ved and accepted by you with
special honor and respect, so do We command you in this epistle--as
you value Our favor and wish to avoid Our displeasure--to obey the
Duchess Lucretia, your regent, in all things collectively and
severally, in so far as law and custom dictate in the government of
the city, and whatever she may think proper to exact of you, even
as you would obey Ourselves, and to execute her commands with all
diligence and promptness, so that your devotion may receive due
approbation. Given in Rome, in St. Peter's, under the papal seal,
August 8, 1499.

HADRIANUS (Secretary).[65]

Lucretia left Rome for her new home the same day. She set out with a
large retinue, and accompanied by her brother Don Giuffre; Fabio Orsini,
now the consort of Girolama Borgia, her kinswoman; and a company of
archers. She left the Vatican mounted on horseback, the governor of the
city, the Neapolitan ambassador, and a number of other gentlemen forming
an escort to act as a guard of honor, while her father took a position
in a loggia over the portal of the palace of the Vatican to watch his
departing daughter and her cavalcade. For the first time he found
himself in Rome deprived of all his children.

Lucretia made the journey partly on horseback and partly in a litter,
and the trip from Rome to Spoleto required not less than six days. At
Porcaria, in Umbria, she found a deputation of citizens of Spoleto
waiting to greet her, and to accompany her to the city, which had been
famous since the time of Hannibal, and which had been the seat of the
mighty Lombard dukes. The castle of Spoleto is very ancient, its
earliest portions dating from the Dukes Faroald and Grimoald. In the
fourteenth century it was restored by the great Gil d'Albornoz, the
contemporary of Cola di Rienzi, and it was completed shortly afterwards
by Nicholas V. It is a magnificent piece of Renaissance architecture,
overlooking the old city and the deep ravine which separates it from
Monte Luco. From its high windows one may look out over the valley of
the Clitunno and that of the Tiber, the fertile Umbrian plain, and, on
the east, to the Apennines.

August 15th Lucretia Borgia received the priors of the city, to whom she
presented her papal appointment, whereupon they swore allegiance to her.
Later the commune gave a banquet in her honor.

Lucretia's stay in Spoleto was short. Her regency there was merely
inten