Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/107

81 VICTORY OF CERIGNOLA. 81 nando de Andrada as his successor ; and this officer, chapter XII combining his forces with those before in the coun '- — try under Cardona and Benavides, encountered the French commander D'Aubignj in a pitched battle, not far from Seminara, on Friday, the 21st of April. It was near the same spot on which the latter had twice beaten the Spaniards. But the star of France was on the wane; and the gallant old officer had the mortification to see his little corps of veterans completely routed after a sharp engagement of less than an hour, while he himself was retrieved with difficulty from the hands of the enemy by the valor of his Scottish guard. ^^ The Great Captain and his army, highly elated ^f N^'Te's°" with the news of this fortunate event, which anni- hilated the French power in Calabria, began their march on Naples ; Fabrizio Colonna having been first detached into the Abruzzi to receive the sub- mission of the people in that quarter. The tidings of the victory had spread far and wide ; and, as Gonsalvo's army advanced, they beheld the ensigns of Aragon floating from the battlements of the towns upon their route, while the inhabitants came forth to greet the conqueror, eager to testify their house of Boccanegra, The Great 20 Gio-vio, Vitee Illust. Virorum, Captain and he had married sisters; fnl. 255. — Peter Martyr, Opus and this connexion probably recom- Epist., epist. 256. — Chronica del mended him, as much as his mili- Gran Capitan, cap. 80. — Varillas, tary talents, to the Calabrian com- Histoire de Louis XII. (Paris, mand, which it was highly impor- 1688,) torn. i. pp. 289-292. tant should be intrusted to one, who See the account of D'Aubigny's would maintain a good understand- victories at Seminara, in Part II. ing with the commander-in-chief; Chapters 2 and 11, of this History, a thing not easy to secure among the haughty nobility of Castile. VOL. III. 11