Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/64

38 38 ITALIAN WARS. PART IL The Italians favor them. 1501. Oc tuber. In the mean while, the Spanish court fruitlessly endeavoured to interest the other powers of Europe in its cause. The Emperor Maximilian, although dissatisfied with the occupation of Milan bj the French, appeared wholly engrossed with the frivo- lous ambition of a Roman coronation. The pontiff and his son, Caesar Borgia, were closely bound to King Louis by the assistance which he had ren- dered them in their marauding enterprises against the neighbouring chiefs of Romagna. The other Italian princes, although deeply incensed and dis- gusted by this infamous alliance, stood too much in awe of the colossal power, which had planted its foot so firmly on their territory, to offer any resist- ance. Venice alone, surveying from her distant watch-tower, to borrow the words of Peter Martyr, the whole extent of the political horizon, appeared to hesitate. The French ambassadors loudly called on her to fulfil the terms of her late treaty with their master, and support him in his approaching quarrel ; but that wily republic saw with distrust the encroaching ambition of her powerful neigh- bour, and secretly wished that a counterpoise might be found in the success of Aragon. Martyr, who stopped at Venice on his return from Egypt, ap- peared before the senate, and employed all his elo- quence in supporting his master's cause in opposi- tion to the French envoys ; but his pressing entrea- Curate to vouch for this romantic ter, in which prndence was proba- fliffht, so entirely out of keeping bly the most conspicuous attribute, with the Spanish general's charac-