"Since such are your

trodden beneath his feet. conditions," cried he to Charles, "sound your war trumpets, and we will answer with our bells." This promptitude and courage made Charge believe the Florentines were too strong for him, and he did not put his designs into execution. He recalled Capponi, obtained a subsidy in aid of his enterprise, and promised to restore the fortresses surrendered by Peter de Medici at the end of the war.

Charles now advanced to Rome, and the pontiff in vain endeavoured to turn aside his footsteps. Charles asserted that he had vowed to visit the tombs of the holy apostles, and marched forward. The citizens opened their gates, and the terrified pontiff shut himself up in the castle of St. Angelo, whilst Charles entered the city by torchlight. He was alarmed not so much at the approach of the army, as at the report of proposals for a general council for the trial of a profligate pontiff, and the reform of the church. Eighteen cardinals demanded that Alexander should be brought to trial, and Savonarola, a Dominican preacher, proclaimed the necessity of correcting ecclesiastical abuses. But Charles was too intent upon the extension of his arms to attend to ecclesiastical matters; and after concluding a treaty of peace with the pontiff, by which French garrisons were admitted into the papal fortresses, he passed on to Naples.

Before Charles left Rome, Alphonso, king of Naples, had resigned the and fled from the strife. endeavoured to rescue the queror; but it was in vain.

crown to his son, The young prince city from the conHis subjects failed

to second his endeavours, and Naples submitted to the French almost without resistance.

All Sicily had now submitted to the conqueror, and had he acted wisely he would have annexed it to the crown of France. Charles and his captains, however, took no pains to establish their government in Naples; and the partiality of Charles for his countrymen, and their violence, rendered the Italians averse to their yoke. The names of the Angevin and Aragonese barons, to whom he owed a debt of gratitude, were forgotten by him in the hour of victory, and his forgetfulness of them converted them into a body of malcontents. A storm also was gathering behind him in the west. Europe was alarmed at his rapid successes, and an alliance was entered into, called "The Holy League," by the pope, the kings of the Romans, Castille, Aragon, and at a later period England, several minor Italian states, and the Turkish sultan, for the defence of their respective states. The soul of this league was his former ally, Louis Sforza, who waited anxiously for the moment of vengeance.

Philip de Comines, the king's ambassador at Venice, warned him of his danger, and it was considered prudent to return to France. Accordingly, having placed garrisons in the chief towns, and left Gilbert de Bourbon, count of Montpensier, as his lieutenant-general, he retraced his steps homewards.

His retreat was not unmolested. The duke of Orleans, whom Charles had left at Asti, to secure communication with his kingdom, impatient to seize the ducal crown of Milan, attacked Louis Sforza, who in his turn surrounded the duke's

troops, and blocked them up in Novara, of which Orleans had taken possession. All Lombardy flew to arms, and the Venetian and Milanese armies coalesced, and pursued the retreating French. They overtook them in the plains of Parma, on the banks of the Taro, near Fornovo. The army of Charles being far inferior in number, he attempted to negotiate, but the Italians refused. Dividing into two bodies, they attacked the French in front and rear at the passage of the Taro. The French made a valiant resistance, and gained a partial victory; but they continued their retreat, nor allowed themselves repose till they reached Asti, where the duke of Orleans was to have awaited Charles with reinforcements. The duke was still shut up in Novara, and Charles was obliged to march to his aid. He effected his liberation by a treaty with Louis Sforza, and then hastened to France, where he arrived in November, 1495.

In the mean time Frederic was endeavouring to recover his kingdom of Naples. His first attempt was unsuccessful, being defeated by Stuart, count of Aubigny, great-grandson of the Scotch constable killed at the battle of Herrings. Frederic, however, returned to the enterprise, and the Neapolitans rose in his favour, and expelled the count of Montpensier, and no effort of Charles could succour his partisans in Naples. The count of Montpensier shut himself up in Atella, and was soon after obliged to surrender, while Stuart of Aubigny retreated to France with his troops.

Thus the ambitious schemes of Charles, and his dreams of rivalling the fame of Charlemagne,

ended in defeat. He projected a second expedition, but he was smitten with apoplexy in 1498, and died at the early age of twenty-seven. Comines says that "he was of a small person, and little understanding; but a better creature was not to be seen." He adds that "the most humane and mildest speech that man ever had was his; for never said he aught to any man which might displease him." Like many other French monarchs, the great blot in his character was ambition. This it was that impelled him to deeds of war, by which he was rendered a scourge to the human race. Like his tyrant parent, Louis XI., he made his own subjects, as well as the subjects of other princes, feel the arm of his power. Notwithstanding, the use of his power was rendered subservient to good in the world by a Divine Providence. Unshackled by superstition, by it he checked the dominion of the papacy, than which a greater evil was never suffered to prevail in the world; for while the ambition of monarchs simply. domineered over the property and bodies of mankind, the ambition of pontiffs enslaved the soul; that imperishable principle, the eternal happiness of which depends on its liberty to seek salvation in the blood and merits of Jesus Christ; a liberty which it is denied by the Romish Church. Ambitious, therefore, as Charles was, and regardless of ecclesiastical affairs, he was doubtless an instrument in unfolding the purposes of the Almighty. He checked the power of the pontiffs, that the dawn of the Reformation, which had already appeared, might grow brighter and brighter, till it became a perfect day.

CHAPTER VII.

BRANCH OF VALOIS ORLEANS.

A.D. 1498-1515.

LOUIS XII.

THE Crown of France had descended from father to son in a succession of seven monarchs from Philip of Valois to Charles the Eighth. The children of Charles had all died in infancy, and the direct line was therefore broken. The duke of Orleans, grandson of the brother of Charles vi., was his nearest relative, and succeeded him on the throne by the title of Louis XII.

At the period of his ascension to the throne, Louis was thirty-six years of age. In his youth he had been dissipated, extravagant, and turbulent; but like Henry v. of England, he discarded these vices when he assumed the sceptre. A similar spirit of forgiveness also marked his accession. When his courtiers urged him to disgrace La Tremouille, the general who defeated him at St. Aubin, he replied, "The king of France must forget the injuries offered to the duke of Orleans."

The first act of Louis was one of deep policy. He had been compelled by Louis XI. to espouse his daughter Jeanne, an amiable princess, but