The History of Tuscany, interspersed with Essays ... Translated from the Italian, with the life of the author, by J. Browning

Chapter I

— The Florentines elect Peter Soderini Gonfaloniere for life — Union of the Italian Leaders against Valentino—Invades the States of Sienna — Petrucci leaves that City — Prosecution of the War with Pisa — The French march against Consalvo — Celebrated Challenge between the Italians and French — Death of Pope Alexander — The Cardinal Rovere is reconciled with Valentine, and proclaimed Pope, and takes the name of Julius II. — Valentine is betrayed by Consalvo — His End — Defeat of the French at Garigliano— Death of Peter de Medicis — Peace between the French and Spaniards — The Throne of Naples given to Ferdinand of Arragon — His Meeting in Genoa with the King of France — Disgrace of Consalvo — Surrender of Pisa — League of Cambray — Cardinal John Medicis created Legate in La Romagna — League against the French — Valour and Achievements of Gaston de Fois — Horrible Pillage of Brescia — Celebrated Battle of Ravenna — Death of Gaston de Fois — Imprisonment of the Cardinal of the Medicis — Agreement amongst the Allies to restore the Medicis to Florence — Assault and taking of Prato — Return of the Medicis with greater Authority . . . . pi Chap. II. — Death of Julius II. — And his Character — Exaltation of the Cardinal de Medicis to the Popedom — Takes the name of Leo X — Invasion of the French — Death of Louis XII. — Reign of Francis I. — Lorenzo de Medicis commands the Florentine Troops in Lombardy — Celebrated Battle of Marignauo — Meeting of Francis and Leo X.,in Bologna — Festivals in Florence — Death of his brother Julius, and Character — Invasion of the CONTENTS.

IV Duchy of Urbino — Assault upon Urbino by Francis Maria Rovere — Dissensions in his Army — He retires to Mantua — Conspiracy of the Cardinal Petrucci — Punishment of Petrucci and his Accomplices — Death of Lorenzo de Medicis — Cardinal Julius' Government in Florence — Reflections upon the Qualities and Actions of Leo X. — His Alliance with the new Emperor, Charles V.- — Beginning of Hostilities — Morone gets possession of Milan — Death of the Pope and his Character . 52 Chap. III. — The Duke of Urbino and Baglioni regain their States — Election of Adrian VI. — Conspiracy against the Life of the Cardinal de Medicis — Adrian's Contempt for Arts and Letters — Alliance of the Italians with the English and the Imperialists against the French — Conspiracy of Bourbon discovered in France — Descent of the French Army upon Italy — Death of Pope Adrian — Election of the Cardinal de Medicis, who assumes the name of Clement VII. — Pescara routs the French — Death of the celebrated Chevalier Bajardo — Secret Treaty of the Pope with the King of France — King Francis made Prisoner at Pavia — Intrigues of Morone against Charles V. — Discovery of the Conspiracy — Character of Pescara — His Death— Descent of fresh Imperial Troops upon Italy — Death of John de Medicis — His Qualities — Dangers and Tumults in Florence — Rebellion quelled by Guicciardini — Bourbon marches towards Rome — Bourbon attacks the City, and is killed — Sacking of Rome S9 Chap. IV. — Change of Government in Florence — Third Expulsion of the Medicis — Nicholas Capponi chosen Gonfaloniere — Pestilence in Italy — Fresh Descent of French Troops upon Italy — The Pope flies to Orvieto — Civil Dissensions in Florence — Jesus Christ is chosen King of the Florentines — March of the French against Naples — Victory gained by the Galleys of Doria over tbe Imperialists — Doria enters the service of Charles V. — The Florentine Youth take up arms— Secret Correspondence of Capponi with the Pope discovered — Is dismissed his Office, and Francis Carducci chosen in his stead — Capponi, being summoned before the Magistracy, is pardoned, and accompanied with Honours to his House . 136 Chap.

