op of
Valencia--governor of this city, without, however, impairing his
daughter's rights to the large revenue which the territory yielded.

As early as October 14th Lucretia returned to Rome. November 1, 1499,
she gave birth to a son, who was named, in honor of the Pope, Rodrigo.
Her firstborn was baptized with great pomp November 11th in the Sistine
Chapel--not the chapel now known by that name, but the one which Sixtus
IV had built in S. Peter's. Giovanni Cervillon held the child in his
arms, and near by were the Governor of Rome and a representative of the
Emperor Maximilian. All the cardinals, the ambassadors of England,
Venice, Naples, Savoy, Siena, and the Republic of Florence were present
at the ceremony. The governor of the city held the child over the font.
The godfathers were Podocatharo, Bishop of Caputaqua, and Ferrari,
Bishop of Modena.

In the meantime, October 6th, Louis XII had taken possession of Milan,
Ludovico Sforza having fled, on the approach of the French forces, to
the Emperor Maximilian. In accordance with his agreement with Alexander,
the king now lent troops to Caesar Borgia to enable him to seize the
Romagna, where it was proclaimed that the vassals of the Church, the
Malatesta of Rimini, the Sforza of Pesaro, the Riario of Imola and
Forli, the Varano of Camerino, and the Manfredi of Faenza had forfeited
their fiefs to the Pope.

Caesar went to Rome, November 18, 1499. He stayed in the Vatican three
days and then set forth again to join his army, which was besieging
Imola. It was his intention first to take this city and then attack
Forli, in the castle of which the mistress of the two cities, Catarina
Sforza, had established herself for the purpose of resisting him.

While he was engaged in his campaigns in Romagna, his father was
endeavoring to seize the hereditary possessions of the Roman barons. He
first attacked the Gaetani. From the end of the thirteenth century this
ancient family had held large landed estates in the Campagna and
Maritima. It had divided into several branches, one of which was settled
in the vicinity of Naples. There the Gaetani were Dukes of Traetto,
Counts of Fundi and Caserta, and likewise vassals and favorites of the
crown of Naples.

Sermoneta, the center of the domain of the Gaetani family in the Roman
Campagna, was an ancient city with a feudal castle, situated in the
foothills of the Volscian mountains. Above it and to one side were the
ruins of the great