"It is a thing," he says, "incredible, unheard-of, and unexampled in history, that an invincible hero, the greatest king that ever lived, should have been conquered and made captive by an enemy so inferior." On this great event, our poet composed an allegorical eclogue, in which the King of France, under the name of Pan, and the King of England, under that of Articus, heartily abuse each other.

The city of Avignon is brought in with the designation of Faustula.

England reproaches the Pope with his partiality for the King of France, to whom he had granted the tithes of his kingdom, by which means he was enabled to levy an army.
Articus thus apostrophizes Faustula:-- Ah meretrix oblique tuens, ait Articus illi-- Immemorem sponsae cupidus quam mungit adulter! Haec tua tota fides, sic sic aliena ministras! Erubuit nihil ausa palam, nisi mollia pacis Verba, sed assuetis noctem complexibus egit-- Ah, harlot! squinting with lascivious brows Upon a hapless wife's adulterous spouse, Is this thy faith, to waste another's wealth.
The guilty fruit of perfidy and stealth! She durst not be my foe in open light.
But in my foe's embraces spent the night.
Meanwhile, Marquard, Bishop of Augsburg, vicar of the Emperor in Italy, having put himself at the head of the Lombard league against the Viscontis, entered their territories with the German troops, and was committing great devastations.

But the brothers of Milan turned out, beat the Bishop, and took him prisoner.

It is evident, from these hostilities of the Emperor's vicar against the Viscontis, that Petrarch's embassy to Prague had not had the desired success.