ing them in earnest and fearing King Ferdinand, sent an embassy
of two cardinals to them, entreating them to be reconciled with the
Church. But they answered that they would not, for his Holiness had
given them permission to ally themselves with whom they pleased, and
refused them money for service, and they said that they could not live
without pay--a somewhat ironical statement for such men as the Colonna,
who lived rather by taking than by giving an equivalent for anything
received.

[Illustration: CASTLE OF SANT' ANGELO]

Then the Pope made war upon King Ferdinand, and when there had been much
bloodshed, and plundering and burning on both sides, Prospero Colonna
quarrelled with the Duke of Calabria, who was on Ferdinand's side and
for whom he had been fighting, and came over to the Church, and so the
Colonna were restored to favour, and the Pope made a treaty with the
King against Venice, and so another year passed.

But after that the quarrel was renewed between Pope Sixtus and Lorenzo
Colonna, on pretext that a certain part of the agreement to which they
had come had not been executed by the Protonotary; and while the matter
was under discussion, the Cardinal of Saint George, nephew of the great
Count Jerome Riario, sent word privately to the Protonotary Colonna,
warning him either to escape from Rome or to be on his guard if he
remained, 'because some one was plotting against him, and hated him.'
Wherefore Lorenzo shut himself up in the dwelling of Cardinal Colonna,
between the Colonna palace and Monte Cavallo on the Quirinal hill, and
many young men, attached to the great house, began to watch in arms,
day and night, turn and turn about. And when this became known, the
Orsini also began to arm themselves and keep watch at Monte Giordano.
Scenting a struggle, a Savelli, siding with Colonna, struck the first
blow by seizing forty horses and mules of the Orsini in a farm building
on the Tivoli road; and immediately half a dozen robber Barons joined
Savelli, and they plundered right and left, and one of them wrote a long
and courteous letter of justification to the Pope. But Orsini retorted
swiftly, 'lifting' horses and cattle that belonged to his enemies and
making prisoners of their retainers. Among others he took two men who
belonged to the Protonotary. And the latter, unable to leave Rome in
safety, began to fortify himself in the Cardinal's house with many
fighting men, and with many strange weapons, 'bombard