Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/50

24 24 ITALIAN WARS. PART which attract the admiration and envy of man- '- — kind.^^ Early in March, Gonsalvo of Cordova had re- ceived his first official intelligence of the partition treaty, and of his own appointment to the post of lieutenant-general of Calabria and Apulia. He felt natural regret at being called to act against a prince, whose character he esteemed, and with whom he had once been placed in the most intimate and friendly relations. In the true spirit of chival- ry, he returned to Frederic, before taking up arms agamst him, the duchy of St. Angel and the other large domains, with which that monarch had requit- ed his services in the late war, requesting at the same time to be released from his obligations of homage and fealty. The generous monarch readily complied with the latter part of his request, but in- sisted on his retaining the grant, which he declared an inadequate compensation, after all, for the ben- efits the Great Captain had once rendered him. ^^ Gonsalvo in- Xhc Icvics asscmWcd at Messina amounted to vades Cala- three hundred heavy-armed, three hundred light horse, and three thousand eight hundred infantry, together with a small body of Spanish veterans, which the Castilian ambassador had collected in fortunate sovereign, the more un- tunam constanter tolerant, hi pros- suspicious as many of them were pera inconsult^ utantur." Tacitus, produced in the days of his adver- Annales, lib. 6, sect. 22. sity. '^* Zurita, Hist, del Rey Hernan- 33 a Neque mala vel bona," says do, tom. i. lib. 4, cap. 35. — Gio- the philosophic Roman, " quae vul- vio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 230. gus putet ; multos, qui conflictari — Chronica del Gran Capitan, cap. advorsis videantur, beatos ; ac pie- 21. — Lanuza, Historias, tom. i. rosque, quamquam magnas per lib. 1, cap. 14. opes, miserrimos ; si illi gravem for- Jtria.