Cesare, at breakfast--as he himself wrote to the Duke of Urbino--sprang up at the great noise, and, surmising what was taking place, dashed out to restrain his men.

But the task was no easy one, for, gathering excitement and the frenzy of combat as they ran, they had already gained the edge of the ditch, and thither Cesare was forced to follow them, using voice and hands to beat back again.
At last he succeeded in regaining control of them, and in compelling them to make an orderly retreat, and curb their impatience until the time for storming should have come, which was not yet.

In the affair Cesare had a narrow escape from a stone-shot fired from the castle, whilst one of his officers--Onorio Savelli--was killed by a cannon-ball from the duke's own guns, whose men, unaware of what was taking place, were continuing the bombardment.
Hitherto the army had been forced to endure foul weather--rain, fogs, and wind; but there was worse come.

Snow began to fall on the morning of the 22nd.

It grew to a storm, and the blizzard continued all that day, which was a Sunday, all night, and all the following day, and lashed the men pitilessly and blindingly.