tical motives? Where the need to accuse in turn
every enemy that Gandia could possibly possess before finally fastening
upon his own brother?

Certain evidence is afforded by the known facts of the case, scant as
they are. It may not amount to much, but at least it is sufficient
to warrant a plausible conclusion, and there is no justification
for discarding it in favour of something for which not a particle of
evidence is forthcoming.

There is, first of all, the man in the mask to be accounted for. That
he is connected with the crime is eminently probable, if not absolutely
certain.

It is to be remembered that for a month--according to Burchard--he
had been in the habit of visiting Gandia almost daily. He comes to
Vannozza's villa on the night of the murder. Is it too much to suppose
that he brought a message from some one from whom he was in the habit of
bringing messages?

He was seen last on the crupper of Gandia's horse as the latter rode
away towards the Jewish quarter.(1) Gandia himself announced that he was
bound on pleasure--going to amuse himself. Even without the knowledge
which we possess of his licentious habits, no doubt could arise as to
the nature of the amusement upon which he was thus bound at dead of
night; and there are the conclusions formed in the morning by his
father, when it was found that Gandia had not returned.

1 The Ghetto was not yet in existence. It was not built until 1556,
under Paul IV.

Is it so very difficult to conceive that Gandia, in the course of the
assignation to which he went, should have fallen into the hands of
an irate father, husband, or brother? Is it not really the obvious
inference to draw from the few facts that we possess? That it was the
inference drawn by the Pope and clung to even some time after the
crime and while rumours of a different sort were rife, is shown by the
perquisition made in the house of Antonio Pico della Mirandola, who had
a daughter whom it was conceived might have been the object of the young
duke's nocturnal visit, and whose house was near the place where Gandia
was flung into the Tiber.

We could hazard speculations that would account for the man in the mask,
but it is not our business to speculate save where the indications are
fairly clear.

Let us consider the significance of Gandia's tied hands and the wounds
upon his body in addition to the mortal gash across his throat. To what
does this condition point? Surely not to