plunged into it in person, moving to every point where it was going on, living in the midst of camps, himself in military costume, besieging towns, having his guns pointed and assaults delivered under his own eyes.

Men expressed astonishment, not unmixed with admiration, at the indomitable energy of this soldier-pope at seventy years of age.

It was said that he had cast into the Tiber the keys of St.Peter to gird on the sword of St.Paul.
His answer to everything was, "The barbarians must be driven from Italy." Louis XII.

became more and more irritated and undecided.

"To reassure his people," says Bossuet (to which we may add, 'and to reassure himself'), "he assembled at Tours (in September, 1510), the prelates of his kingdom, to consult them as to what he could do at so disagreeable a crisis without wounding his conscience.