d received letters
from the King of France urging them to come to an accord with Cesare,
and they had made known to the duke that they desired to reoccupy Pisa
and to assure themselves of Vitelli; but, when he pressed that Florence
should give him a condotta, Macchiavelli--following his instructions
not to commit the Republic in any way--had answered "that his Excellency
must not be considered as other lords, but as a new potentate in Italy,
with whom it is more seemly to make an alliance or a friendship than to
grant him a condotta; and, as alliances are maintained by arms, and
that is the only power to compel their observance, the Signory could
not perceive what security they would have when three-quarters or
three-fifths of their arms would be in the duke's hands." Macchiavelli
added diplomatically that "he did not say this to impugn the duke's
good faith, but to show him that princes should be circumspect and never
enter into anything that leaves a possibility of their being put at a
disadvantage."(1)

1 See the twenty-first letter from Macchiavelli on this legation.

Cesare answered him calmly ("senza segno d'alterazione alcuna") that
without a condotta, he didn't know what to make of a private friendship
whose first principles were denied him. And there the matter hung,
for Macchiavelli's legation had for only aim to ensure the immunity
of Tuscany and to safeguard Florentine interests without conceding any
advantages to Cesare--as the latter had perceived from the first.

On December 10 Cesare moved from Imola with his entire army, intent now
upon the conquest of Sinigaglia, which State Giuliano della Rovere had
been unable to save for his nephew, as king and Pope had alike turned
a deaf ear upon the excuses he had sought to make for the Prefetessa,
Giovanna da Montefeltre--the mother of the young prefect--who had aided
her brother Guidobaldo in the late war in Urbino.

On the morrow Valentinois arrived in Cesena and encamped his army there
for Christmas, as in the previous year. The country was beginning
to feel the effects of this prolonged vast military occupation, and
although the duke, with intent to relieve the people, had done all that
was possible to provision the troops, and had purchased from Venice
30,000 bushels of wheat for the purpose, yet all had been consumed. "The
very stones have been eaten," says Macchiavelli.

To account for this state of things--and possibly for certain other
matte