56 ITALIAN WARS. PART once to make an attack on the town of Ruvo, about storms and takes it - — ^ — twelve miles distant, and defended by the brave La Palice, with a corps of three hundred French lances, and as many foot. With his usual prompt- 15 03. ness, the Spanish general quitted the walls of Bar- Feb. 22. leta the same night on which he received the news, taking with him his whole effective force, amount- ing to about three thousand infantry and one thou- sand light and heavy armed horse. So few, indeed, remained to guard the city, that he thought it pru- dent to take some of the principal inhabitants as hostages to insure its fidelity in his absence. ijonsaivo At brcak of day, the little army arrived before storms and 'J ' ^ Ruvo. Gonsalvo immediately opened a lively can- nonade on the old ramparts, which in less than four hours effected a considerable breach. He then led his men to the assault, taking charge himself of those who were to storm the breach, while another division, armed with ladders for scaling the walls, was intrusted to the adventurous cavalier Diego de Paredes. The assailants experienced more resolute resist- ance than they had anticipated from the inconsid- erable number of the garrison. La Palice, throw- ing himself into the breach with his iron band of dismounted gendarmes, drove back the Spaniards as often as they attempted to set foot on the broken ramparts ; while the Gascon archery show- ered down volleys of arrows thick as hail, from the battlements, on the exposed persons of the assail- ants. The latter, however, soon rallied under the eye of their general, and returned with fresh fury
