On the twenty-third of December 1471 Cardinal Rodrigo was sent as Legate _a latere_ to Spain, to preach a new Crusade against the Muslim Infidel. It is a curious thing that while he was unpopular in Italy on account of his Spanish origin, he was unpopular also in Spain where they considered him an Italian; a most ridiculous confusion, for Don Rodrigo de Lançol y Borja was a pure Spaniard by birth, descent, aspect, character, tastes, and habit, and so continued until his life’s end, in no way influenced or modified by his long residence in Italy. During his absence, the Lord Xystus P.P. IV built the Xystine Chapel of the Vatican; and called to Rome, from the gardens at Florence of Lorenzo de’ Medici his patron, the vivacious and bizarre Messer Alessandro Filipepi (nicknamed Botticelli), wondrous pupil of Fra Lippo Lippi, of Masaccio, of Beato Giovangelico da Fiesole, to decorate its walls with frescoes _in tempera_, the colours of which are mixed with the yelks of country-laid eggs for the deeper tints, and of town-laid eggs for the paler tints, according to the rules of Messer Cennino Cennini who wrote in 1437. In 1471 the bronze antique, known as _Il Spinario_, was found on the Capitol. About this time the Lord Rodrigo de Lançol y Borja, now Cardinal-Bishop of Porto, Vicechancellor of the Holy Roman Church, and of the age of three and forty years, maintained irregular relations with Madonna Giovanna de’ Catanei, a Roman lady, born the thirteenth of July 1442, and of the age of thirty-two years, wife to one Don Giorgio della Croce. Whether her husband was used to trade in his wife’s favours (like the criminal who, as late as 1780, was marched through Rome wearing a pasteboard mitre labelled _cornuto voluntario contento_), is a matter for conjecture. But, in 1474, Madonna Giovanna gave birth to a son, Don Cesare, who is called Borgia; and it is claimed that Cardinal Rodrigo was his father. As far as historical research has gone, no evidence has been found to prove that Cardinal Rodrigo ever directly denied paternity; and, as he was undoubtedly deeply in love with Madonna Giovanna, and intimate with her during ten subsequent years, it is probable that his reticence was actuated by kindly feelings. But there is a very strong suspicion that another cardinal, in every way the notorious and life-long rival of Cardinal Rodrigo, was the father of this child; and many mysterious historical inconsistencies would be explained by the establishment of the truth of this suspicion. However, for the present, merely the birth in 1474 of Don Cesare (detto Borgia) is recorded, and the question of his paternity will be examined at a proper place.