has offended, and he cannot preserve as friends those who placed him in it. In fact, he is unable to fulfil the hopes they had conceived of him, and he is equally unable to empioy rigorous measures against them, because he is already under an obligation to them. For how powerful soever a prince may be to enter successfully a province, he stands in need of the favour of the inhabitants. It was for this reason that Lewis the XIIth, King of France, so quickly poşsessed himself of Milan, and as speedily lost it. Louis Sforza, the first time, in order to retake it, had only to appear before its gates. Those who had opened them to the king soon finding themselves deceived in the hopes they had entertained of a better fate, were immediately disgusted with the new prince.
It is very true that after having reconquered a rebellious country a prince, does not lose it so easily. He avails himself of the rebellion as a pretext for being less reserved. As to the means of securing his conquest, he punishes the guilty, watches the suspected, and fortifies himself in all the vulnerable points of his province. Thus the first time the French were driven from the duchy of Milan, a movement on the confines, on the part of Louis Sforza was all that was necessary; but the second time it became expedient to form with other states, a league against the French, to destroy their armies and expel them from Italy, and all
