124 - ITALIAN WARS. PART Its natural humidity was greatly increased, at this ■ time, by the excessive rains, which began earlier and with much more violence than usual. The French position was neither so low, nor so wet as that of the Spaniards. It had the advantage, more- over, of being supported by a well-peopled and friendly country in the rear, where lay the large towns of Fondi, Itri, and Gaeta ; while their fleet, under the admiral Prejan, which rode at anchor in the mouth of the Garigliano, might be of essential service in the passage of the river. In order to effect this, the marquis of Mantua prepared to throw a bridge across, at a point not far from Trajetto. He succeeded in it, notwithstand- ing the swollen and troubled condition of the wa- ters, ^^ in a few days, under cover of the artillery, which he had planted on the bank of the river, and which from its greater elevation entirely com- manded the opposite shore. Passage of Thc bridgc was constructed of boats belonging ihe bridge. ° i i to the fleet, strongly secured together and covered with planks. The work being completed, on the jacent Sintiessa, a town about and still less with that of Silius ten miles southeast of Minturnae. Ilalicus, (Comp. Livy, lib. 22, cap. 14, and "Liris .... qui fonte quieto Strabo, lib. 5, p. 233.) 2d. The Dissimulat cursum, et nulla mutabilis name did not indicate marshes, but PerstWngU tacitas gemmanti gnrgite ri- natural hot springs, particularly pas." noted for iheir salubrity. " Salu- Punica, lib. 4. britato harum aquarum," says Ta- Indeed, the stream exhibits at the citus in allusion to them (Anuales, present day the same soft and tran- lib. 12), and Pliny notices their quil aspect celebrated by the Ro- medicinal properties luore explicit- man poets. Its natural character, ly. Hist. Natunilis, lil). 31, cap.2. however, was entirely chanpcd at 21 Tliis does not accord with the period before us, in conse- Horace's character of the Cariglia- quence of the unexampled heavi- no, the ancient Liris, as the " taci- ness and duration of the autumnal tnrnus amnis," (Carm. lib. i. 30,) rains.
