Let his advent into Italy to break the power of Naples be free and open; but, once within, he should find Milan and the northern allies between himself and his retreat, and Lodovico's should it be to bring him to his knees.

Thus schemed Lodovico to shiver, first Naples and then France, before hurling the latter back across the Alps.

A daring, bold, and yet simple plan of action.

And what a power in Italy should not Lodovico derive from its success! Forthwith he got secretly to work upon it, sending his invitation to Charles to come and make good his claim to Naples, offering the French troops free passage through his territory.( 1) And in the character of his invitation he played upon the nature of malformed, ambitious Charles, whose brain was stuffed with romance and chivalric rhodomontades.

The conquest of Naples was an easy affair, no more than a step in the glorious enterprise that awaited the French king, for from Naples he could cross to engage the Turk, and win back the Holy Sepulchre, thus becoming a second Charles the Great.
1 See Corlo, Storia di Milano, and Lodovico's letter to Charles VIII, quoted therein, lib.