The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume III Part 9

It seemed now obvious, that victory must declare for that party which could best endure the hards.h.i.+ps and privations of its present situation.

The local position of the Spaniards was far more unfavorable than that of the enemy. The Great Captain, soon after the affair of the bridge, had drawn off his forces to a rising ground about a mile from the river, which was crowned by the little hamlet of Cintura, and commanded the route to Naples. In front of his camp he sunk a deep trench, which, in the saturated soil, speedily filled with water; and he garnished it at each extremity with a strong redoubt. Thus securely intrenched, he resolved patiently to await the movements of the enemy.

The situation of the army, in the mean time, was indeed deplorable. Those who occupied the lower level were up to their knees in mud and water; for the excessive rains, and the inundation of the Garigliano, had converted the whole country into a mere quagmire, or rather standing pool. The only way in which the men could secure themselves was by covering the earth as far as possible with boughs and bundles of twigs; and it was altogether uncertain how long even this expedient would serve against the encroaching element. Those on the higher grounds were scarcely in better plight. The driving storms of sleet and rain, which had continued for several weeks without intermission, found their way into every crevice of the flimsy tents and crazy hovels, thatched only with branches of trees, which afforded a temporary shelter to the troops. In addition to these evils, the soldiers were badly fed, from the difficulty of finding resources in the waste and depopulated regions in which they were quartered, [25] and badly paid, from the negligence, or perhaps poverty, of King Ferdinand, whose inadequate remittances to his general exposed him, among many other embarra.s.sments, to the imminent hazard of disaffection among the soldiery, especially the foreign mercenaries, which nothing, indeed, but the most delicate and judicious conduct on his part could have averted. [26]

In this difficult crisis, Gonsalvo de Cordova retained all his usual equanimity, and even the cheerfulness, so indispensable in a leader who would infuse heart into his followers. He entered freely into the distresses and personal feelings of his men, and, instead of a.s.suming any exemption from fatigue or suffering on the score of his rank, took his turn in the humblest tour of duty with the meanest of them, mounting guard himself, it is said, on more than one occasion. Above all, he displayed that inflexible constancy, which enables the strong mind in the hour of darkness and peril to buoy up the sinking spirits around it. A remarkable instance of this fixedness of purpose occurred at this time.

The forlorn condition of the army, and the indefinite prospect of its continuance, raised a natural apprehension in many of the officers, that, if it did not provoke some open act of mutiny, would in all probability break down the spirits and const.i.tution of the soldiers. Several of them, therefore, among the rest Mendoza and the two Colonnas, waited on the commander-in-chief, and, after stating their fears without reserve, besought him to remove the camp to Capua, where the troops might find healthy and commodious quarters, at least until the severity of the season was mitigated; before which, they insisted, there was no reason to antic.i.p.ate any movement on the part of the French. But Gonsalvo felt too deeply the importance of grappling with the enemy, before they should gain the open country, to be willing to trust to any such precarious contingency. Besides, he distrusted the effect of such a retrograde movement on the spirits of his own troops. He had decided on his course after the most mature deliberation; and, having patiently heard his officers to the end, replied in these few but memorable words; "It is indispensable to the public service to maintain our present position; and be a.s.sured, I would sooner march forward two steps, though it should bring me to my grave, than fall back one, to gain a hundred years." The decided tone of the reply relieved him from further importunity. [27]

There is no act of Gonsalvo's life, which on the whole displays more strikingly the strength of his character. When thus witnessing his faithful followers drooping and dying around him, with the consciousness that a word could relieve them from all their distresses, he yet refrained from uttering it, in stern obedience to what he regarded as the call of duty; and this too on his own responsibility, in opposition to the remonstrances of those on whose judgment he most relied.

Gonsalvo confided in the prudence, sobriety, and excellent const.i.tution of the Spaniards, for resisting the bad effects of the climate. He relied too on their tried discipline, and their devotion to himself, for carrying them through any sacrifice he should demand of them. His experience at Barleta led him to antic.i.p.ate results of a very opposite character with the French troops. The event justified his conclusions in both respects.

