.

The balls, fetes, and tourneys began with a magnificence surpassing
anything that Italy had ever seen before. But suddenly they were
interrupted by the king's illness. This was the first example in Italy
of the disease brought by Christopher Columbus from the New World, and
was called by Italians the French, by Frenchmen the Italian disease.
The probability is that some of Columbus's crew who were at Genoa or
thereabouts had already brought over this strange and cruel complaint
that counter balanced the gains of the American gold-mines.

The king's indisposition, however, did not prove so grave as was at
first supposed. He was cured by the end of a few weeks, and proceeded on
his way towards Pavia, where the young Duke John Galeazzo lay dying. He
and the King of France were first cousins, sons of two sisters of the
house of Savoy. So Charles VIII was obliged to see him, and went to
visit him in the castle where he lived more like prisoner than lord. He
found him half reclining on a couch, pale and emaciated, some said in
consequence of luxurious living, others from the effects of a slow but
deadly poison. But whether or not the poor young man was desirous of
pouring out a complaint to Charles, he did not dare say a word; for his
uncle, Ludovico Sforza, never left the King of France for an instant.
But at the very moment when Charles VIII was getting up to go, the door
opened, and a young woman appeared and threw herself at the king's feet;
she was the wife of the unlucky John Galeazzo, and came to entreat his
cousin to do nothing against her father Alfonso, nor against her
brother Ferdinand. At sight of her; Sforza scowled with an anxious and
threatening aspect, far he knew not what impression might be produced on
his ally by this scene. But he was soon reassured; far Charles replied
that he had advanced too far to draw back now, and that the glory of
his name was at stake as well as the interests of his kingdom, and
that these two motives were far too important to be sacrificed to any
sentiment of pity he might feel, however real and deep it might be and
was. The poor young woman, who had based her last hope an this appeal,
then rose from her knees and threw herself sobbing into her husband's
arms. Charles VIII and Ludavico Sforza, took their leave: John Galeazzo
was doomed.

Two days after, Charles VIII left for Florence, accompanied by his ally;
but scarcely had they reached Parma when a messenger caught them up