pope should require his
presence in person at the capital of the Christian world just at the
present time, when six weeks previously, at the time of his return from
Naples, although he ardently desired an interview with His Holiness, that
he might offer proofs of his respect and obedience, His Holiness, instead
of according this favour, had quitted Rome so hastily on his approach
that he had not been able to come up with him by any efforts whatsoever.
On this point, however, he promised to give His Holiness the satisfaction
he desired, if he would engage this time to wait for him: he would
therefore return to Rome so soon as the affairs that brought him back to
his own kingdom had been satisfactorily, settled.

Although in this reply there was a touch of mockery and defiance, Charles
was none the less compelled by the circumstances of the case to obey the
pope's strange brief. His presence was so much needed in France that, in
spite of the arrival of a Swiss reinforcement, he was compelled to
conclude a peace with Ludovico Sforza, whereby he yielded Novara to him;
while Gilbert de Montpensier and d'Aubigny, after defending, inch by
inch, Calabria, the Basilicate, and Naples, were obliged to sign the
capitulation of Atella, after a siege of thirty-two days, on the 20th of
July, 1496. This involved giving back to Ferdinand II, King of Naples,
all the palaces and fortresses of his kingdom; which indeed he did but
enjoy for three months, dying of exhaustion on the 7th of September
following, at the Castello della Somma, at the foot of Vesuvius; all the
attentions lavished upon him by his young wife could not repair the evil
that her beauty had wrought.

His uncle Frederic succeeded; and so, in the three years of his papacy,
Alexander VI had seen five kings upon the throne of Naples, while he was
establishing himself more firmly upon his own pontifical seat--Ferdinand
I, Alfonso I, Charles VIII, Ferdinand II, and Frederic. All this
agitation about his throne, this rapid succession of sovereigns, was the
best thing possible for Alexander; for each new monarch became actually
king only on condition of his receiving the pontifical investiture. The
consequence was that Alexander was the only gainer in power and credit by
these changes; for the Duke of Milan and the republics of Florence and
Venice had successively recognised him as supreme head of the Church, in
spite of his simony; moreover, the five kings of Naples had in