o attack Fojano, in the Val di Chiane;
for, having the Siennese in their favor, they entered the Florentine
territory in that direction. The walls of the castle were weak, and it
was small, and consequently poorly manned, but the garrison were, among
the soldiers of that period, considered brave and faithful. Two hundred
infantry were also sent by the Signory for its defense. Before this
castle, thus provided, Ferrando sat down, and either from the valor of
its defenders or his own deficiencies, thirty-six days elapsed before
he took it. This interval enabled the city to make better provision
for places of greater importance, to collect forces and conclude more
effective arrangements than had hitherto been made. The enemy next
proceeded into the district of Chiane, where they attacked two small
towns, the property of private citizens, but could not capture them.
They then encamped before the Castellina, a fortress upon the borders
of the Chianti, within ten miles of Sienna, weak from its defective
construction, and still more so by its situation; but, notwithstanding
these defects, the assailants were compelled to retire in disgrace,
after having lain before it forty-four days. So formidable were those
armies, and so perilous those wars, that places now abandoned as
untenable were then defended as impregnable.

While Ferrando was encamped in the Chianti he made many incursions, and
took considerable booty from the Florentine territories, extending his
depredations within six miles of the city, to the great alarm and injury
of the people, who at this time, having sent their forces to the
number of eight thousand soldiers under Astorre da Faenza and Gismondo
Malatesti toward Castel di Colle, kept them at a distance from the
enemy, lest they should be compelled to an engagement; for they
considered that so long as they were not beaten in a pitched battle,
they could not be vanquished in the war generally; for small castles,
when lost, were recovered at the peace, and larger places were in no
danger, because the enemy would not venture to attack them. The king
had also a fleet of about twenty vessels, comprising galleys and smaller
craft, which lay off Pisa, and during the siege of Castellina were
moored near the Rocca di Vada, which, from the negligence of the
governor, he took, and then harassed the surrounding country. However,
this annoyance was easily removed by a few soldiers sent by the
Florentines to Campiglia, and