Franceschetto Cibo, had contrived to engage Innocent VIII.
in the scheme of policy which he framed for Florence, Naples, Milan, and
Ferrara. But on the accession of Alexander, Franceschetto Cibo
determined to get rid of Anguillara, Cervetri, and other fiefs, which he
had taken with his father's connivance from the Church. He found a
purchaser in Virginio Orsini. Alexander complained that the sale was an
infringement of his rights. Ferdinand supported the title of the Orsini
to his new acquisitions. This alienated the Pope from the King of
Naples, and made him willing to join with Milan and Venice in a new
league formed in 1493.

[1] Piero de' Medici was what the French call a _bel homme_,
and little more. He was tall, muscular, and well-made, the best
player at _pallone_ in Italy, a good horseman, fluent and
agreeable in conversation, and excessively vain of these
advantages.

Thus the old equilibrium was destroyed, and fresh combinations between
the disunited powers of Italy took place. Lodovico, however, dared not
trust his new friends. Venice had too long hankered after Milan to be
depended upon for real support; and Alexander was known to be in treaty
for a matrimonial alliance between his son Geoffrey and Donna Sancia of
Aragon. Lodovico was therefore alone, without a firm ally in Italy, and
with a manifestly fraudulent title to maintain. At this juncture he
turned his eyes towards France; while his father-in-law, the Duke of
Ferrara, who secretly hated him, and who selfishly hoped to secure his
own advantage in the general confusion which he anticipated, urged him
to this fatal course. Alexander at the same time, wishing to frighten
the princes of Naples into a conclusion of the projected marriage,
followed the lead of Lodovico, and showed himself at this moment not
averse to a French invasion.

It was in this way that the private cupidities and spites of princes
brought woe on Italy: Lodovico's determination to secure himself in the
usurped Duchy of Milan, Ercole d' Este's concealed hatred, and
Alexander's unholy eagerness to aggrandize his bastards, were the vile
and trivial causes of an event which, however inevitable, ought to have
been as long as possible deferred by all true patriots in Italy. But in
Italy there was no zeal for freedom left, no honor among princes, no
virtue in the Church. Italy, which in the thirteenth century numbered
1,800,000 citizens--that is, members of free citi