Better or safer counsel for him he had not to give." After taking some precautions on the score of his eldest son, Prince Ferdinand, whom he left at Tarento, in the kingdom he was about to quit, Frederick III.

followed Ravenstein's counsel, sent to ask for "a young gentleman to be his guide to France," put to sea with five hundred men remaining to him, and arrived at Marseilles, whither Louis XII.

sent some lords of his court to receive him.

Two months afterwards, and not before, he was conducted to the king himself, who was then at Blois.

Louis welcomed him with his natural kindness, and secured to him fifty thousand livres a year on the duchy of Anjou, on condition that he never left France.