id not dare refuse.
But on the very same day that the Duke of Urbina's troops started for
Camerino, Caesar's troops entered the duchy of Urbino, and took
possession of Cagli, one of the four towns of the little State. The Duke
of Urbino knew what awaited him if he tried to resist, and fled
incontinently, disguised as a peasant; thus in less than eight days
Caesar was master of his whole duchy, except the fortresses of Maiolo and
San Leone.

The Duke of Valentinois forthwith returned to Camerino, where the
inhabitants still held out, encouraged by the presence of Julius Caesar
di Varano, their lord, and his two sons, Venantio and Hannibal; the
eldest son, Gian Maria, had been sent by his father to Venice.

The presence of Caesar was the occasion of parleying between the
besiegers and besieged. A capitulation was arranged whereby Varano
engaged to give up the town, on condition that he and his sons were
allowed to retire safe and sound, taking with them their furniture,
treasure, and carriages. But this was by no means Caesar's intention;
so, profiting by the relaxation in vigilance that had naturally come
about in the garrison when the news of the capitulation had been
announced, he surprised the town in the night preceding the surrender,
and seized Caesar di Varano and his two sons, who were strangled a short
time after, the father at La Pergola and the sons at Pesaro, by Don
Michele Correglio, who, though he had left the position of sbirro for
that of a captain, every now and then returned to his first business.

Meanwhile Vitellozzo Vitelli, who had assumed the title of General of the
Church, and had under him 800 men-at-arms and 3,000 infantry, was
following the secret instructions that he had received from Caesar by
word of mouth, and was carrying forward that system of invasion which was
to encircle Florence in a network of iron, and in the end make her
defence an impossibility. A worthy pupil of his master, in whose school
he had learned to use in turn the cunning of a fox and the strength of a
lion, he had established an understanding between himself and certain
young gentlemen of Arezzo to get that town delivered into his hands. But
the plot had been discovered by Guglielma dei Pazzi, commissary of the
Florentine Republic, and he had arrested two of the conspirators,
whereupon the others, who were much more numerous than was supposed; had
instantly dispersed about the town summoning the citizens to arms.