nd another with the
holy water and the aspersorio, and behind these again two prelates with
a Missal and a candle. The Pope rises, blesses the folded banners and
incenses them, having received the censer from the hands of a priest who
has prepared it. Then, as he resumes his seat, Cesare steps forward once
more, and, kneeling, places both hands upon the Missal and pronounces in
a loud, clear voice the words of the oath of fealty to St. Peter and the
Pope, swearing ever to protect the latter and his successors from harm
to life, limb, or possessions. Thereafter the Pope takes the blessed
banners and gives the charge of them to Cesare, delivering into his
hands the white truncheon symbolic of his office, whilst the Master of
Ceremonies hands the actual banners to the two deputies, who in full
armour have followed to receive them, and who attach them to the lances
provided for the purpose.

The investiture is followed by the bestowal of the Golden Rose,
whereafter Cesare, having again kissed the Pope's feet and the Ring of
the Fisherman on his finger, has the cap of office replaced upon his
head by Burchard himself, and so the ceremonial ends.

The Bishop of Isernia was going to Cesena to assume the governorship of
that Pontifical fief, and, profiting by this, Cesare appointed him
his lieutenant-general in Romagna, with authority over all his other
officers there and full judicial powers. Further, he desired him to act
as his deputy and receive the oath of fealty of the duke's new subjects.

Meanwhile, Cesare abode in Rome, no doubt impatient of the interruption
which his campaign had suffered, and which it seemed must continue yet
awhile. Lodovico Sforza had succeeded in driving the French out of his
dominions as easily as he, himself, had been driven out by them a
few months earlier. But Louis XII sent down a fresh army under La
Tremouille, and Lodovico, basely betrayed by his Swiss mercenaries at
Novara in April, was taken prisoner.

That was the definite end of the Sforza rule in Milan. For ten years the
crafty, scheming Lodovico was left to languish a prisoner in the Castle
of Loches, at the end of which time he miserably died.

Immediately upon the return of the French to Milan, the Pope asked for
troops that Cesare might resume his enterprise not only against Pesaro,
Faenza, and Rimini, but also against Bologna, where Giovanni Bentivogli
had failed to support--as in duty bound--the King of France against
Lodovi