Note 250 — Chapter XXXIII

The preceding account of the judicial process, and of the Duke's conduct in regard to the campaign of Ravenna, has been chiefly taken from Baldi, as his narrative is more intelligible and consistent with the best historical authorities, than the indistinct and garbled statements of Leoni and Riposati, who gloss over such facts as they cannot satisfactorily clear up. Guicciardini asserts that Francesco Maria set his peasantry upon the troops of Cardona as they fled through the duchy from the rout of Ravenna, a statement more reconcileable with that author's prejudice than with probability. The legal evidence of both the Duke's absolutions will be found in No. V. of the Appendix, and Giraldi is our authority for some minor details. We have purposely avoided mixing up with this personal narrative the more general events of the French war. They are succinctly given by Roscoe, Leo X., ch. viii. and ix.