to his master on the subject.[3] ‘After dinner,’ continues De Comines, ’all the ambassadors of the league met for an excursion on the water, which is the chief recreation at Venice, where every one goes according to the retinue he keeps, or at the expense of the Signory.  There may have been as many as forty gondolas, all bearing displayed the arms of their masters upon banners.  I saw the whole of this company pass before my windows, and there were many minstrels on board.  Those of Milan, one at least of them who had often kept my company, put on a brave face not to know me; and for three days I remained without going forth into the town, nor my people, nor was there all that time a single courteous word said to me or to any of my suite.’

    [1] See De Comines, lib. vii. cap. 15, pp. 78, 79.

[2] De Comines’ account of the alarm felt at Venice on that occasion is very graphic:  ’They sent for me one morning, and I found them to the number of fifty or sixty in the Doge’s bedchamber, for he was ill of colic; and there he told me the news with a good countenance.  But none of the company knew so well how to feign as he.  Some were seated on a wooden bench, leaning their heads on their hands, and others otherwise; and all showed great heaviness at heart.  I think that when the news reached Rome of the battle of Cannae, the senators were not more confounded or frightened.’

    [3] Bembo, in his Venetian History (lib. ii. p. 32), tells a
    different tale.  He represents De Comines quite unnerved by the
    news.

Returning northward by the same route, Charles passed Rome and reached Siena on June 13.  The Pope had taken refuge, first at Orvieto, and afterwards at Perugia, on his approach; but he made no concessions.  Charles could not obtain from him an investiture of the kingdom he pretended to have conquered, while he had himself to surrender the fortresses of Civita Vecchia and Terracina.  Ostia alone remained in the clutch of Alexander’s implacable enemy, the Cardinal della Rovere.  In Tuscany the Pisan question was again opened.  The French army desired to see the liberties of Pisa established on a solid basis before they quitted Italy.  On their way to Naples the misfortunes of that ancient city had touched them:  now on their return they were clamorous that Charles should guarantee its freedom.  But to secure this object was an affair of difficulty.  The forces of the league had already taken the field, and the Duke of Orleans was being besieged in Novara.  The Florentines, jealous of the favor shown, in manifest infringement of their rights, to citizens whom they regarded as rebellious bondsmen, assumed an attitude of menace.  Charles could only reply with vague promises to the solicitations of the Pisans, strengthen the French garrisons in their fortresses, and march forward as quickly as possible into the Apennines.  The key of the pass by which he sought to regain Lombardy