While the pope and emperor were preparing, in consequence of their secret alliance, to attack Milan, hostilities commenced in another quarter. The children of John d'Albret, king of Navarre, having often demanded the restitution of their hereditary dominions, in terms of the treaty of Noyon, and Charles having as often eluded their requests upon very frivolous pretexts, Francis thought himself authorized by that treaty to assist the exiled family. The juncture appeared extremely favorable for such an enterprise. Charles was at a distance from that part of his dominions; the troops usually stationed there had been called away, to quell the commotions in Spain; the Spanish malcontents warmly solicited him to invade Navarre, in which a considerable faction was ready to declare for the descendants of their ancient monarchs. But in order to avoid, as much as possible, giving offence to the emperor, or king of England, Francis directed forces to be levied, and the war to be carried on, not in his own name, but in that of Henry d’Albret. The conduct of these troops was committed to Andrew de Foix, de l'Esparre, a young nobleman, whom his near alliance to the unfortunate king, whose battles he was to fight, and what was still more powerful, the interest of his sister, Madame de Chateaubriand, Francis’ favorite mistress, recommended to that important trust, for which he had neither talents nor experience. But as there was no army in the field to oppose him, he became master, in a few days, of the whole kingdom of Navarre, without meeting with any obstruction but from the citadel of Pampeluna. The additional works to this fortress, begun by Ximenes, were still unfinished; nor would its slight resistance have deserved notice, if Ignatio Loyola, a Biscayan gentleman, had not been dangerously wounded in its defence. During the progress of a lingering cure, Loyola happened to have no other amusement than what he found in reading the lives of the saints: the effect of this on his mind, naturally enthusiastic, but ambitious and daring, was to inspire him with such a desire of emulating the glory of these fabulous worthies of the Romish church, as led him into the wildest and most extravagant adventures, which terminated at last in instituting the society of Jesuits, the most political and best regulated of all the monastic orders, and from which mankind have derived more advantages, and received greater injury, than from any other of those religious fraternities.

If, upon the reduction of Pampeluna, l'Esparre had been satisfied with taking proper precautions for securing his conquest, the kingdom of Navarre might still have remained annexed to the crown of France, in reality, as well as in title. But pushed on by youthful ardor, and encouraged by Francis, who was too apt to be dazzled with success, he ventured to pass the confines of Navarre, and to lay siege to Logrogno, small town in Castile. This roused the Castilians, who had hitherto beheld the rapid progress of his arms with great unconcern, and the dis­sensions in that kingdom (of which a full account shall be given) being almost composed, both parties exerted themselves with emulation in defence of their country; the one that it might efface the memory of past misconduct by its present zeal; the other, that it might add to the merit of having subdued the emperor’s rebellious subjects, and of repulsing his foreign enemies. The sudden advance of their troops, together with the gallant defence made by the inhabitants of Logrogno, obliged the French general to abandon his rash enterprise. The Spanish army, which increased every day, harassing him during his retreat, he, instead of taking shelter under the canon of Pampeluna, or waiting the arrival of some troops which were marching to join him, attacked the Spaniards, though far superior to him in number, with great impetuosity, but with so little conduct, that his forces were totally routed, he himself, together with his principal officers, was taken prisoner, and Spain recovered possession of Navarre, in still shorter time than the French had spent in the conquest of it.

