Volume III Part 12 (1/2)

[6] Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 6, pp. 330, 331.--Garnier, Hist. de France, tom. v. pp. 449-451.--Chronica del Gran Capitan, ubi supra.-- Varillas, Hist. de Louis XII., tom. i. pp. 416-418.--Ammirato, Istorie Florentine, tom. iii. lib. 28, p. 273.--Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom.

iii. p. 555.--Buonaccorsi, Diario, pp. 84, 85.--Giovio, Vitae Magni Gonsalvi, fol. 268.

[8] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 190.--Garnier, Hist. de France, tom. v. pp. 452, 453.--Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 23.--Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 6, p. 331.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 16.-- Chronica del Gran Capitan, ubi supra.--Buonaccorsi, Diario, pp. 84, 85.-- Ammirato, Istorie Fiorentine, ubi supra.--Varillas, Hist. de Louis XII., tom. i. pp. 416-418.

[8] Soon after the rout of the Garigliano, Bembo produced the following sonnet, which most critics agree was intended, although no name appears in it, for Gonsalvo de Cordova.

”Ben devria farvi onor d' eterno esempio Napoli vostra, e 'n mezzo al s...o...b..l monte Scolpirvi in lieta e ooronata fronte, Gir trionfando, e dar i voti al tempio: Poi che l' avete all' orgoglioso ed empio Stuolo ritolta, e pareggiate l' onte; Or ch' avea piu la voglia e le man p.r.o.nte A far d' Italia tutta acerbo scempio.

Torcestel voi, Signor, dal corso ardito, E foste tal, ch' ancora esser vorebbe A por di qua dall' Alpe nostra il piede.

L' onda Tirrena del suo sangue crebbe, E di tronchi resto coperto il lito, E gli angelli ne fer secure prede.”

Opere, tom. ii. p. 57.

[9] The Curate of Los Palacios sums up the loss of the French, from the time of Gonsalvo's occupation of Barleta to the surrender of Gaeta, in the following manner; 6000 prisoners, 14,000 killed in battle, a still greater number by exposure and fatigue, besides a considerable body cut off by the peasantry. To balance this b.l.o.o.d.y roll, he computes the Spanish loss at two hundred slain in the field! Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 191.

[10] Chronica del Gran Capitan, lib. 2, cap. 110.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, ubi supra.--Garibay, Compendio, lib. 19, cap. 16.--Quintana, Espanoles Celebres, tom. i. pp. 296, 97.

Guicciardini, who has been followed in this by the French writers, fixes the date of the rout at the 28th of December. If, however, it occurred on Friday, as he, and every authority, indeed, a.s.serts, it must have been on the 29th, as stated by the Spanish historians. Istoria, lib. 6, p. 330.

[11] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, fol. 268.

[12] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, fol. 268, 269.--Chronica del Gran Capitan, lib. 2, cap. 111.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 270.-- Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 6, p. 331.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. v. lib. 5, cap. 61.--Garnier, Hist. de France, tom. v. pp. 454, 455.--Sismondi, Hist.

des Francais, tom. xv. cap. 29.

[13] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. i. lib. 5, cap. 61.--Garnier, Hist. de France, tom. v. pp. 454, 455.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 190.--Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 29, cap. 4.

No particular mention was made of the Italian allies in the capitulation.

It so happened that several of the great Angevin lords, who had been taken in the preceding campaigns of Calabria, were found in arms in the place.

(Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, fol. 252, 253, 269.) Gonsalvo, in consequence of this manifest breach of faith, refusing to regard them as comprehended in the treaty, sent them all prisoners of state to the dungeons of Castel Nuovo in Naples. This action has brought on him much unmerited obloquy with the French writers. Indeed, before the treaty was signed, if we are to credit the Italian historians, Gonsalvo peremptorily refused to include the Neapolitan lords within it. Thus much is certain; that, after having been taken and released, they were now found under the French banners a second time. It seems not improbable, therefore, that the French, however naturally desirous they may have been of protection for their allies, finding themselves unable to enforce it, acquiesced in such an equivocal silence with respect to them as, without apparently compromising their own honor, left the whole affair to the discretion of the Great Captain.

With regard to the sweeping charge made by certain modern French historians against the Spanish general, of a similar severity to the other Italians indiscriminately, found in the place, there is not the slightest foundation for it in any contemporary authority. See Gaillard, Rivalite, tom. iv. p. 254.--Garnier, Hist. de France, tom. v. p. 456.--Varillas, Hist de Louis XII., tom. i. pp. 419, 420.

[14] Fleurange, Memoires, chap. 5, apud Pet.i.tot, Collection des Memoires, tom. xvi.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 190.--Giovio, Vitae Ill.u.s.t. Virorum, fol. 269, 270.--Chronica del Gran Capitan, cap. 111.

[15] Brantome, who visited the banks of the Garigliano, some fifty years after this, beheld them in imagination thronged with the shades of the ill.u.s.trious dead, whose bones lay buried in its dreary and pestilent marshes. There is a sombre coloring in the vision of the old chronicler, not unpoetical. Vies des Hommes Ill.u.s.tres, disc. 6.

[16] Garnier, Hist. de France, tom. v. pp. 456-458.--Giovio, Vitae Ill.u.s.t.

Virorum, fol. 269, 270.--Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. i. lib. 6, pp. 332, 337.--St. Gelais, Hist. de Louys XII., p. 173.

[17] Buonaccorsi, Diario, p. 86.--Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 23.-- Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 190.--Giovio, Vitae Ill.u.s.t. Virorum, ubi supra.--Gaillard, Rivalite, tom. iv. pp. 254-256.

[18] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, fol. 270, 271.--Quintana, Espanoles Celebres, tom. i. p. 298.--Chronica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 1.-- Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 359.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 190, 191.

[19] Giovio, Vitae Ill.u.s.t. Virorum, fol. 271.

[20] ”Per servir sempre, vincitrice o vinia.”

The Italians began at this early period to feel the pressure of those woes, which a century and a half later wrung out of Filicaja the beautiful lament, which has lost something of its touching graces, even under the hand of Lord Byron.