prompt action on any point where circumstances might require it. The fleet
consisted of about sixty sail, large and small, and carried forces
amounting to six hundred horse and four thousand foot, picked men, many of
them drawn from the hardy regions of the north, which had been taxed least
severely in the Moorish wars. [14]

The command of the whole was intrusted to the Great Captain, Gonsalvo of
Cordova, who since his return home had fully sustained the high
reputation, which his brilliant military talents had acquired for him
abroad. Numerous volunteers, comprehending the noblest of the young
chivalry of Spain, pressed forward to serve under the banner of this
accomplished and popular chieftain. Among them may be particularly noticed
Diego de Mendoza, son of the grand cardinal, Pedro de la Paz, [15] Gonzalo
Pizarro, father of the celebrated adventurer of Peru, and Diego de
Paredes, whose personal prowess and feats of extravagant daring furnished
many an incredible legend for chronicle and romance. With this gallant
armament the Great Captain weighed anchor in the port of Malaga, in May,
1500, designing to touch at Sicily before proceeding against the Turks.
[16]

Meanwhile, the negotiations between France and Spain, respecting Naples,
were brought to a close, by a treaty for the equal partition of that
kingdom between the two powers, ratified at Granada, November 11th, 1500.
This extraordinary document, after enlarging on the unmixed evils flowing
from war, and the obligation on all Christians to preserve inviolate the
blessed peace bequeathed them by the Saviour, proceeds to state that no
other prince, save the kings of France and Aragon, can pretend to a title
to the throne of Naples; and as King Frederic, its present occupant, has
seen fit to endanger the safety of all Christendom, by bringing on it its
bitterest enemy the Turks, the contracting parties, in order to rescue it