that any ecclesiastic sheltering such a fugitive did so under peril of
excommunication from his bishop. This law Ramiro accounted it his duty
to enforce when news was carried to him at Imola of what had happened.

He came at once to Faenza, and, compelling the Prior by actual force
to yield up the man he sheltered, he hanged the wretch, for the second
time, from a window of the Palace of the Podesta. At the same time he
seized several who were alleged to have been ringleaders of the fellow's
rescue from the hands of the officers, and made the citizens of Faenza
compromise for the lives of these by payment of a fine of 10,000 ducats,
giving them a month in which to find the money.

The Faentini sent their envoys to Ramiro to intercede with him; but that
harsh man refused so much as to grant them audience--which was well for
them, for, as a consequence, the Council sent ambassadors to Rome to
submit the case to the Pope's Holiness and to the Duke of Valentinois,
together with a petition that the fine should be remitted--a petition
that was readily granted.

Harsh as it was, however, Ramiro's rule was salutary, its very harshness
necessary in a province where lawlessness had become a habit through
generations of misgovernment. Under Cesare's dominion the change already
was remarkable. During his two years of administration--to count from
its commencement--the Romagna was already converted from a seething
hell of dissensions, disorders and crimes--chartered brigandage and
murder--into a powerful State, law-abiding and orderly, where human life
and personal possessions found zealous protection, and where those who
disturbed the peace met with a justice that was never tempered by mercy.

A strong hand was wanted there, and the duke, supreme judge of the tools
to do his work, ruled the Romagna and crushed its turbulence by means of
the iron hand of Ramiro de Lorqua.

It was also under the patronage of Valentinois that the first
printing-press of any consequence came to be established in Italy. This
was set up at Fano by Girolamo Sancino in 1501, and began the issue of
worthy books. One of the earliest works undertaken (says Alvisi) was the
printing of the Statutes of Fano for the first time in January of 1502.
And it was approved by the Council, civil and ecclesiastical, that
Sancino should undertake this printing of the Statutes "Ad perpetuam
memoriam Illmi. Domini nostri Ducis."

CHAPTER XIII. URBINO AND CAMERINO