128 ITALIAN WARS. PART II. Gonsftlvo strengthens His position. anxious expectation of a battle, which should finally decide the fate of Naples. Expresses were daily despatched from the French camp to Rome, w hence the ministers of the different European powers transmitted the tidings to their respective govern- ments. Machiavelli represented at that time the Florentine republic at the papal court, and his cor- respondence teems with as many floating rumors and speculations as a modern gazette. There were many French residents in the city, with whom the minister was personally acquainted. He frequently notices their opinions on the progress of the war, which they regarded with the most sanguine confi- dence, as sure to result in the triumph of their own arms, when once fairly brought into collision with the enemy. The calmer and more penetrating eye of the Florentine discerns symptoms in the condi- tion of the two armies of quite a different ten- dency. ^^ It seemed now obvious, that victory must declare for that party which could best endure the hard- ships and privations of its present situation. The local position of the Spaniards was far more unfa- vorable than that of the enemy. The Great Cap- tain, soon after the affair of the bridge, had drawn off his forces to a rising ground about a mile from 35 Legazione Prima a Roma, let. 9, 10, 18. The French showed the same confidence from the beginning of hostilities. One of that nation hav- ing told Suarcz, the Castilian min- ister at Venice, that the marshal de la Tr^mouille said, " He would give 20,000 ducats, if he could meet Gonsalvo de Cordova in the plains of Viterbo ;" the Sjianiard smartly replied, " Nemours would have given twice as much not to have met him at Cerignola." Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 5, cap. 36.
