had reached that coast early in March; but, soon after its arrival, its
gallant commander fell ill and died. [25] The dying general named Don
Fernando de Andrada as his successor; and this officer, combining his
forces with those before in the country under Cardona and Benavides,
encountered the French commander D'Aubigny in a pitched battle, not far
from Seminara, on Friday, the 21st of April. It was near the same spot on
which the latter had twice beaten the Spaniards. But the star of France
was on the wane; and the gallant old officer had the mortification to see
his little corps of veterans completely routed after a sharp engagement of
less than an hour, while he himself was retrieved with difficulty from the
hands of the enemy by the valor of his Scottish guard. [26]

The Great Captain and his army, highly elated with the news of this
fortunate event, which annihilated the French power in Calabria, began
their march on Naples; Fabrizio Colonna having been first detached into
the Abruzzi to receive the submission of the people in that quarter. The
tidings of the victory had spread far and wide; and, as Gonsalvo's army
advanced, they beheld the ensigns of Aragon floating from the battlements
of the towns upon their route, while the inhabitants came forth to greet
the conqueror, eager to testify their devotion to the Spanish cause. The
army halted at Benevento; and the general sent his summons to the city of
Naples, inviting it in the most courteous terms to resume its ancient
allegiance to the legitimate branch of Aragon. It was hardly to be
expected, that the allegiance of a people, who had so long seen their
country set up as a mere stake for political gamesters, should sit very
closely upon them, or that they should care to peril their lives on the
transfer of a crown which had shifted on the heads of half a dozen
proprietors in as many successive years. [27] With the same ductile
enthusiasm, therefore, with which they greeted the accession of Charles
the Eighth or Louis the Twelfth, they now welcomed the restoration of the