A truce was concluded between Clement VII. and the ministers of Charles V.; but it was not acceded to by Bourbon and his army. The pope, however, unaware of this circumstance, dismissed his troops, and remained wholly unguarded. The imperialists, rendered unanimous through the effects of hunger and poverty, continued to advance. They entered Tuscany; but, without staying to attack Florence, they hurried on by forced marches and falling unexpectedly on Rome, took it by assault; and that dreadful sack took place, which filled the city with death and misery, and spread alarm throughout Italy. Machiavelli followed the Italian army, as it advanced to deliver the pope, who was besieged in the Castel Sant' Angelo. From the environs of Rome he repaired to Cività Vecchia, where Andrea Doria commanded a fleet; and from him he obtained the means of repairing by sea to Leghorn. Before embarking, he received intelligence of the revolution of Florence. On hearing of the taking of Rome, on the 6th of May, the republicans rose against the Medici; and they were forced to quit the city. The government was changed on the 16th of May, and things were restored to the state they were in 1512. Machiavelli returned to Florence full of hope. He considered that the power was now in the hands of his friends, and that he should again enter on public life under prosperous auspices. His hopes were disappointed--public feeling was against him: his previous services, his imprisonment and torture, were forgotten; while it was remembered that, since 1513, he had been continually aiming at getting employed by the Medici, against whom the popular feeling was violently excited. He had succeeded at last; and was actually in their service, when they were driven from the city. These circumstances rendered him displeasing to men who considered themselves the deliverers of their country. Machiavelli was disappointed by their neglect, and deeply wounded by their distrust. He fell ill; and taking some pills, to which he was in the habit of having recourse when indisposed, he grew worse, and died two days after--on the 22d of June, 1527--in the 59th year of his age. Paul Jovius, his old enemy, insinuates that he took the medicine for the sake of destroying himself,--a most clumsy sort of suicide,--but there is no foundation whatever for this report.[130] His wife Marietta, the daughter of Ludovico Corsini, survived him; and he left five children,--four sons and one daughter. He had made a will in 1511, when secretary of the republic; and in 1522 he made another, which only differs in details--the spirit is the same. He leaves his "beloved wife" an addition to her dower, and divides the rest of his slight fortune between his children. Marietta is left guardian and trustee of the younger children--to continue till they were nineteen--with a clause forbidding them to demand any account of money spent; and mentions that he reposes entire confidence in her.