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-                              THE BORGIAS
-
-
-This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at
-http://www.gutenberg.org/license. If you are not located in the United
-States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are
-located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Borgias
-Author: Alexandre Dumas, Pere
-Release Date: September 22, 2004 [EBook #2741]
-Reposted: October 04, 2018 [corrections made]
-Language: English
-Character set encoding: US-ASCII
-
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BORGIAS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger.
-
-
-                             *THE BORGIAS*
-
-                                  _By_
-
-                        *Alexandre Dumas, Pere*
-
-              _From Eight Volumes of "Celebrated Crimes"_
-
-
-                                  1910
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-
-    *THE BORGIAS*
-    PROLOGUE
-    CHAPTER I
-    CHAPTER II
-    CHAPTER III
-    CHAPTER IV
-    CHAPTER V
-    CHAPTER VI
-    CHAPTER VII
-    CHAPTER VIII
-    CHAPTER IX
-    CHAPTER X
-    CHAPTER XI
-    CHAPTER XII
-    CHAPTER XIII
-    CHAPTER XIV
-    CHAPTER XV
-    CHAPTER XVI
-    EPILOGUE
-
-
-
-
-*THE BORGIAS*
-
-
-
-
-PROLOGUE
-
-
-On the 8th of April, 1492, in a bedroom of the Carneggi Palace, about
-three miles from Florence, were three men grouped about a bed whereon a
-fourth lay dying.
-
-The first of these three men, sitting at the foot of the bed, and half
-hidden, that he might conceal his tears, in the gold-brocaded curtains,
-was Ermolao Barbaro, author of the treatise 'On Celibacy', and of
-'Studies in Pliny': the year before, when he was at Rome in the capacity
-of ambassador of the Florentine Republic, he had been appointed
-Patriarch of Aquileia by Innocent VIII.
-
-The second, who was kneeling and holding one hand of the dying man
-between his own, was Angelo Poliziano, the Catullus of the fifteenth
-century, a classic of the lighter sort, who in his Latin verses might
-have been mistaken for a poet of the Augustan age.
-
-The third, who was standing up and leaning against one of the twisted
-columns of the bed-head, following with profound sadness the progress of
-the malady which he read in the face of his departing friend, was the
-famous Pico della Mirandola, who at the age of twenty could speak
-twenty-two languages, and who had offered to reply in each of these
-languages to any seven hundred questions that might be put to him by the
-twenty most learned men in the whole world, if they could be assembled
-at Florence.
-
-The man on the bed was Lorenzo the Magnificent, who at the beginning of
-the year had been attacked by a severe and deep-seated fever, to which
-was added the gout, a hereditary ailment in his family. He had found at
-last that the draughts containing dissolved pearls which the quack
-doctor, Leoni di Spoleto, prescribed for him (as if he desired to adapt
-his remedies rather to the riches of his patient than to his
-necessities) were useless and unavailing, and so he had come to
-understand that he must part from those gentle-tongued women of his,
-those sweet-voiced poets, his palaces and their rich hangings; therefore
-he had summoned to give him absolution for his sins--in a man of less
-high place they might perhaps have been called crimes--the Dominican,
-Giralamo Francesco Savonarola.
-
-It was not, however, without an inward fear, against which the praises
-of his friends availed nothing, that the pleasure-seeker and usurper
-awaited that severe and gloomy preacher by whose words all Florence was
-stirred, and on whose pardon henceforth depended all his hope for
-another world.
-
-Indeed, Savonarola was one of those men of stone, coming, like the
-statue of the Commandante, to knock at the door of a Don Giovanni, and
-in the midst of feast and orgy to announce that it is even now the
-moment to begin to think of Heaven. He had been born at Ferrara, whither
-his family, one of the most illustrious of Padua, had been called by
-Niccolo, Marchese d'Este, and at the age of twenty-three, summoned by an
-irresistible vocation, had fled from his father's house, and had taken
-the vows in the cloister of Dominican monks at Florence. There, where he
-was appointed by his superiors to give lessons in philosophy, the young
-novice had from the first to battle against the defects of a voice that
-was both harsh and weak, a defective pronunciation, and above all, the
-depression of his physical powers, exhausted as they were by too severe
-abstinence.
-
-Savonarola from that time condemned himself to the most absolute
-seclusion, and disappeared in the depths of his convent, as if the slab
-of his tomb had already fallen over him. There, kneeling on the flags,
-praying unceasingly before a wooden crucifix, fevered by vigils and
-penances, he soon passed out of contemplation into ecstasy, and began to
-feel in himself that inward prophetic impulse which summoned him to
-preach the reformation of the Church.
-
-Nevertheless, the reformation of Savonarola, more reverential than
-Luther's, which followed about five-and-twenty years later, respected
-the thing while attacking the man, and had as its aim the altering of
-teaching that was human, not faith that was of God. He did not work,
-like the German monk, by reasoning, but by enthusiasm. With him logic
-always gave way before inspiration: he was not a theologian, but a
-prophet. Yet, although hitherto he had bowed his head before the
-authority of the Church, he had already raised it against the temporal
-power. To him religion and liberty appeared as two virgins equally
-sacred; so that, in his view, Lorenzo in subjugating the one was as
-culpable as Pope Innocent VIII in dishonouring the other. The result of
-this was that, so long as Lorenzo lived in riches, happiness, and
-magnificence, Savonarola had never been willing, whatever entreaties
-were made, to sanction by his presence a power which he considered
-illegitimate. But Lorenzo on his deathbed sent for him, and that was
-another matter. The austere preacher set forth at once, bareheaded and
-barefoot, hoping to save not only the soul of the dying man but also the
-liberty of the republic.
-
-Lorenzo, as we have said, was awaiting the arrival of Savonarola with an
-impatience mixed with uneasiness; so that, when he heard the sound of
-his steps, his pale face took a yet more deathlike tinge, while at the
-same time he raised himself on his elbow and ordered his three friends
-to go away. They obeyed at once, and scarcely had they left by one door
-than the curtain of the other was raised, and the monk, pale, immovable,
-solemn, appeared on the threshold. When he perceived him, Lorenzo dei
-Medici, reading in his marble brow the inflexibility of a statue, fell
-back on his bed, breathing a sigh so profound that one might have
-supposed it was his last.
-
-The monk glanced round the room as though to assure himself that he was
-really alone with the dying man; then he advanced with a slow and solemn
-step towards the bed. Lorenzo watched his approach with terror; then,
-when he was close beside him, he cried:
-
-"O my father, I have been a very great sinner!"
-
-"The mercy of God is infinite," replied the monk; "and I come into your
-presence laden with the divine mercy."
-
-"You believe, then, that God will forgive my sins?" cried the dying man,
-renewing his hope as he heard from the lips of the monk such unexpected
-words.
-
-"Your sins and also your crimes, God will forgive them all," replied
-Savonarola. "God will forgive your vanities, your adulterous pleasures,
-your obscene festivals; so much for your sins. God will forgive you for
-promising two thousand florins reward to the man who should bring you
-the head of Dietisalvi, Nerone Nigi, Angelo Antinori, Niccalo Soderini,
-and twice the money if they were handed over alive; God will forgive you
-for dooming to the scaffold or the gibbet the son of Papi Orlandi,
-Francesco di Brisighella, Bernardo Nardi, Jacopo Frescobaldi, Amoretto
-Baldovinetti, Pietro Balducci, Bernardo di Banding, Francesco
-Frescobaldi, and more than three hundred others whose names were none
-the less dear to Florence because they were less renowned; so much for
-your crimes." And at each of these names which Savonarola pronounced
-slowly, his eyes fixed on the dying man, he replied with a groan which
-proved the monk's memory to be only too true. Then at last, when he had
-finished, Lorenzo asked in a doubtful tone:
-
-"Then do you believe, my father, that God will forgive me everything,
-both my sins and my crimes?"
-
-"Everything," said Savonarola, "but on three conditions."
-
-"What are they?" asked the dying man.
-
-"The first," said Savonarola, "is that you feel a complete faith in the
-power and the mercy of God."
-
-"My father," replied Lorenzo eagerly, "I feel this faith in the very
-depths of my heart."
-
-"The second," said Savonarola, "is that you give back the property of
-others which you have unjustly confiscated and kept."
-
-"My father, shall I have time?" asked the dying man.
-
-"God will give it to you," replied the monk.
-
-Lorenzo shut his eyes, as though to reflect more at his ease; then,
-after a moment's silence, he replied:
-
-"Yes, my father, I will do it."
-
-"The third," resumed Savonarola, "is that you restore to the republic
-her ancient independence and her former liberty."
-
-Lorenzo sat up on his bed, shaken by a convulsive movement, and
-questioned with his eyes the eyes of the Dominican, as though he would
-find out if he had deceived himself and not heard aright. Savonarola
-repeated the same words.
-
-"Never! never!" exclaimed Lorenzo, falling back on his bed and shaking
-his head,--"never!"
-
-The monk, without replying a single word, made a step to withdraw.
-
-"My father, my father," said the dying man, "do not leave me thus: have
-pity on me!"
-
-"Have pity on Florence," said the monk.
-
-"But, my father," cried Lorenzo, "Florence is free, Florence is happy."
-
-"Florence is a slave, Florence is poor," cried Savonarola, "poor in
-genius, poor in money, and poor in courage; poor in genius, because
-after you, Lorenzo, will come your son Piero; poor in money, because
-from the funds of the republic you have kept up the magnificence of your
-family and the credit of your business houses; poor in courage, because
-you have robbed the rightful magistrates of the authority which was
-constitutionally theirs, and diverted the citizens from the double path
-of military and civil life, wherein, before they were enervated by your
-luxuries, they had displayed the virtues of the ancients; and therefore,
-when the day shall dawn which is not far distant," continued the monk,
-his eyes fixed and glowing as if he were reading in the future, "whereon
-the barbarians shall descend from the mountains, the walls of our towns,
-like those of Jericho, shall fall at the blast of their trumpets."
-
-"And do you desire that I should yield up on my deathbed the power that
-has made the glory of my whole life?" cried Lorenzo dei Medici.
-
-"It is not I who desire it; it is the Lord," replied Savonarola coldly.
-
-"Impossible, impossible!" murmured Lorenzo.
-
-"Very well; then die as you have lived!" cried the monk, "in the midst
-of your courtiers and flatterers; let them ruin your soul as they have
-ruined your body!" And at these words, the austere Dominican, without
-listening to the cries of the dying man, left the room as he had entered
-it, with face and step unaltered; far above human things he seemed to
-soar, a spirit already detached from the earth.
-
-At the cry which broke from Lorenzo dei Medici when he saw him
-disappear, Ermolao, Poliziano, and Pico dellaMirandola, who had heard
-all, returned into the room, and found their friend convulsively
-clutching in his arms a magnificent crucifix which he had just taken
-down from the bed-head. In vain did they try to reassure him with
-friendly words. Lorenzo the Magnificent only replied with sobs; and one
-hour after the scene which we have just related, his lips clinging to
-the feet of the Christ, he breathed his last in the arms of these three
-men, of whom the most fortunate--though all three were young--was not
-destined to survive him more than two years. "Since his death was to
-bring about many calamities," says Niccolo Macchiavelli, "it was the
-will of Heaven to show this by omens only too certain: the dome of the
-church of Santa Regarata was struck by lightning, and Roderigo Borgia
-was elected pope."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-
-Towards the end of the fifteenth century--that is to say, at the epoch
-when our history opens the Piazza of St. Peter's at Rome was far from
-presenting so noble an aspect as that which is offered in our own day to
-anyone who approaches it by the Piazza dei Rusticucci.
-
-In fact, the Basilica of Constantine existed no longer, while that of
-Michael Angelo, the masterpiece of thirty popes, which cost the labour
-of three centuries and the expense of two hundred and sixty millions,
-existed not yet. The ancient edifice, which had lasted for eleven
-hundred and forty-five years, had been threatening to fall in about
-1440, and Nicholas V, artistic forerunner of Julius II and Leo X, had
-had it pulled down, together with the temple of Probus Anicius which
-adjoined it. In their place he had had the foundations of a new temple
-laid by the architects Rossellini and Battista Alberti; but some years
-later, after the death of Nicholas V, Paul II, the Venetian, had not
-been able to give more than five thousand crowns to continue the project
-of his predecessor, and thus the building was arrested when it had
-scarcely risen above the ground, and presented the appearance of a
-still-born edifice, even sadder than that of a ruin.
-
-As to the piazza itself, it had not yet, as the reader will understand
-from the foregoing explanation, either the fine colonnade of Bernini, or
-the dancing fountains, or that Egyptian obelisk which, according to
-Pliny, was set up by the Pharaoh at Heliopolis, and transferred to Rome
-by Caligula, who set it up in Nero's Circus, where it remained till
-1586. Now, as Nero's Circus was situated on the very ground where St.
-Peter's now stands, and the base of this obelisk covered the actual site
-where the vestry now is, it looked like a gigantic needle shooting up
-from the middle of truncated columns, walls of unequal height, and
-half-carved stones.
-
-On the right of this building, a ruin from its cradle, arose the
-Vatican, a splendid Tower of Babel, to which all the celebrated
-architects of the Roman school contributed their work for a thousand
-years: at this epoch the two magnificent chapels did not exist, nor the
-twelve great halls, the two-and-twenty courts, the thirty staircases,
-and the two thousand bedchambers; for Pope Sixtus V, the sublime
-swineherd, who did so many things in a five years' reign, had not yet
-been able to add the immense building which on the eastern side towers
-above the court of St. Damasius; still, it was truly the old sacred
-edifice, with its venerable associations, in which Charlemagne received
-hospitality when he was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III.
-
-All the same, on the 9th of August, 1492, the whole of Rome, from the
-People's Gate to the Coliseum and from the Baths of Diocletian to the
-castle of Sant' Angelo, seemed to have made an appointment on this
-piazza: the multitude thronging it was so great as to overflow into all
-the neighbouring streets, which started from this centre like the rays
-of a star. The crowds of people, looking like a motley moving carpet,
-were climbing up into the basilica, grouping themselves upon the stones,
-hanging on the columns, standing up against the walls; they entered by
-the doors of houses and reappeared at the windows, so numerous and so
-densely packed that one might have said each window was walled up with
-heads. Now all this multitude had its eyes fixed on one single point in
-the Vatican; for in the Vatican was the Conclave, and as Innocent VIII
-had been dead for sixteen days, the Conclave was in the act of electing
-a pope.
-
-Rome is the town of elections: since her foundation down to our own
-day--that is to say, in the course of nearly twenty-six centuries--she
-has constantly elected her kings, consuls, tribunes, emperors, and
-popes: thus Rome during the days of Conclave appears to be attacked by a
-strange fever which drives everyone to the Vatican or to Monte Cavallo,
-according as the scarlet-robed assembly is held in one or the other of
-these two palaces: it is, in fact, because the raising up of a new
-pontiff is a great event for everybody; for, according to the average
-established in the period between St. Peter and Gregory XVI, every pope
-lasts about eight years, and these eight years, according to the
-character of the man who is elected, are a period either of tranquillity
-or of disorder, of justice or of venality, of peace or of war.
-
-Never perhaps since the day when the first successor of St. Peter took
-his seat on the, pontifical throne until the interregnum which now
-occurred, had so great an agitation been shown as there was at this
-moment, when, as we have shown, all these people were thronging on the
-Piazza of St. Peter and in the streets which led to it. It is true that
-this was not without reason; for Innocent VIII--who was called the
-father of his people because he had added to his subjects eight sons and
-the same number of daughters--had, as we have said, after living a life
-of self-indulgence, just died, after a death-struggle during which, if
-the journal of Stefano Infessura may be believed, two hundred and twenty
-murders were committed in the streets of Rome. The authority had then
-devolved in the customary way upon the Cardinal Camerlengo, who during
-the interregnum had sovereign powers; but as he had been obliged to
-fulfil all the duties of his office--that is, to get money coined in his
-name and bearing his arms, to take the fisherman's ring from the finger
-of the dead pope, to dress, shave and paint him, to have the corpse
-embalmed, to lower the coffin after nine days' obsequies into the
-provisional niche where the last deceased pope has to remain until his
-successor comes to take his place and consign him to his final tomb;
-lastly, as he had been obliged to wall up the door of the Conclave and
-the window of the balcony from which the pontifical election is
-proclaimed, he had not had a single moment for busying himself with the
-police; so that the assassinations had continued in goodly fashion, and
-there were loud cries for an energetic hand which should make all these
-swords and all these daggers retire into their sheaths.
-
-Now the eyes of this multitude were fixed, as we have said, upon the
-Vatican, and particularly upon one chimney, from which would come the
-first signal, when suddenly, at the moment of the 'Ave Maria'--that is
-to say, at the hour when the day begins to decline--great cries went up
-from all the crowd mixed with bursts of laughter, a discordant murmur of
-threats and raillery, the cause being that they had just perceived at
-the top of the chimney a thin smoke, which seemed like a light cloud to
-go up perpendicularly into the sky. This smoke announced that Rome was
-still without a master, and that the world still had no pope; for this
-was the smoke of the voting tickets which were being burned, a proof
-that the cardinals had not yet come to an agreement.
-
-Scarcely had this smoke appeared, to vanish almost immediately, when all
-the innumerable crowd, knowing well that there was nothing else to wait
-for, and that all was said and done until ten o'clock the next morning,
-the time when the cardinals had their first voting, went off in a tumult
-of noisy joking, just as they would after the last rocket of a firework
-display; so that at the end of one minute nobody was there where a
-quarter of an hour before there had been an excited crowd, except a few
-curious laggards, who, living in the neighbourhood or on the very piazza
-itself; were less in a hurry than the rest to get back to their homes;
-again, little by little, these last groups insensibly diminished; for
-half-past nine had just struck, and at this hour the streets of Rome
-began already to be far from safe; then after these groups followed some
-solitary passer-by, hurrying his steps; one after another the doors were
-closed, one after another the windows were darkened; at last, when ten
-o'clock struck, with the single exception of one window in the Vatican
-where a lamp might be seen keeping obstinate vigil, all the houses,
-piazzas, and streets were plunged in the deepest obscurity.
-
-At this moment a man wrapped in a cloak stood up like a ghost against
-one of the columns of the uncompleted basilica, and gliding slowly and
-carefully among the stones which were lying about round the foundations
-of the new church, advanced as far as the fountain which, formed the
-centre of the piazza, erected in the very place where the obelisk is now
-set up of which we have spoken already; when he reached this spot he
-stopped, doubly concealed by the darkness of the night and by the shade
-of the monument, and after looking around him to see if he were really
-alone, drew his sword, and with its point rapping three times on the
-pavement of the piazza, each time made the sparks fly. This signal, for
-signal it was, was not lost: the last lamp which still kept vigil in the
-Vatican went out, and at the same instant an object thrown out of the
-window fell a few paces off from the young man in the cloak: he, guided
-by the silvery sound it had made in touching the flags, lost no time in
-laying his hands upon it in spite of the darkness, and when he had it in
-his possession hurried quickly away.
-
-Thus the unknown walked without turning round half-way along the Borgo
-Vecchio; but there he turned to the right and took a street at the other
-end of which was set up a Madonna with a lamp: he approached the light,
-and drew from his pocket the object he had picked up, which was nothing
-else than a Roman crown piece; but this crown unscrewed, and in a cavity
-hollowed in its thickness enclosed a letter, which the man to whom it
-was addressed began to read at the risk of being recognised, so great
-was his haste to know what it contained.
-
-We say at the risk of being recognised, for in his eagerness the
-recipient of this nocturnal missive had thrown back the hood of his
-cloak; and as his head was wholly within the luminous circle cast by the
-lamp, it was easy to distinguish in the light the head of a handsome
-young man of about five or six and twenty, dressed in a purple doublet
-slashed at the shoulder and elbow to let the shirt come through, and
-wearing on his head a cap of the same colour with a long black feather
-falling to his shoulder. It is true that he did not stand there long;
-for scarcely had he finished the letter, or rather the note, which he
-had just received in so strange and mysterious a manner, when he
-replaced it in its silver receptacle, and readjusting his cloak so as to
-hide all the lower part of his face, resumed his walk with a rapid step,
-crossed Borgo San Spirito, and took the street of the Longara, which he
-followed as far as the church of Regina Coeli. When he arrived at this
-place, he gave three rapid knocks on the door of a house of good
-appearance, which immediately opened; then slowly mounting the stairs he
-entered a room where two women were awaiting him with an impatience so
-unconcealed that both as they saw him exclaimed together:
-
-"Well, Francesco, what news?"
-
-"Good news, my mother; good, my sister," replied the young man, kissing
-the one and giving his hand to the other. "Our father has gained three
-votes to-day, but he still needs six to have the majority."
-
-"Then is there no means of buying them?" cried the elder of the two
-women, while the younger, instead of speaking, asked him with a look.
-
-"Certainly, my mother, certainly," replied the young man; "and it is
-just about that that my father has been thinking. He is giving Cardinal
-Orsini his palace at Rome and his two castles of Monticello and Soriano;
-to Cardinal Colanna his abbey of Subiaca; he gives Cardinal Sant' Angelo
-the bishopric of Porto, with the furniture and cellar; to the Cardinal
-of Parma the town of Nepi; to the Cardinal of Genoa the church of Santa
-Maria-in-Via-Lata; and lastly, to Cardinal Savelli the church of Santa
-Maria Maggiore and the town of Civita Castellana; as to Cardinal
-Ascanio-Sforza, he knows already that the day before yesterday we sent
-to his house four mules laden with silver and plate, and out of this
-treasure he has engaged to give five thousand ducats to the Cardinal
-Patriarch of Venice."
-
-"But how shall we get the others to know the intentions of Roderigo?"
-asked the elder of the two women.
-
-"My father has provided for everything, and proposes an easy method; you
-know, my mother, with what sort of ceremonial the cardinals' dinner is
-carried in."
-
-"Yes, on a litter, in a large basket with the arms of the cardinal for
-whom the meal is prepared."
-
-"My father has bribed the bishop who examines it: to-morrow is a
-feast-day; to the Cardinals Orsini, Colonna, Savelli, Sant' Angelo, and
-the Cardinals of Parma and of Genoa, chickens will be sent for hot meat,
-and each chicken will contain a deed of gift duly drawn up, made by me
-in my father's name, of the houses, palaces, or churches which are
-destined for each."
-
-"Capital!" said the elder of the two women; "now, I am certain, all will
-go well."
-
-"And by the grace of God," added the younger, with a strangely mocking
-smile, "our father will be pope."
-
-"Oh, it will be a fine day for us!" cried Francesco.
-
-"And for Christendom," replied his sister, with a still more ironical
-expression.
-
-"Lucrezia, Lucrezia," said the mother, "you do not deserve the happiness
-which is coming to us."
-
-"What does that matter, if it comes all the same? Besides, you know the
-proverb; mother: 'Large families are blessed of the Lord'; and still
-more so our family, which is so patriarchal."
-
-At the same time she cast on her brother a look so wanton that the young
-man blushed under it: but as at the moment he had to think of other
-things than his illicit loves, he ordered that four servants should be
-awakened; and while they were getting armed to accompany him, he drew up
-and signed the six deeds of gift which were to be carried the next day
-to the cardinals; for, not wishing to be seen at their houses, he
-thought he would profit by the night-time to carry them himself to
-certain persons in his confidence who would have them passed in, as had
-been arranged, at the dinner-hour. Then, when the deeds were quite ready
-and the servants also, Francesco went out with them, leaving the two
-women to dream golden dreams of their future greatness.
-
-From the first dawn of day the people hurried anew, as ardent and
-interested as on the evening before, to the Piazza of the Vatican,
-where; at the ordinary time, that is, at ten o'clock in the
-morning,--the smoke rose again as usual, evoking laughter and murmuring,
-as it announced that none of the cardinals had secured the majority. A
-report, however, began to be spread about that the chances were divided
-between three candidates, who were Roderigo Borgia, Giuliano
-dellaRovera, and Ascanio Sforza; for the people as yet knew nothing of
-the four mules laden with plate and silver which had been led to
-Sforza's house, by reason of which he had given up his own votes to his
-rival. In the midst of the agitation excited in the crowd by this new
-report a solemn chanting was heard; it proceeded from a procession, led
-by the Cardinal Camerlengo, with the object of obtaining from Heaven the
-speedy election of a pope: this procession, starting from the church of
-Ara Coeli at the Capitol, was to make stations before the principal
-Madonnas and the most frequented churches. As soon as the silver
-crucifix was perceived which went in front, the most profound silence
-prevailed, and everyone fell on his knees; thus a supreme calm followed
-the tumult and uproar which had been heard a few minutes before, and
-which at each appearance of the smoke had assumed a more threatening
-character: there was a shrewd suspicion that the procession, as well as
-having a religious end in view, had a political object also, and that
-its influence was intended to be as great on earth as in heaven. In any
-case, if such had been the design of the Cardinal Camerlengo, he had not
-deceived himself, and the effect was what he desired: when the
-procession had gone past, the laughing and joking continued, but the
-cries and threats had completely ceased.
-
-The whole day passed thus; for in Rome nobody works. You are either a
-cardinal or a lacquey, and you live, nobody knows how. The crowd was
-still extremely numerous, when, towards two o'clock in the afternoon,
-another procession, which had quite as much power of provoking noise as
-the first of imposing silence, traversed in its turn the Piazza of St.
-Peter's: this was the dinner procession. The people received it with the
-usual bursts of laughter, without suspecting, for all their irreverence,
-that this procession, more efficacious than the former, had just settled
-the election of the new pope.
-
-The hour of the Ave Maria came as on the evening before; but, as on the
-evening before, the waiting of the whole day was lost; for, as half-past
-eight struck, the daily smoke reappeared at the top of the chimney. But
-when at the same moment rumours which came from the inside of the
-Vatican were spread abroad, announcing that, in all probability, the
-election would take place the next day, the good people preserved their
-patience. Besides, it had been very hot that day, and they were so
-broken with fatigue and roasted by the sun, these dwellers in shade and
-idleness, that they had no strength left to complain.
-
-The morning of the next day, which was the 11th of August, 1492, arose
-stormy and dark; this did not hinder the multitude from thronging the
-piazzas, streets, doors, houses, churches. Moreover, this disposition of
-the weather was a real blessing from Heaven; for if there were heat, at
-least there would be no sun. Towards nine o'clock threatening
-storm-clouds were heaped up over all the Trastevere; but to this crowd
-what mattered rain, lightning, or thunder? They were preoccupied with a
-concern of a very different nature; they were waiting for their pope: a
-promise had been made them for to-day, and it could be seen by the
-manner of all, that if the day should pass without any election taking
-place, the end of it might very well be a riot; therefore, in proportion
-as the time advanced, the agitation grew greater. Nine o'clock,
-half-past nine, a quarter to ten struck, without anything happening to
-confirm or destroy their hopes. At last the first stroke of ten was
-heard; all eyes turned towards the chimney: ten o'clock struck slowly,
-each stroke vibrating in the heart of the multitude. At last the tenth
-stroke trembled, then vanished shuddering into space, and, a great cry
-breaking simultaneously from a hundred thousand breasts followed the
-silence "Non v'e fumo! There is no smoke!" In other words, "We have a
-pope."
-
-At this moment the rain began to fall; but no one paid any attention to
-it, so great were the transports of joy and impatience among all the
-people. At last a little stone was detached from the walled window which
-gave on the balcony and upon which all eyes were fixed: a general shout
-saluted its fall; little by little the aperture grew larger, and in a
-few minutes it was large enough to allow a man to come out on the
-balcony.
-
-The Cardinal Ascanio Sforza appeared; but at the moment when he was on
-the point of coming out, frightened by the rain and the lightning, he
-hesitated an instant, and finally drew back: immediately the multitude
-in their turn broke out like a tempest into cries, curses, howls,
-threatening to tear down the Vatican and to go and seek their pope
-themselves. At this noise Cardinal Sforza, more terrified by the popular
-storm than by the storm in the heavens, advanced on the balcony, and
-between two thunderclaps, in a moment of silence astonishing to anyone
-who had just heard the clamour that went before, made the following
-proclamation:
-
-"I announce to you a great joy: the most Eminent and most Reverend
-Signor Roderigo Lenzuolo Borgia, Archbishop of Valencia, Cardinal-Deacon
-of San Nicolao-in-Carcere, Vice-Chancellor of the Church, has now been
-elected Pope, and has assumed the name of Alexander VI."
-
-The news of this nomination was received with strange joy. Roderigo
-Borgia had the reputation of a dissolute man, it is true, but
-libertinism had mounted the throne with Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII, so
-that for the Romans there was nothing new in the singular situation of a
-pope with a mistress and five children. The great thing for the moment
-was that the power fell into strong hands; and it was more important for
-the tranquillity of Rome that the new pope inherited the sword of St.
-Paul than that he inherited the keys of St. Peter.
-
-And so, in the feasts that were given on this occasion, the dominant
-character was much more warlike than religious, and would have appeared
-rather to suit with the election of some young conqueror than the
-exaltation of an old pontiff: there was no limit to the pleasantries and
-prophetic epigrams on the name of Alexander, which for the second time
-seemed to promise the Romans the empire of the world; and the same
-evening, in the midst of brilliant illuminations and bonfires, which
-seemed to turn the town into a lake of flame, the following epigram was
-read, amid the acclamation of the people:
-
-    "Rome under Caesar's rule in ancient story
-     At home and o'er the world victorious trod;
-     But Alexander still extends his glory:
-     Caesar was man, but Alexander God."
-
-As to the new pope, scarcely had he completed the formalities of
-etiquette which his exaltation imposed upon him, and paid to each man
-the price of his simony, when from the height of the Vatican he cast his
-eyes upon Europe, a vast political game of chess, which he cherished the
-hope of directing at the will of his own genius.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-
-The world had now arrived at one of those supreme moments of history
-when every thing is transformed between the end of one period and the
-beginning of another: in the East Turkey, in the South Spain, in the
-West France, and in the North German, all were going to assume, together
-with the title of great Powers, that influence which they were destined
-to exert in the future over the secondary States. Accordingly we too,
-with Alexander VI, will cast a rapid glance over them, and see what were
-their respective situations in regard to Italy, which they all coveted
-as a prize.
-
-Constantine, Palaeologos Dragozes, besieged by three hundred thousand
-Turks, after having appealed in vain for aid to the whole of
-Christendom, had not been willing to survive the loss of his empire, and
-had been found in the midst of the dead, close to the Tophana Gate; and
-on the 30th of May, 1453, Mahomet II had made his entry into
-Constantinople, where, after a reign which had earned for him the
-surname of 'Fatile', or the Conqueror, he had died leaving two sons, the
-elder of whom had ascended the throne under the name of Bajazet II.
-
-The accession of the new sultan, however, had not taken place with the
-tranquillity which his right as elder brother and his father's choice of
-him should have promised. His younger brother, D'jem, better known under
-the name of Zizimeh, had argued that whereas he was born in the
-purple--that is, born during the reign of Mahomet--Bajazet was born
-prior to his epoch, and was therefore the son of a private individual.
-This was rather a poor trick; but where force is all and right is
-naught, it was good enough to stir up a war. The two brothers, each at
-the head of an army, met accordingly in Asia in 1482. D'jem was defeated
-after a seven hours' fight, and pursued by his brother, who gave him no
-time to rally his army: he was obliged to embark from Cilicia, and took
-refuge in Rhodes, where he implored the protection of the Knights of St.
-John. They, not daring to give him an asylum in their island so near to
-Asia, sent him to France, where they had him carefully guarded in one of
-their commanderies, in spite of the urgency of Cait Bey, Sultan of
-Egypt, who, having revolted against Bajazet, desired to have the young
-prince in his army to give his rebellion the appearance of legitimate
-warfare. The same demand, moreover, with the same political object, had
-been made successively by Mathias Corvinus, King of Hungary, by
-Ferdinand, King of Aragon and Sicily, and by Ferdinand, King of Naples.
-
-On his side Bajazet, who knew all the importance of such a rival, if he
-once allied himself with any one of the princes with whom he was at war,
-had sent ambassadors to Charles VIII, offering, if he would consent to
-keep D'jem with him, to give him a considerable pension, and to give to
-France the sovereignty of the Holy Land, so soon as Jerusalem should be
-conquered by the Sultan of Egypt. The King of France had accepted these
-terms.
-
-But then Innocent VIII had intervened, and in his turn had claimed
-D'jem, ostensibly to give support by the claims of the refugee to a
-crusade which he was preaching against the Turks, but in reality to
-appropriate the pension of 40,000 ducats to be given by Bajazet to any
-one of the Christian princes who would undertake to be his brother's
-gaoler. Charles VIII had not dared to refuse to the spiritual head of
-Christendom a request supported by such holy reasons; and therefore
-D'jem had quitted France, accompanied by the Grand Master d'Aubusson,
-under whose direct charge he was; but his guardian had consented, for
-the sake of a cardinal's hat, to yield up his prisoner. Thus, on the
-13th of March, 1489, the unhappy young man, cynosure of so many
-interested eyes, made his solemn entry into Rome, mounted on a superb
-horse, clothed in a magnificent oriental costume, between the Prior of
-Auvergne, nephew of the Grand Master d'Aubusson, and Francesco Cibo, the
-son of the pope.
-
-After this he had remained there, and Bajazet, faithful to promises
-which it was so much his interest to fulfil, had punctually paid to the
-sovereign pontiff a pension of 40,000 ducats.
-
-So much for Turkey.
-
-Ferdinand and Isabella were reigning in Spain, and were laying the
-foundations of that vast power which was destined, five-and-twenty years
-later, to make Charles V declare that the sun never set on his
-dominions. In fact, these two sovereigns, on whom history has bestowed
-the name of Catholic, had reconquered in succession nearly all Spain,
-and driven the Moors out of Granada, their last entrenchment; while two
-men of genius, Bartolome Diaz and Christopher Columbus, had succeeded,
-much to the profit of Spain, the one in recovering a lost world, the
-other in conquering a world yet unknown. They had accordingly, thanks to
-their victories in the ancient world and their discoveries in the new,
-acquired an influence at the court of Rome which had never been enjoyed
-by any of their predecessors.
-
-So much for Spain.
-
-In France, Charles VIII had succeeded his father, Louis XI, on the 30th
-of August, 1483. Louis by dint of executions, had tranquillised his
-kingdom and smoothed the way for a child who ascended the throne under
-the regency of a woman. And the regency had been a glorious one, and had
-put down the pretensions of princes of the blood, put an end to civil
-wars, and united to the crown all that yet remained of the great
-independent fiefs. The result was that at the epoch where we now are,
-here was Charles VIII, about twenty-two years of age, a prince (if we
-are to believe La Tremouille) little of body but great of heart; a child
-(if we are to believe Commines) only now making his first flight from
-the nest, destitute of both sense and money, feeble in person, full of
-self-will, and consorting rather with fools than with the wise; lastly,
-if we are to believe Guicciardini, who was an Italian, might well have
-brought a somewhat partial judgment to bear upon the subject, a young
-man of little wit concerning the actions of men, but carried away by an
-ardent desire for rule and the acquisition of glory, a desire based far
-more on his shallow character and impetuosity than on any consciousness
-of genius: he was an enemy to all fatigue and all business, and when he
-tried to give his attention to it he showed himself always totally
-wanting in prudence and judgment. If anything in him appeared at first
-sight to be worthy of praise, on a closer inspection it was found to be
-something nearer akin to vice than to virtue. He was liberal, it is
-true, but without thought, with no measure and no discrimination. He was
-sometimes inflexible in will; but this was through obstinacy rather than
-a constant mind; and what his flatterers called goodness deserved far
-more the name of insensibility to injuries or poverty of spirit.
-
-As to his physical appearance, if we are to believe the same author, it
-was still less admirable, and answered marvellously to his weakness of
-mind and character. He was small, with a large head, a short thick neck,
-broad chest, and high shoulders; his thighs and legs were long and thin;
-and as his face also was ugly--and was only redeemed by the dignity and
-force of his glance--and all his limbs were disproportionate with one
-another, he had rather the appearance of a monster than a man. Such was
-he whom Fortune was destined to make a conqueror, for whom Heaven was
-reserving more glory than he had power to carry.
-
-So much for France.
-
-The Imperial throne was occupied by Frederic III, who had been rightly
-named the Peaceful, not for the reason that he had always maintained
-peace, but because, having constantly been beaten, he had always been
-forced to make it. The first proof he had given of this very
-philosophical forbearance was during his journey to Rome, whither he
-betook himself to be consecrated. In crossing the Apennines he was
-attacked by brigands. They robbed him, but he made no pursuit. And so,
-encouraged by example and by the impunity of lesser thieves, the greater
-ones soon took part in the robberies. Amurath seized part of Hungary.
-Mathias Corvinus took Lower Austria, and Frederic consoled himself for
-these usurpations by repeating the maxim, Forgetfulness is the best cure
-for the losses we suffer. At the time we have now reached, he had just,
-after a reign of fifty-three years, affianced his son Maximilian to
-Marie of Burgundy and had put under the ban of the Empire his
-son-in-law, Albert of Bavaria, who laid claim to the ownership of the
-Tyrol. He was therefore too full of his family affairs to be troubled
-about Italy. Besides, he was busy looking for a motto for the house of
-Austria, an occupation of the highest importance for a man of the
-character of Frederic III. This motto, which Charles V was destined
-almost to render true, was at last discovered, to the great joy of the
-old emperor, who, judging that he had nothing more to do on earth after
-he had given this last proof of sagacity, died on the 19th of August,
-1493; leaving the empire to his son Maximilian.
-
-This motto was simply founded on the five vowels, a, e, i, o, u, the
-initial letters of these five words
-
-    "AUSTRIAE EST IMPERARE ORBI UNIVERSO."
-
-This means
-
-"It is the destiny of Austria to rule over the whole world."
-
-So much for Germany.
-
-Now that we have cast a glance over the four nations which were on the
-way, as we said before, to become European Powers, let us turn our
-attention to those secondary States which formed a circle more
-contiguous to Rome, and whose business it was to serve as armour, so to
-speak, to the spiritual queen of the world, should it please any of
-these political giants whom we have described to make encroachments with
-a view to an attack, on the seas or the mountains, the Adriatic Gulf or
-the Alps, the Mediterranean or the Apennines.
-
-These were the kingdom of Naples, the duchy of Milan, the magnificent
-republic of Florence, and the most serene republic of Venice.
