The cunning of the scheme is of an unsavoury sort, when considered by the notions that obtain to-day, for the stratagem was no better than an act of base treachery.

Yet, lest even in this you should be in danger of judging Cesare Borgia by standards which cannot apply to his age, you will do well to consider that there is no lack of evidence that the fifteenth century applauded the business as a clever coup.
Guidobaldo da Montefeltre was a good prince.

None in all Italy was more beloved by his people, towards whom he bore himself with a kindly, paternal bonhomie.

He was a cultured, scholarly man, a patron of the arts, happiest in the splendid library of the Palace of Urbino.

It happened, unfortunately, that he had no heir, which laid his dominions open to the danger of division amongst the neighbouring greedy tyrants after his death.