CHAP. XLVI.
THE KING OF FRANCE ENTERS PAVIA.—HIS RECEPTION THERE.
Theking, having left the Granges, advanced toward Pavia,—and when he was near that city, the clergy came out in handsome procession, to meet him. They conducted him in this state to the principal church, called Il Duomo, and thence to his apartments in the castle, which was large and well situated. The duchess and her young son were waiting there to welcome him on his happy arrival; and he and his company were well feasted with a variety of meats and wines, from the 14th until the 17th, when he took his departure, after hearing mass, to dine at Beriofle, and sup and lie at Castel San Joanne. On the morrow, he dined at Roqueste, and thence resolved to make his entry into Piacenza.
As the king approached Piacenza in the afternoon of the 18th of October, the clergy, judges, officers, and principal inhabitants came out to meet him in a handsomeprocession, as all the other towns had done, and led him in triumph to the apartments that had been prepared for his reception. While he was in this town, a messenger came to him in haste with letters, containing in substance, that on that day the young duke of Milan had died, which much afflicted and vexed the king. Tears filled his eyes, without any dissembling, and to perform his duty to God, he ordered on the morrow a solemn funeral service to be celebrated,—after which were distributed large sums in alms to the poor, all at the king's expense, and chiefly under the direction of the lord Reginald d'Oreilles. It should not be forgotten, that the king invited the nobles and principal inhabitants to this funeral service: and that they, in gratitude for his benignant humanity, presented him with several immense cheeses, as large as our greatest millstones, which he sent to France, as a gift to the queen. The king, having staid six days in Piacenza, departed.