mines:

talent for such an enterprise.
The king [he says] had neither money nor
He was
very young, weak in body, obstinate, sur-
rounded by few persons of prudence or expe-
rience; money he had none, insomuch that
before his departure he was obliged to borrow
one hundred thousand francs from a banker of
Genoa at an enormous interest, as well as to

duchy was advanced upon the part of all the possessions of Charles Comte de Charles, and the Bretons, refused all aid Maine, the last of the house of Anjou. by England, offered their young duchess France, weary of the reign of dulness and in marriage to Maximilian, whose wife, bourgeois, and impelled by that mysterious Mary of Burgundy, was recently dead. impulse which drives effete societies to The proposal was accepted, the nuptials seek new developments, eagerly seconded celebrated by proxy, when and where is his ambition. To the which impulse a unknown, for there is a veil of mystery considerable impetus was given by the anover the whole transaction. But Maxi-nouncement that the acquisition of Naples milian was too much embarrassed by the would be but the preliminary step to the turbulence of his Flemish subjects to be conquest of Constantinople and Jerusaable to afford any succor to the Bretons, lem, and the general overthrow of the infiand France was making rapid progress del. There were counsellors, among them towards their conquest. Their danger his sister Anne, who strove hard to perwas imminent, when a new and extraordi- suade him against this design; and wisely, nary shuffle of the cards, which astonished too, to judge by the statements of that all Europe, solved the difficulty, trium- veracious chronicler, Philippe de Comphantly for France, honorably for Brittany. Charles had been betrothed to the daughter of Maximilian while she was yet an infant, and the young lady had been brought up in Paris and bore the title of queen. But Anne de Beaujeu conceived the daring idea of repudiating this engagement, procuring the dissolution of the duchess's marriage with Maximilian, which had never been consummated, and obtain-resort to other places for assistance. He had ing her hand for the king. It was a neither tent nor pavilion, and in this fashion master-stroke of policy, but difficult of he began his march into Lombardy. execution as daring of conception, for thing only seemed favorable to him, he had a gallant company, consisting chiefly of young the young duchess affected Maximilian. gentlemen, though with little discipline. The Duc d'Orléans was released from prison to act as mediator; at the same time Charles advanced with a powerful army to the gates of Rennes, at that time her residence. The double persuasion was too potent to resist; the gates were opened, and the marriage soon after solemnized. Too late, England bestirred herself, and landed a large body of troops upon the French coast; Spain also assumed a threatening aspect; a large sum of money and a pension bought off the avaricious Tudor; Spain was quieted with the restoration of Roussillon, while the insulted father and disappointed bride groom had to content himself with the cession of Artois and Franche Comté, which had formed his daughter's dowry.

Neither pusillanimity nor an imitation of the late king's policy was the motive which dictated this seemingly shameful peace. Charles was now of age, and within that puny, ili-formed body, and weak, uncultured mind, burned a fiery ambition to emulate, if not surpass, the deeds and conquests of Charlemagne, to whom it was his great desire to be compared! The idea which engrossed all his thoughts, and to which he was ready to make any sacrifice, was the conquest of Naples, to the crown of which he pretended, as heir to

One

Nevertheless, he was not insensible to the advice of his more prudent counsellors, as continual vacillations evidenced; the orders given one day were countermanded the next, and Commines tells us that even after he, Commines, had commenced his journey, he was sent back and told the attempt was relinquished.

At length the king's mind was finally resolved, and the troops were put in motion. His army has been variously esti mated by different historians as from twenty thousand to fifty thousand men; his effective force was probably about thirty thousand; but it was of different calibre to any that had been led by his predecessors, and opened a new era in military history. That heterogeneous mass of feudatories and their vassals, whose jealousies and disaffections could at any moment render the king powerless, the which was the only army the sovereigns of France could command, was replaced, for the first time, by a body of men which, though half mercenaries, half volunteers, the latter, as Commines says, sadly lacking discipline, was to a certain extent homogeneous and obedient to one head. Another distinguishing feature of this armament was the strength of the artillery

and the accumulation of military stores, | tors was this host of fierce barbarians to by which the soldiers were no longer the luxurious and effeminate Italians, who dependent for sustenance upon forage and never drew a sword when dagger or falseplunder. This army has an especial his-hood would serve their turn, and whose torical importance as being the initiatory battles, fought by mercénaries, never by of modern warfare. themselves, were mere shams, a playing Michelet thus describes it entering at warfare. Of such unwarlike habits,

