Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/153

ARMIES ON THE GARIGLIANO. J 27 This action was one of the severest which occur- chapter XIV. red in these wars. Don Hugo de Moncada, the '- — 1 T -r> 1 '^^^ French veteran of many a fight by land and sea, told raolo '^y'™/^^"'* Giovio, that " he had never felt himself in such imminent peril in any of his battles, as in this." ^^ The French, notwithstanding they remained mas- ters of the contested bridge, had met with a resist- ance, which greatly discouraged them ; and, instead of attempting to push their success further, retired that same evening to their quarters on the other side of the river. The tempestuous weather, which continued with unabated fury, had now broken up the roads, and converted the soil into a morass, nearly impracticable for the movements of horse, and quite so for those of artillery, on which the French chiefly relied ; while it interposed compara- tively slight obstacles to the manoeuvres of infantry, which constituted the strength of the Spaniards From a consideration of these circumstances, the French commander resolved not to resume active operations, till a change of weather, by restoring the roads, should enable him to do so with advan- tage. Meanwhile he constructed a redoubt on the Spanish extremity of the bridge, and threw a body of troops into it, in order to command the pass, whenever he should be disposed to use it.^* While the hostile armies thus lay facing each p"ctirtion^^ other, the eyes of all Italy were turned to them, in ^'^'^' 23 Giovio, Vitae Ulust. Virorum, lust. Virorum, fol. 262. — Machia- fol. 264. vein, Legazione Prima a Roma, let. ^ Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 6, 29. — Gamier, Hist, de France, pp. 327, 328. — Giovio, Vita II- tom. v. pp. 443-445.