Therefore each individual despot trembled for his throne, while Italy, as in the ominous picture drawn by her historian, felt that all the elements were combining to devour her with a coming storm.

The land of earthquakes divined a cataclysm, to cope with which she was unable.

An apparently insignificant event determined the catastrophe.

The Sforza appealed to France, and after the disastrous descent of Charles VIII.

the whole tide of events turned.