22

The Great Captain passed the night on the field of battle, which on the following morning presented a ghastly spectacle of the dying and the dead. More than three thousand French are computed by the best accounts to have fallen. The loss of the Spaniards, covered as they were by their defences, was inconsiderable. All the enemy's artillery, consisting of thirteen pieces, his baggage, and most of his colors fell into their hands. Never was there a more complete victory, achieved too within the space of little more than an hour. The body of the unfortunate Nemours, which was recognized by one of his pages from the rings on the fingers, was found under a heap of slain, much disfigured. It appeared that he had received three several wounds, disproving, if need were, by his honorable death the injurious taunts of Alègre. Gonsalvo was affected even to tears at beholding the mutilated remains of his young and gallant adversary, who, whatever judgment might be formed of his capacity

Giovio, Vitæ Illust. Virorum, fol. 255.-Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 15.-Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 180.-Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 256.-Fleurange, Mémoires, chap. 5.No account, that I know of, places the French loss so low as 3000; Garibay raises it to 4500, and the French maréchal de Fleurange rates that of the Swiss alone at 5000; a round exaggeration, not readily accounted for, as he had undoubted access to the best means of information. The Spaniards were too well screened to sustain much injury, and no estimate makes it more than a hundred killed, and some considerably less. The odds are indeed startling, but not impossible; as the Spaniards were not much exposed by personal collision with the enemy, until the latter were thrown into too much disorder to think of anything but escape. The more than usual confusion and discrepancy in the various statements of the particulars of this action may probably be attributed to the lateness of the hour, and consequently imperfect light, in which it was fought.

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as a leader, was allowed to have all the qualities which belong to a true knight. With him perished the last scion of the illustrious house of Armagnac. Gonsalvo ordered his remains to be conveyed to Barleta, where they were laid in the cemetery of the convent of St. Francis, with all the honors due to his high station." The Spanish commander lost no time in following his blow, well aware that it is quite as difficult to improve a victory as to win one. The French had rushed into battle with too much precipitation to agree on any plan of operations, or any point on which to rally in case of defeat. They accordingly scattered in different directions, and Pedro de la Paz was despatched in pursuit of Louis d'Ars, who threw him. self into Venosa," where he kept the enemy at bay for many months longer. Paredes kept close on the scent of Alègre, who, finding the gates shut against him wherever he passed, at length took shelter in Gaeta on the extreme point of the Neapolitan territory. There he endeavored to rally the scattered relics of the field of Cerignola, and to establish a strong position, from which the French, when strengthened by fresh supplies from home, might recommence operations for the recovery of the kingdom.

The day after the battle of Cerignola the Spaniards received tidings of another victory, scarcely less im

3 Quintana, Españoles célebres, tom. i. p. 277.-Giovio, Vitæ Illust. Virorum, fol. 255.-Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. pp. 248, 249. -Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 17. Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 181.

24 It was to this same city of Venusium that the rash and unfortuLate Varro made his retreat, some seventeen centuries before, from the bloody field of Cannæ. Liv. Hist., lib. 22, cap. 49.

portant, gained over the French in Calabria, the preceding week. The army sent out under Portocarrero had reached that coast early in March; but soon after its arrival its gallant commander fell ill and died.” The dying general named Don Fernando de Andrada as his successor; and this officer, combining his forces with those before in the country under Cardona and Benavides, encountered the French commander D'Aubigny in a pitched battle, not far from Seminara, on Friday, the 21st of April. It was near the same spot on which the latter had twice beaten the Spaniards. But the star of France was on the wane; and the gallant old officer had the mortification to see his little corps of veterans completely routed after a sharp engagement of less than an hour, while he himself was retrieved with difficulty from the hands of the enemy by the valor of his Scottish guard."

