[Footnote 283: Such is the opinion of a monkish chronicler who wrote in 1522. Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023, f. 297. Even in 1517 the Venetian envoy Giorgi reported him as afflicted by an internal plethoric disease, a catarrh, and fistula. Vettori discredits the rumours of poison, and Guicciardini says they were hushed up by his cousin the Cardinal, lest they should give umbrage to the French monarch, with whom it was his interest to stand well at the approaching conclave. On the whole, the opinion of most weight is that of the Master of ceremonies, who distinctly asserts that poison was detected on a _post-mortem_ examination. Roscoe's innuendo inculpating Francesco Maria is a glaring proof of his aptitude to do scanty justice to that Duke, whose admitted hastiness of temper cannot, in absence of one contemporary or serious imputation, be considered any relevant ground for suspecting him of slow and stealthy vengeance. Another Venetian ambassador mentions, in proof of the utter exhaustion of the papal treasury, from the profusion of Leo and the greed of his Florentine retainers, that the wax lights used at his funeral had previously served for the obsequies of a cardinal.] [Footnote 284: "Sacra sub extrema si forte requiritis hora Cur Leo non potuit sumere? vendiderat." _Bibl. Magliabech. MSS._, cl. vii., No. 345.] Tidings so momentous to Francesco Maria reached him when on a visit to the Benedictine monastery at Magusano, on the Lago di Garda. He had audience on the same day with Lautrec and Gritti, the French and Venetian commanders, who bade him God-speed. Hurrying to his consort at Verona, he there spent two days in consulting with such friends as were at hand, and despatching courtiers to others, his resolution being taken to strike a speedy blow for recovery of his state. The impoverished finances of the papacy encouraged the attempt, and he was quickly in communication with Malatesta and Orazio Baglioni, who had been in like manner despoiled of Perugia. But before assuming offensive operations, he commissioned a special envoy to lay before the conclave a statement of his grievances, and a justification of the measures he was about to pursue.[285] In two days more he reached Ferrara, with the Baglioni, at the head of three thousand foot and above five hundred horse. On the 16th he was at Lugo, where, and all along his route by Cesena, numerous reinforcements poured in. "His subjects," to borrow the words of Muratori, "desired and expected him with clasped hands, because they loved him beyond measure for his gracious government." Anticipating a renewal of his "Saturnian reign," they, on his approach, flew to arms, threw the lieutenant of Urbino out of the palace window, and welcomed him with the well-known cry of "Feltro! Feltro! the Duke! the Duke!" [Footnote 285: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 921.]