SAMPIERO--FRANCE AND CORSICA.
Meanwhile the Turk was besieging Bonifazio with furious vigour,
ravaging at the same time the entire surrounding country. Dragut
was provoked by the heroic resistance of the inhabitants, who showed
themselves worthy descendants of those earlier Bonifazians that so
bravely held the town against Alfonso of Arragon. Night and day,
despite of hunger and weariness, they manned the walls, successfully
repelling all attacks, the women showing equal courage with the
men. Sampiero came to the assistance of the Turks; the assaults of
the besiegers continued without intermission, but the town remained
steadfast. The Bonifazians were in hopes of relief, hourly expecting
Cattaciolo, one of their fellow-citizens, from Genoa. The messenger
came, bearing news of approaching succours; but he fell into the hands
of the French. They made a traitor of him, inducing him to carry forged
letters into the city, which advised the commandant to give up all hope
of being relieved. He accordingly concluded a treaty, and surrendered
the unconquered town under the condition that the garrison should be
allowed to embark for Genoa with military honours. The brave defenders
had scarcely left the protection of their walls, when the barbarous
Turk, trampling under foot at once his oath and common humanity, fell
upon them, and began to cut them in pieces. Sampiero with difficulty
rescued all that it was still possible to rescue. Not content with this
revenge, Dragut demanded to be allowed to plunder the city, and, when
this was refused, a large sum in compensation, which Thermes could not
pay, but promised to pay. Dragut, exasperated, instantly embarked, and
set sail for Asia--he had been corrupted by Genoese gold.
After the fall of Bonifazio, Genoa had not a foot of land left in
Corsica, except the "ever-faithful" Calvi. No time was to be lost,
therefore, if the island was not to be entirely relinquished. The
Emperor had promised help, and placed some thousands of Germans and
Spaniards at the disposal of the Genoese, and Cosmo de Medici sent an
auxiliary corps. A very considerable force had thus been collected,
and, to put success beyond question, the leadership of the expedition
was intrusted to their most celebrated general, Andreas Doria, while
Agostino Spinola was made second in command.
Andreas Doria was at that time in his eighty-sixth year; but the aspect
of affairs seemed so critical, that the old man could not but comply
with the call of his fellow-citizens. He received the banner of the
enterprise in the Cathedral of Genoa, from the senators, protectors of
the Bank, the clergy, and the people.
On the 20th November 1553, Doria landed in the Gulf of San Fiorenzo,
and, in a short time, the star of Genoa was once more in the ascendant.
San Fiorenzo, which had been strongly fortified by Thermes, fell;
Bastia surrendered; the French gave way on every side. Sampiero had
about this time, in consequence of a quarrel with Thermes, been obliged
to proceed to the French court; but after putting his calumniators
there to silence, he returned in higher credit than before, and as
the alone heart and soul of the war, which the incapable Thermes had
proved himself unfit to conduct. He was indefatigable in attack, in
resistance, in guerilla warfare. Spinola met with a sharp repulse on
the field of Golo, but a wound which Sampiero received in the fight
rendering him for some time inactive, the Corsicans suffered a bloody
defeat at Morosaglia. Sampiero now gave his wound no more time to heal;
he again appeared on the field, and defeated the Spaniards and Germans
in the battle of Col di Tenda, in the year 1554.
The war was carried on with unabated fury for five years. Corsica
seemed to be certain of the perpetual protection of France, and in
general to regard herself as an independently organized section of that
kingdom. Francis II. had named Jourdan Orsini his viceroy, and the
latter, at a general diet, had, in the name of his king, pronounced
Corsica incorporated with France, declaring that it was now for all
time impossible to separate the island from the French crown--that
the one could be abandoned only with the other. The fate of Corsica
seemed, therefore, already linked to the French monarchy, and the
island to be detached from the general body of the Italian states, to
which it naturally belongs. But scarcely had the king made the solemn
announcement above referred to, when the treaty of Cateau Cambresis,
in the year 1559, shattered at a single blow all the hopes of the
Corsicans.
France concluded a peace with Philip of Spain and his allies, and
engaged to surrender Corsica to the Genoese. The French, accordingly,
immediately put all the places they had garrisoned into the hands
of Genoa, and embarked their troops. A desperate struggle had been
maintained for six years to no purpose, diplomacy now lightly gamed
away the earnings of that long war's bloody toil, and the Corsican saw
himself hurled back into his old misery, and abandoned, defenceless, to
Genoese vengeance, by a rag of paper, a pen-and-ink peace. This breach
of faith was a crushing blow, and extorted from the country a universal
cry of despair, but it was not listened to.