While Francis endeavored to justify his invasion of Navarre, by carrying it on in the name of Henry d'Albret, he had recourse to an artifice much of the same kind, in attacking another part of the emperor’s territories. Robert de la Mark, lord of the small but independent territory of Bouillon, situated on the frontiers of Luxembourg and Champagne, having abandoned Charles’s service on account of an encroachment which the Aulic council had made on his jurisdiction, and having thrown himself upon France for protection, was easily persuaded, in the heat of his resentment, to send a herald to Worms, and to declare war against the emperor in form. Such extravagant insolence in a petty prince surprised Charles, and appeared to him a certain hi proof of his having received promises of powerful support from the French king. The justness of this conclusion soon became evident. Robert entered the duchy of Luxem­bourg with troops levied in France, by the king’s connivance, though seemingly in contradiction to his orders, and after ravaging the open country, laid siege to Vireton. Of this Charles complained loudly, as a direct violation of the peace subsisting between the two crowns, and summoned Henry VIII in terms of the treaty concluded at London in the year 1518, to turn his arms against Francis as the first aggressor. Francis pretended that he was not answerable for Robert’s conduct, whose army fought under his own standards, and in his own quarrel; and affirmed, that, contrary to an express prohibition, he had seduced some subjects of France into his service; but Henry paid so little regard to this evasion, that the French king, rather than irritate a prince whom he still hoped to gain, commanded De la Mark to disband his troops.

The emperor, meanwhile, was assembling an army to chastise Robert's insolence. Twenty thousand men, under the count of Nassau, invaded his little territories, and in a few days became masters of every place in them but Sedan. After making him feel so sensibly the weight of his master's indignation, Nassau advanced towards the frontiers of France; and Charles, knowing that he might presume so far on Henry's partiality in his favor, as not to be overawed by the same fears which had restrained Francis, ordered his general to besiege Monson. The cowardice of the garrison having obliged the governor to surrender almost without resistance, Nassau invested Mezieres, a place at that time of no considerable strength, but so advantageously situated, that by getting possession of it, the Imperial army might have penetrated into the heart of Champagne, in which there was hardly any other town capable of obstructing its progress. Happily for France, its monarch, sensible of the importance of this fortress, and of the danger to which it was exposed, committed the defence of it to the chevalier Bayard, distinguished among his contemporaries by the appellation of The knight without fear, and without reproach. This man, whose prowess in combat, whose punctilious honor and formal gallantry, bear a nearer resemblance, than anything recorded in history, to the character ascribed to the heroes of chivalry, possessed all the talents which form a great general. These he had many occasions of exerting in the defence of Mezieres: partly by his valor, partly by his conduct, he protracted the siege to a great length, and in the end obliged the Imperialists to raise it, with disgrace and loss. Francis, at the head of a numerous army, soon retook Morison, and entering the Low-Countries, made several conquests of small importance. In the neighborhood of Valenciennes, through an excess of caution, an error with which he cannot be often charged, he lost an opportunity of cutting off the whole Imperial army; and what was still more unfortunate, he disgusted Charles duke of Bourbon, high constable of France, by giving the command of the van to the duke D'Alençon, though this post of honor belonged to Bourbon, as a prerogative of his office.

During these operations in the field, a congress was held at Calais (August) under the mediation of Henry VIII in order to bring all differences to an amicable issue; and if the intentions of the mediator had corresponded in any degree to his professions, it could hardly have failed of producing some good effect. But Henry committed the sole management of the negotiation, with unlimited powers, to Wolsey; and this choice alone was sufficient to have rendered it abortive. That prelate, bent on attaining the papal crown, the great object of his ambition, and ready to sacrifice everything in order to gain the emperor’s interest, was so little able to conceal his partiality, that, if Francis had not been well acquainted with his haughty and vindictive temper, he would have declined his mediation.

Much time was spent in inquiring who had begun hostilities, which Wolsey affected to represent as the principal point, and by throwing the blame of that on Francis, he hoped to justify, by the treaty of London, any alliance into which his master should enter with Charles. The conditions on which hostilities might be terminated came next to be considered; but with regard to these, the emperor’s proposals were such, as discovered either that he was utterly averse to peace, or that he knew Wolsey would approve of whatever terms should be offered in his name. He demanded the restitution of the duchy of Burgundy, a province, the possession of which would have given him access into the heart of France; and required to be released from the homage due to the crown of France for the counties of Flanders and Artois, which none of his ancestors had ever refused, and which he had bound himself by the treaty of Noyon to renew. These terms, to which a high-spirited prince would scarcely have listened, after the disasters of an unfortunate war, Francis rejected with great disdain; and Charles showing no inclination to comply with the more equal and moderate propositions of the French monarch, that he should restore Navarre to its lawful prince, and withdraw his troops from the siege of Tournay, the congress broke up without any other effect than that which attends unsuccessful negotiations, the exasperating of the parties whom it was intended to reconcile.

