“On Wednesday the eighteenth of August between the twelfth and thirteenth hour (8–9 A.M.) He (the Lord Alexander P.P. VI) confessed Himself to the Lord Bishop Pietro of Culen who said mass in His presence; and, after his Communion, administered the Sacrament of the Eucharist to the Pope, who was seated on His bed; and then finished the mass. Five cardinals were present, d’Oristano, di Cosenza, di Monreale,[60] Casanueva, and di Constantinople, to whom the Pope said that He felt ill. At the hour of vespers the said Bishop of Culen administered the Sacrament of Extreme Unction to Him; and He died in the presence of the datary and the bishop.” This event took place in the third room of the Borgia Tower occupied by the Library counting from the Library side. On the nineteenth of August, Giustiniani announced the news to the Senate, and added, “to-day He was carried _de moro_,[61] and shewn to the people; but His corpse was more hideous and monstrous than words can tell, and without human form. For decency, it was kept for some time covered; and before sunset they buried it in the presence of two of the cardinal-deacons attached to the palace.” In reading this dispatch, it must be remembered that Giustiniani hated the Borgia; and that the Lord Alexander P.P. VI was an old man of an obese habit of body, Who had died of a fever in the height of summer, in a most unwholesome quarter of the City, and at a time when antiseptic treatment was unknown. The Notary of Orvieto, on his return from Rome four days later, publicly described to his municipality all that he had seen of the _novendiali_; and added that he had kissed the feet of His Holiness in St. Peter’s[62]: but said nothing of any hideous or monstrous appearance of the corpse. Soon after death, a rumour was heard to the effect that the Lord Alexander P.P. VI and Duke Cesare de Valentinois della Romagna had died envenomed. For three months it was only a rumour. A new Pope was elected—Cardinal Francesco de’ Piccolhuomini of Siena, who took the name of the Lord Pius P.P. III out of respect to His Uncle, the Lord Pius P.P. II,[63]—and was dead after a two months’ reign. Then Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, irreconcileable enemy of Borgia, attained the object of his ambition; and was elected Pope by the name of the Lord Julius P.P. II. And then the rumour took a concrete form.