dinand hurried.
"I am going to Naples for troops," said he to the inhabitants; "wait for
me confidently; and if by to-morrow evening you do not see me return,
make your own terms with King Charles; you have my full authority."
On arriving at Naples, he said to the Neapolitans, "Hold out for a
fortnight; I will not expose the capital of my kingdom to be stormed by
barbarians; if, within a fort-night hence, I have not prevented the enemy
from crossing the Volturno, you may ask him for terms of capitulation;"
and back he went to Capua. When he was within sight of the ramparts he
heard that on the previous evening, before it was night, the French had
been admitted into the town. Trivulzio had been to visit King Charles at
Teano, and had offered, in the name of his troops and of the Capuans, to
surrender Capua; he had even added, says Guicciardini, that he did not
despair of bringing King Ferdinand himself to an arrangement, if a
suitable provision were guaranteed to him. "I willingly accept the offer
you make me in the name of your troops and of the Capuans," answered
Charles: "as for the Arragonese prince, he shall be well received if he
come to me; but let him understand that not an inch of ground shall be
left to him in this kingdom; in France he shall have honors and beautiful
domains." On the 18th of February Charles entered Capua amidst the
cheers of the people; and on the same day Trivulzio went over to his
service with a hundred lances. On returning to Naples, Ferdinand found
the gates closed, and could not get into Castel Nuovo save by a postern.
At that very moment the mob was pillaging his stables; he went down from
the fortress, addressed the crowd collected beneath the ramparts in a few
sad and bitter words, into which he tried to infuse some leaven of hope,
took certain measures to enable the two forts of Naples, Castel Nuovo and
Castel dell Uovo, to defend themselves for a few days longer, and, on the
23d of February, went for refuge to the island of Ischia, repeating out
loud, as long as he had Naples in sight, this versicle from the Psalms:
"Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain!" At
Ischia itself "he had a fresh trial to make," says Guicciardini, "of his
courage and of the ungrateful faithlessness displayed towards those whom
Fortune deserts." The governor of the island refused to admit him
accompanied by more than one man. The prince, so soon as he got in,
flung himself upon