Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/359

333 WARS AND POLITICS OF ITALY. 333 which this little republic had been so nobly con- chaptek tending for more than fourteen years. ^ 1_ Early in April, 1509, Louis the Twelfth crossed Louisxn. '' ■■■ invades the Alps at the head of a force which bore down all ^'"'5- opposition. City and castle fell before him, and his demeanor to the vanquished, over whom he had no rights beyond the ordinary ones of war, was that of an incensed master taking vengeance on his rebellious vassals. In revenge for his detention before Peschiera, he hung the Venetian governor and his son from the battlements. This was an outrage on the laws of chivalry, which, however hard they bore on the peasant, respected those of high degree. Louis's rank, and his heart it seems, unhappily, raised him equally above sympathy with either class. ^° On the 14th of May was fought the bloody battle i 5 o 9 . of Agnadel, which broke the power of Venice, and at once decided the fate of the war." Ferdinand 9 Mariana, Hist, de Espaiia, lib. received only a like sum with him- 29, cap. 15. — Ammirato, Istorie self. Guicciardini, Istoria, torn. iv. Fiorentine, torn. iii. lib. 28, p. 286. pp. 78, 80, 156, 157. — Peter Martyr, Opus Epist.,epist. ^o Memoires de Bayard, chap. 423. 30. — Fleurange, Memoires, chap. Louis Xn. was in alliance with 8. — Guicciardini, Istoria, torn. iv. Florence, but insisted on 100,000 p. 183. ducats as the price of his acqui- Jean Marot describes the execu- escence in her recovery of Pisa, tion in the following cool and sum- Ferdinand, or rather his general, mary style. Gonsalvo de Cordova, had taken " Ce chastelain de 14, aussi le capitaine. Pisa under his protection, and the Pour la derrision et' response vilaine king insisted on 50,000 ducats for Qu'ilsfirentauh6rault,furent piiset san- his abandonment of her. This Puis^dlvant tout le monde pendus et as- honorable transaction resulted m trangiez. the payment of the respective (Euvres, torn. v. p. iss. amounts to the royal jobbers; the ^^ The fullest account, probably, 50,000 excess of Louis's portion of the action is in the " Voyage de being kept a profound secret from Venise," of Jean Marot. (CEuvres, Ferdinand, -who was made to be- tom. v. pp. 124-139.) This pi- lieve by the parties, that his ally oneerof French song, since eclipsed