worth all his tribe, was alone silent; for the trophies of the conqueror were raised on the ruins of that royal house under which the bard had been so long sheltered; and this silence, so rare in his tuneful brethren, must be admitted to reflect more credit on his name than the best he ever sung."

They

The first business of Gonsalvo was to call together the different orders of the state and receive their oaths of allegiance to King Ferdinand. He next occupied himself with the necessary arrangements for the reorganization of the government, and for reforming various abuses which had crept into the administration of justice, more particularly. In these attempts to introduce order he was not a little thwarted, however, by the insubordination of his own soldiery. loudly clamored for the discharge of the arrears, still shamefully protracted, till, their discontent swelling to open mutiny, they forcibly seized on two of the principal places in the kingdom as security for the payment. Gonsalvo chastised their insolence by disbanding several of the most refractory companies and sending them home for punishment. He endeavored to relieve them in part by raising contributions from the Neapolitans. But the soldiers took the matter into their own hands, oppressing the unfortunate people on whom they were quartered in a manner which rendered their condition scarcely more tolerable than when exposed to the horrors of actual war." This

19 Giovio, Vitæ Illust. Virorum, fol. 271.

20" Per servir sempre, vincitrice o vinta."

The Italians began at this early period to feel the pressure of those woes, which a century and a half later wrung from Filicaja the beau

was the introduction, according to Guicciardini, of those systematic military exactions in time of peace which became so common afterwards in Italy, adding an inconceivable amount to the long catalogue of woes which afflicted that unhappy land."

Amidst his manifold duties, Gonsalvo did not forget the gallant officers who had borne with him the bur dens of the war; and he requited their services in a princely style, better suited to his feelings than his interests, as subsequently appeared. Among them were Navarro, Mendoza, Andrada, Benavides, Leyva, the Italians Alviano and the two Colonnas, most of whom lived to display the lessons of tactics which they learned under this great commander, on a still wider theatre of glory, in the reign of Charles the Fifth. He made them grants of cities, fortresses, and extensive lands, according to their various claims, to be held as fiefs of the crown. All this was done with the previous sanction of his royal master, Ferdinand the Catholic. They did some violence, however, to his more economical spirit, and he was heard somewhat peevishly to exclaim, "It boots little for Gonsalvo de Cordova to have won a kingdom for me, if he lavishes it all away before it comes into my hands." It

tiful lament, which has lost something of its touching graces even under the hand of Lord Byron.

Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 5, cap. 64.-Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 6, pp. 340, 341.-Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, ubi supra.-See also Gonsalvo's letter to the sovereigns, in which he states that all Italy this year was wasted by a terrible famine, brought on by the neglect of husbandry, as well as by the unprecedented rains. Carta de Napoles, 25 de Agosto, 1503, MS.

began to be perceived at court that the Great Captain was too powerful for a subject."

Meanwhile, Louis the Twelfth was filled with serious apprehensions for the fate of his possessions in the north of Italy. His former allies, the emperor Maximilian and the republic of Venice, the latter more especially, had shown many indications not merely of coldness to himself, but of a secret understanding with his rival, the Spanish king. The restless pope, Julius the Second, had schemes of his own, wholly independent of France. The republics of Pisa and Genoa, the latter one of her avowed dependencies, had entered into correspondence with the Great Captain and invited him to assume their protection; while several of the disaffected party in Milan had assured him of their active support in case he would march with a sufficient force to overturn the existing government. Indeed, not only France, but Europe in general, expected that the Spanish commander would avail himself of the present crisis to push his victorious arms into upper Italy, revolutionize Tuscany in his way, and, wresting Milan from the French, drive them, crippled and disheartened by their late reverses, beyond the Alps."

But Gonsalvo had occupation enough on his hands in settling the disordered state of Naples. King Ferdinand, his sovereign, notwithstanding the ambition of universal conquest absurdly imputed to him by the

Giovio, Vitæ Illust. Virorum, fol. 270, 271.-Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 1.-Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 24.

3 Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 6, p. 338.-Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. i. lib. 5, cap. 64.-Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, rey 30, cap. 14.-Buonaccorsi, Diario, pp. 85, 86.

French writers, had no design to extend his acquisitions beyond what he could permanently maintain. His treasury, never overflowing, was too deeply drained by the late heavy demands on it for him so soon to embark on another perilous enterprise, that must rouse anew the swarms of enemies who seemed willing to rest in quiet after their long and exhausting struggle; nor is there any reason to suppose he sincerely contemplated such a movement for a moment."

The apprehension of it, however, answered Ferdinand's purpose, by preparing the French monarch to arrange his differences with his rival, as the latter now earnestly desired, by negotiation. Indeed, two Spanish ministers had resided during the greater part of the war at the French court, with the view of improving the first opening that should occur for accomplishing this object; and by their agency a treaty was concluded, to continue for three years, which guaranteed to Aragon the undisturbed possession of her conquests during that period. The chief articles provided for the immediate cessation of hostilities between the belligerents, and the complete re-establishment of their commercial relations and intercourse, with the exception of Naples, from which the French were to be excluded. The Spanish crown was to have full power to reduce all refractory places in that kingdom; and the contracting parties solemnly pledged themselves,

24 Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 5, cap. 66.—The campaign against Louis XII. had cost the Spanish crown 331 cuentos or millions of maravedis, equivalent to 9,268,000 dollars of the present time. A moderate charge enough for the conquest of a kingdom; and made still lighter to the Spaniards by one-fifth of the whole being drawn from Naples itself. See Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 359.

each to render no assistance, secretly or openly, to the enemies of the other. The treaty, which was to run from the 25th of February, 1504, was signed by the French king and the Spanish plenipotentiaries at Lyons, on the 11th of that month, and ratified by Ferdinand and Isabella, at the convent of Santa Maria de la Mejorada, the 31st of March following.

25

There was still a small spot in the heart of Naples, comprehending Venosa and several adjoining towns, where Louis d'Ars and his brave associates yet held out against the Spanish arms. Although cut off by the operation of this treaty from the hope of further support from home, the French knight disdained to surrender, but sallied out at the head of his little troop of gallant veterans, and thus, armed at all points, says Brantôme, with lance in rest, took his way through Naples and the centre of Italy. He marched in battlearray, levying contributions for his support on the places through which he passed. In this manner he entered France, and presented himself before the court at Blois. The king and queen, delighted with his prowess, came forward to welcome him, and made good cheer, says the old chronicler, for himself and his companions, whom they recompensed with liberal largesses, proffering at the same time any boon to the brave knight which he should demand for himself. The latter in return simply requested that his old comrade Ives d'Alègre should be recalled from exile. This trait of magnanimity, when contrasted with the general

25 The treaty is to be found in Dumont, Corps diplomatique, tom. iv. no. 26, pp. 51-53.—Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 5, cap. 64 —Machiavelli, Legazione seconda a Francia, let. 9, Feb. 11.