njuries made a
grand show in their streets, and there will always be a mob so childish
as to covet pageants at the expense of freedom and even of safety.

[1] Guicciardini's _Dialogo del Reggimento di Firenze_ (_Op.
Ined._ vol. ii. p. 94) sets forth the state of internal anarchy
and external violence which followed the departure of Charles
VIII., with wonderful acuteness. 'Se per sorte l' uno
Oltramontano caccera l' altro, Italia restera in estrema
servitu,' is an exact prophecy of what happened before the end
of the sixteenth century, when Spain had beaten France in the
duel for Italy.

[2] Matarazzo, in his _Cronaca della Citta di Perugia_ (_Arch.
St._, vol. xvi. part 2, p. 23), gives a lively picture of the
eagerness with which the French were greeted in 1495, and of
the wanton brutality by which they soon alienated the people.
In this he agrees almost textually with De Comines, who writes:
'Le peuple nous advouoit comme Saincts, estimans en nous toute
foy et bonte; mais ce propos ne leur dura gueres, tant pour
nostre desordre et pillerie, et qu'aussi les ennemis
oppreschoient le peuple en tous quartiers,' etc., lib. vii.
cap. 6. In the first paragraph of the _Chronicon Venetum_
(_Muratori_, vol. xxlv. p. 5), we read concerning the advent of
Charles: 'I popoli tutti dicevano _Benedictus qui venit in
nomine Domini_. Ne v'era alcuno che li potesse contrastare, ne
resistere, tanto era da tutti i popoli Italiani chiamato.' The
Florentines, as burghers of a Guelf city, were always loyal to
the French. Besides, their commerce with France (_e.g._ the
wealth of Filippo Strozzi) made it to their interest to favor
the cause of the French. See Guicc. i. 2, p. 62. This loyalty
rose to enthusiasm under the influence of Savonarola, survived
the stupidities of Charles VIII. and Louis XII., and committed
the Florentines in 1328 to the perilous policy of expecting aid
from Francis I.

In spite of its transitory character the invasion of Charles VIII.,
therefore, was a great fact in the history of the Renaissance. It was,
to use the pregnant phrase of Michelet, no less than the revelation of
Italy to the nations of the North. Like a gale sweeping across a forest
of trees in blossom, and bearing their fertilizing pollen, after it has
broken and deflowered their branches, to far-distant trees that hitherto
have bl