The Life of Cesare Borgia

m he had not seen for a full year. He remained three days at the Vatican, mostly closeted with the Pope's Holiness. At the end of that time he went north again

Paolo-deservedly, for treason in the conduct of the war against Pisa. This Vitellozzo was a valuable and experienced captain. He took service with Ces

oison, in the Castle of Pavia, the victim of her ambitious uncle, Lodovico; her husband, Girolamo Riario, she had seen butchered and flung naked from a window of the very castle which she now defended; Giacomo Feo, whom she had secretly married in second nuptials, was done to death in Forli, under her very eyes, by a party of insurrectionaries. Him she had terribly avenged. Getting her men-at-arms together, she had ridden at their head into the qua

at-souled, but a most cruel virago," who now s

ontifical forces. This subterfuge, however, had not weighed with Alexander, whereupon, having also been frustrated in her attempt upon the life of the Pope's Holiness, she had proceeded to measures of martial resistance. Her children and her treasures she had dispatched to Florence that they might be out of danger, retain

renched herself in her fortress of Forli, provisioning it to withstand a protracted siege and pr

to facilitate Cesare's subjection of the Romagna. The Riarii-in common with so many other of the Romagna tyrants-had so abused their rule, so ground the people with taxation, so offended them by violence, and provoked such deep and bitter enmity that in

fterwards the name of Cesare Borgia was blessed there as that of a minister of divine justice ("tanqua

, if it should be at all possible to them, the inhabitants would throw open the gates to him on his approach. And Flaminio proceeded to implore the duke that should he, nevertheless, be constrained to have recourse to ar

r of the town. And the captain of the garrison of Imola replied that he was ready to capitulate,

e into Imola, the castellan signified his resentment by turning his cannon upon the town itself, with such resolute purpose that many houses were set on fire and demol

rough which his men were able to force a passage, and so possess themselves of a half-moon. Seeing the enemy practically within his outworks, and being himself severely wounded in the head, Naldo accounted

fortress to the besieger. It seems, however, to be no more than one of those lightly-uttered, irresponsible utterances with which the chronicles of the time abound, for Na

him, Naldo made formal surrender of the citadel,

d whom he had sent to support Cesare's operations with ecclesiastical authority. Cardinal Giovanni, as the Pope's representative, received in the Church of San Domenico the oath of fealty of

es one by one before the advancing enemy, until only Forli

of Venice and in view of the circumstance that the republic had sent to Rome the arrears of tribute

idable countess, and although she sent her brother, Alessandro Sforza, to exhort the people and the Council to stand by her, the l

st eager to incur for her own part, this strong-minded, comely matron will not subject the son she has kept beside her until now; and so she packs Ottaviano off to Florence and safety. That done, she gives her mutinous subjects a taste of her anger by attempting to seize half a do

l had sent to inform her that their representatives had gone to Cesare with the offer of the town. Further, to v

s was accorded as readily as had been that of Imola, whereupon Cesare came up to take possession in person; but, despite

in the palace of Count Luffo Nomaglie (one of the gentlemen whom Caterina had hoped to capture), and his men were quartered through the town. These foreig

up like a strumpet. It is a comment more picturesque than just, for obviously Forli did not surrender

ion. On Christmas Day the countess belatedly attempted a feeble ruse in the hope of intimidating them. She flew from her battlements a banner, bearing the device of the lion of St. Mark, thinking to trick Cesare into the belief that she had obtained the prot

of her resistance and the vain sacrifice of life it must entail. He may have been moved to this by the valour she displayed, or it may have been that he obeyed the instincts of generalship which made him ever miserly in the matter of the lives of his soldiers. Be that as it may, with inten

bridge again the moment the duke should set foot upon it. The castellan took her instructions too literally, for even as the duke did set one foot upon it there was a grind and clank of machinery, and the great st

d daily the countess was to be seen upon the walls with her castellan, directing the defences. But on January 12, Cesare's cannon having been concentrated upon one point, a breach was opened at last. Instantly

held in check by the defenders, and not until some four hundred corp

from it again by its own moat-arose the great tower known as the Maschio. This was ever the last retreat of the besieged when the fortress itself had been

