ror-elect with dismay, and
he turned to the Milanese envoys with the words, "I know that the Duke
of Milan has great power in Italy, and has proved his faith and good
intentions towards myself, but I hope, since he is so wise in
everything, that he will make some difference between me and the King of
France."

Lodovico, however, needed no warning on this subject, and was as much
alarmed as any of his neighbours at the extraordinary success which had
attended Charles VIII.'s expedition. Florence and Siena both received
him within their gates, and helped him with loans of money and supplies
of corn. On the 4th of December he left Siena; by the 10th he was at
Viterbo, within sixty miles of Rome, and sent the Pope word that he
would spend Christmas in the Vatican and treat with him there. For a
moment Alexander VI., encouraged by the arrival of the Duke of
Calabria's army under the walls of the eternal city, put on a bold face
and defied Charles to do his worst. The same day he arrested the
cardinals Ascanio Sforza and Sanseverino at a consistory in the Vatican,
upon which Galeazzo di Sanseverino, who was at Viterbo with the French
king, rode all the way to Vigevano in three days, to take Lodovico the
news of this insult to his family. The duke was furious, and vowed
vengeance upon the Pope. But Alexander's courage soon failed him. In a
few days his defiant mood gave place to one of abject terror, the two
cardinals were released and sent to plead the Pope's cause with Charles
VIII., and on the 30th of December Ferrante retired with his troops
towards Naples. That same day the French king entered Rome by the
Flaminian Gate, and rode in triumphal procession along the Corso with
Cardinals Giuliano delle Rovere and Ascanio Sforza at his side, both of
them, remarks Commines, great enemies of the Pope, and still greater
enemies of one another. Alexander fled for shelter to the Castello
Sant'Angelo, and Charles took up his abode in the palace of San Marco,
from which he dictated terms of peace to the terrified pontiff. Already
a rumour had reached Milan that the Pope was to be deposed, and that the
French king intended to attempt a general reformation of the scandals
that disgraced the Church.

"His Most Christian Majesty," remarked Lodovico, drily, "had better
begin by reforming himself." And when the Venetian ambassador Sebastian
Badoer and Benedetto Trevisano arrived at Vigevano to take counsel with
the duke in this perilous