treated them with his usual courtesy, and especially La Palice, whom he
provided with his own surgeon and all the appliances for rendering his
situation as comfortable as possible. For the common file, however, he
showed no such sympathy; but condemned them all to serve in the Spanish
admiral's galleys, where they continued to the close of the campaign. An
unfortunate misunderstanding had long subsisted between the French and
Spanish commanders respecting the ransom and exchange of prisoners; and
Gonsalvo was probably led to this severe measure, so different from his
usual clemency, by an unwillingness to encumber himself with a superfluous
population in the besieged city. [32] But, in truth, such a proceeding,
however offensive to humanity, was not at all repugnant to the haughty
spirit of chivalry, which, reserving its courtesies exclusively for those
of gentle blood and high degree, cared little for the inferior orders,
whether soldier or peasant, whom it abandoned without remorse to all the
caprices and cruelties of military license.

The capture of Ruvo was attended with important consequences to the
Spaniards. Besides the valuable booty of clothes, jewels, and money, they
brought back with them nearly a thousand horses, which furnished Gonsalvo
with the means of augmenting his cavalry, the small number of which had
hitherto materially crippled his operations. He accordingly selected seven
hundred of his best troops and mounted them on the French horses; thus
providing himself with a corps, burning with zeal to approve itself worthy
of the distinguished honor conferred on it. [33]

A few weeks after, the general received an important accession of strength
from the arrival of two thousand German mercenaries, which Don Juan
Manuel, the Spanish minister at the Austrian court, had been permitted to
raise in the emperor's dominions. This event determined the Great Captain
on a step which he had been some time meditating. The new levies placed