n
Pesaro, his horse dropping dead as he reached the town.

Certainly some terrible panic must have urged him, and this rather lends
colour to the story told by Almerici in the Memorie di Pesaro. According
to this, the Lord of Pesaro's chamberlain, Giacomino, was in Lucrezia's
apartments one evening when Cesare was announced, whereupon, by
Lucrezia's orders, Giacomino concealed himself behind a screen. The
Cardinal of Valencia entered and talked freely with his sister, the
essence of his conversation being that the order had been issued for her
husband's death.

The inference to be drawn from this is that Giovanni had been given to
choose in the matter of a divorce, and that he had refused to be a party
to it, whence it was resolved to remove him in a still more effective
manner.

Be that as it may, the chroniclers of Pesaro proceed to relate that,
after Cesare had left her, Lucrezia asked Giacomino if he had heard what
had been said, and, upon being answered in the affirmative, urged him
to go at once and warn Giovanni. It was as a consequence of this alleged
warning that Giovanni made his precipitate departure.

A little while later, at the beginning of June, Lucrezia left the
Vatican and withdrew to the Convent of San Sisto, in the Appian Way, a
step which immediately gave rise to speculation and to unbridled gossip,
all of which, however, is too vague to be worthy of the least attention.
Aretino's advices to the Cardinal Ippolito d'Este suggest that she did
not leave the Vatican on good terms with her family, and it is very
possible, if what the Pesaro chroniclers state is true, that her
withdrawal arose out of her having warned Giovanni of his danger and
enabled him to escape.

At about the same time that Lucrezia withdrew to her convent her brother
Gandia was the recipient of further honours at the hands of his fond
father. The Pope had raised the fief of Benevento to a dukedom, and as
a dukedom conferred it upon his son, to him and to his legitimate heirs
for ever. To this he added the valuable lordships of Terracina and
Pontecorvo.

Cesare, meanwhile, had by no means been forgotten, and already this
young cardinal was--with perhaps the sole exception of the Cardinal
d'Estouteville--the richest churchman in Christendom. To his many other
offices and benefices it was being proposed to add that of Chamberlain
of the Holy See, Cardinal Riario, who held the office, being grievously
ill and his recovery despair