"War's crash and clang were there; the horseman's charge With shock impetuous, and with ringing cheers That seemed the vaulted sky to scare. There, too, Men huddled lay on earth with dismal howls, Their drums and spears a booty: some the while Encouraging, some eager, some dismayed. The very air, with clouds surcharged and dim, Seemed wailing for the slaughter of that day, Its fierce assaults and sanguinary scenes." The Count shared not in this defeat, but lent opportune aid to rally the broken and disorganised troops, and was about this time rewarded by Eugenius with his promised investiture of the countship of Mercatello. In July he repaired to the baths of Campagnatico, in the Maremma, to recruit from an attack of fever, but on his return found new occupation from the Lord of Rimini. The grandfather of that seigneur was Galeotto Malatesta, whose patrimony included Rimini, Faenza, and Fossombrone, and whose elder brother, Malatesta Malatesta, had transmitted the fief of Pesaro to his great-grandson Galeazzo. This Galeazzo was a man of feeble parts and degraded character, altogether unable to maintain his authority over a disgusted people, or to cope with his bold and ambitious cousin Sigismondo of Rimini. After the defeat of Monteluro, he had reluctantly received into Pesaro some of Piccinino's stragglers, and Sigismondo availed himself of this pretext to persuade his father-in-law Sforza to seize and make over to him that city. But Francesco, intent on sustaining his interests in La Marca, soon left the affair in the hands of Sigismondo, who, although able to overrun the surrounding country, could make no impression upon the capital, held by Count Federigo, even after its poor-spirited lord had withdrawn to Forlì. Thus baffled for eighteen months, the impetuous Sigismondo, by way of cutting short the contest, sent to Federigo this insolent challenge:-- "To the Lord Federigo of Montefeltro, Captain-General of the illustrious Count Francesco Sforza. "Mighty Lord,