V. — League of Barcelona — Hippolitus is created Cardinal — Agreement between King Francis and the Emperor — CONTENTS V Useless Embassy to Cæsar — The Florentines choose Malatesta Baglione as General— Michael Angiolo Buonarrotti returns to his native Land — Fortifies the City — Movement of the Prince of Orange against Florence — Eight thousand Imperialists join Orange — Fruitless Sortie of Stephen Colonna — Raphael Giro lami is chosen Gonfaloniere — Sacred Orators inflame the Flo rentines — Celebrated Challenge between Two Citizens — The Florentines attack the Spanish Camp — Executions against the Favourers of the Medicis — Valour and Achievements of Fer ruccio — The Florentines attack the German Camp — Want of Provisions in Florence — Ferruccio called to defend it — Suspicion of Treachery in Malatesta — The Prince of Orange meets Fer ruccio — Battle of Gaviniana — Death of the Prince of Orange — Ferruccio is put to death by Maramaldo — His Qualities — Treachery of Malatesta — The City is obliged to surrender — Conditions of the Capitulation not observed — Qualities of the Cardinal Hippolitus de Medicis — His Cousin Alexander arrives at Florence — Alexander declared Lord of Florence — Change of the Form of Government — Descent of the Emperor upon Italy — Catherine de Medicis — Character of Philip Strozzi — Death of Clement VII.— And his Qualities — The Cardinal Farnese is elected Pope, and assumes the Title of Paul III. . 154 154 Chap. VI. — Death of the Cardinal Hippolitus— Charles V. declares the fate of the Outlaws, who renounce their Country — Nuptials between the Duke Alexander and Margaret, natural Daughter of Charles V. — Arrival of Charles in Florence — His military Operations out of Italy — Visit of Duke Alexander to Charles V., in Genoa — Character of Lorenzino de Medicis — His Familiarity with the Duke, whom he kills by Treachery — Cosmo de Medicis elected Grand Duke of Florence — Violent Death of Lorenzino ..... 20S Essay IV. — State of Science, Literature and Arts, at the End of the Fifteenth and Beginning of the Sixteenth Centuries 229 Document IV. — A Letter from Nicholas Macchiavel to Francis Vettori, Ambassador at the Court of Rome . 437

CHAPTER I. THE FLORENTINES ELECT PETER SODERINI GONFALO- NIERE FOR LIFE.

— UNION OF THE ITALIAN LEADERS AGAINST VALENTINO. — INVADES THE STATES OF SIEN- NA. — PETRUCCI LEAVES THAT CITY. — PROSECUTION OF THE WAR WITH PISA. — THE FRENCH MARCH AGAINST CONSALVO. — CELEBRATED CHALLENGE BETWEEN THE ITALIANS AND FRENCH. — DEATH OF POPE ALEXANDER. —THE CARDINAL ROVERE IS RECONCILED AVITH VALEN- TINE, AND PROCLAIMED POPE, AND TAKES THE NAME OF JULIUS II. — VALENTINE IS BETRAYED BY CONSAL- VO. — HIS END. — DEFEAT OF THE FRENCH AT GARIGLI- ANO. DEATH OF PETER DE MEDICIS. — PEACE BETWEEN THE FRENCH AND SPANIARDS. — THE THRONE OF NAPLES GIVEN TO FERDINAND OF ARRAGON. — HIS MEETING IN GENOA WITH THE KING OF FRANCE. — DISGRACE OF CONSALVO. — SURRENDER OF PISA. — LEAGUE OF CAMBRAY. — CARDINAL JOHN MEDICIS CRE- ATED LEGATE IN LA ROMAGNA. — LEAGUE AGAINST THE FRENCH. — VALOUR AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF GASTON DE FOIS. — HORRIBLE PILLAGE OF BRESCIA. — CELE- RRATED BATTLE OF RAVENNA. — DEATH OF GASTON DE FOIS. — IMPRISONMENT OF THE CARDINAL OF THE ME- DICIS. — AGREEMENT AMONGST THE ALLIES TO RESTORE THE MEDICIS TO FLORENCE. — ASSAULT AND TAKING OF PRATO. — RETURN OF THE MEDICIS WITH GREATER AUTHORITY. 1 HE government of the republic of Florence, notwithstanding the fall of Savonarola, continued the 15°2' same, almost without any alteration.

The greater Vol. IV. B council still consisted of 1,500, and even 2,000 citizens who had a seat in it: nor had the oligarchs ever suc ceeded in bringing back the power into the hands of the few, as in the time of the Medicis. In vain, three years previous, they made an attempt at it, by electing Bernard Rucellai gonfaloniere, who, being either too wise, or too cautious, and not presenting himself at the palace in the time prefixed by the laws, under pretext of sickness, excluded himself voluntarily from the office. Guido Anthony Vespucci was substituted for him, a more courageous man, who, either artfully, or because circumstances demanded it, having made various proposi tions, not one of which was accepted, and seeing the council discontented and agitated, took upon him to say, in a whisper, that, if they were not satisfied with the pre sent government, they might give the signiory to under stand it, and they would be attended to; but these broken words excited so much tumult against the gonfaloniere, that it became necessary to dissolve the council, and Vespucci was exposed to various insults*.

