rginio--the Pope answered by informing the cardinals of this plot
against the duke's life.

These statements by Cesare and his father are perfectly consistent
with each other and with the events. Yet, for want of independent
confirmation, they are not to be insisted upon as affording the true
version--as, of course, the Pope may have urged what he did as a pretext
to justify what was yet to follow.

It is readily conceivable that Ramiro, under torture, or in the hope
perhaps of saving his life, may have betrayed the alleged plot to murder
Cesare. And it is perfectly consistent with Cesare's character and with
his age that he should have entered into a bargain to learn what Ramiro
might have to disclose, and then have repudiated it and given him to the
executioner. If Cesare, under such circumstances as these, had learnt
what was contemplated, he would very naturally have kept silent on the
score of it until he had dealt with the condottieri. To do otherwise
might be to forewarn them. He was, as Macchiavelli says, a secret man,
and the more dangerous for his closeness, since he never let it be known
what he intended until he had executed his designs.

Guicciardini, of course, has called the Sinigaglia affair a villainy
("scelleragine") whilst Fabio Orsini and a nephew of Vitelli's who
escaped from Sinigaglia and arrived two days later at Perugia, sought to
engage sympathy by means of an extraordinary tale, so alien to all the
facts--apart from their obvious reasons to lie and provoke resentment
against Cesare--as not to be worth citing.

CHAPTER XVIII. THE ZENITH

Andrea Doria did not remain to make formal surrender of the citadel
of Sinigaglia to the duke--for which purpose, be it borne in mind, had
Cesare been invited, indirectly, to come to Sinigaglia. He fled during
the night that saw Vitelli and Oliverotto writhing their last in the
strangler's hands. And his flight adds colour to the versions of the
affair that were afforded the world by Cesare and his father. Andrea
Doria, waiting to surrender his trust, had nothing to fear from the
duke, no reason to do anything but remain. Andrea Doria, intriguing
against the duke's life with the condottieri, finding them seized by the
duke, and inferring that all was discovered, had every reason to fly.

The citadel made surrender on that New Year's morning, when Cesare
summoned it to do so, whilst the troops of the Orsini and Vitelli lodged
in the castles of the