little hope of assistance from Aragon, sought peace with the count, and,
by the intervention of the Florentines, succeeded. Of La Marca, the pope
only retained Osimo, Fabriano, and Recanati; all the rest remained in
the count's possession.

Peace being restored to La Marca, the whole of Italy would have obtained
repose had it not been disturbed by the Bolognese. There were in Bologna
two very powerful families, the Canneschi and the Bentivogli. Of the
latter, Annibale was the head; of the former, Battista, who, as a means
of confirming their mutual confidence, had contracted family alliances;
but among men who have the same objects of ambition in view, it is
easy to form connections, but difficult to establish friendship. The
Bolognese were in a league with the Venetians and Florentines, which had
been effected by the influence of Annibale, after they had driven
out Francesco Piccinino; and Battista, knowing how earnestly the duke
desired to have the city favorable to him, proposed to assassinate
Annibale, and put Bologna into his power. This being agreed upon, on the
twenty-fifth of June, 1445, he attacked Annibale with his men, and slew
him: and then, with shouts of "the duke, the duke," rode through the
city. The Venetian and Florentine commissaries were in Bologna at the
time, and at first kept themselves within doors; but finding that the
people, instead of favoring the murderers, assembled in the piazza,
armed in great numbers, mourning the death of Annibale, they joined
them; and, assembling what forces they could, attacked the Canneschi,
soon overpowered them, slew part, and drove the remainder out of the
city. Battista, unable to effect his escape, or his enemies his capture,
took refuge in a vault of his house, used for storing grain. The friends
of the Bentivogli, having sought him all day, and knowing he had not
left the city, so terrified his servants, that one of them, a groom,
disclosed the place of his concealment, and being drawn forth in