erms of this, Florence undertook
to give Cesare a condotta of 300 lances for three years, to be used in
Florentine service, with a stipend of 36,000 ducats yearly. How much
this really meant the duke was to discover two days later, when he
sent to ask the Signory to lend him some cannon for the emprise against
Piombino, and to pay him the first instalment of one quarter of the
yearly stipend before he left Florentine territory. The Signory replied
that, by the terms of the agreement, there was no obligation for
the immediate payment of the instalment, whilst in the matter of the
artillery they put him off from day to day, until Cesare understood that
their only aim in signing the treaty had been the immediate one of being
rid of his army.

The risk Florence incurred in so playing fast-and-loose with such a
man, particularly in a moment of such utter unfitness to resist him, is,
notwithstanding the French protection enjoyed by the Signory, amazing
in its reckless audacity. It was fortunate for Florence that the Pope's
orders tied the duke's hands--and it may be that of this the Signory
had knowledge, and that it was upon such knowledge, in conjunction with
France's protection, that it was presuming. Cesare took the matter in
the spirit of an excellent loser.

Not a hint of his chagrin and resentment did he betray; instead, he set
about furnishing his needs elsewhere, sending Vitelli to Pisa with a
request for artillery, a request to which Pisa very readily responded,
as much on Vitelli's account as on the duke's. As for Florence, if
Cesare Borgia could be terribly swift in punishing, he could also be
formidably slow. If he could strike upon the instant where the opening
for a blow appeared, he could also wait for months until the opening
should be found. He waited now.

It would be at about this time that young Loenardo da Vinci sought
employment in Cesare Borgia's service. Leonardo had been in Milan until
the summer of 1500, when he repaired to Florence in quest of better
fortune; but, finding little or no work to engage him there, he took the
chance of the duke of Valentinois's passage to offer his service to one
whose liberal patronage of the arts was become proverbial. Cesare
took him into his employ as engineer and architect, leaving him in the
Romagna for the present. Leonardo may have superintended the repairs of
the Castle of Forli, whilst he certainly built the canal from Cesena to
the Porto Cesenatico, befor