sions they conducted him to his pavilion, and resumed all the hopes and spirits with which he could have wished to inspire them.

He watched the enemy so close in the plains of Saguntum, that they were in great want of provisions; and as they were determined at last to go out to forage and collect necessaries, this unavoidably brought on a battle. Great acts of valor were performed on both sides. Memmius, the best officer Pompey had, fell in the hottest of the fight. Sertorius carried all before him, and through heaps of the slain made his way towards Metellus, who made great efforts to oppose him, and fought with a vigor above his years, but at last was borne down with the stroke of a spear. All the Romans, who saw or heard of his disaster, resolved not to abandon their general, and from an impulse of shame as well as anger, they turned upon the enemy, and sheltered Metellus with their shields, till others carried him off in safety. Then they charged the Spaniards with great fury, and routed them in their turn.

As victory had now changed sides, Sertorius, to secure a safe retreat for his troops, as well as convenient time for raising fresh forces, retired into a city strongly situated upon a mountain. He repaired the walls, and barricaded the gates, as though he thought of nothing else than standing a siege. The enemy, however, were deceived by appearances. They invested the place, and imagining that they should make themselves masters of it without difficulty, took no care to pursue the fugitive barbarians, or to prevent the new levies which the officers of Sertorius were making. These officers he had sent to the towns under his command, with instructions, when they had assembled a sufficient number, to send a messenger to acquaint him with it.

Upon the receipt of such intelligence, he sallied out, and having made his way through the enemy without much trouble, he joined his new-raised troops, and returned with that additional strength. He now cut off the Roman convoys both by sea and land: on land, by laying ambushes or hemming them in, and, by the rapidity of his marches, meeting them in every quarter; at sea, by guarding the coast with his light piratical vessels. In consequence of this the Romans

were obliged to separate. Metellus retired into Gaul, and Pompey went and took up his winter quarters in the territories of the Vacceians, where he was greatly distressed for want of money; insomuch that he informed the Senate he should soon leave the country if they did not supply him; for he had already sacrificed his own fortune in the defence of Italy. Indeed, the common discourse was that Sertorius would be in Italy before Pompey. So far had his capacity prevailed over the most distinguished and the ablest generals.

On the other hand, the magnanimity of Sertorius appeared in every step he took. The patricians, who had been obliged to fly from Rome, and take refuge with him, he called a Senate. Out of them he appointed quæstors and lieutenants, and in everything proceeded according to the laws of his country. What was of still greater moment, though he made war with only the arms, the money and the men of Spain, he did not suffer the Spaniards to have the least share in any department of government, even in words or titles. He gave them Roman generals and governors, to make it appear that the liberty of Rome was his great object, and that he did not want to set up the Spaniards against the Romans. In fact, he was a true lover of his country, and his passion to be restored to it was one of the first in his heart. He said he had rather be the meanest citizen in Rome, than an exile with the command of all the other countries in the world.-PLUTARCH.

FRANCIS I. has been called the most brilliant King of France: good-natured, kindly, chivalrous, high-spirited, valorous, æsthetic in his tastes, "protector of literature, "-all this he certainly was. But his dashing, dazzling appearance must not be permitted to make us blind to his faults. If he was refined in taste, he was also sensual; if ambitious, abject also when he met with reverses; though high-spirited, yet he wanted force of character; steadfastness and "squareness" were foreign to his nature. He showed headstrong valor in battle, but did not make a good military commander: his early, brilliant victory at Marignano gave him an unmerited reputation which his subsequent campaigns failed to support. He was intensely autocratic; though Von Ranke calls him the "King of culture," yet his people groaned under the taxes imposed to meet the expense of selfish pleasures. His incapacity and want of coolness and persistency stand out glaringly in his long struggle against Charles V. Furthermore, he was very much under the evil influence of his energetic mother, who adored him, and her unprincipled minister, Du Prat.