-
-The kingdom of Naples was in the hands of the old Ferdinand, whose birth
-was not only illegitimate, but probably also well within the prohibited
-degrees. His father, Alfonso of Aragon, received his crown from Giovanna
-of Naples, who had adopted him as her successor. But since, in the fear
-of having no heir, the queen on her deathbed had named two instead of
-one, Alfonso had to sustain his rights against Rene. The two aspirants
-for some time disputed the crown. At last the house of Aragon carried
-the day over the house of Anjou, and in the course of the year 1442,
-Alfonso definitely secured his seat on the throne. Of this sort were the
-claims of the defeated rival which we shall see Charles VIII maintaining
-later on. Ferdinand had neither the courage nor the genius of his
-father, and yet he triumphed over his enemies, one after another he had
-two rivals, both for superior in merit to him self. The one was his
-nephew, the Count of Viana, who, basing his claim on his uncle's
-shameful birth, commanded the whole Aragonese party; the other was Duke
-John of Calabria, who commanded the whole Angevin party. Still he
-managed to hold the two apart, and to keep himself on the throne by dint
-of his prudence, which often verged upon duplicity. He had a cultivated
-mind, and had studied the sciences--above all, law. He was of middle
-height, with a large handsome head, his brow open and admirably framed
-in beautiful white hair, which fell nearly down to his shoulders.
-Moreover, though he had rarely exercised his physical strength in arms,
-this strength was so great that one day, when he happened to be on the
-square of the Mercato Nuovo at Naples, he seized by the horns a bull
-that had escaped and stopped him short, in spite of all the efforts the
-animal made to escape from his hands. Now the election of Alexander had
-caused him great uneasiness, and in spite of his usual prudence he had
-not been able to restrain himself from saying before the bearer of the
-news that not only did he fail to rejoice in this election, but also
-that he did not think that any Christian could rejoice in it, seeing
-that Borgia, having always been a bad man, would certainly make a bad
-pope. To this he added that, even were the choice an excellent one and
-such as would please everybody else, it would be none the less fatal to
-the house of Aragon, although Roderigo was born her subject and owed to
-her the origin and progress of his fortunes; for wherever reasons of
-state come in, the ties of blood and parentage are soon forgotten, and,
-'a fortiori', relations arising from the obligations of nationality.
-
-Thus, one may see that Ferdinand judged Alexander VI with his usual
-perspicacity; this, however, did not hinder him, as we shall soon
-perceive, from being the first to contract an alliance with him.
-
-The duchy of Milan belonged nominally to John Galeazzo, grandson of
-Francesco Sforza, who had seized it by violence on the 26th of February,
-1450, and bequeathed it to his son, Galeazzo Maria, father of the young
-prince now reigning; we say nominally, because the real master of the
-Milanese was at this period not the legitimate heir who was supposed to
-possess it, but his uncle Ludovico, surnamed 'il Moro', because of the
-mulberry tree which he bore in his arms. After being exiled with his two
-brothers, Philip who died of poison in 1479, and Ascanio who became the
-cardinal, he returned to Milan some days after the assassination of
-Galeazzo Maria, which took place on the 26th of December 1476, in St.
-Stephen's Church, and assumed the regency for the young duke, who at
-that time was only eight years old. From now onward, even after his
-nephew had reached the age of two-and-twenty, Ludovico continued to
-rule, and according to all probabilities was destined to rule a long
-time yet; for, some days after the poor young man had shown a desire to
-take the reins himself, he had fallen sick, and it was said, and not in
-a whisper, that he had taken one of those slow but mortal poisons of
-which princes made so frequent a use at this period, that, even when a
-malady was natural, a cause was always sought connected with some great
-man's interests. However it may have been, Ludovico had relegated his
-nephew, now too weak to busy himself henceforward with the affairs of
-his duchy, to the castle of Pavia, where he lay and languished under the
-eyes of his wife Isabella, daughter of King Ferdinand of Naples.
-
-As to Ludovico, he was an ambitious man, full of courage and astuteness,
-familiar with the sword and with poison, which he used alternately,
-according to the occasion, without feeling any repugnance or any
-predilection for either of them; but quite decided to be his nephew's
-heir whether he died or lived.
-
-Florence, although she had preserved the name of a republic, had little
-by little lost all her liberties, and belonged in fact, if not by right,
-to Piero dei Medici, to whom she had been bequeathed as a paternal
-legacy by Lorenzo, as we have seen, at the risk of his soul's salvation.
-
-The son, unfortunately, was far from having the genius of his father: he
-was handsome, it is true, whereas Lorenzo, on the contrary, was
-remarkably ugly; he had an agreeable, musical voice, whereas Lorenzo had
-always spoken through his nose; he was instructed in Latin and Greek,
-his conversation was pleasant and easy, and he improvised verses almost
-as well as the so-called Magnificent; but he was both ignorant of
-political affairs and haughtily insolent in his behaviour to those who
-had made them their study. Added to this, he was an ardent lover of
-pleasure, passionately addicted to women, incessantly occupied with
-bodily exercises that should make him shine in their eyes, above all
-with tennis, a game at which he very highly excelled: he promised
-himself that, when the period of mourning was fast, he would occupy the
-attention not only of Florence but of the whole of Italy, by the
-splendour of his courts and the renown of his fetes. Piero dei Medici
-had at any rate formed this plan; but Heaven decreed otherwise.
-
-As to the most serene republic of Venice, whose doge was Agostino
-Barbarigo, she had attained, at the time we have reached, to her highest
-degree of power and splendour. From Cadiz to the Palus Maeotis, there
-was no port that was not open to her thousand ships; she possessed in
-Italy, beyond the coastline of the canals and the ancient duchy of
-Venice, the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia, Crema, Verona, Vicenza, and
-Padua; she owned the marches of Treviso, which comprehend the districts
-of Feltre, Belluno, Cadore, Polesella of Rovigo, and the principality of
-Ravenna; she also owned the Friuli, except Aquileia; Istria, except
-Trieste; she owned, on the east side of the Gulf, Zara, Spalatra, and
-the shore of Albania; in the Ionian Sea, the islands of Zante and Corfu;
-in Greece, Lepanto and Patras; in the Morea, Morone, Corone, Neapolis,
-and Argos; lastly, in the Archipelago, besides several little towns and
-stations on the coast, she owned Candia and the kingdom of Cyprus.
-
-Thus from the mouth of the Po to the eastern extremity of the
-Mediterranean, the most serene republic was mistress of the whole
-coastline, and Italy and Greece seemed to be mere suburbs of Venice.
-
-In the intervals of space left free between Naples, Milan, Florence, and
-Venice, petty tyrants had arisen who exercised an absolute sovereignty
-over their territories: thus the Colonnas were at Ostia and at Nettuna,
-the Montefeltri at Urbino, the Manfredi at Faenza, the Bentivogli at
-Bologna, the Malatesta family at Rimini, the Vitelli at Citta di
-Castello, the Baglioni at Perugia, the Orsini at Vicovaro, and the
-princes of Este at Ferrara.
-
-Finally, in the centre of this immense circle, composed of great Powers,
-of secondary States, and of little tyrannies, Rome was set on high, the
-most exalted, yet the weakest of all, without influence, without lands,
-without an army, without gold. It was the concern of the new pope to
-secure all this: let us see, therefore, what manner of man was this
-Alexander VI, for undertaking and accomplishing such a project.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-
-RODERIGO LENZUOLO was born at Valencia, in Spain, in 1430 or 1431, and
-on his mother's side was descended, as some writers declare, of a family
-of royal blood, which had cast its eyes on the tiara only after
-cherishing hopes of the crowns of Aragon and Valencia. Roderigo from his
-infancy had shown signs of a marvellous quickness of mind, and as he
-grew older he exhibited an intelligence extremely apt for the study of
-sciences, especially law and jurisprudence: the result was that his
-first distinctions were gained in the law, a profession wherein he soon
-made a great reputation by his ability in the discussion of the most
-thorny cases. All the same, he was not slow to leave this career, and
-abandoned it quite suddenly for the military profession, which his
-father had followed; but after various actions which served to display
-his presence of mind and courage, he was as much disgusted with this
-profession as with the other; and since it happened that at the very
-time he began to feel this disgust his father died, leaving a
-considerable fortune, he resolved to do no more work, but to live
-according to his own fancies and caprices. About this time he became the
-lover of a widow who had two daughters. The widow dying, Roderigo took
-the girls under his protection, put one into a convent, and as the other
-was one of the loveliest women imaginable, made her his mistress. This
-was the notorious Rosa Vanozza, by whom he had five children--Francesco,
-Caesar, Lucrezia, and Goffredo; the name of the fifth is unknown.
-
-Roderigo, retired from public affairs, was given up entirely to the
-affections of a lover and a father, when he heard that his uncle, who
-loved him like a son, had been elected pope under the name of Calixtus
-III. But the young man was at this time so much a lover that love
-imposed silence on ambition; and indeed he was almost terrified at the
-exaltation of his uncle, which was no doubt destined to force him once
-more into public life. Consequently, instead of hurrying to Rome, as
-anyone else in his place would have done, he was content to indite to
-His Holiness a letter in which he begged for the continuation of his
-favours, and wished him a long and happy reign.
-
-This reserve on the part of one of his relatives, contrasted with the
-ambitious schemes which beset the new pope at every step, struck
-Calixtus III in a singular way: he knew the stuff that was in young
-Roderigo, and at a time when he was besieged on all sides by
-mediocrities, this powerful nature holding modestly aside gained new
-grandeur in his eyes so he replied instantly to Roderigo that on the
-receipt of his letter he must quit Spain for Italy, Valencia for Rome.
-
-This letter uprooted Roderigo from the centre of happiness he had
-created for himself, and where he might perhaps have slumbered on like
-an ordinary man, if fortune had not thus interposed to drag him forcibly
-away. Roderigo was happy, Roderigo was rich; the evil passions which
-were natural to him had been, if not extinguished,--at least lulled; he
-was frightened himself at the idea of changing the quiet life he was
-leading for the ambitious, agitated career that was promised him; and
-instead of obeying his uncle, he delayed the preparations for departure,
-hoping that Calixtus would forget him. It was not so: two months after
-he received the letter from the pope, there arrived at Valencia a
-prelate from Rome, the bearer of Roderigo's nomination to a benefice
-worth 20,000 ducats a year, and also a positive order to the holder of
-the post to come and take possession of his charge as soon as possible.
-
-Holding back was no longer feasible: so Roderigo obeyed; but as he did
-not wish to be separated from the source whence had sprung eight years
-of happiness, Rosa Vanozza also left Spain, and while he was going to
-Rome, she betook herself to Venice, accompanied by two confidential
-servants, and under the protection of a Spanish gentleman named Manuel
-Melchior.
-
-Fortune kept the promises she had made to Roderigo: the pope received
-him as a son, and made him successively Archbishop of Valencia,
-Cardinal-Deacon, and Vice-Chancellor. To all these favours Calixtus
-added a revenue of 20,000 ducats, so that at the age of scarcely
-thirty-five Roderigo found himself the equal of a prince in riches and
-power.
-
-Roderigo had had some reluctance about accepting the cardinalship, which
-kept him fast at Rome, and would have preferred to be General of the
-Church, a position which would have allowed him more liberty for seeing
-his mistress and his family; but his uncle Calixtus made him reckon with
-the possibility of being his successor some day, and from that moment
-the idea of being the supreme head of kings and nations took such hold
-of Roderigo, that he no longer had any end in view but that which his
-uncle had made him entertain.
-
-From that day forward, there began to grow up in the young cardinal that
-talent for hypocrisy which made of him the most perfect incarnation of
-the devil that has perhaps ever existed; and Roderigo was no longer the
-same man: with words of repentance and humility on his lips, his head
-bowed as though he were bearing the weight of his past sins, disparaging
-the riches which he had acquired and which, according to him, were the
-wealth of the poor and ought to return to the poor, he passed his life
-in churches, monasteries, and hospitals, acquiring, his historian tells
-us, even in the eyes of his enemies, the reputation of a Solomon for
-wisdom, of a Job for patience, and of a very Moses for his promulgation
-of the word of God: Rosa Vanozza was the only person in the world who
-could appreciate the value of this pious cardinal's conversion.
-
-It proved a lucky thing for Roderigo that he had assumed this pious
-attitude, for his protector died after a reign of three years three
-months and nineteen days, and he was now sustained by his own merit
-alone against the numerous enemies he had made by his rapid rise to
-fortune: so during the whole of the reign of Pius II he lived always
-apart from public affairs, and only reappeared in the days of Sixtus IV,
-who made him the gift of the abbacy of Subiaco, and sent him in the
-capacity of ambassador to the kings of Aragon and Portugal. On his
-return, which took place during the pontificate of Innocent VIII, he
-decided to fetch his family at last to Rome: thither they came, escorted
-by Don Manuel Melchior, who from that moment passed as the husband of
-Rosa Vanozza, and took the name of Count Ferdinand of Castile. The
-Cardinal Roderigo received the noble Spaniard as a countryman and a
-friend; and he, who expected to lead a most retired life, engaged a
-house in the street of the Lungara, near the church of Regina Coeli, on
-the banks of the Tiber. There it was that, after passing the day in
-prayers and pious works, Cardinal Roderigo used to repair each evening
-and lay aside his mask. And it was said, though nobody could prove it,
-that in this house infamous scenes passed: Report said the dissipations
-were of so dissolute a character that their equals had never been seen
-in Rome. With a view to checking the rumours that began to spread
-abroad, Roderigo sent Caesar to study at Pisa, and married Lucrezia to a
-young gentleman of Aragon; thus there only remained at home Rosa Vanozza
-and her two sons: such was the state of things when Innocent VIII died
-and Roderigo Borgia was proclaimed pope.
-
-We have seen by what means the nomination was effected; and so the five
-cardinals who had taken no part in this simony--namely, the Cardinals of
-Naples, Sierra, Portugal, Santa Maria-in-Porticu, and St.
-Peter-in-Vinculis--protested loudly against this election, which they
-treated as a piece of jobbery; but Roderigo had none the less, however
-it was done, secured his majority; Roderigo was none the less the two
-hundred and sixtieth successor of St. Peter.
-
-Alexander VI, however, though he had arrived at his object, did not dare
-throw off at first the mask which the Cardinal Borgia had worn so long,
-although when he was apprised of his election he could not dissimulate
-his joy; indeed, on hearing the favourable result of the scrutiny, he
-lifted his hands to heaven and cried, in the accents of satisfied
-ambition, "Am I then pope? Am I then Christ's vicar? Am I then the
-keystone of the Christian world?"
-
-"Yes, holy father," replied Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, the same who had
-sold to Roderigo the nine votes that were at his disposal at the
-Conclave for four mules laden with silver; "and we hope by your election
-to give glory to God, repose to the Church, and joy to Christendom,
-seeing that you have been chosen by the Almighty Himself as the most
-worthy among all your brethren."
-
-But in the short interval occupied by this reply, the new pope had
-already assumed the papal authority, and in a humble voice and with
-hands crossed upon his breast, he spoke:
-
-"We hope that God will grant us His powerful aid, in spite of our
-weakness, and that He will do for us that which He did for the apostle
-when aforetime He put into his hands the keys of heaven and entrusted to
-him the government of the Church, a government which without the aid of
-God would prove too heavy a burden for mortal man; but God promised that
-His Spirit should direct him; God will do the same, I trust, for us; and
-for your part we fear not lest any of you fail in that holy obedience
-which is due unto the head of the Church, even as the flock of Christ
-was bidden to follow the prince of the apostles."
-
-Having spoken these words, Alexander donned the pontifical robes, and
-through the windows of the Vatican had strips of paper thrown out on
-which his name was written in Latin. These, blown by the wind, seemed to
-convey to the whole world the news of the great event which was about to
-change the face of Italy. The same day couriers started for all the
-courts of Europe.
-
-Caesar Borgia learned the news of his father's election at the
-University of Pisa, where he was a student. His ambition had sometimes
-dreamed of such good fortune, yet his joy was little short of madness.
-He was then a young man, about twenty-two or twenty-four years of age,
-skilful in all bodily exercises, and especially in fencing; he could
-ride barebacked the most fiery steeds, could cut off the head of a bull
-at a single sword-stroke; moreover, he was arrogant, jealous, and
-insincere. According to Tammasi, he was great among the godless, as his
-brother Francesco was good among the great. As to his face, even
-contemporary authors have left utterly different descriptions; for same
-have painted him as a monster of ugliness, while others, on the
-contrary, extol his beauty. This contradiction is due to the fact that
-at certain times of the year, and especially in the spring, his face was
-covered with an eruption which, so long as it lasted, made him an object
-of horror and disgust, while all the rest of the year he was the sombre,
-black-haired cavalier with pale skin and tawny beard whom Raphael shows
-us in the fine portrait he made of him. And historians, both chroniclers
-and painters, agree as to his fixed and powerful gaze, behind which
-burned a ceaseless flame, giving to his face something infernal and
-superhuman. Such was the man whose fortune was to fulfil all his
-desires. He had taken for his motto, 'Aut Caesar, aut nihil': Caesar or
-nothing.
-
-Caesar posted to Rome with certain of his friends, and scarcely was he
-recognised at the gates of the city when the deference shown to him gave
-instant proof of the change in his fortunes: at the Vatican the respect
-was twice as great; mighty men bowed down before him as before one
-mightier than themselves. And so, in his impatience, he stayed not to
-visit his mother or any other member of his family, but went straight to
-the pope to kiss his feet; and as the pope had been forewarned of his
-coming, he awaited him in the midst of a brilliant and numerous
-assemblage of cardinals, with the three other brothers standing behind
-him. His Holiness received Caesar with a gracious countenance; still, he
-did not allow himself any demonstration of his paternal love, but,
-bending towards him, kissed him on the forehead, and inquired how he was
-and how he had fared on his journey. Caesar replied that he was
-wonderfully well, and altogether at the service of His Holiness: that,
-as to the journey, the trifling inconveniences and short fatigue had
-been compensated, and far more than compensated, by the joy which he
-felt in being able to adore upon the papal throne a pope who was so
-worthy. At these words, leaving Caesar still on his knees, and reseating
-himself--for he had risen from his seat to embrace him--the pope assumed
-a grave and composed expression of face, and spoke as follows, loud
-enough to be heard by all, and slowly enough for everyone present to be
-able to ponder and retain in his memory even the least of his words:
-
-"We are convinced, Caesar, that you are peculiarly rejoiced in beholding
-us on this sublime height, so far above our deserts, whereto it has
-pleased the Divine goodness to exalt us. This joy of yours is first of
-all our due because of the love we have always borne you and which we
-bear you still, and in the second place is prompted by your own personal
-interest, since henceforth you may feel sure of receiving from our
-pontifical hand those benefits which your own good works shall deserve.
-But if your joy--and this we say to you as we have even now said to your
-brothers--if your joy is founded on ought else than this, you are very
-greatly mistaken, Caesar, and you will find yourself sadly deceived.
-Perhaps we have been ambitious--we confess this humbly before the face
-of all men--passionately and immoderately ambitious to attain to the
-dignity of sovereign pontiff, and to reach this end we have followed
-every path that is open to human industry; but we have acted thus,
-vowing an inward vow that when once we had reached our goal, we would
-follow no other path but that which conduces best to the service of God
-and to the advancement of the Holy See, so that the glorious memory of
-the deeds that we shall do may efface the shameful recollection of the
-deeds we have already done. Thus shall we, let us hope, leave to those
-who follow us a track where upon if they find not the footsteps of a
-saint, they may at least tread in the path of a true pontiff. God, who
-has furthered the means, claims at our hands the fruits, and we desire
-to discharge to the full this mighty debt that we have incurred to Him;
-and accordingly we refuse to arouse by any deceit the stern rigour of
-His judgments. One sole hindrance could have power to shake our good
-intentions, and that might happen should we feel too keen an interest in
-your fortunes. Therefore are we armed beforehand against our love, and
-therefore have we prayed to God beforehand that we stumble not because
-of you; for in the path of favouritism a pope cannot slip without a
-fall, and cannot fall without injury and dishonour to the Holy See. Even
-to the end of our life we shall deplore the faults which have brought
-this experience home to us; and may it please God that our uncle
-Calixtus of blessed memory bear not this day in purgatory the burden of
-our sins, more heavy, alas, than his own! Ah, he was rich in every
-virtue, he was full of good intentions; but he loved too much his own
-people, and among them he loved me chief. And so he suffered this love
-to lead him blindly astray, all this love that he bore to his kindred,
-who to him were too truly flesh of his flesh, so that he heaped upon the
-heads of a few persons only, and those perhaps the least worthy,
-benefits which would more fittingly have rewarded the deserts of many.
-In truth, he bestowed upon our house treasures that should never have
-been amassed at the expense of the poor, or else should have been turned
-to a better purpose. He severed from the ecclesiastical State, already
-weak and poor, the duchy of Spoleto and other wealthy properties, that
-he might make them fiefs to us; he confided to our weak hands the
-vice-chancellorship, the vice-prefecture of Rome, the generalship of the
-Church, and all the other most important offices, which, instead of
-being monopolised by us, should have been conferred on those who were
-most meritorious. Moreover, there were persons who were raised on our
-recommendation to posts of great dignity, although they had no claims
-but such as our undue partiality accorded them; others were left out
-with no reason for their failure except the jealousy excited in us by
-their virtues. To rob Ferdinand of Aragon of the kingdom of Naples,
-Calixtus kindled a terrible war, which by a happy issue only served to
-increase our fortune, and by an unfortunate issue must have brought
-shame and disaster upon the Holy See. Lastly, by allowing himself to be
-governed by men who sacrificed public good to their private interests,
-he inflicted an injury, not only upon the pontifical throne and his own
-reputation, but what is far worse, far more deadly, upon his own
-conscience. And yet, O wise judgments of God! hard and incessantly
-though he toiled to establish our fortunes, scarcely had he left empty
-that supreme seat which we occupy to-day, when we were cast down from
-the pinnacle whereon we had climbed, abandoned to the fury of the rabble
-and the vindictive hatred of the Roman barons, who chose to feel
-offended by our goodness to their enemies. Thus, not only, we tell you,
-Caesar, not only did we plunge headlong from the summit of our grandeur,
-losing the worldly goods and dignities which our uncle had heaped at our
-feet, but for very peril of our life we were condemned to a voluntary
-exile, we and our friends, and in this way only did we contrive to
-escape the storm which our too good fortune had stirred up against us.
-Now this is a plain proof that God mocks at men's designs when they are
-bad ones. How great an error is it for any pope to devote more care to
-the welfare of a house, which cannot last more than a few years, than to
-the glory of the Church, which will last for ever! What utter folly for
-any public man whose position is not inherited and cannot be bequeathed
-to his posterity, to support the edifice of his grandeur on any other
-basis than the noblest virtue practised for the general good, and to
-suppose that he can ensure the continuance of his own fortune otherwise
-than by taking all precautions against sudden whirlwinds which are want
-to arise in the midst of a calm, and to blow up the storm-clouds I mean
-the host of enemies. Now any one of these enemies who does his worst can
-cause injuries far more powerful than any help that is at all likely to
-come from a hundred friends and their lying promises. If you and your
-brothers walk in the path of virtue which we shall now open for you,
-every wish of your heart shall be instantly accomplished; but if you
-take the other path, if you have ever hoped that our affection will wink
-at disorderly life, then you will very soon find out that we are truly
-pope, Father of the Church, not father of the family; that, vicar of
-Christ as we are, we shall act as we deem best for Christendom, and not
-as you deem best for your own private good. And now that we have come to
-a thorough understanding, Caesar, receive our pontifical blessing." And
-with these words, Alexander VI rose up, laid his hands upon his son's
-head, for Caesar was still kneeling, and then retired into his
-apartments, without inviting him to follow.
-
-The young man remained awhile stupefied at this discourse, so utterly
-unexpected, so utterly destructive at one fell blow to his most
-cherished hopes. He rose giddy and staggering like a drunken man, and at
-once leaving the Vatican, hurried to his mother, whom he had forgotten
-before, but sought now in his despair. Rosa Vanozza possessed all the
-vices and all the virtues of a Spanish courtesan; her devotion to the
-Virgin amounted to superstition, her fondness for her children to
-weakness, and her love for Roderigo to sensuality. In the depth of her
-heart she relied on the influence she had been able to exercise over him
-for nearly thirty years; and like a snake, she knew how to envelop him
-in her coils when the fascination of her glance had lost its power. Rosa
-knew of old the profound hypocrisy of her lover, and thus she was in no
-difficulty about reassuring Caesar.
-
-Lucrezia was with her mother when Caesar arrived; the two young people
-exchanged a lover-like kiss beneath her very eyes: and before he left
-Caesar had made an appointment for the same evening with Lucrezia, who
-was now living apart from her husband, to whom Roderigo paid a pension
-in her palace of the Via del Pelegrino, opposite the Campo dei Fiori,
-and there enjoying perfect liberty.
-
-In the evening, at the hour fixed, Caesar appeared at Lucrezia's; but he
-found there his brother Francesco. The two young men had never been
-friends. Still, as their tastes were very different, hatred with
-Francesco was only the fear of the deer for the hunter; but with Caesar
-it was the desire for vengeance and that lust for blood which lurks
-perpetually in the heart of a tiger. The two brothers none the less
-embraced, one from general kindly feeling, the other from hypocrisy; but
-at first sight of one another the sentiment of a double rivalry, first
-in their father's and then in their sister's good graces, had sent the
-blood mantling to the cheek of Francesco, and called a deadly pallor
-into Caesar's. So the two young men sat on, each resolved not to be the
-first to leave, when all at once there was a knock at the door, and a
-rival was announced before whom both of them were bound to give way: it
-was their father.
-
-Rosa Vanazza was quite right in comforting Caesar. Indeed, although
-Alexander VI had repudiated the abuses of nepotism, he understood very
-well the part that was to be played for his benefit by his sons and his
-daughter; for he knew he could always count on Lucrezia and Caesar, if
-not on Francesco and Goffredo. In these matters the sister was quite
-worthy of her brother. Lucrezia was wanton in imagination, godless by
-nature, ambitious and designing: she had a craving for pleasure,
-admiration, honours, money, jewels, gorgeous stuffs, and magnificent
-mansions. A true Spaniard beneath her golden tresses, a courtesan
-beneath her frank looks, she carried the head of a Raphael Madonna, and
-concealed the heart of a Messalina. She was dear to Roderigo both as
-daughter and as mistress, and he saw himself reflected in her as in a
-magic mirror, every passion and every vice. Lucrezia and Caesar were
-accordingly the best beloved of his heart, and the three composed that
-diabolical trio which for eleven years occupied the pontifical throne,
-like a mocking parody of the heavenly Trinity.
-
-Nothing occurred at first to give the lie to Alexander's professions of
-principle in the discourse he addressed to Caesar, and the first year of
-his pontificate exceeded all the hopes of Rome at the time of his
-election. He arranged for the provision of stores in the public
-granaries with such liberality, that within the memory of man there had
-never been such astonishing abundance; and with a view to extending the
-general prosperity to the lowest class, he organised numerous doles to
-be paid out of his private fortune, which made it possible for the very
-poor to participate in the general banquet from which they had been
-excluded for long enough. The safety of the city was secured, from the
-very first days of his accession, by the establishment of a strong and
-vigilant police force, and a tribunal consisting of four magistrates of
-irreproachable character, empowered to prosecute all nocturnal crimes,
-which during the last pontificate had been so common that their very
-numbers made impunity certain: these judges from the first showed a
-severity which neither the rank nor the purse of the culprit could
-modify. This presented such a great contrast to the corruption of the
-last reign,--in the course of which the vice-chamberlain one day
-remarked in public, when certain people were complaining of the venality
-of justice, "God wills not that a sinner die, but that he live and
-pay,"--that the capital of the Christian world felt for one brief moment
-restored to the happy days of the papacy. So, at the end of a year,
-Alexander VI had reconquered that spiritual credit, so to speak, which
-his predecessors lost. His political credit was still to be established,
-if he was to carry out the first part of his gigantic scheme. To arrive
-at this, he must employ two agencies--alliances and conquests. His plan
-was to begin with alliances. The gentleman of Aragon who had married
-Lucrezia when she was only the daughter of Cardinal Roderigo Borgia was
-not a man powerful enough, either by birth and fortune or by intellect,
-to enter with any sort of effect into the plots and plans of Alexander
-VI; the separation was therefore changed into a divorce, and Lucrezia
-Borgia was now free to remarry. Alexander opened up two negotiations at
-the same time: he needed an ally to keep a watch on the policy of the
-neighbouring States. John Sforza, grandson of Alexander Sforza, brother
-of the great Francis I, Duke of Milan, was lord of Pesaro; the
-geographical situation of this place, on the coast, on the way between
-Florence and Venice, was wonderfully convenient for his purpose; so
-Alexander first cast an eye upon him, and as the interest of both
-parties was evidently the same, it came about that John Sforza was very
-soon Lucrezia's second husband.
-
-At the same time overtures had been made to Alfonso of Aragon, heir
-presumptive to the crown of Naples, to arrange a marriage between Dana
-Sancia, his illegitimate daughter, and Goffreda, the pope's third son;
-but as the old Ferdinand wanted to make the best bargain he could out of
-it; he dragged on the negotiations as long as possible, urging that the
-two children were not of marriageable age, and so, highly honoured as he
-felt in such a prospective alliance, there was no hurry about the
-engagement. Matters stopped at this point, to the great annoyance of
-Alexander VI, who saw through this excuse, and understood that the
-postponement was nothing more or less than a refusal. Accordingly
-Alexander and Ferdinand remained in statu quo, equals in the political
-game, both on the watch till events should declare for one or other. The
-turn of fortune was for Alexander.
-
-Italy, though tranquil, was instinctively conscious that her calm was
-nothing but the lull which goes before a storm. She was too rich and too
-happy to escape the envy of other nations. As yet the plains of Pisa had
-not been reduced to marsh-lands by the combined negligence and jealousy
-of the Florentine Republic, neither had the rich country that lay around
-Rome been converted into a barren desert by the wars of the Colonna and
-Orsini families; not yet had the Marquis of Marignan razed to the ground
-a hundred and twenty villages in the republic of Siena alone; and though
-the Maremma was unhealthy, it was not yet a poisonous marsh: it is a
-fact that Flavio Blando, writing in 1450, describes Ostia as being
-merely less flourishing than in the days of the Romans, when she had
-numbered 50,000 inhabitants, whereas now in our own day there are barely
-30 in all.
-
-The Italian peasants were perhaps the most blest on the face of the
-earth: instead of living scattered about the country in solitary
-fashion, they lived in villages that were enclosed by walls as a
-protection for their harvests, animals, and farm implements; their
-houses--at any rate those that yet stand--prove that they lived in much
-more comfortable and beautiful surroundings than the ordinary townsman
-of our day. Further, there was a community of interests, and many people
-collected together in the fortified villages, with the result that
-little by little they attained to an importance never acquired by the
-boorish French peasants or the German serfs; they bore arms, they had a
-common treasury, they elected their own magistrates, and whenever they
-went out to fight, it was to save their common country.
-
-Also commerce was no less flourishing than agriculture; Italy at this
-period was rich in industries--silk, wool, hemp, fur, alum, sulphur,
-bitumen; those products which the Italian soil could not bring forth
-were imported, from the Black Sea, from Egypt, from Spain, from France,
-and often returned whence they came, their worth doubled by labour and
-fine workmanship. The rich man brought his merchandise, the poor his
-industry: the one was sure of finding workmen, the other was sure of
-finding work.
-
-Art also was by no means behindhand: Dante, Giotto, Brunelleschi, and
-Donatello were dead, but Ariosto, Raphael, Bramante, and Michael Angelo
-were now living. Rome, Florence, and Naples had inherited the
-masterpieces of antiquity; and the manuscripts of AEschylus, Sophocles,
-and Euripides had come (thanks to the conquest of Mahomet II) to rejoin
-the statue of Xanthippus and the works of Phidias and Praxiteles. The
-principal sovereigns of Italy had come to understand, when they let
-their eyes dwell upon the fat harvests, the wealthy villages, the
-flourishing manufactories, and the marvellous churches, and then
-compared with them the poor and rude nations of fighting men who
-surrounded them on all sides, that some day or other they were destined
-to become for other countries what America was for Spain, a vast
-gold-mine for them to work. In consequence of this, a league offensive
-and defensive had been signed, about 1480, by Naples, Milan, Florence,
-and Ferrara, prepared to take a stand against enemies within or without,
-in Italy or outside. Ludovico Sforza, who was more than anyone else
-interested in maintaining this league, because he was nearest to France,
-whence the storm seemed to threaten, saw in the new pope's election
-means not only of strengthening the league, but of making its power and
-unity conspicuous in the sight of Europe.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-
-On the occasion of each new election to the papacy, it is the custom for
-all the Christian States to send a solemn embassy to Rome, to renew
-their oath of allegiance to the Holy Father. Ludovico Sforza conceived
-the idea that the ambassadors of the four Powers should unite and make
-their entry into Rome on the same day, appointing one of their envoys,
-viz. the representative of the King of Naples, to be spokesman for all
-four. Unluckily, this plan did not agree with the magnificent projects
-of Piero dei Medici. That proud youth, who had been appointed ambassador
-of the Florentine Republic, had seen in the mission entrusted to him by
-his fellow-citizens the means of making a brilliant display of his own
-wealth. From the day of his nomination onwards, his palace was
-constantly filled with tailors, jewellers, and merchants of priceless
-stuffs; magnificent clothes had been made for him, embroidered with
-precious stones which he had selected from the family treasures. All his
-jewels, perhaps the richest in Italy, were distributed about the
-liveries of his pages, and one of them, his favourite, was to wear a
-collar of pearls valued by itself at 100,000 ducats, or almost, a
-million of our francs. In his party the Bishop of Arezzo, Gentile, who
-had once been Lorenzo dei Medici's tutor, was elected as second
-ambassador, and it was his duty to speak. Now Gentile, who had prepared
-his speech, counted on his eloquence to charm the ear quite as much as
-Piero counted on his riches to dazzle the eye. But the eloquence of
-Gentile would be lost completely if nobody was to speak but the
-ambassador of the King of Naples; and the magnificence of Piero dei
-Medici would never be noticed at all if he went to Rome mixed up with
-all the other ambassadors. These two important interests, compromised by
-the Duke of Milan's proposition, changed the whole face of Italy.
-
-Ludovico Sforza had already made sure of Ferdinand's promise to conform
-to the plan he had invented, when the old king, at the solicitation of
-Piero, suddenly drew back. Sforza found out how this change had come
-about, and learned that it was Piero's influence that had overmastered
-his own. He could not disentangle the real motives that had promised the
-change, and imagined there was some secret league against himself: he
-attributed the changed political programme to the death of Lorenzo dei
-Medici. But whatever its cause might be, it was evidently prejudicial to
-his own interests: Florence, Milan's old ally, was abandoning her for
-Naples. He resolved to throw a counter weight into the scales; so,
-betraying to Alexander the policy of Piero and Ferdinand, he proposed to
-form a defensive and offensive alliance with him and admit the republic
-of Venice; Duke Hercules III of Ferrara was also to be summoned to
-pronounce for one or other of the two leagues. Alexander VI, wounded by
-Ferdinand's treatment of himself, accepted Ludovico Sforza's
-proposition, and an Act of Confederation was signed on the 22nd of
-April, 1493, by which the new allies pledged themselves to set on foot
-for the maintenance of the public peace an army of 20,000 horse and
-6,000 infantry.
-
-Ferdinand was frightened when he beheld the formation of this league;
-but he thought he could neutralise its effects by depriving Ludovico
-Sforza of his regency, which he had already kept beyond the proper time,
-though as yet he was not strictly an usurper. Although the young
-Galeazzo, his nephew, had reached the age of two-and-twenty, Ludovico
-Sforza none the less continued regent. Now Ferdinand definitely proposed
-to the Duke of Milan that he should resign the sovereign power into the
-hands of his nephew, on pain of being declared an usurper.
-
-This was a bold stroke; but there was a risk of inciting Ludovico Sforza
-to start one of those political plots that he was so familiar with,
-never recoiling from any situation, however dangerous it might be. This
-was exactly what happened: Sforza, uneasy about his duchy, resolved to
-threaten Ferdinand's kingdom.
-
-Nothing could be easier: he knew the warlike notions of Charles VIII,
-and the pretensions of the house of France to the kingdom of Naples. He
-sent two ambassadors to invite the young king to claim the rights of
-Anjou usurped by Aragon; and with a view to reconciling Charles to so
-distant and hazardous an expedition, offered him a free and friendly
-passage through his own States.
-
-Such a proposition was welcome to Charles VIII, as we might suppose from
-our knowledge of his character; a magnificent prospect was opened to him
-as by an enchanter: what Ludovica Sforza was offering him was virtually
-the command of the Mediterranean, the protectorship of the whole of
-Italy; it was an open road, through Naples and Venice, that well might
-lead to the conquest of Turkey or the Holy Land, if he ever had the
-fancy to avenge the disasters of Nicapolis and Mansourah. So the
-proposition was accepted, and a secret alliance was signed, with Count
-Charles di Belgiojasa and the Count of Cajazza acting for Ludovica
-Sforza, and the Bishop of St. Malo and Seneschal de Beaucaire for
-Charles VIII. By this treaty it was agreed:--
-
-That the King of France should attempt the conquest of the kingdom of
-Naples;
-
-That the Duke of Milan should grant a passage to the King of France
-through his territories, and accompany him with five hundred lances;
-
-That the Duke of Milan should permit the King of France to send out as
-many ships of war as he pleased from Genoa;
-
-Lastly, that the Duke of Milan should lend the King of France 200,000
-ducats, payable when he started.
-
-On his side, Charles VIII agreed:--
-
-To defend the personal authority of Ludowico Sforza over the duchy of
-Milan against anyone who might attempt to turn him out;
-
-To keep two hundred French lances always in readiness to help the house
-of Sforza, at Asti, a town belonging to the Duke of Orleans by the
-inheritance of his mother, Valentina Visconti;
-
-Lastly, to hand over to his ally the principality of Tarentum
-immediately after the conquest of Naples was effected.
-
-This treaty was scarcely concluded when Charles VIII, who exaggerated
-its advantages, began to dream of freeing himself from every let or
-hindrance to the expedition. Precautions were necessary; for his
-relations with the great Powers were far from being what he could have
-wished.