During the continuance of the congress, Wolsey, on pretence that the emperor himself would be more willing to make reasonable concessions than his ministers, made an excursion to Bruges, 'to meet that monarch. He was received by Charles, who knew his vanity, with as much respect and magnificence as if he had been king of England. But instead of advancing the treaty of peace by this interview, Wolsey, in his master's name, concluded a league with the emperor against Francis; in which it was stipulated, that Charles should invade France on the side of Spain, and Henry in Picardy, each with an army of forty thousand men; and that, in order to strengthen their union, Charles should espouse the princess Mary, Henry's only child, and the apparent heir of his dominions. Henry produced no better reasons for this measure, equally unjust and impolitic, than the article in the treaty of London, by which he pretended that he was bound to take arms against the French king as the first aggressor; and the injury which he alleged Francis had done him, in permitting the duke of Albany, the head of a faction in Scotland, which opposed the interest of England, to return into that kingdom. He was influenced, however, by other considerations.

The advantages which accrued to his subjects from maintaining an exact neutrality, or the honor that resulted to himself from acting as the arbiter between the contending princes, appeared to his youthful imagination so inconsiderable, when compared with the glory which might be reaped from leading armies or conquering provinces, that he determined to remain no longer in a state of inactivity. Having once taken this resolution, his inducements to prefer an alliance with Charles were obvious. He had no claim upon any part of that prince’s dominions, most of which were so situated, that he could not attack them without great difficulty and disadvantage; whereas several maritime provinces of France had been long in the hands of the English monarchs, whose preten­sions, even to the crown of that kingdom, were not as yet altogether forgotten; and the possession of Calais not only gave him easy access into some of those provinces, but in case of any disaster, afforded him a secure retreat.

While Charles attacked France on one frontier, Henry flattered himself that he should find little resistance on the other, and that the glory of re-annexing to the crown of England the ancient inheritance of its monarchs on the continent was reserved for his reign. Wolsey artfully encouraged these vain hopes, which led his master into such measures as were most subservient to his own secret schemes; and the English, whose hereditary animosity against the French was apt to rekindle on every occasion, did not disapprove of the martial spirit of their sovereign.

Meanwhile the league between the pope and the emperor produced great effects in Italy, and rendered Lombardy the chief theatre of war. There was, at that time, such contrariety between the character of the French and Italians, that the latter submitted to the government of the former with greater impatience than they expressed under the dominion of other foreigners. The phlegm of the Germans and gravity of the Spaniards suited their jealous temper and ceremonious manners better than the French gayety, too prone to gallantry, and too little attentive to decorum. Lewis XII, however, by the equity and gentleness of his administration, and by granting the Milanese more extensive privileges than those they had enjoyed under their native princes, had overcome, in a great measure, their prejudices, and reconciled them to the French government. Francis, on recovering that duchy, did not imitate the example of his predecessor. Though too generous himself to oppress his people, his boundless confidence in his favorites, and his negligence in examining into the conduct of those whom he entrusted with power, emboldened them to venture upon many acts of oppression. The government of Milan was committed by him to Odet de Foix, Marechal de Lautrec, another brother of Madame de Chateaubriand, an officer of great experience and reputation, but haughty, imperious, rapacious, and incapable either of listening to advice or of bearing contradiction.