Born at Cognac, September 12, 1494, Francis, Count of Angoulême, was a youth of twenty when, on January 1, 1515, he succeeded his father-in-law, Louis XII., King of France, "good King Loys," to whose daughter, Claude, he had been married at the age of eleven. Almost the first act of his

reign was to invade Italy at the head of a strong army, having taken up his two predecessors' claims to Milan and Naples. The Spaniards, the Swiss and the Pope were banded against him; but he overcame all obstacles by reaching the Italian plains via the Cottian Alps, which he crossed with his entire army. The Swiss gained a temporary advantage over the enthusiastic young King by a sharp attack (September 13, 1515,) at Marignano, about ten miles from Milan; but on the following day the French, who had rallied, gained a complete victory over the mountaineers. Pavia and Milan yielded, as did also Genoa.

After this great victory at Marignano, Francis concluded a perpetual peace with the Swiss, met Pope Leo IX. at Bologna, where he had the Concordat of 1515 drawn up, and in the same year he and Charles I. of Spain (subsequently Emperor Charles V.), made peace at Noyon. But on the Emperor Maximilian's death (1519) these same two sovereigns strove after the German imperial crown, which, despite the French King's prestige as a warrior, his many friends, his negotiations and his bribes, fell to Charles. Almost uninterrupted hostilities between the two resulted.

There was surely enough for Francis to do in his own. country; besides, it has been pointed out that while France. easily repulsed invasion, its efforts for conquest abroad resulted in failure and disgrace. But the King was, as a rule, either indulging in useless and prodigal festivities at home, or wasting the strength of the land in foreign expeditions. He began hostilities in 1521 by placing four armies in the field, met the Emperor at Valenciennes, and put him to flight. After this advantage on the Flemish frontier, which Francis failed to follow up, came reverses for the light-hearted King. His officer, Lautrec, was driven out of Milan, which was thus lost to France. Charles of Bourbon, the most prominent and powerful prince in France, who had been made Constable by Francis, and was subsequently offended by the distrustful attitude of the King, began secret negotiations with Charles V. and Henry VIII. of England, and fled from France when threatened with discovery. The English, in 1524, advanced within about thirty miles of Paris, and the army sent into Italy under

Bonnivet (1523) was driven out within a year.

But Francis

still pursued the ignis fatuus of Italian conquest, and once more led an army to the other side of the Alps. The Imperialists were completely disorganized; yet Francis, as usual, did not strike at the right time. He frittered away his opportunities in a vain siege of Pavia, gave his enemies time to gather strength, was defeated by the relieving army under Pescara, and was humiliated by being made prisoner.

For awhile he was in keeping at Pizzighittone, but later on was removed to Spain, where, wearied by close confinement, he agreed to the terms of the Treaty of Madrid, signed 14th January, 1526. Burgundy was to be ceded to Charles, whose sister Eleanor Francis was to espouse; Flanders and Artois. were given up, and the French claims on Milan, Genoa, Naples and Asti were abandoned; and the fulfillment of these stipulations was to be assured by surrendering the sons of the King as hostages to the Emperor. But Francis had no intention of keeping his word; on his return to France he convened an assembly of nobles, which "packed" gathering promptly declared that the King had not the power to give up any of his provinces, and that his oath, exacted from him during captivity, was invalid.

After this, an immediate renewal of the war was inevitable, and in May, of this same year (1526), the King formed a "Holy League" with the Pope and various Italian princes, who, like the English Henry VIII., had become alarmed at the growing power of the Emperor. But Lautrec again met defeat in Italy and Genoa was lost, so that the King was glad to conclude peace with Charles, which was done at Cambrai, August 5, 1529. But the slightest excuse for war served. Francis, and in 1535 we find him again in Italy, having formed alliance with the Turks, to be driven out again in the following year. Charles, his old enemy, now invaded Provence; but the French completely shattered his army by the barbarous expedient of destroying the resources of the country. A ten years' truce was agreed to between the two monarchs at Nice in 1538, and it lasted for three years.

Francis, grown old and weak before his time, was lulled into quiet by the offer of the old prize, Milan, which was