e
Master of Ceremonies at the Vatican, requires no further corroboration.
Yet corroboration there actually is in a letter from Rome of February
20, 1498, quoted by Marino Sanuto in his Diarii. This states that
Perrotto had been missing for some days, no one knowing what had become
of him, and that now "he has been found drowned in the Tiber."

We mention this, in passing, with the twofold object of slaying another
calumny, and revealing the true value of Capello, who happens to be the
chief "witness for the prosecution" put forward by Gregorovius. "Is it
not of great significance," inquires the German historian, "that
the fact should have been related so positively by an ambassador who
obtained his knowledge from the best sources?"

The question is frivolous, for the whole trouble in this matter is that
there were no sources at all, in the proper sense of the word--good or
bad. There was simply gossip, which had been busy with a dozen names
already.

MACCHIAVELLI includes a note in his Extracts from Letters to the Ten, in
which he mentions the death of Gandia, adding that "at first nothing was
known, and then men said it was done by the Cardinal of Valencia."

There is nothing very conclusive in that. Besides, incidentally it
may be mentioned, that it is not clear when or how these extracts were
compiled by Macchiavelli (in his capacity of Secretary to the Signory
of Florence) from the dispatches of her ambassadors. But it has been
shown--though we are hardly concerned with that at the moment--that
these extracts are confused by comments of his own, either for his own
future use or for that of another.

MATARAZZO is the Perugian chronicler of whom we have already expressed
the only tenable opinion. The task he set himself was to record
the contemporary events of his native town--the stronghold of the
blood-dripping Baglioni. He enlivened it by every scrap of scandalous
gossip that reached him, however alien to his avowed task. The
authenticity of this scandalmongering chronicle has been questioned;
but, even assuming it to be authentic, it is so wildly inaccurate when
dealing with matters happening beyond the walls of Perugia as to be
utterly worthless.

Matarazzo relates the story of the incestuous relations prevailing in
the Borgia family, and with an unsparing wealth of detail not to be
found elsewhere; but on the subject of the murder he has a tale to tell
entirely different from any other that has been left