the king a magnificent reception. Charles
advanced, cap in hand, to greet the duchess, and, beginning with
Beatrice and Bianca, the young wife of Messer Galeazzo, kissed all the
ladies present. The beauty and vivacity of the young duchess made a deep
impression upon the susceptible French monarch, who could not take his
eyes off her, and after spending some time with her in lively
conversation, begged her to allow him to see her dance. Beatrice readily
complied with his request, as she tells Isabella in the following
letter, written from Annona on the 12th of September:--

"About noonday the king came here to pay me a friendly visit with the
chief lords of his court, and remained for about three hours with me and
my ladies, conversing with the greatest familiarity and affection. I
assure you that no prince in the world could have made himself more
agreeable. He desired to see my ladies dance, and then begged me to
dance before him, which seemed to give him great pleasure."[53]

The young king himself, short and ill proportioned as he was, with round
shoulders and a large head, a very wide mouth and big nose, cut but a
very sorry figure by the side of the stately Moro and the handsome
Sanseverini brothers; but his good nature and genial manners atoned for
his want of presence, and surprised Beatrice and her ladies, who had
expected a far more formidable personage. "He was little in stature and
of small sense, very timid in speech owing to the way in which he had
been treated as a child, and as feeble in mind as he was in body, but
the kindest and gentlest creature alive," says Commines, who accompanied
Charles to Asti, and was sent on as ambassador to Venice. Guicciardini's
judgment is more severe--

"And for the increasing of the infelicities of Italy, he whose coming
brought all these calamities, was void of almost all the gifts of
nature and the mind. For it is most certaine that King Charles from his
infancie was of complexion very delicate and of body unsound and
diseased, of small stature, and of face, if the aspect and dignitie of
his eyes had been taken away, foule and deformed, his other members
bearing such equal proportion that he seemed more a monster than a man.
He was not only without all knowledge of good sciences, but scarcely he
knew the distinct characters of letters; his mind desirous to command,
but more proper to any other thing, for that being environed alwayes
with his familiars and favourites, h