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Rh either on fortune or the aid of any other power.

But Alexander VI. died five years after he had first unsheathed his sword. He left his son firmly established in the single state of Romagnia. All his other conquests were absolutely visionary, he being between two powerful armies, and himself attacked by a mortal disease. The duke had, however, so much ability and courage, and he knew so well whom he ought to cherish, and whom to destroy; the foundations he laid in so short a space of time were so solid, that if he had not had to contend with those two hostile armies, or if he had been in health, he would have surmounted every other difficulty.

As a proof of the soundness of the foundation he had laid, Romagnia continued faithful to him, and waited for him more than a month while he was half dead, though in safety at Rome; and although the Baglioni, the Vitelli, and the Ursini, were all there, they feared to attempt any thing against him. If he could not: elect a pope of his own choice, he was at least able to prevent the election of one unfriendly to his interests. And if he had not been.extremely ill when Alexander died, all things would have been easy to him. He told me on the day that Julius II. was nominated, that he had considered every obstacle which could arise on the death of his father, and had applied