For a fortnight this was continued without visible result, and daily the countess was to be seen upon the walls with her castellan, directing the defences.

But on January 12, Cesare's cannon having been concentrated upon one point, a breach was opened at last.

Instantly the waiting citizens, who had been recruited for the purpose, made forward with their faggots, heaping them up in the moat until a passage was practicable.

Over this went Cesare's soldiers to force an entrance.
A stubborn fight ensued within the ravelin, where the duke's men were held in check by the defenders, and not until some four hundred corpses choked that narrow space did the besieged give ground before them.
Like most of the Italian fortresses of the period, the castle of Forli consisted of a citadel within a citadel.

In the heart of the main fabric--but cut off from it again by its own moat--arose the great tower known as the Maschio.