Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/164

138 138 ITALIAN WARS. II. offensive. PART the Spanish commander with three thousand men. This arrangement was finally brought about through the good offices of the Venetian minister at Rome, who even advanced a considerable sum of money towards the payment of the new levies.^ Assumes the Thc appcarance of this corps, with one of the most able and valiant of the Italian captains at its head, revived the drooping spirits of the camp. Soon after his arrival, Alviano strongly urged Gon- salvo to abandon his original plan of operations, and avail himself of his augmented strength to attack the enemy in his own quarters. The Spanish com- mander had intended to confine himself wholly to the defensive, and, too unequal in force to meet the French in the open field, as before noticed, had intrenched himself in his present strong position, with the fixed purpose of awaiting the enemy there. Circumstances had now greatly changed. The original inequality was diminished by the arrival of the Italian levies, and still further compensated by the present disorderly state of the French army. He knew, moreover, that in the most perilous en- terprises, the assailing party gathers an enthusiasm and an impetus in its career, which counterbalance large numerical odds ; while the party taken by sur prise is proportionably disconcerted, and prepared, as it were, for defeat before a blow is struck. From these considerations, the cautious general acquiesced in Alviano's project to cross the Gari- 2 Mariana, Hist, de Espana, torn. 48, 67. — Abarca, Reyes de Ara- ii. lib. 28, cap. 5. — Guicciardini, gon, torn. ii. rey 30, cap. 14, sec. Istoria, lib. 6, pp. 319, 320. — Zu- 4, 5. — Dam, Hist, de Venise, torn rita, Anales, torn. v. lib. 5, cap. iii. pp. 364, 365.