His insolence and exactions totally alienated the affections of the Milanese from France, drove many of the considerable citizens into banishment, and forced others to retire for their own safety. Among the last was Jerome Morone, vice-chancellor of Milan, a man whose genius for intrigue and enterprise distinguished him in an age and country, where violent factions, as well as frequent revolutions, affording great scope for such talents, produced or called them forth in great abundance. He repaired to Francis Sforza, whose brother Maximilian he had betrayed; and suspecting the pope’s intention of attacking the Milanese, although his treaty with the emperor was not yet made public, he proposed to Leo, in the name of Sforza, a scheme for surprising several places in that duchy by means of the exiles, who, from hatred to the French, and from attachment to their former masters, were ready for any desperate enterprise. Leo not only encouraged the attempt, but advanced a considerable sum towards the execution of it; and when, through unforeseen accidents, it failed of success in every part, he allowed the exiles, who had assembled in a body, to retire to Reggio, which belonged at that time to the church.

The Marechal de Foix, who commanded at Milan in absence of his brother Lautrec, who was then in France, tempted with the hopes of catching at once, as in a snare, all the avowed enemies of his master's government in that country, ventured to march into the ecclesiastical territories [June 24], and to invest Reggio. But the vigilance and good conduct of Guicciardini the historian, governor of that place, obliged the French general to abandon the enterprise with disgrace. Leo, on receiving this intelligence, with which he was highly pleased, as it furnished him a decent pretence for a rupture with France, immediately assembled the consistory of cardinals. After complaining bitterly of the hostile intentions of the French king, and magnifying the emperor’s zeal for the church, of which he had given a recent proof by his proceedings against Luther, he declared that he was constrained in self-defence, and as the only expedient for the security of the ecclesiastical state, to join his arms to those of that prince. For this purpose he now pretended to conclude a treaty with Don John Manuel, although it had really been signed some months before this time and he publicly excommunicated De Foix, as an impious invader of St. Peter’s patrimony.

Leo had already begun preparations for war, by taking into pay a considerable body of Swiss; but the Imperial troops advanced so slowly from Naples and Germany, that it was the middle of autumn before the army took the field under the command of Prosper Colonna, the most eminent of the Italian generals, whose extreme caution, the effect of long experience in the art of war, was opposed with great propriety to the impetuosity of the French. In the mean time, De Foix despatched courier after courier to inform the king of the danger which was approach­ing. Francis, whose forces were either employed in the Low-Countries, or assembling on the frontiers of Spain, and who did not expect so sudden an attack in that quarter, sent ambassadors to his allies the Swiss, to procure from them the immediate levy of an additional body of troops; and commanded Lautrec to repair forthwith to his government. That general, who was well acquainted with the great neglect of economy in the administration of the king’s finances, and who knew how much the troops in the Milanese had already suffered from the want of their pay, refused to set out unless the sum of three hundred thousand crowns was immediately put into his hands. But the king, Louise of Savoy his mother, and Semblancy, the superintendent of finances, having promised, even with an oath, that on his arrival at Milan he should find remittances for the sum which he demanded; upon the faith of this, he departed. Unhappily for France, Louise, a woman deceitful, vindictive, rapacious, and capable of sacrificing anything to the gratification of her passions, but who had acquired an absolute ascendant over her son by her maternal tenderness, her care of his education, and her great abilities, was resolved not to perform this promise. Lautrec having incurred her displeasure by his haughtiness in neglecting, to pay court to her, and by the freedom with which he had talked concerning some of her adventures in gallantry, she, in order to deprive him of the honor which he might have gained, by a successful defence of the Milanese, seized the three hundred thousand crowns destined for that service, and detained them for her own use.

