attack Guienne, he positively refused to move a foot for the reduction of Navarre, and demanded afresh the supplies of artillery and horse which had been guaranteed for that enterprise. But Ferdinand with all suavity replied, that it was quite out of the question to furnish him with any till Navarre was made secure; that was the first necessary step, and that effected, he should be prepared to march with him to Bayonne, Bordeaux, and to the conquest of all Guienne.
These representations only increased the disgust of Dorset and his army: but they could do nothing but await the event, and saw themselves thus most adroitly posted by Ferdinand, as the necessary guard of his position against the French, whilst he accomplished his long-desired acquisition of Navarre. So Alva went on leisurely reducing Pampeluna, Ferdinand still calling on Dorset to accelerate the business by marching to Alva's support.
Thus the summer was passed in mutual recriminations. The English, too inconsiderable in force to attempt the siege of Bayonne alone, lay inactive in their camp, cursing the perfidy of their treacherous ally, and brooding gloomily over all their blasted hopes from the expedition. Ill supplied with provisions, and indulging too freely in the fruits and wines of the country, disease ravaged the army, as it had done that of the Black Prince in the same country and the same circumstances, when supporting Pedro the Cruel. Dorset repeatedly demanded transports to lead back his perishing army to England; and, at length, when Navarre was perfectly secured, Ferdinand offered to join the English and march with them into Guienne. This Dorset rejected; for he found that the real design was, first to march into Bearne, the King of Navarre's hereditary territory, and whither he had fled on the fall of Pampeluna. Dorset indignantly repeated his demand for transports. This was at length granted; and scarcely had he sailed, when orders reached Spain from Henry, in consequence of Ferdinand's representations, that the army should remain and follow the route indicated by the King of Spain.
Henry did not yet perceive how grossly he had been deluded by his loving father-in-law, who had only used him to secure a kingdom for himself most essential to the compactness and power of Spain; and he would have been led by him to assist in his still contemplated aggressions. Meantime Louis, more clearly cognisant of the game, marched his troops into Bearne, and left them, professedly for his ally, whilst the remnant of the English army reached home, shorn of all its anticipated honours, reduced in numbers, in rags, and more than half famished. Henry was disposed to charge upon Dorset the disasters and disappointments of the expedition, but the officers succeeded in convincing him that they could not have done differently, consistent with their orders; but the time was yet far off when the vain-glorious young king was to have his eyes opened to the selfish deceptions which his Machiavelian father-in-law was practising upon him.
At sea, the fleet under Sir Edward Howard had not been more successful than the forces on land. Sir Edward harassed the coasts of Brittany during the spring and summer, and on the 10th of August fell in with a fleet of thirty-nine sail, under the command of Admiral Primauget. Sir Charles Brandon, afterwards the Duke of Suffolk, bore down upon the Cordelier, of Brest, a vessel of huge bulk, and carrying 900 men. Brandon's vessel was soon dismasted, and fell astern, giving place to the Regent, the largest vessel in the English navy, a ship of 1,000 tons. The Regent was commanded by Sir Thomas Knevet, a young officer of a daring character. He continued the contest with Primauget for more than an hour, when, another ship coming to his aid, Primauget set fire to the Cordelier, the flames of which soon catching the Regent, which lay alongside with her in full action, both vessels were wrapt in fire, amid which the crews continued their desperate fight till the French admiral's ship blow up, destroying with it the Regent; and all the crews went down, with the commanders, amid the horror of the spectators. The rest of the French fleet then escaped into Brest, and Sir Edward Howard made a vow to God that he would never see the king's face again till he had avenged the death of the valiant Sir Thomas Knevet.
But though Henry had been duped by the wily Ferdinand, and had suffered greatly at sea, his efforts had inflicted very serious evil on the King of France. The menace of his dominions in the south, and the English fleet hovering upon his coasts, had prevented him sending into Italy the necessary force to ensure lasting advantage there. At first his generals marched forward with the impetuosity characteristic of French troops, and drove the armies of the Pope and of Ferdinand before them. On the 11th of April they forced the entrenched camp under the walls of Ravenna, and carried that city by assault. It was a splendid but a fatal action. The general, Gaston de Foix, a young nobleman of the highest bravery and genius, fell, and with him 10,000 of his best soldiers. La Palico, who succeeded to the command, sent urgent despatches to Louis for fresh forces, and whilst awaiting them proceeded to complete the subjection of the rest of Romagna. But Louis was not able to spare him the necessary reinforcement, and therefore he led back the remains of his victorious army to Milan, where he continued to maintain himself—still urging the absolute necessity of fresh troops—till December. But no forces arrived; the Italians rose and harassed him on all sides; the Pope engaged a body of Swiss to march down upon him, and, therefore, giving up the city to Maximilian Sforza, the son of the late duke, Palice endeavoured to secure his retreat. The enemy pursued him with renewed fury, and coming up with him on the banks of the Ticino, defeated him with a loss of one-fourth of his number. Before Christmas Julius had fulfilled his boast that he would drive the barbarians beyond the Alps. He had done it, says Muratori, without stopping a moment to ask himself whether this was the precise function o£ the chief pastor of the Church.
Louis, convinced that the Holy League, as it was called, was proving too strong for him, employed the ensuing winter in devising means to break it up, or to corrupt some of its members. Julius, the great soul of the league, died—a grand advantage to Louis—in February, 1513, and the new pontiff, Leo X., who was Cardinal John de Medici, though he prosecuted the same object of clearing Italy of the foreigner, did not possess the same belligerent temperament as his predecessor. Leo laboured to keep the league together, but at the same time he was busily
