[344] _Lettere di Lorenzo il Magnifico al Sommo Pontefice Innocenzo VIII._, Canonico D. Moreni. Firenze, 1830. [345] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._ [346] Ibid. [347] Count Girolamo Riario, nephew of the late Pope Sixtus, cruel and despotic, had been murdered by his subjects, and his wife Caterina, an illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Sforza, taken prisoner with her three sons. The castle of Ravaldino which commanded the town still held out, and the insurgents allowed her to go to the commandant on the pretence that she would induce him to surrender, leaving her children as hostages in their hands. Once inside the castle she defied the people, and when they threatened to kill her children replied, according to Guicciardini, “Are you not fools, cannot you see that I can have others?” Milanese troops were sent by Lodovico Sforza and the little boys were saved. [348] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._ [349] _Prose Volgari inedite_, &c., _op. cit._ p. 74. [350] _Arch. Stor. Ital._, Serie terza, ix. 48, Parte I. [351] _Vita e Fatti d’Innocenzo VIII._, Scritta per Messer Francesco Serdonati, fiorentino, &c. Milano, Ferrario, 1829, 59 _et seq._ [352] Ten years before Girolamo Riario had taken Piancaldoli from Florence during the war between Sixtus and Lorenzo. Lodovico Sforza was furious at this success of the Florentine arms, but could do nothing. [353] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._ [354] The Manfredi were lords of Faenza, which was under the protection of Florence. Galeotto Manfredi had been murdered by his jealous wife, Francesca Bentivoglio, and the citizens, afraid to lose their freedom, had taken her, and her father who had come from Bologna to her assistance, prisoners, and slain the Milanese general sent by Sforza. Lorenzo took the part of the murdered man’s young son Astorre, and Giovanni Bentivoglio was kept a prisoner for some weeks at Modigliana, while his daughter Francesca was sent to Bologna to her mother. [355] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op cit._ [356] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._ [357] Ibid. [358] Clarice was consumptive. [359] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._ [360] _Lettere di Lorenzo de’ Medici a Innocenzo VIII._, op. cit. 18. [361] _Lettere_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._ [362] Ibid. [363] _Lettere_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._ [364] Gian Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, married his cousin, Isabella of Naples, daughter of Alfonso, Duke of Calabria. Lorenzo de’ Medici was ill, so Piero, his son, met the Duchess at Leghorn, and then went to Milan to attend the marriage festivities. [365] Florentine ambassador to Milan.