On hearing of Gonsalvo’s approach, the king marched out to meet him, accompanied by Cæsar Borgia, the Papal Legate, and many of the principal Neapolitan nobles and commanders, who greeted the victorious Castilian with the proud title of “The Great Captain,” by which he was already known to some of his contemporaries, and by which he has ever since been distinguished by posterity. At Avella he found a re-enforcement of five hundred Spanish soldiers, a welcome addition to his small force, which amounted on his arrival to only two thousand one hundred men, of whom six hundred were cavalry. With such an army, less numerous than a modern German regiment, did Gonsalvo overrun Calabria, out-general the most renowned French commanders, and defeat their gallant and well-disciplined forces, emboldened by uninterrupted success. The siege operations at Avella, which had been conducted without energy by the Neapolitans, received a new impetus from the presence of the Spaniard, who displayed such skill and vigor that in a few days the French, defeated at every point, were glad to sue for terms, and on the 21st of July, 1496, signed a capitulation which virtually put an end to the war. It was meet that Gonsalvo should now pay a visit to his countryman at the Vatican, and having, on his way to Rome, delivered the town of Ostia from the dictatorship of a Basque adventurer of the name of Guerri, the last remaining hope of the French in Italy, he was received by Alexander VI. with such splendor that his entry into the city is said to have resembled rather the _triumph_ of a victorious general into ancient Rome than the visit of a modern grandee. The streets were lined with enthusiastic crowds, the windows were filled with admiring spectators, the very tops of the houses were covered with lookers-on, as Gonsalvo marched into and through the city, preceded by bands of music, and accompanied by his victorious army. The entire garrison of Ostia, with Manuel Guerri at their head, mounted on a wretched horse, was led captive to the Vatican, where Roderic Borgia, in the full splendor of his tiara and pontifical robes, and surrounded by his cardinals, sat on his throne awaiting the coming of his victorious countryman. When Gonsalvo reached the foot of the throne, he knelt down to receive the pontifical benediction, but Alexander raised him in his arms, and presented to him the Golden Rose, the highest and most distinguished honor that a layman could receive from the hands of the sovereign Pontiff.