PARTITION OF NAPLES. 19 b returned in the beginning of the following year, chapteu 1501, to Sicily. Soon after his arrival there, an — ^ - embassy waited on him from the Venetian senate, to express their grateful sense of his services ; which they testified by enrolling his name on the golden book, as a nobleman of Venice, and by a magnificent present of plate, curious silks and velvets, and a stud of beautiful Turkish horses. Gonsalvo courteously accepted the proffered honors, but distributed the whole of the costly largess, with the exception of a few pieces of plate, among his friends and soldiers. ^^ In the mean while, Louis the Twelfth having completed his preparations for the invasion of Na- ples, an army, consisting of one thousand lances and ten thousand Swiss and Gascon foot, crossed the 1501. Alps, and directed its march towards the south. At the same time a powerful armament, under Philip de Ravenstein, with six thousand five hundred ad- ditional troops on board, quitted Genoa for the Ne- apolitan capital. The command of the land forces was given to the Sire d'Aubigny, the same brave and experienced officer who had formerly coped with Gonsalvo in the campaigns of Calabria. '^^ No sooner had D'Aubig-ny crossed the papal bor- The pope " -^ ^ ^ confirms the ders, than the French and Spanish ambassadors v^^^'^'ok. announced to Alexander the Sixth and the college 24 Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, Louys XII., (Paris, 1622,) part.l, MS., cap. 167. — Quintana, Es- chap. 44, 45, 48. — Guicciardini, panoles Celebres, torn, i. p. 246. Istoria, torn. i. p. 265. — Sainct — Giovio, Vitae Ulust. Virorum, Gelais, Histoire de Louys XII., p. 228. — Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., (Paris, 1622,) p. 163. — Buonac- fol. 4. corsi, Diario, p. 46. 25 Jean d'Auton, Histoire de
