Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/48

22 22 ITALIAN WARS. •ART U. Fate of Frederic. 1501. October. St. Germano, found himself so weak, that he was compelled to give way on its approach, and retreat on his capital. The invaders went forward, occu- pying one place after another with little resistance till they came before Capua, where they received a temporary check. During a parley for the surren- der of that place, they burst into the town, and giv- ing free scope to their fiendish passions, butchered seven thousand citizens in the streets, and perpe- trated outrages worse than death on their defence- less wives and daughters. It was on this occasion that Alexander the Sixth's son, the infamous Caesar Borgia, selected forty of the most beautiful from the principal ladies of the place, and sent them back to Rome to swell the complement of his seraglio. The dreadful doom of Capua intimidated further resist- ance, but inspired such detestation of the French throughout the country, as proved of infinite preju- dice to their cause in their subsequent struggle with the Spaniards. ^° King Frederic, shocked at bringing such calami- ties on his subjects, resigned his capital without a blow in its defence, and, retreating to the isle of Ischia, soon after embraced the counsel of the French admiral Ravenstein, to accept a safe-conduct into France, and throw himself on the generosity of Louis the Twelfth. The latter received him courteously, and assigned him the duchy of Anjou 30 Summonte, Hist, di Napoli, torn. iii. lib. 6, cap. 4. — D'Auton, Hist, de Louys XII., part. 1, chap. 51_54. — Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., poli, lib. 29, cap. 3 fol. 8. — Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 5, pp. 268, 269. — Zurita, Hist, del Key Hernando, torn. i. lib. 4, cap. 4 1 . — Giannone, Istoria di Na-