316 ITALIAN WARS. PART II. Decline of the French. obliged to leave without any defence at all. In addition to this, he was so destitute of the neces- sary funds for the payment of his troops, that he was detained nearly two months at Nicastro, until February, 1496, when he received a remittance from Spain. After this, he resumed operations with such vigor, that by the end of the following spring he had reduced all Upper Calabria, with the exception of a small corner of the province, in which D'Aubigny still maintained himself. At this crisis, he was summoned from the scene of his con- quests to the support of the king of Naples, who lay encamped before Atella, a town intrenched among the Apennines, on the western borders of the Basilicate. ^^ The campaign of the preceding winter had ter- minated without any decisive results, the two ar- mies of Montpensier and King Ferdinand having continued in sight of each other, without ever coming to action. These protracted operations were fatal to the French. Their few supplies were intercepted by the peasantry of the country ; their Swiss and German mercenaries mutinied and de- serted for want of pay; and the Neapolitans in their service went off in great numbers, disgusted with the insolent and overbearing manners of their new allies. Charles the Eighth, in the mean while, was wasting his hours and health in the usual round of profligate pleasures. From the moment 23 Zurita, Hist, del Rey Hernan- Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, pp. do, lib. 2, cap. 11, 20. — Guicciar- 219, 220. — Chronica del Gran dini, Istoria, lib. 2, p. 140. — Giovio, Capitan, cap. 25, 26.