Rome :

marched the barbaric battalions of Swiss and

and split up into petty states, which hated hated the foreigner, what resistance could each other more virulently even than they Italy make to such invaders? Florence, Pisa, Rome, opened their gates to them receiving them with fêtes and splendors such as their eyes had never before gazed upon. The king of Naples fled before their approach, which from the Alps to the southern extremity of the country was one magnificent progress, with scarcely a shadow of opposition.

And yet Italy, and not France, was the true conqueror, and soul subdued brute force as the eye of man can subdue the wild beast.

At the head, to the beat of the drums, Germans, clothed in short tunics and closefitting pantaloons of a hundred different hues; many were of enormous stature, and to render themselves taller they wore in their helmets a great plume of feathers. Most of them carried, with their swords, a sharp-pointed lance; one-fourth had halberds, the iron axe of which was formed in four angles, a most murderous weapon in their hands both for thrusting and bewing each thousand of soldiers contained a hundred fusiliers. These Swiss despised the cuirass, and the first rank only wore corslets. Behind these Swiss giants came five or six thousand small men with sun-burned, savage visages; these were the Gascons, the best men for marching in Europe, full of fire, to the barbarism of the north, that the conThe contrast [says Michelet] was so strong spirit, resources, sure and quick of hand, firing ten shots to others' one. The men-atquerors were dazzled, almost intimidated by arms followed on horseback, two thousand the novelty of the objects. Before those picfive hundred enveloped in iron, each one at-tures, those marble churches, those delicious tended by his pages and two valets. Then six thousand light cavalry, feudal troops in the captains were no longer lords leading appearance, but very different in reality, for their vassals, but officers of the king commanding men of nobler birth than their own. Their big horses shorn, in the French fashion, of tail and ears, made them look monsters in the eyes of the astonished Italians. The light horse carried the great English bow of Agincourt and Poitiers. Around the king there marched on foot, with the Scotch guards, three hundred archers and two hundred cheyaliers covered in purple and gold, but with masses of iron upon their shoulders. Then came thirty-six bronze cannons, each weighing six hundred pounds, some long culverins, these were followed by a hundred fauconneux,* not dragged along by bulls in the Italian manner, but each piece placed upon a carriage and drawn by six horses.

vines peopled with statues, before those beau

tiful girls crowned with flowers, who came, Then their joy burst forth in noisy vivacity. palms in their hands, to bring them the keys of the towns, they remained drunk with stupor.

The French barbarians must have had some wonderful illuminations during their stay in Rome. The vices of the Cæsars could scarcely have exceeded those of the pontiffs of this age. Sixtus the Fifth was guilty of every crime, from incest downwards. Innocent the Eighth followed in his steps, and was as tolerant to others as he was to himself. A man had slain his two daughters; the pope was appealed to for justice. "God does not wish the death of the sinner, but that he should pay and live," was the answer through the

mouth of his chamberlain. About the same time two monks, whom he had sent It was on the 31st of December, 1494, into Trêves, were burning six thousand at three o'clock in the afternoon, that this people for sorcery! The culmination of imposing procession began to pass through infamy was attained by the elevation of the narrow, tortuous streets of Rome, and Roderigo Borgia to the papal throne. long ere it was finished, the short winter's Guicciardini describes him as being pruday had closed and torches had to be lit. dent, persuasive, sound of understanding, A weird and terror-inspiring sight must it vigilant, and incredibly persevering; but have been by that red, dusky light, that immoderate in his avarice, more than barcast a thousand grotesque and monstrous barous in his cruelty, and a monster as shadows upon house and road. Almost as depraved as Nero or Caligula. Charles terrible as the invading hordes of the Goths and his nobles must have doubtless witand Huns had been to their remote ances-nessed some of the lascivious orgies of that terrible family, perhaps such a one as that which celebrated the nuptials of

* A great gun about six and a half feet long.

