"He is said to have a very ill-favoured face, with great goggle eyes, an aquiline nose offensively large, and a head disfigured by few and sparse hairs. When I think of such a little hunchy fellow my fancy is struck with wonder."[252] We shall add one other characteristic sketch of a monarch for whom fortune destined a part strangely at variance with his qualifications. It was given by Ludovico il Moro, in December of this year, to the Venetian resident at his court, and has been obligingly communicated to me by Mr. Rawdon Brown, than whom no one is more perfectly versed in the transactions of that republic. "The man is young, and his conduct meagre, nor has he any form or method of council. His assistants are divided into two factions, one headed by the Comte de Bresse, the other by St. Malo and Beaucaire with their adherents; they are violently opposed to each other on every topic, and provided the one thwart the other and carry his point, no regard soever is had for the King's interests. They attend to the accumulation of coin, and care for nothing else; nor would all of them put together make half a wise man. I remember when at Asti seeing him in a room with the members of his assembled council, and, whilst discussing any matter, one kept playing, another was eating breakfast, a third was attending to this, a fourth to that; and the King was in motion the whole time whilst listening to any one. He would order letters to be couched in a certain form, and subsequently countermand them on hearing another person's ideas."[253] [Footnote 252: GAYE, _Carteggio_, I., p. 326. See a contemporary estimate of the invading army in VIII. of the Appendix.] [Footnote 253: Our French authorities for this expedition are valuable, including Comines, and André de la Vigne, contemporaries who shared in its hazards. A curious essay by M. de Foncemagne, ascribing to Charles the ambition of a crusader, and pointing at Constantinople as its real destination, will be found in vol. XVII., p. 539 of _Mémoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions_.]