n of friendship that Borgia was displaying.

The duke learned the news of this decision, so much desired, when he
arrived at Fano on the 20th of December 1502. At once he summoned
eight of his most faithful friends, among whom were d'Enna, his nephew,
Michelotto, and Ugo di Cardona, and ordered them, as soon as they
arrived at Sinigaglia, and had seen Vitellozzo, Gravina, Oliveratta,
and Orsino come out to meet them, on a pretext of doing them honour, to
place themselves on the right and left hand of the four generals, two
beside each, so that at a given signal they might either stab or arrest
them; next he assigned to each of them his particular man, bidding them
not quit his side until he had reentered Sinigaglia and arrived at the
quarters prepared far him; then he sent orders to such of the soldiers
as were in cantonments in the neighbourhood to assemble to the number of
8000 on the banks of the Metaurus, a little river of Umbria which runs
into the Adriatic and has been made famous by the defeat of Hannibal.

The duke arrived at the rendezvous given to his army on the 31st
of December, and instantly sent out in front two hundred horse, and
immediately behind them his infantry; following close in the midst of
his men-at-arms, following the coast of the Adriatic, with the mountains
on his right and the sea on his left, which in part of the way left only
space for the army to march ten abreast.

After four hours' march, the duke at a turn of the path perceived
Sinigaglia, nearly a mile distant from the sea, and a bowshot from the
mountains; between the army and the town ran a little river, whose banks
he had to follow far some distance. At last he found a bridge opposite a
suburb of the town, and here Caesar ordered his cavalry to stop: it was
drawn up in two lines, one between the road and the river, the other
on the side of the country, leaving the whole width of the road to the
infantry: which latter defiled, crossed the bridge, and entering the
town, drew themselves up in battle array in the great square.

On their side, Vitellazzo, Gravina, Orsino, and Oliverotto, to make room
for the duke's army, had quartered their soldiers in little towns or
villages in the neighbourhood of Sinigaglia; Oliverotto alone had kept
nearly 1000 infantry and 150 horse, who were in barracks in the suburb
through which the duke entered.

Caesar had made only a few steps towards the town when he perceived
Vitellozzo at the gate, wi