Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/180

154 154 ITALIAN WARS. PART II. Gonsalvo's liberality to his officers. their own hands, ojipressing the unfortunate people on whom they were quartered in a manner which rendered their condition scarcely more tolerable, than when exposed to the horrors of actual war. ^° This was the introduction, according to Guicciar- dini, of those systematic military exactions in time of peace, which became so common afterwards in Italy, adding an inconceivable amount to the long catalogue of woes, which afflicted that unhappy land.2^ Amidst his manifold duties, Gonsalvo did not forget the gallant officers who had borne with him the burdens of the war, and he requited their ser- vices in a princely style, better suited to his feel- ings than his interests, as subsequently appeared. Among them were Navarro, Mendoza, Andrada, Benavides, Leyva, the Italians Alviano and the two Colonnas, most of whom lived to display the les- sons of tactics, which they learned under this great commander, on a still wider theatre of glory, in the reign of Charles the Fifth. He made them grants of cities, fortresses, and extensive lands, according to their various claims, to be held as fiefs of the crown. All this was done with the previous sanc- tion of his royal master, Ferdinand the Catholic. They did some violence, however, to his more economical spirit, and he was heard somewhat aO"Perservir semprc.viiicitrlce ovinia." even under the hand of Lord By- The Italians began at tliis early ron« period to feel the pressure of those ^^ Zurita, Anales, torn v. lib. 5, woes, which a century and a half cap. 64. — Guicciardini, Istoria, later wrunc: out of Filicaja the lib. 6, i)p. 340, 341. — Abarca, beautiful lament, which has lost Reyes de Aragon, ubi supra. — something of its touching graces, Carta del Gran Capilan, MS.