25 Giovio, Vitæ Illust. Virorum, fol. 255.-Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 256.-Chrónica del Gran Capitan, cap. 80.-Friday, says Guicciardini, alluding no doubt to Columbus's discoveries, as well as these two victories, was observed to be a lucky day to the Spaniards. (Istoria, tom. i. p. 304.) According to Gaillard, it was regarded from this time by the French with more superstitious dread than ever.-Rivalité, tom. iv. p. 348.

26 Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. i. lib. 5, cap. 8, 24.-Giovio, Vitæ Illust. Virorum, fol. 250.-The reader may perhaps recollect the distinguished part played in the Moorish war by Luis Portocarrero, lord of Palma. He was of noble Italian origin, being descended from the ancient Genoese house of Boccanegra. The Great Captain and he had married sisters; and this connection probably recommended him, as much as his military talents, to the Calabrian command, which it was highly important should be intrusted to one who would maintain a good understanding with the commander-in-chief; a thing not easy to secure among the haughty nobility of Castile.

7 Giovio, Vitæ Illust. Virorum, fol. 255.-Peter Martyr, Opus Epist.. VOL. III.-6

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The Great Captain and his army, highly elated with the news of this fortunate event, which annihilated the French power in Calabria, began their march on Naples; Fabrizio Colonna having been first detached into the Abruzzi to receive the submission of the people in that quarter. The tidings of the victory had spread far and wide; and, as Gonsalvo's army advanced, they beheld the ensigns of Aragon floating from the battlements of the towns upon their route, while the inhabitants came forth to greet the conqueror, eager to testify their devotion to the Spanish cause. The army halted at Benevento; and the general sent his summons to the city of Naples, inviting it in the most courteous terms to resume its ancient allegiance to the legitimate branch of Aragon. It was hardly to be expected that the allegiance of a people who had so long seen their country set up as a mere stake for political gamesters should sit very closely upon them, or that they should care to peril their lives on the transfer of a crown which had shifted on the heads of half a dozen proprietors in as many successive years." With the same ductile enthusiasm, therefore, with epist. 256.-Chrónica del Gran Capitan, cap. 80.-Varillas, Histoire de Louis XII. (Paris, 1688), tom. i. pp. 289-292.-See the account of D'Aubigny's victories at Seminara, in Part II. chapters 2 and II, of this History.

28 Since 1494 the sceptre of Naples had passed into the hands of no less than seven princes, Ferdinand I., Alfonso II., Ferdinand II., Charles VIII., Frederick III., Louis XII., Ferdinand the Catholic. No private estate in the kingdom in the same time had probably changed masters half so often. Gonsalvo notices this revolutionary spirit of the Neapolitans in this emphatic language: "Regno tan tremoloso que la paz que al mundo sosiega á el lo altera."-Carta al Rey Cathólico de Nápoles, á 31 de Octubre, 1505, MS.

which they had greeted the accession of Charles the Eighth and of Louis the Twelfth, they now welcomed the restoration of the ancient dynasty of Aragon; and deputies from the principal nobility and citizens waited on the Great Captain at Acerra, where they tendered him the keys of the city and requested the confirmation of their rights and privileges.

Gonsalvo, having promised this in the name of his royal master, on the following morning, the 14th of May, 1503, made his entrance in great state into the capital, leaving his army without the walls. He was escorted by the military of the city under a royal canopy borne by the deputies. The streets were strewed with flowers, the edifices decorated with appropriate emblems and devices and wreathed with banners emblazoned with the united arms of Aragon and Naples. As he passed along, the city rang with the acclamations of countless multitudes who thronged the streets; while every window and housetop was filled with spectators, eager to behold the man who, with scarcely any other resources than those of his own genius, had so long defied, and at length completely foiled, the power of France.

On the following day a deputation of the nobility and people waited on the Great Captain at his quar. ters, and tendered him the usual oaths of allegiance for his master, King Ferdinand, whose accession finally closed the series of revolutions which had so long agitated this unhappy country."

29 Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. i. p. 304.-Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 29, cap. 4.—Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 250.— Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. iii. pp. 552, 553.-Muratori Annali