r inhabitants distributed wine and flour at
prices purely nominal, and lent Astorre money for the payment of his
troops. It is written that to the same end the very priests, their
patriotism surmounting their duty to the Holy Father in whose name
this war was waged, consented to the despoiling of the churches and the
melting down of the sacred vessels.

Even the women of Faenza bore their share of the burden of defence,
carrying to the ramparts the heavy stones that were to be hurled down
upon the besiegers, or actually donning casque and body-armour and doing
sentry duty on the walls while the men rested.

But the end was approaching. On April 18 the Borgia cannon opened at
last a breach in the walls, and Cesare delivered a terrible assault upon
the citadel. The fight upon the smoking ruins was fierce and determined
on both sides, the duke's men pressing forward gallantly under showers
of scalding pitch and a storm of boulders, launched upon them by the
defenders, who used the very ruins of the wall for ammunition. For four
hours was that assault maintained; nor did it cease until the deepening
dusk compelled Cesare to order the retreat, since to continue in the
failing light was but to sacrifice men to no purpose.

Cesare's appreciation of the valour of the garrison ran high. It
inspired him with a respect which shows his dispassionate breadth of
mind, and he is reported to have declared that with an army of such men
as those who held Faenza against him he would have conquered all Italy.
He did not attempt a second assault, but confined himself during the
three days that followed to continuing the bombardment.

Within Faenza men were by now in desperate case. Weariness and hunger
were so exhausting their endurance, so sapping their high valour that
nightly there were desertions to the duke's camp of men who could bear
no more. The fugitives from the town were well received, all save one--a
man named Grammante, a dyer by trade--who, in deserting to the duke,
came in to inform him that at a certain point of the citadel the
defences were so weak that an assault delivered there could not fail to
carry it.

This man afforded Cesare an opportunity of marking his contempt for
traitors and his respect for the gallant defenders of Faenza. The
duke hanged him for his pains under the very walls of the town he had
betrayed.

On the 21st the bombardment was kept up almost without interruption for
eight hours, and so shatter