Lautrec, notwithstanding this cruel disappointment, found means to assemble a considerable army, though far inferior in number to that of the confederates. He adopted the plan of defence most suitable to his situation, avoiding a pitched battle with the greatest care, while he harassed the enemy continually with his light troops, beat up their quar­ters, intercepted their convoys, and covered or relieved every place which they attempted to attack. By this prudent conduct, he not only retarded their progress, but would have soon wearied out the pope, who had hitherto defrayed almost the whole expense of the war, as the emperor, whose revenues in Spain were dissipated during the commotions in that country, and who was obliged to support a numerous army in the Netherlands, could not make any considerable remittances into Italy. But an unforeseen accident disconcerted all his measures, and occasioned a fatal reverse in the French affairs. A body of twelve thousand Swiss served in Lautrec’s army under the banners of the republic, with which France was in alliance. In consequence of a law, no less political than humane, established among the cantons, their troops were never hired out by public authority; both the contending parties in any war. This law, however, the love of gain had sometimes eluded, and private persons had been allowed to enlist in what service they pleased, though not under the public banners, but under those of their particular officers. The cardinal of Sion, who still preserved his interest among his countrymen, and his enmity to France, having prevailed on them to connive at a levy of this kind, twelve thousand Swiss, instigated by him, joined the army of the confederates. But the leaders in the cantons, when they saw so many of their countrymen marching under hostile standards, and ready to turn their arms against each other, became so sensible of the infamy to which they would be exposed by permitting this, as well as the loss they might stiffer, that they despatched couriers, commanding their people to leave both armies, and to return forthwith into their own country. The cardinal of Sion, however, had the address, by corrupting the messengers appointed to carry this order, to prevent it from being delivered to the Swiss in the service of the confederates; but being intimated in due form to those in the French army, they, fatigued with the length of the campaign, and murmuring for want of pay, instantly yielded obedience, in spite of Lautrec's remonstrances and entreaties.

After the desertion of a body which formed the strength of his army, Lautrec durst no longer face the confederates. He retired towards Milan, encamped on the banks of the Adda, and placed his chief hopes of safety in preventing the enemy from passing that river; an expedient for defending a country so precarious, that there are few instances of its being employed with success against any general of experience or abilities. Accordingly Colonna, notwithstanding Lautrec’s vigilance and activity, passed the Adda with little loss, and obliged him to shut himself up within the walls of Milan, which the confederates were preparing to besiege, when an unknown person, who never afterwards appeared either to boast of this service, or to claim a reward for it, came from the city, and acquainted Morone, that if the army would advance that night, the Ghibelline or Imperial faction, would put them in possession of one of the gates. Colonna, though no friend to rash enterprises, allowed the marquis de Pescara to advance with the Spanish infantry, and he himself followed with the rest of his troops. About the beginning of night, Pescara arrived at the Roman gate in the suburbs, surprised the soldiers whom he found there; those posted in the fortifications adjoining to it immediately fled; the marquis seizing the works which they abandoned, and pushing forward incessantly, though with no less caution than vigour, became master of the city with little bloodshed, and almost without resistance; the victors being as much astonished as the vanquished at the facility and success of the attempt. Lautrec retired precipitately towards the Venetian territories with the remains of his shattered army; the cities of the Milanese, following the fate of the capital, surrendered to the confederates; Parma and Placentia were united to the ecclesiastical state, and of all their conquests in Lombardy only the town of Cremona, the castle of Milan, and a few considerable forts, remained in the hands of the French.

Leo received the accounts of this rapid succession of prosperous events with such transports of joy, as brought on (if we may believe the French historians) a slight fever, which being neglected, occasioned his death oh the second of December, while he was still of a vigorous age, and at the height of his glory. By this unexpected accident, the spirit of the confederacy was broken, and its operations suspended. The cardinals of Sion and Medici left the army that they might be present in the conclave; the Swiss were recalled by their superiors; some other mercenaries disbanded for want of pay; and only the Spaniards and a few Germans in the emperor’s service, remained to defend the Milanese. But Lautrec, destitute both of men and of money, was unable to improve this favorable opportunity in the manner which he would have wished. The vigilance of Morone, and the good conduct of Colonna, disappointed his feeble attempts on the Milanese. Guicciardini, by his address and valor, repulsed a bolder and more dangerous attack which he made on Parma.

