treaty, and sent his son to arrange the
conditions: after some parleying, they were settled as follows:--

Bentivaglio should separate his fortunes from the Vitelli and Orsini;

He should furnish the Duke of Valentinois with a hundred men-at-arms and
a hundred mounted archers for eight years;

He should pay 12,000 ducats per annum to Caesar, for the support of a
hundred lances;

In return for this, his son Hannibal was to marry the sister of
the Archbishop of Enna, who was Caesar's niece, and the pope was to
recognise his sovereignty in Bologna;

The King of France, the Duke of Ferrara, and the republic of Florence
were to be the guarantors of this treaty.

But the convention brought to the confederates by Orsino was the cause
of great difficulties on their part. Vitellozza Vitelli in particular,
who knew Caesar the best, never ceased to tell the other condottieri
that so prompt and easy a peace must needs be the cover to some trap;
but since Caesar had meanwhile collected a considerable army at Imala,
and the four hundred lances lent him by Louis XII had arrived at
last, Vitellozzo and Oliverotto decided to sign the treaty that Orsino
brought, and to let the Duke of Urbino and the lord of Camerino know
of it; they, seeing plainly that it was henceforth impassible to make a
defence unaided, had retired, the one to Citta di Castello and the other
into the kingdom of Naples.

But Caesar, saying nothing of his intentions, started on the 10th of
December, and made his way to Cesena with a powerful army once more
under his command. Fear began to spread on all sides, 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 bet