The following day a council was held by the Pope, Amboise, Soderini, the Cardinal of Ferrara, the Spanish cardinals, and Caesar, regarding the departure of Valentino, and it was agreed that he should at once go to Ferrara and his troops to Imola, which was still held by his lieutenants. The Duke, however, seemed suspicious and irresolute--perhaps owing to a sort of stupor into which he had been thrown by the reverses he had suffered--for he was neither accustomed to misfortunes nor able to bear them. Giustinian writes November 6th: “The Duke is still in the palace but has little reputation; he made every effort to obtain an audience with his Holiness but failed. He is very submissive and has repeatedly sent to ask me to come and confer with him regarding his affairs, but I declined, for various reasons, among them being the fact that he quite ignored the Republic during his days of prosperity.” Caesar continued to enlist troops but with what end in view is not clear. The Cardinal of Cosenza told the orator that his Holiness was considering an alliance between one of his great-nieces and the little Duke of Camerino. It was also reported that the Pope intended to give Caesar the strong Castle of Civita Castellana for his residence, but this statement was not confirmed. It was even arranged that when the proposal should be made in consistory to give the office of Gonfalonier of the Church to Valentino it should be merely for form’s sake to satisfy him. About the middle of November it became known that Cesena desired to be freed from Caesar’s authority and return to that of the Church. The Pope’s coronation was postponed for a week “on the advice of the astrologers, who stated that the stars would be more propitious for his Holiness that day.” “The Pope is most harshly disposed towards the Duke, and it is said has ordered Pandolfo Petrucci to treat him as an enemy; his Holiness looks for Caesar’s destruction, but does not want it to appear that he has any part in it.” Julius II. had conceived the idea of recovering the strongholds in the Romagna for himself, and he soon discovered that Caesar actually expected to retain them. The Borgia, shrewd as he was, was no match for the Della Rovere in cunning; the Pope outwitted him at every turn, and he did not hesitate to tell Giustinian that “the Duke shall never have so much as a single tower of my fortresses. All I owe him is to save his life and protect his property--in interceding for him with the Florentines it was really to save Romagna for the Church.” The Pope told the orator that as soon as he had secured possession of the castles he would send Caesar away. Clearly his Holiness did not want to be compelled to use force to get possession of the strongholds; he was trying to delude Caesar into giving them up, and then he would cast him aside.