I have more
reason to complain of you than you of me; for you have constantly
refused me your approbation and assistance; and even when you have
granted succors, you have rendered them fruitless by the scantiness and
tardiness of your supplies, and compelled me to dissipate my own
revenues, and injure my own subjects."
Of course these bitter recriminations accomplished nothing in changing
the action of the diet, and Maximilian was thrown upon the Austrian
States alone for supplies. Louis of France, at the head of seventeen
thousand troops, crossed the Alps. The pope fulminated a bull of
excommunication against the Venetians, and sent an army of ten thousand
men. The Duke of Ferrara and the Marquis of Mantua sent their
contingents. Maximilian, by great exertions, sent a few battalions
through the mountains of the Tyrol, and was preparing to follow with
stronger forces. Province after province fell before the resistless
invaders, and Venice would have fallen irretrievably had not the
conquerors began to quarrel among themselves. The pope, in secret
treaty, was endeavoring to secure his private interests, regardless of
the interests of the allies. Louis, from some pique, withdrew his
forces, and abandoned Maximilian in the hour of peril, and the emperor,
shackled by want of money, and having but a feeble force, was quite
unable to make progress alone against the Venetian troops.
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