Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/371

345 WARS AND POLITICS OF ITALY. 345 combinations were to be formed, and new and in- chaptek terminable prospects of hostility opened. ^ L_ Ferdinand, relieved from immediate apprehen- Battle or ■* ^ _ Novara. sions of the French, took comparatively little inter- est in Italian politics. He was too much occupied with settling his conquests in Navarre. The army, indeed, under Cardona still kept the field in the north of Italy. The viceroy, after reestablishing the Medici in Florence, remained inactive. The French, in the mean while, had again mustered in force, and crossing the mountains encountered the Swiss in a bloody battle at Novara, where the for- 15 1 3. mer were entirely routed. Cardona, then rousing from his lethargy, traversed the Milanese without opposition, laying waste the ancient territories of Venice, burning the palaces and pleasure-houses of its lordly inhabitants on the beautiful banks of the Brenta, and approaching so near to the " Queen of the Adriatic," as to throw a few impotent balls into the monastery of San Secondo. The indignation of the Venetians and of Alviano, or LaMotm. the same general who had fought so gallantly under Gonsalvo at the Garigliano, hurried them into an oct. 7. engagement with the allies near La Motta, at two miles' distance from Vicenza. Cardona, loaded with booty and entangled among the mountain passes, was assailed under every disadvantage. The German allies gave way before the impetuous charge of Alviano, but the Spanish infantry stood The span- o ' '■ •' lards victo- its ground unshaken, and by extraordinary disci- """*• pline and valor succeeded in turning the fortunes of the day. More than four thousand of the enemy VOL. III. 44