After this useless attempt, the government had remained constant to its usual form, until the present time, when it underwent an important change. The first magistrate of the republic, the gonfaloniere, had a great part of the executive power in his hands : they changed every two months, and, after a long experience, the citizens must have perceived the evils of so hasty a variation, since the enterprises undertaken, and provisions made, by the one, might displease the other, and, either from envy or ignorance, prove of no avail. Either from this reason, or from the continually-increasing dangers to which the * Amongst other insults, various halters were hung at the bars of his ground-floor windows. Nardi, lib. 3. republic was exposed, they determined upon creating one gonfaloniere, or chief magistrate, for life, and thus, in order to avoid one extreme, they ran into another, more dangerous than the first : since nothing is more easy for a cunning and daring man, in the long exercise of so important an office, than to enslave his country.

Fortunately, the choice fell upon Peter Soderini, a man of the greatest probity, but of mediocrity of talents, who, having no children, could give no umbrage, from enter taining views of establishing his own family*. The cruel treacheries employed by Valentine had scattered terror amongst all the little princes of Italy, against whose states his perfidious ambition was particu larly directed, and which were extinguished one after the other, either by force of arms, or by fraud. The others began, as we have already mentioned, to dread the same fate. Vitellozzo, the Orsini, John Paul Baglioni, Oli verotto of Fermo, and the agents of Petrucci and Benti voglio, held a congress at the Magione, not far from Perugia, to concert measures for opposing this tyrant, and invited the Florentines to enter the alliance, who refused from the dictates of prudence, in order not to disgust France, with which power the duke was too firmly allied.

These brave leaders, however, began the war with success, routed the troops of Valentine, and, after taking various cities, replaced the Duke Guidubaldo in Urbino. But, although the perfidious character of that man was consummate and well known to the public, from the many proofs he had given of it, we must allow that the artifice he employed was still greater, since he succeeded in reconciling them with him, and even making himself * Buonacc. Diar. Nardi, 1st. lib. 4. Ammir. lib. 28. B2 believed sincere. Alliances, in fact, are not wont to be stable, as each thinks of his own interest; it was no wonder, therefore, that the conspiracy against Valentine was not maintained firmly, the more so, as the King of Fiance had commanded his generals to support the duke, but that the former should suffer themselves to be taken in the net, notwithstanding the well-known cha racter of that prince, is indeed strange.

They could not, however, be put to death one by one, as the first blow would have placed the rest on their guard. By such artful caresses did Valentine lull their suspicions to rest, that thinking his reconciliation sincere, they went to meet him, with a few people, at Sinigaglia. There Paul Orsini, the Duke of Gravina, Oliverotto of Fermo, Vitellozzo, and Ludowic of Sodi were arrested, and Oliverotto and Vitellozzo immediately strangled. Shortly afterwards the pope caused the Cardinal Orsini, and many other respectable persons, to be arrested in Rome, and a cardinal, so venerable for his age, and re spectable on account of his family, soon finished his days, probably by poison: at the news of which, Valentine, in order to make the tragedy complete, caused the two 1503 *' Orsini, Paul, and the Duke of Gravina, to be strangled.

On account of these infamies, which the duke affirmed were necessary for the Florentine republic, saying, that he had taken revenge for her for the trea chery practised by Vitellozzo, the latter sent him ambassadors of congratulation*. Wishing to enjoy the fruits of his wickedness, he occupied the city of Castello, whence the Vitelli had escaped, and afterwards Perugia, from which John Paul Baglione had fled, under the * Buonacc. Diar. Guicciar. 1st. lib. 5. Amm. lib. 28. Above all, see Macchiavel, who was with Valentine, and who relates the method he followed. pretext that it was part of the territory of the church; threatening even Sienna, and demanding that Pandolph Petrucci should be expelled therefrom, whom he called the disturber of the peace of Tuscany. For some years this man had been the regulator of the republic of Sienna.

