so much work unaccomplished.

So he converted the siege into a blockade, closing all roads that lead
to Faenza, with a view to shutting out supplies from the town; and he
distributed troops throughout the villages of the territory with orders
constantly to harass the garrison and allow it no rest.

He also sent an envoy with an offer of terms of surrender, but the
Council rejected it with the proud answer that its members "had agreed,
in general assembly, to defend the dominions of Manfredi to the death."

Thereupon Cesare withdrew to Forli with 150 lances and 2,500 foot, and
here he affords a proof of his considerateness. The town had already
endured several occupations and the severities of being the seat of war
during the siege of the citadel. Cesare was determined that it should
feel the present occupation as little as possible; so he issued an order
to the inhabitants upon whom his soldiers were billeted to supply the
men only with bed, light, and fire. What more they required must be
paid for, and, to avoid disputes as to prices of victuals and other
necessaries, he ordered the Council to draw up a tariff, and issued an
edict forbidding his soldiers, under pain of death, from touching any
property of the townsfolk. Lest they should doubt his earnestness,
he hanged two of his soldiers on December 7--a Piedmontese and a
Gascon--and on the 13th a third, all from the windows of his own palace,
and all with a label hanging from their feet proclaiming that they had
been hanged for taking goods of others in spite of the ban of the Lord
Duke, etc.

He remained in Forli until the 23rd, when he departed to Cesena, which
was really his capital in Roomagna, and in the huge citadel of which
there was ample accommodation for the troops that accompanied him. In
Forli he left, as his lieutenants, the Bishop of Trani and Don Michele
da Corella--the "Michieli" of Capello's Relation and the "Michelotto"
of so many Borgia fables. That this officer ruled the soldiers left with
him in Forli in accordance with the stern example set him by his master
we know from the chronicles of Bernardi.

In Cesena the duke occupied the splendid palace of Malatesta Novello,
which had been magnificently equipped for him, and there, on Christmas
Eve, he entertained the Council of the town and other important citizens
to a banquet worthy of the repuation for lavishness which he enjoyed. He
was very different in this from his father, whose table habi