The Neapolitans did not want him; and, what was more important, Spain, England, and Austria talked of uniting to drive him out.

And so he and his army returned to France, and all that had been gained by the enterprise was a wide-open door between France and Italy at the very time when it might better have been kept closed, and the discovery by Europe that the Italian peninsula was an easy prey to any ambitious European power.

What Charles had done might also, and more effectually, be done by England, Spain, or Austria.

All of which bore bitter fruit in the next century.
But for France the fruit was of a more deadly kind.

The princely and noble blood of Italy began to be mingled with hers, bringing a vicious and corrupt strain at a critical period.
Old as she was in centuries, France was but a child in civilization.
An uncouth, untutored child, just emerging from barbarism, was suddenly brought under the influence of a fascinating, highly developed civilization, old in wickedness.