-
-Indeed, Henry VII had disembarked at Calais with a formidable army, and
-was threatening France with another invasion.
-
-Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, if they had not assisted at the fall of
-the house of Anjou, had at any rate helped the Aragon party with men and
-money.
-
-Lastly, the war with the emperor acquired a fresh impetus when Charles
-VIII sent back Margaret of Burgundy to her father Maximilian, and
-contracted a marriage with Anne of Brittany.
-
-By the treaty of Etaples, on the 3rd of November, 1492, Henry VII
-cancelled the alliance with the King of the Romans, and pledged himself
-not to follow his conquests.
-
-This cost Charles VIII 745,000 gold crowns and the expenses of the war
-with England.
-
-By the treaty of Barcelona, dated the 19th of January, 1493, Ferdinand
-the Catholic and Isabella agreed never to grant aid to their cousin,
-Ferdinand of Naples, and never to put obstacles in the way of the French
-king in Italy.
-
-This cost Charles VIII Perpignan, Roussillon, and the Cerdagne, which
-had all been given to Louis XI as a hostage for the sum of 300,000
-ducats by John of Aragon; but at the time agreed upon, Louis XI would
-not give them up for the money, for the old fox knew very well how
-important were these doors to the Pyrenees, and proposed in case of war
-to keep them shut.
-
-Lastly, by the treaty of Senlis, dated the 23rd of May, 1493, Maximilian
-granted a gracious pardon to France for the insult her king had offered
-him.
-
-It cost Charles VIII the counties of Burgundy, Artois, Charalais, and
-the seigniory of Noyers, which had come to him as Margaret's dowry, and
-also the towns of Aire, Hesdin, and Bethune, which he promised to
-deliver up to Philip of Austria on the day he came of age.
-
-By dint of all these sacrifices the young king made peace with his
-neighbours, and could set on foot the enterprise that Ludavico Sforza
-had proposed. We have already explained that the project came into
-Sforza's mind when his plan about the deputation was refused, and that
-the refusal was due to Piero dei Medici's desire to make an exhibition
-of his magnificent jewels, and Gentile's desire to make his speech.
-
-Thus the vanity of a tutor and the pride of his scholar together
-combined to agitate the civilized world from the Gulf of Tarentum to the
-Pyrenees.
-
-Alexander VI was in the very centre of the impending earthquake, and
-before Italy had any idea that the earliest shocks were at hand he had
-profited by the perturbed preoccupation of other people to give the lie
-to that famous speech we have reported. He created cardinal John Borgia,
-a nephew, who during the last pontificate had been elected Archbishop of
-Montreal and Governor of Rome. This promotion caused no discontent,
-because of John's antecedents; and Alexander, encouraged by the success
-of this, promised to Caesar Borgia the archbishopric of Valencia, a
-benefice he had himself enjoyed before his elevation to the papacy. But
-here the difficulty arose on the side of the recipient. The young man,
-full-blooded, with all the vices and natural instincts of a captain of
-condottieri, had very great trouble in assuming even the appearance of a
-Churchman's virtue; but as he knew from his own father's mouth that the
-highest secular dignities were reserved for his elder brother, he
-decided to take what he could get, for fear of getting nothing; but his
-hatred for Francesco grew stronger, for from henceforth he was doubly
-his rival, both in love and ambition.
-
-Suddenly Alexander beheld the old King Ferdinand returning to his side,
-and at the very moment when he least expected it. The pope was too
-clever a politician to accept a reconciliation without finding out the
-cause of it; he soon learned what plots were hatching at the French
-court against the kingdom of Naples, and the whole situation was
-explained.
-
-Now it was his turn to impose conditions.
-
-He demanded the completion of a marriage between Goffreda, his third
-son, and Dada Sancia, Alfonso's illegitimate daughter.
-
-He demanded that she should bring her husband as dowry the principality
-of Squillace and the county of Cariati, with an income of 10,000 ducats
-and the office of protonotary, one of the seven great crown offices
-which are independent of royal control.
-
-He demanded for his eldest son, whom Ferdinand the Catholic had just
-made Duke of Gandia, the principality of Tricarico, the counties of
-Chiaramonte, Lauria, and Carinola, an income of 12,000 ducats, and the
-first of the seven great offices which should fall vacant.
-
-He demanded that Virginio Orsini, his ambassador at the Neapolitan
-court, should be given a third great office, viz. that of Constable, the
-most important of them all.
-
-Lastly, he demanded that Giuliano della Rovere, one of the five
-cardinals who had opposed his election and was now taking refuge at
-Ostia, where the oak whence he took his name and bearings is still to be
-seen carved on all the walls, should be driven out of that town, and the
-town itself given over to him.
-
-In exchange, he merely pledged himself never to withdraw from the house
-of Aragon the investiture of the kingdom of Naples accorded by his
-predecessors. Ferdinand was paying somewhat dearly for a simple promise;
-but on the keeping of this promise the legitimacy of his power wholly
-depended. For the kingdom of Naples was a fief of the Holy See; and to
-the pope alone belonged the right of pronouncing on the justice of each
-competitor's pretensions; the continuance of this investiture was
-therefore of the highest conceivable importance to Aragon just at the
-time when Anjou was rising up with an army at her back to dispossess
-her.
-
-For a year after he mounted the papal throne, Alexander VI had made
-great strides, as we see, in the extension of his temporal power. In his
-own hands he held, to be sure, only the least in size of the Italian
-territories; but by the marriage of his daughter Lucrezia with the lord
-of Pesaro he was stretching out one hand as far as Venice, while by the
-marriage of the Prince of Squillace with Dona Sancia, and the
-territories conceded to the Duke of Sandia, he was touching with the
-other hand the boundary of Calabria.
-
-When this treaty, so advantageous for himself, was duly signed, he made
-Caesar Cardinal of Santa Maria Novella, for Caesar was always
-complaining of being left out in the distribution of his father's
-favours.
-
-Only, as there was as yet no precedent in Church history for a bastard's
-donning the scarlet, the pope hunted up four false witnesses who
-declared that Caesar was the son of Count Ferdinand of Castile; who was,
-as we know, that valuable person Don Manuel Melchior, and who played the
-father's part with just as much solemnity as he had played the
-husband's.
-
-The wedding of the two bastards was most splendid, rich with the double
-pomp of Church and King. As the pope had settled that the young bridal
-pair should live near him, Caesar Borgia, the new cardinal, undertook to
-manage the ceremony of their entry into Rome and the reception, and
-Lucrezia, who enjoyed at her father's side an amount of favour hitherto
-unheard of at the papal court, desired on her part to contribute all the
-splendour she had it in her power to add. He therefore went to receive
-the young people with a stately and magnificent escort of lords and
-cardinals, while she awaited them attended by the loveliest and noblest
-ladies of Rome, in one of the halls of the Vatican. A throne was there
-prepared for the pope, and at his feet were cushions for Lucrezia and
-Dona Sancia. "Thus," writes Tommaso Tommasi, "by the look of the
-assembly and the sort of conversation that went on for hours, you would
-suppose you were present at some magnificent and voluptuous royal
-audience of ancient Assyria, rather than at the severe consistory of a
-Roman pontiff, whose solemn duty it is to exhibit in every act the
-sanctity of the name he bears. But," continues the same historian, "if
-the Eve of Pentecost was spent in such worthy functions, the
-celebrations of the coming of the Holy Ghost on the following day were
-no less decorous and becoming to the spirit of the Church; for thus
-writes the master of the ceremonies in his journal:
-
-"'The pope made his entry into the Church of the Holy Apostles, and
-beside him on the marble steps of the pulpit where the canons of St.
-Peter are wont to chant the Epistle and Gospel, sat Lucrezia his
-daughter and Sancia his son's wife: round about them, a disgrace to the
-Church and a public scandal, were grouped a number of other Roman ladies
-far more fit to dwell in Messalina's city than in St. Peter's.'"
-
-So at Rome and Naples did men slumber while ruin was at hand; so did
-they waste their time and squander their money in a vain display of
-pride; and this was going on while the French, thoroughly alive, were
-busy laying hands upon the torches with which they would presently set
-Italy on fire.
-
-Indeed, the designs of Charles VIII for conquest were no longer for
-anybody a matter of doubt. The young king had sent an embassy to the
-various Italian States, composed of Perrone dei Baschi, Brigonnet,
-d'Aubigny, and the president of the Provencal Parliament. The mission of
-this embassy was to demand from the Italian princes their co-operation
-in recovering the rights of the crown of Naples for the house of Anjou.
-
-The embassy first approached the Venetians, demanding aid and counsel
-for the king their master. But the Venetians, faithful to their
-political tradition, which had gained for them the sobriquet of "the
-Jews of Christendom," replied that they were not in a position to give
-any aid to the young king, so long as they had to keep ceaselessly on
-guard against the Turks; that, as to advice, it would be too great a
-presumption in them to give advice to a prince who was surrounded by
-such experienced generals and such able ministers.
-
-Perrone dei Baschi, when he found he could get no other answer, next
-made for Florence. Piero dei Medici received him at a grand council, for
-he summoned on this occasion not only the seventy, but also the
-gonfalonieri who had sat for the last thirty-four years in the Signoria.
-The French ambassador put forward his proposal, that the republic should
-permit their army to pass through her States, and pledge herself in that
-case to supply for ready money all the necessary victual and fodder. The
-magnificent republic replied that if Charles VIII had been marching
-against the Turks instead of against Ferdinand, she would be only too
-ready to grant everything he wished; but being bound to the house of
-Aragon by a treaty, she could not betray her ally by yielding to the
-demands of the King of France.
-
-The ambassadors next turned their steps to Siena. The poor little
-republic, terrified by the honour of being considered at all, replied
-that it was her desire to preserve a strict neutrality, that she was too
-weak to declare beforehand either for or against such mighty rivals, for
-she would naturally be obliged to join the stronger party. Furnished
-with this reply, which had at least the merit of frankness, the French
-envoys proceeded to Rome, and were conducted into the pope's presence,
-where they demanded the investiture of the kingdom of Naples for their
-king.
-
-Alexander VI replied that, as his predecessors had granted this
-investiture to the house of Aragon, he could not take it away, unless it
-were first established that the house of Anjou had a better claim than
-the house that was to be dispossessed. Then he represented to Perrone
-dei Baschi that, as Naples was a fief of the Holy See, to the pope alone
-the choice of her sovereign properly belonged, and that in consequence
-to attack the reigning sovereign was to attack the Church itself.
-
-The result of the embassy, we see, was not very promising for Charles
-VIII; so he resolved to rely on his ally Ludovico Sforza alone, and to
-relegate all other questions to the fortunes of war.
-
-A piece of news that reached him about this time strengthened him in
-this resolution: this was the death of Ferdinand. The old king had
-caught a severe cold and cough on his return from the hunting field, and
-in two days he was at his last gasp. On the 25th of January, 1494, he
-passed away, at the age of seventy, after a thirty-six years' reign,
-leaving the throne to his elder son, Alfonso, who was immediately chosen
-as his successor.
-
-Ferdinand never belied his title of "the happy ruler." His death
-occurred at the very moment when the fortune of his family was changing.
-
-The new king, Alfonso, was not a novice in arms: he had already fought
-successfully against Florence and Venice, and had driven the Turks out
-of Otranto; besides, he had the name of being as cunning as his father
-in the tortuous game of politics so much in vogue at the Italian courts.
-He did not despair of counting among his allies the very enemy he was at
-war with when Charles VIII first put forward his pretensions, we mean
-Bajazet II. So he despatched to Bajazet one of his confidential
-ministers, Camillo Pandone, to give the Turkish emperor to understand
-that the expedition to Italy was to the King of France nothing but a
-blind for approaching the scene of Mahomedan conquests, and that if
-Charles VIII were once at the Adriatic it would only take him a day or
-two to get across and attack Macedonia; from there he could easily go by
-land to Constantinople. Consequently he suggested that Bajazet for the
-maintenance of their common interests should supply six thousand horse
-and six thousand infantry; he himself would furnish their pay so long as
-they were in Italy. It was settled that Pandone should be joined at
-Tarentum by Giorgia Bucciarda, Alexander VI's envoy, who was
-commissioned by the pope to engage the Turks to help him against the
-Christians. But while he was waiting for Bajazet's reply, which might
-involve a delay of several months, Alfonso requested that a meeting
-might take place between Piero dei Medici, the pope, and himself, to
-take counsel together about important affairs. This meeting was arranged
-at Vicovaro, near Tivoli, and the three interested parties duly met on
-the appointed day.
-
-The intention of Alfonso, who before leaving Naples had settled the
-disposition of his naval forces, and given his brother Frederic the
-command of a fleet that consisted of thirty-six galleys, eighteen large
-and twelve small vessels, with injunctions to wait at Livorno and keep a
-watch on the fleet Charles VIII was getting ready at the port of Genoa,
-was above all things to check with the aid of his allies the progress of
-operations on land. Without counting the contingent he expected his
-allies to furnish, he had at his immediate disposal a hundred squadrons
-of heavy cavalry, twenty men in each, and three thousand bowmen and
-light horse. He proposed, therefore, to advance at once into Lombardy,
-to get up a revolution in favour of his nephew Galeazzo, and to drive
-Ludovico Sforza out of Milan before he could get help from France; so
-that Charles VIII, at the very time of crossing the Alps, would find an
-enemy to fight instead of a friend who had promised him a safe passage,
-men, and money.
-
-This was the scheme of a great politician and a bold commander; but as
-everybody had come in pursuit of his own interests, regardless of the
-common agreemnent this plan was very coldly received by Piero dei
-Medici, who was afraid lest in the war he should play only the same poor
-part he had been threatened with in the affair of the embassy; by
-Alexander VI it was rejected, because he reckoned on employing the
-troops of Alfonso an his own account. He reminded the King of Naples of
-one of the conditions of the investiture he had promised him, viz. that
-he should drive out the Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere from the town of
-Ostia, and give up the town to him, according to the stipulation already
-agreed upon. Besides, the advantages that had accrued to Virginio
-Orsini, Alexander's favourite, from his embassy to Naples had brought
-upon him the ill-will of Prospero and Fabrizio Colonna, who owned nearly
-all the villages round about Rome. Now the pope could not endure to live
-in the midst of such powerful enemies, and the most important matter was
-to deliver him from all of them, seeing that it was really of moment
-that he should be at peace who was the head and soul of the league
-whereof the others were only the body and limbs.
-
-Although Alfonso had clearly seen through the motives of Piero's
-coldness, and Alexander had not even given him the trouble of seeking
-his, he was none the less obliged to bow to the will of his allies,
-leaving the one to defend the Apennines against the French, and helping
-the other to shake himself free of his neighbours in the Romagna.
-Consequently he, pressed on the siege of Ostia, and added to Virginio's
-forces, which already amounted to two hundred men of the papal army, a
-body of his own light horse; this little army was to be stationed round
-about Rome, and was to enforce obedience from the Colonnas. The rest of
-his troops Alfonso divided into two parties: one he left in the hands of
-his son Ferdinand, with orders to scour the Romagna and worry, the petty
-princes into levying and supporting the contingent they had promised,
-while with the other he himself defended the defiles of the Abruzzi.
-
-On the 23rd of April, at three o'clock in the morning, Alexander VI was
-freed from the first and fiercest of his foes; Giuliano della Rovere,
-seeing the impossibility of holding out any longer against Alfonso's
-troops, embarked on a brigantine which was to carry him to Savona.
-
-From that day forward Virginio Orsini began that famous partisan warfare
-which reduced the country about Rome to the most pathetic desolation the
-world has ever seen. During all this time Charles VIII was at Lyons, not
-only uncertain as to the route he ought to take for getting into Italy,
-but even beginning to reflect a little on the chances and risks of such
-an expedition. He had found no sympathy anywhere except with Ludovico
-Sforza; so it appeared not unlikely that he would have to fight not the
-kingdom of Naples alone, but the whole of Italy to boot. In his
-preparations for war he had spent almost all the money at his disposal;
-the Lady of Beaujeu and the Duke of Bourbon both condemned his
-enterprise; Briconnet, who had advised it, did not venture to support it
-now; at last Charles, more irresolute than ever, had recalled several
-regiments that had actually started, when Cardinal Giuliano della
-Rovere, driven out of Italy by the pope, arrived at Lyons, and presented
-himself before the king.
-
-The cardinal, full of hatred, full of hope, hastened to Charles, and
-found him on the point of abandoning that enterprise on which, as
-Alexander's enemy, della Rovere rested his whole expectation of
-vengeance. He informed Charles of the quarrelling among his enemies; he
-showed him that each of them was seeking his own ends--Piero dei Medici
-the gratification of his pride, the pope the aggrandisement of his
-house. He pointed out that armed fleets were in the ports of
-Villefranche, Marseilles, and Genoa, and that these armaments would be
-lost; he reminded him that he had sent Pierre d'Urfe, his grand equerry,
-on in advance, to have splendid accommodation prepared in the Spinola
-and Doria palaces. Lastly, he urged that ridicule and disgrace would
-fall on him from every side if he renounced an enterprise so loudly
-vaunted beforehand, for whose successful execution, moreover, he had
-been obliged to sign three treaties of peace that were all vexatious
-enough, viz. with Henry VII, with Maximilian, and with Ferdinand the
-Catholic. Giuliano della Rovere had exercised true insight in probing
-the vanity of the young king, and Charles did not hesitate for a single
-moment. He ordered his cousin, the Duke of Orleans (who later on became
-Louis XII) to take command of the French fleet and bring it to Genoa; he
-despatched a courier to Antoine de Bessay, Baron de Tricastel, bidding
-him take to Asti the 2000 Swiss foot-soldiers he had levied in the
-cantons; lastly, he started himself from Vienne, in Dauphine, on the
-23rd of August, 1494, crossed the Alps by Mont Genevre, without
-encountering a single body of troops to dispute his passage, descended
-into Piedmont and Monferrato, both just then governed by women regents,
-the sovereigns of both principalities being children, Charles John Aime
-and William John, aged respectively six and eight.
-
-The two regents appeared before Charles VIII, one at Turin, one at
-Casale, each at the head of a numerous and brilliant court, and both
-glittering with jewels and precious stones. Charles, although he quite
-well knew that for all these friendly demonstrations they were both
-bound by treaty to his enemy, Alfonso of Naples, treated them all the
-same with the greatest politeness, and when they made protestations of
-friendship, asked them to let him have a proof of it, suggesting that
-they should lend him the diamonds they were covered with. The two
-regents could do no less than obey the invitation which was really a
-command. They took off necklaces, rings, and earrings. Charles VIII gave
-them a receipt accurately drawn up, and pledged the jewels for 20,000
-ducats. Then, enriched by this money, he resumed his journey and made
-his way towards Asti. The Duke of Orleans held the sovereignty of Asti,
-as we said before, and hither came to meet Charles both Ludovico Sforza
-and his father-in-law, Hercules d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. They brought
-with them not only the promised troops and money, but also a court
-composed of the loveliest women in Italy.
-
-The balls, fetes, and tourneys began with a magnificence surpassing
-anything that Italy had ever seen before. But suddenly they were
-interrupted by the king's illness. This was the first example in Italy
-of the disease brought by Christopher Columbus from the New World, and
-was called by Italians the French, by Frenchmen the Italian disease. The
-probability is that some of Columbus's crew who were at Genoa or
-thereabouts had already brought over this strange and cruel complaint
-that counter balanced the gains of the American gold-mines.
-
-The king's indisposition, however, did not prove so grave as was at
-first supposed. He was cured by the end of a few weeks, and proceeded on
-his way towards Pavia, where the young Duke John Galeazzo lay dying. He
-and the King of France were first cousins, sons of two sisters of the
-house of Savoy. So Charles VIII was obliged to see him, and went to
-visit him in the castle where he lived more like prisoner than lord. He
-found him half reclining on a couch, pale and emaciated, some said in
-consequence of luxurious living, others from the effects of a slow but
-deadly poison. But whether or not the poor young man was desirous of
-pouring out a complaint to Charles, he did not dare say a word; for his
-uncle, Ludovico Sforza, never left the King of France for an instant.
-But at the very moment when Charles VIII was getting up to go, the door
-opened, and a young woman appeared and threw herself at the king's feet;
-she was the wife of the unlucky John Galeazzo, and came to entreat his
-cousin to do nothing against her father Alfonso, nor against her brother
-Ferdinand. At sight of her; Sforza scowled with an anxious and
-threatening aspect, for he knew not what impression might be produced on
-his ally by this scene. But he was soon reassured; for Charles replied
-that he had advanced too far to draw back now, and that the glory of his
-name was at stake as well as the interests of his kingdom, and that
-these two motives were far too important to be sacrificed to any
-sentiment of pity he might feel, however real and deep it might be and
-was. The poor young woman, who had based her last hope an this appeal,
-then rose from her knees and threw herself sobbing into her husband's
-arms. Charles VIII and Ludavico Sforza, took their leave: John Galeazzo
-was doomed.
-
-Two days after, Charles VIII left for Florence, accompanied by his ally;
-but scarcely had they reached Parma when a messenger caught them up, and
-announced to Ludovico that his nephew was just dead: Ludovico at once
-begged Charles to excuse his leaving him to finish the journey alone;
-the interests which called him back to Milan were so important, he said,
-that he could not under the circumstances stay away a single day longer.
-As a fact he had to make sure of succeeding the man he had assassinated.
-
-But Charles VIII continued his road not without some uneasiness. The
-sight of the young prince on his deathbed had moved him deeply, for at
-the bottom of his heart he was convinced that Ludovico Sforza was his
-murderer; and a murderer might very well be a traitor. He was going
-forward into an unfamiliar country, with a declared enemy in front of
-him and a doubtful friend behind: he was now at the entrance to the
-mountains, and as his army had no store of provisions and only lived
-from hand to mouth, a forced delay, however short, would mean famine. In
-front of him was Fivizzano, nothing, it is true, but a village
-surrounded by walls, but beyond Fivizzano lay Sarzano and Pietra Santa,
-both of them considered impregnable fortresses; worse than this, they
-were coming into a part of the country that was especially unhealthy in
-October, had no natural product except oil, and even procured its own
-corn from neighbouring provinces; it was plain that a whole army might
-perish there in a few days either from scarcity of food or from the
-unwholesome air, both of which were more disastrous than the impediments
-offered at every step by the nature of the ground. The situation was
-grave; but the pride of Piero dei Medici came once more to the rescue of
-the fortunes of Charles VIII.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-
-PIERO DEI MEDICI had, as we may remember, undertaken to hold the
-entrance to Tuscany against the French; when, however, he saw his enemy
-coming dawn from the Alps, he felt less confident about his own
-strength, and demanded help from the pope; but scarcely had the rumour
-of foreign invasion began to spread in the Romagna, than the Colonna
-family declared themselves the French king's men, and collecting all
-their forces seized Ostia, and there awaited the coming of the French
-fleet to offer a passage through Rome. The pope, therefore, instead of
-sending troops to Florence, was obliged to recall all his soldiers to be
-near the capital; the only promise he made to Piero was that if Bajazet
-should send him the troops that he had been asking for, he would
-despatch that army for him to make use of. Piero dei Medici had not yet
-taken any resolution or formed any plan, when he suddenly heard two
-startling pieces of news. A jealous neighbour of his, the Marquis of
-Torderiovo, had betrayed to the French the weak side of Fivizzano, so
-that they had taken it by storm, and had put its soldiers and
-inhabitants to the edge of the sword; on another side, Gilbert of
-Montpensier, who had been lighting up the sea-coast so as to keep open
-the communications between the French army and their fleet, had met with
-a detachment sent by Paolo Orsini to Sarzano, to reinforce the garrison
-there, and after an hour's fighting had cut it to pieces. No quarter had
-been granted to any of the prisoners; every man the French could get
-hold of they had massacred.
-
-This was the first occasion on which the Italians, accustomed as they
-were to the chivalrous contests of the fifteenth century, found
-themselves in contact with savage foreigners who, less advanced in
-civilisation, had not yet come to consider war as a clever game, but
-looked upon it as simply a mortal conflict. So the news of these two
-butcheries produced a tremendous sensation at Florence, the richest city
-in Italy, and the most prosperous in commerce and in art. Every
-Florentine imagined the French to be like an army of those ancient
-barbarians who were wont to extinguish fire with blood. The prophecies
-of Savonarola, who had predicted the foreign invasion and the
-destruction that should follow it, were recalled to the minds of all;
-and so much perturbation was evinced that Piero dei Medici, bent on
-getting peace at any price, forced a decree upon the republic whereby
-she was to send an embassy to the conqueror; and obtained leave,
-resolved as he was to deliver himself in person into the hands of the
-French monarch, to act as one of the ambassadors. He accordingly quitted
-Florence, accompanied by four other messengers, and on his arrival at
-Pietra Santa, sent to ask from Charles VIII a safe-conduct for himself
-alone. The day after he made this request, Brigonnet and de Piennes came
-to fetch him, and led him into the presence of Charles VIII.
-
-Piero dei Medici, in spite of his name and influence, was in the eyes of
-the French nobility, who considered it a dishonourable thing to concern
-oneself with art or industry, nothing more than a rich merchant, with
-whom it would be absurd to stand upon any very strict ceremony. So
-Charles VIII received him on horseback, and addressing him with a
-haughty air, as a master might address a servant, demanded whence came
-this pride of his that made him dispute his entrance into Tuscany. Piero
-dei Medici replied, that, with the actual consent of Louis XI, his
-father Lorenzo had concluded a treaty of alliance with Ferdinand of
-Naples; that accordingly he had acted in obedience to prior obligations,
-but as he did not wish to push too far his devotion to the house of
-Aragon or his opposition to France, he was ready to do whatever Charles
-VIII might demand of him. The king, who had never looked for such
-humility in his enemy, demanded that Sarzano should be given up to him:
-to this Piero dei Medici at once consented. Then the conqueror, wishing
-to see how far the ambassador of the magnificent republic would extend
-his politeness, replied that this concession was far from satisfying
-him, and that he still must have the keys of Pietra Santa, Pisa,
-Librafatta, and Livorno. Piero saw no more difficulty about these than
-about Sarzano, and consented on Charles's mere promise by word of mouth
-to restore the town when he had achieved the conquest of Naples. At last
-Charles VIII, seeing that this man who had been sent out to negotiate
-with him was very easy to manage, exacted as a final condition, a 'sine
-qua non', however, of his royal protection, that the magnificent
-republic should lend him the sum of 200,000 florins. Piero found it no
-harder to dispose of money than of fortresses, and replied that his
-fellow-citizens would be happy to render this service to their new ally.
-Then Charles VIII set him on horseback, and ordered him to go on in
-front, so as to begin to carry out his promises by yielding up the four
-fortresses he had insisted on having. Piero obeyed, and the French army,
-led by the grandson of Cosimo the Great and the son of Lorenzo the
-Magnificent, continued its triumphal march through Tuscany.
-
-On his arrival at Lucca, Piero dei Medici learnt that his concessions to
-the King of France were making a terrible commotion at Florence. The
-magnificent republic had supposed that what Charles VIII wanted was
-simply a passage through her territory, so when the news came there was
-a general feeling of discontent, which was augmented by the return of
-the other ambassadors, whom Piero had not even consulted when he took
-action as he did. Piero considered it necessary that he should return,
-so he asked Charles's permission to precede him to the capital. As he
-had fulfilled all his promises, except the matter of the loan, which
-could not be settled anywhere but at Florence, the king saw no
-objection, and the very evening after he quitted the French army Piero
-returned incognito to his palace in the Via Largo.
-
-The next day he proposed to present himself before the Signoria, but
-when he arrived at the Piazza del Palazzo Vecchio, he perceived the
-gonfaloniere Jacopo de Nerli coming towards him, signalling to him that
-it was useless to attempt to go farther, and pointing out to him the
-figure of Luca Corsini standing at the gate, sword in hand: behind him
-stood guards, ordered, if need-were, to dispute his passage. Piero dei
-Medici, amazed by an opposition that he was experiencing for the first
-time in his life, did not attempt resistance. He went home, and wrote to
-his brother-in-law, Paolo Orsini, to come and help him with his
-gendarmes. Unluckily for him, his letter was intercepted. The Signoria
-considered that it was an attempt at rebellion. They summoned the
-citizens to their aid; they armed hastily, sallied forth in crowds, and
-thronged about the piazza of the palace. Meanwhile Cardinal Gian dei
-Medici had mounted on horseback, and under the impression that the
-Orsini were coming to the rescue, was riding about the streets of
-Florence, accompanied by his servants and uttering his battle cry,
-"Palle, Palle." But times had changed: there was no echo to the cry, and
-when the cardinal reached the Via dei Calizaioli, a threatening murmur
-was the only response, and he understood that instead of trying to
-arouse Florence he had much better get away before the excitement ran
-too high. He promptly retired to his own palace, expecting to find there
-his two brothers, Piero and Giuliano. But they, under the protection of
-Orsini and his gendarmes, had made their escape by the Porto San Gallo.
-The peril was imminent, and Gian dei Medici wished to follow their
-example; but wherever he went he was met by a clamour that grew more and
-more threatening. At last, as he saw that the danger was constantly
-increasing, he dismounted from his horse and ran into a house that he
-found standing open. This house by a lucky chance communicated with a
-convent of Franciscans; one of the friars lent the fugitive his dress,
-and the cardinal, under the protection of this humble incognito,
-contrived at last to get outside Florence, and joined his two brothers
-in the Apennines.
-
-The same day the Medici were declared traitors and rebels, and
-ambassadors were sent to the King of France. They found him at Pisa,
-where he was granting independence to the town which eighty-seven years
-ago had fallen under the rule of the Florentines. Charles VIII made no
-reply to the envoys, but merely announced that he was going to march on
-Florence.
-
-Such a reply, one may easily understand, terrified the republic.
-Florence had no time to prepare a defence, and no strength in her
-present state to make one. But all the powerful houses assembled and
-armed their own servants and retainers, and awaited the issue, intending
-not to begin hostilities, but to defend themselves should the French
-make an attack. It was agreed that if any necessity should arise for
-taking up arms, the bells of the various churches in the town should
-ring a peal and so serve as a general signal. Such a resolution was
-perhaps of more significant moment in Florence than it could have been
-in any other town. For the palaces that still remain from that period
-are virtually fortresses and the eternal fights between Guelphs and
-Ghibellines had familiarised the Tuscan people with street warfare.
-
-The king appeared, an the 17th of November, in the evening, at the gate
-of San Friano. He found there the nobles of Florence clad in their most
-magnificent apparel, accompanied by priests chanting hymns, and by a mob
-who were full of joy at any prospect of change, and hoped for a return
-of liberty after the fall of the Medici. Charles VIII stopped for a
-moment under a sort of gilded canopy that had been prepared for him, and
-replied in a few evasive words to the welcoming speeches which were
-addressed to him by the Signoria; then he asked for his lance, he set it
-in rest, and gave the order to enter the town, the whole of which he
-paraded with his army following him with arms erect, and then went down
-to the palace of the Medici, which had been prepared for him.
-
-The next day negotiations commenced; but everyone was out of his
-reckoning. The Florentines had received Charles VIII as a guest, but he
-had entered the city as a conqueror. So when the deputies of the
-Signoria spoke of ratifying the treaty of Piero dei Medici, the king
-replied that such a treaty no longer existed, as they had banished the
-man who made it; that he had conquered Florence, as he proved the night
-before, when he entered lance in hand; that he should retain the
-sovereignty, and would make any further decision whenever it pleased him
-to do so; further, he would let them know later on whether he would
-reinstate the Medici or whether he would delegate his authority to the
-Signoria: all they had to do was to come back the next day, and he would
-give them his ultimatum in writing.
-
-This reply threw Florence into a great state of consternation; but the
-Florentines were confirmed in their resolution of making a stand.
-Charles, for his part, had been astonished by the great number of the
-inhabitants; not only was every street he had passed through thickly
-lined with people, but every house from garret to basement seemed
-overflowing with human beings. Florence indeed, thanks to her rapid
-increase in population, could muster nearly 150,000 souls.
-
-The next day, at the appointed hour, the deputies made their appearance
-to meet the king. They were again introduced into his presence, and the
-discussion was reopened. At last, as they were coming to no sort of
-understanding, the royal secretary, standing at the foot of the throne
-upon which Charles viii sat with covered head, unfolded a paper and
-began to read, article by article, the conditions imposed by the King of
-France. But scarcely had he read a third of the document when the
-discussion began more hotly than ever before. Then Charles VIII said
-that thus it should be, or he would order his trumpets to be sounded.
-Hereupon Piero Capponi, secretary to the republic, commonly called the
-Scipio of Florence, snatched from the royal secretary's hand the
-shameful proposal of capitulation, and tearing it to pieces,
-exclaimed:--
-
-"Very good, sire; blow your trumpets, and we will ring our bells."
-
-He threw the pieces in the face of the amazed reader, and dashed out of
-the room to give the terrible order that would convert the street of
-Florence into a battlefield.
-
-Still, against all probabilities, this bold answer saved the town. The
-French supposed, from such audacious words, addressed as they were to
-men who so far had encountered no single obstacle, that the Florentines
-were possessed of sure resources, to them unknown: the few prudent men
-who retained any influence over the king advised him accordingly to
-abate his pretensions; the result was that Charles VIII offered new and
-more reasonable conditions, which were accepted, signed by both parties,
-and proclaimed on the 26th of November during mass in the cathedral of
-Santa Maria Del Fiore.
-
-These were the conditions:
-
-The Signoria were to pay to Charles VIII, as subsidy, the sum of 120,000
-florins, in three instalments;
-
-The Signoria were to remove the sequestration imposed upon the property
-of the Medici, and to recall the decree that set a price on their heads;
-
-The Signoria were to engage to pardon the Pisans, on condition of their
-again submitting to the rule of Florence;
-
-Lastly, the Signoria were to recognise the claims of the Duke of Milan
-over Sarzano and Pietra Santa, and these claims thus recognised, were to
-be settled by arbitration.
-
-In exchange for this, the King of France pledged himself to restore the
-fortresses that had been given up to him, either after he had made
-himself master of the town of Naples, or when this war should be ended
-by a peace or a two years' truce, or else when, for any reason
-whatsoever, he should have quitted Italy.
-
-Two days after this proclamation, Charles VIII, much to the joy of the
-Signoria, left Florence, and advanced towards Rome by the route of
-Poggibondi and Siena.
-
-The pope began to be affected by the general terror: he had heard of the
-massacres of Fivizzano, of Lunigiane, and of Imola; he knew that Piero
-dei Medici had handed over the Tuscan fortresses, that Florence had
-succumbed, and that Catherine Sforza had made terms with the conqueror;
-he saw the broken remnants of the Neapolitan troops pass disheartened
-through Rome, to rally their strength in the Abruzzi, and thus he found
-himself exposed to an enemy who was advancing upon him with the whole of
-the Romagna under his control from one sea to the other, in a line of
-march extending from Piombina to Ancona.
-
-It was at this juncture that Alexander VI received his answer from
-Bajazet II: the reason of so long a delay was that the pope's envoy and
-the Neapolitan ambassador had been stopped by Gian della Rovere, the
-Cardinal Giuliano's brother, just as they were disembarking at
-Sinigaglia. They were charged with a verbal answer, which was that the
-sultan at this moment was busied with a triple war, first with the
-Sultan of Egypt, secondly with the King of Hungary, and thirdly with the
-Greeks of Macedonia and Epirus; and therefore he could not, with all the
-will in the world, help His Holiness with armed men. But the envoys were
-accompanied by a favourite of the sultan's bearing a private letter to
-Alexander VI, in which Bajazet offered on certain conditions to help him
-with money. Although, as we see, the messengers had been stopped on the
-way, the Turkish envoy had all the same found a means of getting his
-despatch sent to the pope: we give it here in all its naivete.
-
-"Bajazet the Sultan, son of the Sultan Mahomet II, by the grace of God
-Emperor of Asia and Europe, to the Father and Lord of all the
-Christians, Alexander VI, Roman pontiff and pope by the will of heavenly
-Providence, first, greetings that we owe him and bestow with all our
-heart. We make known to your Highness, by the envoy of your Mightiness,
-Giorgio Bucciarda, that we have been apprised of your convalescence, and
-received the news thereof with great joy and comfort. Among other
-matters, the said Bucciarda has brought us word that the King of France,
-now marching against your Highness, has shown a desire to take under his
-protection our brother D'jem, who is now under yours--a thing which is
-not only against our will, but which would also be the cause of great
-injury to your Highness and to all Christendom. In turning the matter
-over with your envoy Giorgio we have devised a scheme most conducive to
-peace and most advantageous and honourable for your Highness; at the
-same time satisfactory to ourselves personally; it would be well if our
-aforesaid brother D'jem, who being a man is liable to death, and who is
-now in the hands of your Highness, should quit this world as soon as
-possible, seeing that his departure, a real good to him in his position,
-would be of great use to your Highness, and very conducive to your
-peace, while at the same time it would be very agreeable to us, your
-friend. If this proposition is favourably received, as we hope, by your
-Highness, in your desire to be friendly towards us, it would be
-advisable both in the interests of your Highness and for our own
-satisfaction that it should occur rather sooner than later, and by the
-surest means you might be pleased to employ; so that our said brother
-D'jem might pass from the pains of this world into a better and more
-peaceful life, where at last he may find repose. If your Highness should
-adapt this plan and send us the body of our brother, We, the above-named
-Sultan Bajazet, pledge ourselves to send to your Highness, wheresoever
-and by whatsoever hands you please, the sum of 300,000 ducats, With
-which sum you could purchase some fair domain for your children. In
-order to facilitate this purchase, we would be willing, while awaiting
-the issue, to place the 300,000 ducats in the hands of a third party, so
-that your Highness might be quite certain of receiving the money on an
-appointed day, in return for the despatch of our brother's body.
