Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/96

70 70 ITALIAN WARS. PART II. The Great Captain re- fuses to com- ply with it. infants, then in their cradles, have seriously contem- plated an arrangement, which surrendered all the ac tual power into the hands of his rival ; and that too at the moment when his large armament, so long preparing for Calabria, had reached that country, and when the Great Captain, on the other quarter, had received such accessions of strength as enabled him to assume the offensive, on at least equal terms with the enemy. No misgivings on this head, however, appear to have entered the minds of the signers of the treaty, which was celebrated by the court at Lyons with every show of public rejoicing, and particularly with tourneys and tilts of reeds, in imitation of the Span ish chivalry. At the same time, the French king countermanded the embarkation of fresh troops on board a fleet equipping at the port of Genoa for Na- ples, and sent orders to his generals in Italy to desist from further operations. The archduke forwarded similar instructions to Gonsalvo, accompanied with a copy of the powers intrusted to him by Ferdi- nand. That prudent officer, however, whether in obedience to })revious directions from the king, as Spanish writers affirm, or on his own responsibility, from a very natural sense of duty, refused to com- ply with the ambassador's orders ; declaring " he knew no authority but that of his own sovereigns, and that he felt bound to prosecute the war with all his ability, till he received their commands to the contrary." '^ 15 Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. torn. ii. ray 30, cap. 13, sec. 3. — 29, cap. 4. — St. Gelais, Hist, de