296 ITALIAN WARS. PART virtues of the exiled Ferdinand, whose temperate . '- rule they contrasted with the rash and rapacious conduct of their new masters. The spirit of dis- content spread more widely, as the French w^ere too thinly scattered to enforce subordination. A correspondence was entered into with Ferdinand in Sicily, and in a short time several of the most con- siderable cities of the kingdom openly avowed their allegiance to the house of Aragon. ^ Plunders the Jn thc uican time, Charles and his nobles, satia- worksofart. ' ted with a life of inactivity and pleasure, and feel- ing that they had accomplished the great object of the expedition, began to look with longing eyes towards their own country. Their impatience was converted into anxiety on receiving tidings of the coalition mustering in the north. Charles, how- ever, took care to secure to himself some of the spoils of victory, in a manner which we have seen practised, on a much greater scale, by his country- men in our day. He collected the various works of art with which Naples was adorned, precious antiques, sculptured marble and alabaster, gates of bronze curiously wrought, and such architectural ornaments as were capable of transportation, and caused them to be embarked on board his fleet for the south of France, " endeavouring," says the Curate of Los Palacios, " to build up his own re- nown on the ruins of the kings of Naples, of glori- ous memory." His vessels, however, did not reach 1 Comines, M^moires, liv. 7, Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. chap. 17. — Summonte, Hist, tli 29, cap. 2. Napoli, torn. iii. lib. 6, cap. 2. —
