ides, not only in Romagna but
in the whole of Northern Italy; Florence, seeing him move away from her,
only thought it a blind to conceal his intentions; while Venice, seeing
him approach her frontiers, despatched all her troops to the banks of the
Po. Caesar perceived their fear, and lest harm should be done to himself
by the mistrust it might inspire, he sent away all French troops in his
service as soon as he reached Cesena, except a hundred men with M. de
Candale, his brother-in-law; it was then seen that he only had 2000
cavalry and 2000 infantry with him. Several days were spent in
parleying, for at Cesena Caesar found the envoys of the Vitelli and
Orsini, who themselves were with their army in the duchy of Urbino; but
after the preliminary discussions as to the right course to follow in
carrying on the plan of conquest, there arose such difficulties between
the general-in-chief and these agents, that they could not but see the
impossibility of getting anything settled by intermediaries, and the
urgent necessity of a conference between Caesar and one of the chiefs.
So Oliverotto ran the risk of joining the duke in order to make proposals
to him, either to march an Tuscany or to take Sinigaglia, which was the
only place in the duchy of Urbino that had not again fallen into Caesar's
power. Caesar's reply was that he did not desire to war upon Tuscany,
because the Tuscans were his friends; but that he approved of the
lieutenants' plan with regard to Sinigaglia, and therefore was marching
towards Fano.

But the daughter of Frederic, the former Duke of Urbino, who held the
town of Sinigaglia, and who was called the lady-prefect, because she had
married Gian delta Rovere, whom his uncle, Sixtus IV, had made prefect of
Rome, judging that it would be impossible to defend herself against the
forces the Duke of Valentinais was bringing, left the citadel in the
hands of a captain, recommending him to get the best terms he could for
the town, and took boat for Venice.

Caesar learned this news at Rimini, through a messenger from Vitelli and
the Orsini, who said that the governor of the citadel, though refusing to
yield to them, was quite ready to make terms with him, and consequently
they would engage to go to the town and finish the business there.
Caesar's reply was that in consequence of this information he was sending
some of his troops to Cesena and Imola, for they would be useless to him,
as he should now have their