us and general,
stated the duke in his manifesto, that "there is no city, country-side,
or castle, nor any place in all Romagna, nor officer or minister of
the duke's, who does not know of these abuses; and, amongst others,
the famine of wheat occasioned by the traffic which he held against our
express prohibition, sending out such quantities as would abundantly
have sufficed for the people and the army."

He concludes with assurances of his intention that, in the future, they
shall be ruled with justice and integrity, and he urges all who may
have charges to prefer against the said governor to bring them forward
immediately.

It was freely rumoured that the charges against Ramiro by no means ended
there, and in Bologna--and from Bologna the truth of such a matter might
well transpire, all things considered--it was openly said that Ramiro
had been in secret treaty with the Bentivogli, Orsini, and Vitelli,
against the Duke of Valentinois: "Aveva provixione da Messer Zoane
Bentivogli e da Orsini e Vitelozo contro el duca," writes Fileno della
Tuate, who, it will be borne in mind, was no friend of the Borgia, and
would be at no pains to find justification for the duke's deeds.

But of that secret treaty there was, for the moment, no official
mention. Later the rumour of it was to receive the fullest confirmation,
and, together with that, we shall give, in the next chapter, the duke's
obvious reasons for having kept the matter secret at first. Matter
enough and to spare was there already upon which to dispose of Messer
Ramiro de Lorqua and disposed of he was, with the most summary justice.

On the morning of December 26 the first folk to be astir in Cesena
beheld, in the grey light of that wintry dawn, the body of Ramiro lying
headless in the square. It was richly dressed, with all his ornaments
upon it, a scarlet cloak about it, and the hands were gloved. On a
pike beside the body the black-bearded head was set up to view, and
so remained throughout that day, a terrible display of the swift and
pitiless justice of the duke.

Macchiavelli wrote: "The reason of his death is not properly known"
("non si sa bene la cagione della sua morte") "beyond the fact that such
was the pleasure of the prince, who shows us that he can make and unmake
men according to their deserts."

The Cronica Civitas Faventiae, the Diariurn Caesenate, and the Cronache
Forlivese, all express the people's extreme satisfaction at the deed,
and endo