Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 In 1494, King Charles VIII of France entered an Alpine pass with an army of more than thirty thousand men, intent on marching through Italy and seizing the throne of Naples. The French king was short, myopic, and so ill proportioned that he seemed more like a monster than a man. #2 The city of Milan was the center of Lodovico's empire, and it was a huge fortress with cylindrical towers on its northeast edge. It had been turned into Italy's greatest by Lodovico's wealth and determination.