Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/152

126 126 ITALIAN WARS. II. PART ball. As a comrade was raising up the fallen colors, the gallant ensign resolutely grasped them, exclaim- ing that " he had one hand still left." At the same time, muffling a scarf round the bleeding stump, he took his place in the ranks as before. This brave deed did not go unrewarded, and a liberal pension was settled on him, at Gonsalvo's instance. During the heat of the melee, the guns on the French shore had been entirely silent, since they could not be worked without doing as much mis- chief to their own men as to the Spaniards, with whom they were closely mingled. But, as the French gradually recoiled before their impetuous adversaries, fresh bodies of the latter rushing for- ward to support their advance necessarily exposed a considerable length of column to the range of the French guns, which opened a galling fire on the further extremity of the bridge. The Spaniards, notwithstanding " they threw themselves into the face of the cannon," as the marquis of Mantua exclaimed, " with as much unconcern as if their bodies had been made of air instead of flesh and blood," found themselves so much distressed by this terrible fire, that they were compelled to fall back; and the van, thus left without support, at length retreated in turn, abandoning the bridge to the enemy. ^^ 22 Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 22. — MS., cap. 188. — Abarca, Reyes Machiavelli, Lepazione Prima a de ArafTon, torn. ii. rey 30, cap. 14. Roma, let. 11, Nov. 10. — let. 16, — Garibay, Compcndio, torn. ii. lib. Nov. 13. — let. 17. — Chronica del 19, cap. 16. — Peter Martyr, Opus Gran Capitan, lib. 2, cap. 106.— Epist., epist. 209. — Giovio, Vitas Gamier, Hist, de France, torn. v. Illust. Virorum, fol. 262-264.— pp. 440, 441.