The inhabitants of Todi fled from their town to save their lives. Brigandage was in its hey-day. “Your Holiness can well understand that the only remedy for these evils lies in the coming of men of arms, whose delay has caused Todi to be desolated and the city, from my departure till now, totally derelict and left empty.”[34] At Perugia, the Legate took the bull by the horns in a singularly daring manner and with singular success; putting the more uproarious of the ringleaders under the ban of expulsion, “which thing was done with such obedience and calm that nothing better could be desired.”[35] But he did better than that. He caught a murderer in flagrante delicto. “I captured two robbers and murderers; and with no tumult, but to the delight of the people, they were put in gaol—a thing long unknown in this city—and this morning I hanged one.”[36] ’Twas immense. There was no tumult, and the people were pleased. That a murderer should pay a penalty for his crime was a charming and fantastic novelty to Perugia. The strong arm of the law struck the city with consternation, and deeds of violence ceased as though by magic. In this manner Cardinal Cesare (detto Borgia) gave a taste of his quality; and came before the world, for the first time, in the rôle which Nature intended him to fill, with his splendid personality, and swift unerring pitiless masterfulness of action. The prosecution of this work was prevented by the condition of affairs in Rome. It was impossible for the Holiness of the Pope to gather an army while the marriage of Madonna Lucrezia was before the courts, and the frenzy of Fra Girolamo Savonarola before the Reform Commission. Cardinal Cesare, also, was required for other service.