[The Life of Cesare Borgia by Raphael Sabatini]@TWC D-Link bookThe Life of Cesare Borgia CHAPTER XVIII 2/27
Andrea Doria, intriguing against the duke's life with the condottieri, finding them seized by the duke, and inferring that all was discovered, had every reason to fly. The citadel made surrender on that New Year's morning, when Cesare summoned it to do so, whilst the troops of the Orsini and Vitelli lodged in the castles of the territory, being taken unawares, were speedily disposed of.
So, there being nothing more left to do in Sinigaglia, Cesare once more marshalled his men and set out for Citta di Castello--the tyranny of the Vitelli, which he found undefended and of which he took possession in the name of the Church.
Thence he rushed on towards Perugia, for he had word that Guidobaldo of Urbino, Fabio Orsini, Annibale and Venanzio Varano, and Vitelli's nephew were assembled there under the wing of Gianpaolo Baglioni, who, with a considerable condotta at his back, was making big talk of resisting the Duke of Romagna and Valentinois.
In this, Gianpaolo persevered most bravely until he had news that the duke was as near as Gualdo, when precipitately he fled--leaving his guests to shift for themselves.
He had remembered, perhaps, at the last moment how narrow an escape he had had of it at Sinigaglia, and he repaired to Siena to join Pandolfo Petrucci, who had been equally fortunate in that connection. To meet the advancing and irresistible duke came ambassadors from Perugia with smooth words of welcome, the offer of the city, and their thanks for his having delivered them of the tyrants that oppressed them; and there is not the slightest cause to suppose that this was mere sycophancy, for a more bloody, murderous crew than these Baglioni--whose feuds not only with the rival family of the Oddi, but among their very selves, had more than once embrued the walls of that city in the hills--it would be difficult to find in Italy, or anywhere in Europe. The history of the Baglioni is one record of slaughter.
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