At Velletri there lived a certain Don Pietro Gregario Borgia, son of that Don Niccolo Borgia of the Junior Branch, Regent of Velletri and Familiar of King Don Alonso V, by his marriage with the Noble Giovanna Lamberti. In 1495 this Don Pietrogorio was about the age of twenty-one years (the age in fact of Cardinal Cesare;) and, when the French king halted for the night at Velletri, he found means to exchange habits with the said Cardinal Cesare (detto Borgia) and to help him to disappear, remaining as hostage in his place. It was a daring act, and soon discovered: but the cardinal was safe in Rome concerting new schemes with the Pope. The Majesty of France grave instant orders for the hanging of Don Pietrogorio and for the firing of the city; and hurried on to Naples. But the king’s first secretary, who had been commissioned to execute his master’s vengeance, out of sheer admiration for the courage of Velletri’s Regent’s son, gave him a swift horse and leave to reclaim his own clothes from Cardinal Cesare (detto Borgia) in Rome; nor did he give Velletri to the flames. Immediately on hearing of the French approach, King Don Alonso II abdicated in favour of his son Don Ferrandino de Aragona. Envoys from the Catholick King Don Hernando of Spain embarrassed the Christian King Charles VIII of France with remonstrances on his invasion of the territories of the House of Aragon: but the latter was not to be rebuffed. The fortress of Monte San Giovanni capitulated to him. His march through the Regno was a series of victories; and, in the capital, he announced his intention altogether to relinquish the Crusade, and to add Naples as a fief to France. But three causes prevented this from becoming more than a French boast:—the action of the Pope, the action of the Powers, the action of Providence. Directly after the French had quitted Rome, the Lord Alexander P.P. VI retired to the pontifical castle of Viterbo, a mighty fortress in a cool air, and pleasant as a summer residence; where He was joined by Cardinal Cesare (detto Borgia) with Don Pietro Gregorio Borgia (now the last Most Worshipful Lord’s lieutenant and standard-bearer); and whence He commenced vigorous diplomatic negotiations directed against the French.