of 1530, he
sold the city to his enemy, Pope Clement, receiving for the price of
this infamy certain privileges and immunities which fortified his
hold upon Perugia for a season. All Italy was ringing with the great
deeds of the Florentines, who for the sake of their liberty
transformed themselves from merchants into soldiers, and withstood
the united powers of Pope and Emperor alone. Meanwhile Malatesta,
whose trade was war, and who was being largely paid for his services
by the beleaguered city, contrived by means of diplomatic
procrastination, secret communication with the enemy, and all the
arts that could intimidate an army of recruits, to push affairs to a
point at which Florence was forced to capitulate without inflicting
the last desperate glorious blow she longed to deal her enemies. The
universal voice of Italy condemned him. When Matteo Dandolo, the
Doge of Venice, heard what he had done, he cried before the Pregadi
in conclave, 'He has sold that people and that city, and the blood
of those poor citizens ounce by ounce, and has donned the cap of the
biggest traitor in the world.'[7] Consumed with shame, corroded by
an infamous disease, and mistrustful of Clement, to whom he had sold
his honour, Malatesta retired to Perugia, and died in 1531. He left
one son, Ridolfo, who was unable to maintain himself in the lordship
of his native city. After killing the Papal legate, Cinzio
Filonardi, in 1534, he was dislodged four years afterwards, when
Paul III. took final possession of the place as an appanage of the
Church, razed the houses of the Baglioni to the ground, and built
upon their site the Rocca Paolina. This fortress bore an
inscription: 'Ad coercendam Perusinorum audaciam.' The city was
given over to the rapacity of the abominable Pier Luigi Farnese, and
so bad was this tyranny of priests and bastards, that, strange to
say, the Perugians regretted the troublous times of the Baglioni.
Malatesta in dying had exclaimed, 'Help me, if you can; since after
me you will be set to draw the cart like oxen.' Frollieri, relating
the speech, adds, 'And this has been fulfilled to the last letter,
for all have borne not only the yoke but the burden and the goad.'
Ridolfo Baglioni and his cousin Braccio, the eldest son of
Grifonetto, were both captains of Florence. The one died in battle
in 1554, the other in 1559. Thus ended the illustrious family. They
are now represented by descendants from females, and by contadini
wh