He assumes the semblance of an exterminating angel, and performs such hellish iniquities that we can only shudder at the contemplation of the evil of which human nature is capable." And now, pray, consider and compare with those the following excerpt from the very next page of that same monumental work: "Before him [Cesare] cities trembled; the magistrates prostrated themselves in the dust; sycophantic courtiers praised him to the stars.
Yet it is undeniable that his government was energetic and good; for the first time Romagna enjoyed peace and was rid of her vampires.

In the name of Cesare justice was administered by Antonio di Monte Sansovino, President of the Ruota of Cesena, a man universally beloved." It is almost as if the truth had slipped out unawares, for the first period hardly seems a logical prelude to the second, by which it is largely contradicted.

If Cesare's government was so good that Romagna knew peace at last and was rid of her vampires, why did cities tremble before him?
There is, by the way, no evidence of such trepidations in any of the chronicles of the conquered States, one and all of which hail Cesare as their deliverer.

Why, if he was held in such terror, did city after city--as we have seen--spontaneously offer itself to Cesare's dominion?
But to rebut those statements of Gregorovius's there is scarce the need to pose these questions; sufficiently does Gregorovius himself rebut them.

The men who praised Cesare, the historian tells us, were sycophantic courtiers.