[Footnote 148: According to his epitaph, on the 7th ides, being the 9th of October, 1468. Sismondi, chap. lxxxi., says on the 13th; calls him father-in-law of Count Federigo; and speaks of his having but two wives besides Isotta. He certainly had three; while his connection with the house of Urbino arose from his brother Domenico having married the sister of Federigo, and his son Roberto espousing a daughter of that Count. Nothing can be more terse and graphic than the sketch of his character by Pius II. in his _Commentaries_, book II., p. 51.] [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI _From the relief by Pisanello in the Dreyfus Collection_] The death of Sigismondo without legitimate male issue inferred the lapse of his fief to the Church, and this devolution was expressly stipulated by his convention with Pius II. in 1463. But Isotta, finding herself in possession of Rimini, and personally popular with the citizens, asserted an alleged bequest of its late lord in favour of his son Sallustio, and stood on the defensive. Nor was this unequal resistance hopeless. The neighbouring feudatories were necessarily opposed to ecclesiastical rights that greatly infringed the value of their own tenure. Venice regarded with jealousy any extension of papal influence in Romagna, and was ever ready, for her own ends, to support the petty princes there. Relying, therefore, on external support, Isotta closed the gates when summoned in name of the Pontiff, and the people, proud of their independence and abhorring provincial insignificance, seconded her resistance. Roberto, the eldest of Sigismondo's bastards, was in the papal service on the confines of Naples, and on him Paul fixed as the instrument for attaining his object without a contest. Summoning him to his presence, he assumed an air of patronising interest, and by large promises induced him to repair to Rimini, and so contrive that the ecclesiastical troops should be quietly admitted. Heir of his father's duplicity though not of his rights, Malatesta lent himself to this intrigue with a secret view to his personal ends, and after binding himself by hand and seal to the Pope's stipulations, he early in January entered the city in disguise. No guest could have been less welcome to Isotta, but at a juncture so delicate she was content to dissemble, and accept his amicable professions.