Perhaps the reader may think that what I have written of these two princes proceeds from some particular pique against them; but upon my conscience that is not the motive that induces me to do it; for I have given you this history of their lives, only to continue my Memoirs, in the beginning of which I freely declared my opinion that I thought it impossible for those who had the management of our affairs to have carried on this expedition so prosperously, had not God himself undertaken to conduct it for our young king, whom he supplied with provisions in the extremity of his wants, that he might make him his instrument to scourge and chastise these Italian princes, who were wise, rich, powerful, and experienced in the affairs of the world: had wise and able ministers to defend and take care of their dominions, and were supported by powerful alliances; and, though they beheld the storm afar off, yet had they not courage or wisdom enough at that time either to resist or avoid it. For, except the castle of Naples, there was not one place which stopped the progress of the king’s arms for a day, which occasioned Pope Alexander VI. to say that the French came into Naples with wooden spurs, and chalk in their harbingers’ hands to mark out their lodgings, which they took up without any more trouble. The wooden spurs he mentioned because it was the custom at that time, when young gentlemen rode about the streets, for their pages to put a sharp piece of wood into the heels of their shoes, with which they pricked their mules forward. In short, this expedition into Italy was performed with so much ease, and so little resistance, that our soldiers scarce ever put on their armour during the whole expedition, and the king marched with his army from Asti to Naples in four months and nineteen days; an ambassador with his retinue could hardly have got thither sooner.