To no other cause can it be assigned that, in the stir which the Senate made, the name of Cesare was at once suggested as that of the abductor, and this so broadly that letters poured in upon him on all sides begging him to right this cruel wrong.

So much do you see assumed, upon no more evidence than was contained in that letter from the Podesta of Cervia, which went no further than to say that the abductors were "Spaniards of the Duke of Valentinois' army." The envoy Manenti was dispatched at once to Cesare by the Senate, and he went persuaded, it is clear, that Cesare Borgia was the guilty person.

He enlisted the support of Monsieur de Trans (the French ambassador then on his way to Rome) and that of Yves d'Allegre, and he took them with him to the Duke at Imola.
There, acting upon his strong suspicions, Manenti appears to have taken a high tone, representing to the duke that he had done an unworthy thing, and imploring him to restore the lady to her husband.

Cesare's patience under the insolent assumption in justification of which Manenti had not a single grain of evidence to advance, is--guilty or innocent--a rare instance of self-control.

He condescended to take oath that he had not done this thing which they imputed to him.