afraid of losing La Marca; and, urged by a desire to look after his
own affairs, he hastened to Venice, and being introduced to the Doge,
informed him that the interests of the League required his presence in
Tuscany; for the war ought to be carried on where the leader and forces
of the enemy were, and not where his garrisons and towns were situated;
for when the army is vanquished the war is finished; but to take towns
and leave the armament entire, usually allowed the war to break out
again with greater virulence; that Tuscany and La Marca would be lost if
Niccolo were not vigorously resisted, and that, if lost, there would be
no possibility of the preservation of Lombardy. But supposing the
danger to Lombardy not so imminent, he did not intend to abandon his own
subjects and friends, and that having come into Lombardy as a prince, he
did not intend to return a mere condottiere. To this the Doge replied,
it was quite manifest that, if he left Lombardy, or even recrossed the
Po, all their inland territories would be lost; in that case they were
unwilling to spend any more money in their defense. For it would be
folly to attempt defending a place which must, after all, inevitably
be lost; and that it is less disgraceful and less injurious to lose
dominions only, then to lose both territory and money. That if the loss
of their inland possessions should actually result, it would then be
seen how highly important to the preservation of Romagna and Tuscany
the reputation of the Venetians had been. On these accounts they were of
quite a different opinion from the count; for they saw that whoever was
victor in Lombardy would be so everywhere else, that conquest would be
easily attainable now, when the territories of the duke were left almost
defenseless by the departure of Niccolo, and that he would be ruined
before he could order Niccolo's recall, or provide himself with any
other remedy; that whoever attentively considered these things would
see, that the duke had sent Niccolo into Tuscany for no other reason
than to withdraw the count from his enterprise, and cause the war, which