Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/161

135 ARMIES ON THE GARIGLIANO. 135 Guglielma, garrisoned by the French. Among the chapter feats of individual heroism, the Castilian writers L_ expatiate most complacently on that of their favor- ite cavalier, Diego de Paredes, who descended alone on the bridge against a body of French knights, all armed in proof, with a desperate hardi- hood worthy of Don Quixote ; and would most probably have shared the usual fate of that re- nowned personage on such occasions, had he not been rescued by a sally of his own countrymen. The French find a counterpart to this adventure in that of the preux chevalier Bayard, who, with his single arm maintained the barriers of the bridge against two hundred Spaniards, for an hour or more. '* Such feats, indeed, are more easily achieved with the pen than with the sword. It would be injustice, however, to the honest chronicler of the day to suppose that he did not himself fully " Believe the magic wonders that he sung." Every heart confessed the influence of a romantic age, — the dying age, indeed, of chivalry, — but when, with superior refinement, it had lost nothing of the enthusiasm and exaltation of its prime. A shadowy twilight of romance enveloped every ob- ject. Every day gave birth to such extravagances, not merely of sentiment, but of action, as made it difficult to discern the precise boundaries of fact 31 Chronica del Gran Capitan, torn. i. p. 417. — Quintana, EspaiTo- Ub. 2, cap. 106. — Memoires de les C61ebres, torn. i. pp. 288-290. Bayard, chap. 25, apud Petitot, — Machiavelli, Legazione Prima a Collection des Memoires, tom. xv. Roma, let. 39, 44. — Varillas, Hist, de Louis XII.,