ulius II.

He was scarcely installed in the Vatican when he made it his first care
to summon Caesar and give him his former rooms there; then, since the
duke was fully restored to health, he began to busy himself with the
re-establishment of his affairs, which had suffered sadly of late.

The defeat of his army and his own escape to Sant' Angelo, where he was
supposed to be a prisoner, had brought about great changes in Romagna.
Sesena was once more in the power of the Church, as formerly it had
been; Gian Sforza had again entered Pesaro; Ordelafi had seized Forli;
Malatesta was laying claim to Rimini; the inhabitants of Imola had
assassinated their governor, and the town was divided between two
opinions, one that it should be put into the hands of the Riani, the
other, into the hands of the Church; Faenza had remained loyal longer
than any other place; but at last, losing hope of seeing Caesar
recover his power, it had summoned Francesco, a natural son of Galeotto
Manfredi, the last surviving heir of this unhappy family, all whose
legitimate descendants had been massacred by Borgia.

It is true that the fortresses of these different places had taken no
part in these revolutions, and had remained immutably faithful to the
Duke of Valentinois.

So it was not precisely the defection of these towns, which, thanks to
their fortresses, might be reconquered, that was the cause of uneasiness
to Caesar and Julius II, it was the difficult situation that Venice had
thrust upon them. Venice, in the spring of the same year, had signed a
treaty of peace with the Turks: thus set free from her eternal enemy,
she had just led her forces to the Romagna, which she had always
coveted: these troops had been led towards Ravenna, the farthermost
limit of the Papal estates, and put under the command of Giacopo
Venieri, who had failed to capture Cesena, and had only failed
through the courage of its inhabitants; but this check had been amply
compensated by the surrender of the fortresses of Val di Lamane and
Faenza, by the capture of Farlimpopoli, and the surrender of Rimini,
which Pandolfo Malatesta, its lard, exchanged for the seigniory of
Cittadella, in the State of Padua, and far the rank of gentleman of
Venice.

Then Caesar made a proposition to Julius II: this was to make a
momentary cession to the Church of his own estates in Romagna, so that
the respect felt by the Venetians for the Church might save these
towns from their aggres