Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/46

20 of cardinals the existence of the treaty for the partition of the kingdom between the sovereigns, their masters, requesting his Holiness to confirm it, and grant them the investiture of their respective shares. In this very reasonable petition his Holiness, well drilled in the part he was to play, acquiesced without difficulty ; declaring himself moved thereto solely by his consideration of the pious intentions of the parties, and the unworthiness of King Frederic, whose treachery to the Christian commonwealth had forfeited all right (if he ever possessed any) to the crown of Naples.

From the moment that the French forces had descended into Lombardy, the eyes of all Italy were turned with breathless expectation on Gon- salvo, and his army in Sicily. The bustling prepar- ations of the French monarch had diffused the knowledge of his designs throughout Europe. Those of the king of Spain, on the contrary, re- mained enveloped in profound secrecy. Few doubt- ed, that Ferdinand would step forward to shield his kinsman from the invasion which menaced him, and, it might be, his own dominions in Sicily ; and they looked to the immediate junction of Gonsalvo with King Frederic, in order that their combined strength might overpower the enemy before he had gained a footing in the kingdom. Great was their astonishment, when the scales dropped from their eyes, and they beheld the movements of Spain in perfect accordance with those of France, and direct-