Under their rule in Perugia human blood seems commonly to have flowed anywhere more freely than in human veins.

It is no matter for wonder that the people sent their ambassador to thank Cesare for having delivered them from the yoke that had oppressed them.
Perugia having rendered him her oath of fealty, the duke left her his secretary, Agabito Gherardi, as his commissioner, whilst sending Vincenzo Calmeta to Fermo--Oliverotto's tyranny--another State which was very fervent in the thanks it expressed for this deliverance.
Scarcely was Cesare gone from Perugia when into the hands of his people fell the person of the Lady Panthasilea Baglioni d'Alviano--the wife of the famous Venetian condottiero Bartolomeo d'Alviano--and they, aware of the feelings prevailing between their lord and the Government of Venice, bethought them that here was a valuable hostage.

So they shut her up in the Castle of Todi, together with her children and the women who had been with her when she was taken.
As in the case of Dorotea Caracciolo, the rumour is instantly put about that it was Cesare who had seized her, that he had taken her to his camp, and that this poor woman had fallen a prey to that lustful monster.

So--and in some such words--ran the story, and such a hold did it take upon folks' credulity that we see Piero di Bibieno before the Council of Ten, laying a more or less formal charge against the duke in rather broader terms than are here set down.

So much, few of those who have repeated his story omit to tell you.