The facts, briefly summarised, were as follows: The dinner took place August 5th; Caesar and the Pope fell ill the 10th; the latter was feverish the 12th; the 16th he was bled copiously and his illness became serious; the 17th he was given an exceedingly powerful draught of some sort which failed to relieve him; the 18th, feeling that his end was approaching, he confessed to the Bishop of Carniola, who administered the Communion. Later, Mass was celebrated at his bedside in the presence of five cardinals. The Pope was extremely weak and he declared that he felt death was near. The Bishop of Carniola administered the Extreme Unction and a few hours later the Holy Father expired--thirteen days after the dinner in Cardinal Corneto’s garden, which precludes the idea of poison. Giustinian makes no mention of poison. Beltrando Costabili, the Ferrarese ambassador, who followed the course of the Pope’s illness from hour to hour, likewise does not suggest it. Alexander VI. was probably merely one of the many victims reaped by the plague in Rome in 1503. The rumour of poisoning spread through the city and found many believers who, hating the Borgias and believing they had dispatched many by means of poison, were only too glad to conclude that they had fallen victims to a plot which they had laid for another. Caesar’s illness at the same time further strengthened the conviction, as did also the horrible condition of the Pope’s body. Not until after the funeral does Costabili refer to the suspicion of poison. Valentino, being young and vigorous, recovered in spite of the heroic treatment to which he, according to reports of the day, was subjected. It was said that his physician, Gaspare Torrella, had him wrapped in the warm entrails of a disembowelled mule; another story was that he had been placed in an enormous amphora filled with ice. Whatever the means employed to save his life his appearance had greatly changed. Formerly accounted one of the handsomest men in Italy--not excepting King Ferdinand of Naples--he was described now as altogether revolting, and the marks of the severe treatment he had undergone persisted until his dying day. The ambassadors--whose function it is to flatter publicly--had frequently spoken of Caesar as “blonde and handsome”--“like the Emperor Tiberius, the handsomest man of his day”; but Paul Jovius says “his face was disfigured with red blotches and pimples; his eyes, which were very deep set, had a cruel and venomous look and seemed to dart flames.”