. The princes whose interest it might have
been to throw obstacles in the way of Charles were but children. The
Duke of Savoy was only twelve years old, the Marquis of Montferrat
fourteen; their mothers and guardians made terms with the French king,
and opened their territories to his armies.

[1] 'La despense de ces navires estoit fort grande, et suis
d'advis qu'elle cousta trois cens mille francs, et si ne servit
de rien, et y alla tout l'argent contant que le Roy peut finer
de ses finances: car comme j'ay dit, il n'estoit point pourveu
ne de sens, ne d'argent, oy d'autre chose necessaire a telle
entreprise, et si en vint bien a bout, moyennant la grace de
Dieu, qui clairement le donna ainsi a cognoistre.' De Comines,
lib. vii.

[2] Guicciardini calls him on this occasion 'fatale instrumento
e allora e prima e poi de' mali d' Italia.' Lib. i. cap. 3.

[3] I have followed the calculation of Sismondi (vol. vii. p.
383), to which should be added perhaps another 10,000 in all
attached to the artillery, and 2,000 for sappers, miners,
carpenters, etc. See Dennistoun, _Dukes of Urbino_, vol. i. p.
433, for a detailed list of Charles's armaments by land and
sea.

At Asti Charles was met by Lodovico Sforza and his father-in-law, Ercole
d' Este. The whole of that Milanese Court which Corio describes[1]
followed in their train. It was the policy of the Italian princes to
entrap their conqueror with courtesies, and to entangle in silken
meshes the barbarian they dreaded. What had happened already at Lyons,
what was going to repeat itself at Naples, took place at Asti. The
French king lost his heart to ladies, and confused his policy by
promises made to Delilahs in the ballroom. At Asti he fell ill of the
small-pox, but after a short time he recovered his health, and proceeded
to Pavia. Here a serious entanglement of interests arose. Charles was
bound by treaties and engagements to Lodovico and his proud wife
Beatrice d' Este; the very object of his expedition was to dethrone
Alfonso and to assume the crown of Naples; yet at Pavia he had to endure
the pathetic spectacle of his forlorn cousin[2] the young Giovanni
Galeazzo Sforza in prison, and to hear the piteous pleadings of the
beautiful Isabella of Aragon. Nursed in chivalrous traditions, incapable
of resisting a woman's tears, what was Charles to do, when this princess
in distress, the wife of his first cousi