Among other bearers of news, there came to the inquisitors a certain Giorgio, of the Schiavoni, a waterman, asserting that, while guarding his boat on Tiber during the night, he had seen two men, who came to the shore to look whether any one was there; behind them came two others making the same inspection. He, the speaker, being in the shadow of his beached boat escaped all notice. When these four had assured themselves that the place was empty, there came one on a white horse, conveying behind him a dead man, whose feet and arms hung down, held by two foot-men. Having come to the water’s edge, they turned the crupper of the horse to the river; and, lifting the corpse, swung it into the stream. The rider looked on: but seeing a dark object which floated,—it was the dead man’s cloak,—he ordered the others to throw stones at it until it sank. After hearing this tale, the Pope groaned, and reproached the waterman in that he did not give immediate notice to the bargelli (police) of the crime which he had witnessed. The man impudently answered that he had seen such sights a thousand times: but never had he known of any one who cared to hear about them. The Vicechancellor-Cardinal Ascanio Maria Sforza-Visconti wrote to his brother the Duke of Milan, relating the deposition of Giorgio the waterman, and the disquietude of the Pope. Later, the corpse was found in Tiber, completely clothed in the sumptuous garments of the Duke of Gandia, the dagger in its sheath, the pouch intact adorned with jewels of great value. Eleven—some say fourteen—wounds, of which an enormous one was in the throat, were the cause of death. The unfortunate young Duke was buried at Santa Maria del Popolo. (_Maricont._) That, actually, is all that is known of the murder of the Duke of Gandia. The only person, except the murderer or murderers, who could give any salient information, was the bully; and he expired without uttering a word. The mystery of the unknown man in a mask has never been solved (nor the archives of a Roman patrician House published); and, for a time, the matter rested there. * * * * * The effect upon the Lord Alexander P.P. VI was terrible. He had loved Don Juan Francisco with a very great love. Notwithstanding the fact that Cardinal Cesare (detto Borgia) was a year older than the Duke of Gandia, the Pope had always treated the latter as His heir[30]; and had foreseen in his vigorous manlihood the foundation of a dynasty of Grandees of Spain who would render more illustrious the House of Borja. The founding of a family has always been an object very near to the hearts of great men.