced that the second army of twenty
thousand Swiss, which the Cardinal of Sion had succeeded in raising, had
entered Italy by the valley of the Ticino. They formed a junction with
their countrymen; the cardinal recommenced his zealous preaching against
the French; the newcomers rejected the stipulated arrangements; and,
confident in their united strength, all the Swiss made common accord.