e tergiversations, and
feared a trap; so he said that the surrender asked for would be useless,
since by God's help he should be in Romagna before eight days were past.
So the cardinals of Sorrento and Volterra returned to Rome with a
refusal.

The next morning, just as Caesar was setting foot on his vessel, he was
arrested in the name of Julius II.

He thought at first that this was the end; he was used to this mode of
action, and knew how short was the space between a prison and a tomb; the
matter was all the easier in his case, because the pope, if he chose,
would have plenty of pretext for making a case against him. But the heart
of Julius was of another kind from his; swift to anger, but open to
clemency; so, when the duke came back to Rome guarded, the momentary
irritation his refusal had caused was already calmed, and the pope
received him in his usual fashion at his palace, and with his ordinary
courtesy, although from the beginning it was easy for the duke to see
that he was being watched. In return for this kind reception, Caesar
consented to yield the fortress of Cesena to the pope, as being a town
which had once belonged to the Church, and now should return; giving the
deed, signed by Caesar, to one of his captains, called Pietro d'Oviedo,
he ordered him to take possession of the fortress in the name of the Holy
See. Pietro obeyed, and starting at once for Cesena, presented himself
armed with his warrant before Don Diego Chinon; a noble condottiere of
Spain, who was holding the fortress in Caesar's name. But when he had
read over the paper that Pietro d'Oviedo brought, Don Diego replied that
as he knew his lord and master was a prisoner, it would be disgraceful in
him to obey an order that had probably been wrested from him by violence,
and that the bearer deserved to die for undertaking such a cowardly
office. He therefore bade his soldiers seize d'Oviedo and fling him down
from the top of the walls: this sentence was promptly executed.

This mark of fidelity might have proved fatal to Caesar: when the pope
heard how his messenger had been treated, he flew into such a rage that
the prisoner thought a second time that his hour was come; and in order
to receive his liberty, he made the first of those new propositions to
Julius II, which were drawn up in the form of a treaty and sanctioned by
a bull. By these arrangements, the Duke of Valentinois was bound to hand
over to His Holiness, within the space