Great discord prevailed in the conclave which followed upon Leo’s death, and all the arts natural to men grown old in intrigue, when contending for the highest prize an ecclesiastic can obtain, were practiced. Wolsey’s name, notwithstanding all the emperor's magnificent promises to favor his pretensions, of which that prelate did not fail to remind him, was hardly mentioned in the conclave. Julio cardinal de Medici, Leo’s nephew, who was more eminent than any other member of the sacred college for his abilities, his wealth, and his experience in transacting great affairs, had already secured fifteen voices, a number sufficient according to the forms of the conclave, to exclude any other candidate, though not to carry his own election. As he was still in the prime of life, all the aged cardinals combined against him, without being united in favor of any other person. While these factions were endeavoring to gain, to corrupt, or to weary out each other, Medici and his adherents voted one morning at the scrutiny, which according to form was made every day, for cardinal Adrian of Utrecht, who at that time governed Spain in the emperor’s name. This they did merely to protract time. But the adverse party instantly closing with them, to their own amazement, and that of all Europe, a stranger to Italy, unknown to the persons who gave their suffrages in his favor, and unacquainted with the manners of the people, or the interest of the state, the government of which they conferred upon him, was unanimously raised to the papal throne [January 9], at a Juncture so delicate and critical, as would have demanded all the sagacity and experience of one of the most able prelates in the sacred college. The cardinals themselves, unable to give a reason for this strange choice, on account of which, as they marched in procession from the conclave, they were loaded with insults and curses by the Roman people, ascribed it to an immediate impulse of the Holy Ghost. It may be imputed with great certainty to the influence of Don John Manuel, the Imperial ambassador, who by his address and intrigues facilitated the election of a person devoted to his master's service, from gratitude, from interest, and from inclination.

Beside the influence which Charles acquired by Adrian’s promotion, it threw great luster on his administration. To bestow on his preceptor such a noble recompense, and to place on the papal throne one whom he had raised from obscurity, were acts of uncommon magnificence and power. Francis observed, with the sensibility of a rival, the preeminence which the emperor was gaining, and resolved to exert himself with fresh vigor, in order to wrest from him his late conquests in Italy. The Swiss, that they might make some reparation to the French king, for having withdrawn their troops from his army so unseasonably as to occasion the loss of the Milanese, permitted him to levy ten thousand men in the republic. Together with this reinforcement, Lautrec received from the king a small sum of money, which enabled him once more to take the field; and after seizing by surprise, or force, several places in the Milanese, to advance within a few miles of the capital. The confederate army was in no condition to obstruct his progress; for though the inhabitants of Milan, by the artifices of Morone, and by the popular declamations of a monk whom he employed, were inflamed with such enthusiastic zeal against the French government, that they consented to raise extraordinary contributions, Colonna must soon have abandoned the advantageous camp which he had chosen at Bicocca, and have dismissed his troops for want of pay, if the Swiss in the French service had not once more extricated him out of his difficulties.

The insolence or caprice of those mercenaries was often no less fatal to their friends, than their valor and discipline were formidable to their enemies. Having now served some months without pay, of which they complained loudly, a sum destined for their use was sent from France under a convoy of horse; but Morone, whose vigilant eye nothing escaped, posted a body of troops in their way, so that the party which escorted the money durst not advance. On receiving intelligence of this, the Swiss lost all patience, and officers as well as soldiers crowding around Lautrec, threatened with one voice instantly to retire, if he did not either advance the pay which was due, or promise to lead them next morning to battle. In vain did Lautrec remonstrate against these demands, representing to them the impossibility of the former, and the rashness of the latter, which must be attended with certain destruction, as the enemy occupied a camp naturally of great strength, and which by art they had rendered almost inaccessible. The Swiss, deaf to reason, and persuaded that their valor was capable of surmounting every obstacle, renewed their demand with greater fierceness, offering themselves to form the vanguard, and to begin the attack. Lautrec, unable to overcome their obstinacy, complied with their request, hoping, perhaps, that some of those unforeseen accidents which so often determine the fate of battles, might crown this rash enterprise with undeserved success; and convinced that the effects of a defeat could not be more fatal than those which would certainly follow upon the retreat of a body which composed one half of his army. Next morning [May] the Swiss were early in the field, and marched with the greatest intrepidity against an enemy deeply entrenched on every side, surrounded with artillery, and prepared to receive them. As they advanced, they sustained a furious cannonade with great firmness, and without waiting for their own artillery, rushed impetuously upon the entrenchments. But after incredible efforts of valor, which were seconded with great spirit by the French, having lost their bravest officers and best soldiers, and finding that they could make no impression on the enemy’s works, they sounded a retreat, leaving the field of battle however, like men repulsed, but not vanquished, in close array, and without receiving any molestation from the enemy.

