the said house, appointing me their captain, as I had been when the
Colonnesi came. So I collected fifty young men of the highest courage,
and we took up our quarters in his palace, with good pay and excellent
appointments.

Bourbon's army had now arrived before the walls of Rome, and Alessandro
begged me to go with him to reconnoitre. So we went with one of the
stoutest fellows in our Company; and on the way a youth called Cecchino
della Casa joined himself to us. On reaching the walls by the Campo
Santo, we could see that famous army, which was making every effort to
enter the town. Upon the ramparts where we took our station several
young men were lying killed by the besiegers; the battle raged there
desperately, and there was the densest fog imaginable. I turned to
Alessandro and said: "Let us go home as soon as we can, for there is
nothing to be done here; you see the enemies are mounting, and our men
are in flight." Alessandro, in a panic, cried: "Would God that we had
never come here!" and turned in maddest haste to fly. I took him up
somewhat sharply with these words: "Since you have brought me here, I
must perform some action worthy of a man;" and directing my arquebuse
where I saw the thickest and most serried troop of fighting men, I aimed
exactly at one whom I remarked to be higher than the rest; the fog
prevented me from being certain whether he was on horseback or on foot.
Then I turned to Alessandro and Cecchino, and bade them discharge their
arquebuses, showing them how to avoid being hit by the besiegers. When
we had fired two rounds apiece, I crept cautiously up to the wall, and
observing among the enemy a most extraordinary confusion, I discovered
afterwards that one of our shots had killed the Constable of Bourbon;
and from what I subsequently learned, he was the man whom I had first
noticed above the heads of the rest. [4]