In the meantime the Italian cardinals had been insisting that Caesar also leave Rome. The Sacred College had secured about two thousand troops and had placed the city under the protection of the ambassadors of the Emperor, of Spain, France, and Venice, who--August 25th--went to Valentino, whom they found in the Vatican stretched upon a bed, but completely dressed and surrounded by the Spanish cardinals, and requested him to leave the palace. This he refused to do, saying that he was ill and that he would be safe nowhere else. Thereupon they offered him the Castle of St. Angelo for his abode. Caesar asked permission for his troops also to occupy the stronghold. He was still Duke of Romagna and he had more than nine thousand men under his command. He also had large amounts of money on deposit with Alessandro Spanocchi, consequently he was treated as a reigning prince. Both the Spanish and French ambassadors knew that his aid would be valuable in the war in Naples, and Prospero Colonna was endeavouring to persuade him to enter the service of Gonsalvo de Cordova. At the same time France was trying to secure him. Finally, to the utter dismay of Colonna and the Spanish cardinals, he decided to cast his fortunes with the latter power, for September 1st, through the mediation of Grammont, the French ambassador, he entered into an agreement by which he was to place his troops at the service of France in the Regno and to hold himself in readiness at all times to aid the King, and to use all his influence with the Spanish cardinals to secure the election of the Cardinal of Rouen to the Papacy. No sooner had Georges d’Amboise, Cardinal of Rouen, learned of the death of Alexander VI. than he set out in great haste for Rome, feeling certain that he could be elected to succeed the Borgia. The Papacy was the dream of his life, and he was ardently supported by the King, who would profit greatly by the election of his minister. In fact, Louis thought that if Amboise, his intimate friend, his subject, his Prime Minister, became Pope he could easily make himself master of all Italy. Amboise, with the French army under the very walls of Rome, promptly secured a strong following in the Sacred College. By his agreement with France Caesar was assured the protection of the King both as to his person and his property. The same day--September 1st--Valentino entered into an arrangement with the Sacred College, one clause of which required him to leave Rome within three days. Prospero Colonna had also been compelled to depart, and the ambassadors of Maximilian and of Louis XII. guaranteed that while the papal throne was vacant Caesar, the Colonna, and the Spanish forces would not approach within ten miles of Rome; the orators of Venice and France did the same with respect to the French army and the Orsini.