From the Diet of Worms to the Augsburg Confession - James Aitken Wylie

Setting sail from Spain, and coasting along on
the waters of the Mediterranean, the imperial fleet
cast anchor in the Bay of Genoa. The youthful
emperor gazed, doubtless, with admiration and
delight on the city of the Dorias, whose superb
palaces, spread out in concentric rows on the face
of the mountains, embosomed in orange and
oleander groves, rise from the blue sea to the
summit of the craggy and embattled Apennines.
The Italians, on the other hand, trembled at the
approach of their new master, whose picture, as
drawn by their imaginations, resembled those
Gothic conquerors who in former times had sacked
the cities and trampled into the dust the fertility of
Italy. Their fears were dispelled, however, when on
stepping ashore they beheld in Charles not all irate
and ferocious conqueror, come to chastise them for
their revolt, but a pale-faced prince, of winning
address and gentle manners, followed by a train of
nobles in the gay costume of Spain, and, like their
master, courteous and condescending. This amiable
young man, who arrived among the Italians in
smiles, could frown sternly enough on occasion, as
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