Next day, such as survived set out for their own country; and Lautrec, despairing of being able to make any farther resistance, retired into France, after throwing garrisons into Cremona and a few other places; all which, except the citadel of Cremona, Colonna soon obliged to surrender.

Genoa, however, and its territories, remaining subject to France, still gave Francis considerable footing in Italy, and made it easy for him to execute any scheme for the recovery of the Milanese. But Colonna, rendered enterprising by continual success, and excited by the solicitations of the faction of idle Adorni, the hereditary enemies of the Fregosi, who under the protection of France possessed the chief authority in Genoa, determined to attempt the reduction of that state; and accomplished it with amazing facility. He became master of Genoa by an accident as unexpected as that which had given him possession of Milan; and almost without opposition or bloodshed, the power of the Adorni, and the authority of the emperor, were established in Genoa.

Such a cruel succession of misfortunes affected Francis with deep concern, which was not a little augmented by the arrival of an English herald, who, in the name of his sovereign, declared war in form against France [May 29]. This step was taken in consequence of the treaty which Wolsey had concluded with the emperor at Brugus, and which had hitherto been kept secret. Francis, though he had reason to be surprised with this denunciation, after having been at such pains to soothe Henry and to gain his minister, received the herald with great composure and dignity; and without abandoning any of the schemes which he was forming against the emperor, began vigorous preparations for resisting this new enemy. His treasury, however, being exhausted by the efforts which he had already made, as well as by the sums he expended on his pleasures, he had recourse to extraordinary expedients for supplying it. Several new offices were created, and exposed to sale; the royal demesnes were alienated; unusual taxes were imposed; and the tomb of St. Martin was stripped of a rail of massive silver, with which Louis XI, in one of his fits of devotion, had encircled it. By means of these expedients he was enabled to levy a considerable army, and to put the frontier towns in a good posture of defence.

The emperor, meanwhile, was no less solicitous to draw as much advantage as possible from the accession of such a powerful ally; and the prosperous situation of his affairs, at this time, permitting him to set out for Spain, where his presence was extremely necessary, he visited the court of England in his way to that country. He proposed by this interview not only to strengthen the bonds of friendship which united him with Henry, and to excite him to push the war against France with vigor, but hoped to remove any disgust or resentment that Wolsey might have conserved on account of the mortifying disappointment which he had met with in the late conclave. His success exceeded his most sanguine expectations; and by his artful address, during a residence of six weeks in England, he gained not only the king and the minister, but the nation itself. Henry, whose vanity was sensibly flattered by such a visit, as well as by the studied respect with which the emperor treated him on every occasion, entered warmly into all his schemes. The cardinal foreseeing, from Adrian's age and infirmities, a sudden vacancy in the papal see, dissembled or forgot his resentment; and, as Charles, besides augmenting the pensions which he had already settled on him, renewed his promise of favoring his pretensions to the papacy, with all his interest, he endeavored to merit the former, and to secure the accomplishment of the latter, by fresh services. The nation, sharing in the glory of its monarch, and pleased with the confidence which the emperor placed in the English, by creating the earl of Surrey his high-admiral, discovered no less inclination to com­mence hostilities than Henry himself.

