Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/159

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133
133

ARMIES ON THE GARIGLIANO. 133 in a prison-ship, without even the chance of win- chapter ning an honorable death on the field of battle. ^^ '. — The discontent occasioned by these circumstan- ces was further swelled by the imperfect success, which had attended their efforts, when allowed to measure weapons with the enemy. At length the latent mass of disaffection found Their msub- " _ ordination. an object on which to vent itself, in the person of their commander-in-chief, the marquis of Mantua, never popular with the French soldiers. They now loudly taxed him with imbecility, accused him of a secret understanding with the enemy, and loaded him with the opprobrious epithets with which Trans- alpine insolence was accustomed to stigmatize the Italians. In all this, they were secretly supported by Ives d'Allegre, Sandricourt, and other French officers, who had always regarded with dissatisfac- tion the elevation of the Italian general ; till at length the latter, finding that he had influence with neither officers nor soldiers, and unwilling to retain command where he had lost authority, avail- ed himself of a temporary illness, under which he was laboring, to throw up his commission, and withdrew abruptly to his own estates. He was succeeded by the marquis of Saluzzo, an Italian, indeed, by birth, being a native of Pied- mont, but who had long served under the French banhers, where he had been intrusted by Louis the 29 Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsal- Buonaccorsi, Diario, fol. 85. — vi, fol. 265. — Gamier, Hist, de Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 22. — France, torn. v. p. 445. — Zurita, Varillas, Hist, de Louis XII., Anales, torn. v. lib. 5, cap. 59. — torn. i. pp. 401, 402. Saluzzo takes the command.