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Virtue against fury shall advance the fight, And it i' th' combat

soon shall put to flight: For the old Roman valour is not dead,

Nor in th' Italians' brests extinguished.

Edward Dacre, 1640.

DESCRIPTION OF THE METHODS ADOPTED BY THE DUKE VALENTINO WHEN

MURDERING VITELLOZZO VITELLI, OLIVEROTTO DA FERMO, THE SIGNOR

PAGOLO, AND THE DUKE DI GRAVINA ORSINI

BY NICOLO MACHIAVELLI

The Duke Valentino had returned from Lombardy, where he had been

to clear himself with the King of France from the calumnies which

had been raised against him by the Florentines concerning the

rebellion of Arezzo and other towns in the Val di Chiana, and had

arrived at Imola, whence he intended with his army to enter upon

the campaign against Giovanni Bentivogli, the tyrant of Bologna:

for he intended to bring that city under his domination, and to

make it the head of his Romagnian duchy.