In the authority that ruled her, every one turned to him in any difficult deliberation; by his prudence and sense he had well earned the credit he enjoyed in Tuscany*. Valentine approached the states of Sienna, threatening them with invasion, if Petrucci was not expelled ; and, as the government somewhat hesitated in coming to a determination, he, in fact, in vaded the territory, by occupying Sarteano and other places. Petrucci, in order to remove from that tyrant every pretext of doing harm to his native country, left Sienna, directing himself towards Lucca, where, in order to draw him into the trap, the duke himself had written urgent letters that he might be well received. But Petrucci was saved by his good fortune. That in famous man, after having agreed in Pienza, with the Siennese ambassadors, to let him have a safe pass from the Florentines f-. sent immediately fifty horsemen to Lucca, to put him to death, which would have happened, had the captain of the Florentines, who was at Cascina, not arrested them, not thinking himself justified, during a time of war with Pisa, to let them pass without permis sion of the signiory.

Petrucci, taking warning from this delay, fled to Pisa J. The Florentines, growing still more suspicious of Va lentine, who, by directing his views towards Sienna and * Malevolti, History of Sienna, book 6th of the 3rd part. t Buonacc. Diar. Nardi 1st. lib. 4, says that the passport was sent immediately. X Malevolti, loc. cit. Buonac. Diar. Nardi 1st. Pisa would, if his designs had succeeded, have embroiled the republic (as the pope openly declared Pisa to have been granted him by the emperor), ordered their am bassador Salviati to remind the King of France that the excessive aggrandizement of this man from the ruin of the many, might also one day prove prejudicial to the French. Nor were these representations useless. The king sent Francis Candulo express to the magistracy of Sienna, to demand that Petrucci should be recalled.

The Siennese at first hesitated, on account of the vicinity of the troops of Valentine, to whom, however, they caused the peremptory demands of the king to be made known. He conceded in anger, and Petrucci was recalled by a public decree % The hostilities the Florentines were engaged in against Pisa, were prosecuted but slowly ; and the war was reduced to mere depredations of the country. In order to avoid this misfortune, rather than from any desire of adjustment, a friar was sent from Pisa as ambassador to the viceroy of Milan, and afterwards to the king him self, that he might choose to become mediator, but the Florentines, getting acquainted with the pretext, defeated the end of every device. The Pisans, however, received some succours of men and money from the Lucchese, Genoese, and Siennese ; the former held Pietra Santa and Mutrone, the second Sarzana, and Sarzanello, the latter Montepulciano : and as long as the Florentines were implicated in the war with Pisa, they enjoyed those acquisitions more securely.

The Florentines had received reinforcements with the Bali or ruler of Ocean, with which they began to act with more vigour. Marching 300 men of arms, 200 * Bonac. Diar. Nardi, 1st. lib. 4. Mai. loc. cit. light horse, and 3,000 infantry, under the command of that captain, they regained Vicopisano : Verrucola, an important fortress was afterwards attacked and con quered, because, from the summit of that mountain, which was opportunely situate and dominated two vast plains, they made signs agreed upon, whereby the Pisans got advice of the movements of the Florentines. The latter having taken it, fortified it in a manner to render it in vincible*. They were hoping to make greater progress, when the Bali was recalled by the Lord of Tramoglia, who was going with the royal army into the kingdom of Naples to fight against the Spaniards.

What every politician of mediocre talents might have foreseen soon took place: the division made of the kingdom of Naples by two powerful Kings kindled a war between them. From that moment Italy no longer enjoyed peace, until a proper sovereign was established : Lombardy and Naples were continually occupied, lost, and regained by turns by foreign powers, and the whole of Italy so frequently traversed by rival armies, has been almost always exposed to the scourge of war. The French were superior in troops : but the wonderful tactics employed by Gonsalvo made amends for the inferiority of number of the Spaniards, whereby sustaining the attacks of, and exhausting the French im petuosity, he made the finest defence of Barletta, under which the enemy were consuming themselves slowly. During the siege of that place, the celebrated challenge took place between the Italians and the French, in order to support the honour of their nations.

The former, irritated by dishonourable words made use of by the French man, Lamotte, sent a solemn challenge to the latter: * Bonacc. Diar. Nardi, lib. 1st. Ammir. lib. 2S. thirteen were chosen on a side; they fought in sight of the two armies and the Italians came off conquerors *. Finally, in this year, on the 1 8th August, the death of Alexander VI. removed from the face of the earth, a man who dishonoured the human species, as well as the luminous and venerable post he occupied. The report of his death is various. The narration of many histo rians of that age, and particularly Guicciardini would deserve to be considered most authentic, who relates that the pope and his son, by a mistake of the servants, drank the poison the latter had prepared for some rich cardinals, who were to sup together in the villa of the Cardi nal of Corneto : that the pope, being an old man, died from the effects of it, but the duke, although seriously ill, escaped through his juvenile robustnessf, but died pro bably of a malignant ague, a very frequent disease during the summer at Rome J. * The detail of this interesting event may be read at length in Guicciardini's history, and in Giovio, who give the names and the native province or town of the Italians.

