46 Lionel's Journey to Italy 



On May 27,^" the stately little army swept up from Pavia to 

 Milan, about twenty miles, probably by way of Binasco. Some 

 notion of the low meadows through which they passed may be 



haste to the place, where — order being restored — he placed the bastion 

 under the charge of Hawkwood's Englishmen. Then the Emperor 

 Charles IV came down from the Alps, and made common cause 

 with the d'Estes and other Italian princes against the Visconti, per- 

 suading them to attack Borgoforte. It must be noted that what 

 between the Imperials (Bohemians, Sclavonians, Poles, Grisons, and 

 Swiss), d'Este's Italians, those of Malatesta, and of Queen Joanna: 

 and the Church party, which consisted of Bretons, Gascons, and 

 ProvenQals ; as many as twenty thousand combatants presented them- 

 selves before that fortress. In the army of Visconti were Germans, 

 English, Italians, Burgundians, all with the firm determination to 

 defend the bulwarks ; in those days a small place, well provisioned 

 and manned with a spirited garrison, might defy even "an army 

 sufficient to subjugate Italy." To intercept succor, the d'Este party 

 had launched on the Po a fleet of galleys and other boats, and the 

 river being much swollen by the melting of the snows, the Imperialists 

 bethought themselves of breaking the banks above Borgoforte ; but 

 the garrison knew how to save itself from the inundation, and 

 returned it by breaking the banks towards the valley by night, thus 

 flooding the plains of Mantua and the entrenchments of the Imperial 

 camp. Charles IV was obliged to raise his camp, and shut himself 

 up in Mantua ; after which, on account of the damage he had suf- 

 fered, and of the scarcity of provisions, he hastened to agree to 

 Bernabo's terms.' 

 ■*■' This seems to be a reminiscence of an earlier condition of things. 

 In a sketch of the earlier operations of the English adventurers — the 

 White Company and others — Temple-Leader and Marcotti (ib., pp. 12, 

 14. 15, 16, 17) say : 



'Here then we behold the great English band marching towards the 

 sea ; attempting in vain to take Marseilles, they set fire to her 

 suburbs, and pass by the Riviera to Nice ; cross the Maritime Alps 

 by the feudal estates of Malaspina, favored by Simon Boccanegra, 

 doge of Genoa, and enemy to the Visconti ; and thus descend into 

 the valley of the Po. . . . The fact remains that Piedmont was 

 devastated by the Hungarians, the Germans, and lastly by the newly 

 arrived English. . . . The "Chronique de Savoie" says coldly, 

 almost excusing them, that, being many, they could not live in Pied- 

 mont without spoiling the country, so that Conte Verde, who had 

 imprudently counselled the Marquis of Montferrat to employ the 

 English, repented, and took arms to defend himself. ... By 

 forfeiting the sum of 180,000 florins, Conte Verde obtained the 

 restitution of his lands, and the English passed on to fight the 



