so naturally did the affairs of government; and,
during those four weeks in Rome, business claimed his attention and an
enormous amount of it was dispatched. Chiefly was he engaged upon the
administration of the affairs of Faenza, which he had so hurriedly
quitted. In this his shrewd policy of generosity is again apparent. As
his representative and lieutenant he appointed a prominent citizen of
Faenza named Pasi, one of the very members of that Council which had
been engaged in defending the city and resisting Cesare. The duke gave
it as his motive for the choice that the man was obviously worthy of
trust in view of his fidelity to Astorre.

And there you have not only the shrewdness of the man who knows how
to choose his servants--which is one of the most important factors of
success--but a breadth of mind very unusual indeed in the Cinquecento.

In addition to the immunity from indemnity provided for by the terms
of the city's capitulation, Cesare actually went so far as to grant the
peasantry of the valley 2,000 ducats as compensation for damage done in
the war. Further, he supported the intercessions of the Council to the
Pope for the erection of a new convent to replace the one that had been
destroyed in the bombardment. In giving his consent to this--in a brief
dated July 12, 1501--the Pope announces that he does so in response to
the prayers of the Council and of the duke.

Giovanni Vera, Cesare's erstwhile preceptor--and still affectionately
accorded this title by the duke--was now Archbiship of Salerno, Cardinal
of Santa Balbina, and papal legate in Macerata, and he was chosen by the
Pope to go to Pesaro and Fano for the purpose of receiving the oath of
fealty. With him Cesare sent, as his own personal representative, his
secretary, Agabito Gherardi, who had been in his employ in that capacity
since the duke's journey into France, and who was to follow his fortunes
to the end.

However the people of Fano may have refrained from offering themselves
to the duke's dominion when, in the previous October, he had afforded
them by his presence the opportunity of doing so, their conduct
now hardly indicated that the earlier abstention had been born of
reluctance, or else their minds had undergone, in the meanwhile, a
considerable change. For, when they received the brief appointing
him their lord, they celebrated the event by public rejoicings and
illuminations; whilst on July 21 the Council, representing the peopl