The French, as already noticed, occupied higher and more healthy ground, on the other side of the Garigliano, than their rivals. They were fortunate enough also to find more effectual protection from the weather in the remains of a s.p.a.cious amphitheatre, and some other edifices, which still covered the site of Minturnae. With all this, however, they suffered more severely from the inclement season than their robust adversaries.

Numbers daily sickened and died. They were much straitened, moreover, from want of provisions, through the knavish peculations of the commissaries who had charge of the magazines in Rome. Thus situated, the fiery spirits of the French soldiery, eager for prompt and decisive action, and impatient of delay, gradually sunk under the protracted miseries of a war, where the elements were the princ.i.p.al enemy, and where they saw themselves melting away like slaves in a prison-s.h.i.+p, without even the chance of winning an honorable death on the field of battle. [28]

The discontent occasioned by these circ.u.mstances was further swelled by the imperfect success, which had attended their efforts, when allowed to measure weapons with the enemy.

At length the latent ma.s.s of disaffection found an object on which to vent itself, in the person of their commander-in-chief, the marquis of Mantua, never popular with the French soldiers. They now loudly taxed him with imbecility, accused him of a secret understanding with the enemy, and loaded him with the opprobrious epithets with which Trans-alpine insolence was accustomed to stigmatize the Italians. In all this, they were secretly supported by Ives d'Allegre, Sandricourt, and other French officers, who had always regarded with dissatisfaction the elevation of the Italian general; till at length the latter, finding that he had influence with neither officers nor soldiers, and unwilling to retain command where he had lost authority, availed himself of a temporary illness, under which he was laboring, to throw up his commission, and withdrew abruptly to his own estates.

He was succeeded by the marquis of Saluzzo, an Italian, indeed, by birth, being a native of Piedmont, but who had long served under the French banners, where he had been intrusted by Louis the Twelfth with very important commands. He was not deficient in energy of character or military science. But it required powers of a higher order than his to bring the army under subordination, and renew its confidence under present circ.u.mstances. The Italians, disgusted with the treatment of their former chief, deserted in great numbers. The great body of the French chivalry, impatient of their present unhealthy position, dispersed among the adjacent cities of Fondi, Itri, and Gaeta, leaving the low country around the Tower of the Garigliano to the care of the Swiss and German infantry.

Thus, while the whole Spanish army lay within a mile of the river, under the immediate eye of their commander, prepared for instant service, the French were scattered over a country more than ten miles in extent, where, without regard to military discipline, they sought to relieve the dreary monotony of a camp, by all the relaxations which such comfortable quarters could afford. [29]

It must not be supposed that the repose of the two armies was never broken by the sounds of war. More than one rencontre, on the contrary, with various fortune, took place, and more than one display of personal prowess by the knights of the two nations, as formerly at the siege of Barleta.

The Spaniards made two unsuccessful efforts to burn the enemy's bridge; but they succeeded, on the other hand, in carrying the strong fortress of Rocca Guglielma, garrisoned by the French. Among the feats of individual heroism, the Castilian writers expatiate most complacently on that of their favorite cavalier, Diego de Paredes, who descended alone on the bridge against a body of French knights, all armed in proof, with a desperate hardihood worthy of Don Quixote; and would most probably have shared the usual fate of that renowned personage on such occasions, had he not been rescued by a sally of his own countrymen. The French find a counterpart to this adventure in that of the preux chevalier Bayard, who, with his single arm, maintained the barriers of the bridge against two hundred Spaniards, for an hour or more. [30]

Such feats, indeed, are more easily achieved with the pen than with the sword. It would be injustice, however, to the honest chronicler of the day to suppose that he did not himself fully

"Believe the magic wonders that he sung."

