Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/77

51 reduce Cala- bria. Dec. 25. RESOLUTION OF THE SPANIARDS. 51 with a very skeptical air. They derived some con- chapter firmation, however, from the arrival soon after of a '- Sicilian bark, laden with corn, and another from Venice with various serviceable stores and wearing apparel, which Gonsalvo bought on his own credit and that of his principal officers, and distributed gratuitously among his destitute soldiers. ^^ At this time he received the unwelcome tidings Tue French ~ reduce Cals that a small force which had been sent from Spain to his assistance, under Don Manuel de Benavides, and which had effected a junction with one much larger from Sicily under Hugo de Cardona, was iso surprised by D'Aubigny near Terranova, and totally defeated. This disaster was followed by the re- duction of all Calabria, which the latter general, at the head of his French and Scottish gendarmerie, rode over from one extremity to the other without opposition. ^^ The prospect now grew darker and darker around o/'"he's"'au- the little garrison of Barleta. The discomfiture of '^"'^" Benavides excluded hopes of relief in that direction. The gradual occupation of most of the strong places in Apulia by the duke of Nemours cut off all com- munication with the neighbouring country ; and a French fleet cruising in the Adriatic rendered the arrival of further stores and reinforcements extreme- ly precarious. Gonsalvo, however, maintained the "^ Giovio, Vitse Illust. Virorum, 24 ibid., lib. 5, p. 294. — D'Au- p. 242. — Zurita, Hist, del Rey ton, Hist.de Louys XII., part. 2, Hernando, torn. i. lib. 5, cap. 4. — chap. 22. — Chronica del Gran Capi- Bernaldez, R^es Catolicos, MS., tan, cap. 63. cap. 167. — Guicciardini, Istoria, p. 283.