Note *8 — Chapter XIX

There is no authentic basis for this story. Rome was in a pestilential condition in August, and the Pope, Cesare, and the Cardinal Hadrian were all stricken with fever, which a supper in the open air was surely not unlikely to produce. Alexander was so detested that the strangeness of his death suggested poison at once to his enemies. Cf. Creighton, op. cit., vol. V., p. 49. An excellent essay on The Poisonings attributed to the Borgia will be found in Creighton, op. cit., vol. V., p. 301 et seq.