upon Urbino's assistance; and later, a
messenger from Urbino falling into his hands, he discovered that there
was a plot afoot to seize the Borgia artillery as it passed through
Ugubio, it being known that, as Cesare had no suspicions, the guns would
be guarded only by a small force. Of this treachery the duke strongly
expressed his indignation in his letter to the Pope.

Whether the matter was true--or whether Cesare believed it to be
true--it is impossible to ascertain with absolute conviction. But it
is in the highest degree unlikely that Cesare would have written such
a letter to his father solely by way of setting up a pretext. Had that
been his only aim, letters expressing his simulated indignation would
have been in better case to serve his ends had they been addressed to
others.

If Guidobaldo did engage in such an act, amounting to a betrayal, he was
certainly paid by Cesare in kind and with interest. If the duke had
been short of a pretext for carrying a drawn sword into the dominions
of Guidobaldo, he had that pretext now in this act of enmity against
himself and the Holy See.

First, however, he disposed for the attack upon Camerino. This State,
lying on the Eastern spurs of the Apennines, midway between Spoleto and
Urbino, was ruled by Giulio Cesare Varano, an old war-dog of seventy
years of age, ruthless and bloodthirsty, who owed his throne to his
murder of his own brother.

He was aided in the government of his tyranny by his four sons,
Venanzio, Annibale, Pietro, and Gianmaria.

Several times already had he been menaced by Cesare Borgia, for he was
one of the Vicars proscribed for the non-payment of tribute due to
the Holy See, and at last his hour was come. Against him Cesare now
dispatched an army under the command of Francesco Orsini, Duke of
Gravina, and Oliverotto Eufreducci, another murderous, bloody gentleman
who had hitherto served the duke in Vitelli's condotta, and who, by an
atrocious act of infamy and brigandage, had made himself Lord of Fermo,
which he pretended--being as sly as he was bloody--to hold as Vicar for
the Holy See.

This Oliverotto Eufreducci--hereafter known as Oliverotto da Fermo--was
a nephew of Giovanni Fogliano, Lord of Fermo. He had returned home to
his uncle's Court in the early part of that year, and was there received
with great honour and affection by Fogliano and his other relatives.
To celebrate his home-coming, Oliverotto invited his uncle and the
principa