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The second 'nipote, Girolamo Riario, remained a layman, and did not seek the Pontificate. From this time the 'nipoti, by their endeavors to found principalities for themselves, became a new source of confusion to Italy.
Two men, both named Tommaso though it does not transpire that they were related one a chamberlain of the Palace of Forli, the other a musician, were so devoted to the Countess Sforza-Riario, the grim termagant who ruled the fiefs of her murdered husband, Girolamo Riario, as to have undertaken an enterprise from which they cannot have hoped to emerge with their lives.
There he met with a serious check; a check, moreover, which came from a woman. Caterina Sforza, widow of Girolamo and mother of Ottaviano Riario, had retired to this town, and stirred up the courage of the garrison by putting herself, her goods and her person, under their protection.
A Burgundian serving under the Bailie of Dijon was the first to come upon her in the room to which she had fled with a few attendants and a handful of men, amongst whom were Alessandro Sforza, Paolo Riario, and Scipione Riario this last an illegitimate son of her first husband's, whom she had adopted.
'Unless it be paid in cash, suggested Gambardella. 'Cash, answered Trombin enigmatically, 'is one of the forces of nature. A week later fashionable Rome was gathered together at the Palazzo Riario to a feast of poetry and music.
But their departure was postponed until the morrow. On that day, January 23, after receiving the oath of fealty from the Anziani in the Church of San Mercuriale, the duke marched his army out of Forli and took the road to Pesaro. Caterina Sforza Riario went with him. Dressed in black and mounted upon a white horse, the handsome amazon rode between Cesare Borgia and Yves d'Allegre.
And more than once on the way, Riario, drunk with blood, drew his dagger to thrust it into Colonna, but Orsini drove him off, and brought his prisoner safely to the Pope.
It is the place where there is a small fifteenth-century villa, with those mullioned windows like Palazzo di Venezia, and a little portico, seeming to tell, among the rubbish heaps and onions, of Riario and Borgia suppers.
The Riario palaces were stormed and looted, and Girolamo Riario the Pope's "nepot" threw himself into the castle of Sant' Angelo with his forces. The Orsini and Colonna were in arms, "so that in a few days incendiarism, robbery, and murder raged in several parts of the city.
In accordance with his agreement with Alexander, the king now lent troops to Cæsar Borgia to enable him to seize the Romagna, where it was proclaimed that the vassals of the Church, the Malatesta of Rimini, the Sforza of Pesaro, the Riario of Imola and Forli, the Varano of Camerino, and the Manfredi of Faenza had forfeited their fiefs to the Pope. Cæsar went to Rome, November 18, 1499.
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