lants had doubtless
the worst of it in the conflict; but the besieged, worn out with
fatigue, with their ammunition nearly exhausted, and almost without
food, did not feel themselves in condition to sustain another assault on
the following day. On the nineteenth of November, therefore, the morning
after the conflict, the brave garrison capitulated, and were treated
with honor as prisoners of war.[153]

The fate of the campaign seemed now to be decided. The pope, with, his
principal towns in the hands of the enemy, his communications cut off
both with the country and the coast, may well have felt his inability to
contend thus single-handed against the power of Spain. At all events,
his subjects felt it, and they were not deterred by his arrogant bearing
from clamoring loudly against the continuance of this ruinous war. But
Paul would not hear of a peace. However crippled by his late reverses,
he felt confident of repairing them all on the arrival of the French,
who, as he now learned with joy, were in full march across the territory
of Milan. He was not so disinclined to a truce, which might give time
for their coming.

Cardinal Caraffa, accordingly, had a conference with the duke of Alva,
and entered into negotiations with him for a suspension of arms. The
proposal was not unwelcome to the duke, who, weakened by losses of every
kind, was by no means in condition at the end of an active campaign to
contend with a fresh army under the command of so practised a leader as
the duke of Guise. He did not care to expose himself a second time to an
encounter with the French general, under disadvantages nearly as great
as those which had foiled him at Metz.

With these amiable dispositions, a truce was soon arranged between the
parties, to continue forty days. The terms were honorable to Alva, since
they left him in possession of all his conquests. Having completed these
arrangements, the Spanish commander broke up his camp on the southern
bank of the Tiber, recrossed the frontier, and in a few days made his
triumphant entry, at the head of his battalions, into the city of
Naples.[154]

So ended the first campaign of the war with Rome. It had given a severe
lesson, that might have shaken the confidence and humbled the pride of a
pontiff less arrogant than Paul the Fourth. But it served only to deepen
his hatred of the Spaniards, and to stimulate his desire for vengeance.

[Sidenote: GUISE ENTERS ITALY]

CHAPTER VI.