a few words of pretended communication, slew him, and calling to his
associates, killed the attendant. The governor of the place coming by
accident to speak with the count, and entering the apartment with a few
of his people, was also slain. After this slaughter, and in the midst
of a great tumult, the count's body was thrown from the window, and with
the cry of "church and liberty," they roused the people (who hated the
avarice and cruelty of the count) to arms, and having plundered his
house, made the Countess Caterina and her children prisoners. The
fortress alone had to be taken to bring the enterprise to a successful
issue; but the Castellan would not consent to its surrender. They begged
the countess would desire him to comply with their wish, which she
promised to do, if they would allow her to go into the fortress,
leaving her children as security for the performance of her promise. The
conspirators trusted her, and permitted her to enter; but as soon as she
was within, she threatened them with death and every kind of torture in
revenge for the murder of her husband; and upon their menacing her with
the death of her children, she said she had the means of getting more.
Finding they were not supported by the pope, and that Lodovico
Sforza, uncle to the countess, had sent forces to her assistance, the
conspirators became terrified, and taking with them whatever property
they could carry off, they fled to Citta di Castello. The countess
recovered the state, and avenged the death of her husband with the
utmost cruelty. The Florentines hearing of the count's death, took
occasion to recover the fortress of Piancaldoli, of which he had
formerly deprived them, and, on sending some forces, captured it; but
Cecco, the famous engineer, lost his life during the siege.

To this disturbance in Romagna, another in that province, no less
important, has to be added. Galeotto, lord of Faenza, had married the
daughter of Giovanni Bentivogli, prince of Bologna. She, either through
jealousy or ill treatment by her husband, or from the depravity of her
own nature, hated him to such a degree, that she determined to deprive
him of his possessions and his life; and pretending sickness, she took
to her bed, where, having induced Galeotto to visit her, he was slain by
assassins, whom she had concealed for that purpose in the apartment.
She had acquainted her father with her design, and he hoped, on his
son-in-law's death, to become lord of