Lucrezia to D'Este, when fifty courtesans like a common soldier. The Italian mer danced naked before his Holiness and his cenaries plundered the French tents of sons and daughter for a prize bestowed the spoil of Naples, and then fled. The upon her whose motions were the most victory was doubtful, but the allies decidsuggestive. Much of the sensuality which edly had the best of the situation; they disgraced the French court for the next invested the city of Novara, which Orléans three hundred years was born of these and had captured, reduced him and his garri the subsequent Italian expeditions. Thus son to a state of famine, and compelled the invaders were at the same time brought Charles to enter into a treaty with Sforza. under the influence of the highest and About the same time the French were most refining developments of the human expelled from Naples, and young Ferdi mind, and the lowest forms of bestialism | nand reseated upon the throne. In which man can assume, and out of the October, 1495, Charles re-entered his king combination of the two has sprung our dom with a mere remnant of his grand modern civilization. The Borgias found army, and that worn out by disease and in Charles something of a kindred spirit. fatigue, after having accomplished nothing On his march from Paris he had halted a in the present, but much, both good and month at Lyons, delivering himself up to evil, for the future. The year of his rethe most sensual debauchery, from which turn, 1496, was the first of the Renaissance he was roused only by the energetic remon- in France. The reconstruction of the strances of his sister; and at Milan his Château d'Amboise in the Italian style life nearly paid the forfeit of such indul- was the first fruit. gences.

and most affable prince in the world. I verily tinued so long. He was the sweetest-natured believe he never said a word to any man that could in reason displease him.

He survived this expedition but three Treachery opened to him the gates of years, and left no issue, the Dauphin havNaples; and on the 22nd of February, ing died in his infancy. The character of 1495, he entered that city amidst the accla- such a man needs no analysis. And yet mations of the inhabitants; and within it was weak rather than naturally vicious, thirteen days from his departure from and possessed many amiable qualities. Rome the whole of the kingdom submitted to him. But the Neapolitans very I never saw [says Commines] so solemn a speedily discovered that they had not bet-mourning for any prince, nor one that contered themselves by the exchange of masters; the nobles who had so readily assisted him were deprived of their estates, and the whole country was ravaged by the licentious soldiery with brutal violence. Dangers began to gather fast about the conqueror, the least of which was the disaffection of his new subjects. The treacherous Sforza, who had first prompted him to the enterprise, and who through his aid had, after poisoning his nephew, usurped the ducal throne of Milan, had formed a league with Venice and Rome, to which both Spain and Austria promised assistance, to destroy him and his troops.

Alarmed for his safety, Charles determined to return to France, and, after performing an empty pageant, in which he made a public entry into the city as king of France, Sicily, and Jerusalem, and garrisoning the capital and the principal fortresses, he commenced his homeward journey. He encountered little resistance, although his soldiers committed more than one act of butchery, until he arrived upon the plains of Lombardy; there an army of the allies barred his further progress; a battle was fought, in which very little bravery was displayed upon either side, although the king is said to have fought |

Charles was succeeded on the throne, his son having died in its infancy, by the Duc d'Orléans, a man in the prime of life and of a very different calibre. The first acts of his reign, however, were a continuation of the policy of his predecessor. He at once asserted his claim as king of France to the crown of Naples, to which he superadded a claim, as the heir of the Orléans family, to the duchy of Milan.

