Pagina 48 de 310

Of the Orsini he had a warning when, after taking Faenza and

attacking Bologna, he saw them go very unwillingly to that

attack. And as to the king, he learned his mind when he himself,

after taking the Duchy of Urbino, attacked Tuscany, and the king

made him desist from that undertaking; hence the duke decided to

depend no more upon the arms and the luck of others.

For the first thing he weakened the Orsini and Colonnesi parties

in Rome, by gaining to himself all their adherents who were

gentlemen, making them his gentlemen, giving them good pay, and,

according to their rank, honouring them with office and command

in such a way that in a few months all attachment to the factions

was destroyed and turned entirely to the duke. After this he

awaited an opportunity to crush the Orsini, having scattered the

adherents of the Colonna house. This came to him soon and he used

it well; for the Orsini, perceiving at length that the

aggrandizement of the duke and the Church was ruin to them,

called a meeting of the Magione in Perugia. From this sprung the

rebellion at Urbino and the tumults in the Romagna, with endless

dangers to the duke, all of which he overcame with the help of

the French.