The outrages which the Cardinal had thus received at the hands of the Borgian Pontiff, in unworthy vengeance for his honest opposition to the nepotism and other scandals which then disgraced the Vatican, galled his pride, tending to rouse that fierce spirit which, although alien to the character ascribed to his earlier years, became the bane of his pontificate. This was, indeed, the turning point of his life, and it developed a policy utterly at variance with his ultimate views. Having attended Charles in his march across the Alps, his ardent temperament often aided to sustain that weak monarch's wavering resolutions. Had he then considered more his country's interests, and less his private wrongs, the storm might yet have been averted, and Italy might have been spared, for a time, from those ultramontane armaments which he now conducted into her bosom, but which it was the aim of his after-life to eject. The French King, having achieved his rapid acquisition of Naples, instigated the Colonna to seize upon Ostia, and, as he passed northward, restored it to its cardinal-bishop, who there once more sought security from the Pope. But Giuliano found in his stronghold no adequate protection against so bitter and unscrupulous a foe. Alexander, on the retirement of the French army, entered into an alliance with the reinstated King of Naples, and in 1497 employed Gonsalvo di Cordova to reduce Ostia, whose garrison had embarrassed the navigation of the Tiber, and intercepted supplies from his capital. Eschewing the risks of an unavailing resistance, the Cardinal once more escaped by sea, and rejoined Charles at Lyons, whilst the Great Captain was rewarded for his easy conquest with the Golden Rose. Cardinal della Rovere, having in 1597 been declared enemy of the Holy See, and deprived of his benefices by the Pontiff, against the will of the consistory, withdrew for security to his native shores, and awaited at Savona the conclusion of what was to many of his order a reign of terror. At the moment of Cesare Borgia's invasion of Urbino, he narrowly escaped the fate destined for his brother-in-law Guidobaldo, and his nephew, the young Prefect. On pretence of a complimentary mission to Louis XII., the papal fleet had sailed towards Provence, with orders to visit Savona, where, if the Cardinal did not voluntarily pay his respects to the envoys, he was to be inveigled on board, and carried off. But warned by past experience against civilities emanating from such a quarter, he escaped the danger by cautiously evading the perilous invitation.