Guidantonio Manfredi, generally known by the contemptuous abbreviation
of Guidaccio, had been brought up at the court of Urbino, during his
father's temporary banishment from his hereditary fief of Faenza, and
had married a daughter of Count Guidantonio di Montefeltro. In the
division of parties which we have just explained, both these
feudatories adhered to the Milanese, but as their neighbour, the Lord
of Rimini, was at first a partisan of the league, and as Bologna had
but recently thrown off the papal authority, Filippo Maria considered
it advisable to strengthen his forces in Romagna. Federigo was
accordingly ordered to join his brother-in-law Guidaccio, and
acquitted himself creditably in various skirmishes with the Tuscan
troops, under Gianpaolo Orsini. The only personal incident preserved
of this petty war is one to which he was in the habit of alluding,
with something of the superstitious dread that pervades the good
Sanzi's account of it, although its character was rather grotesque
than horrible. Having marched from Faenza in bright moonlight, with a
party of 400 horse on a foraging expedition, a noise like the clashing
of arms was suddenly heard at a distance, which immediately being
repeated close at hand, the troops, with fierce and terrified aspect,
rushed on each other, and for about ten minutes fought and struggled
pell-mell, while their frightened horses, partaking in the panic,
neighed and bolted in all directions. Dawn discovered a scene of
strange confusion; the infantry mounted, the cavalry on foot, many
lying wounded on the ground, not a few horses killed, others with
broken or disordered harness. This senseless alarm was never accounted
for, and was consequently ascribed to diabolical influence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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