master of Naples, he might conceive the idea of conquering the
rest of Italy. Ludovico Sforza, on his side, was beginning to tremble,
seeing the rapidity with which the King of France had dethroned the house
of Aragon, lest he might not make much difference between his allies and
his enemies. Maximilian, for his part, was only seeking an occasion to
break the temporary peace which he had granted for the sake of the
concession made to him. Lastly, Ferdinand and Isabella were allies of
the dethroned house. And so it came about that all of them, for
different reasons, felt a common fear, and were soon in agreement as to
the necessity of driving out Charles VIII, not only from Naples, but from
Italy, and pledged themselves to work together to this end, by every
means in their power, by negotiations, by trickery, or by actual force.
The Florentines alone refused to take part in this general levy of arms,
and remained faithful to their promises.

According to the articles of the treaty agreed upon by the confederates,
the alliance was to last for five-and-twenty years, and had for
ostensible object the upholding of the majority of the pope, and the
interests of Christendom; and these preparations might well have been
taken for such as would precede a crusade against the Turks, if Bajazet's
ambassador had not always been present at the deliberations, although the
Christian princes could not have dared for very shame to admit the,
sultan by name into their league. Now the confederates had to set on
foot an army of 30,000 horse and 20,000 infantry, and each of them was
taxed for a contingent; thus the pope was to furnish 4000 horse,
Maximilian 6000, the King of Spain, the Duke of Milan, and the republic
of Venice, 8000 each. Every confederate was, in addition to this, to levy
and equip 4000 infantry in the six weeks following the signature of the
treaty. The fleets were to be equipped by the Maritime States; but any
expenses they should incur later on were to be defrayed by all in equal
shares.

The formation of this league was made public on the 12th of April, 1495,
Palm Sunday, and in all the Italian States, especially at Rome, was made
the occasion of fetes and immense rejoicings. Almost as soon as the
publicly known articles were announced the secret ones were put into
execution. These obliged Ferdinand and Isabella to send a fleet of sixty
galleys to Ischia, where Alfonso's son had retired, with six hundred
horsemen