Louis refused to see him, but had him "questioned as to several matters by the lords of his grand council; and, granted that he had committed nought but follies, still he spoke right wisely." He was conducted from Pierre-Encise to the castle of Loches in Touraine, where he was at first kept in very strict captivity, "without books, paper, or ink," but it was afterwards less severe.

"He plays at tennis and at cards," says a despatch of the Venetian ambassador, Dominic of Treviso, "and he is fatter than ever." [_La Diplomatic Venitienne,_ by M.Armand Baschet (1862), p.

363.] He died in his prison at the end of eight years, having to the very last great confidence in the future of his name, for he wrote, they say, on the wall of his prison these words: "Services rendered me will count for an heritage." And "thus was the duchy of Milan, within seven months and a half, twice conquered by the French," says John d'Auton in his Claronique, "and for the nonce was ended the war in Lombardy, and the authors thereof were captives and exiles." Whilst matters were thus going on in the north of Italy, Louis XII.

was preparing for his second great Italian venture, the conquest of the kingdom of Naples, in which his predecessor Charles VIII.

had failed.