was their astonishment when the scales dropped from their eyes, and they beheld the movements of Spain in perfect accordance with those of France, and directed to crush their common victim between them. They could scarcely credit, says Guicciardini, that Louis the Twelfth could be so blind as to reject the proffered vassalage and substantial sovereignty of Naples, in order to share it with so artful and dangerous a rival is Ferdinand."7

28

The unfortunate Frederick, who had been advised for some time past of the unfriendly dispositions of the Spanish government, saw no refuge from the dark tempest mustering against him on the opposite quarters of his kingdom. He collected such troops as he could, however, in order to make battle with the nearest enemy, before he should cross the threshold. On the 28th of June, the French army resumed its march. Before quitting Rome, a brawl rose between some French soldiers and Spaniards resident in the capital; each party asserting the paramount right of its own sovereign to the crown of Naples. From words they soon came to blows, and many lives were lost before the fray could be quelled; a melancholy

77 Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. i. lib. 5, p. 266.-Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 8.

28 In the month of April the king of Naples received letters from his envoys in Spain, written by command of King Ferdinand, informing him that he had nothing to expect from that monarch in case of an invasion of his territories by France. Frederick bitterly complained of the late hour at which this intelligence was given, which effectually prevented an accommodation he might otherwise have made with King Louis. Lanuza, Historias, lib. 1, cap. 14.-Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. i. lib. 4, cap. 37.

augury for the permanence of the concord so unrighteously established between the two governments.”

On the 8th of July, the French crossed the Neapolitan frontier. Frederick, who had taken post at St. Germano, found himself so weak that he was compelled to give way on its approach, and retreat on his capital. The invaders went forward, occupying one place after another with little resistance, till they came before Capua, where they received a temporary check. During a parley for the surrender of that place, they burst into the town, and, giving free scope to their fiendish passions, butchered seven thousand citizens in the streets, and perpetrated outrages worse than death on their defenceless wives and daughters. It was on this occasion that Alexander the Sixth's son, the infamous Cæsar Borgia, selected forty of the most beautiful from the principal ladies of the place and sent them back to Rome to swell the complement of his seraglio. The dreadful doom of Capua intimidated further resistance, but inspired such detestation of the French throughout the country, as proved of infinite prejudice to their cause in their subsequent struggle with the Spaniards.30

King Frederick, shocked at bringing such calamities on his subjects, resigned his capital without a blow in its defence, and, retreating to the isle of Ischia, soon after embraced the counsel of the French admiral

29 D'Auton, Hist. de Louys XII., part. 1, chap. 48.

30 Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. iii. lib. 6, cap. 4.-D'Auton, Hist. de Louys XII., part. 1, chap. 51-54.—Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 8.-Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 5, pp. 268, 269.-Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. i lib. 4, cap. 41.—Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 29, cap. 3.

Ravenstein, to accept a safe-conduct into France and throw himself on the generosity of Louis. (Oct. 1501.) The latter received him courteously, and assigned him the duchy of Anjou, with an ample revenue for his maintenance, which, to the credit of the French king, was continued after he had lost all hope of recovering the crown of Naples." With this show of magnanimity, however, he kept a jealous eye on his royal guest; under pretence of paying him the greatest respect, he placed a guard over his person, and thus detained him in a sort of honorable captivity to the day of his death, which occurred in 1504.

Frederick was the last of the illegitimate branch of Aragon who held the Neapolitan sceptre; a line of princes who, whatever might be their characters in other respects, accorded that munificent patronage to letters which sheds a ray of glory over the roughest and most turbulent reign. It might have been expected that an amiable and accomplished prince, like Frederick, would have done still more towards the moral development of his people, by healing the animosities which had so long festered in their bosoms. His gentle character, however, was ill suited to the evil times on which he had fallen; and it is not improbable that he found greater contentment in the calm and cultivated retirement of his latter years, sweetened by the sympathies of friendship which adversity had proved," than when placed on the dazzling

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"St. Gelais, Hist. de Louys XII., p. 163.-D'Auton, Hist. de Louys XII., part. 1, ch. 56.—Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. iii. p. 541.

3 The reader will readily call to mind the Neapolitan poet Sannazaro,

heights which attract the admiration and envy of mankind.33

Early in March, Gonsalvo de Cordova had received his first official intelligence of the partition treaty, and of his own appointment to the post of lieutenantgeneral of Calabria and Apulia. He felt natural regret at being called to act against a prince whose character he esteemed, and with whom he had once been placed in the most intimate and friendly relations. In the true spirit of chivalry, he returned to Frederick, before taking up arms against him, the duchy of St. Angel and the other large domains with which that monarch had requited his services in the late war, requesting at the same time to be released from his obligations of homage and fealty. The generous monarch readily complied with the latter part of his request, but insisted on his retaining the grant, which he declared an inadequate compensation, after all, for the benefits the Great Captain had once rendered him.34

The levies assembled at Messina amounted to three

whose fidelity to his royal master forms so beautiful a contrast with the conduct of Pontano, and indeed of too many of his tribe, whose gratitude is of that sort that will only rise above zero in the sunshine of a court. His various poetical effusions afford a noble testimony to the virtues of his unfortunate sovereign, the more unsuspicious as many of them were produced in the days of his adversity.

33 "Neque mala vel bona," says the philosophic Roman, ". quæ vulgus putet; multos, qui conflictari adversis videantur, beatos; ac vierosque, quamquam magnas per opes, miserrimos; si illi gravem ortunam constanter tolerent, hi prosperâ inconsultè utantur." Tacitus, Annaies, lib. 6, sect. 22.

4 Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. i. lib. 4, cap. 35.-Giovio, Vitæ Illust. Virorum, p. 230.-Chrónica del Gran Capitan, cap. 21.Lanuza, Historias, tom. i. lib. 1, cap. 14.

nundred heavy-armed, three hundred light horse, and three thousand eight hundred infantry, together with a small body of Spanish veterans, which the Castilian ambassador had collected in Italy. The number of the forces was inconsiderable, but they were in excellent condition, well disciplined, and seasoned to all the toils and difficulties of war. On the 5th of July, the Great Captain landed at Tropea, and commenced the conquest of Calabria, ordering the fleet to keep along the coast, in order to furnish whatever supplies he might need. The ground was familiar to him, and his progress was facilitated by the old relations he had formed there, as well as by the important posts which the Spanish government had retained in its hands as an indemnification for the expenses of the late war. Notwithstanding the opposition or coldness of the great Angevin lords who resided in this quarter, the entire occupation of the two Calabrias, with the exception of Tarento, was effected in less than a month.35

This city, remarkable in ancient times for its defence against Hannibal, was of the last importance. King Frederick had sent thither his eldest son, the duke of Calabria, a youth about fourteen years of age, under the care of Juan de Guevara, count of Potenza, with a strong body of troops, considering it the place of greatest security in his dominions. Independently of the strength of its works, it was rendered nearly inac cessible by its natural position; having no communi cation with the mainland except by two bridges, a

35 Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. II, sec. 8.-Zurita Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. i. lib. 4, cap. 44.-Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 27, cap. 9.

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