Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/356

332 II The pope asks the aid of Gunsalvo. Storming and capture ITALIAN WARS. PART ions. The imbecile government, incapable of de- fending itself, implored Gonsalvo's aid in dislodging this nest of formidable freebooters. The Spanish general, who was now at leisure, complied with the pontiif's solicitations, and soon after presented him self before Ostia with his little corps of troops, amounting in all to three hundred horse and fifteen hundred foot.^ Guerri, trusting to the strength of his defences, ofostia. refused to surrender. Gonsalvo, after coolly pre- paring his batteries, opened a heavy cannonade on the place, which at the end of five days effected a practicable breach in the walls. In the mean time, Garcilasso de la Vega, the Castilian ambassador at the papal court, who could not bear to remain inac- tive so near the field where laurels were to be won, arrived to Gonsalvo's support, with a handful of his own countrymen resident in Rome. This gallant little band, scaling the walls on the opposite side to that assailed by Gonsalvo, effected an entrance into the town, while the garrison was occupied with maintaining the breach against the main body of the Spaniards. Thus surprised, and hemmed in on both sides, Guerri and his associates made no further resistance, but surrendered themselves pris- oners of war ; and Gonsalvo, with more clemency than was usually shown on such occasions, stopped the carnage, and reserved his captives to grace his entry into the capital.^ 3 Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, — Villeneuve, Memoires, p. 317. lib. I, p.2QI. — Chronica del Gran 4 Giovio, Vita Mafjni Gonsalvi, Capitan, cap. 30. — Zurita, Hist. p. 222. — Quintana, Espafioles C6- del Rey Hernando, lib. 3, cap. 1. lebres, torn. i. p. 234.