The treaty of Rennes, which provided for the marriage of Charles and Anne, stipulated that in the event of the king's death she should bestow her hand upon the next sovereign, or upon the heir presumptive, a clause introduced to secure the possession of Brittany under any contingency to the crown of France. But Louis was already married, twenty-two years before, to a daughter of Louis the Eleventh; they had lived separate, however, nearly ever since, for she was crooked and ugly, and had been forced upon him. A divorce and dispensation were easily obtained from Pope Alexander, and the new nuptials were very speedily celebrated. Nearly all the French historians tell us a

been expected, the robbers fell out over
the division of the spoil, the superior
genius of the "Great Captain," Gonsalvo,*
struck the balance in favour of Ferdinand;
and the French were expelled from the
Neapolitan territory, which was secured
for Spain, and remained an appanage of
that crown until our own time.
The pres-
tige of the French was likewise greatly
weakened by the result of a combat,
brought about by Gallic braggadocio, in
which thirteen French were opposed upon
equal terms to thirteen Italians; the result
of which was the complete victory of the
latter.

story of the lady's secret attachment to Orléans previous to her first marriage. But a comparison of ages and dates shows the absurdity of the legend. She was fifteen years younger than he, and at the time these love-passages were supposed to have occurred she was seven, he twentytwo years of age, a discrepancy which renders the incident very doubtful. If her heart were given to any one it was to Maximilian; to Orléans she had conceived a positive dislike, on account of the joy he had expressed at the news of her son's death. Political considerations, however, were more powerful than personal feelings. Having formed an alliance with the pope In the next cut of the cards we find and the republic of Venice, Louis crossed Louis and Ferdinand sworn brothers, the the Alps with twenty thousand men, cap-| latter taking the French king's niece, Gertured the Milanese territory, and on the maine de Foix, to wife, promising to pay 6th of October, 1499, entered the city as the expenses of the war, and entering into sovereign. His gracious behaviour, his secret conferences, out of which came the patronage of men of letters, and the res- famous League of Cambray. The purpose toration to the nobles of the rights of the of this treaty was the humiliation and dischase, of which they had been deprived memberment of the great Venetian repubby the Sforzas, rendered him highly popu- lic, the territories of which were to be lar. The news of the birth of a daughter divided between France, Spain, Austria, hastened his return to France. Trivulzio and Rome. The power of that great was left in command, and very soon that cruelty and licentiousness, which has ever disgraced French conquest, drove the people to prefer their old tyrants to their new. Milan again opened her gates to Ludovico Sforza; but at the last moment the treacherous desertion of his Swiss mercenaries ruined him; he fell into the hands of the French, and expiated a life of crime by imprisonment till death, in the castle of Loches. There, in a chamber, from which all light was excluded, he lingered out an existence of ten long miserable years.

oligarchy at this period may be estimated by its being able to make head against so terrible a combination. In a short time the Venetians brought forty thousand troops into the field, and these were supported by a naval force of corresponding strength. But treachery within assisted the foe without their arsenal was set on fire by some unknown hand, and their naval and military stores and twelve ships of war destroyed; shortly afterwards the castle of Brescia was blown up. About them on all sides gathered, like locusts, the forces of their invaders, while Julius This conquest secured, Louis turned his the Second † thundered upon them the attention towards Naples. Federigo, the anathemas of the Church; fire and sword reigning king, had refused to give his and massacre ravaged their towns, and at daughter's hand to Cæsar Borgia, and to the battle of Ghiaradadda the French, led avenge this insult to his family, Pope by the celebrated Gaston de Foix, comAlexander threw all his weight upon the pletely routed their army. Their seagirt side of France. A secret compact, one of capital and their numerous fleet, however, the most foully treacherous in history, was still remained intact, and gathering toalso entered into between Louis and Fer-gether the remnant of their forces they dinand of Spain, the substance of which was as follows. Upon the advance of the French Ferdinand was to send a body of troops to Naples, ostensibly to the support of Federigo, but as soon as they had obtained his confidence they were to join the forces of Louis, seize upon the kingdom, and divide the spoil between them. This infamous treaty, sanctioned by a papal bull, was successfully carried out. But speedy retribution overtook one of the perfidious monarchs. As might have

struggled on bravely against overwhelming odds. The history of the struggle is but a repetition of horrible massacres on the part of the French, and retaliations on the part of the Italians. Until the pope, having obtained his share of the spoil, Romagna, and not choosing France to be

* A celebrated commander in the service of Spain who had received that cognomen on account of his great inilitary talents.

