and Cardinal d'Amboise with the hope that the king's minister would become the head of Christendom.
When once he was himself in possession of this puissant title he showed himself as he really was; ambitious, audacious, imperious, energetic, stubborn, and combining the egotism of the absolute sovereign with the patriotism of an Italian pope.

When the League of Cambrai had attained success through the victory of Louis XII.

over the Venetians, Cardinal d'Amboise, in course of conversation with the two envoys from Florence at the king's court, let them have an inkling "that he was not without suspicion of some new design;" and when Louis XII.

announced his approaching departure for France, the two Florentines wrote to their government that "this departure might have very evil results, for the power of Emperor Maximilian in Italy, the position of Ferdinand the Catholic, the despair of the Venetians, and the character and dissatisfaction of the pope, seemed to foreshadow some fresh understanding against the Most Christian king." Louis XII.

and his minister were very confident.