probably because Ferrara and Siena, not being threatened by the Bull,
saw no reason why, for the sake of others, they should call down upon
themselves the wrath of the Borgias and their mighty allies.

Venice desired to save Faenza, whose tyrant, Manfredi, was also
attainted for non-payment of his tributes, and to this end the Republic
sent an embassy to Rome with the moneys due. But the Holy Father refused
the gold, declaring that it was too late for payment.

Forli's attempt to avert the danger was of a different sort, and not
exerted until this danger--in the shape of Cesare himself--stood in
arms beneath her walls. Two men, both named Tommaso--though it does not
transpire that they were related--one a chamberlain of the Palace
of Forli, the other a musician, were so devoted to the Countess
Sforza-Riario, the grim termagant who ruled the fiefs of her murdered
husband, Girolamo Riario, as to have undertaken an enterprise from which
they cannot have hoped to emerge with their lives. It imported no less
than the murder of the Pope. They were arrested on November 21, and
in the possession of one of them was found a hollow cane containing
a letter "so impregnated with poison that even to unfold it would be
dangerous." This letter was destined for the Holy Father.

The story reads like a gross exaggeration emanating from men who, on the
subject of poisoning, display the credulity of the fifteenth century, so
ignorant in these matters and so prone to the fantastic. And our minds
receive a shock upon learning that, when put to the question,
these messengers actually made a confession--upon which the story
rests--admitting that they had been sent by the countess to slay the
Pope, in the hope that thus Forli might be saved to the Riarii. At first
we conclude that those wretched men, examined to the accompaniment
of torture, confessed whatever was required of them, as so frequently
happened in such cases. Such, indeed, is the very explanation advanced
by more than one writer, coupled with the suggestion, in some instances,
that the whole affair was trumped up by the Pope to serve his own ends.

They will believe the wildest and silliest of poisoning stories (such as
those of Djem and Cardinal Giovanni Borgia) which reveal the Borgias
as the poisoners; but, let another be accused and the Borgias be the
intended victims, and at once they grow rational, and point out to you
the wildness of the statement, the impossibility of it