pe, was
slandering him and indulging in extravagances concerning him when he had
this conversation with Trotti, and also when he publicly stated to his
senate that "the Pope had allowed three women to come to him; one of
them being a nun of Valencia, the other a Castilian, the third a very
beautiful girl from Venice, fifteen or sixteen years of age." "Here in
Milan," continued Trotti in his despatch, "the same scandalous things
are related of the Pope as are told in Ferrara of the Torta."[41]

Elsewhere we may read how Charles VIII, victorious without the trouble
of winning battles, penetrated as far as Rome and Naples. His march
through Italy is the most humiliating of all the invasions which the
peninsula suffered; but it shows that when states and peoples are ready
for destruction, the strength of a weak-headed boy is sufficient to
bring about their ruin. The Pope outwitted the French monarch, who,
instead of having him deposed by a council, fell on his knees before
him, acknowledged him to be Christ's vicar, and concluded a treaty with
him.

After this he set out for Naples, which shortly fell into his hands.
Italy rose, a league against Charles VIII was formed, and he was
compelled to return. Alexander fled before him, first in the direction
of Orvieto, and then toward Perugia. While there he summoned Giovanni
Sforza, who arrived with his wife, June 16, 1495, remained four days,
and then went back to Pesaro.[42] The King of France succeeded in
breaking his way through the League's army at the battle of the Taro,
and thus honorably escaped death or capture.

Having returned to Rome, Alexander established himself still more firmly
in the holy chair, about which he gathered his ambitious bastards, while
the Borgias pushed themselves forward all the more audaciously because
the confusion occasioned in the affairs of Italy by the invasion of
Charles VIII made it all the easier for them to carry out their
intentions.

Lucretia remained a little longer in Pesaro with her husband, whom
Venice had engaged in the interests of the League. Giovanni Sforza,
however, does not appear to have been present either at the battle of
the Taro or at the siege of Novara. When peace was declared in October,
1495, between France and the Duke of Milan, whereby the war came to an
end in Northern Italy, Sforza was able to take his wife back to Rome.
Marino Sanuto speaks of her as having been in that city at the end of
October, and Burcha