ends and servants; and he intreated him that he would be pleasd so to
take order, that he might be honourably received by the inhabitants of
Fermo, which turnd as well to his honor that was his uncle, as his that
was the nephew. In this, John faild not in any office of courtesie due
to his nephew: and caused him to be well receivd by them of Fermo, and
lodged him in his own house: where having passed some dayes, and stayd
to put in order somewhat that was necessary for his intended villany, he
made a very solemne feast, whether he invited John Foliani, and all the
prime men of Fermo: and when all their chear was ended, and all their
other entertainments, as in such feasts it is customary, Oliverotto of
purpose mov'd some grave discourses; speaking of the greatnesse of Pope
Alexander, and Caesar his son, and their undertakings; where unto John
and the others making answer, he of a sudden stood up, saying, that
those were things to be spoken of in a more secret place, and so retir'd
into a chamber, whether John and all the other Citizens followd him; nor
were they sooner set downe there, than from some secret place therein
camp forth diverse souldiers, who slew John and all the others: after
which homicide Oliverotto got a horsebacke and ravaged the whole towne,
and besieged the supreme Magistrate in the palace, so that for feare
they were all constraind to obey him, and to settle a government,
whereof hee made himselfe Prince; and they being all dead who, had they
been discontented with him, could have hurt him; he strengthned himselfe
with new civill and military orders, so that in the space of a yeer that
he held the Principality, he was not only secure in the City of Fermo,
but became fearefull to all his neighbours; and the conquest of him
would have prov'd difficult, as that of Agathocles, had he not let
himselfe been deceivd by Caesar Borgia, when at Sinigallia, as before was
said, he took the Orsini and Vitelli: where he also being taken a yeere
after he had committed the parricide, was strangled together with
Vitellozzo (whome he had had for master both of his vertues and vices.)
Some man might doubt from whence it should proceed, that Agathocles, and
such like, after many treacheries and crueltyes, could possibly live
long secure in his own countrey, and defend himselfe from his forrein
enemies, and that never any of his own Citizens conspir'd against him,
seeing that by means of cruelty, many others have never bee