dici, ever
ready to go wherever there was a league against Florence, and ever ready
at the command of Borgia, on any conditions whatever, to re-enter the
town whence they had been banished. The next day more help in the form
of money and artillery arrived, sent by Pandolfo Petrucci, and on the
18th of June the citadel of Arezzo, which had received no news from
Florence, was obliged to surrender.

Vitellozzo left the men of Arezzo to look after their town themselves,
leaving also Fabio Orsina to garrison the citadel with a thousand men.
Then, profiting by the terror that had been spread throughout all this
part of Italy by the successive captures of the duchy of Urbino,
of Camerino, and of Arezzo, he marched upon Monte San Severino,
Castiglione, Aretino, Cortone, and the other towns of the valley of
Chiana, which submitted one after the other almost without a struggle.
When he was only ten or twelve leagues from Florence, and dared not an
his own account attempt anything against her, he made known the state
of affairs to the Duke of Valentinois. He, fancying the hour had came
at last far striking the blow so long delayed, started off at once to
deliver his answer in person to his faithful lieutenants.

But the Florentines, though they had sent no help to Guglielmo dei
Pazzi, had demanded aid from Chaumont dumbest, governor of the Milanese,
an behalf of Louis XII, not only explaining the danger they themselves
were in but also Caesar's ambitious projects, namely that after first
overcoming the small principalities and then the states of the second
order, he had now, it seemed, reached such a height of pride that
he would attack the King of France himself. The news from Naples was
disquieting; serious differences had already occurred between the
Count of Armagnac and Gonzalva di Cordova, and Louis might any day need
Florence, whom he had always found loyal and faithful. He therefore
resolved to check Caesar's progress, and not only sent him orders to
advance no further step forwards, but also sent off, to give effect
to his injunction, the captain Imbaut with 400 lances. The Duke of
Valentinais on the frontier of Tuscany received a copy of the treaty
signed between the republic and the King of France, a treaty in which
the king engaged to help his ally against any enemy whatsoever, and
at the same moment the formal prohibition from Louis to advance any
further. Caesar also learned that beside the 400 lances with the capta