llalon.

There he lay for some five or six weeks to recover from the hurts he
had taken in escaping, and to allow his hands--the bones of which were
broken--to become whole again. At last, being in the main recovered,
though with hands still bandaged, he set out with two attendants and
made for Santander. Thence they took ship to Castro Urdiales, Cesare
aiming now at reaching the kingdom of Navarre and the protection of his
brother-in-law the king.

At the inn at Santander, where, weary and famished, they sat down to
dine after one of the grooms had made arrangements for a boat, they had
a near escape of capture. The alcalde, hearing of the presence of these
strangers, and his suspicions being aroused by the recklessly high price
they had agreed to pay the owner of the vessel which they had engaged,
came to examine them. But they had a tale ready that they were
wheat-merchants in great haste to reach Bernico, that a cargo of wheat
awaited them there, and that they would suffer great loss by delay. The
tale was smooth enough to satisfy the alcalde, and they were allowed to
depart. They reached Castro Urdiales safely, but were delayed there for
two days, owing to the total lack of horses; and they were forced, in
the end, to proceed upon mules obtained from a neighbouring convent. On
these they rode to Durango, where they procured two fresh mules and
a horse, and so, after further similar vicissitudes, they arrived at
Pampeluna on December 3, 1506, and Cesare startled the Court of his
brother-in-law, King Jean of Navarre, by suddenly appearing in it--"like
the devil."

The news of his evasion had already spread to Italy and set it in
a ferment, inspiring actual fear at the Vatican. The Romagna was
encouraged by it to break out into open and armed insurrection against
the harsh rule of Julius II--who seems to have been rendered positively
vindictive towards the Romagnuoli by their fidelity to Valentinois.
Thus had the Romagna fallen again into the old state of insufferable
oppression from which Cesare had once delivered it. The hopes of the
Romagnuoli rose in a measure, as the alarm spread among the enemies of
Cesare--for Florence and Venice shared now the anxiety of the Vatican.
Zurita, commenting upon this state of things, pays Cesare the following
compliment, which the facts confirm as just:

"The duke was such that his very presence was enough to set all Italy
agog; and he was greatly beloved, not only by men of wa