† Alexander the Sixth was now dead and had been

succeeded by the celebrated Julius the Second.

coasts.

py city is given over to rapine. This is followed by the terrible battle of Ravenna, in which the bravest and noblest perish upon both sides, among others De Foix himself, an irreparable loss, as his country soon discovers; another indiscriminate carnage, in which neither age nor sex is spared, takes place. But from that day the star of the French declines — defeat follows defeat until they are finally driven out of Lombardy across the Alps, and fifteen hundred of their soldiers and merchants, left behind in Milan, are massacred by the Milanese in revenge for the sufferings which had been inflicted upon them.

come master of the whole of northern | cil at Pisa, for the purpose of reforming Italy, withdrew from the robber quartette, the Church and checking the overweenendeavored to persuade Maximilian to fol- ing power of the pontiff. Upon which the low his example, united with Spain to terrible Julius excommunicates them all. drive the French out of Italy, and de- France has, however, a great general at spatched envoys to Henry of England, the head of her forces, in young Gaston urging him to inake a descent upon their de Foix; within fifteen days he raises the siege of Bologna, defeats the allies in The odious treachery which character- several engagements, and after a fierce ized every leading actor in these Italian struggle captures Brescia. French barwars forms one of the most revolting rec-barity more than sullies all the, glories of ords in history. Such had for generations the victors; eight thousand people are disgraced the diplomacy of Italy, while its slaughtered, and for seven days the unhapbarbarous neighbors were still influenced by principles of chivalric honor, and scorned deceit at least while they could wield the sword. But these wars inoculated the northern nations with the crooked policy of the south. Again we are brought face to face with the transitions of this period; the omnipotence of the sword was passing away; men began to trust to their brains as well as to their arms, although at first they could find in them only baseness and devilish cunning. All Europe was seething, fermenting; everywhere its old forms and boundaries were being swept away; the destruction of the feudal system, with its numerous semi-independent states, its dukes and counts, and great barons, tended to the consolidation of vast empires and to the creation of the Just of conquest in their rulers. France, for the first time homogeneous, lusted to incorporate more territory, the warlike and ferocious pontiff thirsted to restore the papal power to all its pristine strength and magnificence; but more dangerous than all was the restless ambition of Spain. In a single generation she had advanced from an inferior to a superior power; she had driven the Moors out of the land they had possessed over seven hundred years; she had expelled the Jews and created the Inquisition; the avarice and ambition of Ferdinand were insatiable. Maximilian, surrounded by wolves, and of a lupine nature himself, was obliged to join the pack or be devoured; the greedy eyes of all were turned towards the fair land of Italy, and so she was made the battleground of that great struggle between the past and the future.

The combinations now shift with the rapidity of a kaleidoscope. The pope forms an alliance, which is called the Holy League, with Spain, England and Venice, the object of which is the expulsion of the French. Louis, uniting himself with Maximilian, who is himself desirous of the papacy, and supported by certain disaffected cardinals, summons a general coun

A little later, and we find these Milanese, disgusted with their duke, again opening their gates to the French, who are now, by another shuffle of the cards, allied with the Venetians. But a body of Swiss mercenaries in the pay of the pope. the terrible Julius is now dead, and the Cardinal de Medici, as Leo X., sits in the chair of St. Peter- attack their forces at immense disadvantage before Novara, and drive them, with the loss of all baggage and ammunition, once more across the Alps. This disaster was quickly followed by the invasion of France by an English army of fifty thousand men, led by Henry the Eighth and Maximilian. The most noticeable event of this expedition was the battle of Guinegate, or the battle of the Spurs, as it is usually called, on account of the cowardice displayed by the French. But this great victory, which might have led even to the reduction of Paris, was not followed up, and Henry soon afterwards returned to England with his whole army. Shortly afterwards Louis, who was still under the ban of Rome, at the unceasing urgings of his wife, a devout daughter of the Church, humbled himself to the pope, and so drained the cup of humiliation to the last drop.

As yet, we have seen Louis the Twelfth only as a treacherous and perfidious diplomatist, and a cruel and merciless soldier, but there was quite another side to