-Moreover, we promise your Highness herewith, for your greater
-satisfaction, that never, so long as you shall remain on the pontifical
-throne, shall there be any hurt done to the Christians, neither by us,
-nor by our servants, nor by any of our compatriots, of whatsoever kind
-or condition they may be, neither on sea nor on land. And for the still
-further satisfaction of your Highness, and in order that no doubt
-whatever may remain concerning the fulfilment of our promises, we have
-sworn and affirmed in the presence of Bucciarda, your envoy, by the true
-God whom we adore and by our holy Gospels, that they shall be faithfully
-kept from the first point unto the last. And now for the final and
-complete assurance of your Highness, in order that no doubt may still
-remain in your heart, and that you may be once again and profoundly
-convinced of our good faith, we the aforesaid Sultan Bajazet do swear by
-the true God, who has created the heavens and the earth and all that
-therein is, that we will religiously observe all that has been above
-said and declared, and in the future will do nothing and undertake
-nothing that may be contrary to the interests of your Highness.
-
-"Given at Constantinople, in our palace, on the 12th of September A.D.
-1494."
-
-This letter was the cause of great joy to the Holy Father: the aid of
-four or five thousand Turks would be insufficient under the present
-circumstances, and would only serve to compromise the head of
-Christendom, while the sum of 300,000 ducats--that is, nearly a million
-francs--was good to get in any sort of circumstances. It is true that,
-so long as D'jem lived, Alexander was drawing an income of 180,000
-livres, which as a life annuity represented a capital of nearly two
-millions; but when one needs ready money, one ought to be able to make a
-sacrifice in the way of discount. All the same, Alexander formed no
-definite plan, resolved on acting as circumstances should indicate.
-
-But it was a more pressing business to decide how he should behave to
-the King of France: he had never anticipated the success of the French
-in Italy, and we have seen that he laid all the foundations of his
-family's future grandeur upon his alliance with the house of Aragon. But
-here was this house tattering, and a volcano more terrible than her own
-Vesuvius was threatening to swallow up Naples. He must therefore change
-his policy, and attach himself to the victor,--no easy matter, for
-Charles VIII was bitterly annoyed with the pope for having refused him
-the investiture and given it to Aragon.
-
-In consequence, he sent Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini as an envoy to
-the king. This choice looked like a mistake at first, seeing that the
-ambassador was a nephew of Pius II, who had vigorously opposed the house
-of Anjou; but Alexander in acting thus had a second design, which could
-not be discerned by those around him. In fact, he had divined that
-Charles would not be quick to receive his envoy, and that, in the
-parleyings to which his unwillingness must give rise, Piccolomini would
-necessarily be brought into contact with the young king's advisers. Now,
-besides his ostensible mission to the king, Piccalamini had also secret
-instructions for the more influential among his counsellors. These were
-Briconnet and Philippe de Luxembourg; and Piccolomini was authorised to
-promise a cardinal's hat to each of them. The result was just what
-Alexander had foreseen: his envoy could not gain admission to Charles,
-and was obliged to confer with the people about him. This was what the
-pope wished. Piccolomini returned to Rome with the king's refusal, but
-with a promise from Briconnet and Philippe de Luxembourg that they would
-use all their influence with Charles in favour of the Holy Father, and
-prepare him to receive a fresh embassy.
-
-But the French all this time were advancing, and never stopped more than
-forty-eight hours in any town, so that it became more and more urgent to
-get something settled with Charles. The king had entered Siena and
-Viterbo without striking a blow; Yves d' Alegre and Louis de Ligny had
-taken over Ostia from the hands of the Colonnas; Civita Vecchia and
-Corneto had opened their gates; the Orsini had submitted; even Gian
-Sforza, the pope's son-in-law, had retired from the alliance with
-Aragon. Alexander accordingly judged that the moment had came to abandon
-his ally, and sent to Charles the Bishops of Concordia and Terni, and
-his confessor, Mansignore Graziano. They were charged to renew to
-Briconnet and Philippe de Luxembourg the promise of the cardinalship,
-and had full powers of negotiation in the name of their master, both in
-case Charles should wish to include Alfonso II in the treaty, and in
-case he should refuse to sign an agreement with any other but the pope
-alone. They found the mind of Charles influenced now by the insinuation
-of Giuliano della Rovere, who, himself a witness of the pope's simony,
-pressed the king to summon a council and depose the head of the Church,
-and now by the secret support given him by the Bishops of Mans and St.
-Malo. The end of it was that the king decided to form his own opinion
-about the matter and settle nothing beforehand, and continued this
-route, sending the ambassadors back to the pope, with the addition of
-the Marechal de Gie, the Seneschal de Beaucaire, and Jean de Gannay,
-first president of the Paris Parliament. They were ordered to say to the
-pope--
-
-  (1) That the king wished above all things to be admitted into Rome
-      without resistance; that, on condition of a voluntary, frank, and
-      loyal admission, he would respect the authority of the Holy Father
-      and the privileges of the Church;
-  (2) That the king desired that D'jem should be given up to him, in
-      order that he might make use of him against the sultan when he
-      should carry the war into Macedonia or Turkey or the Holy Land;
-  (3) That the remaining conditions were so unimportant that they could
-      be brought forward at the first conference.
-
-The ambassadors added that the French army was now only two days distant
-from Rome, and that in the evening of the day after next Charles would
-probably arrive in person to demand an answer from His Holiness.
-
-It was useless to think of parleying with a prince who acted in such
-expeditious fashion as this. Alexander accordingly warned Ferdinand to
-quit Rome as soon as possible, in the interests of his own personal
-safety. But Ferdinand refused to listen to a word, and declared that he
-would not go out at one gate while Charles VIII came in at another. His
-sojourn was not long. Two days later, about eleven o'clock in the
-morning, a sentinel placed on a watch-tower at the top of the Castle S.
-Angelo, whither the pope had retired, cried out that the vanguard of the
-enemy was visible on the horizon. At once Alexander and the Duke of
-Calabria went up on the terrace which tops the fortress, and assured
-themselves with their own eyes that what the soldier said was true.
-Then, and not till then, did the duke of Calabria mount on horseback,
-and, to use his own words, went out at the gate of San Sebastiana, at
-the same moment that the French vanguard halted five hundred feet from
-the Gate of the People. This was on the 31st of December 1494.
-
-At three in the afternoon the whole army had arrived, and the vanguard
-began their march, drums beating, ensigns unfurled. It was composed,
-says Paolo Giove, an eye-witness (book ii, p. 41 of his History), of
-Swiss and German soldiers, with short tight coats of various colours:
-they were armed with short swords, with steel edges like those of the
-ancient Romans, and carried ashen lances ten feet long, with straight
-and sharp iron spikes: only one-fourth of their number bore halberts
-instead of lances, the spikes cut into the form of an axe and surmounted
-by a four-cornered spike, to be used both for cutting like an axe and
-piercing like a bayonet: the first row of each battalion wore helmets
-and cuirasses which protected the head and chest, and when the men were
-drawn up for battle they presented to the enemy a triple array of iron
-spikes, which they could raise or lower like the spines of a porcupine.
-To each thousand of the soldiery were attached a hundred fusiliers:
-their officers, to distinguish them from the men, wore lofty plumes on
-their helmets.
-
-After the Swiss infantry came the archers of Gascony: there were five
-thousand of them, wearing a very simple dress, that contrasted with the
-rich costume of the Swiss soldiers, the shortest of whom would have been
-a head higher than the tallest of the Gascons. But they were excellent
-soldiers, full of courage, very light, and with a special reputation for
-quickness in stringing and drawing their iron bows.
-
-Behind them rode the cavalry, the flower of the French nobility, with
-their gilded helmets and neck bands, their velvet and silk surcoats,
-their swords each of which had its own name, their shields each telling
-of territorial estates, and their colours each telling of a lady-love.
-Besides defensive arms, each man bore a lance in his hand, like an
-Italian gendarme, with a solid grooved end, and on his saddle bow a
-quantity of weapons, some for cutting and some for thrusting. Their
-horses were large and strong, but they had their tails and ears cropped
-according to the French custom. These horses, unlike those of the
-Italian gendarmes, wore no caparisons of dressed leather, which made
-them more exposed to attack. Every knight was followed by three
-horses--the first ridden by a page in armour like his own, the two
-others by equerries who were called lateral auxiliaries, because in a
-fray they fought to right and left of their chief. This troop was not
-only the most magnificent, but the most considerable in the whole army;
-for as there were 2500 knights, they formed each with their three
-followers a total of 10,000 men. Five thousand light horse rode next,
-who carried huge wooden bows, and shot long arrows from a distance like
-English archers. They were a great help in battle, for moving rapidly
-wherever aid was required, they could fly in a moment from one wing to
-another, from the rear to the van, then when their quivers were empty
-could go off at so swift a gallop that neither infantry or heavy cavalry
-could pursue them. Their defensive armour consisted of a helmet and
-half-cuirass; some of them carried a short lance as well, with which to
-pin their stricken foe to the ground; they all wore long cloaks adorned
-with shoulder-knots, and plates of silver whereon the arms of their
-chief were emblazoned.
-
-At last came the young king's escort; there were four hundred archers,
-among whom a hundred Scots formed a line on each side, while two hundred
-of the most illustrious knights marched on foot beside the prince,
-carrying heavy arms on their shoulders. In the midst of this magnificent
-escort advanced Charles VIII, both he and his horse covered with
-splendid armour; an his right and left marched Cardinal Ascanio Sforza,
-the Duke of Milan's brother, and Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, of whom
-we have spoken so often, who was afterwards Pope Julius II. The
-Cardinals Colonna and Savelli followed immediately after, and behind
-them came Prospero and Fabrizia Colonna, and all the Italian princes and
-generals who had thrown in their lot with the conqueror, and were
-marching intermingled with the great French lords.
-
-For a long time the crowd that had collected to see all these foreign
-soldiers go by, a sight so new and strange, listened uneasily to a dull
-sound which got nearer and nearer. The earth visibly trembled, the glass
-shook in the windows, and behind the king's escort thirty-six bronze
-cannons were seen to advance, bumping along as they lay on their
-gun-carriages. These cannons were eight feet in length; and as their
-mouths were large enough to hold a man's head, it was supposed that each
-of these terrible machines, scarcely known as yet to the Italians,
-weighed nearly six thousand pounds. After the cannons came culverins
-sixteen feet long, and then falconets, the smallest of which shot balls
-the size of a grenade. This formidable artillery brought up the rear of
-the procession, and formed the hindmost guard of the French army.
-
-It was six hours since the front guard entered the town; and as it was
-now night and for every six artillery-men there was a torch-bearer, this
-illumination gave to the objects around a more gloomy character than
-they would have shown in the sunlight. The young king was to take up his
-quarters in the Palazzo di Venezia, and all the artillery was directed
-towards the plaza and the neighbouring streets. The remainder of the
-army was dispersed about the town. The same evening, they brought to the
-king, less to do honour to him than to assure him of his safety, the
-keys of Rome and the keys of the Belvedere Garden. Just the same thing
-had been done for the Duke of Calabria.
-
-The pope, as we said, had retired to the Castle S. Angelo with only six
-cardinals, so from the day after his arrival the young king had around
-him a court of very different brilliance from that of the head of the
-Church. Then arose anew the question of a convocation to prove
-Alexander's simony and proceed to depose him; but the king's chief
-counsellors, gained over, as we know, pointed out that this was a bad
-moment to excite a new schism in the Church, just when preparations were
-being made for war against the infidels. As this was also the king's
-private opinion, there was not much trouble in persuading him, and he
-made up his mind to treat with His Holiness.
-
-But the negotiations had scarcely begun when they had to be broken off;
-for the first thing Charles VIII demanded was the surrender of the
-Castle S. Angelo, and as the pope saw in this castle his only refuge, it
-was the last thing he chose to give up. Twice, in his youthful
-impatience, Charles wanted to take by force what he could not get by
-goodwill, and had his cannons directed towards the Holy Father's
-dwelling-place; but the pope was unmoved by these demonstrations; and
-obstinate as he was, this time it was the French king who gave way.
-
-This article, therefore, was set aside, and the following conditions
-were agreed upon:
-
-That there should be from this day forward between His Majesty the King
-of France and the Holy Father a sincere friendship and a firm alliance;
-
-Before the completion of the conquest of the kingdom of Naples, the King
-of France should occupy, for the advantage and accommodation of his
-army, the fortresses of Civita Vecchia, Terracina, and Spoleto;
-
-Lastly, the Cardinal Valentino (this was now the name of Caesar Borgia,
-after his archbishopric of Valencia) should accompany the king in the
-capacity of apostolic ambassador, really as a hostage.
-
-These conditions fixed, the ceremonial of an interview was arranged. The
-king left the Palazzo di Venezia and went to live in the Vatican. At the
-appointed time he entered by the door of a garden that adjoined the
-palace, while the pope, who had not had to quit the Castle S. Angelo,
-thanks to a corridor communicating between the two palaces, came down
-into the same garden by another gate. The result of this arrangement was
-that the king the next moment perceived the pope, and knelt down, but
-the pope pretended not to see him, and the king advancing a few paces,
-knelt a second time; as His Holiness was at that moment screened by some
-masonry, this supplied him with another excuse, and the king went on
-with the performance, got up again, once more advanced several steps,
-and was on the point of kneeling down the third time face to face, when
-the Holy Father at last perceived him, and, walking towards him as
-though he would prevent him from kneeling, took off his own hat, and
-pressing him to his heart, raised him up and tenderly kissed his
-forehead, refusing to cover until the king had put his cap upon his
-head, with the aid of the pope's own hands. Then, after they had stood
-for a moment, exchanging polite and friendly speeches, the king lost no
-time in praying His Holiness to be so good as to receive into the Sacred
-College William Bricannet, the Bishop of St. Malo. As this matter had
-been agreed upon beforehand by that prelate and His Holiness, though the
-king was not aware of it, Alexander was pleased to get credit by
-promptly granting the request; and he instantly ordered one of his
-attendants to go to the house of his son, Cardinal Valentino, and fetch
-a cape and hat. Then taking the king by the hand, he conducted him into
-the hall of Papagalli, where the ceremony was to take place of the
-admission of the new cardinal. The solemn oath of obedience which was to
-be taken by Charles to His Holiness as supreme head of the Christian
-Church was postponed till the following day.
-
-When that solemn day arrived, every person important in Rome, noble,
-cleric, or soldier, assembled around His Holiness. Charles, on his side,
-made his approach to the Vatican with a splendid following of princes,
-prelates, and captains. At the threshold of the palace he found four
-cardinals who had arrived before him: two of them placed themselves one
-on each side of him, the two others behind him, and all his retinue
-following, they traversed a long line of apartments full of guards and
-servants, and at last arrived in the reception-room, where the pope was
-seated on his throne, with his son, Caesar Borgia; behind him. On his
-arrival at the door, the King of France began the usual ceremonial, and
-when he had gone on from genuflexions to kissing the feet, the hand, and
-the forehead, he stood up, while the first president of the Parliament
-of Paris, in his turn stepping forward, said in a loud voice:
-
-"Very Holy Father, behold my king ready to offer to your Holiness that
-oath of obedience that he owes to you; but in France it is customary
-that he who offers himself as vassal to his lord shall receive in
-exchange therefor such boons as he may demand. His Majesty, therefore,
-while he pledges himself for his own part to behave unto your Holiness
-with a munificence even greater than that wherewith your Holiness shall
-behave unto him, is here to beg urgently that you accord him three
-favours. These favours are: first, the confirmation of privileges
-already granted to the king, to the queen his wife, and to the dauphin
-his son; secondly, the investiture, for himself and his successors, of
-the kingdom of Naples; lastly, the surrender to him of the person of the
-sultan D'jem, brother of the Turkish emperor."
-
-At this address the pope was for a moment stupefied, for he did not
-expect these three demands, which were moreover made so publicly by
-Charles that no manner of refusal was possible. But quickly recovering
-his presence of mind, he replied to the king that he would willingly
-confirm the privileges that had been accorded to the house of France by
-his predecessors; that he might therefore consider his first demand
-granted; that the investiture of the kingdom was an affair that required
-deliberation in a council of cardinals, but he would do all he possibly
-could to induce them to accede to the king's desire; lastly, he must
-defer the affair of the sultan's brother till a time more opportune for
-discussing it with the Sacred College, but would venture to say that, as
-this surrender could not fail to be for the good of Christendom, as it
-was demanded for the purpose of assuring further the success of a
-crusade, it would not be his fault if on this point also the king should
-not be satisfied.
-
-At this reply, Charles bowed his head in sign of satisfaction, and the
-first president stood up, uncovered, and resumed his discourse as
-follows.
-
-"Very Holy Father, it is an ancient custom among Christian kings,
-especially the Most Christian kings of France, to signify, through their
-ambassadors, the respect they feel for the Holy See and the sovereign
-pontiffs whom Divine Providence places thereon; but the Most Christian
-king, having felt a desire to visit the tombs of the holy apostles, has
-been pleased to pay this religious debt, which he regards as a sacred
-duty, not by ambassadors or by delegates, but in his own person. This is
-why, Very Holy Father, His Majesty the King of France is here to
-acknowledge you as the true vicar of Christ, the legitimate successor of
-the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and with promise and vow renders
-you that filial and respectful devotion which the kings his predecessors
-have been accustomed to promise and vow, devoting himself and all his
-strength to the service of your Holiness and the interests of the Holy
-See."
-
-The pope arose with a joyful heart; for this oath, so publicly made,
-removed all his fears about a council; so inclined from this moment to
-yield to the King of France anything he might choose to ask, he took him
-by his left hand and made him a short and friendly reply, dubbing him
-the Church's eldest son. The ceremony over, they left the hall, the pope
-always holding the king's hand in his, and in this way they walked as
-far as the room where the sacred vestments are put off; the pope feigned
-a wish to conduct the king to his own apartments, but the king would not
-suffer this, and, embracing once more, they separated, each to retire to
-his own domicile.
-
-The king remained eight days longer at the Vatican, then returned to the
-Palazzo San Marco. During these eight days all his demands were debated
-and settled to his satisfaction. The Bishop of Mans was made cardinal;
-the investiture of the kingdom of Naples was promised to the conqueror;
-lastly, it was agreed that on his departure the King of France should
-receive from the pope's hand the brother of the Emperor of
-Constantinople, for a sum of 120,000 livres. But--the pope, desiring to
-extend to the utmost the hospitality he had been bestowing, invited
-D'jem to dinner on the very day that he was to leave Rome with his new
-protector.
-
-When the moment of departure arrived, Charles mounted his horse in full
-armour, and with a numerous and brilliant following made his way to the
-Vatican; arrived at the door, he dismounted, and leaving his escort at
-the Piazza of St. Peter, went up with a few gentlemen only. He found His
-Holiness waiting for him, with Cardinal Valentino on his right, and on
-his left D'jem, who, as we said before, was dining with him, and round
-the table thirteen cardinals. The king at once, bending on his knee,
-demanded the pope's benediction, and stooped to kiss his feet. But this
-Alexander would not suffer; he took him in his arms, and with the lips
-of a father and heart of an enemy, kissed him tenderly on his forehead.
-Then the pope introduced the son of Mahomet II, who was a fine young
-man, with something noble and regal in his air, presenting in his
-magnificent oriental costume a great contrast in its fashion and
-amplitude to the narrow, severe cut of the Christian apparel. D'jem
-advanced to Charles without humility and without pride, and, like an
-emperor's son treating with a king, kissed his hand and then his
-shoulder; then, turning towards the Holy Father, he said in Italian,
-which he spoke very well, that he entreated he would recommend him to
-the young king, who was prepared to take him under his protection,
-assuring the pontiff that he should never have to repent giving him his
-liberty, and telling Charles that he hoped he might some day be proud of
-him, if after taking Naples he carried out his intention of going on to
-Greece. These words were spoken with so much dignity and at the same
-time with such gentleness, that the King of France loyally and frankly
-grasped the young sultan's hand, as though he were his
-companion-in-arms. Then Charles took a final farewell of the pope, and
-went down to the piazza. There he was awaited by Cardinal Valentino, who
-was about to accompany him, as we know, as a hostage, and who had
-remained behind to exchange a few words with his father. In a moment
-Caesar Borgia appeared, riding on a splendidly harnessed mule, and
-behind him were led six magnificent horses, a present from the Holy
-Father to the King of France. Charles at once mounted one of these, to
-do honour to the gift the pope had just conferred on him, and leaving
-Rome with the rest of his troops, pursued his way towards Marino, where
-he arrived the same evening.
-
-He learned there that Alfonso, belying his reputation as a clever
-politician and great general, had just embarked with all his treasures
-in a flotilla of four galleys, leaving the care of the war and the
-management of his kingdom to his son Ferdinand. Thus everything went
-well for the triumphant march of Charles: the gates of towns opened of
-themselves at his approach, his enemies fled without waiting for his
-coming, and before he had fought a single battle he had won for himself
-the surname of Conqueror.
-
-The day after at dawn the army started once more, and after marching the
-whole day, stopped in the evening at Velletri. There the king, who had
-been on horseback since the morning, with Cardinal Valentine and D'jem,
-left the former at his lodging, and taking D'jem with him, went on to
-his own. Then Caesar Borgia, who among the army baggage had twenty very
-heavy waggons of his own, had one of these opened, took out a splendid
-cabinet with the silver necessary for his table, and gave orders for his
-supper to be prepared, as he had done the night before. Meanwhile, night
-had come on, and he shut himself up in a private chamber, where,
-stripping off his cardinal's costume, he put on a groom's dress. Thanks
-to this disguise, he issued from the house that had been assigned for
-his accommodation without being recognised, traversed the streets,
-passed through the gates, and gained the open country. Nearly half a
-league outside the town, a servant awaited him with two swift horses.
-Caesar, who was an excellent rider, sprang to the saddle, and he and his
-companion at full gallop retraced the road to Rome, where they arrived
-at break of day. Caesar got down at the house of one Flores, auditor of
-the rota, where he procured a fresh horse and suitable clothes; then he
-flew at once to his mother, who gave a cry of joy when she saw him; for
-so silent and mysterious was the cardinal for all the world beside, and
-even for her, that he had not said a word of his early return to Rome.
-The cry of joy uttered by Rosa Vanozza when she beheld her son was far
-more a cry of vengeance than of love. One evening, while everybody was
-at the rejoicings in the Vatican, when Charles VIII and Alexander VI
-were swearing a friendship which neither of them felt, and exchanging
-oaths that were broken beforehand, a messenger from Rosa Vanozza had
-arrived with a letter to Caesar, in which she begged him to come at once
-to her house in the Via dellaLongara. Caesar questioned the messenger,
-but he only replied that he could tell him nothing, that he would learn
-all he cared to know from his mother's own lips. So, as soon as he was
-at liberty, Caesar, in layman's dress and wrapped in a large cloak,
-quitted the Vatican and made his way towards the church of Regina Coeli,
-in the neighbourhood of which, it will be remembered, was the house
-where the pope's mistress lived.
-
-As he approached his mother's house, Caesar began to observe the signs
-of strange devastation. The street was scattered with the wreck of
-furniture and strips of precious stuffs. As he arrived at the foot of
-the little flight of steps that led to the entrance gate, he saw that
-the windows were broken and the remains of torn curtains were fluttering
-in front of them. Not understanding what this disorder could mean, he
-rushed into the house and through several deserted and wrecked
-apartments. At last, seeing light in one of the rooms, he went in, and
-there found his mother sitting on the remains of a chest made of ebony
-all inlaid with ivory and silver. When she saw Caesar, she rose, pale
-and dishevelled, and pointing to the desolation around her, exclaimed:
-
-"Look, Caesar; behold the work of your new friends."
-
-"But what does it mean, mother?" asked the cardinal. "Whence comes all
-this disorder?"
-
-"From the serpent," replied Rosa Vanozza, gnashing her teeth,--"from the
-serpent you have warmed in your bosom. He has bitten me, fearing no
-doubt that his teeth would be broken on you."
-
-"Who has done this?" cried Caesar. "Tell me, and, by Heaven, mother, he
-shall pay, and pay indeed!"
-
-"Who?" replied Rosa. "King Charles VIII has done it, by the hands of his
-faithful allies, the Swiss. It was well known that Melchior was away,
-and that I was living alone with a few wretched servants; so they came
-and broke in the doors, as though they were taking Rome by storm, and
-while Cardinal Valentino was making holiday with their master, they
-pillaged his mother's house, loading her with insults and outrages which
-no Turks or Saracens could possibly have improved upon."
-
-"Very good, very good, mother," said Caesar; "be calm; blood shall wash
-out disgrace. Consider a moment; what we have lost is nothing compared
-with what we might lose; and my father and I, you may be quite sure,
-will give you back more than they have stolen from you."
-
-"I ask for no promises," cried Rosa; "I ask for revenge."
-
-"My mother," said the cardinal, "you shall be avenged, or I will lose
-the name of son."
-
-Having by these words reassured his mother, he took her to Lucrezia's
-palace, which in consequence of her marriage with Pesaro was unoccupied,
-and himself returned to the Vatican, giving orders that his mother's
-house should be refurnished more magnificently than before the disaster.
-These orders were punctually executed, and it was among her new
-luxurious surroundings, but with the same hatred in her heart, that
-Caesar on this occasion found his mother. This feeling prompted her cry
-of joy when she saw him once more.
-
-The mother and son exchanged a very few words; then Caesar, mounting on
-horseback, went to the Vatican, whence as a hostage he had departed two
-days before. Alexander, who knew of the flight beforehand, and not only
-approved, but as sovereign pontiff had previously absolved his son of
-the perjury he was about to commit, received him joyfully, but all the
-same advised him to lie concealed, as Charles in all probability would
-not be slow to reclaim his hostage:
-
-Indeed, the next day, when the king got up, the absence of Cardinal
-Valentino was observed, and as Charles was uneasy at not seeing him, he
-sent to inquire what had prevented his appearance. When the messenger
-arrived at the house that Caesar had left the evening before, he learned
-that he had gone out at nine o'clock in the evening and not returned
-since. He went back with this news to the king, who at once suspected
-that he had fled, and in the first flush of his anger let the whole army
-know of his perjury. The soldiers then remembered the twenty waggons, so
-heavily laden, from one of which the cardinal, in the sight of all, had
-produced such magnificent gold and silver plate; and never doubting that
-the cargo of the others was equally precious, they fetched them down and
-broke them to pieces; but inside they found nothing but stones and sand,
-which proved to the king that the flight had been planned a long time
-back, and incensed him doubly against the pope. So without loss of time
-he despatched to Rome Philippe de Bresse, afterwards Duke of Savoy, with
-orders to intimate to the Holy Father his displeasure at this conduct.
-But the pope replied that he knew nothing whatever about his son's
-flight, and expressed the sincerest regret to His Majesty, declaring
-that he knew nothing of his whereabouts, but was certain that he was not
-in Rome. As a fact, the pope was speaking the truth this time, for
-Caesar had gone with Cardinal Orsino to one of his estates, and was
-temporarily in hiding there. This reply was conveyed to Charles by two
-messengers from the pope, the Bishops of Nepi and of Sutri, and the
-people also sent an ambassador in their own behalf. He was Monsignore
-Porcari, dean of the rota, who was charged to communicate to the king
-the displeasure of the Romans when they learned of the cardinal's breach
-of faith. Little as Charles was disposed to content himself with empty
-words, he had to turn his attention to more serious affairs; so he
-continued his march to Naples without stopping, arriving there on
-Sunday, the 22nd of February, 1495.
-
-Four days later, the unlucky D'jem, who had fallen sick at Capua died at
-Castel Nuovo. When he was leaving, at the farewell banquet, Alexander
-had tried on his guest the poison he intended to use so often later on
-upon his cardinals, and whose effects he was destined to feel
-himself,--such is poetical justice. In this way the pope had secured a
-double haul; for, in his twofold speculation in this wretched young man,
-he had sold him alive to Charles for 120,000 livres and sold him dead to
-Bajazet for 300,00 ducats....
-
-But there was a certain delay about the second payment; for the Turkish
-emperor, as we remember, was not bound to pay the price of fratricide
-till he received the corpse, and by Charles's order the corpse had been
-buried at Gaeta.
-
-When Caesar Borgia learned the news, he rightly supposed that the king
-would be so busy settling himself in his new capital that he would have
-too much to think of to be worrying about him; so he went to Rome again,
-and, anxious to keep his promise to his mother, he signalised his return
-by a terrible vengeance.
-
-Cardinal Valentino had in his service a certain Spaniard whom he had
-made the chief of his bravoes; he was a man of five-and-thirty or forty,
-whose whole life had been one long rebellion against society's laws; he
-recoiled from no action, provided only he could get his price. This Don
-Michele Correglia, who earned his celebrity for bloody deeds under the
-name of Michelotto, was just the man Caesar wanted; and whereas
-Michelotto felt an unbounded admiration for Caesar, Caesar had unlimited
-confidence in Michelotto. It was to him the cardinal entrusted the
-execution of one part of his vengeance; the other he kept for himself.
-
-Don Michele received orders to scour the Campagna and cut every French
-throat he could find. He began his work at once; and very few days
-elapsed before he had obtained most satisfactory results: more than a
-hundred persons were robbed or assassinated, and among the last the son
-of Cardinal de St. Malo, who was en his way back to France, and on whom
-Michelotto found a sum of 3000 crowns.
-
-For himself, Caesar reserved the Swiss; for it was the Swiss in
-particular who had despoiled his mother's house. The pope had in his
-service about a hundred and fifty soldiers belonging to their nation,
-who had settled their families in Rome, and had grown rich partly by
-their pay and partly in the exercise of various industries. The cardinal
-had every one of them dismissed, with orders to quit Rome within
-twenty-four hours and the Roman territories within three days. The poor
-wretches had all collected together to obey the order, with their wives
-and children and baggage, on the Piazza of St. Peter, when suddenly, by
-Cardinal Valentino's orders, they were hemmed in on all sides by two
-thousand Spaniards, who began to fire on them with their guns and charge
-them with their sabres, while Caesar and his mother looked down upon the
-carnage from a window. In this way they killed fifty or perhaps sixty;
-but the rest coming up, made a charge at the assassins, and then,
-without suffering any loss, managed to beat a retreat to a house, where
-they stood a siege, and made so valiant a defense that they gave the
-pope time--he knew nothing of the author of this butchery--to send the
-captain of his guard to the rescue, who, with a strong detachment,
-succeeded in getting nearly forty of them safely out of the town: the
-rest had been massacred on the piazza or killed in the house.
-
-But this was no real and adequate revenge; for it did not touch Charles
-himself, the sole author of all the troubles that the pope and his
-family had experienced during the last year. So Caesar soon abandoned
-vulgar schemes of this kind and busied himself with loftier concerns,
-bending all the force of his genius to restore the league of Italian
-princes that had been broken by the defection of Sforza, the exile of
-Piero dei Medici, and the defeat of Alfonso. The enterprise was more
-easily accomplished than the pope could have anticipated. The Venetians
-were very uneasy when Charles passed so near, and they trembled lest,
-when he was once master of Naples, he might conceive the idea of
-conquering the rest of Italy. Ludovico Sforza, on his side, was
-beginning to tremble, seeing the rapidity with which the King of France
-had dethroned the house of Aragon, lest he might not make much
-difference between his allies and his enemies. Maximilian, for his part,
-was only seeking an occasion to break the temporary peace which he had
-granted for the sake of the concession made to him. Lastly, Ferdinand
-and Isabella were allies of the dethroned house. And so it came about
-that all of them, for different reasons, felt a common fear, and were
-soon in agreement as to the necessity of driving out Charles VIII, not
-only from Naples, but from Italy, and pledged themselves to work
-together to this end, by every means in their power, by negotiations, by
-trickery, or by actual force. The Florentines alone refused to take part
-in this general levy of arms, and remained faithful to their promises.
-
-According to the articles of the treaty agreed upon by the confederates,
-the alliance was to last for five-and-twenty years, and had for
-ostensible object the upholding of the majority of the pope, and the
-interests of Christendom; and these preparations might well have been
-taken for such as would precede a crusade against the Turks, if
-Bajazet's ambassador had not always been present at the deliberations,
-although the Christian princes could not have dared for very shame to
-admit the, sultan by name into their league. Now the confederates had to
-set on foot an army of 30,000 horse and 20,000 infantry, and each of
-them was taxed for a contingent; thus the pope was to furnish 4000
-horse, Maximilian 6000, the King of Spain, the Duke of Milan, and the
-republic of Venice, 8000 each. Every confederate was, in addition to
-this, to levy and equip 4000 infantry in the six weeks following the
-signature of the treaty. The fleets were to be equipped by the Maritime
-States; but any expenses they should incur later on were to be defrayed
-by all in equal shares.
-
-The formation of this league was made public on the 12th of April, 1495,
-Palm Sunday, and in all the Italian States, especially at Rome, was made
-the occasion of fetes and immense rejoicings. Almost as soon as the
-publicly known articles were announced the secret ones were put into
-execution. These obliged Ferdinand and Isabella to send a fleet of sixty
-galleys to Ischia, where Alfonso's son had retired, with six hundred
-horsemen on board and five thousand infantry, to help him to ascend the
-throne once more. Those troops were to be put under the command of
-Gonzalvo of Cordova, who had gained the reputation of the greatest
-general in Europe after the taking of Granada. The Venetians with a
-fleet of forty galleys under the command of Antonio Grimani, were to
-attack all the French stations on the coast of Calabria and Naples. The
-Duke of Milan promised for his part to check all reinforcements as they
-should arrive from France, and to drive the Duke of Orleans out of Asti.
-
-Lastly, there was Maximilian, who had promised to make invasions on the
-frontiers, and Bajazet, who was to help with money, ships, and soldiers
-either the Venetians or the Spaniards, according as he might be appealed
-to by Barberigo or by Ferdinand the Catholic.
-
-This league was all the more disconcerting for Charles, because of the
-speedy abatement of the enthusiasm that had hailed his first appearance.
-What had happened to him was what generally happens to a conqueror who
-has more good luck than talent; instead of making himself a party among
-the great Neapolitan and Calabrian vassals, whose roots would be
-embedded in the very soil, by confirming their privileges and augmenting
-their power, he had wounded their feelings by bestowing all the titles,
-offices, and fiefs on those alone who had followed him from France, so
-that all the important positions in the kingdom were filled by
-strangers.
-
-The result was that just when the league was made known, Tropea and
-Amantea, which had been presented by Charles to the Seigneur de Precy,
-rose in revolt and hoisted the banner of Aragon; and the Spanish fleet
-had only to present itself at Reggio, in Calabria, for the town to throw
-open its gates, being more discontented with the new rule than the old;
-and Don Federiga, Alfonso's brother and Ferdinand's uncle, who had
-hitherto never quitted Brindisi, had only to appear at Tarentum to be
-received there as a liberator.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-
-CHARLES learned all this news at Naples, and, tired of his late
-conquests, which necessitated a labour in organisation for which he was
-quite unfitted, turned his eyes towards France, where victorious fetes
-and rejoicings were awaiting the victor's return. So he yielded at the
-first breath of his advisers, and retraced his road to his kingdom,
-threatened, as was said, by the Germans on the north and the Spaniards
-on the south. Consequently, he appointed Gilbert de Montpensier, of the
-house of Bourbon, viceroy; d'Aubigny, of the Scotch Stuart family,
-lieutenant in Calabria; Etienne de Vese, commander at Gaeta; and Don
-Juliano, Gabriel de Montfaucon, Guillaume de Villeneuve, George de
-Lilly, the bailiff of Vitry, and Graziano Guerra respectively governors
-of Sant' Angelo, Manfredonia, Trani, Catanzaro, Aquila, and Sulmone;
-then leaving behind in evidence of his claims the half of his Swiss, a
-party of his Gascons, eight hundred French lances, and about five
-hundred Italian men-at-arms, the last under the command of the prefect
-of Rome, Prospero and Fabrizio Colonna, and Antonio Savelli, he left
-Naples on the 20th of May at two o'clock in the afternoon, to traverse
-the whole of the Italian peninsula with the rest of his army, consisting
-of eight hundred French lances, two hundred gentlemen of his guard, one
-hundred Italian men-at-arms, three thousand Swiss infantry, one thousand
-French and one thousand Gascon. He also expected to be joined by Camillo
-Vitelli and his brothers in Tuscany, who were to contribute two hundred
-and fifty men-at-arms.
-
-A week before he left Naples, Charles had sent to Rome Monseigneur de
-Saint-Paul, brother of Cardinal de Luxembourg; and just as he was
-starting he despatched thither the new Archbishop of Lyons. They both
-were commissioned to assure Alexander that the King of France had the
-most sincere desire and the very best intention of remaining his friend.
-In truth, Charles wished for nothing so much as to separate the pope
-from the league, so as to secure him as a spiritual and temporal
-support; but a young king, full of fire, ambition, and courage, was not
-the neighbour to suit Alexander; so the latter would listen to nothing,
-and as the troops he had demanded from the doge and Ludavico Sforza had
-not been sent in sufficient number for the defense of Rome, he was
-content with provisioning the castle of S. Angelo, putting in a
-formidable garrison, and leaving Cardinal Sant' Anastasio to receive
-Charles while he himself withdrew with Caesar to Orvieto. Charles only
-stayed in Rome three days, utterly depressed because the pope had
-refused to receive him in spite of his entreaties. And in these three
-days, instead of listening to Giuliano della Rovere, who was advising
-him once more to call a council and depose the pope, he rather hoped to
-bring the pope round to his side by the virtuous act of restoring the
-citadels of Terracina and Civita Vecchia to the authorities of the
-Romagna, only keeping for himself Ostia, which he had promised Giuliano
-to give back to him. At last, when the three days had elapsed, he left
-Rome, and resumed his march in three columns towards Tuscany, crossed
-the States of the Church, and on the 13th reached Siena, where he was
-joined by Philippe de Commines, who had gone as ambassador extraordinary
-to the Venetian Republic, and now announced that the enemy had forty
-thousand men under arms and were preparing for battle. This news
-produced no other effect on the king and the gentlemen of his army than
-to excite their amusement beyond measure; for they had conceived such a
-contempt for their enemy by their easy conquest, that they could not
-believe that any army, however numerous, would venture to oppose their
-passage.
-
-Charles, however, was forced to give way in the face of facts, when he
-heard at San Teranza that his vanguard, commanded by Marechal de Gie,
-and composed of six hundred lances and fifteen hundred Swiss, when it
-arrived at Fornova had come face to face with the confederates, who had
-encamped at Guiarole. The marechal had ordered an instant halt, and he
-too had pitched his tents, utilising for his defence the natural
-advantages of the hilly ground. When these first measures had been
-taken, he sent out, first, a herald to the enemy's camp to ask from
-Francesco di Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, generalissimo of the
-confederate troops, a passage for his king's army and provisions at a
-reasonable price; and secondly, he despatched a courier to Charles VIII,
-pressing him to hurry on his march with the artillery and rearguard. The
-confederates had given an evasive answer, for they were pondering
-whether they ought to jeopardise the whole Italian force in a single
-combat, and, putting all to the hazard, attempt to annihilate the King
-of France and his army together, so overwhelming the conqueror in the
-ruins of his ambition. The messenger found Charles busy superintending
-the passage of the last of his cannon over the mountain of Pontremoli.
