, in the course of doing so,
Bartolomeo da Capranica, Cesare's most valued captain and Vitelli's
brother-in-arms of yesterday. The Baglioni were pressing Michele da
Corella in Pesaro, but to little purpose; whilst the butcher Oliverotto
da Fermo in Camerino--of which he had taken possession with Gianmaria
Varano--was slaughtering every Spaniard he could find.

On the other side, Corella in Pesaro hanged five men whom he caught
practising against the duke's government, and, having taken young Pietro
Varano--who was on his way to join his brother in Camerino in view of
the revolt there--he had him strangled in the market-place. There is a
story that, with life not yet extinct, the poor youth was carried into
church by the pitiful crowd. But here a friar, discovering that he still
lived, called in the soldiers and bade them finish him. This friar,
going later through Cagli, was recognized, set upon by a mob, and torn
to pieces--in which, if the rest of the tale be true, he was richly
served.

Into the theatre of bloodshed came Paolo Orsini from his mission
to Valentinois, bringing with him the treaty for signature by the
condottieri. Accustomed as they were to playing fast and loose,
they opined that, so far as Urbino was concerned, enough changes of
government had they contrived there already. Vitelli pointed out the
unseemliness of once again deposing Guidobaldo, whom they had just
reseated upon his throne. Besides, he perceived in the treaty the end
of his hopes of a descent upon Florence, which was the cause of all his
labours. So he rejected it.

But Valentinois had already got the Orsini and Pandolfo Petrucci on
his side, and so the confederacy was divided. Another factor came to
befriend the duke. On November 2 he was visited by Antonio Galeazzo
Bentivogli, sent by his father Giovanni to propose a treaty with
him--this state of affairs having been brought about by the mediation of
Ercole d'Este. From the negotiations that followed it resulted that, on
the 13th, the Orsini had word from Cesare that he had entered into
an alliance with the Bentivogli--which definitely removed their main
objection to bearing arms with him.

It was resigning much on Cesare's part, but the treaty, after all, was
only for two years, and might, of course, be broken before then, as they
understood these matters. This treaty was signed at the Vatican on the
23rd, between Borgia and Bentivogli, to guarantee the States of both.
The King o