l be disposed to give
some time to recreation, it seems proper to me to send you by our
courier, Giovanni, a hundred masks. We, of course, know how slight
is this present in proportion to the greatness of your Excellency,
and also in proportion to our desires; still it indicates that if
there were anything more worthy and more suitable in this our
country, we certainly would send it you. If the masks, however,
are not as beautiful as they ought to be, your Highness will know
that this is due to the makers in Ferrara, who, as it has been for
years against the law to wear masks, long ago ceased making them.
May, however, our good intentions and our love make up for their
shortcomings. So far as our own affairs are concerned there is
nothing new to tell you until your Excellency informs us as to the
decision of his Holiness, our Master, concerning the articles of
guaranty upon which we, through Brognolo, have agreed. We,
therefore, look forward to this, and hope to reach a satisfactory
conclusion. We commend ourselves to your service.

JANUARY 15, 1503.

Caesar replied to the marchioness from Aquapendente as follows:

MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LADY, FRIEND, AND HONORED SISTER: We have
received your Excellency's present of the hundred masks, which,
owing to their diversity and beauty, are very welcome, and because
the time and place of their arrival could not have been more
propitious. If we neglected to inform your Excellency of all our
plans and of our intended return to Rome, it was because it was
only to-day that we succeeded in taking the city and territory
adjacent to Sinigaglia together with the fortress, and punished our
enemies for their treachery; freed Citta di Castello, Fermo,
Cisterna, Montone, and Perugia from their tyrants, and rendered
them again subject to his Holiness, our Master; and deposed
Pandolfo Petrucci from the tyranny which he had established in
Siena, where he had shown himself such a determined enemy of
ourselves. The masks are welcome especially because I know that the
present is due to the affection which you and your illustrious
husband feel for us, which is also shown by the letter which you
send with it. Therefore we thank you a thousand times, although the
magnitude of your and your husband's deserts exceeds the power of