him in a condition for assuming the offensive. His stock of provisions,
moreover, already much reduced, would be obviously insufficient long to
maintain his increased numbers. He resolved, therefore, to sally out of
the old walls of Barleta, and, availing himself of the high spirits in
which the late successes had put his troops, to bring the enemy at once to
battle. [34]


FOOTNOTES

[1] Peter Martyr, in a letter written from Venice, while detained there on
his way to Alexandria, speaks of the efforts made by the French emissaries
to induce the republic to break with Spain, and support their master in
his designs on Naples. "Adsunt namque a Ludovico rege Gallorum oratores,
qui omni nixu conantur a vobis Venetorum animos avertere. Fremere dentibus
aiunt oratorem primarium Gallum, quia nequeat per Venetorum suffragia
consequi, ut aperte vobis hostilitatem edicant, utque velint Gallis regno
Parthenopeo contra vestra praesidia ferre suppetias." The letter is dated
October 1st, 1501. Opus Epist., epist. 231.

[2] Martyr, after noticing the grounds of the partition treaty, comments
with his usual shrewdness on the politic views of the Spanish sovereigns.
"Facilius namque se sperant, eam partem, quam sibi Galli sortiti sunt,
habituros aliquando, quam si universum regnum occuparint." Opus Epist.,
epist. 218.

[3] The Italian historians, who have investigated the subject with some
parade of erudition, treat it so vaguely, as to leave it after all nearly
as perplexed as they found it. Giovio includes the Capitanate in Apulia,
according to the ancient division; Guicciardini, according to the modern;