DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0077
RETURN TO ROME
37
significantly : ' He is not ill, but has left the camp
and is gone to Rome, seeing the probable result of
the campaign. He is a wise man, and I need say no
moreU
Throughout the earlier stages of the campaign
Castiglione remained in close attendance upon his
master, and endeared himself greatly to the Marquis
by the cheerful courage with which he bore the hard-
ships to which captain and soldiers were alike exposed.
Now he left the camp with his lord, and returned to
Rome, where his cousin, Cesare Gonzaga, was eagerly
expecting him, as we learn from the letters which
he wrote early in December to Baldassare's anxious
mother.
After their departure the quarrels of the French
captains became daily more bitter, while the soldiers
died by hundreds of cold and hunger. At length, on
December 20, a decisive battle took place in which the
French were completely routed, and Piero de' Medici,
who was fighting in their ranks, together with a
large number of fugitives, were drowned in the river
Garigliano. The destruction of the French army on
that fatal day sealed the fate of Naples, and established
the Spanish dominion firmly throughout the kingdom.
But neither the Marquis of Mantua nor his servant
Castiglione, as most of his biographers have stated,
were present in the rout of Garigliano.^
i Sanuto, v. 387, 483. 2 Marliani, Sei'assi, etc.
37
significantly : ' He is not ill, but has left the camp
and is gone to Rome, seeing the probable result of
the campaign. He is a wise man, and I need say no
moreU
Throughout the earlier stages of the campaign
Castiglione remained in close attendance upon his
master, and endeared himself greatly to the Marquis
by the cheerful courage with which he bore the hard-
ships to which captain and soldiers were alike exposed.
Now he left the camp with his lord, and returned to
Rome, where his cousin, Cesare Gonzaga, was eagerly
expecting him, as we learn from the letters which
he wrote early in December to Baldassare's anxious
mother.
After their departure the quarrels of the French
captains became daily more bitter, while the soldiers
died by hundreds of cold and hunger. At length, on
December 20, a decisive battle took place in which the
French were completely routed, and Piero de' Medici,
who was fighting in their ranks, together with a
large number of fugitives, were drowned in the river
Garigliano. The destruction of the French army on
that fatal day sealed the fate of Naples, and established
the Spanish dominion firmly throughout the kingdom.
But neither the Marquis of Mantua nor his servant
Castiglione, as most of his biographers have stated,
were present in the rout of Garigliano.^
i Sanuto, v. 387, 483. 2 Marliani, Sei'assi, etc.