there
assembling some infantry also, in order that they may march with him,
should need arise, on Castello or on Perugia. Lastly, he desires--and
this is his third condition--that you arrest the Duke of Urbino, if he
should flee from Castello into your territories, when he learns that
Vitellozzo is a prisoner.

"When I objected that to give him up would not beseem the dignity of the
republic, and that you would never consent, he approved of my words, and
said that it would be enough for you to keep the duke, and not give him
his liberty without His Excellency's permission. I have promised to give
you all this information, to which he awaits your reply."

The same night eight masked men descended to the dungeon where the
prisoners lay: they believed at that moment that the fatal hour had
arrived for all. But this time the executioners had to do with
Vitellozzo and Oliverotto alone. When these two captains heard that they
were condemned, Oliverotto burst forth into reproaches against
Vitellozzo, saying that it was all his fault that they had taken up arms
against the duke: not a word Vitellozzo answered except a prayer that the
pope might grant him plenary indulgence for all his sins. Then the masked
men took them away, leaving Orsino and Gravina to await a similar fate,
and led away the two chosen out to die to a secluded spot outside the
ramparts of the town, where they were strangled and buried at once in two
trenches that had been dug beforehand.

The two others were kept alive until it should be known if the pope had
arrested Cardinal Orsino, archbishop of Florence and lord of Santa Croce;
and when the answer was received in the affirmative from His Holiness,
Gravina and Orsina, who had been transferred to a castle, were likewise
strangled.

The duke, leaving instructions with Michelotto, set off for Sinigaglia as
soon as the first execution was over, assuring Macchiavelli that he had
never had any other thought than that of giving tranquillity to the
Romagna and to Tuscany, and also that he thought he had succeeded by
taking and putting to death the men who had been the cause of all the
trouble; also that any other revolt that might take place in the future
would be nothing but sparks that a drop of water could extinguish.

The pope had barely learned that Caesar had his enemies in his power,
when, eager to play the same winning game himself, he announced to
Cardinal Orsino, though it was then midnight, th