Giovio relates that the cele brated poet Vida, had written an elegant little Latin poem upon this fact which proved so honourable to the Italian nation : but it has not been found. He had thought it might have remained concealed in some Roman library : the very diligent Abbe Serassi, at my request, had long sought for it in vain before his death. The dispute between the Italians and French is related by Giovio as we have mentioned : Guicciardini differs upon some points. t Guicciard. 1st. lib. 6. Jov. Life Consal. Bemb. Hist. Volater. J Muratori in the annals of Italy, on the diary mentioned by Rai naldo, with the accounts of Alexander Sardi, which are preserved manuscript in the Estensan library, sufficiently proves the disease of the pope to have been intermittent fever. It might, however, be true that Valentine was poisoned at that supper, at which the pope pro bably was not present, by the poison given him in mistake which had been prepared for the Cardinal of Corneto, since the above-men tioned cardinal confessed to Giovio that he had been poisoned in that The death of the pope could not strike Valentine at a more unlucky moment.

He was seriously ill when he stood most in need of the powers both of body and mind. He, however, lost not his courage even in that condi tion. Calling his troops together, he had strength suffi cient to resist the Roman barons, who, rising at the news of the death of the pope, were panting for ven geance, and Rome was about to become the theatre of a civil war, had not mediators prevented it. Valentine and his enemies agreed to quit Rome with the liberty of the conclave, in which the Cardinal Piccolomini was chosen Pope on the 22nd September under the name of Pius 1 1 1., a man of a holy life, but already infirm, and whose reign exceeded not one month. Valentine, returning, found a party amongst the cardinals sufficiently strong to give him considerable influence in the new election. The am bitious Cardinal Rovere wished to profit of it, and re conciling himself with Valentine under promise of de fending him and his states, the party of the duke so pre ponderant, was so much in favour of him that he was proclaimed pope before the conclave was over, on the first day of November*.

He was the nephew of Sixtus IV., and a man of a strong character, who, ex posed for a long time to the persecutions of Alexan der VI., and familiarized with the court of Charles VIII. and Louis XII., had become a veteran in the art of politics. The Florentines sent him ambassadors, who, after the usual formalities were over, insinuated to him how dansupper, relating to him that he felt his bowels afterwards inflamed by an indescribable heat ; that he lost his senses and reason, and the skin came off him. It is certain that the duke at the death of the pope was extremely ill. * Guicciard. History, Book 6. gerous it was to let the Venetians aggrandize themselves too greatly, who, profiting of the death of Alexander, and the critical circumstances in which Valentine was placed, had occupied Faenza and the Valley of Lamon, (Val di Lamone), and were become dangerous neigh bours, both to the states of the pontiff and the Floren tine republic.

The pope had little need of such warnings, as he was full of zeal for the holy see. The Venetians were rebuked for having occupied Faenza, a city belong ing to the church, and endeavoured to exculpate them selves by great humility, saying that city had been given up to Valentine by full vote of the cardinals ; and that, moreover, they had occupied it in order to prevent the entrance of the Florentines, who had sent troops before it*. In spite of these humble excuses, they never restored Faenza ; and the pope at the commencement of his reign without money and without arms, was enabled to fight only with the venerable authority of pontiff. In the mean time, some princes, who were still alive, or the relations of the slain, returned to the dominion over their cities in Romagna, whilst Valentine, after various vicissitudes, was finally obliged to retire into Castel S. Angelo, by advice of the pope, in order to save himself from the Roman barons, and the many others who wished for his death.

His affairs, notwithstanding all the arts of intrigue and deceit, of which he was master, were constantly on the decline. Being taken to the fortress of Ostia, and obliged to leave it, in order to cede the fortresses of Romagna, he obtained a passport from Consalvo, upon the faith of which he went to meet him. True it is that of all men Valentine was the man who least deserved a maintenance of faith ; but if the * Guicciard. Book 6. Ammir. Book 2S. crimes of another man are sufficient to justify our own, there will no longer be any faith in the world. Consalvo chose to stain his illustrious character a third time by a fraud, and endeavoured to take away the passport : as if his bad faith would have vanished by the burning of that paper *. To finish the history of this monster, Valen tino wTas arrested, sent to Spain, and shut up in the fort of Medina del Campo.

