Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/181

155 I THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM NAPLES. 155 peevishlj to exclaim, " It boots little for Gonsalvo chapter de Cordova to have won a kingdom for me, if he '- - lavishes it all away before it comes into my hands." It began to be perceived at court, that the Great Captain was too powerful for a subject. ^^ Meanwhile, Louis the Twelfth was filled with Apprehen- sions of serious apprehensions for the fate of his possessions Lomsxii. in the north of Italy. His former allies, the empe- ror Maximilian and the republic of Venice, the lat- ter more especially, had shown many indications, not merely of coldness to himself, but of a secret understanding with his rival, the king of Spain. The restless pope, Julius the Second, had schemes of his own, wholly independent of France. The republics of Pisa and Genoa, the latter one of her avowed dependencies, had entered into correspon- dence with the Great Captain, and invited him to assume their protection ; while several of the dis- affected party in Milan had assured him of their active support, in case he would march with a suffi- cient force to overturn the existing government. Indeed, not only France, but Europe in general, expected that the Spanish commander would avail himself of the present crisis, to push his victorious arms into upper Italy, revolutionize Tuscany in his way, and, wresting Milan from the French, drive them, crippled and disheartened by their late re- verses, beyond the Alps.^^ 22 Giovio, Vitaj Illust. Virorum, p. 338. — Zurita, Hist, del Rey fol. 270,271. — Chronica del Gran Hernando, torn. i. lib. 5, cap. 64. Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 1. — Ulloa, — Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, rey Vita di Carlo V., fol. 24. 30, cap. 14. — Buonaccorsi, Diario, 23 Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 6, pp. 85, 86.