father, he already wielded both the temporal and the spiritual arms of
Peter. To the subtlety of the Italian his Spanish blood had lent a
certain stern resolution, and as with Julius and Sulla the lust for
sloth and sensuality were quickened by the lust for sway. He unfrocked
himself with pleasure. He commenced politician, soldier, and despot. And
for the five years preceding Alexander's death he may almost be looked
upon as a power in Europe. Invested Duke of Romagna, that hot-bed of
petty tyranny and tumult, he repressed disorder through his governor
Messer Ramiro with a relentless hand. When order reigned, Machiavelli
tells us he walked out one morning into the market-place at Cesena and
saw the body of Ramiro, who had borne the odium of reform, lying in two
pieces with his head on a lance, and a bloody axe by his side. Cæsar
reaped the harvest of Ramiro's severity, and the people recognising his
benevolence and justice were 'astounded and satisfied.'

But the gaze of the Borgia was not bounded by the strait limits of a
mere Italian Duchy. Whether indeed there mingled with personal ambition
an ideal of a united Italy, swept clean of the barbarians, it is hard to
say, though Machiavelli would have us believe it. What is certain is
that he desired the supreme dominion in Italy for himself, and to win it
spared neither force nor fraud nor the help of the very barbarians
themselves. With a decree of divorce and a Cardinal's hat he gained the
support of France, the French Duchy of Valentinois, and the sister of
the King of Navarre to wife. By largesse of bribery and hollow promises
he brought to his side the great families of Rome, his natural enemies,
and the great Condottieri with their men-at-arms. When by their aid he
had established and extended his government he mistrusted their good
faith. With an infinity of fascination and cunning, without haste and
without rest, he lured these leaders, almost more cunning than himself,
to visit him as friends in his fortress of Sinigaglia. 'I doubt if they