In order to give Charles, before he left England, a proof of this general ardor, Surrey sailed with such forces as were ready, and ravaged the coasts of Normandy. He then made a descent on Bretagne, where he plundered and burnt Morlaix, and some other places of less consequence. After these slight excursions, attended with greater dishonor than damage to France, he repaired to Calais, and took the command of the principal army, consisting of sixteen thousand men; with which, having joined the Flemish troops under the Count de Buren, he advanced into Picardy. The army which Francis had assembled was far inferior in number to these united bodies. But during the long wars between the two nations, the French had discovered the proper method of defending their country against the English. They had been taught by their misfortunes to avoid a pitched battle with the utmost care, and to endeavour, by throwing garrisons into every place capable of resistance, by watching all the enemy’s motions, by intercepting their convoys, attacking their advanced posts, and harassing them continually with their numerous cavalry, to ruin them with the length of the war, or to beat them by piece-meal. This plan the duke of Vendome, the French general in Picardy, pursued with no less prudence than success; and not only prevented Surrey from taking any town of importance, but obliged him to retire with his army greatly reduced by fatigue, by want of provisions, and by the loss which it had sustained in several unsuccessful skirmishes.

Thus ended the second campaign, in a war the most general that had hitherto been kindled in Europe; and though Francis, by his mother’s ill-timed resentment, by the disgusting insolence of his general, and the caprice of the mercenary troops which he employed, had lost his conquests in Italy, yet all the powers combined against him had not been able to make any impression on his hereditary dominions; and wherever they either intended or attempted an attack, he was well prepared to receive them.

While the Christian princes were thus wasting each other’s strength, Solyman the Magnificent entered Hungary with a numerous army, and investing Belgrade, which was deemed the chief barrier of that kingdom against the Turkish arms, soon forced it to surrender. Encouraged by this success, he turned his victorious arms against the island of Rhodes, the seat, at that time, of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem. This small state he attacked with such a numerous army as the lords of Asia have been accustomed in every age to bring into the field. Two hundred thousand men, and a fleet of four hundred sail, appeared against a town defended by a garrison consisting of five thousand soldiers, and six hundred knights, under the command of Villiers de L'lsle Adam, the grand master, whose wisdom and valor rendered him worthy of that station at such a dangerous juncture. No sooner did he begin to suspect the destination of Solyman’s vast armaments, than he despatched messengers to all the Christian courts, imploring their aid against the common enemy. But though every prince in that age acknowledged Rhodes to be the great bulwark of Christendom in the east, and trusted to the gallantry of its knights as the best security against the progress of the Ottoman arms; though Adrian, with a zeal which became the head and father of the church, exhorted the contending powers to forget their private quarrels, and, by uniting their arms, to prevent the Infidels from destroying a society which did honor to the Christian name; yet so violent and implacable was the animosity of both parties, that regardless of the danger to which they exposed all Europe, and unmoved by the entreaties of the grand master, or the admonitions of the pope, they suffered Solyman to carry on his operations against Rhodes without disturbance. The grand master, after incredible efforts of courage, of patience, and of military conduct during a siege of six months; after sustaining many assaults, and disputing every post with amazing obstinacy, was obliged at last to yield to numbers; and having obtained an honorable capitulation from the sultan, who admired and respected his virtue, he surrendered the town, which was reduced to a heap of rubbish, and destitute of every resource. Charles and Francis, ashamed of having occasioned such a loss to Christendom by their ambitious contests, endeavored to throw the blame of it on each other, while all Europe, with greater justice, imputed it equally to both. The emperor, by way of reparation, granted the knights of St. John the small island of Malta, in which they fixed their residence, retaining, though with less power and splendor, their ancient spirit and implacable enmity to the Infidels.