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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 the trouble of seeking
his, he was none the less obliged to bow to the will of his allies,
leaving the one to defend the Apennines against the French, and helping
the other to s
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