CHAPTER VI.
MAXIMILIAN I.
From 1500 to 1519.
Base Treachery of the Swiss Soldiers .-- Perfidy of Ferdinand of Arragon .-- Appeals by Superstition .-- Coalition with Spain .-- The League of Cambray .-- Infamy of the Pope .-- The Kings's Apology .-- Failure of the Plot .-- Germany Aroused .-- Confidence of Maximilian .-- Longings for the Pontifical Chair .-- Maximilian Bribed .-- Leo X .-- Dawning Prosperity .-- Matrimonial Projects .-- Commencement of the War of Reformation .-- Sickness of Maximilian .-- His Last Directions .-- His Death .-- The Standard by which his Character is to be Judged.
Louis XII., stung by the disgrace of his speedy expulsion from Milan, immediately raised another army of five thousand horse and fifteen thousand foot to recover his lost plunder.

He also sent to Switzerland to hire troops, and without difficulty engaged ten thousand men to meet, on the plains of Milan, the six thousand of their brethren whom Ludovico had hired, to hew each other to pieces for the miserable pittance of a few pennies a day.

But Louis XII.

was as great in diplomacy as in war.
He sent secret emissaries to the Swiss in the camp of Ludovico, offering them larger wages if they would abandon the service of Ludovico and return home.

They promptly closed the bargain, unfurled the banner of mutiny, and informed the Duke of Milan that they could not, in conscience, fight against their own brethren.