iefly relied, as well they might, for
they were the best troops in the world; but Vitelli attacked these picked
men with his infantry, who, armed with their formidable pikes, ran them
through, while they with arms four feet shorter had no chance even of
returning the blows they received; at the same time Vitelli's light
troops wheeled upon the flank, following their most rapid movements, and
silencing the enemy's artillery by the swiftness and accuracy of their
attack. The pontifical troops were put to flight, though after a longer
resistance than might have been expected when they had to sustain the
attack of an army so much better equipped than their own; with them they
bore to Ronciglione the Duke of Gandia, wounded in the face by a
pike-thrust, Fabrizia Calonna, and the envoy; the Duke of Urbino, who was
fighting in the rear to aid the retreat, was taken prisoner with all his
artillery and the baggage of the conquered army. But this success, great
as it was, did not so swell the pride of Vitellozza Vitelli as to make
him oblivious of his position. He knew that he and the Orsini together
were too weak to sustain a war of such magnitude; that the little store
of money to which he owed the existence of his army would very soon be
expended and his army would disappear with it. So he hastened to get
pardoned far the victory by making propositions which he would very
likely have refused had he been the vanquished party; and the pope
accepted his conditions without demur; during the interval having heard
that Trivulce had just recrossed the Alps and re-entered Italy with three
thousand Swiss, and fearing lest the Italian general might only be the
advance guard of the King of France. So it was settled that the Orsini
should pay 70,000 florins for the expenses of the war, and that all the
prisoners on both sides should be exchanged without ransom with the
single exception of the Duke of Urbino. As a pledge for the future
payment of the 70,000 florins, the Orsini handed over to the Cardinals
Sforza and San Severino the fortresses of Anguillara and Cervetri; then,
when the day came and they had not the necessary money, they gave up
their prisoner, the Duke of Urbino, estimating his worth at 40,000
ducats--nearly all the sum required--and handed him over to Alexander on
account; he, a rigid observer of engagements, made his own general, taken
prisoner in his service, pay, to himself the ransom he owed to the enemy.

Then t