fonso finding himself defenseless, hastened to Rome in July,
1512, to ask forgiveness from Julius, and, although this was accorded
him, he was saved from destruction, or a fate similar to Caesar Borgia's,
only by secret flight. With the help of the Colonna, who conducted him
to Marino, he reached Ferrara in disguise.

These were anxious days for Lucretia; for, while she was trembling for
the life of her husband, she received news of the death, abroad, of her
son. August 28, 1512, the Mantuan agent Stazio Gadio wrote his master
Gonzaga from Rome, saying news had reached there that the Duke of
Biselli, son of the Duchess of Ferrara and Don Alfonso of Aragon, had
died at Bari, where he was living under the care of the duchess of that
place.[221] Lucretia herself gave this information to a person whose
name is not known, in a letter dated October 1st, saying, "I am wholly
lost in bitterness and tears on account of the death of the Duke of
Biselli, my dearest son, concerning which the bearer of this will give
you further particulars."[222]

We do not know how the unfortunate Rodrigo spent the first years
following Alexander's death and Caesar's exile in Spain, but there is
ground for believing that he was left in Naples under the guardianship
of the cardinals Ludovico Borgia and Romolini of Sorrento. By virtue of
a previous agreement, the King of Spain recognized Lucretia's son as
Duke of Biselli, and there is an official document of September, 1505,
according to which the representative of the little duke placed his oath
of allegiance in the hands of the two cardinals above named.[223]
Rodrigo may have been brought up by his aunt, Donna Sancia, for she was
living with her husband in the kingdom of Naples, where Don Giuffre had
been confirmed in the possession of his property. Sancia died childless
in the year 1506, just as Ferdinand the Catholic appeared in Naples. The
king, consequently, appropriated a large part of Don Giuffre's estates,
although the latter remained Prince of Squillace. He married a second
time and left several heirs. Of his end we know nothing. One of his
grandchildren, Anna de Borgia, Princess of Squillace, the last of her
race, brought these estates to the house of Gandia by her marriage with
Don Francesco Borgia at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

It may have been on the death of Sancia that Rodrigo was placed under
the protection of another aunt, Isabella d'Aragona, his father's eldest
si