The Master of Ceremonies describes the decorations of the Castle of St. Angelo and the pageants and festivities at great length, and “never before had I beheld such extravagance and display,” he concludes. February 27th, the day after Valentino’s arrival, there was a magnificent pageant representing the “Triumph of Julius Caesar,” in which there were eleven cars, the last bearing the Roman Emperor. The procession went to the palace, where the car of Julius Caesar was left, whence some writers have concluded that Valentino took the part of the Emperor. Burchard says that Caesar rode on horseback from the palace to the Agona quarter, where the festivities of the citizens were held according to their custom. The games, which included races of horses, asses, bulls, buffaloes, lasted until March 5th, when Caesar began to pay his calls on the cardinals. He went unaccompanied by any of the Church dignitaries, but had with him a few of his officers and a military escort of a hundred men clad in black velvet. He displayed his usual tact, and surprised the cardinals by always allowing them the place of precedence. Caesar had brought his prisoner, Caterina Sforza, to Rome, but the story that he compelled her to grace his triumphal entry into the Eternal City is undoubtedly false, because, had he done so, Burchard, who chronicles the most insignificant details regarding his entry, would certainly have mentioned her, and he does not refer to the Countess. The stories of her having been led through the streets of Rome with golden chains on her wrists were probably picturesque inventions of the enemies of the Borgia. When the Countess was confined in the Belvedere she made an unsuccessful attempt to escape, whereupon Alexander had her removed to the Castle of St. Angelo, from which, on the expiration of about eighteen months, she was liberated, owing to the intervention of certain French gentlemen, especially of Yves d’Allegre. His Holiness gave her permission to go to Florence, and commended her to the Signory in a letter which is a masterpiece of hypocrisy. In it he refers to our “beloved daughter in Christ”; “we have,” he says, “not only exercised mercy with respect to this Caterina, but also, so far as we were able, with God’s help, have looked with paternal solicitude after her welfare”--and more of the same sort. In Florence Caterina Sforza married Giovanni de’ Medici, and, dying in 1509, left a son of the same mettle as herself, the famous Giovanni of the Black Bands, the last of the great condottieri. March 15, 1500, Alexander signed a bull investing Caesar with the vicariate of Romagna, seventeen cardinals concurring in his action. When his Holiness had held the consistory to find ways and means for securing money for recovering the Church domain, which was being held by the great lords who refused to pay tribute and acknowledge the Pope’s authority, it was for the purpose of restoring the territory to the Holy See.