Cesare was able to persuade the leaders to agree to a truce: Paolo Orsini, lured with bribes (corrupted by the duke with gifts and horses), reached an agreement with Borgia, which was key in also convincing Vitellozzo and the other leaders to submit to the request for peace. The execution of the unpopular
Remiro de Lorqua also persuaded the conspirators and put them at ease, though it was later revealed that de Lorqua was killed due to him being a participant in several anti-Borgia plots. The exceptions included Giampaolo Baglioni, who refused to sign the agreement, Pandolfo Petrucci, whom also did not trust Cesare, Guidobaldo of Montefeltro and Giovanni Bentivoglio, lord of Bologna. Many of the conspirators tried to downplay their role in the conspiracy through sending ostensibly apologetic messages to Cesare. The duke, leaving Imola on 10 December, after spending a few days in Cesena, set out for Senigallia (a possession of the Della Rovere family), which he intended to conquer, where a regiment commanded by Andrea Doria was defending the citadel. Paolo Orsini, who had acted as guarantor for Borgia, convinced all the former conspirators to meet on the night of 31 December 1502 for a banquet in the city of Senigallia. Valentino met the leaders and together they entered Senigallia, outside which Oliverotto's few troops were camped. Cesare, noticing Oliverotto's absence, ordered Michelotto Corella, his lieutenant (who had conveniently arranged Borgia's apartment in a palace in the city), to reach him, inviting him to come with him to meet the duke. The latter asked his companions to enter with him to prepare plans for the subsequent battles. When they had settled in, Cesare secretly left the room and at his signal the leaders were surrounded by armed men and taken prisoner. Upon receiving news of the arrests of the conspirators, Machiavelli sent a report to Florence stating "in my view they will not be alive tomorrow morning". Vitellozzo and Oliverotto were killed during the night between 31 December and 1 January by Michelotto Corella, having been seated back to back on a bench, and strangled with a cord. After they were killed, Borgia's soldiers pillaged the troops of Oliverotto, and they came close to sacking Senigallia itself, getting so uncontrollable that it even forced Borgia to execute a few disobedient soldiers. Paolo Orsini and the Duke of Gravina were initially held by Borgia at Castel della Pieve, due to the arrest by his father Alexander VI of Cardinal Orsini (supporter of a conspiracy against the Pope and who had hosted the council of Magione), of Rinaldo Orsini and Jacopo Santacroce, a Roman gentleman who supported the Orsini faction (the latter were later released, while Cardinal Orsini was poisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo). After a brief imprisonment, Paolo and the Duke of Gravina were killed on 18 January 1503. Other leaders who participated in the conspiracy but who never trusted Borgia's deceptive reconciliation ruse were nevertheless quickly overthrown. Baglioni managed to avoid Duke Valentino's wrath and he fled to
Siena with
Pandolfo Petrucci, then he took refuge in
Lucca,
Pisa, then finally
Florence. Pandolfo Petrucci suspected his life was in danger and avoided the meeting, but nevertheless also fled his lordship in Siena in January 1503 in order to avoid Borgia's killers. He subsequently resided in
Lucca. The killings were celebrated throughout Italy, and also by several European rulers, including the king of France, and it prompted
Paolo Giovio (bishop of
Nocera) to refer to the act as a "magnificent deception" ("
bellissimo inganno"). ==References==