Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/186

160 1601 ITALIAN WARS. PART qualified to cope with the Spanish general. The '- — marquis of Mantua, independently of the disadvan- tage of being a foreigner, was too timid in council, and dilatory in conduct, to be any way competent to this difficult task. GoniXo's If his enemies, however, committed great errors, it is altogether owing to Gonsalvo that he was in a situation to take advantage of them. Nothing could be more unpromising than his position on first entering Calabria. Military operations had been conducted in Spain on principles totally dif- ferent from those which prevailed in the rest of Europe. This was the case especially in the late Moorish wars, where the old tactics and the char- acter of the ground brought light cavalry chiefly into use. This, indeed, constituted his principal strength at this period ; for his infantry, though accustomed to irregular service, was indifferently armed and disciplined. An important revolution, however, had occurred in the other parts of Europe. The infantry had there regained the superiority which it maintained in the days of the Greeks and Romans. The experiment had been made on more than one bloody field ; and it was found, that the solid columns of Swiss and German pikes not only bore down all opposition in their onward march, but presented an impregnable barrier, not to be shaken by the most desperate charges of the best heavy-armed cavalry. It was against these dreaded battalions that Gonsalvo was now called to measure for the first time the bold, but rudely armed and