Chapter 26 - Page 2

to show
how greatly courage is admired even in enemies, and how much cowardice
and pusillanimity are despised.

Biaggio del Melano was castellan in the fortress of Monte Petroso.
Being surrounded by enemies, and seeing no chance of saving the place,
which was already in flames, he cast clothes and straw from a part
which was not yet on fire, and upon these he threw his two little
children, saying to the enemy, "Take to yourselves those goods which
fortune has bestowed upon me, and of which you may deprive me; but
those of the mind, in which my honor and glory consist, I will not
give up, neither can you wrest them from me." The besiegers ran to
save the children, and placed for their father ropes and ladders, by
which to save himself, but he would not use them, and rather chose to
die in the flames than owe his safety to the enemies of his country:
an example worthy of that much lauded antiquity, which offers nothing
to surpass it, and which we admire the more from the rarity of any
similar occurrence. Whatever could be recovered from the ruins, was
restored for the use of the children, and carefully conveyed to their
friends; nor was the republic less grateful; for as long as they
lived, they were supported at her charge.

An example of an opposite character occurred at Galeata, where Zanobi
del Pino was governor; he, without offering the least resistance, gave
up the fortress to the enemy; and besides this, advised Agnolo della
Pergola to leave the Alps of Romagna, and come among the smaller hills
of Tuscany, where he might carry on the war with less danger and
greater advantage. Agnolo could not endure the mean and base spirit of
this man, and delivered him to his own attendants, who, after many
reproaches, gave him nothing to eat but paper painted with snakes,
saying, that of a Guelph they would make him a Ghibelline; and thus
fasting, he died in a few days.

At this time Count Oddo and Niccolo Piccinino entered the Val di
Lamona, with the design of bringing the lord of Faenza over to the
Florentines, or at least inducing him to restrain the incursions of
Agnolo della Pergola into Romagna; but as this valley is naturally
strong, and its inhabitants warlike, Count Oddo was slain there, and
Niccolo Piccinino sent a prisoner to Faenza. Fortune, however, caused
the Florentines to obtain by their loss, what, perhaps, they would
have failed to acquire by victory; for Niccolo so prevailed with the
lord of Faenza and his mother, that they became friends of the
Florentines. By this treaty, Niccolo Piccinino was set at liberty, but
did not take the advice he had given others; for while in treaty with
the city, concerning the terms of his engagement, either the
conditions proposed were