The usurper on his side, noting the coldness of Ferrante and his son Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, was haunted by a perpetual nightmare of his own downfall through Neapolitan intervention. Such a revolution would please Venice, who liked nothing better than to see her ambitious neighbour involved in trouble, while little help could be expected from the selfish Papacy, or from Florence which, torn by factions since the death of the wise Lorenzo de Medici in 1492, was too weak to prove either a formidable foe or ally. In his need of support Ludovico looked beyond the Alps, and instantly his quick brain suggested the rôle which Charles VIII. might play. It was little more than half a century since the last representative of the Angevin claims on Naples had been defeated and driven away from that southern kingdom by his Aragonese rival, Alfonso V.[8] Since that date the House of Anjou had been incorporated with the French Crown, and thus Charles stood heir to its Italian ambitions; Naples but a stepping-stone on the road to his conquest of Jerusalem. Footnote 8: See page 25. If you will be ruled by me [declared Ludovico enthusiastically] I will assist in making you greater than Charlemagne; for, when you have conquered the Kingdom of Naples, we will easily drive the Turk out of the Empire of Constantinople. Such glib assurance awoke no answering belief amongst the older and more experienced of the French King’s councillors; but Charles was in the mood of Rehoboam and welcomed only the advice of the young and reckless, which confirmed his own strong desire to undertake the invasion. Commines, shaking his head over the many difficulties to be encountered, concludes that Providence must certainly have guided and protected the expedition, “for,” he adds, “the wisdom of the contrivers of this scheme contributed but little.” The first step was for Charles to secure the goodwill of his neighbours; and, having decked out the glory of a crusade against the Turks in its brightest colours, he proceeded to buy the complaisance of England, Flanders, and Spain towards his project by various concessions and gifts. In the case of Spain the price demanded was the surrender of Roussillon and Cerdagne; and it is said that superstition as well as his anxiety for a settlement gained the French King’s final consent to this bargain. Two friars, whether bribed by Ferdinand or no, declared that Louis XI. had sinned grievously in ever taking possession of these provinces, seeing that his rival, though he had failed to redeem the mortgage on them, had spent his funds instead on a holy war against the Moors. Charles, they urged, must make instant restoration or run the risk, when he died, that his soul should dwell for ever in Purgatory.