er loyal ones was that fine soldier of fortune, Taddeo della
Volpe, who, in his Florentine prison, refused all offers to enter the
service of the Signory until he had learnt that his lord was gone from
Italy.

Fracassa and Mirafuente had held Forli until they received guarantees
for Cesare's safety (after he had left Ostia to repair to the Spanish
camp). They then rode out, with the honours of war, lance on thigh.
Dionigio di Naldo, that hardy captain of foot, entered the service of
Venice; but to the end he wore the device of his dear lord, and imposed
the same upon all who served under his banner.

Don Michele da Corella was liberated by Julius II after an interrogatory
which can have revealed nothing defamatory to Cesare or his father; as
it is unthinkable that a Pope who did all that man could do to ruin the
House of Borgia and to befoul its memory, should have preserved silence
touching any such revelations as were hoped for when Corella was put to
torture. That most faithful of all Cesare's officers--and sharer of the
odium that has been heaped upon Cesare's name--entered the service of
the Signory of Florence.

CHAPTER IV. ATROPOS

Vain were the exertions put forth by the Spanish cardinals to obtain
Cesare's enlargement, and vainer still the efforts of his sister
Lucrezia, who wrote letter after letter to Francesco Gonzaga of
Mantua--now Gonfalonier of the Church, and a man of influence at the
Vatican--imploring him to use his interest with the Pope to the same
end.

Julius II remained unmoved, fearing the power of Cesare Borgia, and
resolved that he should trouble Italy no more. On the score of that, no
blame attaches to the Pope. The States which Borgia had conquered in
the name of the Church should remain adherent to the Church. Upon that
Julius was resolved, and the resolve was highly laudable. He would
have no duke who controlled such a following as did Cesare, using those
States as stepping-stones to greater dominions in which, no doubt, he
would later have absorbed them, alienating them, so, from the Holy See.

In all this Julius II was most fully justified. The odious matter in his
conduct, however, is the abominable treachery it entailed, following as
it did upon the undertaking by virtue of which he gained the tiara.

For some months after his arrival in Spain, Cesare was confined in the
prison of Chinchilla, whence--as a result, it is said, of an attempt
on his part to throw the governo