while endeavouring to escape from his pursuers, in a marsh.

These constant wars and the bribes and rewards held out by Louis XI. were not without their effects on the once simple minded and patriotic Swiss. "They have become so fond of money," says Philip de Comines, "especially of gold pieces, to which they were little accustomed before, that they are now ever on the point of quarrelling among themselves, and this may lead to their ruin." Although the Cantons at first forbade recruiting for foreign service under severe penalties, it was of little avail, and crowds of Swiss henceforward began to take service in France and other countries. From this time forward, the history of the Swiss infantry is to be found in the military records of whatever country hired its services.

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CHAPTER IX.

SPANISH INFANTRY.

From the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, 1474, to the Battle of Rocroi, 1643.

FROM the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the genius of their "Great Captain, "Gonsalvo de Cordova, dates the first celebrity of that splendid and formidable infantry, which, as Robertson truly declares, was for a hundred and fifty years the terror of every country in Europe. Cotemporaries and rivals in fame and prowess in the battle-fields of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Spanish and Swiss infantries seemed to be the incarnations of two opposing principles, and to reproduce in their age the contrast of the Greek phalangite and the Roman legionary. The Swiss was a purely democratic, and, at first, a defensive force; the Spanish was aristocratic and aggressive, and like the Roman imbued with the lust for universal dominion. Both were national and popular,-with this difference: the Swiss mountaineer was a true patriot from an instinctive love of liberty for itself, as well as from a similar attachment to his native valley. The feudal system, as personified in the House of Hapsburg and the petty nobles, was his oppressor, and his struggle

for freedom was against it alone. The Spaniard was also distinguished by an intensity of nationality, which is known as "Spanishism," but it had none of the intrinsic purity of the Helvetic sentiment, and was more the result of the pride of blood. The feudal aristocracy, who, in all other continental countries, rode rough-shod over the popular element, were united, in Spain, to the people, by the common necessity of mutual aid and protection against the infidel Moors. The kingdoms of Aragon and Castile were governed in their early history by a more limited monarchical authority than even that which was wielded by the Plantagenets in England, and the barons and people combined together equally against the incursions of the Moors, and the encroachments of the Sovereign. It is only thus that we can account for the peculiarity of the Spanish character (apart from the differences arising from social position, education, and locality) which is discernible in all classes, from the hidalgo to the contrabandista, and which seems to proclaim the civis Romanus doctrine by a bearing of lofty courtesy, and a jealous punctiliousness of intercourse. The same aristocratic feeling of superiority, resulted from precisely similar causes in England-but the Gothic race there remained in its own climate, and was not subjected, as in Spain, to the test of a more fiery sun, and the admixture of more impulsive blood. In England the feeling was one of manly independence, and of possessing an inheritance of

freedom; in Spain it was pride of the sangre azul and the firm belief in the supernatural excellence of having been born a Spaniard. The real defenders of liberty in Spain were the nobles; the people, though possessing it, seemed to care little for it. When Charles V. suppressed the revolt of the communeros in 1548, he excluded the nobles from the assembly of the nation, and not the deputies of the cities and boroughs. The people, deprived of their accustomed leaders, were never able to resist the government; and the nobles, cut off from political power, except through the favour of the Sovereign, lost their independent position, and became merely the lacqueys of the court, and the instruments of its despotism. But ere this came to pass, the Spanish monarchs had already begun their career of foreign conquest, and the passions of the people were aroused by visions of military glory and aggrandisement, which are the sure precursors of absolutism. A more admirable material for an aggressive force could not have been found at that time in Europe. The long series of Moorish wars had accustomed the people to martial deeds, and fostered that spirit of ultra chivalry in the nation which drew forth the ridicule of Cervantes, himself a "Crusader" of Lepanto. The romantic and arrogant courage of the Spaniard certainly did invest the institution of chivalry with an aspect of grotesque punctilio, which it had not attained even in France, and which was constantly conspicuous. It was the Quaritch's Military Library, I.—INFANTRY.

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spirit of the Cid, which every Spaniard believed himself to have inherited along with his birthright; of which Diego Garcia de Parades made a vain display in the "Challenge of Barletta;" which induced Charles V., that astute bigot, to accept with gloomy ferocity, the cartel of a monarch more crazed about chivalry than himself; and which caused the illustrious navigator,* Magalhaèns, to throw away his life, like a common knight-errant, in a joust à l'outrance with some savages of an obscure island in the Pacific. Bigotry and ferocity, added to the other requisite cardinal virtues, combined to make a soldado, such as, luckily for Europe, could not be matched in any other nation for cruelty and address. The courage of the Spanish soldier, independent of its chivalric quality, was a compound of the calm and dogged "pluck" of the north, and the burning, and, at the same time, wily valour of the Asiatic. His individual prowess and superiority were conspicuous in hand to hand combats with sword and dagger, while his disciplined coolness and invincible tenacity were equally pre-eminent in the face of odds and disaster. The Spaniards were never tamed by defeat, and even where victory was hopeless they sold it dearly. The eulogy of Livy was quite as applicable fifteen centuries after as when he wrote: "Spain alone, of all the provinces, knew her own strength after she had been conquered:" and again, "A

* Magalhaèns was a Portuguese by birth, but in the service of the Emperor Charles V.