When Ferdinand II. took refuge in the island of Ischia, and Castel Nuovo and Castel dell’ Uovo had surrendered at Naples, Charles VIII., considering himself in possession of the kingdom, announced his intention, and, there is reason to believe, actually harbored the design, of returning to France, without asserting any further his pretensions as a conqueror.  On the 20th of March, before the Italian league had been definitively concluded, Briconnet, Cardinal of St. Malo, who had attended the king throughout his expedition, wrote to the queen, Anne of Brittany, “His Majesty is using diligence as best he can to return over yonder, and has expressly charged me, for my part, to hasten his affairs.  I hope he will be able to start hence about the 8th of April.  He will leave over here, as lieutenant, my lord de Montpensier, with a thousand or twelve hundred lances, partly French and partly of this country, fifteen hundred Swiss, and a thousand French crossbow-men.”  Charles himself wrote, on the 28th of March, to his brother-in-law, the Duke of Bourbon, that he would mount his horse immediately after Quasimodo [the first Sunday after Easter], to return to France without halting, or staying in any place.  But Charles, whilst so speaking and projecting, was forgetful of his giddy indolence, his frivolous tastes, and his passion for theatrical display and licentious pleasure.  The climate, the country, the customs of Naples charmed him.  “You would never believe,” he wrote to the Duke of Bourbon, “what beautiful gardens I have in this city; on my faith, they seem to me to lack only Adam and Eve to make of them an earthly paradise, so beautiful are they, and full of nice and curious things, as I hope to tell you soon.  To add to that, I have found in this country the best of painters; and I will send you some of them to make the most beautiful ceilings possible.  The ceilings at Beauce, Lyons, and other places in France do not approach those of this place in beauty and richness. . . .  Wherefore I shall provide myself with them, and bring them with me for to have some done at Arnboise.”  Politics were forgotten in the presence of these royal fancies.  Charles VIII. remained nearly two months at Naples after the Italian league had been concluded, and whilst it was making its preparations against him was solely concerned about enjoying, in his beautiful but precarious kingdom, “all sorts of mundane pleasaunces,” as his councillor, the Cardinal of St. Malo, says, and giving entertainments to his new subjects, as much disposed as himself to forget everything in amusement.  On the 12th of May, 1495, all the population of Naples and of the neighboring country was afoot early to see their new king make his entry in state as King of Naples, Sicily, and Jerusalem, with his Neapolitan court and his French army.  Charles was on horseback beneath a rich dais borne by great Neapolitan lords; he had a close crown on his head, the sceptre in his right hand, and a golden globe in his left; in front