-This was no easy matter, seeing that there was no sort of track, and the
-guns had to be lifted up and lowered by main force, and each piece
-needed the arms of as many as two hundred men. At last, when all the
-artillery had arrived without accident on the other side of the
-Apennines, Charles started in hot haste for Fornovo, where he arrived
-with all his following on the morning of the next day.
-
-From the top of the mountain where the Marechal de Gie had pitched his
-tents, the king beheld both his own camp and the enemy's. Both were on
-the right bank of the Taro, and were at either end of a semicircular
-chain of hills resembling an amphitheatre; and the space between the two
-camps, a vast basin filled during the winter floods by the torrent which
-now only marked its boundary, was nothing but a plain covered with
-gravel, where all manoeuvres must be equally difficult for horse and
-infantry. Besides, on the western slope of the hills there was a little
-wood which extended from the enemy's army to the French, and was in the
-possession of the Stradiotes, who, by help of its cover, had already
-engaged in several skirmishes with the French troops during the two days
-of halt while they were waiting for the king.
-
-The situation was not reassuring. From the top of the mountain which
-overlooked Fornovo, one could get a view, as we said before, of the two
-camps, and could easily calculate the numerical difference between them.
-The French army, weakened by the establishment of garrisons in the
-various towns and fortresses they had won in Italy, were scarcely eight
-thousand strong, while the combined forces of Milan and Venice exceeded
-a total of thirty-five thousand. So Charles decided to try once more the
-methods of conciliation, and sent Commines, who, as we know, had joined
-him in Tuscany, to the Venetian 'proveditori', whose acquaintance he had
-made when on his embassy; he having made a great impression on these
-men, thanks to a general high opinion of his merits. He was commissioned
-to tell the enemy's generals, in the name of the King of France, that
-his master only desired to continue his road without doing or receiving
-any harm; that therefore he asked to be allowed a free passage across
-the fair plains of Lombardy, which he could see from the heights where
-he now stood, stretching as far as the eye could reach, away to the foot
-of the Alps. Commines found the confederate army deep in discussion: the
-wish of the Milanese and Venetian party being to let the king go by, and
-not attack him; they said they were only too happy that he should leave
-Italy in this way, without causing any further harm; but the ambassadors
-of Spain and Germany took quite another view. As their masters had no
-troops in the army, and as all the money they had promised was already
-paid, they must be the gainer in either case from a battle, whichever
-way it went: if they won the day they would gather the fruits of
-victory, and if they lost they would experience nothing of the evils of
-defeat. This want of unanimity was the reason why the answer to Commines
-was deferred until the following day, and why it was settled that on the
-next day he should hold another conference with a plenipotentiary to be
-appointed in the course of that night. The place of this conference was
-to be between the two armies.
-
-The king passed the night in great uneasiness. All day the weather had
-threatened to turn to rain, and we have already said how rapidly the
-Taro could swell; the river, fordable to-day, might from tomorrow
-onwards prove an insurmountable obstacle; and possibly the delay had
-only been asked for with a view to putting the French army in a worse
-position. As a fact the night had scarcely come when a terrible storm
-arose, and so long as darkness lasted, great rumblings were heard in the
-Apennines, and the sky was brilliant with lightning. At break of day,
-however, it seemed to be getting a little calmer, though the Taro, only
-a streamlet the day before, had become a torrent by this time, and was
-rapidly rising. So at six in the morning, the king, ready armed and on
-horseback, summoned Commines and bade him make his way to the rendezvous
-that the Venetian 'proveditori' had assigned. But scarcely had he
-contrived to give the order when loud cries were heard coming from the
-extreme right of the French army. The Stradiotes, under cover of the
-wood stretching between the two camps, had surprised an outpost, and
-first cutting the soldiers' throats, were carrying off their heads in
-their usual way at the saddle-bow. A detachment of cavalry was sent in
-pursuit; but, like wild animals, they had retreated to their lair in the
-woods, and there disappeared.
-
-This unexpected engagement, in all probability arranged beforehand by
-the Spanish and German envoys, produced on the whole army the effect of
-a spark applied to a train of gunpowder. Commines and the Venetian
-'proveditori' each tried in vain to arrest the combat on either side.
-Light troops, eager for a skirmish, and, in the usual fashion of those
-days, prompted only by that personal courage which led them on to
-danger, had already come to blows, rushing down into the plain as though
-it were an amphitheatre where they might make a fine display of arms.
-For a moment the young king, drawn on by example, was on the point of
-forgetting the responsibility of a general in his zeal as a soldier; but
-this first impulse was checked by Marechal de Gie, Messire Claude de la
-Chatre de Guise, and M. de la Trimauille, who persuaded Charles to adopt
-the wiser plan, and to cross the Taro without seeking a battle,--at the
-same time without trying to avoid it, should the enemy cross the river
-from their camp and attempt to block his passage. The king accordingly,
-following the advice of his wisest and bravest captains, thus arranged
-his divisions.
-
-The first comprised the van and a body of troops whose duty it was to
-support them. The van consisted of three hundred and fifty men-at-arms,
-the best and bravest of the army, under the command of Marechal de Gie
-and Jacques Trivulce; the corps following them consisted of three
-thousand Swiss, under the command of Engelbert der Cleves and de Larnay,
-the queen's grand equerry; next came three hundred archers of the guard,
-whom the king had sent to help the cavalry by fighting in the spaces
-between them.
-
-The second division, commanded by the king in person and forming the
-middle of the army, was composed of the artillery, under Jean de
-Lagrange, a hundred gentlemen of the guard with Gilles Carrone for
-standard-bearer, pensioners of the king's household under Aymar de Prie,
-some Scots, and two hundred cross-bowmen on horseback, with French
-archers besides, led by M. de Crussol.
-
-Lastly, the third division, i.e. the rear, preceded by six thousand
-beasts of burden bearing the baggage, was composed of only three hundred
-men-at-arms, commanded by de Guise and by de la Trimouille: this was the
-weakest part of the army.
-
-When this arrangement was settled, Charles ordered the van to cross the
-river, just at the little town of Fornovo. This was done at once, the
-riders getting wet up to their knees, and the footmen holding to the
-horses' tails. As soon as he saw the last soldiers of his first division
-on the opposite bank, he started himself to follow the same road and
-cross at the same ford, giving orders to de Guise and de la Trimouille
-to regulate the march of the rear guard by that of the centre, just as
-he had regulated their march by that of the van. His orders were
-punctually carried out; and about ten o'clock in the morning the whole
-French army was on the left bank of the Taro: at the same time, when it
-seemed certain from the enemy's arrangements that battle was imminent,
-the baggage, led by the captain, Odet de Reberac, was separated from the
-rear guard, and retired to the extreme left.
-
-Now, Francisco de Gonzaga, general-in-chief of the confederate troops,
-had modelled his plans on those of the King of France; by his orders,
-Count de Cajazzo, with four hundred men-at-arms and two thousand
-infantry, had crossed the Taro where the Venetian camp lay, and was to
-attack the French van; while Gonzaga himself, following the right bank
-as far as Fornovo, would go over the river by the same ford that Charles
-had used, with a view to attacking his rear. Lastly, he had placed the
-Stradiotes between these two fords, with orders to cross the river in
-their turn, so soon as they saw the French army attacked both in van and
-in the rear, and to fall upon its flank. Not content with offensive
-measures, Gonzaga had also made provision for retreat by leaving three
-reserve corps on the right bank, one to guard the camp under the
-instruction of the Venetian 'provveditori', and the other two arranged
-in echelon to support each other, the first commanded by Antonio di
-Montefeltro, the second by Annibale Bentivoglio.
-
-Charles had observed all these arrangements, and had recognised the
-cunning Italian strategy which made his opponents the finest generals in
-the world; but as there was no means of avoiding the danger, he had
-decided to take a sideway course, and had given orders to continue the
-match; but in a minute the French army was caught between Count di
-Cajazzo, barring the way with his four hundred men-at-arms and his two
-thousand infantry, and Gonzaga in pursuit of the rear, as we said
-before; leading six hundred men-at-arms, the flower of his army, a
-squadron of Stradiotes, and more than five thousand infantry: this
-division alone was stronger than the whole of the French army.
-
-When, however, M. de Guise and M. de la Trimouille found themselves
-pressed in this way, they ordered their two hundred men-at-arms to turn
-right about face, while at the opposite end--that is, at the head of the
-army-Marechal de Gie and Trivulce ordered a halt and lances in rest.
-Meanwhile, according to custom, the king, who, as we said, was in the
-centre, was conferring knighthood on those gentlemen who had earned the
-favour either by virtue of their personal powers or the king's special
-friendship.
-
-Suddenly there was heard a terrible clash behind. It was the French
-rearguard coming to blows with the Marquis of Mantua. In this encounter,
-where each man had singled out his own foe as though it were a
-tournament, very many lances were broken, especially those of the
-Italian knights; for their lances were hollowed so as to be less heavy,
-and in consequence had less solidity. Those who were thus disarmed at
-once seized their swords. As they were far more numerous than the
-French, the king saw them suddenly outflanking his right wing and
-apparently prepared to surround it; at the same moment loud cries were
-heard from a direction facing the centre: this meant that the Stradiotes
-were crossing the river to make their attack.
-
-The king at once ordered his division into two detachments, and giving
-one to Bourbon the bastard, to make head against the Stradiotes, he
-hurried with the second to the rescue of the van, flinging himself into
-the very midst of the melee, striking out like a king, and doing as
-steady work as the lowest in rank of his captains. Aided by the
-reinforcement, the rearguard made a good stand, though the enemy were
-five against one, and the combat in this part continued to rage with
-wonderful fury.
-
-Obeying his orders, Bourbon had thrown himself upon the Stradiotes; but
-unfortunately, carried off by his horse, he had penetrated so far into
-the enemy's ranks that he was lost to sight: the disappearance of their
-chief, the strange dress of their new antagonists, and the peculiar
-method of their fighting produced a considerable effect on those who
-were to attack them; and for the moment disorder was the consequence in
-the centre, and the horse men scattered instead of serrying their ranks
-and fighting in a body. This false move would have done them serious
-harm, had not most of the Stradiotes, seeing the baggage alone and
-undefended, rushed after that in hope of booty, instead of following up
-their advantage. A great part of the troop nevertheless stayed behind to
-fight, pressing on the French cavalry and smashing their lances with
-their fearful scimitars. Happily the king, who had just repulsed the
-Marquis of Mantua's attack, perceived what was going on behind him, and
-riding back at all possible speed to the succour of the centre, together
-with the gentlemen of his household fell upon the Stradiotes, no longer
-armed with a lance, for that he had just broken, but brandishing his
-long sword, which blazed about him like lightning, and--either because
-he was whirled away like Bourbon by his own horse, or because he had
-allowed his courage to take him too far--he suddenly found himself in
-the thickest ranks of the Stradiotes, accompanied only by eight of the
-knights he had just now created, one equerry called Antoine des Ambus,
-and his standard-bearer. "France, France!" he cried aloud, to rally
-round him all the others who had scattered; they, seeing at last that
-the danger was less than they had supposed, began to take their revenge
-and to pay back with interest the blows they had received from the
-Stradiotes. Things were going still better for the van, which the
-Marquis de Cajazzo was to attack; for although he had at first appeared
-to be animated with a terrible purpose, he stopped short about ten or
-twelve feet from the French line and turned right about face without
-breaking a single lance. The French wanted to pursue, but the Marechal
-de Gie, fearing that this flight might be only a trick to draw off the
-vanguard from the centre, ordered every man to stay in his place. But
-the Swiss, who were German, and did not understand the order, or thought
-it was not meant for them, followed upon their heels, and although on
-foot caught them up and killed a hundred of them. This was quite enough
-to throw them into disorder, so that some were scattered about the
-plain, and others made a rush for the water, so as to cross the river
-and rejoin their camp.
-
-When the Marechal de Gie saw this, he detached a hundred of his own men
-to go to the aid of the king, who was continuing to fight with
-unheard-of courage and running the greatest risks, constantly separated
-as he was from his gentlemen, who could not follow him; for wherever
-there was danger, thither he rushed, with his cry of "France," little
-troubling himself as to whether he was followed or not. And it was no
-longer with his sword that he fought; that he had long ago broken, like
-his lance, but with a heavy battle-axe, whose every blow was mortal
-whether cut or pierced. Thus the Stradiotes, already hard pressed by the
-king's household and his pensioners, soon changed attack for defence and
-defence for flight. It was at this moment that the king was really in
-the greatest danger; for he had let himself be carried away in pursuit
-of the fugitives, and presently found himself all alone, surrounded by
-these men, who, had they not been struck with a mighty terror, would
-have had nothing to do but unite and crush him and his horse together;
-but, as Commines remarks, "He whom God guards is well guarded, and God
-was guarding the King of France."
-
-All the same, at this moment the French were sorely pressed in the rear;
-and although de Guise and de la Trimouille held out as firmly as it was
-possible to hold, they would probably have been compelled to yield to
-superior numbers had not a double aid arrived in time: first the
-indefatigable Charles, who, having nothing more to do among the
-fugitives, once again dashed into the midst of the fight, next the
-servants of the army, who, now that they were set free from the
-Stradiotes and saw their enemies put to flight, ran up armed with the
-axes they habitually used to cut down wood for building their huts: they
-burst into the middle of the fray, slashing at the horses' legs and
-dealing heavy blows that smashed in the visors of the dismounted
-horsemen.
-
-The Italians could not hold out against this double attack; the 'furia
-francese' rendered all their strategy and all their calculations
-useless, especially as for more than a century they had abandoned their
-fights of blood and fury for a kind of tournament they chose to regard
-as warfare; so, in spite of all Gonzaga's efforts, they turned their
-backs upon the French rear and took to flight; in the greatest haste and
-with much difficulty they recrossed the torrent, which was swollen even
-more now by the rain that had been falling during the whole time of the
-battle.
-
-Some thought fit to pursue the vanquished, for there was now such
-disorder in their ranks that they were fleeing in all directions from
-the battlefield where the French had gained so glorious a victory,
-blocking up the roads to Parma and Bercetto. But Marechal de Gie and de
-Guise and de la Trimouille, who had done quite enough to save them from
-the suspicion of quailing before imaginary dangers, put a stop to this
-enthusiasm, by pointing out that it would only be risking the loss of
-their present advantage if they tried to push it farther with men and
-horses so worn out. This view was adopted in spite of the opinion of
-Trivulce, Camillo Vitelli, and Francesco Secco, who were all eager to
-follow up the victory.
-
-The king retired to a little village on the left bank of the Taro, and
-took shelter in a poor house. There he disarmed, being perhaps among all
-the captains and all the soldiers the man who had fought best.
-
-During the night the torrent swelled so high that the Italian army could
-not have pursued, even if they had laid aside their fears. The king did
-not propose to give the appearance of flight after a victory, and
-therefore kept his army drawn up all day, and at night went on to sleep
-at Medesano, a little village only a mile lower down than the hamlet
-where he rested after the fight. But in the course of the night he
-reflected that he had done enough for the honour of his arms in fighting
-an army four times as great as his own and killing three thousand men,
-and then waiting a day and a half to give them time to take their
-revenge; so two hours before daybreak he had the fires lighted, that the
-enemy might suppose he was remaining in camp; and every man mounting
-noiselessly, the whole French army, almost out of danger by this time,
-proceeded on their march to Borgo San Donnino.
-
-While this was going on, the pope returned to Rome, where news highly
-favourable to his schemes was not slow to reach his ears. He learned
-that Ferdinand had crossed from Sicily into Calabria with six thousand
-volunteers and a considerable number of Spanish horse and foot, led, at
-the command of Ferdinand and Isabella, by the famous Gonzalva de
-Cordova, who arrived in Italy with a great reputation, destined to
-suffer somewhat from the defeat at Seminara. At almost the same time the
-French fleet had been beaten by the Aragonese; moreover, the battle of
-the Taro, though a complete defeat for the confederates, was another
-victory for the pope, because its result was to open a return to France
-for that man whom he regarded as his deadliest foe. So, feeling that he
-had nothing more to fear from Charles, he sent him a brief at Turin,
-where he had stopped for a short time to give aid to Novara, therein
-commanding him, by virtue of his pontifical authority, to depart out of
-Italy with his army, and to recall within ten days those of his troops
-that still remained in the kingdom of Naples, on pain of
-excommunication, and a summons to appear before him in person.
-
-Charles VIII replied:
-
-  (1) That he did not understand how the pope, the chief of the league,
-      ordered him to leave Italy, whereas the confederates had not only
-      refused him a passage, but had even attempted, though
-      unsuccessfully, as perhaps His Holiness knew, to cut off his
-      return into France;
-  (2) That, as to recalling his troops from Naples, he was not so
-      irreligious as to do that, since they had not entered the kingdom
-      without the consent and blessing of His Holiness;
-  (3) That he was exceedingly surprised that the pope should require his
-      presence in person at the capital of the Christian world just at
-      the present time, when six weeks previously, at the time of his
-      return from Naples, although he ardently desired an interview with
-      His Holiness, that he might offer proofs of his respect and
-      obedience, His Holiness, instead of according this favour, had
-      quitted Rome so hastily on his approach that he had not been able
-      to come up with him by any efforts whatsoever. On this point,
-      however, he promised to give His Holiness the satisfaction he
-      desired, if he would engage this time to wait for him: he would
-      therefore return to Rome so soon as the affairs that brought him
-      back to his own kingdom had been satisfactorily, settled.
-
-Although in this reply there was a touch of mockery and defiance,
-Charles was none the less compelled by the circumstances of the case to
-obey the pope's strange brief. His presence was so much needed in France
-that, in spite of the arrival of a Swiss reinforcement, he was compelled
-to conclude a peace with Ludovico Sforza, whereby he yielded Novara to
-him; while Gilbert de Montpensier and d'Aubigny, after defending, inch
-by inch, Calabria, the Basilicate, and Naples, were obliged to sign the
-capitulation of Atella, after a siege of thirty-two days, on the 20th of
-July, 1496. This involved giving back to Ferdinand II, King of Naples,
-all the palaces and fortresses of his kingdom; which indeed he did but
-enjoy for three months, dying of exhaustion on the 7th of September
-following, at the Castello della Somma, at the foot of Vesuvius; all the
-attentions lavished upon him by his young wife could not repair the evil
-that her beauty had wrought.
-
-His uncle Frederic succeeded; and so, in the three years of his papacy,
-Alexander VI had seen five kings upon the throne of Naples, while he was
-establishing himself more firmly upon his own pontifical seat--Ferdinand
-I, Alfonso I, Charles VIII, Ferdinand II, and Frederic. All this
-agitation about his throne, this rapid succession of sovereigns, was the
-best thing possible for Alexander; for each new monarch became actually
-king only on condition of his receiving the pontifical investiture. The
-consequence was that Alexander was the only gainer in power and credit
-by these changes; for the Duke of Milan and the republics of Florence
-and Venice had successively recognised him as supreme head of the
-Church, in spite of his simony; moreover, the five kings of Naples had
-in turn paid him homage. So he thought the time had now come for
-founding a mighty family; and for this he relied upon the Duke of
-Gandia, who was to hold all the highest temporal dignities; and upon
-Caesar Borgia, who was to be appointed to all the great ecclesiastical
-offices. The pope made sure of the success of these new projects by
-electing four Spanish cardinals, who brought up the number of his
-compatriots in the Sacred College to twenty-two, thus assuring him a
-constant and certain majority.
-
-The first requirement of the pope's policy was to clear away from the
-neighbourhood of Rome all those petty lords whom most people call vicars
-of the Church, but whom Alexander called the shackles of the papacy. We
-saw that he had already begun this work by rousing the Orsini against
-the Colonna family, when Charles VIII's enterprise compelled him to
-concentrate all his mental resources, and also the forces of his States,
-so as to secure his own personal safety.
-
-It had come about through their own imprudent action that the Orsini,
-the pope's old friends, were now in the pay of the French, and had
-entered the kingdom of Naples with them, where one of them, Virginio, a
-very important member of their powerful house, had been taken prisoner
-during the war, and was Ferdinand II's captive. Alexander could not let
-this opportunity escape him; so, first ordering the King of Naples not
-to release a man who, ever since the 1st of June, 1496, had been a
-declared rebel, he pronounced a sentence of confiscation against
-Virginio Orsini and his whole family in a secret consistory, which sat
-on the 26th of October following--that is to say, in the early days of
-the reign of Frederic, whom he knew to be entirely at his command, owing
-to the King's great desire of getting the investiture from him; then, as
-it was not enough to declare the goods confiscated, without also
-dispossessing the owners, he made overtures to the Colonna family,
-saying he would commission them, in proof of their new bond of
-friendship, to execute the order given against their old enemies under
-the direction of his son Francesco, Duke of Gandia. In this fashion he
-contrived to weaken his neighbours each by means of the other, till such
-time as he could safely attack and put an end to conquered and conqueror
-alike.
-
-The Colonna family accepted this proposition, and the Duke of Gandia was
-named General of the Church: his father in his pontifical robes bestowed
-on him the insignia of this office in the church of St. Peter's at Rome.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-
-Matters went forward as Alexander had wished, and before the end of the
-year the pontifical army had seized a great number of castles and
-fortresses that belonged to the Orsini, who thought themselves already
-lost when Charles VIII came to the rescue. They had addressed themselves
-to him without much hope that he could be of real use to there, with his
-want of armed troops and his preoccupation with his own affairs. He,
-however, sent Carlo Orsini, son of Virginio, the prisoner, and
-Vitellozzo Vitelli, brother of Camillo Vitelli, one of the three valiant
-Italian condottieri who had joined him and fought for him at the
-crossing of the Taro: These two captains, whose courage and skill were
-well known, brought with them a considerable sum of money from the
-liberal coffers of Charles VIII. Now, scarcely had they arrived at Citta
-di Castello, the centre of their little sovereignty, and expressed their
-intention of raising a band of soldiers, when men presented themselves
-from all sides to fight under their banner; so they very soon assembled
-a small army, and as they had been able during their stay among the
-French to study those matters of military organisation in which France
-excelled, they now applied the result of their learning to their own
-troops: the improvements were mainly certain changes in the artillery
-which made their manoeuvres easier, and the substitution for their
-ordinary weapons of pikes similar in form to the Swiss pikes, but two
-feet longer. These changes effected, Vitellozzo Vitelli spent three or
-four months in exercising his men in the management of their new
-weapons; then, when he thought them fit to make good use of these, and
-when he had collected more or less help from the towns of Perugia, Todi,
-and Narni, where the inhabitants trembled lest their turn should come
-after the Orsini's, as the Orsini's had followed on the Colonnas', he
-marched towards Braccianno, which was being besieged by the Duke of
-Urbino, who had been lent to the pope by the Venetians, in virtue of the
-treaty quoted above.
-
-The Venetian general, when he heard of Vitelli's approach, thought he
-might as well spare him half his journey, and marched out to confront
-him: the two armies met in the Soriano road, and the battle straightway
-began. The pontifical army had a body of eight hundred Germans, on which
-the Dukes of Urbino and Gandia chiefly relied, as well they might, for
-they were the best troops in the world; but Vitelli attacked these
-picked men with his infantry, who, armed with their formidable pikes,
-ran them through, while they with arms four feet shorter had no chance
-even of returning the blows they received; at the same time Vitelli's
-light troops wheeled upon the flank, following their most rapid
-movements, and silencing the enemy's artillery by the swiftness and
-accuracy of their attack. The pontifical troops were put to flight,
-though after a longer resistance than might have been expected when they
-had to sustain the attack of an army so much better equipped than their
-own; with them they bore to Ronciglione the Duke of Gandia, wounded in
-the face by a pike-thrust, Fabrizia Colonna, and the envoy; the Duke of
-Urbino, who was fighting in the rear to aid the retreat, was taken
-prisoner with all his artillery and the baggage of the conquered army.
-But this success, great as it was, did not so swell the pride of
-Vitellozza Vitelli as to make him oblivious of his position. He knew
-that he and the Orsini together were too weak to sustain a war of such
-magnitude; that the little store of money to which he owed the existence
-of his army would very soon be expended and his army would disappear
-with it. So he hastened to get pardoned for the victory by making
-propositions which he would very likely have refused had he been the
-vanquished party; and the pope accepted his conditions without demur;
-during the interval having heard that Trivulce had just recrossed the
-Alps and re-entered Italy with three thousand Swiss, and fearing lest
-the Italian general might only be the advance guard of the King of
-France. So it was settled that the Orsini should pay 70,000 florins for
-the expenses of the war, and that all the prisoners on both sides should
-be exchanged without ransom with the single exception of the Duke of
-Urbino. As a pledge for the future payment of the 70,000 florins, the
-Orsini handed over to the Cardinals Sforza and San Severino the
-fortresses of Anguillara and Cervetri; then, when the day came and they
-had not the necessary money, they gave up their prisoner, the Duke of
-Urbino, estimating his worth at 40,000 ducats--nearly all the sum
-required--and handed him over to Alexander on account; he, a rigid
-observer of engagements, made his own general, taken prisoner in his
-service, pay, to himself the ransom he owed to the enemy.
-
-Then the pope had the corpse of Virginio sent to Carlo Orsini and
-Vitellozzo Vitelli, as he could not send him alive. By a strange
-fatality the prisoner had died, eight days before the treaty was signed,
-of the same malady--at least, if we may judge by analogy--that had
-carried off Bajazet's brother.
-
-As soon as the peace was signed, Prospero Colonna and Gonzalvo de
-Cordova, whom the Pope had demanded from Frederic, arrived at Rome with
-an army of Spanish and Neapolitan troops. Alexander, as he could not
-utilise these against the Orsini, set them the work of recapturing
-Ostia, not desiring to incur the reproach of bringing them to Rome for
-nothing. Gonzalvo was rewarded for this feat by receiving the Rose of
-Gold from the pope's hand--that being the highest honour His Holiness
-can grant. He shared this distinction with the Emperor Maximilian, the
-King of France, the Doge of Venice, and the Marquis of Mantua.
-
-In the midst of all this occurred the solemn festival of the Assumption;
-in which Gonzalvo was invited to take part. He accordingly left his
-palace, proceeded in great pomp in the front of the pontifical cavalry,
-and took his place on the Duke of Gandia's left hand. The duke attracted
-all eyes by his personal beauty, set off as it was by all the luxury he
-thought fit to display at this festival. He had a retinue of pages and
-servants, clad in sumptuous liveries, incomparable for richness with
-anything heretofore seen in Rome, that city of religious pomp. All these
-pages and servants rode magnificent horses, caparisoned in velvet
-trimmed with silver fringe, and bells of silver hanging down every here
-and there. He himself was in a robe of gold brocade, and wore at his
-neck a string of Eastern pearls, perhaps the finest and largest that
-ever belonged to a Christian prince, while on his cap was a gold chain
-studded with diamonds of which the smallest was worth more than 20,000
-ducats. This magnificence was all the more conspicuous by the contrast
-it presented to Caesar's dress, whose scarlet robe admitted of no
-ornaments. The result was that Caesar, doubly jealous of his brother,
-felt a new hatred rise up within him when he heard all along the way the
-praises of his fine appearance and noble equipment. From this moment
-Cardinal Valentino decided in his own mind the fate of this man, this
-constant obstacle in the path of his pride, his love, and his ambition.
-Very good reason, says Tommaso, the historian, had the Duke of Gandia to
-leave behind him an impression on the public mind of his beauty and his
-grandeur at this fete, for this last display was soon to be followed by
-the obsequies of the unhappy young man.
-
-Lucrezia also had come to Rome, on the pretext of taking part in the
-solemnity, but really, as we shall see later, with the view of serving
-as a new instrument for her father's ambition. As the pope was not
-satisfied with an empty triumph of vanity and display for his son, and
-as his war with the Orsini had failed to produce the anticipated
-results, he decided to increase the fortune of his firstborn by doing
-the very thing which he had accused Calixtus in his speech of doing for
-him, viz., alienating from the States of the Church the cities of
-Benevento, Terracino, and Pontecorvo to form, a duchy as an appanage to
-his son's house. Accordingly this proposition was put forward in a full
-consistory, and as the college of cardinals was entirely Alexander's,
-there was no difficulty about carrying his point. This new favour to his
-elder brother exasperated Caesar, although he was himself getting a
-share of the paternal gifts; for he had just been named envoy 'a latere'
-at Frederic's court, and was appointed to crown him with his own hands
-as the papal representative. But Lucrezia, when she had spent a few days
-of pleasure with her father and brothers, had gone into retreat at the
-convent of San Sisto. No one knew the real motive of her seclusion, and
-no entreaties of Caesar, whose love for her was strange and unnatural,
-had induced her to defer this departure from the world even until the
-day after he left for Naples. His sister's obstinacy wounded him deeply,
-for ever since the day when the Duke of Gandia had appeared in the
-procession so magnificently attired, he fancied he had observed a
-coldness in the mistress of his illicit affection, and so far did this
-increase his hatred of his rival that he resolved to be rid of him at
-all costs. So he ordered the chief of his sbirri to come and see him the
-same night.
-
-Michelotto was accustomed to these mysterious messages, which almost
-always meant his help was wanted in some love affair or some act of
-revenge. As in either case his reward was generally a large one, he was
-careful to keep his engagement, and at the appointed hour was brought
-into the presence of his patron.
-
-Caesar received him leaning against a tall chimney-piece, no longer
-wearing his cardinal's robe and hat, but a doublet of black velvet
-slashed with satin of the same colour. One hand toyed mechanically with
-his gloves, while the other rested on the handle of a poisoned dagger
-which never left his side. This was the dress he kept for his nocturnal
-expeditions, so Michelotto felt no surprise at that; but his eyes burned
-with a flame more gloomy than their wont, and his cheeks, generally
-pale, were now livid. Michelotto had but to cast one look upon his
-master to see that Caesar and he were about to share some terrible
-enterprise.
-
-He signed to him to shut the door. Michelotto obeyed. Then, after a
-moment's silence, during which the eyes of Borgia seemed to burn into
-the soul of the bravo, who with a careless air stood bareheaded before
-him, he said, in a voice whose slightly mocking tone gave the only sign
-of his emotion.
-
-"Michelotto, how do you think this dress suits me?"
-
-Accustomed as he was to his master's tricks of circumlocution, the bravo
-was so far from expecting this question, that at first he stood mute,
-and only after a few moments' pause was able to say:
-
-"Admirably, monsignore; thanks to the dress, your Excellency has the
-appearance as well as the true spirit of a captain."
-
-"I am glad you think so," replied Caesar. "And now let me ask you, do
-you know who is the cause that, instead of wearing this dress, which I
-can only put on at night, I am forced to disguise myself in the daytime
-in a cardinal's robe and hat, and pass my time trotting about from
-church to church, from consistory to consistory, when I ought properly
-to be leading a magnificent army in the battlefield, where you would
-enjoy a captain's rank, instead of being the chief of a few miserable
-sbirri?"
-
-"Yes, monsignore," replied Michelotto, who had divined Caesar's meaning
-at his first word; "the man who is the cause of this is Francesco, Duke
-of Gandia, and Benevento, your elder brother."
-
-"Do you know," Caesar resumed, giving no sign of assent but a nod and a
-bitter smile,--"do you know who has all the money and none of the
-genius, who has the helmet and none of the brains, who has the sword and
-no hand to wield it?"
-
-"That too is the Duke of Gandia," said Michelotto.
-
-"Do you know;" continued Caesar, "who is the man whom I find continually
-blocking the path of my ambition, my fortune, and my love?"
-
-"It is the same, the Duke of Gandia," said Michelotto.
-
-"And what do you think of it?" asked Caesar.
-
-"I think he must die," replied the man coldly.
-
-"That is my opinion also, Michelotto," said Caesar, stepping towards him
-and grasping his hand; "and my only regret is that I did not think of it
-sooner; for if I had carried a sword at my side instead of a crosier in
-my hand when the King of France was marching through Italy, I should now
-have been master of a fine domain. The pope is obviously anxious to
-aggrandise his family, but he is mistaken in the means he adopts: it is
-I who ought to have been made duke, and my brother a cardinal. There is
-no doubt at all that, had he made me duke, I should have contributed a
-daring and courage to his service that would have made his power far
-weightier than it is. The man who would make his way to vast dominions
-and a kingdom ought to trample under foot all the obstacles in his path,
-and boldly grasp the very sharpest thorns, whatever reluctance his weak
-flesh may feel; such a man, if he would open out his path to fortune,
-should seize his dagger or his sword and strike out with his eyes shut;
-he should not shrink from bathing his hands in the blood of his kindred;
-he should follow the example offered him by every founder of empire from
-Romulus to Bajazet, both of whom climbed to the throne by the ladder of
-fratracide. Yes, Michelotto, as you say, such is my condition, and I am
-resolved I will not shrink. Now you know why I sent for you: am I wrong
-in counting upon you?"
-
-As might have been expected, Michelotto, seeing his own fortune in this
-crime, replied that he was entirely at Caesar's service, and that he had
-nothing to do but to give his orders as to time, place, and manner of
-execution. Caesar replied that the time must needs be very soon, since
-he was on the point of leaving Rome for Naples; as to the place and the
-mode of execution, they would depend on circumstances, and each of them
-must look out for an opportunity, and seize the first that seemed
-favourable.
-
-Two days after this resolution had been taken, Caesar learned that the
-day of his departure was fixed for Thursday the 15th of June: at the
-same time he received an invitation from his mother to come to supper
-with her on the 14th. This was a farewell repast given in his honour.
-Michelotto received orders to be in readiness at eleven o'clock at
-night.
-
-The table was set in the open air in a magnificent vineyard, a property
-of Rosa Vanozza's in the neighbourhood of San Piero-in-Vinculis: the
-guests were Caesar Borgia, the hero of the occasion; the Duke of Gandia;
-Prince of Squillace; Dona Sancha, his wife; the Cardinal of Monte Reale,
-Francesco Borgia, son of Calixtus III; Don Roderigo Borgia, captain of
-the apostolic palace; Don Goffredo, brother of the cardinal; Gian
-Borgia, at that time ambassador at Perugia; and lastly, Don Alfonso
-Borgia, the pope's nephew: the whole family therefore was present,
-except Lucrezia, who was still in retreat, and would not come.
-
-The repast was magnificent: Caesar was quite as cheerful as usual, and
-the Duke of Gandia seemed more joyous than he had ever been before.
-
-In the middle of supper a man in a mask brought him a letter. The duke
-unfastened it, colouring up with pleasure; and when he had read it
-answered in these words, "I will come": then he quickly hid the letter
-in the pocket of his doublet; but quick as he was to conceal it from
-every eye, Caesar had had time to cast a glance that way, and he fancied
-he recognised the handwriting of his sister Lucrezia. Meanwhile the
-messenger had gone off with his answer, no one but Caesar paying the
-slightest attention to him, for at that period it was the custom for
-messages to be conveyed by men in domino or by women whose faces were
-concealed by a veil.
-
-At ten o'clock they rose from the table, and as the air was sweet and
-mild they walked about a while under the magnificent pine trees that
-shaded the house of Rosa Vanozza, while Caesar never for an instant let
-his brother out of his sight. At eleven o'clock the Duke of Gandia bade
-good-night to his mother. Caesar at once followed suit, alleging his
-desire to go to the Vatican to bid farewell to the pope, as he would not
-be able to fulfil this duty on the morrow, his departure being fixed at
-daybreak. This pretext was all the more plausible since the pope was in
-the habit of sitting up every night till two or three o'clock in the
-morning.
-
-The two brothers went out together, mounted their horses, which were
-waiting for them at the door, and rode side by side as far as the
-Palazzo Borgia, the present home of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, who had
-taken it as a gift from Alexander the night before his election to the
-papacy. There the Duke of Gandia separated from his brother, saying with
-a smile that he was not intending to go home, as he had several hours to
-spend first with a fair lady who was expecting him. Caesar replied that
-he was no doubt free to make any use he liked best of his opportunities,
-and wished him a very good night. The duke turned to the right, and
-Caesar to the left; but Caesar observed that the street the duke had
-taken led in the direction of the convent of San Sisto, where, as we
-said, Lucrezia was in retreat; his suspicions were confirmed by this
-observation, and he directed his horse's steps to the Vatican, found the
-pope, took his leave of him, and received his benediction.
-
-From this moment all is wrapped in mystery and darkness, like that in
-which the terrible deed was done that we are now to relate.
-
-This, however, is what is believed.
-
-The Duke of Gandia, when he quitted Caesar, sent away his servants, and
-in the company of one confidential valet alone pursued his course
-towards the Piazza della Giudecca. There he found the same man in a mask
-who had come to speak to him at supper, and forbidding his valet to
-follow any farther, he bade him wait on the piazza where they then
-stood, promising to be on his way back in two hours' time at latest, and
-to take him up as he passed. And at the appointed hour the duke
-reappeared, took leave this time of the man in the mask, and retraced
-his steps towards his palace. But scarcely had he turned the corner of
-the Jewish Ghetto, when four men on foot, led by a fifth who was on
-horseback, flung themselves upon him. Thinking they were thieves, or
-else that he was the victim of some mistake, the Duke of Gandia
-mentioned his name; but instead of the name checking the murderers'
-daggers, their strokes were redoubled, and the duke very soon fell dead,
-his valet dying beside him.
-
-Then the man on horseback, who had watched the assassination with no
-sign of emotion, backed his horse towards the dead body: the four
-murderers lifted the corpse across the crupper, and walking by the side
-to support it, then made their way down the lane that leads to the
-Church of Santa Maria-in-Monticelli. The wretched valet they left for
-dead upon the pavement. But he, after the lapse of a few seconds,
-regained some small strength, and his groans were heard by the
-inhabitants of a poor little house hard by; they came and picked him up,
-and laid him upon a bed, where he died almost at once, unable to give
-any evidence as to the assassins or any details of the murder.
-
-All night the duke was expected home, and all the next morning; then
-expectation was turned into fear, and fear at last into deadly terror.
