should leave no peace in Italy.  We are compelled to fight; but the Duke of Bari (i.e. Lodovico Sforza) should think what may ensue from the tumult he is stirring up.  He who raises this wind will not be able to lay the tempest when he likes.  Let him look to the past, and he will see how every time that our internal quarrels have brought Powers from beyond the Alps into Italy, these have oppressed and lorded over her.’

Terribly verified as these words were destined to be,—­and they were no less prophetic in their political sagacity than Savonarola’s prediction of the Sword and bloody Scourge,—­it was now too late to avert the coming ruin.  On March 1, 1494, Charles was with his army at Lyons.  Early in September he had crossed the pass of Mont Genevre and taken up his quarters in the town of Asti.  There is no need to describe in detail the holiday march of the French troops through Lombardy, Tuscany, and Rome, until, without having struck a blow of consequence, the gates of Naples opened to receive the conqueror upon February 22, 1495.  Philippe de Comines, who parted from the King at Asti and passed the winter as his envoy at Venice, has more than once recorded his belief that nothing but the direct interposition of Providence could have brought so mad an expedition to so successful a conclusion.  ‘Dieu monstroit conduire l’entreprise,’ No sooner, however, was Charles installed in Naples than the States of Italy began to combine against him.  Lodovico Sforza had availed himself of the general confusion consequent upon the first appearance of the French, to poison his nephew.  He was, therefore, now the titular, as well as virtual, Lord of Milan.  So far, he had achieved what he desired, and had no further need of Charles.  The overtures he now made to the Venetians and the Pope terminated in a League between these Powers for the expulsion of the French from Italy.  Germany and Spain entered into the same alliance; and De Comines, finding himself treated with marked coldness by the Signory of Venice, despatched a courier to warn Charles in Naples of the coming danger.  After a stay of only fifty days in his new capital, the French King hurried northward.  Moving quickly through the Papal States and Tuscany, he engaged his troops in the passes of the Apennines near Pontremoli, and on July 5, 1495, took up his quarters in the village of Fornovo.  De Comines reckons that his whole fighting force at this time did not exceed 9,000 men, with fourteen pieces of artillery.  Against him at the opening of the valley was the army of the League, numbering some 35,000 men, of whom three-fourths were supplied by Venice, the rest by Lodovico Sforza and the German Emperor.  Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, was the general of the Venetian forces; and on him, therefore, fell the real responsibility of the battle.