ate his brother's blood, finding that Cesare
withheld the expected help, was bent at last upon dealing, himself,
with Florence. He entered into plots with the exiled Piero de'Medici
to restore the latter to his dominion; he set intrigues afoot in Pisa,
where his influence was vast, and in Siena, whose tyrant, Pandolfo
Petrucci, was ready and willing to forward his designs, and generally
made so disturbing a stir in Tuscany that the Signory became gravely
alarmed.

Cesare certainly took no apparent active part in the affair. He lent
Vitelli no aid; but neither did he attempt to restrain him or any other
of the Borgia condottieri who were allied with him.

The unrest, spreading and growing sullenly a while, burst suddenly forth
in Arezzo on June 4, when the cries of "Medici!" and "Marzocco!" rang
in its streets, to announce that the city was in arms against the
government of Florence. Arezzo followed this up by summoning Vitelli,
and the waiting, watchful condottiero was quick to answer the desired
call. He entered the town three days later at the head of a small body
of foot, and was very shortly afterwards followed by his brother
Giulio Vitelli, Bishop of Citta di Castello, with the artillery, and,
presently, by Gianpaolo Baglioni with a condotta of horse.

A few days later Vitelli was in possession of all the strongholds of
the Val di Chiana, and panic-stricken Florence was speeding ambassadors
hot-foot to Rome to lay her complaints of these matters before the Pope.

Alexander was able to reply that, far from supporting the belligerents,
he had launched a Bull against them, provoked by the poisoning of the
Bishop de'Pazzi.

Cesare looked on with the inscrutable calm for which Macchiavelli was
presently to find him so remarkable. Aware as he was of the French
protection which Florence enjoyed and could invoke, he perceived how
vain must ultimately prove Vitelli's efforts, saw, perhaps, in all
this the grave danger of ultimate ruin which Vitelli was incurring. Yet
Vitelli's action served Cesare's own purposes, and, so that his purposes
were served, there were no other considerations likely to weigh with
that cold egotist. Let Vitelli be caught in the toils he was spinning,
and be choked in them. Meanwhile, Florence was being harrowed, and
that was all to Cesare's satisfaction and advantage. When sufficiently
humbled, it might well befall that the Republic should come on her knees
to implore his intervention, and his