t must
be taken as a rough one. Still students who have weighed the
facts presented in Ferrari's _Rivoluzioni d' Italia_ will not
think the estimate exaggerated. In the municipal and civil
wars, free burghs were extinguished by the score.

[2] See Varchi, vol. i. p. 49. Also the _Elogia_ of Paulus
Jovius, who remarks that the complexion of Lodovico was fair.
His surname, however, provoked puns. Me had, for example, a
picture painted, in which Italy, dressed like a queen, is
having her robe brushed by a Moorish page. A motto ran beneath,
_Per Italia nettar d' ogni bruttura_. He adopted the mulberry
because Pliny called it the most prudent of all trees, inasmuch
as it waits till winter is well over to put forth its leaves,
and Lodovico piqued himself on his sagacity in choosing the
right moment for action.

[3] _L' Historia di Milano_, Vinegia, 1554, p. 448: 'A quella
(scola di Venere) per ogni canto vi si convenivan bellissimi
giovani. I padri vi concedevano le figliuole, i mariti le
mogliere, i fratelli le sorelle; e per sifatto modo senz' alcun
riguardo molti concorreano all' amoroso ballo, che cosa
stupendissima era riputata per qualunque l' intendeva.'

[4] Guicciardini, _Storia d' Italia_, lib. iii. p. 35, sums up
the character of Lodovico with masterly completeness.

Amid this general perturbation of the old political order the year
1494, marked in its first month by the death of King Ferdinand,
began--'a year,' to quote from Guicciardini, 'the most unfortunate for
Italy, the very first in truth of our disastrous years, since it opened
the door to numberless and horrible calamities, in which it may be said
that a great portion of the world has subsequently shared.' The
expectation and uneasiness of the whole nation were proportioned to the
magnitude of the coming change. On every side the invasion of the
French was regarded with that sort of fascination which a very new and
exciting event is wont to inspire. In one mood the Italians were
inclined to hail Charles as a general pacificator and restorer of old
liberties.[1] Savonarola had preached of him as the _flagellum Dei_,
the minister appointed to regenerate the Church and purify the font of
spiritual life in the peninsula. In another frame of mind they
shuddered to think what the advent of the barbarians--so the French
were called--might bring upon them. It was universal