Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/367

WARS AND POLITICS OF ITALY. 341 charge at the head of his chivalry, in hopes of chapter breaking it. Unfortunately, his wounded horse fell . — '- 1_ under him. It was in vain his followers called out, " It is our viceroy, the brother of your queen ! " The words had no charm for a Spanish ear, and he was despatched with a multitude of wounds. He received fourteen or fifteen in the face ; good proof, says the loyal serviteur, " that the gentle prince had never turned his back."^^ There are few instances in history, if indeed Hucharac- there be any, of so brief, and at the same time so brilliant a military career, as that of Gaston de Foix ; and it well entitled him to the epithet his country- men gave him of the " thunderbolt of Italy." ^ He had not merely given extraordinary promise, but in the course of a very few months had achieved such results, as might well make the greatest powers of the peninsula tremble for their possessions. His precocious military talents, the early age at which he assumed the command of armies, as well as many peculiarities of his discipline and tactics, suggest some resemblance to the beginning of Napoleon's career. Unhappily, his brilliant fame is sullied by a reck- lessness of human life, the more odious in one too ^ Memoires de Bayard, chap, liques Italiennes, torn. xiv. chap. 54. — Guicciardini, Istoria, torn. v. 109,) an author, who has the rare lib. 10, pp. 306-309.— Peter Mar- merit of combining profound philo- t3rr, epist. 483. — Brantome, Vies sophical analysis with the superfi- des Hommes Illustres, disc. 24. cial and picturesque graces of nar- The best, that is, the most per- rative. spicuous and animated description "^ " Lefoudredel'Italie." (Gail- of the fight of Ravenna, among lard, Rivalitfe, torn. iv. p. 391.) — contemporary writers, will be found light authority, I acknowledge, in Guicciardini (ubi supra) ; among even for a sobriquet. the modern, in Sismondi, (Repub-