But he lost not his courage. His genius suggested to him the means of descending the fort by a rope, and finding swift horses ready for him he fled to the kingdom of Navarre to his brother-in-law, where, fighting valiantly for him under Viana, and a conqueror, he was slain, a death only too honourable for such a villain. The whim of fortune directed that his body should be buried at Pampeluna, in that same church of which, in his youth, he had been bishops. In the mean time alternate advantages and losses at tended the French and Spaniards in the kingdom of Naples ; the latter, as we have already said, were inferior in number. But being reinforced, they bravely attacked the French, obliged them to retreat, who, making an halt at Garigliano, a battle took place, in which the French army was routed, and followed up as far as Gaeta.

Peter de Medicis was with the French in this battle : en deavouring to escape in a boat laden with artillery, and passing the Garigliano, near the mouth of it the boat sunk by its weight, and the effects of tempestuous winds, and Peter perished^. * Jovius, Vita Cons. Nardi, lib. 4. + Tommasi, Life of D. Valent. Nardi, lib. 4. X Guicc. lib. 6. Ammirato, in his portraits, says that the Grand Duke Cosmo I. caused a magnificent mausoleum to be constructed for him at Mount Casino. The inscription runs thus : " Petro Medici Magni Laurcntii Filio Leonis X. Pontil, Maximi Such was the miserable end of the son of the great Lorenzo, in the thirty-third year of his age, after about nine years of exile, and after having led a wandering life, frequently exposed to the greatest hardships. Nature had bestowed upon him with many advantages which she denied his father, beauty, a robustness of frame, and a natural eloquence; but had refused him that particle of divine inspiration which his father possessed, and which is of more value to rulers than the qualities we have mentioned.

After this signal victory, the Spaniards began to be come formidable to all Italy : and the Florentines, there fore, although in alliance with the King of France, sent ambassadors to Consalvo to gain his favourable disposition. The war still continued with the Pisans, and Anthony Giacomini was commissary general, who, after having taken Librafatta, wished to attempt some thing extraordinary. Pisa received her provisions by means of the Arno, either on the land or sea side. The Florentines thought they could divert the course of this river. Upon the opinion of the best engineers, whom they had brought even from Lombardy, they excavated two ditches, one of twenty, the other of thirty arms of breadth, and seven of depth, from the left bank of the Arno as far as the tower called the Pheasant (Del Fa giano) which was ruined, availing themselves of stones to construct a sluice which should shut up the bed of the Arno, to force it to enter the ditches, and send the waters into the pool between Pisa and Leghorn.

But Fratri Clementis VII. Patrueli qui cum Gallorum Castra sequeretur ex adverso proelio ad Liris ostium naufragio periit an Ætat XXXIII. Cosmus Medicis Florent. Dux poni curavit M D the art of levelling was so little known in that time, and the nature of rivers is some times so whimsical, that the water flowed not into the ditches which had been exca vated, except in times of great floods, which when lowered, it flowed back, and rather consumed the banks of the ancient bed in order to follow its usual road ; the end, therefore, after so great an expenditure, was never obtained*. The only advantage derived, was to make use of those ditches, in order to prevent the inroads of the Pisans towards the hillsf . The war continued lingering, and the Florentines met with a shameful defeat near Pisa.

Although they had taken in ambush a small body composed of not more than fifteen men of arms, forty light horse, and sixty infantry, commanded by Tarlatino, in a manner that the retreat appeared impossible, the Pisans, animated by their captain alike by words and examples, either to con quer or to die, broke through the ranks of the Florentines, which were so much more numerous, and besides twenty killed, one hundred and twenty horse, and more than one hundred infantry were taken, together with Tosinghi and Guicciardini. It is true that the Pisans received fresh succours in the affray, but the courage of the Florentines, who were already prepared to make the surprise, and their greater number renders the courageous resistance made, and the victory gained by the Pisans, the more honourable to the latter J. The reputation of the French power had already much declined in Italy, from the superior merit of Con- * The engineers had promised that the work should be concluded with 35,000 labours of labourers paid ten soldi a day, and at the 80,000 they had not yet finished half. t Bonac. diar.