the groom to wait for him until a certain hour when he was to return to the palace. He rode off with the masked man. The next morning his horse came back without its rider and with one of the stirrups cut. The groom was found dying. "When the next morning, Thursday, June 15, the Duke did not return to the palace, his more familiar servants became restless and one of them reported the late exit of the Duke and Cesares and the unsuccessfully awaited return of the former in the morning to the Pope. The Pope was dismayed by this, he initially persuaded himself that the Duke was having fun somewhere with a girl and therefore embarressed from leaving her house in broad daylight, but hoped that he would come home that evening at least. When this did not happen either, the Pope was gripped by deadly terror.." Alexander ordered interrogations and a search for his son and a witness was found, a Slavonian timber dealer named Georgio who made a statement that led to the discovery of Giovanni's body. He had been lying in his boat on the Tiber on the night of the murder to guard his wood and watched as five men had thrown a corpse into the river next to the fountain at the Hospital of Jerome, where refuse was usually disposed of. "...It was around 2 o'clock in the morning when two men came out of the lane next to the hospital on to the public road by the river. They looked cautiously around to see if anyone was passing and when they did not see anyone they disappeared again in the lane. After a little while two others came out of the lane, looked about in the same way and made a sign to their companions when they discovered nobody. Thereupon a rider on a white horse appeared who had a corpse behind him with the head and arms hanging down on one side and his legs on the other and supported on both sides by the two men who had first appeared. The procession advanced to the place where refuse is thrown into the river. At the bank they came to a halt and turned the horse with its tail to the river. Then they lifted the corpse, one holding it by its hands and arms, the other by its legs and