The Duke with his brother Cesare, then Cardinal Valentino, supped one night at the house of their mother Vannozza.

On their way home the Duke said that he should visit a lady of their acquaintance.

He parted from Cesare and was never seen again alive.

When the news of his disappearance spread abroad, a boatman of the Tiber deposed to having watched the body of a man thrown into the river on the night of the Duke's death, the 14th of June; he had not thought it worth while to report this fact, for he had seen 'a hundred bodies in his day thrown into the water at the said spot, and no questions asked about them afterwards.' The Pope had the Tiber dragged for some hours, while the wits of Rome made epigrams upon this true successor of S.Peter, this new fisher of men.

At last the body of the Duke of Gandia was hauled up: nine wounds, one in the throat, the others in the head and legs and trunk, were found upon the corpse.