It is not within the scope of this history to give any detailed account of the retreat of the French through Italy, of the wonderful passage of the Apennines at Pontremoli, and the still more wonderful victory of Fornovo on the Taro, when the French, whose entire force did not exceed ten thousand soldiers, completely routed the Italian army of thirty-five thousand men, under the command of Gonzago, marquis of Mantua. The French forces that remained in southern Italy were doomed to a very different fate. The command of the French army had been intrusted to the celebrated Stuart d’Aubigny, a knight of Scottish ancestry, who had been invested by Charles VIII. with the dignity of Constable of France, and who was accounted one of the most capable officers in Europe. But a greater captain than D’Aubigny was already on his way from Castile, who was in a single campaign to restore the reputation of the Spanish infantry to the proud position which they had once occupied in the armies of ancient Rome. Landing at Reggio in Calabria, on the 26th of May, 1495, with a force of all arms not exceeding five thousand fighting men, Gonsalvo de Cordova speedily possessed himself of that important base of operations, established himself on the coast, captured several inland towns, was victorious in many skirmishes, and would soon have overrun the whole of Calabria, had not the rashness of Frederic, the young king of Naples, who had succeeded but a few months before to the crown which Alfonso had abdicated after a reign of less than one year, led to a disastrous check at Seminara. But Gonsalvo rapidly reorganized his army, and showing himself, like a great general, no less admirable in repairing a defeat than in taking advantage of a victory, he had kept D’Aubigny so completely in check that he had been unable even to go to the assistance of Montpensier, who was in sore straits in Naples. The citizens soon opened their gates to their lawful sovereign, and Montpensier retreated with his remaining forces to Avella, on the banks of the Lagni, twenty miles northeast of the city of Naples, whither Gonsalvo promptly marched to besiege him. Having received intelligence in the course of his march--Gonsalvo was ever well informed--that a strong body of French, with some Angevin knights and nobles, were on their way to effect a junction with D’Aubigny, he surprised them by a night attack in the fortified town of Lino, where he captured every one of the Angevin lords, no less than twenty in number, and immediately marching off to Avella with his spoils and prisoners, and an immense booty, he arrived at Frederic’s camp early in July, just thirteen months after their separation on the disastrous field of Seminara.