of importance either with the Venetians or the Florentines; and to
prove the sincerity of his wish for peace, he offered to fulfill the
engagement he had entered into with regard to his daughter, and send her
to Ferrara; so that as soon as peace was established, the union might
take place." The count replied, "That if the duke really wished
for peace, he might easily be gratified, as the Florentines and the
Venetians were equally anxious for it. True, it was, he could with
difficulty credit him, knowing that he had never made peace but from
necessity, and when this no longer pressed him, again desired war.
Neither could he give credence to what he had said concerning the
marriage, having been so repeatedly deceived; yet when peace was
concluded, he would take the advice of his friends upon that subject."

The Venetians, who were sometimes needlessly jealous of their soldiery,
became greatly alarmed at these proceedings; and not without reason.
The count was aware of this, and wishing to remove their apprehensions,
pursued the war with unusual vigor; but his mind had become so unsettled
by ambition, and the Venetians' by jealousy, that little further
progress was made during the remainder of the summer, and upon the
return of Niccolo into Lombardy, winter having already commenced, the
armies withdrew into quarters, the count to Verona, the Florentine
forces to Tuscany, the duke's to Cremona, and those of the pope to
Romagna. The latter, after having been victorious at Anghiari, made an
unsuccessful attack upon Furli and Bologna, with a view to wrest them
from Niccolo Piccinino; but they were gallantly defended by his son
Francesco. However, the arrival of the papal forces so alarmed the
people of Ravenna with the fear of becoming subject to the church, that,
by consent of Ostasio di Polenta their lord, they placed themselves
under the power of the Venetians; who, in return for the territory, and
that Ostasio might never retake by force what he had imprudently given