I hope to give the world to know that I have no fear of King Francis, for, please God, we shall place ourselves so close together that we shall have great trouble to get disentangled without battle, and I shall so do that neither he nor they who have held such talk about me shall say that I was afraid of being there." The situation was from that moment changed.

The French army found themselves squeezed between the fortress which would not surrender and the imperial army which was coming to relieve it.

Things, however, remained stationary for three weeks.

Francis I.intrenched himself strongly in his camp, which the Imperialists could not attack without great risk of unsuccess.

"Pavia is doomed to fall," wrote Francis to his mother the regent on the 3d of February, "if they do not reenforce it somehow; and they are beating about to make it hold on to the last gasp, which, I think, will not be long now, for it is more than a month since those inside have had no wine to drink and neither meat nor cheese to eat; they are short of powder even." Antony de Leyva gave notice to the Imperialists that the town was not in a condition for further resistance.
On the other hand, if the imperial army put off fighting, they could not help breaking up; they had exhausted their victuals, and the leaders their money; they were keeping the field without receiving pay, and were subsisting, so to speak, without resources.