trifling reliance he could place on the Orsini, when, after the taking. of Faënza, he attacked Bologna; where they shewed an evident want of activity. And as to the king, his intentions were easily discerned; as after he had gained the duchy of Urbino, and made an irruption into Tuscany; the king obliged him to desist from it. The duke determined, therefore, neither to depend on fortuņe nor the arms of another prince. He began by weakening the party of the Orsini and the Colonni at Rome; in bringing over to his side all the gentry attached to these two houses either by money, by governments, or employments suited to their rank; so that in a few months a complete revolution was effected in their attachment, and they all ranged themselves under the banners of the duke. He had dispersed the Colonni with infinite success and management, and he only waited for an opportunity of destroying the Orsini. The latter perceiving, rather too late, that the power of the duke and that of the church would ruin them, held a diet at Magione in Perugia, from which followed the revolt of Urbino, the disturbances of Romagnia, and the infinite dangers which the duke encountered and surmounted by the aid of the French. His affairs once re-established, he chose neither to rely on France nor any other external force; and that he might put nothing to the risk, be employed only artifices; and he knew so well
