tous event,
can suffice to afford us pleasure. We beg you also kindly to convey
the present to the Illustrious Lord Don Alfonso, your husband and our
beloved Brother-in-law, to whom we are not writing to-day."

CHAPTER XIV. THE REVOLT OF THE CONDOTTIERI

The coincidence of the arrival of the French army with the conquest of
Urbino and Camerino and the Tuscan troubles caused one more to be added
to that ceaseless stream of rumours that flowed through Italy concerning
the Borgias. This time the envy and malice that are ever provoked by
success and power gave voice in that rumour to the thing it hoped,
and there ensued as pretty a comedy as you shall find in the pages of
history.

The rumour had it that Louis XII, resentful and mistrustful of the
growth of Cesare's might, which tended to weaken France in Italy and
became a menace to the French dominions, was come to make an end of him.
Instantly Louis's Court in Milan was thronged by all whom Cesare had
offended--and they made up by now a goodly crowd, for a man may not rise
so swiftly to such eminence without raising a rich crop of enemies.

Meanwhile, however, Valentinois in the Montefeltre Palace at
Urbino remained extremely at ease. He was not the man to be without
intelligences. In the train of Louis was Francesco Troche, the Pope's
confidential chamberlain and Cesare's devoted servant, who, possessed
of information, was able to advise Valentinois precisely what were the
intentions of the King of France. Gathering from these advices that it
was Louis's wish that the Florentines should not be molested further,
and naturally anxious not to run counter to the king's intentions,
Cesare perceived that the time to take action had arrived, the time for
passivity in the affairs of Florence was at an end.

So he dispatched an envoy to Vitelli, ordering his instant evacuation
of Arezzo and his withdrawal with his troops from Tuscany, and he backed
the command by a threat to compel Vitelli by force of arms, and
to punish disobedience by depriving him of his state of Citta di
Castello--"a matter," Cesare informed him, "which would be easily
accomplished, as the best men of that State have already offered
themselves to me."

It was a command which Vitelli had no choice but to obey, not being
in sufficient force to oppose the duke. So on July 29, with Gianpaolo
Baglioni, he relinquished the possession of Arezzo and departed out of
Tuscany, as he had been bidden. But