Every heart confessed the influence of a romantic age,--the dying age, indeed, of chivalry,--but when, with superior refinement, it had lost nothing of the enthusiasm and exaltation of its prime. A shadowy twilight of romance enveloped every object. Every day gave birth to such extravagances, not merely of sentiment, but of action, as made it difficult to discern the precise boundaries of fact and fiction. The chronicler might innocently encroach sometimes on the province of the poet, and the poet occasionally draw the theme of his visions from the pages of the chronicler. Such, in fact, was the case; and the romantic Muse of Italy, then coming forth in her glory, did little more than give a brighter flush of color to the chimeras of real life. The characters of living heroes, a Bayard, a Paredes, and a La Palice, readily supplied her with the elements of those ideal combinations, in which she has so gracefully embodied the perfections of chivalry. [31]

FOOTNOTES

[1]

"O pria s cara al ciel del mondo parte, Che l'acqua cigne, e 'l sa.s.so orrido serra; O lieta sopra ogn' altra e dolce terra, Che 'l superbo Appennin segna e diparte; Che val omai se 'l buon popol di Marte Ti lasci del mar donna e de la terra?

Le genti a te gia serve, or ti fan guerra, E pongon man ne le tue treccie sparte.

La.s.so ne manea de' tuoi figli ancora Chi le piu strane a te chiamando insieme La spada sua nel tuo bel corpo adopre.

Or son queste simili a l' antich' opre?

O pur cos pietate e Dio a' onora?

Ahi secol duro, ahi tralignato seme."

Bembo, rime Son. 108.

This exquisite little lyric, inferior to none other which had appeared on the same subject since the "Italia mia" of Petrarch, was composed by Bembo at the period of which we are treating.

[2] The philosophic Machiavelli discerned the true causes of the calamities, in the corruptions of his country; which he has exposed, with more than his usual boldness and bitterness of sarcasm, in the seventh book of his "Arte della Guerra."

[3] Lorenzo Suarez de la Vega filled the post of minister at the republic during the whole of the war. His long continuance in the office at so critical a period, under so vigilant a sovereign as Ferdinand, is sufficient warrant for his ability. Peter Martyr, while he admits his talents, makes some objections to his appointment, on the ground of his want of scholars.h.i.+p. "Nec placet quod hunc elegeritis hac tempestate.

Maluissem namque virum, qui Latinum calleret, vel salterm intelligeret, linguam; hic tantum suam patriam vernaculam novit; prudentem esse alias, atque inter ignaros literarum satis esse gnarum, Rex ipse mihi testatus est. Cup.i.s.sem tamen ego, quae dixi." (See the letter to the Catholic queen, Opus Epist., epist. 246.) The objections have weight undoubtedly, the Latin being the common medium of diplomatic intercourse at that time.

Martyr, who on his return through Venice from his Egyptian mission took charge for the time of the interests of Spain, might probably have been prevailed on to a.s.sume the difficulties of a diplomatic station there himself. See also Part II. Chapter 11, note 7, of this History.

[4] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. i. lib. 5, cap. 38, 48.--Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, tom. iii. lib. 6.--Daru, Hist. de Venise, tom. iii. p.

347.--Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. i. lib. 6, p. 311, ed. 1645.-- Buonaccorsi, Diario, pp. 77, 81.

[5] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. i. lib. 5, cap. 55.--c.o.xe, History of the House of Austria, (London, 1807,) vol. i. chap. 23.

[6] Buonaccorsi, Diario, p. 78.--St. Gelais, Hist. de Louys XII., pp. 173, 174.--Varillas, Hist. de Louis XII., tom. i. pp. 386, 387.--Memoires de la Tremoille, chap. 19, apud Pet.i.tot, Collection des Memoires, tom. xiv.-- Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. xiv. anno 1503.--Carta de Gonzalo, MS.

Historians, as usual, differ widely in their estimates of the French numbers. Guicciardini, whose moderate computation of 20,000 men is usually followed, does not take the trouble to reconcile his sum total with the various estimates given by him in detail, which considerably exceed that amount. Istoria, pp. 308, 309, 312.

