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18 had observed the rules above laid down, have maintained his power in Italy, and preserved and protected all his friends! These, too numerous to be powerful, dreaded the church and the Venetians; and being compelled by their interests to attach themselves to him, he could by their aid easily have strengthened himself against every power that was dangerous to him.

But he was no sooner at Milan, than he pursued a course directly the reverse. He sent succours to Pope Alexander to invade Romania. He did not perceive that in so doing he was weakening himself; that he was depriving himself of those friends who had thrown themselves into his arms. That he aggrandised the church by adding to the ecclesiastical, a power which gave him so much strength, the civil power of a state so considerable as Romania. This first fault committed, he was constrained to pursue it, till in order to set bounds to the ambition of this same Alexander, and to prevent him from seizing on Tuscany, he was obliged to return into Italy.

Not content with having aggrandised the church and deprived himself of his natural allies; being desirous of seizing on the kingdom of Naples, he had the folly to divide it with the King of Spain. He alone was the supreme disposer of Italy, and he gave himself a rival in it; a competitor to whom the ambitious and the discontented might have