If Crete can vaunt (all other isles above)
Her soil the birth-place of supernal Jove,
If Thebes may Hercules and Bacchus boast,
And the twin-offspring glad the Delian coast,
Lo! to this isle yon marquis' birth is given,
With every grace endow'd from favouring Heaven:
This hero will be known (thus Merlin said,
His words repeating oft) when most his aid
The Roman empire shall, opprest, demand,
And challenge freedom from his saving hand.”
But wherefore should I now the deeds foretel
On which far better here your sight may dwell?

Thus speaks the host, and each attention calls
Where Charles' high actions grace the story'd walls.
See Lewis now (he cries) whose calmer thought
Repents that Charles he to Italia brought;
He brought him there to gall a rival foe,
But not to work his total overthrow.

Behold him now a league with Venice make
Against the king, and now prepare to take
The monarch captive, who with dauntless mind
Impels his spear, and 'scapes the fate design'd.
Far other chance his hapless powers sustain,
That to defend the conquer'd realm remain.
Ferrantes now returns with mighty aids

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From Mantua's lord, and there the foe invades ;
But, lo! by fraud one hapless leader lost,

With deep regret the victor's joy has crost.

So spoke the host; and speaking thus, where stood Alphonso, marquis of Pescara, show'd:

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Ver. 235. Alphonso, marquis of Pescara, --] After the departure of Charles VIII. king Ferrando was received into Naples, and only

This chief, whose acts in many a dreadful fight,
Shall shine resplendent as Pyropus' light,
Behold o'ertaken in the double snares

The treacherous Ethiopian's guile prepares :
Behold where sudden slain on earth he lies,
In whom the age's greatest champion dies.
See! the twelfth Lewis from the hills descend,
And with Italian scouts his army bend

T' uproot the Mulberry, and the lily place.
In fruitful fields where rul'd Visconti's race.
Thence o'er Garagliano's stream intent
To frame a passage, he his people sent,

(As Charles had done)--them soon the foe annoys,
The flood o'erwhelms them, and the sword destroys:
Not less of slaughter Puglia's battle stains,
When Gallia's troops forsake the dreadful plains.

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one castle held out for the Franks, when a Moorish slave devised a scheme to introduce the Arragonese into the church of St. Cruz、 The treacherous Moor calling the marquis one night to a parley on the walls, shot him with an arrow in the throat.

Porcacchi.

Ver. 242. See! the twelfth Lewis Lewis the XIIth king of France, successor to Charles VIII. and a constant enemy to Ludovico Sforza, had resolved to take from him the government, for which intent he made a league with pope Alexander VI. with the Venetians, and with Ferrando king of Spain. He drove Ludovico from his government, who fled to the emperor in Germany, having left the defence of his castle of Milan to Bernardin di Coste, who betrayed it into the hands of the Turks.

Porcacchi.

Ver. 244. T" uproot the mulberry, ---] Under the symbol of a mulberry-tree the poet figures Ludovico Sforza, who was called il Moro (a mulberry-tree) from the darkness of his complexion.

Zatta,

Ferrantes there, the chief of Spanish blood
(Consalvo nam'd) has twice their force subdu'd :
While Fortune Lewis here with frowns pursues,
In that rich country him with smiles she views,
Where fair between the Alps and Appennines
To Adriatic seas the Po declines.

255.

Thus he; then points the traitor forth, who sold
The castle given him by his lord to hold:
The fraudful Swiss he shows who prisoner makes
The man that him for his defender takes.
These deeds, without a single sword or lance,
Have giv❜n the conquest to the powers of France.
In Italy he Cæsar Borgia shows

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Who greater, by his monarch's favour, grows;
Each lord of Rome, each baron of renown,
Rais'd by his smile, or exil'd by his frown.
Ile tells the king, who from Bologna fair
Removes the saw and plants the acorns there;

Ver. 260. The fraudful Swiss---] The Switzers, being corrupted by the bribes of the Franks, betrayed him to them: Ludovico was carried into France, where he remained five years in prison, and then died..

Porcacchi.

Ver. 26. In Italy he Casar Borgia shows] Cæsar Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI. by the favour of Lewis XII. king of France, took to wife Charlotte d'Alabrette of the blood royal, he having renounced the cardinal's hat.

Porcacchi.

Ver. 269. Removes the saw and plants the acorns there;] By the saw, he means the Bentivogli, their arms being a saw; and by the acorns, Pope Julius II.; for the pope, by the aid of the Franks, drove the Bentivogli from Bologna.

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270

Who next the rebel Genoese pursues
And their strong city to his rule subdues.
Behold (he cries) what ghastly piles of slain
Are stretch'd on Ghiradada's fatal plain!
Each city to the king her gate unfolds,
And Venice scarce against his prowess holds.
Ill brooks the pontiff his.increasing power:
For passing now Romania's confines o'er,
Modena from Ferrara's duke he takes,
And every old possession doubtful makes..
Behold the army of the Franks have won
And given to sack and pillage Brescia's town :
Lo! where their aid they to Felsina yield,.
And rout the Church's forces in the field.
Here France and Spain oppos'd, at once unite
Their closing ranks and dreadful glows the fight:
The crimson dykes with human blood o'erflow,
Mars doubtful stands where conquest to bestow..

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Ver. 270.-the rebel, Genoese---] The Genoese having, in opposition to the nobles, created Paulo de Nove Doge, a man taken from the dregs of the people, and asserted at the same time that Genoa was not subject to any prince, thereby openly declaring themselves rebels to the king of France, Lewis marched against them with a powerful army, and the city surrendered to him at discretion.

Ver. 273. Ghiradada's fatal plain!] The Venetians sent a numerous army, under the Count di Pigliano and Bartolomeo Alviano; they engaged the army of the French at Ghiradada, though contrary to the opinion of Pigliano, the Venetian general. After an obstinate battle, the Venetians were defeated with great loss; the gates of Bergamo, Brescia, and Cremona were thrown open to Lewis; many other places surrendered to him, and he prepared to attack Venice itself,

Porcacchi

At length Alphonso's virtue wins the day,

France keeps the field and conquer'd Spain gives way: Ravenna's sack succeeds; the pope with grief

Such ruin views, and to the land's relief

He bids the Belgians from the neighbouring steep
Against the Franks like driving tempests sweep;
'Till each, before furious onset fled,

Behind the Alps conceals his shameful head;
While once again Italian standards rise,
And once again the golden lily flies.

Behold the Franks return--behold once more
Faithless Helvetius breaks their scatter'd power:
With him (unlook'd for aid) yon youth behold,
Whose sire he captive made, whose sire he sold.
Behold your army (lately doom'd to feel
The sad reverse of fickle Fortune's wheel)
Another king succeeding, bend their care
T'avenge the shame inflicted by Navarre:
With better omens to the fight they turn :

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King Francis see with generous ardor burn;

He breaks the Switzer's pride, whose barbarous host
Had swell'd their titles with presuming boast;

And stil'd themselves by Heaven's high will prepar'd 310
The scourge of princes and the church's guard.

-Ver. 288. ---Alphonso's virtue-] Alphonso duke of Ferrara.

Ver. 298. Behold the Franks return--] King Lewis, exasperated at being driven out of Italy, made a peace and league with the Venetians, and sent a fresh army against Maximilian Sforza. Maximilian, assisted with the pope's money, called in the Switzers to his side, not without risk (as the poet observes) considering the fate of his father; however, joined with these, he attacked and entirely defeated the French army; for which victory the pope bestowed on the Switzers the title of Defenders of the Holy Church.

Porcacchi.