him to surrender. Upon his refusing, they acceded to a proposal that she should be admitted, in order to induce him to yield. Once within the castle, Caterina thanked its defender, and stimulated the garrison to fresh resistance, directing that all the artillery should be brought to bear upon the town, ready to bombard it should the rebels attempt to execute their cowardly threat of offering violence to her children.[226] [Footnote 224: We have spoken of this above.] [Footnote *225: Cf. PASOLINI, _Caterina Sforza_. It was Ludovico and Cecco Orsi who slew Girolamo, with the aid of two soldiers.] [Footnote 226: The current edition of this anecdote, though somewhat too gross for literal translation, is curiously illustrative of the determined character of its heroine. It is thus recounted by Boccalini, in his _Ragguagli di Parnasso_:--"Onde i congiurati così vedendosi ingannati, apertamente le protestarono, che in pezzi avanti gli occhi le havrebbono tagliati i suoi Figliuoli, s'ella non consegnava loro la Rocca nelli mani, e ch'ella per quelle horrende minaccie, in tanto non si spaventò punto, che anzi alzatesi le vesti, e loro mostrando le parte vergognose, disse, che de' suoi Figliuoli facessero a voglia loro, che a lei rimaneva la stampa di rifarne degli altri." He represents Caterina as demanding, on the merits of this action, admission into Parnassus, whereupon Apollo decides, after ample discussion, that although "il sempre contenersi entro i termini della modestia, fosse obbligo delle donne private, disse, che le Principesse nate di alto sangue, negli accidenti gravi, che occurrevano loro, erano obbligate mostrar virilità." [Transcriber's Note: Errors in the Boccalini quotations have been corrected by comparison with the original edition of 'De'ragguagli di Parnaso' at the Internet Archive.] Bonolli, in his history of Forlì, tells the same story, and Vallery characterises the expedient of the Countess as "noblement impudique, et moins mère que femme de parti." Those who wish to compare the various authorities on this point will find them enumerated by Sismondi, chap. lxxxix. A letter of the conspirators to Lorenzo de' Medici, printed by Roscoe, Appendix, No. 24, tends to clear him of that participation in their crime of which he was suspected.]