Turin bowed obsequiously, and
grasped at the easy bargain. To Florence he said, "If you raise a hand
to assist the Duke of Milan, I will crush you. If you remain quiet, I
will leave you unharmed." Florence, overawed, remained as meek as a
lamb. The diplomacy being thus successfully closed, an army of
twenty-two thousand men was put in vigorous motion in July, 1499. They
crossed the Alps, fought a few battles, in which, with overpowering
numbers, they easily conquered their opposers, and in twenty days were
in possession of Milan. The Duke Ludovico with difficulty escaped. With
a few followers he threaded the defiles of the Tyrolese mountains, and
hastened to Innspruck, the capital of Tyrol, where Maximilian then was,
to whom he conveyed the first tidings of his disaster. Louis XII.
followed after his triumphant army, and on the 6th of October made a
triumphal entry into the captured city, and was inaugurated Duke of
Milan.
Maximilian promised assistance, but could raise neither money nor men.
Ludovico, however, succeeded in hiring fifteen hundred Burgundian
horsemen, and eight thousand Swiss mercenaries--for in those ages of
ignorance and crime all men were ready, for pay, to fight in any
cause--and emerging from the mountains upon the plains of Milan, found
all his former subjects disgusted with the French, and eager to rally
under his banners.
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