-The pope was approached, and told that the Duke of Gandia had never come
-back to his palace since he left his mother's house. But Alexander tried
-to deceive himself all through the rest of the day, hoping that his son
-might have been surprised by the coming of daylight in the midst of an
-amorous adventure, and was waiting till the next night to get away in
-that darkness which had aided his coming thither. But the night, like
-the day, passed and brought no news. On the morrow, the pope, tormented
-by the gloomiest presentiments and by the raven's croak of the 'vox
-populi', let himself fall into the depths of despair: amid sighs and
-sobs of grief, all he could say to any one who came to him was but these
-words, repeated a thousand times: "Search, search; let us know how my
-unhappy son has died."
-
-Then everybody joined in the search; for, as we have said, the Duke of
-Gandia was beloved by all; but nothing could be discovered from scouring
-the town, except the body of the murdered man, who was recognised as the
-duke's valet; of his master there was no trace whatever: it was then
-thought, not without reason, that he had probably been thrown into the
-Tiber, and they began to follow along its banks, beginning from the Via
-della Ripetta, questioning every boatman and fisherman who might
-possibly have seen, either from their houses or from their boats, what
-had happened on the river banks during the two preceding nights. At
-first all inquiries were in vain; but when they had gone up as high as
-the Via del Fantanone, they found a man at last who said he had seen
-something happen on the night of the 14th which might very possibly have
-some bearing on the subject of inquiry. He was a Slav named George, who
-was taking up the river a boat laden with wood to Ripetta. The following
-are his own words:
-
-"Gentlemen," he said, "last Wednesday evening, when I had set down my
-load of wood on the bank, I remained in my boat, resting in the cool
-night air, and watching lest other men should come and take away what I
-had just unloaded, when, about two o'clock in the morning, I saw coming
-out of the lane on the left of San Girolamo's Church two men on foot,
-who came forward into the middle of the street, and looked so carefully
-all around that they seemed to have come to find out if anybody was
-going along the street. When they felt sure that it was deserted, they
-went back along the same lane, whence issued presently two other men,
-who used similar precautions to make sure that there was nothing fresh;
-they, when they found all as they wished, gave a sign to their
-companions to come and join them; next appeared one man on a dapple-grey
-horse, which was carrying on the crupper the body of a dead man, his
-head and arms hanging over on one side and his feet on the other. The
-two fellows I had first seen exploring were holding him up by the arms
-and legs. The other three at once went up to the river, while the first
-two kept a watch on the street, and advancing to the part of the bank
-where the sewers of the town are discharged into the Tiber, the horseman
-turned his horse, backing on the river; then the two who were at either
-side taking the corpse, one by the hands, the other by the feet, swung
-it three times, and the third time threw it out into the river with all
-their strength; then at the noise made when the body splashed into the
-water, the horseman asked, 'Is it done?' and the others answered, 'Yes,
-sir,' and he at once turned right about face; but seeing the dead man's
-cloak floating, he asked what was that black thing swimming about.
-'Sir,' said one of the men, 'it is his cloak'; and then another man
-picked up some stones, and running to the place where it was still
-floating, threw them so as to make it sink under; as soon, as it had
-quite disappeared, they went off, and after walking a little way along
-the main road, they went into the lane that leads to San Giacomo. That
-was all I saw, gentlemen, and so it is all I can answer to the questions
-you have asked me."
-
-At these words, which robbed of all hope any who might yet entertain it,
-one of the pope's servants asked the Slav why, when he was witness of
-such a deed, he had not gone to denounce it to the governor. But the
-Slav replied that, since he had exercised his present trade on the
-riverside, he had seen dead men thrown into the Tiber in the same way a
-hundred times, and had never heard that anybody had been troubled about
-them; so he supposed it would be the same with this corpse as the
-others, and had never imagined it was his duty to speak of it, not
-thinking it would be any more important than it had been before.
-
-Acting on this intelligence, the servants of His Holiness summoned at
-once all the boatmen and fishermen who were accustomed to go up and down
-the river, and as a large reward was promised to anyone who should find
-the duke's body, there were soon more than a hundred ready for the job;
-so that before the evening of the same day, which was Friday, two men
-were drawn out of the water, of whom one was instantly recognised as the
-hapless duke. At the very first glance at the body there could be no
-doubt as to the cause of death. It was pierced with nine wounds, the
-chief one in the throat, whose artery was cut. The clothing had not been
-touched: his doublet and cloak were there, his gloves in his waistband,
-gold in his purse; the duke then must have been assassinated not for
-gain but for revenge.
-
-The ship which carried the corpse went up the Tiber to the Castello
-Sant' Angelo, where it was set down. At once the magnificent dress was
-fetched from the duke's palace which he had worn on the day of the
-procession, and he was clothed in it once more: beside him were placed
-the insignia of the generalship of the Church. Thus he lay in state all
-day, but his father in his despair had not the courage to come and look
-at him. At last, when night had fallen, his most trusty and honoured
-servants carried the body to the church of the Madonna del Papala, with
-all the pomp and ceremony that Church and State combined could devise
-for the funeral of the son of the pope.
-
-Meantime the bloodstained hands of Caesar Borgia were placing a royal
-crown upon the head of Frederic of Aragon.
-
-This blow had pierced Alexander's heart very deeply. As at first he did
-not know on whom his suspicions should fall, he gave the strictest
-orders for the pursuit of the murderers; but little by little the
-infamous truth was forced upon him. He saw that the blow which struck at
-his house came from that very house itself and then his despair was
-changed to madness: he ran through the rooms of the Vatican like a
-maniac, and entering the consistory with torn garments and ashes on his
-head, he sobbingly avowed all the errors of his past life, owning that
-the disaster that struck his offspring through his offspring was a just
-chastisement from God; then he retired to a secret dark chamber of the
-palace, and there shut himself up, declaring his resolve to die of
-starvation. And indeed for more than sixty hours he took no nourishment
-by day nor rest by night, making no answer to those who knocked at his
-door to bring him food except with the wailings of a woman or a roar as
-of a wounded lion; even the beautiful Giulia Farnese, his new mistress,
-could not move him at all, and was obliged to go and seek Lucrezia, that
-daughter doubly loved to conquer his deadly resolve. Lucrezia came out
-from the retreat where she was weeping for the Duke of Gandia, that she
-might console her father. At her voice the door did really open, and it
-was only then that the Duke of Segovia, who had been kneeling almost a
-whole day at the threshold, begging His Holiness to take heart, could
-enter with servants bearing wine and food.
-
-The pope remained alone with Lucrezia for three days and nights; then he
-reappeared in public, outwardly calm, if not resigned; for Guicciardini
-assures us that his daughter had made him understand how dangerous it
-would be to himself to show too openly before the assassin, who was
-coming home, the immoderate love he felt for his victim.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-
-Caesar remained at Naples, partly to give time to the paternal grief to
-cool down, and partly to get on with another business he had lately been
-charged with, nothing else than a proposition of marriage between
-Lucrezia and Don Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Bicelli and Prince of
-Salerno, natural son of Alfonso II and brother of Dona Sancha. It was
-true that Lucrezia was already married to the lord of Pesaro, but she
-was the daughter of a father who had received from heaven the right of
-uniting and disuniting. There was no need to trouble about so trifling a
-matter: when the two were ready to marry, the divorce would be effected.
-Alexander was too good a tactician to leave his daughter married to a
-son-in-law who was becoming useless to him.
-
-Towards the end of August it was announced that the ambassador was
-coming back to Rome, having accomplished his mission to the new king to
-his great satisfaction. And thither he returned on the 5th of
-September,--that is, nearly three months after the Duke of Gandia's
-death,--and on the next day, the 6th, from the church of Santa Maria
-Novella, where, according to custom, the cardinals and the Spanish and
-Venetian ambassadors were awaiting him on horseback at the door, he
-proceeded to the Vatican, where His Holiness was sitting; there he
-entered the consistory, was admitted by the pope, and in accordance with
-the usual ceremonial received his benediction and kiss; then,
-accompanied once more in the same fashion by the ambassadors and
-cardinals, he was escorted to his own apartments. Thence he proceeded
-to, the pope's, as soon as he was left alone; for at the consistory they
-had had no speech with one another, and the father and son had a hundred
-things to talk about, but of these the Duke of Gandia was not one, as
-might have been expected. His name was not once spoken, and neither on
-that day nor afterwards was there ever again any mention of the unhappy
-young man: it was as though he had never existed.
-
-It was the fact that Caesar brought good news, King Frederic gave his
-consent to the proposed union; so the marriage of Sforza and Lucrezia
-was dissolved on a pretext of nullity. Then Frederic authorised the
-exhumation of D'jem's body, which, it will be remembered, was worth
-300,000 ducats.
-
-After this, all came about as Caesar had desired; he became the man who
-was all-powerful after the pope; but when he was second in command it
-was soon evident to the Roman people that their city was making a new
-stride in the direction of ruin. There was nothing but balls, fetes,
-masquerades; there were magnificent hunting parties, when Caesar--who
-had begun to cast off his cardinal's robe,--weary perhaps of the colour,
-appeared in a French dress, followed, like a king by cardinals, envoys
-and bodyguard. The whole pontifical town, given up like a courtesan to
-orgies and debauchery, had never been more the home of sedition, luxury,
-and carnage, according to the Cardinal of Viterba, not even in the days
-of Nero and Heliogabalus. Never had she fallen upon days more evil;
-never had more traitors done her dishonour or sbirri stained her streets
-with blood. The number of thieves was so great, and their audacity such,
-that no one could with safety pass the gates of the town; soon it was
-not even safe within them. No house, no castle, availed for defence.
-Right and justice no longer existed. Money, farce, pleasure, ruled
-supreme.
-
-Still, the gold was melting as in a furnace at these Fetes; and, by
-Heaven's just punishment, Alexander and Caesar were beginning to covet
-the fortunes of those very men who had risen through their simony to
-their present elevation. The first attempt at a new method of coining
-money was tried upon the Cardinal Cosenza. The occasion was as follows.
-A certain dispensation had been granted some time before to a nun who
-had taken the vows: she was the only surviving heir to the throne of
-Portugal, and by means of the dispensation she had been wedded to the
-natural son of the last king. This marriage was more prejudicial than
-can easily be imagined to the interests of Ferdinand and Isabella of
-Spain; so they sent ambassadors to Alexander to lodge a complaint
-against a proceeding of this nature, especially as it happened at the
-very moment when an alliance was to be formed between the house of
-Aragon and the Holy See. Alexander understood the complaint, and
-resolved that all should be set right. So he denied all knowledge of the
-papal brief though he had as a fact received 60,000 ducats for signing
-it--and accused the Archbishop of Cosenza, secretary for apostolic
-briefs, of having granted a false dispensation. By reason of this
-accusation, the archbishop was taken to the castle of Sant' Angelo, and
-a suit was begun.
-
-But as it was no easy task to prove an accusation of this nature,
-especially if the archbishop should persist in maintaining that the
-dispensation was really granted by the pope, it was resolved to employ a
-trick with him which could not fail to succeed. One evening the
-Archbishop of Cosenza saw Cardinal Valentino come into his prison; with
-that frank air of affability which he knew well how to assume when it
-could serve his purpose, he explained to the prisoner the embarrassing
-situation in which the pope was placed, from which the archbishop alone,
-whom His Holiness looked upon as his best friend, could save him.
-
-The archbishop replied that he was entirely at the service of His
-Holiness.
-
-Caesar, on his entrance, found the captive seated, leaning his elbows on
-a table, and he took a seat opposite him and explained the pope's
-position: it was an embarrassing one. At the very time of contracting so
-important an alliance with the house of Aragon as that of Lucrezia and
-Alfonso, His Holiness could not avow to Ferdinand and Isabella that, for
-the sake of a few miserable ducats, he had signed a dispensation which
-would unite in the husband and wife together all the legitimate claims
-to a throne to which Ferdinand and Isabella had no right at all but that
-of conquest. This avowal would necessarily put an end to all
-negotiations, and the pontifical house would fall by the overthrow of
-that very pedestal which was to have heightened its grandeur.
-Accordingly the archbishop would understand what the pope expected of
-his devotion and friendship: it was a simple and straight avowal that he
-had supposed he might take it upon himself to accord the dispensation.
-Then, as the sentence to be passed on such an error would be the
-business of Alexander, the accused could easily imagine beforehand how
-truly paternal such a sentence would be. Besides, the reward was in the
-same hands, and if the sentence was that of a father, the recompense
-would be that of a king. In fact, this recompense would be no less than
-the honour of assisting as envoy, with the title of cardinal, at the
-marriage of Lucrezia and Alfonso--a favour which would be very
-appropriate, since it would be thanks to his devotion that the marriage
-could take place.
-
-The Archbishop of Cosenza knew the men he was dealing with; he knew that
-to save their own ends they would hesitate at nothing; he knew they had
-a poison like sugar to the taste and to the smell, impossible to
-discover in food--a poison that would kill slowly or quickly as the
-poisoner willed and would leave no trace behind; he knew the secret of
-the poisoned key that lay always on the pope's mantelpiece, so that when
-His Holiness wished to destroy some one of his intimates, he bade him
-open a certain cupboard: on the handle of the key there was a little
-spike, and as the lock of the cupboard turned stiffly the hand would
-naturally press, the lock would yield, and nothing would have come of it
-but a trifling scratch: the scratch was mortal. He knew, too, that
-Caesar wore a ring made like two lions' heads, and that he would turn
-the stone on the inside when he was shaking hands with a friend. Then
-the lions' teeth became the teeth of a viper, and the friend died
-cursing Borgia. So he yielded, partly through fear, partly blinded by
-the thought of the reward; and Caesar returned to the Vatican armed with
-a precious paper, in which the Archbishop of Cosenza admitted that he
-was the only person responsible for the dispensation granted to the
-royal nun.
-
-Two days later, by means of the proofs kindly furnished by the
-archbishop, the pope; in the presence of the governor of Rome, the
-auditor of the apostolic chamber, the advocate, and the fiscal attorney,
-pronounced sentence, condemning the archbishop to the loss of all his
-benefices and ecclesiastical offices, degradation from his orders, and
-confiscation of his goods; his person was to be handed over to the civil
-arm. Two days later the civil magistrate entered the prison to fulfil
-his office as received from the pope, and appeared before the
-archbishop, accompanied by a clerk, two servants, and four guards. The
-clerk unrolled the paper he carried and read out the sentence; the two
-servants untied a packet, and, stripping the prisoner of his
-ecclesiastical garments, they reclothed him in a dress of coarse white
-cloth which only reached down to his knees, breeches of the same, and a
-pair of clumsy shoes. Lastly, the guards took him, and led him into one
-of the deepest dungeons of the castle of Sant' Angelo, where for
-furniture he found nothing but a wooden crucifix, a table, a chair, and
-a bed; for occupation, a Bible and a breviary, with a lamp to read by;
-for nourishment, two pounds of bread and a little cask of water, which
-were to be renewed every three days, together with a bottle of oil for
-burning in his lamp.
-
-At the end of a year the poor archbishop died of despair, not before he
-had gnawed his own arms in his agony.
-
-The very same day that he was taken into the dungeon, Caesar Borgia, who
-had managed the affair so ably, was presented by the pope with all the
-belongings of the condemned prisoner.
-
-But the hunting parties, balls, and masquerades were not the only
-pleasures enjoyed by the pope and his family: from time to time strange
-spectacles were exhibited. We will only describe two--one of them a case
-of punishment, the other no more nor less than a matter of the stud
-farm. But as both of these give details with which we would not have our
-readers credit our imagination, we will first say that they are
-literally translated from Burchard's Latin journal.
-
-"About the same time--that is, about the beginning of 1499--a certain
-courtesan named La Corsetta was in prison, and had a lover who came to
-visit her in woman's clothes, a Spanish Moor, called from his disguise
-'the Spanish lady from Barbary!' As a punishment, both of them were led
-through the town, the woman without petticoat or skirt, but wearing only
-the Moor's dress unbuttoned in front; the man wore his woman's garb; his
-hands were tied behind his back, and the skirt fastened up to his
-middle, with a view to complete exposure before the eyes of all. When in
-this attire they had made the circuit of the town, the Corsetta was sent
-back to the prison with the Moor. But on the 7th of April following, the
-Moor was again taken out and escorted in the company of two thieves
-towards the Campo dei Fiori. The three condemned men were preceded by a
-constable, who rode backwards on an ass, and held in his hand a long
-pole, on the end of which were hung, still bleeding, the amputated limbs
-of a poor Jew who had suffered torture and death for some trifling
-crime. When the procession reached the place of execution, the thieves
-were hanged, and the unfortunate Moor was tied to a stake piled round
-with wood, where he was to have been burnt to death, had not rain fallen
-in such torrents that the fire would not burn, in spite of all the
-efforts of the executioner."
-
-This unlooked for accident, taken as a miracle by the people, robbed
-Lucrezia of the most exciting part of the execution; but her father was
-holding in reserve another kind of spectacle to console her with later.
-We inform the reader once more that a few lines we are about to set
-before him are a translation from the journal of the worthy German
-Burchard, who saw nothing in the bloodiest or most wanton performances
-but facts for his journal, which he duly registered with the
-impassibility of a scribe, appending no remark or moral reflection.
-
-"On the 11th of November a certain peasant was entering Rome with two
-stallions laden with wood, when the servants of His Holiness, just as he
-passed the Piazza of St. Peter's, cut their girths, so that their loads
-fell on the ground with the pack-saddles, and led off the horses to a
-court between the palace and the gate; then the stable doors were
-opened, and four stallions, quite free and unbridled, rushed out and in
-an instant all six animals began kicking, biting and fighting each other
-until several were killed. Roderigo and Madame Lucrezia, who sat at the
-window just over the palace gate, took the greatest delight in the
-struggle and called their courtiers to witness the gallant battle that
-was being fought below them."
-
-Now Caesar's trick in the matter of the Archbishop of Cosenza had had
-the desired result, and Isabella and Ferdinand could no longer impute to
-Alexander the signature of the brief they had complained of: so nothing
-was now in the way of the marriage of Lucrezia and Alfonso; this
-certainty gave the pope great joy, for he attached all the more
-importance to this marriage because he was already cogitating a second,
-between Caesar and Dona Carlota, Frederic's daughter.
-
-Caesar had shown in all his actions since his brother's death his want
-of vocation for the ecclesiastical life; so no one was astonished when,
-a consistory having been summoned one morning by Alexander, Caesar
-entered, and addressing the pope, began by saying that from his earliest
-years he had been drawn towards secular pursuits both by natural
-inclination and ability, and it had only been in obedience to the
-absolute commands of His Holiness that he entered the Church, accepted
-the cardinal's scarlet, other dignities, and finally the sacred order of
-the diaconate; but feeling that in his situation it was improper to
-follow his passions, and at his age impossible to resist them, he humbly
-entreated His Holiness graciously to yield to the desire he had failed
-to overcome, and to permit him to lay aside the dress and dignities of
-the Church, and enter once more into the world, thereto contract a
-lawful marriage; also he entreated the lord cardinals to intercede for
-him with His Holiness, to whom he would freely resign all his churches,
-abbeys, and benefices, as well as every other ecclesiastical dignity and
-preferment that had been accorded him. The cardinals, deferring to
-Caesar's wishes, gave a unanimous vote, and the pope, as we may suppose,
-like a good father, not wishing to force his son's inclinations,
-accepted his resignation, and yielded to the petition; thus Caesar put
-off the scarlet robe, which was suited to him, says his historian
-Tommaso Tommasi, in one particular only--that it was the colour of
-blood.
-
-In truth, the resignation was a pressing necessity, and there was no
-time to lose. Charles VIII one day after he had came home late and tired
-from the hunting-field, had bathed his head in cold water; and going
-straight to table, had been struck down by an apoplectic seizure
-directly after his supper; and was dead, leaving the throne to the good
-Louis XII, a man of two conspicuous weaknesses, one as deplorable as the
-other: the first was the wish to make conquests; the second was the
-desire to have children. Alexander, who was on the watch for all
-political changes, had seen in a moment what he could get from Louis
-XII's accession to the throne, and was prepared to profit by the fact
-that the new king of France needed his help for the accomplishment of
-his twofold desire. Louis needed, first, his temporal aid in an
-expedition against the duchy of Milan, on which, as we explained before,
-he had inherited claims from Valentina Visconti, his grandmother; and,
-secondly, his spiritual aid to dissolve his marriage with Jeanne, the
-daughter of Louis XI; a childless and hideously deformed woman, whom he
-had only married by reason of the great fear he entertained for her
-father. Now Alexander was willing to do all this for Louis XII and to
-give in addition a cardinal's hat to his friend George d'Amboise,
-provided only that the King of France would use his influence in
-persuading the young Dona Carlota, who was at his court, to marry his
-son Caesar.
-
-So, as this business was already far advanced on the day when Caesar
-doffed his scarlet and donned a secular garb, thus fulfilling the
-ambition so long cherished, when the lord of Villeneuve, sent by Louis
-and commissioned to bring Caesar to France, presented himself before the
-ex-cardinal on his arrival at Rome, the latter, with his usual
-extravagance of luxury and the kindness he knew well how to bestow on
-those he needed, entertained his guest for a month, and did all the
-honours of Rome. After that, they departed, preceded by one of the
-pope's couriers, who gave orders that every town they passed through was
-to receive them with marks of honour and respect. The same order had
-been sent throughout the whole of France, where the illustrious visitors
-received so numerous a guard, and were welcomed by a populace so eager
-to behold them, that after they passed through Paris, Caesar's
-gentlemen-in-waiting wrote to Rome that they had not seen any trees in
-France, or houses, or walls, but only men, women and sunshine.
-
-The king, on the pretext of going out hunting, went to meet his guest
-two leagues outside the town. As he knew Caesar was very fond of the
-name of Valentine, which he had used as cardinal, and still continued to
-employ with the title of Count, although he had resigned the
-archbishopric which gave him the name, he there and then bestowed an him
-the investiture of Valence, in Dauphine, with the title of Duke and a
-pension of 20,000 francs; then, when he had made this magnificent gift
-and talked with him for nearly a couple of hours, he took his leave, to
-enable him to prepare the splendid entry he was proposing to make.
-
-It was Wednesday, the 18th of December 1498, when Caesar Borgia entered
-the town of Chinon, with pomp worthy of the son of a pope who is about
-to marry the daughter of a king. The procession began with
-four-and-twenty mules, caparisoned in red, adorned with escutcheons
-bearing the duke's arms, laden with carved trunks and chests inlaid with
-ivory and silver; after them came four-and-twenty more, also
-caparisoned, this time in the livery of the King of France, yellow and
-red; next after these came ten other mules, covered in yellow satin with
-red crossbars; and lastly another ten, covered with striped cloth of
-gold, the stripes alternately raised and flat gold.
-
-Behind the seventy mules which led the procession there pranced sixteen
-handsome battle-horses, led by equerries who marched alongside; these
-were followed by eighteen hunters ridden by eighteen pages, who were
-about fourteen or fifteen years of age; sixteen of them were dressed in
-crimson velvet, and two in raised gold cloth; so elegantly dressed were
-these two children, who were also the best looking of the little band,
-that the sight of them gave rise to strange suspicions as to the reason
-for this preference, if one may believe what Brantome says. Finally,
-behind these eighteen horses came six beautiful mules, all harnessed
-with red velvet, and led by six valets, also in velvet to match.
-
-The third group consisted of, first, two mules quite covered with cloth
-of gold, each carrying two chests in which it was said that the duke's
-treasure was stored, the precious stones he was bringing to his fiancee,
-and the relics and papal bulls that his father had charged him to convey
-for him to Louis XII. These were followed by twenty gentlemen dressed in
-cloth of gold and silver, among whom rode Paul Giordano Orsino and
-several barons and knights among the chiefs of the state ecclesiastic.
-
-Next came two drums, one rebeck, and four soldiers blowing trumpets and
-silver clarions; then, in the midst of a party of four-and-twenty
-lacqueys, dressed half in crimson velvet and half in yellow silk, rode
-Messire George d'Amboise, anMonseigneur the Duke of Valentinois. Caesar
-was mounted on a handsome tall courser, very richly harnessed, in a robe
-half red satin and half cloth of gold, embroidered all over with pearls
-and precious stones; in his cap were two rows of rubies, the size of
-beans, which reflected so brilliant a light that one might have fancied
-they were the famous carbuncles of the Arabian Nights; he also wore on
-his neck a collar worth at least 200,000 livres; indeed, there was no
-part of him, even down to his boots, that was not laced with gold and
-edged with pearls. His horse was covered with a cuirass in a pattern of
-golden foliage of wonderful workmanship, among which there appeared to
-grow, like flowers, nosegays of pearls and clusters of rubies.
-
-Lastly, bringing up the rear of the magnificent cortege, behind the duke
-came twenty-four mules with red caparisons bearing his arms, carrying
-his silver plate, tents, and baggage.
-
-What gave to all the cavalcade an air of most wonderful luxury and
-extravagance was that the horses and mules were shod with golden shoes,
-and these were so badly nailed on that more than three-quarters of their
-number, were lost on the road For this extravagance Caesar was greatly
-blamed, for it was thought an audacious thing to put on his horses' feet
-a metal of which king's crowns are made.
-
-But all this pomp had no effect on the lady for whose sake it had been
-displayed; for when Dona Carlota was told that Caesar Borgia  had come
-to France in the hope of becoming her husband, she replied simply that
-she would never take a priest for her husband, and, moreover, the son of
-a priest; a man who was not only an assassin, but a fratricide; not only
-a man of infamous birth, but still more infamous in his morals and his
-actions.
-
-But, in default of the haughty lady of Aragon, Caesar soon found another
-princess of noble blood who consented to be his wife: this was
-Mademoiselle d'Albret, daughter of the King of Navarre. The marriage,
-arranged on condition that the pope should pay 200,000 ducats dowry to
-the bride, and should make her brother cardinal, was celebrated on the
-10th of May; and on the Whitsunday following the Duke of Valentois
-received the order of St. Michael, an order founded by Louis XI, and
-esteemed at this period as the highest in the gift of the kings of
-France. The news of this marriage, which made an alliance with Louis XII
-certain, was received with great joy by the pope, who at once gave
-orders for bonfires and illuminations all over the town.
-
-Louis XII was not only grateful to the pope for dissolving his marriage
-with Jeanne of France and authorizing his union with Anne of Brittany,
-but he considered it indispensable to his designs in Italy to have the
-pope as his ally. So he promised the Duke of Valentinois to put three
-hundred lances at his disposal, as soon as he had made an entry into
-Milan, to be used to further his own private interests, and against
-whomsoever he pleased except only the allies of France. The conquest of
-Milan should be undertaken so soon as Louis felt assured of the support
-of the Venetians, or at least of their neutrality, and he had sent them
-ambassadors authorised to promise in his name the restoration of Cremona
-and Ghiera d'Adda when he had completed the conquest of Lombardy.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-
-Everything from without was favouring Alexander's encroaching policy,
-when he was compelled to turn his eyes from France towards the centre of
-Italy: in Florence dwelt a man, neither duke, nor king, nor soldier, a
-man whose power was in his genius, whose armour was his purity, who
-owned no offensive weapon but his tongue, and who yet began to grow more
-dangerous for him than all the kings, dukes, princes, in the whole world
-could ever be; this man was the poor Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola,
-the same who had refused absolution to Lorenzo dei Medici because he
-would not restore the liberty of Florence.
-
-Girolamo Savonarola had prophesied the invasion of a force from beyond
-the Alps, and Charles VIII had conquered Naples; Girolamo Savonarola had
-prophesied to Charles VIII that because he had failed to fulfil the
-mission of liberator entrusted to him by God, he was threatened with a
-great misfortune as a punishment, and Charles was dead; lastly,
-Savonarola had prophesied his own fall like the man who paced around the
-holy city for eight days, crying, "Woe to Jerusalem!" and on the ninth
-day, "Woe be on my own head!" None the less, the Florentine reformer,
-who could not recoil from any danger, was determined to attack the
-colossal abomination that was seated on St. Peter's holy throne; each
-debauch, each fresh crime that lifted up its brazen face to the light of
-day or tried to hide its shameful head beneath the veil of night, he had
-never failed to point out to the people, denouncing it as the off spring
-of the pope's luxurious living and lust of power. Thus had he
-stigmatised Alexander's new amour with the beautiful Giulia Farnese, who
-in the preceding April had added another son to the pope's family; thus
-had he cursed the Duke of Gandia's murderer, the lustful, jealous
-fratricide; lastly, he had pointed out to the Florentines, who were
-excluded from the league then forming, what sort of future was in store
-for them when the Borgias should have made themselves masters of the
-small principalities and should come to attack the duchies and
-republics. It was clear that in Savonarola, the pope had an enemy at
-once temporal and spiritual, whose importunate and threatening voice
-must be silenced at any cost.
-
-But mighty as the pope's power was, to accomplish a design like this was
-no easy matter. Savonarola, preaching the stern principles of liberty,
-had united to his cause, even in the midst of rich, pleasure-loving
-Florence, a party of some size, known as the 'Piagnoni', or the
-Penitents: this band was composed of citizens who were anxious for
-reform in Church and State, who accused the Medici of enslaving the
-fatherland and the Borgias of upsetting the faith, who demanded two
-things, that the republic should return to her democratic principles,
-and religion to a primitive simplicity. Towards the first of these
-projects considerable progress had been made, since they had
-successively obtained, first, an amnesty for all crimes and
-delinquencies committed under other governments; secondly, the abolition
-of the 'balia', which was an aristocratic magistracy; thirdly, the
-establishment of a sovereign council, composed of 1800 citizens; and
-lastly, the substitution of popular elections for drawing by lot and for
-oligarchical nominations: these changes had been effected in spite of
-two other factions, the 'Arrabiati', or Madmen, who, consisting of the
-richest and noblest youths of the Florentine patrician families, desired
-to have an oligarchical government; and the 'Bigi', or Greys, so called
-because they always held their meetings in the shade, who desired the
-return of the Medici.
-
-The first measure Alexander used against the growing power of Savonarola
-was to declare him heretic, and as such banished from the pulpit; but
-Savonarola had eluded this prohibition by making his pupil and friend,
-Domenico Bonvicini di Pescia, preach in his stead. The result was that
-the master's teachings were issued from other lips, and that was all;
-the seed, though scattered by another hand, fell none the less on
-fertile soil, where it would soon burst into flower. Moreover,
-Savonarola now set an example that was followed to good purpose by
-Luther, when, twenty-two years later, he burned Leo X's bull of
-excommunication at Wittenberg; he was weary of silence, so he declared,
-on the authority of Pope Pelagius, that an unjust excommunication had no
-efficacy, and that the person excommunicated unjustly did not even need
-to get absolution. So on Christmas Day, 1497, he declared that by the
-inspiration of God he renounced his obedience to a corrupt master; and
-he began to preach once more in the cathedral, with a success that was
-all the greater for the interruption, and an influence far more
-formidable than before, because it was strengthened by that sympathy of
-the masses which an unjust persecution always inspires.
-
-Then Alexander made overtures to Leonardo dei Medici, vicar of the
-archbishopric of Florence, to obtain the punishment of the rebel:
-Leonardo, in obedience to the orders he received, from Rome, issued a
-mandate forbidding the faithful to attend at Savonarola's sermons. After
-this mandate, any who should hear the discourses of the excommunicated
-monk would be refused communion and confession; and as when they died
-they would be contaminated with heresy, in consequence of their
-spiritual intercourse with a heretic, their dead bodies would be dragged
-on a hurdle and deprived of the rights of sepulture. Savonarola appealed
-from the mandate of his superior both to the people and to the Signoria,
-and the two together gave orders to the episcopal vicar to leave
-Florence within two hours: this happened at the beginning of the year
-1498.
-
-The expulsion of Leonardo's dei Medici was a new triumph for Savonarola,
-so, wishing to turn to good moral account his growing influence, he
-resolved to convert the last day of the carnival, hitherto given up to
-worldly pleasures, into a day of religious sacrifice. So actually on
-Shrove Tuesday a considerable number of boys were collected in front of
-the cathedral, and there divided into bands, which traversed the whole
-town, making a house-to-house visitation, claiming all profane books,
-licentious paintings, lutes, harps, cards and dice, cosmetics and
-perfumes--in a word, all the hundreds of products of a corrupt society
-and civilisation, by the aid of which Satan at times makes victorious
-war on God. The inhabitants of Florence obeyed, and came forth to the
-Piazza of the Duoma, bringing these works of perdition, which were soon
-piled up in a huge stack, which the youthful reformers set on fire,
-singing religious psalms and hymns the while. On this pile were burned
-many copies of Boccaccio and of Margante Maggiore, and pictures by Fra
-Bartalommeo, who from that day forward renounced the art of this world
-to consecrate his brush utterly and entirely to the reproduction of
-religious scenes.
-
-A reform such as this was terrifying to Alexander; so he resolved on
-fighting Savonarola with his own weapons--that is, by the force of
-eloquence. He chose as the Dominican's opponent a preacher of recognised
-talent, called Fra Francesco di Paglia; and he sent him to Florence,
-where he began to preach in Santa Croce, accusing Savonarola of heresy
-and impiety. At the same time the pope, in a new brief, announced to the
-Signaria that unless they forbade the arch-heretic to preach, all the
-goods of Florentine merchants who lived on the papal territory would be
-confiscated, and the republic laid under an interdict and declared the
-spiritual and temporal enemy of the Church. The Signoria, abandoned by
-France, and aware that the material power of Rome was increasing in a
-frightful manner, was forced this time to yield, and to issue to
-Savonarola an order to leave off preaching. He obeyed, and bade farewell
-to his congregation in a sermon full of strength and eloquence.
-
-But the withdrawal of Savonarola, so far from calming the ferment, had
-increased it: there was talk about his prophecies being fulfilled; and
-some zealots, more ardent than their master added miracle to
-inspiration, and loudly proclaimed that Savonarola had offered to go
-down into the vaults of the cathedral with his antagonist, and there
-bring a dead man to life again, to prove that his doctrine was true,
-promising to declare himself vanquished if the miracle were performed by
-his adversary. These rumours reached the ears of Fra Francesco, and as
-he was a man of warm blood, who counted his own life as nothing if it
-might be spent to help his cause, he declared in all humility that he
-felt he was too great a sinner for God to work a miracle in his behalf;
-but he proposed another challenge: he would try with Savonarola the
-ordeal of fire. He knew, he said, that he must perish, but at least he
-should perish avenging the cause of religion, since he was certain to
-involve in his destruction the tempter who plunged so many souls beside
-his own into eternal damnation.
-
-The proposition made by Fra Francesco was taken to Savanarola; but as he
-had never proposed the earlier challenge, he hesitated to accept the
-second; hereupon his disciple, Fra Domenico Bonvicini, more confident
-than his master in his own power, declared himself ready to accept the
-trial by fire in his stead; so certain was he that God would perform a
-miracle by the intercession of Savonarola, His prophet.
-
-Instantly the report spread through Florence that the mortal challenge
-was accepted; Savonarola's partisans, all men of the strongest
-convictions, felt no doubt as to the success of their cause. His enemies
-were enchanted at the thought of the heretic giving himself to the
-flames; and the indifferent saw in the ordeal a spectacle of real and
-terrible interest.
-
-But the devotion of Fra Bonvicini of Pescia was not what Fra Francesco
-was reckoning with. He was willing, no doubt, to die a terrible death,
-but on condition that Savanarola died with him. What mattered to him the
-death of an obscure disciple like Fra Bonvicini? It was the master he
-would strike, the great teacher who must be involved in his own ruin. So
-he refused to enter the fire except with Savonarola himself, and,
-playing this terrible game in his own person, would not allow his
-adversary to play it by proxy.
-
-Then a thing happened which certainly no one could have anticipated. In
-the place of Fra Francesco, who would not tilt with any but the master,
-two Franciscan monks appeared to tilt with the disciple. These were Fra
-Nicholas de Pilly and Fra Andrea Rondinelli. Immediately the partisans
-of Savonarola, seeing this arrival of reinforcements for their
-antagonist, came forward in a crowd to try the ordeal. The Franciscans
-were unwilling to be behindhand, and everybody took sides with equal
-ardour for one or other party. All Florence was like a den of madmen;
-everyone wanted the ordeal, everyone wanted to go into the fire; not
-only did men challenge one another, but women and even children were
-clamouring to be allowed to try. At last the Signoria, reserving this
-privilege for the first applicants, ordered that the strange duel should
-take place only between Fra Domenico Bonvicini and Fra Andrea
-Rondinelli; ten of the citizens were to arrange all details; the day was
-fixed for the 7th of April, 1498, and the place the Piazza del Palazzo.
-
-The judges of the field made their arrangements conscientiously. By
-their orders scaffolding was erected at the appointed place, five feet
-in height, ten in width, and eighty feet long. This scaffolding was
-covered with faggots and heath, supported by cross-bars of the very
-driest wood that could be found. Two narrow paths were made, two feet
-wide at most, their entrance giving on the Loggia dei Lanzi, their exit
-exactly opposite. The loggia was itself divided into two by a partition,
-so that each champion had a kind of room to make his preparations in,
-just as in the theatre every actor has his dressing-room; but in this
-instance the tragedy that was about to be played was not a fictitious
-one.
-
-The Franciscans arrived on the piazza and entered the compartment
-reserved for them without making any religious demonstration; while
-Savonarola, on the contrary, advanced to his own place in the
-procession, wearing the sacerdotal robes in which he had just celebrated
-the Holy Eucharist, and holding in his hand the sacred host for all the
-world to see, as it was enclosed in a crystal tabernacle. Fra Domenico
-di Pescia, the hero of the occasion, followed, bearing a crucifix, and
-all the Dominican monks, their red crosses in their hands, marched
-behind singing a psalm; while behind them again followed the most
-considerable of the citizens of their party, bearing torches, for, sure
-as they were of the triumph of their cause, they wished to fire the
-faggots themselves. The piazza was so crowded that the people overflowed
-into all the streets around. In every door and window there was nothing
-to be seen but heads ranged one above the other; the terraces were
-covered with people, and curious spectators were observed on the roof of
-the Duomo and on the top of the Campanile.
