Orleans was hard
pressed in Novara, he made no effort to relieve him; nor did he attempt
to use the 20,000 Switzers who descended from their Alps to aid him in
the struggle with the league. From Asti he removed to Turin, where he
spent his time in flirting with Anna Soleri, the daughter of his host.
This girl had been sent to harangue him with a set oration, and had
fulfilled her task, in the words of an old witness, 'without wavering,
coughing, spitting, or giving way at all.' Her charms delayed the king
in Italy until October 19, when he signed a treaty at Vercelli with the
Duke of Milan. At this moment Charles might have held Italy in his
grasp. His forces, strengthened by the unexpected arrival of so many
Switzers, and by a junction with the Duke of Orleans, would have been
sufficient to overwhelm the army of the league, and to intimidate the
faction of Ferdinand in Naples. Yet so light-minded was Charles, and so
impatient were his courtiers, that he now only cared for a quick return
to France. Reserving to himself the nominal right of using Genoa as a
naval station, he resigned that town to Lodovico Sforza, and confirmed
him in the tranquil possession of his Duchy. On October 22 he left
Turin, and entered his own dominions through the Alps of Dauphine.
Already his famous conquest of Italy was reckoned among the wonders of
the past, and his sovereignty over Naples had become the shadow of a
name. He had obtained for himself nothing but momentary glory, while he
imposed on France a perilous foreign policy, and on Italy the burden of
bloody warfare in the future.

A little more than a year had elapsed between the first entry of Charles
into Lombardy and his return to France. Like many other brilliant
episodes of history, this conquest, so showy and so ephemeral, was more
important as a sign than as an actual event. 'His passage,' says
Guicciardini, 'was the cause not only of change in states, downfalls of
kingdoms, desolations of whole districts, destructions of cities,
barbarous butcheries; but also of new customs, new modes of conduct, new
and bloody habits of war, diseases hitherto unknown. The organization
upon which the peace and harmony of Italy depended was so upset that,
since that time, other foreign nations and barbarous armies have been
able to trample her under foot and to ravage her at pleasure.' The only
error of Guicciardini is the assumption that the holiday excursion of
Charles VIII. was in any deep s