e four Basilicas to win the
indulgence offered, and, as usual, he is attended by his hundred armed
grooms in black.

On another occasion we behold him very differently engaged--giving an
exhibition of his superb physical gifts, his strength, his courage, and
his matchless address. On June 24, at a bull-fight held in Rome--Spanish
tauromachia having been introduced from Naples, where it flourished
under the Aragon dominion--he went down into the arena, and on
horseback, armed only with a light lance, he killed five wild bulls.
But the master-stroke he reserved for the end. Dismounting, and taking
a double-handed sword to the sixth bull that was loosed against him, he
beheaded the great beast at one single stroke, "a feat which all Rome
considered great."

Thus sped the time of waiting, and meanwhile he gathered about him a
Court not only of captains of fortune, but of men of art and letters,
whom he patronized with a liberality--indeed, a prodigality--so
great that it presently became proverbial, and, incidentally, by its
proportions provoked his father's disapproval. In the brilliant group of
men of letters who enjoyed his patronage were such writers as Justolo,
Sperulo, and that unfortunate poet Serafino Cimino da Aquila, known to
fame and posterity as the great Aquilano. And it would be, no doubt,
during these months that Pier di Lorenzo painted that portrait of Cesare
which Vasari afterwards saw in Florence, but which, unfortunately, is
not now known to exist. Bramante, too, was of his Court at this time, as
was Michelangelo Buonarroti, whose superb group of "Mercy," painted for
Cardinal de Villiers, had just amazed all Rome. With Pinturicchio, and
Leonardi da Vinci--whom we shall see later beside Cesare--Michelangelo
was ever held in the highest esteem by the duke.

The story of that young sculptor's leap into fame may not be so widely
known but that its repetition may be tolerated here, particularly since,
remotely at least, it touches Cesare Borgia.

When, in 1496, young Buonarroti, at the age of twenty-three, came from
Florence to Rome to seek his fortune at the opulent Pontifical Court, he
brought a letter of recommendation to Cardinal Sforza-Riario. This was
the time of the great excavations about Rome; treasures of ancient art
were daily being rescued from the soil, and Cardinal Sforza-Riario was a
great dilletante and collector of the antique. With pride of possession,
he conducted the young sculptor thro