grim hour, besieged and besiegers, Borgian and Riarian, swept forward interlocked, a writhing, hacking, bleeding mob of men-at-arms. Thus they flung themselves in a body across the bridge that spanned the inner

through what remained of the Forlivese until they had made themselves ma

ssandro Sforza, Paolo Riario, and Scipione Riario-this last an illegitimate son of her first husband's, whom she had adopted. The Burgundian declared her his prisoner, and held

o hundred ducats for her immediate needs. Under his escort she left the castle, and was conducted, with her few remaining servants, to the Nomagl

seized by a Burgundian soldier who asked him if he had any money, produced and surrendered a purse containing thirteen ducats, and so got out of the mercenaries' clutches, but only to fall into the hands of others, one o

lerk was about to do so, another, equally greedy for the ransom, thru

ill Evangelista. The clerk, in a panic, flung himself into the arms of a monk who was with him, crying out for

ed the citadel, and before even attempting to repair the damage done, the duke set about establishing order and providing for the d

the Council of Forty that ruled Forli-being ten for each quarter of the city-and generally mad

hroughout Italy that

ever be a native of

his office. Thus, havin

he likelier to dispense

-minde

as governor. In the place where the breach was opened by his cannon he ordered the placing of a marble panel bearing his arms; and there it is to be seen to this day: D

g, however, he awaited the return of his absent cousin, the Cardinal Giovanni Borgia, who, as papal legate, was to receive the oath of

ical fief. Thence he had moved on to Urbino, where-in the ducal palace-he awaited news of the fall of Forli, and where, whilst waiting, he fell ill. Nevertheless, when the tidings of Cesare's victory reached him, he insisted upon gettin

dst the host of silly, baseless accusations levelled against Cesare, you shall find none more silly or baseless than this. In other instances of unproven crimes with which he has been charged there may be some vestiges of matter that may do duty for

ered him through jealousy, knowing him beloved by the Pope, seeing him a legate,

was a duke. Now, Cesare, being a duke, resents a cousin's being a papal legate. You will observe that, if this method of discovering motives

pts to bolster up the accusation which he reports: "He [Cesare]

gible-which is perhaps inevitable, for it is not easy to be intelligible when y

will show-eighteen days had elapsed between Giovanni Borgia's leaving Cesare at Forli and his succumbing at Urbino-which in itself disposes of the matter. It may be mentioned that this is a circumstance which those foolish or deliberately malicious calu

t a disturbance occurred. The Swiss under the Bailie of Dijon became mutinous-they appear throughout to have been an ill-conditioned lot-and they clamoured now for

her surrender was to France, to which he added-a thought inconsequently, it seems-that the French law forbade that women should be made prisoners. Valentinois, taken utterly by surprise, and without the force at hand to resist the Bailie and his Swiss, was compelled to submit and to allow the latter to carry t

attle blaze out at any moment, and apprehensive

ey reached Cesena, and that, if they were retained thereafter in his employ, their pay should be on the improved scale which they demanded. Beyond that he made no concessions. The remainder of his harangue was ma

their departure was postponed until the morrow. On that day, January 23, after receiving the oath of fealty from

ack and mounted upon a white horse, the handsome am

. As for Giovanni Sforza, despite the fact that the Duke of Urbino had sent some foot to support him, he was far more likely to run than to fight, and in fact he had already taken the precaution of placi

he Milanese were opening their arms to receive him back, having already discovered that, in exchanging his rule for that of the French, they had but exchanged King Log for King Stork. Trivulzio begged for the instant r

usand foot and five hundred horse. These, no doubt, would have sufficed him for the conquest of Pesaro, but Giovanni Sforza, encouraged by his cousin's return, and hopeful now o

Cesena with the remainder of his forces, including Vitelli's horse, on January 30. With him went Caterina Sforza-Riario, and of course there were not wanting those who alleged that, during the few days

a (la qual é belissim

zorno e di note in

um-si deva piacer"

une; whereupon, for greater safety, she was transferred to the Castle of Sant' Angelo. There she remained until May of 1501, when, by the intervention of the King of France, she was set at

s some way towards refuting the endless statements of their fierce and vindictive cruelty. Of course, it has been urged that they spared her from fear