e of the
affection felt towards Caesar by the King of France. Accordingly, when
he perceived that the Duke of Valentinois was marching against him, he
assembled in hot haste all those of his vassals who were capable of
bearing arms, together with the few foreign soldiers who were willing to
come into his pay, and collecting victual and ammunition, he took up his
position with them inside the town.

By these defensive preparations Caesar was not greatly, disconcerted; he
commanded a magnificent army, composed of the finest troops of France and
Italy; led by such men as Paolo and Giulio Orsini, Vitellozzo Vitelli and
Paolo Baglione, not to steak of himself--that is to say, by the first
captains of the period. So, after he had reconnoitred, he at once began
the siege, pitching his camp between the two rivers, Amana and Marziano,
placing his artillery on the side which faces on Forli, at which point
the besieged party had erected a powerful bastion.

At the end of a few days busy with entrenchments, the breach became
practicable, and the Duke of Valentinois ordered an assault, and gave the
example to his soldiers by being the first to march against the enemy.
But in spite of his courage and that of his captains beside him, Astor
Manfredi made so good a defence that the besiegers were repulsed with
great loss of men, while one of their bravest leaders, Honario Savella;
was left behind in the trenches.

But Faenza, in spite of the courage and devotion of her defenders, could
not have held out long against so formidable an army, had not winter come
to her aid. Surprised by the rigour of the season, with no houses for
protection and no trees for fuel, as the peasants had destroyed both
beforehand, the Duke of Valentinois was forced to raise the siege and
take up his winter quarters in the neighbouring towns, in order to be
quite ready for a return next spring; for Caesar could not forgive the
insult of being held in check by a little town which had enjoyed a long
time of peace, was governed by a mere boy, and deprived of all outside
aid, and had sworn to take his revenge. He therefore broke up his army
into three sections, sent one-third to Imola, the second to Forli, and
himself took the third to Cesena, a third-rate town, which was thus
suddenly transformed into a city of pleasure and luxury.

Indeed, for Caesar's active spirit there must needs be no cessation of
warfare or festivities. So, when war was interrupted, f