onsist, I will not give up, neither can you
wrest them from me." The besiegers ran to save the children, and placed
for their father ropes and ladders, by which to save himself, but he
would not use them, and rather chose to die in the flames than owe his
safety to the enemies of his country: an example worthy of that much
lauded antiquity, which offers nothing to surpass it, and which we
admire the more from the rarity of any similar occurrence. Whatever
could be recovered from the ruins, was restored for the use of the
children, and carefully conveyed to their friends; nor was the republic
less grateful; for as long as they lived, they were supported at her
charge.

An example of an opposite character occurred at Galeata, where Zanobi
del Pino was governor; he, without offering the least resistance, gave
up the fortress to the enemy; and besides this, advised Agnolo della
Pergola to leave the Alps of Romagna, and come among the smaller hills
of Tuscany, where he might carry on the war with less danger and greater
advantage. Agnolo could not endure the mean and base spirit of this man,
and delivered him to his own attendants, who, after many reproaches,
gave him nothing to eat but paper painted with snakes, saying, that of a
Guelph they would make him a Ghibelline; and thus fasting, he died in a
few days.

At this time Count Oddo and Niccolo Piccinino entered the Val di Lamona,
with the design of bringing the lord of Faenza over to the Florentines,
or at least inducing him to restrain the incursions of Agnolo della
Pergola into Romagna; but as this valley is naturally strong, and its
inhabitants warlike, Count Oddo was slain there, and Niccolo Piccinino
sent a prisoner to Faenza. Fortune, however, caused the Florentines to
obtain by their loss, what, perhaps, they would have failed to acquire
by victory; for Niccolo so prevailed with the lord of Faenza and his
mother, that they became friends of the Florentines. By this treaty,
Niccolo Piccinino was set at liberty, but did not take the advice he had
given others; for while in treaty with the city, concerning the terms of
his engagement, either the conditions proposed were insufficient, or he
found better elsewhere; for quite suddenly he left Arezzo, where he had
been staying, passed into Lombardy, and entered the service of the duke.

The Florentines, alarmed by this circumstance, and reduced to
despondency by their frequent losses, thought themselves unable to
sust