-
-But, brought face to face with the ordeal, the Franciscans raised such
-difficulties that it was very plain the heart of their champion was
-failing him. The first fear they expressed was that Fra Bonvicini was an
-enchanter, and so carried about him some talisman or charm which would
-save him from the fire. So they insisted that he should be stripped of
-all his clothes and put on others to be inspected by witnesses. Fra
-Bonvicini made no objection, though the suspicion was humiliating; he
-changed shirt, dress, and cowl. Then, when the Franciscans observed that
-Savanarola was placing the tabernacle in his hands, they protested that
-it was profanation to expose the sacred host to the risk of burning,
-that this was not in the bond, and if Bonvicini would not give up this
-supernatural aid, they for their part would give up the trial
-altogether. Savonarola replied that it was not astonishing that the
-champion of religion who put his faith in God should bear in his hands
-that very God to whom he entrusted his salvation. But this reply did not
-satisfy the Franciscans, who were unwilling to let go their contention.
-Savonarola remained inflexible, supporting his own right, and thus
-nearly four hours passed in the discussion of points which neither party
-would give up, and affairs remained in 'statu quo'. Meanwhile the
-people, jammed together in the streets, on the terraces, on the roofs,
-since break of day, were suffering from hunger and thirst and beginning
-to get impatient: their impatience soon developed into loud murmurs,
-which reached even the champions' ears, so that the partisans of
-Savonarola, who felt such faith in him that they were confident of a
-miracle, entreated him to yield to all the conditions suggested. To this
-Savonarola replied that if it were himself making the trial he would be
-less inexorable; but since another man was incurring the danger; he
-could not take too many precautions. Two more hours passed, while his
-partisans tried in vain to combat his refusals. At last, as night was
-coming on and the people grew ever more and more impatient and their
-murmurs began to assume a threatening tone, Bonvicini declared that he
-was ready to walk through the fire, holding nothing in his hand but a
-crucifix. No one could refuse him this; so Fra Rondinelli was compelled
-to accept his proposition. The announcement was made to the populace
-that the champions had come to terms and the trial was about to take
-place. At this news the people calmed down, in the hope of being
-compensated at last for their long wait; but at that very moment a storm
-which had long been threatening brake over Florence with such fury that
-the faggots which had just been lighted were extinguished by the rain,
-leaving no possibility of their rekindling. From the moment when the
-people suspected that they had been fooled, their enthusiasm was changed
-into derision. They were ignorant from which side the difficulties had
-arisen that had hindered the trial, so they laid the responsibility on
-both champions without distinction. The Signoria, foreseeing the
-disorder that was now imminent, ordered the assembly to retire; but the
-assembly thought otherwise, and stayed on the piazza, waiting for the
-departure of the two champions, in spite of the fearful rain that still
-fell in torrents. Rondinelli was taken back amid shouts and hootings,
-and pursued with showers of stones. Savonarola, thanks to his sacred
-garments and the host which he still carried, passed calmly enough
-through the midst of the mob--a miracle quite as remarkable as if he had
-passed through the fire unscathed.
-
-But it was only the sacred majesty of the host that had protected this
-man, who was indeed from this moment regarded as a false prophet: the
-crowd allowed Savonarola to return to his convent, but they regretted
-the necessity, so excited were they by the Arrabbiati party, who had
-always denounced him as a liar and a hypocrite. So when the next
-morning, Palm Sunday, he stood up in the pulpit to explain his conduct,
-he could not obtain a moment's silence for insults, hooting, and loud
-laughter. Then the outcry, at first derisive, became menacing:
-Savonarola, whose voice was too weak to subdue the tumult, descended
-from his pulpit, retired into the sacristy, and thence to his convent,
-where he shut himself up in his cell. At that moment a cry was heard,
-and was repeated by everybody present:
-
-"To San Marco, to San Marco!" The rioters, few at first, were recruited
-by all the populace as they swept along the streets, and at last reached
-the convent, dashing like an angry sea against the wall.
-
-The doors, closed on Savonarola's entrance, soon crashed before the
-vehement onset of the powerful multitude, which struck down on the
-instant every obstacle it met: the whole convent was quickly flooded
-with people, and Savonarola, with his two confederates, Domenico
-Bonvicini and Silvestro Maruffi, was arrested in his cell, and conducted
-to prison amid the insults of the crowd, who, always in extremes,
-whether of enthusiasm or hatred, would have liked to tear them to
-pieces, and would not be quieted till they had exacted a promise that
-the prisoners should be forcibly compelled to make the trial of fire
-which they had refused to make of their own free will.
-
-Alexander VI, as we may suppose, had not been without influence in
-bringing about this sudden and astonishing reaction, although he was not
-present in person; and had scarcely learned the news of Savonarola's
-fall and arrest when he claimed him as subject to ecclesiastical
-jurisdiction. But in spite of the grant of indulgences wherewith this
-demand was accompanied, the Signoria insisted that Savonarola's trial
-should take place at Florence, adding a request so as not to appear to
-withdraw the accused completely from the pontifical authority--that the
-pope would send two ecclesiastical judges to sit in the Florentine
-tribunal. Alexander, seeing that he would get nothing better from the
-magnificent republic, sent as deputies Gioacchino Turriano of Venice,
-General of the Dominicans, and Francesco Ramolini, doctor in law: they
-practically brought the sentence with them, declaring Savonarola and his
-accomplices heretics, schismatics, persecutors of the Church and
-seducers of the people.
-
-The firmness shown by the Florentines in claiming their rights of
-jurisdiction were nothing but an empty show to save appearances; the
-tribunal, as a fact, was composed of eight members, all known to be
-fervent haters of Savonarola, whose trial began with the torture. The
-result was that, feeble in body constitutionally nervous and irritable,
-he had not been able to endure the rack, and, overcome by agony just at
-the moment when the executioner had lifted him up by the wrists and then
-dropped him a distance of two feet to the ground, he had confessed, in
-order to get some respite, that his prophecies were nothing more than
-conjectures. If is true that, so soon as he went back to prison, he
-protested against the confession, saying that it was the weakness of his
-bodily organs and his want of firmness that had wrested the lie from
-him, but that the truth really was that the Lord had several times
-appeared to him in his ecstasies and revealed the things that he had
-spoken. This protestation led to a new application of the torture,
-during which Savonarola succumbed once more to the dreadful pain, and
-once more retracted. But scarcely was he unbound, and was still lying on
-the bed of torture, when he declared that his confessions were the fault
-of his torturers, and the vengeance would recoil upon their heads; and
-he protested yet once more against all he had confessed and might
-confess again. A third time the torture produced the same avowals, and
-the relief that followed it the same retractions. The judges therefore,
-when they condemned him and his two disciples to the flames, decided
-that his confession should not be read aloud at the stake, according to
-custom, feeling certain that on this occasion also he would give it the
-lie, and that publicly, which, as anyone must see who knew the versatile
-spirit of the public, would be a most dangerous proceeding.
-
-On the 23rd of May, the fire which had been promised to the people
-before was a second time prepared on the Piazza del Palazzo, and this
-time the crowd assembled quite certain that they would not be
-disappointed of a spectacle so long anticipated. And towards eleven
-o'clock in the morning, Girolamo Savonarola, Domenico Bonvicini, and
-Silvestro Maruffi were led to the place of execution, degraded of their
-orders by the ecclesiastical judges, and bound all three to the same
-stake in the centre of an immense pile of wood. Then the bishop
-Pagnanoli told the condemned men that he cut them off from the Church.
-"Ay, from the Church militant," said Savonarola, who from that very
-hour, thanks to his martyrdom, was entering into the Church triumphant.
-No other words were spoken by the condemned men, for at this moment one
-of the Arrabbiati, a personal enemy of Savonarola, breaking through the
-hedge of guards around the scaffold, snatched the torch from the
-executioner's hand and himself set fire to the four corners of the pile.
-Savonarola and his disciples, from the moment when they saw the smoke
-arise, began to sing a psalm, and the flames enwrapped them on all sides
-with a glowing veil, while their religious song was yet heard mounting
-upward to the gates of heaven.
-
-Pope Alexander VI was thus set free from perhaps the most formidable
-enemy who had ever risen against him, and the pontifical vengeance
-pursued the victims even after their death: the Signoria, yielding to
-his wishes, gave orders that the ashes of the prophet and his disciples
-should be thrown into the Arno. But certain half-burned fragments were
-picked up by the very soldiers whose business it was to keep the people
-back from approaching the fire, and the holy relics are even now shown,
-blackened by the flames, to the faithful, who if they no longer regard
-Savonarola as a prophet, revere him none the less as a martyr.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-
-The French army was now preparing to cross the Alps a second time, under
-the command of Trivulce. Louis XII had come as far as Lyons in the
-company of Caesar Borgia and Giuliano della Rovere, on whom he had
-forced a reconciliation, and towards the beginning of the month of May
-had sent his vanguard before him, soon to be followed by the main body
-of the army. The forces he was employing in this second campaign of
-conquest were 1600 lances, 5000 Swiss, 9000 Gascons, and 3500 infantry,
-raised from all parts of France. On the 13th of August this whole body,
-amounting to nearly 15,000 men, who were to combine their forces with
-the Venetians, arrived beneath the walls of Arezzo, and immediately laid
-siege to the town.
-
-Ludovico Sforza's position was a terrible one: he was now suffering from
-his imprudence in calling the French into Italy; all the allies he had
-thought he might count upon were abandoning him at the same moment,
-either because they were busy about their own affairs, or because they
-were afraid of the powerful enemy that the Duke of Milan had made for
-himself. Maximilian, who had promised him a contribution of 400 lances,
-to make up for not renewing the hostilities with Louis XII that had been
-interrupted, had just made a league with the circle of Swabia to war
-against the Swiss, whom he had declared rebels against the Empire. The
-Florentines, who had engaged to furnish him with 300 men-at-arms and
-2000 infantry, if he would help them to retake Pisa, had just retracted
-their promise because of Louis XII's threats, and had undertaken to
-remain neutral. Frederic, who was holding back his troops for the
-defence of his own States, because he supposed, not without reason,
-that, Milan once conquered, he would again have to defend Naples, sent
-him no help, no men, no money, in spite of his promises. Ludovico Sforza
-was therefore reduced to his own proper forces.
-
-But as he was a man powerful in arms and clever in artifice, he did not
-allow himself to succumb at the first blow, and in all haste fortified
-Annona, Novarro, and Alessandria, sent off Cajazzo with troops to that
-part of the Milanese territory which borders on the states of Venice,
-and collected on the Po as many troops as he could. But these
-precautions availed him nothing against the impetuous onslaught of the
-French, who in a few days had taken Annona, Arezzo, Novarro, Voghiera,
-Castelnuovo, Ponte Corona, Tartone, and Alessandria, while Trivulce was
-on the march to Milan.
-
-Seeing the rapidity of this conquest and their numerous victories,
-Ludovico Sforza, despairing of holding out in his capital, resolved to
-retire to Germany, with his children, his brother, Cardinal Ascanio
-Sforza, and his treasure, which had been reduced in the course of eight
-years from 1,500,000 to 200,000 ducats. But before he went he left
-Bernardino da Carte in charge of the castle of Milan. In vain did his
-friends warn him to distrust this man, in vain did his brother Ascanio
-offer to hold the fortress himself, and offer to hold it to the very
-last; Ludovico refused to make any change in his arrangements, and
-started on the 2nd of September, leaving in the citadel three thousand
-foot and enough provisions, ammunition, and money to sustain a siege of
-several months.
-
-Two days after Ludovico's departure, the French entered Milan. Ten days
-later Bernardino da Come gave up the castle before a single gun had been
-fired. Twenty-one days had sufficed for the French to get possession of
-the various towns, the capital, and all the territories of their enemy.
-
-Louis XII received the news of this success while he was at Lyons, and
-he at once started for Milan, where he was received with demonstrations
-of joy that were really sincere. Citizens of every rank had come out
-three miles' distance from the gates to receive him, and forty boys,
-dressed in cloth of gold and silk, marched before him singing hymns of
-victory composed by poets of the period, in which the king was styled
-their liberator and the envoy of freedom. The great joy of the Milanese
-people was due to the fact that friends of Louis had been spreading
-reports beforehand that the King of France was rich enough to abolish
-all taxes. And so soon as the second day from his arrival at Milan the
-conqueror made some slight reduction, granted important favours to
-certain Milanese gentlemen, and bestowed the town of Vigavano on
-Trivulce as a reward for his swift and glorious campaign. But Caesar
-Borgia, who had followed Louis XII with a view to playing his part in
-the great hunting-ground of Italy, scarcely waited for him to attain his
-end when he claimed the fulfilment of his promise, which the king with
-his accustomed loyalty hastened to perform. He instantly put at the
-disposal of Caesar three hundred lances under the command of Yves
-d'Alegre, and four thousand Swiss under the command of the bailiff of
-Dijon, as a help in his work of reducing the Vicars of the Church.
-
-We must now explain to our readers who these new personages were whom we
-introduce upon the scene by the above name.
-
-During the eternal wars of Guelphs and Ghibelines and the long exile of
-the popes at Avignon, most of the towns and fortresses of the Romagna
-had been usurped by petty tyrants, who for the most part had received
-from the Empire the investiture of their new possessions; but ever since
-German influence had retired beyond the Alps, and the popes had again
-made Rome the centre of the Christian world, all the small princes,
-robbed of their original protector, had rallied round the papal see, and
-received at the hands of the pope a new investiture, and now they paid
-annual dues, for which they received the particular title of duke,
-count, or lord, and the general name of Vicar of the Church.
-
-It had been no difficult matter for Alexander, scrupulously examining
-the actions and behaviour of these gentlemen during the seven years that
-had elapsed since he was exalted to St. Peter's throne, to find in the
-conduct of each one of them something that could be called an infraction
-of the treaty made between vassals and suzerain; accordingly he brought
-forward his complaints at a tribunal established for the purpose, and
-obtained sentence from the judges to the effect that the vicars of the
-Church, having failed to fulfil the conditions of their investiture,
-were despoiled of their domains, which would again become the property
-of the Holy See. As the pope was now dealing with men against whom it
-was easier to pass a sentence than to get it carried out, he had
-nominated as captain-general the new Duke of Valentinois, who was
-commissioned to recover the territories for his own benefit. The lords
-in question were the Malatesti of Rimini, the Sforza of Pesaro, the
-Manfredi of Faenza, the Riarii of Imola and Forli, the Variani of
-Camerina, the Montefeltri of Urbino, and the Caetani of Sermoneta.
-
-But the Duke of Valentinois, eager to keep as warm as possible his great
-friendship with his ally and relative Louis XII, was, as we know,
-staying with him at Milan so long as he remained there, where, after a
-month's occupation, the king retraced his steps to his own capital, the
-Duke of Valentinois ordered his men-at-arms and his Swiss to await him
-between Parma and Modena, and departed posthaste for Rome, to explain
-his plans to his father viva voce and to receive his final instructions.
-When he arrived, he found that the fortune of his sister Lucrezia had
-been greatly augmented in his absence, not from the side of her husband
-Alfonso, whose future was very uncertain now in consequence of Louis's
-successes, which had caused some coolness between Alfonso and the pope,
-but from her father's side, upon whom at this time she exercised an
-influence more astonishing than ever. The pope had declared Lucrezia
-Borgia of Aragon life-governor of Spoleto and its duchy, with all
-emoluments, rights, and revenues accruing thereunto. This had so greatly
-increased her power and improved her position, that in these days she
-never showed herself in public without a company of two hundred horses
-ridden by the most illustrious ladies and noblest knights of Rome.
-Moreover, as the twofold affection of her father was a secret to nobody,
-the first prelates in the Church, the frequenters of the Vatican, the
-friends of His Holiness, were all her most humble servants; cardinals
-gave her their hands when she stepped from her litter or her horse,
-archbishops disputed the honour of celebrating mass in her private
-apartments.
-
-But Lucrezia had been obliged to quit Rome in order to take possession
-of her new estates; and as her father could not spend much time away
-from his beloved daughter, he resolved to take into his hands the town
-of Nepi, which on a former occasion, as the reader will doubtless
-remember, he had bestowed on Ascanio Sforza in exchange for his
-suffrage. Ascanio had naturally lost this town when he attached himself
-to the fortunes of the Duke of Milan, his brother; and when the pope was
-about to take it again, he invited his daughter Lucrezia to join him
-there and be present at the rejoicings held in honour of his resuming
-its possession.
-
-Lucrezia's readiness in giving way to her father's wishes brought her a
-new gift from him: this was the town and territory of Sermoneta, which
-belonged to the Caetani. Of course the gift was as yet a secret, because
-the two owners of the seigneury, had first to be disposed of, one being
-Monsignore Giacomo Caetano, apostolic protonotary, the other Prospero
-Caetano, a young cavalier of great promise; but as both lived at Rome,
-and entertained no suspicion, but indeed supposed themselves to be in
-high favour with His Holiness, the one by virtue of his position, the
-other of his courage, the matter seemed to present no great difficulty.
-So directly after the return of Alexander to Rome, Giacomo Caetano was
-arrested, on what pretext we know not, was taken to the castle of Sant'
-Angelo, and there died shortly after, of poison: Prospero Caetano was
-strangled in his own house. After these two deaths, which both occurred
-so suddenly as to give no time for either to make a will, the pope
-declared that Sermoneta and all of her property appertaining to the
-Caetani devolved upon the apostolic chamber; and they were sold to
-Lucrezia for the sum of 80,000 crowns, which her father refunded to her
-the day after. Though Caesar hurried to Rome, he found when he arrived
-that his father had been beforehand with him, and had made a beginning
-of his conquests.
-
-Another fortune also had been making prodigious strides during Caesar's
-stay in France, viz. the fortune of Gian Borgia, the pope's nephew, who
-had been one of the most devoted friends of the Duke of Gandia up to the
-time of his death. It was said in Rome, and not in a whisper, that the
-young cardinal owed the favours heaped upon him by His Holiness less to
-the memory of the brother than to the protection of the sister. Both
-these reasons made Gian Borgia a special object of suspicion to Caesar,
-and it was with an inward vow that he should not enjoy his new dignities
-very long that the Duke of Valentinois heard that his cousin Gian had
-just been nominated cardinal 'a latere' of all the Christian world, and
-had quitted Rome to make a circuit through all the pontifical states
-with a suite of archbishops, bishops, prelates, and gentlemen, such as
-would have done honour to the pope himself.
-
-Caesar had only come to Rome to get news; so he only stayed three days,
-and then, with all the troops His Holiness could supply, rejoined his
-forces on the borders of the Euza, and marched at once to Imola. This
-town, abandoned by its chiefs, who had retired to Forli, was forced to
-capitulate. Imola taken, Caesar marched straight upon Forli. 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.
-Caesar saw that it was no longer a question of a sudden capture, but of
-a regular siege; so he began to make all his arrangements with a view to
-it, and placing a battery of cannon in front of the place where the
-walls seemed to him weakest, he ordered an uninterrupted fire, to be
-continued until the breach was practicable.
-
-When he returned to the camp after giving this order, he found there
-Gian Borgia, who had gone to Rome from Ferrara and was unwilling to be
-so near Caesar without paying him a visit: he was received with effusion
-and apparently the greatest joy, and stayed three days; on the fourth
-day all the officers and members of the court were invited to a grand
-farewell supper, and Caesar bade farewell to his cousin, charging him
-with despatches for the pope, and lavishing upon him all the tokens of
-affection he had shown on his arrival.
-
-Cardinal Gian Borgia  posted off as soon as he left the supper-table,
-but on arriving at Urbino he was seized with such a sudden and strange
-indisposition that he was forced to stop; but after a few minutes,
-feeling rather better, he went an; scarcely, however, had he entered
-Rocca Cantrada when he again felt so extremely ill that he resolved to
-go no farther, and stayed a couple of days in the town. Then, as he
-thought he was a little better again, and as he had heard the news of
-the taking of Forli and also that Caterina Sforza had been taken
-prisoner while she was making an attempt to retire into the castle, he
-resolved to go back to Caesar and congratulate him on his victory; but
-at Fassambrane he was forced to stop a third time, although he had given
-up his carriage for a litter. This was his last halt: the same day he
-sought his bed, never to rise from it again; three days later he was
-dead.
-
-His body was taken to Rome and buried without any ceremony in the church
-of Santa Maria del Populo, where lay awaiting him the corpse of his
-friend the Duke of Gandia; and there was now no more talk of the young
-cardinal, high as his rank had been, than if he had never existed. Thus
-in gloom and silence passed away all those who were swept to destruction
-by the ambition of that terrible trio, Alexander, Lucrezia, and Caesar.
-
-Almost at the same time Rome was terrified by another murder. Don
-Giovanni Cerviglione, a gentleman by birth and a brave soldier, captain
-of the pope's men-at-arms, was attacked one evening by the sbirri, as he
-was on his way home from supping with Don Elisio Pignatelli. One of the
-men asked his name, and as he pronounced it, seeing that there was no
-mistake, plunged a dagger into his breast, while a second man with a
-back stroke of his sword cut off his head, which lay actually at his
-feet before his body had time to fall.
-
-The governor of Rome lodged a complaint against this assassination with
-the pope; but quickly perceiving, by the way his intimation was
-received, that he would have done better to say nothing, he stopped the
-inquiries he had started, so that neither of the murderers was ever
-arrested. But the rumour was circulated that Caesar, in the short stay
-he had made at Rome, had had a rendezvous with Cerviglione's wife, who
-was a Borgia by birth, and that her husband when he heard of this
-infringement of conjugal duty had been angry enough to threaten her and
-her lover, too: the threat had reached Caesar's ears, who, making a long
-arm of Michelotto, had, himself at Forli, struck down Cerviglione in the
-streets of Rome.
-
-Another unexpected death followed so quickly on that of Don Giovanni
-Cerviglione that it could not but be attributed to the same originator,
-if not to the same cause. Monsignore Agnelli of Mantua, archbishop of
-Cosenza, clerk of the chamber and vice-legate of Viterbo, having fallen
-into disgrace with His Holiness, how it is not known, was poisoned at
-his own table, at which he had passed a good part of the night in
-cheerful conversation with three or four guests, the poison gliding
-meanwhile through his veins; then going to bed in perfect health, he was
-found dead in the morning. His possessions were at once divided into
-three portions: the land and houses were given to the Duke of
-Valentinois; the bishopric went to Francesco Borgia, son of Calixtus
-III; and the office of clerk of the chamber was sold for 5000 ducats to
-Ventura Bonnassai, a merchant of Siena, who produced this sum for
-Alexander, and settled down the very same day in the Vatican.
-
-This last death served the purpose of determining a point of law
-hitherto uncertain: as Monsignore Agnelli's natural heirs had made some
-difficulty about being disinherited, Alexander issued a brief; whereby
-he took from every cardinal and every priest the right of making a will,
-and declared that all their property should henceforth devolve upon him.
-
-But Caesar was stopped short in the midst of his victories. Thanks to
-the 200,000 ducats that yet remained in his treasury, Ludovico Sforza
-had levied 500 men-at-arms from Burgundy and 8000 Swiss infantry, with
-whom he had entered Lombardy. So Trivulce, to face this enemy, had been
-compelled to call back Yves d'Alegre and the troops that Louis XII had
-lent to Caesar; consequently Caesar, leaving behind a body of pontifical
-soldiery as garrison at Forli and Imola, betook himself with the rest of
-his force to Rome.
-
-It was Alexander's wish that his entry should be a triumph; so when he
-learned that the quartermasters of the army were only a few leagues from
-the town, he sent out runners to invite the royal ambassadors, the
-cardinals, the prelates, the Roman barons, and municipal dignitaries to
-make procession with all their suite to meet the Duke of Valentinois;
-and as it always happens that the pride of those who command is
-surpassed by the baseness of those who obey, the orders were not only
-fulfilled to the letter, but beyond it.
-
-The entry of Caesar took place on the 26th of February, 1500. Although
-this was the great Jubilee year, the festivals of the carnival began
-none the less for that, and were conducted in a manner even more
-extravagant and licentious than usual; and the conqueror after the first
-day prepared a new display of ostentation, which he concealed under the
-veil of a masquerade. As he was pleased to identify himself with the
-glory, genius, and fortune of the great man whose name he bore, he
-resolved on a representation of the triumph of Julius Caesar, to be
-given on the Piazzi di Navona, the ordinary place for holding the
-carnival fetes. The next day, therefore, he and his retinue started from
-that square, and traversed all the streets of Rome, wearing classical
-costumes and riding in antique cars, on one of which Caesar stood, clad
-in the robe of an emperor of old, his brow crowned with a golden laurel
-wreath, surrounded by lictors, soldiers, and ensign-bearers, who carried
-banners whereon was inscribed the motto, 'Aut Caesar aut nihil'.
-
-Finally, on the fourth Sunday, in Lent, the pope conferred upon Caesar
-the dignity he had so long coveted, and appointed him general and
-gonfaloniere of the Holy Church.
-
-In the meanwhile Sforza had crossed the Alps and passed the Lake of
-Como, amid acclamations of joy from his former subjects, who had quickly
-lost the enthusiasm that the French army and Louis's promises had
-inspired. These demonstrations were so noisy at Milan, that Trivulce,
-judging that there was no safety for a French garrison in remaining
-there, made his way to Navarra. Experience proved that he was not
-deceived; for scarcely had the Milanese observed his preparations for
-departure when a suppressed excitement began to spread through the town,
-and soon the streets were filled with armed men. This murmuring crowd
-had to be passed through, sword in hand and lance in rest; and scarcely
-had the French got outside the gates when the mob rushed out after the
-army into the country, pursuing them with shouts and hooting as far as
-the banks of the Tesino. Trivulce left 400 lances at Navarra as well as
-the 3000 Swiss that Yves d'Alegre had brought from the Romagna, and
-directed his course with the rest of the army towards Mortara, where he
-stopped at last to await the help he had demanded from the King of
-France. Behind him Cardinal Ascanio and Ludovico entered Milan amid the
-acclamations of the whole town.
-
-Neither of them lost any time, and wishing to profit by this enthusiasm,
-Ascanio undertook to besiege the castle of Milan while Ludovico should
-cross the Tesino and attack Navarra.
-
-There besiegers and besieged were sons of the same nation; for Yves
-d'Alegre had scarcely as many as 300 French with him, and Ludovico 500
-Italians. In fact, for the last sixteen years the Swiss had been
-practically the only infantry in Europe, and all the Powers came, purse
-in hand, to draw from the mighty reservoir of their mountains. The
-consequence was that these rude children of William Tell, put up to
-auction by the nations, and carried away from the humble, hardy life of
-a mountain people into cities of wealth and pleasure, had lost, not
-their ancient courage, but that rigidity of principle for which they had
-been distinguished before their intercourse with other nations. From
-being models of honour and good faith they had become a kind of
-marketable ware, always ready for sale to the highest bidder. The French
-were the first to experience this venality, which later-on proved so
-fatal to Ludovico Sforza.
-
-Now the Swiss in the garrison at Navarra had been in communication with
-their compatriots in the vanguard of the ducal army, and when they found
-that they, who as a fact were unaware that Ludavico's treasure was
-nearly exhausted, were better fed as well as better paid than
-themselves, they offered to give up the town and go over to the
-Milanese, if they could be certain of the same pay. Ludovico, as we may
-well suppose, closed with this bargain. The whole of Navarra was given
-up to him except the citadel, which was defended by Frenchmen: thus the
-enemy's army was recruited by 3000 men. Then Ludovico made the mistake
-of stopping to besiege the castle instead of marching on to Mortara with
-the new reinforcement. The result of this was that Louis XII, to whom
-runners had been sent by Trivulce, understanding his perilous position,
-hastened the departure of the French gendarmerie who were already
-collected to cross into Italy, sent off the bailiff of Dijon to levy new
-Swiss forces, and ordered Cardinal Amboise, his prime minister, to cross
-the Alps and take up a position at Asti, to hurry on the work of
-collecting the troops. There the cardinal found a nest-egg of 3000 men.
-La Trimouille added 1500 lances and 6000 French infantry; finally, the
-bailiff of Dijon arrived with 10,000 Swiss; so that, counting the troops
-which Trivulce had at Mortara, Louis XII found himself master on the
-other side of the Alps of the first army any French king had ever led
-out to battle. Soon, by good marching, and before Ludovico knew the
-strength or even the existence of this army, it took up a position
-between Navarra and Milan, cutting off all communication between the
-duke and his capital. He was therefore compelled, in spite of his
-inferior numbers, to prepare for a pitched battle.
-
-But it so happened that just when the preparations for a decisive
-engagement were being made on both sides, the Swiss Diet, learning that
-the sons of Helvetia were on the point of cutting one another's throats,
-sent orders to all the Swiss serving in either army to break their
-engagements and return to the fatherland. But during the two months that
-had passed between the surrender of Navarra and the arrival of the
-French army before the town, there had been a very great change in the
-face of things, because Ludovico Sforza's treasure was now exhausted.
-New confabulations had gone on between the outposts, and this time,
-thanks to the money sent by Louis XII, it was the Swiss in the service
-of France who were found to be the better fed and better paid. The
-worthy Helvetians, since they no longer fought for their own liberty,
-knew the value of their blood too well to allow a single drop of it to
-be spilled for less than its weight in gold: the result was that, as
-they had, betrayed Yves d'Alegre, they resolved to betray Ludovico
-Sforza too; and while the recruits brought in by the bailiff of Dijon
-were standing firmly by the French flag, careless of the order of the
-Diet, Ludovico's auxiliaries declared that in fighting against their
-Swiss brethren they would be acting in disobedience to the Diet, and
-would risk capital punishment in the end--a danger that nothing would
-induce them to incur unless they immediately received the arrears of
-their pay. The duke, who had spent the last ducat he had with him, and
-was entirely cut off from his capital, knew that he could not get money
-till he had fought his way through to it, and therefore invited the
-Swiss to make one last effort, promising them not only the pay that was
-in arrears but a double hire. But unluckily the fulfilment of this
-promise was dependent on the doubtful issue of a battle, and the Swiss
-replied that they had far too much respect for their country to disobey
-its decree, and that they loved their brothers far too well to consent
-to shed their blood without reward; and therefore Sforza would do well
-not to count upon them, since indeed the very next day they proposed to
-return to their homes. The duke then saw that all was lost, but he made
-a last appeal to their honour, adjuring them at least to ensure his
-personal safety by making it a condition of capitulation. But they
-replied that even if a condition of such a kind, would not make
-capitulation impossible, it would certainly deprive them of advantages
-which they had a right to expect, and on which they counted as
-indemnification for the arrears of their pay. They pretended, however,
-at last that they were touched by the prayers of the man whose orders
-they had obeyed so long, and offered to conceal him dressed in their
-clothes among their ranks. This proposition was barely plausible; for
-Sforza was short and, by this time an old man, and he could not possibly
-escape recognition in the midst of an army where the oldest was not past
-thirty and the shortest not less than five foot six. Still, this was his
-last chance, and he did not reject it at once, but tried to modify it so
-that it might help him in his straits. His plan was to disguise himself
-as a Franciscan monk, so that mounted on a shabby horse he might pass
-for their chaplain; the others, Galeazzo di San Severing, who commanded
-under him, and his two brothers, were all tall men, so, adopting the
-dress of common soldiers, they hoped they might escape detection in the
-Swiss ranks.
-
-Scarcely were these plans settled when the duke heard that the
-capitulation was signed between Trivulce and the Swiss, who had made no
-stipulation in favour of him and his generals. They were to go over the
-next day with arms and baggage right into the French army; so the last
-hope of the wretched Ludovico and his generals must needs be in their
-disguise. And so it was. San Severino and his brothers took their place
-in the ranks of the infantry, and Sforza took his among the baggage,
-clad in a monk's frock, with the hood pulled over his eyes.
-
-The army marched off; but the Swiss, who had first trafficked in their
-blood, now trafficked in their honour. The French were warned of the
-disguise of Sforza and his generals, and thus they were all four
-recognised, and Sforza was arrested by Trimouille himself. It is said
-that the price paid for this treason was the town of Bellinzona; for it
-then belonged to the French, and when the Swiss returned to their
-mountains and took possession of it, Louis XII took no steps to get it
-back again.
-
-When Ascanio Sforza, who, as we know, had stayed at Milan, learned the
-news of this cowardly desertion, he supposed that his cause was lost and
-that it would be the best plan for him to fly, before he found himself a
-prisoner in the hands of his brother's old subjects: such a change of
-face on the people's part would be very natural, and they might propose
-perhaps to purchase their own pardon at the price of his liberty; so he
-fled by night with the chief nobles of the Ghibelline party, taking the
-road to Piacenza, an his way to the kingdom of Naples. But when he
-arrived at Rivolta, he remembered that there was living in that town an
-old friend of his childhood, by name Conrad Lando, whom he had helped to
-much wealth in his days of power; and as Ascanio and his companions were
-extremely tired, he resolved to beg his hospitality for a single night.
-Conrad received them with every sign of joy, putting all his house and
-servants at their disposal. But scarcely had they retired to bed when he
-sent a runner to Piacenza, to inform Carlo Orsini, at that time
-commanding the Venetian garrison, that he was prepared to deliver up
-Cardinal Ascanio and the chief men of the Milanese army. Carlo Orsini
-did not care to resign to another so important an expedition, and
-mounting hurriedly with twenty-five men, he first surrounded Conrad's
-house, and then entered sword in hand the chamber wherein Ascanio and
-his companions lay, and being surprised in the middle of their sleep,
-they yielded without resistance. The prisoners were taken to Venice, but
-Louis XII claimed them, and they were given up. Thus the King of France
-found himself master of Ludovico Sforza and of Ascania, of a legitimate
-nephew of the great Francesco Sforza named Hermes, of two bastards named
-Alessandro and Cortino, and of Francesco, son of the unhappy Gian
-Galeazza who had been poisoned by his uncle.
-
-Louis XII, wishing to make an end of the whole family at a blow, forced
-Francesco to enter a cloister, shut up Cardinal Ascanio in the tower of
-Baurges, threw into prison Alessandro, Cartino, and Hermes, and finally,
-after transferring the wretched Ludovico from the fortress of
-Pierre-Eucise to Lys-Saint-George he relegated him for good and all to
-the castle of Loches, where he lived for ten years in solitude and utter
-destitution, and there died, cursing the day when the idea first came
-into his head of enticing the French into Italy.
-
-The news of the catastrophe of Ludovica and his family caused the
-greatest joy at Rome, for, while the French were consolidating their
-power in Milanese territory, the Holy See was gaining ground in the
-Romagna, where no further opposition was offered to Caesar's conquest.
-So the runners who brought the news were rewarded with valuable
-presents, and it was published throughout the whole town of Rome to the
-sound of the trumpet and drum. The war-cry of Louis, France, France, and
-that of the Orsini, Orso, Orso, rang through all the streets, which in
-the evening were illuminated, as though Constantinople or Jerusalem had
-been taken. And the pope gave the people fetes and fireworks, without
-troubling his head the least in the world either about its being Holy
-Week, or because the Jubilee had attracted more than 200,000 people to
-Rome; the temporal interests of his family seeming to him far more
-important than the spiritual interests of his subjects.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI
-
-
-One thing alone was wanting to assure the success of the vast projects
-that the pope and his son were founding upon the friendship of Louis and
-an alliance with him--that is,--money. But Alexander was not the man to
-be troubled about a paltry worry of that kind; true, the sale of
-benefices was by now exhausted, the ordinary and extraordinary taxes had
-already been collected for the whole year, and the prospect of
-inheritance from cardinals and priests was a poor thing now that the
-richest of them had been poisoned; but Alexander had other means at his
-disposal, which were none the less efficacious because they were less
-often used.
-
-The first he employed was to spread a report that the Turks were
-threatening an invasion of Christendom, and that he knew for a positive
-fact that before the end of the summer Bajazet would land two
-considerable armies, one in Romagna, the other in Calabria; he therefore
-published two bulls, one to levy tithes of all ecclesiastical revenues
-in Europe of whatever nature they might be, the other to force the Jews
-into paying an equivalent sum: both bulls contained the severest
-sentences of excommunication against those who refused to submit, or
-attempted opposition.
-
-The second plan was the selling of indulgences, a thing which had never
-been done before: these indulgences affected the people who had been
-prevented by reasons of health or business from coming to Rome for the
-Jubilee; the journey by this expedient was rendered unnecessary, and
-sins were pardoned for a third of what it would have cost, and just as
-completely as if the faithful had fulfilled every condition of the
-pilgrimage. For gathering in this tax a veritable army of collectors was
-instituted, a certain Ludovico dellaTorre at their head. The sum that
-Alexander brought into the pontifical treasury is incalculable, and some
-idea of it may be gathered from the fact that 799,000 livres in gold was
-paid in from the territory of Venice alone.
-
-But as the Turks did as a fact make some sort of demonstration from the
-Hungarian side, and the Venetians began to fear that they might be
-coming in their direction, they asked for help from the pope, who gave
-orders that at twelve o'clock in the day in all his States an Ave Maria
-should be said, to pray God to avert the danger which was threatening
-the most serene republic. This was the only help the Venetians got from
-His Holiness in exchange for the 799,000 livres in gold that he had got
-from them.
-
-But it seemed as though God wished to show His strange vicar on earth
-that He was angered by the mockery of sacred things, and on the Eve of
-St. Peter's Day, just as the pope was passing the Capanile on his way to
-the tribune of benedictions, an enormous piece of iron broke off and
-fell at his feet; and then, as though one warning had not been enough,
-on the next day, St. Peter's, when the pope happened to be in one of the
-rooms of his ordinary dwelling with Cardinal Capuano and Monsignare
-Poto, his private chamberlain, he saw through the open windows that a
-very black cloud was coming up. Foreseeing a thunderstorm, he ordered
-the cardinal and the chamberlain to shut the windows. He had not been
-mistaken; for even as they were obeying his command, there came up such
-a furious gust of wind that the highest chimney of the Vatican was
-overturned, just as a tree is rooted up, and was dashed upon the roof,
-breaking it in; smashing the upper flooring, it fell into the very room
-where they were. Terrified by the noise of this catastrophe, which made
-the whole palace tremble, the cardinal and Monsignore Poto turned round,
-and seeing the room full of dust and debris, sprang out upon the parapet
-and shouted to the guards at the gate, "The pope is dead, the pope is
-dead!" At this cry, the guards ran up and discovered three persons lying
-in the rubbish on the floor, one dead and the other two dying. The dead
-man was a gentleman of Siena called Lorenzo Chigi, and the dying were
-two resident officials of the Vatican. They had been walking across the
-floor above, and had been flung down with the debris. But Alexander was
-not to be found; and as he gave no answer, though they kept on calling
-to him, the belief that he had perished was confirmed, and very soon
-spread about the town. But he had only fainted, and at the end of a
-certain time he began to come to himself, and moaned, whereupon he was
-discovered, dazed with the blow, and injured, though not seriously, in
-several parts of his body. He had been saved by little short of a
-miracle: a beam had broken in half and had left each of its two ends in
-the side walls; and one of these had formed a sort of roof over the
-pontifical throne; the pope, who was sitting there at the time, was
-protected by this overarching beam, and had received only a few
-contusions.
