which they carried him had been immediately filled by all the chiefs of
the army, so far at least as I could judge. The Pope, with a shrewd
instinct, sent for Messer Antonio Santacroce, the nobleman who, as I
have said, was chief and commander of the gunners. He bade him order all
us bombardiers to point our pieces, which were very numerous, in one
mass upon the house, and to discharge them all together upon the signal
of an arquebuse being fired. He judged that if we killed the generals,
the army, which was already almost on the point of breaking up, would
take flight. God perhaps had heard the prayers they kept continually
making, and meant to rid them in this manner of those impious scoundrels.

We put our cannon in order at the command of Santacroce, and waited for
the signal. But when Cardinal Orsini [3] became aware of what was going
forward, he began to expostulate with the Pope, protesting that the
thing by no means ought to happen, seeing they were on the point of
concluding an accommodation, and that if the generals were killed, the
rabble of the troops without a leader would storm the castle and
complete their utter ruin. Consequently they could by no means allow the
Pope's plan to be carried out. The poor Pope, in despair, seeing himself
assassinated both inside the castle and without, said that he left them
to arrange it. On this, our orders were countermanded; but I, who chafed
against the leash, [4] when I knew that they were coming round to bid me
stop from firing, let blaze one of my demi-cannons, and struck a pillar
in the courtyard of the house, around which I saw a crowd of people
clustering. This shot did such damage to the enemy that it was like to
have made them evacuate the house. Cardinal Orsini was absolutely for
having me hanged or put to death; but the Pope took up my cause with
spirit. The high words that passed between them, though I well know what
they were, I will not here relate, because I make no profession of
writing history. It is enough for me to occupy myself with my own