ing was arranged at Vicovaro, near Tivoli,
and the three interested parties duly met on the appointed day.

The intention of Alfonso, who before leaving Naples had settled the
disposition of his naval forces, and given his brother Frederic the
command of a fleet that consisted of thirty-six galleys, eighteen large
and twelve small vessels, with injunctions to wait at Livorno and keep a
watch on the fleet Charles VIII was getting ready at the port of Genoa,
was above all things to check with the aid of his allies the progress of
operations on land. Without counting the contingent he expected his
allies to furnish, he had at his immediate disposal a hundred squadrons
of heavy cavalry, twenty men in each, and three thousand bowmen and light
horse. He proposed, therefore, to advance at once into Lombardy, to get
up a revolution in favour of his nephew Galeazzo, and to drive Ludovico
Sforza out of Milan before he could get help from France; so that Charles
VIII, at the very time of crossing the Alps, would find an enemy to fight
instead of a friend who had promised him a safe passage, men, and money.

This was the scheme of a great politician and a bold commander; but as
everybody had came in pursuit of his own interests, regardless of the
common this plan was very coldly received by Piero dei Medici, who was
afraid lest in the war he should play only the same poor part he had been
threatened with in the affair of the embassy; by Alexander VI it was
rejected, because he reckoned on employing the troops of Alfonso an his
own account. He reminded the King of Naples of one of the conditions of
the investiture he had promised him, viz. that he should drive out the
Cardinal Giuliano delta Rovere from the town of Ostia, and give up the
town to him, according to the stipulation already agreed upon. Besides,
the advantages that had accrued to Virginio Orsini, Alexander's
favourite, from his embassy to Naples had brought upon him the ill-will
of Prospero and Fabrizio Colonna, who owned nearly all the villages round
about Rome. Now the pope could not endure to live in the midst of such
powerful enemies, and the most important matter was to deliver him from
all of them, seeing that it was really of moment that he should be at
peace who was the head and soul of the league whereof the others were
only the body and limbs.

Although Alfonso had clearly seen through the motives of Piero's
coldness, and Alexander had not even given him