until they had lost artillery, baggage, and a number of prisoners.  “The Spaniards,” says John d’Auton, “halted before the place, made as if they would lay siege to it, and so remained for two or three days.  The French, who were there in great numbers, had scarcely any provisions, and could not hold out for long; however, they put a good face upon it.  The captain, Gonzalvo, sent word to them that if they would surrender their town he would, on his part, restore to them without ransom all prisoners and others of their party; and he had many of them, James de la Palisse, Stuart d’Aubigny, Gaspard de Coligny, Anthony de la Fayette, &c., all captains.  The French captains, seeing that fortune was not kind to them, and that they had provisions for a week only, were all for taking this offer.  All the prisoners, captains, men-at-arms, and common soldiers were accordingly given up, put to sea, and sailed for Genoa, where they were well received and kindly treated by the Genoese, which did them great good, for they were much in need of it.  Nearly all the captains died on their return, some of mourning over their losses, others of melancholy at their misfortune, others for fear of the king’s displeasure, and others of sickness and weariness.” [Chroniques of John d’Auton, t. iii. pp. 68-70.]

Gaeta fell into the hands of the Spaniards on the 1st of January, 1504.  The war was not ended, but the kingdom of Naples was lost to the King of France.

At the news of these reverses the grief and irritation of Louis XII. were extreme.  Not only was he losing his Neapolitan conquests, but even his Milaness was also threatened.  The ill-will of the Venetians became manifest.  They had re-victualled by sea the fortress of Barletta, in which Gonzalvo of Cordova had shut himself up with his troops; “and when the king presented complaints of this succor afforded to his enemies, the senate replied that the matter had taken place without their cognizance, that Venice was a republic of traders, and that private persons might very likely have sold provisions to the Spaniards, with whom Venice was at peace, without there being any ground for concluding from it that she had failed in her engagements towards France.  Some time afterwards, four French galleys, chased by a Spanish squadron of superior force, presented themselves before the port of Otranto, which was in the occupation of the Venetians, who pleaded their neutrality as a reason for refusing asylum to the French squadron, which the commander was obliged to set on fire that it might not fall into he enemy’s hands.” [Histoire de la Republique de L’enise, by Count Daru, t. iii. p. 245.] The determined prosecution of hostilities in the kingdom of Naples by Gonzalvo of Cordova, in spite of the treaty concluded at Lyons on the 5th of April, 1503, between the Kings of France and Spain, was so much the more offensive to Louis XII. in that this treaty was the consequence and the confirmation