He might have told him that, and defied him.
But he went more slowly than did this man of a family that bred no fools.
"Do you know me, then, so little, Gian Maria," said he, not without bitterness, "that you think I hunger for so empty a thing as this ducal pomp you clutch so fearfully?
I tell you, man, that I prefer my liberty to an imperial throne.

But I waste breath with you.

Yet, some day, when your crown shall have passed from you and your power have been engulfed in the Borgia's rapacious maw, remember my offer which might have saved you and which with insults you disregarded, as you disregarded the advice your older counsellors gave you." Gian Maria shrugged his fat shoulders.
"If by that other advice you mean the counsel that I should take Guidobaldo's niece to wife, you may give ease unto your patriotic soul.
I have consented to enter into this alliance.

And now," he ended, with another of his infernal chuckles, "you see how little I need dread this terrible son of Pope Alexander.

Allied with Urbino and the other States that are its friends, I can defy the might of Caesar Borgia.