Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/140

114 1 1 4 ITALIAN WARS. PART Don Juan Manuel, to stimulate Maximilian to the '- — • invasion of Lombardj. As the emperor, however, demanded, as usual, a liberal subsidy for carrying on the war. King Ferdinand, who was seldom in- commoded by a superfluity of funds, preferred re- serving them for his own enterprises, to hazarding them on the Quixotic schemes of his ally. But, although the negotiations were attended with no result, the amicable dispositions of the Austrian government were evinced by the permission given to its subjects to serve under the banners of Gon- salvo, where indeed, as we have already seen, they formed some of his best troops. ^ Great prep- But whilc Louls the Twelfth drew so little as- arations of louisxii. sistance from abroad, the heartiness with which the whole French people entered into his feelings at this crisis, made him nearly independent of it, and, in an incredibly short space of time, placed him in a condition for resuming operations on a far more formidable scale than before. The preceding fail- ures in Italy he attributed in a great degree to an overweening confidence in the superiority of his own troops, and his neglect to support them with the necessary reinforcements and supplies. He now provided against this by remitting large sums to Rome, and establishing ample magazines of grain and military stores there, under the direction of commissaries for the maintenance of the army. He equipped without loss of time a large armament 8 Zurita, Hist, del Rey Hcrnan- History of the House of Austria, do, torn. i. lib. 5, cap. 55. — Co.Ke, (London, 1807,) vol. i. chap. 23.