Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/166

140 140 ITALIAN WARS. PART II. Consterna- tion of the French. point ; while Andrada at the head of the rear-guard was to force a passage at the old bridge, lower down the stream, opposite to the Tower of the Garigliano.* The night was dark and stormy. Alviano per- formed the duty intrusted to him with such silence and celerity, that the work was completed without attracting the enemy's notice. He then crossed over with the van-guard, consisting chiefly of cavalry, supported by Navarro, Paredes, and Pizarro ; and, falling on the sleeping garrison of Suzio, cut to pieces all who offered resistance. The report of the Spaniards having passed the river spread far and wide, and soon reached the head-quarters of the marquis of Saluzzo, near the Tower of the Garigliano. The French commander- in-chief, who believed that the Spaniards were lying on the other side of the river, as torpid as the snakes in their own marshes, was as much astounded by the event, as if a thunderbolt had burst over his head from a cloudless sky. He lost no time, how- ever, in rallying such of his scattered forces as he could assemble, and in the mean while despatched Ives d'Allegre with a body of horse to hold the enemy in check, till he could make good his own retreat on Gaeta. His first step was to demolish the bridge near his own quarters, cutting the moor- ings of the boats and turning them adrift down the 2, cap. 110. — Bernaldez, Reyes — Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., Cat61icos, MS., cap. 189. — Gio- epist. 270. — Buonaccorsi, Diario, vio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 3, p. 84. fol. 266. — Zurita, Historia del Rey
 * Chr6nica del Gran Capitan, lib. Hernando, torn. i. lib. 5, cap. 60.