ABSTRACT
He had spent all his time as envoy in Romagna trying to reach an agreement with Borgia, and on his return this was still to be one of his principal tasks as secretary. Where he had failed, the envoy who followed him did not succeed either. Besides the coldness of the Florentines, the changeable climate of relations between the Pope and the King of France, and the uncertainty of the outcome of the war between the Spanish and the French in the Kingdom of Naples, were hardly propitious to such an agreement. The Pope felt that he could derive little advantage from being allied to the King, who had several times thwarted his ambitions, and seeing the fortune of French arms in decline, he thought it was time to transfer his forces and his projects to the side of the Spaniards. The King, on his side, guessing something of these thoughts, was plotting another league to balance the forces of the Pope and his worthy son against those of Bentivoglio and the republics of Florence, Lucca and Siena. He began, meantime, by restoring the expelled Petrucci to Siena in spite of the Borgias.