[7] Buonaccorsi, Diario, p. 81.--Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, lib. 6.

The little ceremony with which Alexander's remains were treated, while yet scarcely cold, is the best commentary on the general detestation in which he was held. "Lorsque Alexandre," says the pope's _maitre des ceremonies_, "rendit le dernier soupir, il n'y avait dans sa chambre que l'eveque de Rieti, le dataire et quelques palefreniers. Cette chambre fut aussitot pillee. La face du cadavre devint noire; la langue s'enfla au point qu'elle remplissait la bouche qui resta ouverte. La biere dans laquelle il fallait mettre le corps se trouva trop pet.i.te; on l'y enfonca a coups de poings. Les restes du pape insultes par ses domestiques furent portes dans l'eglise de St. Pierre, sans etre accompagnes de pretres ni de torches, et on les placa en dedans de la grille du choeur pour les derober aux outrages de la populace." Notice de Burchard, apud Brequigny, Notices et Extraits des Ma.n.u.scrits de la Bibliotheque du Roi, (Paris, 1787-1818,) tom. i. p. 120.

[8] Buonaccorsi, Diario, p. 82.--Machiavelli, Legazione Prima a Roma, Let.

1, 3, et al.--Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, tom. iii. lib. 6.--Ammirato, Istorie Fiorentine, tom. iii. lib. 28.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. v. lib. 5, cap. 47.

[9] Guicciardini, in particular, has related them with a circ.u.mstantiality which could scarcely have been exceeded by one of the conclave itself.

Istoria, lib. 6, pp. 316-318.

[10] Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, lib. 6.--Ammirato, Istorie Fiorentine, tom.

iii. lib. 28.

The election of Pius was extremely grateful to Queen Isabella, who caused Te Deums and thanksgivings to be celebrated in the churches, for the appointment of "so worthy a pastor over the Christian fold." See Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 265.

[11] Machiavelli, Legazione Prima a Roma, let. 6.--Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, lib. 7.

[12] Garnier, Hist. de France, tom. v. pp. 435-438.--Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 6, p. 316.--Buonaccorsi, Diario, p. 83.--St. Gelais, Hist.

de Louys XII., p. 173.

[13] Cicero's country seat stood midway between Gaeta and Mola, the ancient Formiae, about two miles and a half from each. (Cluverius, Ital.

Antiq., lib. 3, cap. 6.) The remains of his mansion and of his mausoleum may still be discerned, on the borders of the old Appian way, by the cla.s.sical and credulous tourist.

[14] Giovio, Vitae Ill.u.s.t. Virorum, fol. 258, 259.--Chronica del Gran Capitan, lib. 2, cap. 95.--Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 19.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 261.

[15] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. i. lib. 5, cap. 38, 43, 44, 48, 57.--Giovio, Vitae Ill.u.s.t. Virorum, fol. 258, 259.--Sismondi, Hist. des Francais, tom. xv. p. 417.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap.

16.--Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. pp. 252-257.--Carta del Gran Capitan, MS.

The Castilian writers do not state the sum total of the Spanish force, which is to be inferred only from the scattered estimates, careless and contradictory as usual, of the various detachments which joined it.

[16] The Spaniards carried Monte Casino by storm, and with sacrilegious violence plundered the Benedictine monastery of all its costly plate. They were compelled, however, to respect the bones of the martyrs, and other saintly relics; a division of spoil probably not entirely satisfactory to its reverend inmates. Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, fol. 262.

[17] Chronica del Gran Capitan, lib. 2, cap. 102.--Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 21.--Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. i. lib. 6, pp. 326, 327.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 267.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap.

188.

[18] The remains of this city, which stood about four miles above the mouth of the Liris, are still to be seen on the right of the road. In ancient days it was of sufficient magnitude to cover both sides of the river. See Strabo, Geographia, lib. 5, p. 233, (Paris, 1629, with Casaubon's notes,) p. 110.

[19] Chronica del Gran Capitan, lib. 2, cap. 107.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, fol. 263.