Meanwhile Charles VIII. had reached Naples, which had at once opened its gates to the invaders, and the Castel Nuovo and the Castel d’Uovo were reduced to submission by their well-served artillery. King Alfonso abdicated the crown, and Fabricio Colonna ravaged the whole kingdom of Naples to the very gates of Brindisi, dispersing the little band of troops that had been collected by Don Cæsar of Aragon, illegitimate brother of the king; while Perron dei Baschi and Stuart d’Aubigny overran the whole country almost without striking a blow; and the greater part of the Neapolitan nobility gave their adhesion to the French. Nothing, however, could be more impolitic or more ungrateful than the manner in which Charles made use of his unexpectedly acquired authority, and it soon became evident that the new state of affairs in Naples would not be of very long duration. The moment for the judicious interference of Ferdinand of Aragon had not been long in arriving. The conduct of the French at Naples showed pretty clearly to the Italian States the mistake they had made in permitting Charles to enter the country, and they were not slow to accept the suggestions of the Spanish embassador, Don Lorenzo Suarez de Mendoza y Figueras, that they should form a league with the object of expelling the French from Italy. The attitude of the Duke of Orleans, who had remained at Asti, toward the duchy of Milan, and the favorable reception accorded by Charles to Giovanni Trivulzio, Cardinal Fregosi, and Hybletto dei Fieschi, the chiefs of the banished nobles, and the sworn enemies of Ludovico Sforza, showed that prince how little he had to expect from the French alliance; and the conduct of Charles toward the Florentines, and indeed toward every government whose dominion he had traversed throughout Italy, terrified and enraged every statesman from Milan to Syracuse.