Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/339

Rh CHAPTER II.

terrible forays, whose effects he had so often witnessed on the fair vegas of Granada. He adopted the policy practised by his master Ferdinand the Catholic in the Moorish war, lenient to the submissive foe, but wreaking terrible vengeance on such as resisted.22 The French were sorely disconcerted by these irregular operations, so unlike any thing to which they were accustomed in European warfare. They were further disheartened by the continued illness of D'Aubigny, and by the growing disaffection of the Calabrians, who in the southern provinces contiguous to Sicily were particularly well inclined to Spain. His successes.

Gonsalvo, availing himself of these friendly dispositions, pushed forward his successes, carrying one strong-hold after another, until by the end of the year he had overrun the whole of Lower Calabria. His progress would have been still more rapid but for the serious embarrassments which he experienced from want of supplies. He had received some reinforcements from Sicily, but very few from Spain ; while the boasted Galician levies, instead of fifteen hundred, had dwindled to scarcely three hundred men ; who arrived in the most miserable plight, destitute of clothing and munitions of every kind. He was compelled to weaken still further his inadequate force by garrisoning the conquered places, most of which, however, he was 22 Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, lib. 3, pp. 173, 174. — Chronica del Gran Capitan, cap. 26. — Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, p. 218.

— Villeneuve,Memoires,p. 313. — Sismondi, Republiques Italiennes, tom. xii. p. 386.