6th of July, then, did they evacuate the town, so that the Emperor was forced to wait in Savigliano. The occupation of the town by the Imperial troops and the preparations for the advance into France required another ten days. It was July 17th before the expedition started across the mountains. Just before their departure (July 15th) Garcilaso wrote to his friend Seripando that it was generally believed that before another week they would be on their way to France. There is a reference in this letter to certain enmities of which we know nothing further, but which may explain the recklessness which he showed in his eagerness to please the Emperor. "I am in good health," he writes, "and I should be comfortable in every other respect, if I had enemies who were more influential or less influential. The fact that they are not really influential makes them injure me in a way unbecoming gentlemen, and the fact that they are not wholly without influence gives them suc cess in some of their efforts. But in spite of this, they weep more times a day than they laugh.” 1 It seems probable that at some time during this campaign was written the last of Garcilaso's longer poems, the third Eclogue. A passage in this poem, one of the most widely quoted of his works, definitely places its composition in the midst of warfare; Entre las armas del sangriento Marte, It is true that these words might be applied as well to the campaign in Africa, but there is a phrase in the first stanza of the poem, a despecho y pesar de la ventura which renders it probable that it was written after his return to the service of the Emperor. At least we may be sure that it was written some time after the compo sition of the first Eclogue, for he refers to the death of Elisa (Isabel Freire), que en aquella ribera deleytosa From the lines, Responde el Tajo y lleva pressuroso one is tempted to think that he had already heard of Sá de Miranda's Celia, (1535), with its answer, Corren lagrimas justas sin parar,1 to his own refrain of the first Eclogue, Salid sin duelo, lagrimas, corriendo. It was the 17th of July when Charles V with his infantry left Savigliano for France. To detail the events of this brief but disastrous campaign would add little to our knowledge of Garcilaso. Although the losses from wounds were small, the difficulty of procuring provisions in a country devastated by its own inhabitants made disease prevalent. To cite an example, the eleven banderas under Garcilaso's command were reduced from 3,000 men to 2,445 men by the 6th of September.1 The death of the Captain-General, Antonio de Leiva, at Aix on September 10th was the final stroke that led the Emperor to retire; on the 13th the retreat was begun. Although unmolested by the forces of the French king, the Imperial army was constantly harassed by the natives of the districts through which they passed. It was in one of these petty affairs that Garcilaso received the injury which ended his life. CHAPTER XIV THE TOWER OF LE MUY Where the river Argens winds down from the hills to the sea, not far from Fréjus lies the little village of Le Muy. On Tuesday, September 19, 1536, Charles V with his own retinue and the vanguard of the infantry, including Garcilaso's regiment, came to the town at noon and there began to take their midday meal near a spring at the edge of the village. Of what followed we have the account of an unbiased eye-witness, the Cordovan soldier Martín García Cerezeda. His own words will tell the story.1 "Here at Muy there is a very narrow passage, near the gate of the town, and this passage is a little bridge, fastened to a strong tower, which was tall and round. This tower had attached to it a little house, which was also strong, as strong as the tower, if not more so. Here in this tower were fourteen persons who were twelve men and two boys. They were |