ce "looking more beautiful than in life," he
was carried by torchlight from Sant' Angelo to Santa Maria del Popolo
for burial, quietly and with little pomp.

The Pope's distress was terrible. As the procession was crossing the
Bridge of Sant' Angelo, those who stood there heard his awful cries of
anguish, as is related in the dispatches of an eye-witness quoted by
Sanuto. Alexander shut himself up in his apartments with his passionate
sorrow, refusing to see anybody; and it was only by insistence that the
Cardinal of Segovia and some of the Pope's familiars contrived to gain
admission to his presence; but even then, not for three days could they
induce him to taste food, nor did he sleep.

At last he roused himself, partly in response to the instances of the
Cardinal of Segovia, partly spurred by the desire to avenge the death of
his child, and he ordered Rome to be ransacked for the assassins;
but, although the search was pursued for two months, it proved utterly
fruitless.

That is the oft-told story of the death of the Duke of Gandia. Those are
all the facts concerning it that are known or that ever will be known.
The rest is speculation, and this speculation follows the trend of
malice rather than of evidence.

Suspicion fell at first upon Giovanni Sforza, who was supposed to have
avenged himself thus upon the Pope for the treatment he had received.
There certainly existed that reasonable motive to actuate him, but not a
particle of evidence against him.

Next rumour had it that Cardinal Ascanio Sforza's was the hand that had
done this work, and with this rumour Rome was busy for months. It was
known that he had quarrelled violently with Gandia, who had been grossly
insulted by a chamberlain of Ascanio's, and who had wiped out the insult
by having the man seized and hanged.

Sanuto quotes a letter from Rome on July 21, which states that "it is
certain that Ascanio murdered the Duke of Gandia." Cardinal Ascanio's
numerous enemies took care to keep the accusation alive at the
Vatican, and Ascanio, in fear for his life, had left Rome and fled to
Grottaferrata. When summoned to Rome, he had refused to come save under
safe-conduct. His fears, however, appear to have been groundless, for
the Pope attached no importance to the accusation against him, convinced
of his innocence, as he informed him.

Thereupon public opinion looked about for some other likely person
upon whom to fasten its indictment, and lighted upo