such subjects of the republic as should come back to its sway complete indemnity for the losses they might have suffered during the war.  It blazed forth again immediately, but at first between the Venetians and the Emperor Maximilian almost alone by himself.  Louis XII., in a hurry to get back to France, contented himself with leaving in Lombardy a body of troops under the orders of James de Chabannes, Sire de la Palisse, with orders “to take five hundred of the lustiest men-at-arms and go into the service of the emperor, who was to make a descent upon the district of Padua.”  Maximilian did not make his descent until two months after that the Venetians had retaken Padua and provisioned it well; and it was only on the 15th of September that he sat down before the place.  All the allies of the League of Cambrai held themselves bound to furnish him with their contingent.  On sallying from Milan for this campaign, La Palisse “fell in with the good knight Bayard, to whom he said, ’My comrade, my friend, would you not like us to be comrades together?’ Bayard, who asked nothing better, answered him graciously that he was at his service to be disposed of at his pleasure;” and from the 15th to the 20th of September, Maximilian got together before Padua an army with a strength, it is said, of about fifty thousand men, men-at-arms or infantry, Germans, Spaniards, French, and Italians, sent by the pope and by the Duke of Ferrara, or recruited from all parts of Italy.

At the first rumor of such a force there was great emotion in Venice, but an emotion tempered by bravery and intelligence.  The doge, Leonardo Loredano, the same who had but lately opposed the surprisal of Padua, rose up and delivered in the senate a long speech, of which only the essential and characteristic points can be quoted here:—­

“Everybody knows, excellent gentlemen of the senate,” said he, “that on the preservation of Padua depends all hope, not only of recovering our empire, but of maintaining our own liberty.  It must be confessed that, great and wonderful as they have been, the preparations made and the supplies provided hitherto are not sufficient either for the security of that town or for the dignity of our republic.  Our ancient renown forbids us to leave the public safety, the lives and honor of our wives and our children, entirely to the tillers of our fields and to mercenary soldiers, without rushing ourselves to shelter them behind our own breasts and defend them with our own arms.  For so great and so glorious a fatherland, which has for so many years been the bulwark of the faith and the glory of the Christian republic, will the personal service of its citizens and its sons be ever to seek?  To save it who would refuse to risk his own life and that of his children?  If the defence of Padua is the pledge for the salvation of Venice, who would hesitate to go and defend it?  And, though the forces already there were sufficient, is not our honor also concerned therein?  The