Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/158

132 132 ITALIAN WARS. PART II. Patience of the Span- iards. Situation of the French. all their distresses, he yet refrained from uttering it, in stern obedience to what he regarded as the call of duty ; and this, too, on his own responsibil- ity, in opposition to the remonstrances of those on whose judgment he most relied. Gonsalvo confided in the prudence, sobriety, and excellent constitution of the Spaniards, for resisting the bad effects of the climate. He relied too on their tried discipline, and their devotion to himself, for carrying them through any sacrifice he should demand of them. His experience at Barleta led him to anticipate results of a very opposite charac- ter with the French troops. The event justified his conclusions in both respects. The French, as already noticed, occupied higher and more healthy ground, on the other side of the Garigliano, than their rivals. They were fortunate enough also to find more effectual protection from the weather in the remains of a spacious amphi- theatre, and some other edifices, which still covered the site of Minturnae. With all this, however, they suffered more severely from the inclement season than their robust adversaries. Numbers daily sick- ened and died. They were much straitened, more- over, from want of provisions, through the knavish peculations of the commissaries, who had charge of the magazines in Rome. Thus situated, the fiery spirits of the French soldiery, eager for prompt and decisive action, and impatient of delay, gradu- ally sunk under the protracted miseries of a war, where the elements were the principal enemy, and where they saw themselves melting away like slaves