were killed on either side; and when, at the peril of his life, the right reverend Cardinal had well nigh quelled the fray, an Italian struck a German captain on the head with his musket and killed him. This made the fight rage fiercer than ever, and the Spaniards having sided with the Germans, the Italians were routed, and all their quarters pillaged, including those of Signor Troilo Savello. The army remains divided and dispersed; most of the Italians are departed, whilst the infantry have betaken themselves towards Fano, and continue thus separated." It is curious to detect in these and similar incidents[274] an undercurrent of national feeling, during that dreary age when the Peninsula was torn into sections by communal policy and dynastic ambition. Had that cry of _Italia! Italia!_ been then raised by her leading spirits, with earnest good faith, apart from individual ends, how different had been her after fate and present attitude! [Footnote 274: See above, p. 325.] The legate, who thus, with difficulty and personal danger, averted a general massacre, was the Cardinal Bibbiena, not de' Medici, as accidentally misstated by Roscoe. After long employing his diplomatic talents against his former friend, the Lord of Urbino, he now compassed his final ruin by exertions of the camp, for which he was less qualified. The mutinous _mêlée_ which he had witnessed prepared him for the discovery, that moneys raised by extraordinary exertions were ill-spent upon an army "thrice as numerous on pay-day as in action." It was, therefore, to the commissariat and finance that his chief attention was given; but, warned by the recent explosion of national antipathies, he separated the quarrelsome soldiery in various cantonments around Pesaro. The Italians garrisoned the city and Rimini, the Spaniards were encamped on the adjoining Monte Bartolo, the Germans lay on the middle of that hill around the Imperiale palace, the Corsi (Dalmatians) occupied the foot of it, and the Gascons bivouacked on the adjacent plain. The last of these were in very bad repute at Rome; and finding themselves kept for several weeks in that exposed situation, many deserted to the della Rovere camp at Ginestreto, near Montebaroccio. After letting slip an apparently favourable opportunity for striking a blow at these disorganised troops, Francesco Maria subsequently did so by a surprise, which we shall narrate in his own words, addressed next morning to the Duchess. "To the most illustrious Lady, my Consort, my lady Eleonora di Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, &c. "Most illustrious Lady, my Consort,