-
-The two contradictory reports of the sudden death and the miraculous
-preservation of the pope spread rapidly through Rome; and the Duke of
-Valentinois, terrified at the thought of what a change might be wrought
-in his own fortunes by any slight accident to the Holy Father, hurried
-to the Vatican, unable to assure himself by anything less than the
-evidence of his own eyes. Alexander desired to render public thanks to
-Heaven for the protection that had been granted him; and on the very
-same day was carried to the church of Santa Maria del Popalo, escorted
-by a numerous procession of prelates and men-at arms, his pontifical
-seat borne by two valets, two equerries, and two grooms. In this church
-were buried the Duke of Gandia and Gian Borgia, and perhaps Alexander
-was drawn thither by some relics of devotion, or may be by the
-recollection of his love for his former mistress, Rosa Vanazza, whose
-image, in the guise of the Madonna, was exposed for the veneration of
-the faithful in a chapel on the left of the high altar. Stopping before
-this altar, the pope offered to the church the gift of a magnificent
-chalice in which were three hundred gold crowns, which the Cardinal of
-Siena poured out into a silver paten before the eyes of all, much to the
-gratification of the pontifical vanity.
-
-But before he left Rome to complete the conquest of the Romagna, the
-Duke of Valentinois had been reflecting that the marriage, once so
-ardently desired, between Lucrezia and Alfonso had been quite useless to
-himself and his father. There was more than this to be considered: Louis
-XII's rest in Lombardy was only a halt, and Milan was evidently but the
-stage before Naples. It was very possible that Louis was annoyed about
-the marriage which converted his enemy's nephew into the son-in-law of
-his ally. Whereas, if Alfonso were dead, Lucrezia would be in the
-position to marry some powerful lord of Ferrara or Brescia, who would be
-able to help his brother-in-law in the conquest of Romagna. Alfonso was
-now not only useless but dangerous, which to anyone with the character
-of the Borgias perhaps seemed worse, the death of Alfonso was resolved
-upon. But Lucrezia's husband, who had understood for a long time past
-what danger he incurred by living near his terrible father-in-law, had
-retired to Naples. Since, however, neither Alexander nor Caesar had
-changed in their perpetual dissimulation towards him, he was beginning
-to lose his fear, when he received an invitation from the pope and his
-son to take part in a bull-fight which was to be held in the Spanish
-fashion in honour of the duke before his departure: In the present
-precarious position of Naples it would not have been good policy for
-Alfonso to afford Alexander any sort of pretext for a rupture, so he
-could not refuse without a motive, and betook himself to Rome. It was
-thought of no use to consult Lucrezia in this affair, for she had two or
-three times displayed an absurd attachment for her husband, and they
-left her undisturbed in her government of Spoleto.
-
-Alfonso was received by the pope and the duke with every demonstration
-of sincere friendship, and rooms in the Vatican were assigned to him
-that he had inhabited before with Lucrezia, in that part of the building
-which is known as the Torre Nuova.
-
-Great lists were prepared on the Piazza of St. Peter's; the streets
-about it were barricaded, and the windows of the surrounding houses
-served as boxes for the spectators. The pope and his court took their
-places on the balconies of the Vatican.
-
-The fete was started by professional toreadors: after they had exhibited
-their strength and skill, Alfonso and Caesar in their turn descended to
-the arena, and to offer a proof of their mutual kindness, settled that
-the bull which pursued Caesar should be killed by Alfonso, and the bull
-that pursued Alfonso by Caesar.
-
-Then Caesar remained alone an horseback within the lists, Alfonso going
-out by an improvised door which was kept ajar, in order that he might go
-back on the instant if he judged that his presence was necessary. At the
-same time, from the opposite side of the lists the bull was introduced,
-and was at the same moment pierced all over with darts and arrows, some
-of them containing explosives, which took fire, and irritated the bull
-to such a point that he rolled about with pain, and then got up in a
-fury, and perceiving a man on horseback, rushed instantly upon him. It
-was now, in this narrow arena, pursued by his swift enemy, that Caesar
-displayed all that skill which made him one of the finest horsemen of
-the period. Still, clever as he was, he could not have remained safe
-long in that restricted area from an adversary against whom he had no
-other resource than flight, had not Alfonso appeared suddenly, just when
-the bull was beginning to gain upon him, waving a red cloak in his left
-hand, and holding in his right a long delicate Aragon sword. It was high
-time: the bull was only a few paces distant from Caesar, and the risk he
-was running appeared so imminent that a woman's scream was heard from
-one of the windows. But at the sight of a man on foot the bull stopped
-short, and judging that he would do better business with the new enemy
-than the old one, he turned upon him instead. For a moment he stood
-motionless, roaring, kicking up the dust with his hind feet, and lashing
-his sides with his tail. Then he rushed upon Alfonso, his eyes all
-bloodshot, his horns tearing up the ground. Alfonso awaited him with a
-tranquil air; then, when he was only three paces away, he made a bound
-to one side and presented instead of his body his sword, which
-disappeared at once to the hilt; the bull, checked in the middle of his
-onslaught, stopped one instant motionless and trembling, then fell upon
-his knees, uttered one dull roar, and lying down on the very spot where
-his course had been checked, breathed his last without moving a single
-step forward.
-
-Applause resounded an all sides, so rapid and clever had been the blow.
-Caesar had remained on horseback, seeking to discover the fair spectator
-who had given so lively a proof of her interest in him, without
-troubling himself about what was going on: his search had not been
-unrewarded, for he had recognized one of the maids of honour to
-Elizabeth, Duchess of Urbino, who was betrothed to Gian Battista
-Carraciualo, captain-general of the republic of Venice.
-
-It was now Alfonso's turn to run from the bull, Caesar's to fight him:
-the young men changed parts, and when four mules had reluctantly dragged
-the dead bull from the arena, and the valets and other servants of His
-Holiness had scattered sand over the places that were stained with
-blood, Alfonso mounted a magnificent Andalusian steed of Arab origin,
-light as the wind of Sahara that had wedded with his mother, while
-Caesar, dismounting, retired in his turn, to reappear at the moment when
-Alfonso should be meeting the same danger from which he had just now
-rescued him.
-
-Then a second bull was introduced upon the scene, excited in the same
-manner with steeled darts and flaming arrows. Like his predecessor, when
-he perceived a man on horseback he rushed upon him, and then began a
-marvellous race, in which it was impossible to see, so quickly did they
-fly over the ground, whether the horse was pursuing the bull or the bull
-the horse. But after five or six rounds, the bull began to gain upon the
-son of Araby, for all his speed, and it was plain to see who fled and
-who pursued; in another moment there was only the length of two lances
-between them, and then suddenly Caesar appeared, armed with one of those
-long two handed swords which the French are accustomed to use, and just
-when the bull, almost close upon Don Alfonso, came in front of Caesar he
-brandished the sword, which flashed like lightning, and cut off his
-head, while his body, impelled by the speed of the run, fell to the
-ground ten paces farther on. This blow was so unexpected, and had been
-performed with such dexterity, that it was received not with mere
-clapping but with wild enthusiasm and frantic outcry. Caesar, apparently
-remembering nothing else in his hour of triumph but the scream that had
-been caused by his former danger, picked up the bull's head, and, giving
-it to one of his equerries, ordered him to lay it as an act of homage at
-the feet of the fair Venetian who had bestowed upon him so lively a sign
-of interest. This fete, besides affording a triumph to each of the young
-men, had another end as well; it was meant to prove to the populace that
-perfect goodwill existed between the two, since each had saved the life
-of the other. The result was that, if any accident should happen to
-Caesar, nobody would dream of accusing Alfanso; and also if any accident
-should happen to Alfonso, nobody would dream of accusing Caesar.
-
-There was a supper at the Vatican. Alfonso made an elegant toilet, and
-about ten o'clock at night prepared to go from the quarters he inhabited
-into those where the pope lived; but the door which separated the two
-courts of the building was shut, and knock as he would, no one came to
-open it. Alfonso then thought that it was a simple matter for him to go
-round by the Piazza of St. Peter's; so he went out unaccompanied through
-one of the garden gates of the Vatican and made his way across the
-gloomy streets which led to the stairway which gave on the piazza. But
-scarcely had he set his foot on the first step when he was attacked by a
-band of armed men. Alfonso would have drawn his sword; but before it was
-out of the scabbard he had received two blows from a halberd, one on his
-head, the other on his shoulder; he was stabbed in the side, and wounded
-both in the leg and in the temple. Struck down by these five blows, he
-lost his footing and fell to the ground unconscious; his assassins,
-supposing he was dead, at once remounted the stairway, and found on the
-piazza forty horsemen waiting for them: by them they were calmly
-escorted from the city by the Porta Portesa. Alfonso was found at the
-point of death, but not actually dead, by some passers-by, some of whom
-recognised him, and instantly conveyed the news of his assassination to
-the Vatican, while the others, lifting the wounded man in their arms,
-carried him to his quarters in the Torre Nuova. The pope and Caesar, who
-learned this news just as they were sitting down to table, showed great
-distress, and leaving their companions, at once went to see Alfonso, to
-be quite certain whether his wounds were fatal or not; and on the next
-morning, to divert any suspicion that might be turned towards
-themselves, they arrested Alfonso's maternal uncle, Francesco Gazella,
-who had come to Rome in his nephew's company. Gazella was found guilty
-on the evidence of false witnesses, and was consequently beheaded.
-
-But they had only accomplished half of what they wanted. By some means,
-fair or foul, suspicion had been sufficiently diverted from the true
-assassins; but Alfonso was not dead, and, thanks to the strength of his
-constitution and the skill of his doctors, who had taken the
-lamentations of the pope and Caesar quite seriously, and thought to
-please them by curing Alexander's son-in-law, the wounded man was making
-progress towards convalescence: news arrived at the same time that
-Lucrezia had heard of her husband's accident, and was starting to come
-and nurse him herself. There was no time to lose, and Caesar summoned
-Michelotto.
-
-"The same night," says Burcardus, "Don Alfonso, who would not die of his
-wounds, was found strangled in his bed."
-
-The funeral took place the next day with a ceremony not unbecoming in
-itself, though, unsuited to his high rank. Dan Francesca Borgia ,
-Archbishop of Cosenza, acted as chief mourner at St. Peter's, where the
-body was buried in the chapel of Santa Maria delle Febbre.
-
-Lucrezia arrived the same evening: she knew her father and brother too
-well to be put on the wrong scent; and although, immediately after
-Alfonso's death, the Duke of Valentinois had arrested the doctors, the
-surgeons, and a poor deformed wretch who had been acting as valet, she
-knew perfectly well from what quarter the blow had proceeded. In fear,
-therefore, that the manifestation of a grief she felt this time too well
-might alienate the confidence of her father and brother, she retired to
-Nepi with her whole household, her whole court, and more than six
-hundred cavaliers, there to spend the period of her mourning.
-
-This important family business was now settled, and Lucrezia was again a
-widow, and in consequence ready to be utilized in the pope's new
-political machinations. Caesar only stayed at Rome to receive the
-ambassadors from France and Venice; but as their arrival was somewhat
-delayed, and considerable inroads had been made upon the pope's treasury
-by the recent festivities, the creation of twelve new cardinals was
-arranged: this scheme was to have two effects, viz., to bring 600,000
-ducats into the pontifical chest, each hat having been priced at 50,000
-ducats, and to assure the pope of a constant majority in the sacred
-council.
-
-The ambassadors at last arrived: the first was M. de Villeneuve, the
-same who had come before to see the Duke of Valentinois in the name of
-France. Just as he entered Rome, he met on the road a masked man, who,
-without removing his domino, expressed the joy he felt at his arrival.
-This man was Caesar himself, who did not wish to be recognised, and who
-took his departure after a short conference without uncovering his face.
-M. de Villeneuve then entered the city after him, and at the Porta del
-Populo found the ambassadors of the various Powers, and among them those
-of Spain and Naples, whose sovereigns were not yet, it is true, in
-declared hostility to France, though there was already some coolness.
-The last-named, fearing to compromise themselves, merely said to their
-colleague of France, by way of complimentary address, "Sir, you are
-welcome"; whereupon the master of the ceremonies, surprised at the
-brevity of the greeting, asked if they had nothing else to say. When
-they replied that they had not, M. de Villeneuve turned his back upon
-them, remarking that those who had nothing to say required no answer; he
-then took his place between the Archbishop of Reggia, governor of Rome,
-and the Archbishop of Ragusa, and made his way to the palace of the Holy
-Apostles, which had been, got ready for his reception.
-
-Some days later, Maria Giorgi, ambassador extraordinary of Venice, made
-his arrival. He was commissioned not only to arrange the business on
-hand with the pope, but also to convey to Alexander and Caesar the title
-of Venetian nobles, and to inform them that their names were inscribed
-in the Golden Book--a favour that both of them had long coveted, less
-for the empty honour's sake than for the new influence that this title
-might confer. Then the pope went on to bestow the twelve cardinals' hats
-that had been sold. The new princes of the Church were Don Diego de
-Mendoza, archbishop of Seville; Jacques, archbishop of Oristagny, the
-Pope's vicar-general; Thomas, archbishop of Strigania; Piero, archbishop
-of Reggio, governor of Rome; Francesco Borgia , archbishop of Cosenza,
-treasurer-general; Gian, archbishop of Salerno, vice-chamberlain; Luigi
-Borgia , archbishop of Valencia, secretary to His Holiness, and brother
-of the Gian Borgia whom Caesar had poisoned; Antonio, bishop of Coma;
-Gian Battista Ferraro, bishop of Modem; Amedee d'Albret, son of the King
-of Navarre, brother-in-law of the Duke of Valentinois; and Marco
-Cornaro, a Venetian noble, in whose person His Holiness rendered back to
-the most serene republic the favour he had just received.
-
-Then, as there was nothing further to detain the Duke of Valentinois at
-Rome, he only waited to effect a loan from a rich banker named Agostino
-Chigi, brother of the Lorenzo Chigi who had perished on the day when the
-pope had been nearly killed by the fall of a chimney, and departed for
-the Romagna, accompanied by Vitellozzo Vitelli, Gian Paolo Baglione, and
-Jacopo di Santa Croce, at that time his friends, but later on his
-victims.
-
-His first enterprise was against Pesaro: this was the polite attention
-of a brother-in-law, and Gian Sforza very well knew what would be its
-consequences; for instead of attempting to defend his possessions by
-taking up arms, or to venture on negotiations, unwilling moreover to
-expose the fair lands he had ruled so long to the vengeance of an
-irritated foe, he begged his subjects, to preserve their former
-affection towards himself, in the hope of better days to come; and he
-fled into Dalmatia. Malatesta, lord of Rimini, followed his example;
-thus the Duke of Valentinois entered both these towns without striking a
-single blow. Caesar left a sufficient garrison behind him, and marched
-on to Faenza.
-
-But there the face of things was changed: Faenza at that time was under
-the rule of Astor Manfredi, a brave and handsome young man of eighteen,
-who, relying on the love of his subjects towards his family, had
-resolved on defending himself to the uttermost, although he had been
-forsaken by the Bentivagli, his near relatives, and by his allies, the
-Venetian and Florentines, who had not dared to send him any aid because
-of the affection felt towards Caesar by the King of France. Accordingly,
-when he perceived that the Duke of Valentinois was marching against him,
-he assembled in hot haste all those of his vassals who were capable of
-bearing arms, together with the few foreign soldiers who were willing to
-come into his pay, and collecting victual and ammunition, he took up his
-position with them inside the town.
-
-By these defensive preparations Caesar was not greatly disconcerted; he
-commanded a magnificent army, composed of the finest troops of France
-and Italy; led by such men as Paolo and Giulio Orsini, Vitellozzo
-Vitelli and Paolo Baglione, not to speak of himself--that is to say, by
-the first captains of the period. So, after he had reconnoitred, he at
-once began the siege, pitching his camp between the two rivers, Amana
-and Marziano, placing his artillery on the side which faces on Forli, at
-which point the besieged party had erected a powerful bastion.
-
-At the end of a few days busy with entrenchments, the breach became
-practicable, and the Duke of Valentinois ordered an assault, and gave
-the example to his soldiers by being the first to march against the
-enemy. But in spite of his courage and that of his captains beside him,
-Astor Manfredi made so good a defence that the besiegers were repulsed
-with great loss of men, while one of their bravest leaders, Honario
-Savella was left behind in the trenches.
-
-But Faenza, in spite of the courage and devotion of her defenders, could
-not have held out long against so formidable an army, had not winter
-come to her aid. Surprised by the rigour of the season, with no houses
-for protection and no trees for fuel, as the peasants had destroyed both
-beforehand, the Duke of Valentinois was forced to raise the siege and
-take up his winter quarters in the neighbouring towns, in order to be
-quite ready for a return next spring; for Caesar could not forgive the
-insult of being held in check by a little town which had enjoyed a long
-time of peace, was governed by a mere boy, and deprived of all outside
-aid, and had sworn to take his revenge. He therefore broke up his army
-into three sections, sent one-third to Imola, the second to Forli, and
-himself took the third to Cesena, a third-rate town, which was thus
-suddenly transformed into a city of pleasure and luxury.
-
-Indeed, for Caesar's active spirit there must needs be no cessation of
-warfare or festivities. So, when war was interrupted, fetes began, as
-magnificent and as exciting as he knew how to make them: the days were
-passed in games and displays of horsemanship, the nights in dancing and
-gallantry; for the loveliest women of the Romagna--and that is to say of
-the whole world had come hither to make a seraglio for the victor which
-might have been envied by the Sultan of Egypt or the Emperor of
-Constantinople.
-
-While the Duke of Valentinois was making one of his excursions in the
-neighbourhood of the town with his retinue of flattering nobles and
-titled courtesans, who were always about him, he noticed a cortege on
-the Rimini road so numerous that it must surely indicate the approach of
-someone of importance. Caesar, soon perceiving that the principal person
-was a woman, approached, and recognised the very same lady-in-waiting to
-the Duchess of Urbino who, on the day of the bull-fight, had screamed
-when Caesar was all but touched by the infuriated beast. At this time
-she was betrothed, as we mentioned, to Gian Carracciuola, general of the
-Venetians. Elizabeth of Gonzaga, her protectress and godmother, was now
-sending her with a suitable retinue to Venice, where the marriage was to
-take place.
-
-Caesar had already been struck by the beauty of this young girl, when at
-Rome; but when he saw her again she appeared more lovely than on the
-first occasion, so he resolved on the instant that he would keep this
-fair flower of love for himself: having often before reproached himself
-for his indifference in passing her by. Therefore he saluted her as an
-old acquaintance, inquired whether she were staying any time at Cesena,
-and ascertained that she was only passing through, travelling by long
-stages, as she was awaited with much impatience, and that she would
-spend the coming night at Forli. This was all that Caesar cared to know;
-he summoned Michelotto, and in a low voice said a few words to him,
-which were heard by no one else.
-
-The cortege only made a halt at the neighbouring town, as the fair bride
-had said, and started at once for Forli, although the day was already
-far advanced; but scarcely had a league been covered when a troop of
-horsemen from Cesena overtook and surrounded them. Although the soldiers
-in the escort were far from being in sufficient force, they were eager
-to defend their general's bride; but soon some fell dead, and others,
-terrified, took to flight; and when the lady came down from her litter
-to try to escape, the chief seized her in his arms and set her in front
-of him on his horse; then, ordering his men to return to Cesena without
-him, he put his horse to the gallop in a cross direction, and as the
-shades of evening were now beginning to fall, he soon disappeared into
-the darkness.
-
-Carracciuolo learned the news through one of the fugitives, who declared
-that he had recognised among the ravishers the Duke of Valentinois'
-soldiers. At first he thought his ears had deceived him, so hard was it
-to believe this terrible intelligence; but it was repeated, and he stood
-for one instant motionless, and, as it were, thunderstruck; then
-suddenly, with a cry of vengeance, he threw off his stupor and dashed
-away to the ducal palace, where sat the Doge Barberigo and the Council
-of Ten; unannounced, he rushed into their midst, the very moment after
-they had heard of Caesar's outrage.
-
-"Most serene lords," he cried, "I am come to bid you farewell, for I am
-resolved to sacrifice my life to my private vengeance, though indeed I
-had hoped to devote it to the service of the republic. I have been
-wounded in the soul's noblest part--in my honour. The dearest thing I
-possessed, my wife, has been stolen from me, and the thief is the most
-treacherous, the most impious, the most infamous of men, it is
-Valentinois! My lords, I beg you will not be offended if I speak thus of
-a man whose boast it is to be a member of your noble ranks and to enjoy
-your protection: it is not so; he lies, and his loose and criminal life
-has made him unworthy of such honours, even as he is unworthy of the
-life whereof my sword shall deprive him. In truth, his very birth was a
-sacrilege; he is a fratricide, an usurper of the goods of other men, an
-oppressor of the innocent, and a highway assassin; he is a man who will
-violate every law, even, the law of hospitality respected by the veriest
-barbarian, a man who will do violence to a virgin who is passing through
-his own country, where she had every right to expect from him not only
-the consideration due to her sex and condition, but also that which is
-due to the most serene republic, whose condottiere I am, and which is
-insulted in my person and in the dishonouring of my bride; this man, I
-say, merits indeed to die by another hand than mine. Yet, since he who
-ought to punish him is not for him a prince and judge, but only a father
-quite as guilty as the son, I myself will seek him out, and I will
-sacrifice my own life, not only in avenging my own injury and the blood
-of so many innocent beings, but also in promoting the welfare of the
-most serene republic, on which it is his ambition to trample when he has
-accomplished the ruin of the other princes of Italy."
-
-The doge and the senators, who, as we said, were already apprised of the
-event that had brought Carracciuolo before them, listened with great
-interest and profound indignation; for they, as he told them, were
-themselves insulted in the person of their general: they all swore, on
-their honour, that if he would put the matter in their hands, and not
-yield to his rage, which could only work his own undoing, either his
-bride should be rendered up to him without a smirch upon her bridal
-veil, or else a punishment should be dealt out proportioned to the
-affront. And without delay, as a proof of the energy wherewith the noble
-tribunal would take action in the affair, Luigi Manenti, secretary to
-the Ten, was sent to Imola, where the duke was reported to be, that he
-might explain to him the great displeasure with which the most serene
-republic viewed the outrage perpetrated upon their candottiere. At the
-same time the Council of Ten and the doge sought out the French
-ambassador, entreating him to join with them and repair in person with
-Manenti to the Duke of Valentinois, and summon him, in the name of King
-Louis XII, immediately to send back to Venice the lady he had carried
-off.
-
-The two messengers arrived at Imola, where they found Caesar, who
-listened to their complaint with every mark of utter astonishment,
-denying that he had been in any way connected with the crime, nay,
-authorising Manenti and the French ambassador to pursue the culprits and
-promising that he would himself have the most active search carried on.
-The duke appeared to act in such complete good faith that the envoys
-were for the moment hoodwinked, and themselves undertook a search of the
-most careful nature. They accordingly repaired to the exact spot and
-began to procure information. On the highroad there had been found dead
-and wounded. A man had been seen going by at a gallop, carrying a woman
-in distress on his saddle; he had soon left the beaten track and plunged
-across country. A peasant coming home from working in the fields had
-seen him appear and vanish again like a shadow, taking the direction of
-a lonely house. An old woman declared that she had seen him go into this
-house. But the next night the house was gone, as though by enchantment,
-and the ploughshare had passed over where it stood; so that none could
-say, what had become of her whom they sought, for those who had dwelt in
-the house, and even the house itself, were there no longer.
-
-Manenti and the French ambassador returned to Venice, and related what
-the duke had said, what they had done, and how all search had been in
-vain. No one doubted that Caesar was the culprit, but no one could prove
-it. So the most serene republic, which could not, considering their war
-with the Turks, be embroiled with the pope, forbade Caracciualo to take
-any sort of private vengeance, and so the talk grew gradually less, and
-at last the occurrence was no more mentioned.
-
-But the pleasures of the winter had not diverted Caesar's mind from his
-plans about Faenza. Scarcely did the spring season allow him to go into
-the country than he marched anew upon the town, camped opposite the
-castle, and making a new breach, ordered a general assault, himself
-going up first of all; but in spite of the courage he personally
-displayed, and the able seconding of his soldiers, they were repulsed by
-Astor, who, at the head of his men, defended the breach, while even the
-women, at the top of the rampart, rolled down stones and trunks of trees
-upon the besiegers. After an hour's struggle man to man, Caesar was
-forced to retire, leaving two thousand men in the trenches about the
-town, and among the two thousand one of his bravest condottieri,
-Valentino Farnese.
-
-Then, seeing that neither excommunications nor assaults could help him,
-Caesar converted the siege into a blockade: all the roads leading to
-Faenza were cut off, all communications stopped; and further, as various
-signs of revolt had been remarked at Cesena, a governor was installed
-there whose powerful will was well known to Caesar, Ramiro d'Orco, with
-powers of life and death over the inhabitants; he then waited quietly
-before Faenza, till hunger should drive out the citizens from those
-walls they defended with such vehement enthusiasm. At the end of a
-month, during which the people of Faenza had suffered all the horrors of
-famine, delegates came out to parley with Caesar with a view to
-capitulation. Caesar, who still had plenty to do in the Romagna, was
-less hard to satisfy than might have been expected, and the town yielded
-on condition that he should not touch either the persons or the
-belongings of the inhabitants, that Astor Manfredi, the youthful ruler,
-should have the privilege of retiring whenever he pleased, and should
-enjoy the revenue of his patrimony wherever he might be.
-
-The conditions were faithfully kept so far as the inhabitants were
-concerned; but Caesar, when he had seen Astor, whom he did not know
-before, was seized by a strange passion for this beautiful youth, who
-was like a woman: he kept him by his side in his own army, showing him
-honours befitting a young prince, and evincing before the eyes of all
-the strongest affection for him: one day Astor disappeared, just as
-Caracciuolo's bride had disappeared, and no one knew what had become of
-him; Caesar himself appeared very uneasy, saying that he had no doubt
-made his escape somewhere, and in order to give credence to this story,
-he sent out couriers to seek him in all directions.
-
-A year after this double disappearance, there was picked up in the
-Tiber, a little below the Castle Sant' Angelo, the body of a beautiful
-young woman, her hands bound together behind her back, and also the
-corpse of a handsome youth with the bowstring he had been strangled with
-tied round his neck. The girl was Caracciuolo's bride, the young man was
-Astor.
-
-During the last year both had been the slaves of Caesar's pleasures;
-now, tired of them, he had had them thrown into the Tiber.
-
-The capture of Faenza had brought Caesar the title of Duke of Romagna,
-which was first bestowed on him by the pope in full consistory, and
-afterwards ratified by the King of Hungary, the republic of Venice, and
-the Kings of Castile and Portugal. The news of the ratification arrived
-at Rome on the eve of the day on which the people are accustomed to keep
-the anniversary of the foundation of the Eternal City; this fete, which
-went back to the days of Pomponius Laetus, acquired a new splendour in
-their eyes from the joyful events that had just happened to their
-sovereign: as a sign of joy cannon were fired all day long; in the
-evening there were illuminations and bonfires, and during part of the
-night the Prince of Squillace, with the chief lords of the Roman
-nobility, marched about the streets, bearing torches, and exclaiming,
-"Long live Alexander! Long live Caesar! Long live the Borgias! Long live
-the Orsini! Long live the Duke of Romagna!"
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII
-
-
-Caesar's ambition was only fed by victories: scarcely was he master of
-Faenza before, excited by the Mariscotti, old enemies of the Bentivoglio
-family, he cast his eyes upon Bologna; but Gian di Bentivoglio, whose
-ancestors had possessed this town from time immemorial, had not only
-made all preparations necessary for a long resistance, but he had also
-put himself under the protection of France; so, scarcely had he learned
-that Caesar was crossing the frontier of the Bolognese territory with
-his army, than he sent a courier to Louis XII to claim the fulfilment of
-his promise. Louis kept it with his accustomed good faith; and when
-Caesar arrived before Bologna, he received an intimation from the King
-of France that he was not to enter on any undertaking against his ally
-Bentivoglio; Caesar, not being the man to have his plans upset for
-nothing, made conditions for his retreat, to which Bentivoglio
-consented, only too happy to be quit of him at this price: the
-conditions were the cession of Castello Bolognese, a fortress between
-Imola and Faenza, the payment of a tribute of 9000 ducats, and the
-keeping for his service of a hundred men-at-arms and two thousand
-infantry. In exchange for these favours, Caesar confided to Bentivoglio
-that his visit had been due to the counsels of the Mariscotti; then,
-reinforced by his new ally's contingent, he took the road for Tuscany.
-But he was scarcely out of sight when Bentivoglio shut the gates of
-Bologna, and commanded his son Hermes to assassinate with his own hand
-Agamemnon Mariscotti, the head of the family, and ordered the massacre
-of four-and-thirty of his near relatives, brothers, sons, daughters, and
-nephews, and two hundred other of his kindred and friends. The butchery
-was carried out by the noblest youths of Bologna; whom Bentivoglio
-forced to bathe their hands in this blood, so that he might attach them
-to himself through their fear of reprisals.
-
-Caesar's plans with regard to Florence were now no longer a mystery:
-since the month of January he had sent to Pisa ten or twelve hundred men
-under the Command of Regniero della Sassetta and Piero di Gamba Corti,
-and as soon as the conquest of the Romagna was complete, he had further
-despatched Oliverotto di Fermo with new detachments. His own army he had
-reinforced, as we have seen, by a hundred men-at-arms and two thousand
-infantry; he had just been joined by Vitellozzo Vitelli, lord of Citta,
-di Castello, and by the Orsini, who had brought him another two or three
-thousand men; so, without counting the troops sent to Pisa, he had under
-his control seven hundred men-at-arms and five thousand infantry.
-
-Still, in spite of this formidable company, he entered Tuscany declaring
-that his intentions were only pacific, protesting that he only desired
-to pass through the territories of the republic on his way to Rome, and
-offering to pay in ready money for any victual his army might require.
-But when he had passed the defiles of the mountains and arrived at
-Barberino, feeling that the town was in his power and nothing could now
-hinder his approach, he began to put a price on the friendship he had at
-first offered freely, and to impose his own conditions instead of
-accepting those of others. These were that Piero dei Medici, kinsman and
-ally of the Orsini, should be reinstated in his ancient power; that six
-Florentine citizens, to be chosen by Vitellozzo, should be put into his
-hands that they might by their death expiate that of Paolo Vitelli,
-unjustly executed by the Florentines; that the Signoria should engage to
-give no aid to the lord of Piombino, whom Caesar intended to dispossess
-of his estates without delay; and further, that he himself should be
-taken into the service of the republic, for a pay proportionate to his
-deserts. But just as Caesar had reached this point in his negotiations
-with Florence, he received orders from Louis XII to get ready, so soon
-as he conveniently could, to follow him with his army and help in the
-conquest of Naples, which he was at last in a position to undertake.
-Caesar dared not break his word to so powerful an ally; he therefore
-replied that he was at the king's orders, and as the Florentines were
-not aware that he was quitting them on compulsion, he sold his retreat
-for the sum of 36,000 ducats per annum, in exchange for which sum he was
-to hold three hundred men-at-arms always in readiness to go to the aid
-of the republic at her earliest call and in any circumstances of need.
-
-But, hurried as he was, Caesar still hoped that he might find time to
-conquer the territory of Piombino as he went by, and take the capital by
-a single vigorous stroke; so he made his entry into the lands of Jacopo
-IV of Appiano. The latter, he found, however, had been beforehand with
-him, and, to rob him of all resource, had laid waste his own country,
-burned his fodder, felled his trees, torn down his vines, and destroyed
-a few fountains that produced salubrious waters. This did not hinder
-Caesar from seizing in the space of a few days Severeto, Scarlino, the
-isle of Elba, and La Pianosa; but he was obliged to stop short at the
-castle, which opposed a serious resistance. As Louis XII's army was
-continuing its way towards Rome, and he received a fresh order to join
-it, he took his departure the next day, leaving behind him, Vitellozzo
-and Gian Paolo Bagliani to prosecute the siege in his absence.
-
-Louis XII was this time advancing upon Naples, not with the incautious
-ardour of Charles VIII, but, on the contrary, with that prudence and
-circumspection which characterised him. Besides his alliance with
-Florence and Rome, he had also signed a secret treaty with Ferdinand the
-Catholic, who had similar pretensions, through the house of Duras, to
-the throne of Naples to those Louis himself had through the house of
-Anjou. By this treaty the two kings were sharing their conquests
-beforehand: Louis would be master of Naples, of the town of Lavore and
-the Abruzzi, and would bear the title of King of Naples and Jerusalem;
-Ferdinand reserved for his own share Apulia and Calabria, with the title
-of Duke of these provinces; both were to receive the investiture from
-the pope and to hold them of him. This partition was all the more likely
-to be made, in fact, because Frederic, supposing all the time that
-Ferdinand was his good and faithful friend, would open the gates of his
-towns, only to receive into his fortresses conquerors and masters
-instead of allies. All this perhaps was not very loyal conduct on the
-part of a king who had so long desired and had just now received the
-surname of Catholic, but it mattered little to Louis, who profited by
-treasonable acts he did not have to share.
-
-The French army, which the Duke of Valentinois had just joined,
-consisted of 1000 lances, 4000 Swiss, and 6000 Gascons and adventurers;
-further, Philip of Rabenstein was bringing by sea six Breton and
-Provencal vessels, and three Genoese caracks, carrying 6500 invaders.
-
-Against this mighty host the King of Naples had only 700 men-at-arms,
-600 light horse, and 6000 infantry under the command of the Colonna,
-whom he had taken into his pay after they were exiled by the pope from
-the States of the Church; but he was counting on Gonsalvo of Cordova,
-who was to join him at Gaeta, and to whom he had confidingly opened all
-his fortresses in Calabria.
-
-But the feeling of safety inspired by Frederic's faithless ally was not
-destined to endure long: on their arrival at Rome, the French and
-Spanish ambassadors presented to the pope the treaty signed at Grenada
-on the 11th of November, 1500, between Louis XII and Ferdinand the
-Catholic, a treaty which up to that time had been secret. Alexander,
-foreseeing the probable future, had, by the death of Alfonso, loosened
-all the bonds that attached him to the house of Aragon, and then began
-by making some difficulty about it. It was demonstrated that the
-arrangement had only been undertaken to provide the Christian princes
-with another weapon for attacking the Ottoman Empire, and before this
-consideration, one may readily suppose, all the pope's scruples
-vanished; on the 25th of June, therefore, it was decided to call a
-consistory which was to declare Frederic deposed from the throne of
-Naples. When Frederic heard all at once that the French army had arrived
-at Rome, that his ally Ferdinand had deceived him, and that Alexander
-had pronounced the sentence of his downfall, he understood that all was
-lost; but he did not wish it to be said that he had abandoned his
-kingdom without even attempting to save it. So he charged his two new
-condottieri, Fabrizio Colonna and Ranuzia di Marciano, to check the
-French before Capua with 300 men-at-arms, some light horse, and 3000
-infantry; in person he occupied Aversa with another division of his
-army, while Prospero Colonna was sent to defend Naples with the rest,
-and make a stand against the Spaniards on the side of Calabria.
-
-These dispositions were scarcely made when d'Aubigny, having passed the
-Volturno, approached to lay siege to Capua, and invested the town on
-both sides of the river. Scarcely were the French encamped before the
-ramparts than they began to set up their batteries, which were soon in
-play, much to the terror of the besieged, who, poor creatures, were
-almost all strangers to the town, and had fled thither from every side,
-expecting to find protection beneath the walls. So, although bravely
-repulsed by Fabrizio Colonna, the French, from the moment of their first
-assault, inspired so great and blind a terror that everyone began to
-talk of opening the gates, and it was only with great difficulty that
-Colonna made this multitude understood that at least they ought to reap
-some benefit from the check the besiegers had received and obtain good
-terms of capitulation. When he had brought them round to his view, he
-sent out to demand a parley with d'Aubigny, and a conference was fixed
-for the next day but one, in which they were to treat of the surrender
-of the town.
-
-But this was not Caesar Borgia's idea at all: he had stayed behind to
-confer with the pope, and had joined the French army with some of his
-troops on the very day on which the conference had been arranged for two
-days later: and a capitulation of any nature would rob him of his share
-of the booty and the promise of such pleasure as would come from the
-capture of a city so rich and populous as Capua. So he opened up
-negotiations on his own account with a captain who was on guard at one
-of the gates. Such negotiations, made with cunning supported by bribery,
-proved as usual more prompt and efficacious than any others. At the very
-moment when Fabrizio Colonna in a fortified outpost was discussing the
-conditions of capitulation with the French captains, suddenly great
-cries of distress were heard. These were caused by Borgia, who without a
-word to anyone had entered the town with his faithful army from Romagna,
-and was beginning to cut the throats of the garrison, which had
-naturally somewhat relaxed their vigilance in the belief that the
-capitulation was all but signed. The French, when they saw that the town
-was half taken, rushed on the gates with such impetuosity that the
-besieged did not even attempt to defend themselves any longer, and
-forced their way into Capua by three separate sides: nothing more could
-be done then to stop the issue. Butchery and pillage had begun, and the
-work of destruction must needs be completed: in vain did Fabrizio
-Colonna, Ranuzio di Marciano, and Don Ugo di Cardona attempt to make
-head against the French and Spaniards with such men as they could get
-together. Fabrizia Colonna and Don Ugo were made prisoners; Ranuzia,
-wounded by an arrow, fell into the hands of the Duke of Valentinois;
-seven thousand inhabitants were massacred in the streets, among them the
-traitor who had given up the gate; the churches were pillaged, the
-convents of nuns forced open; and then might be seen the spectacle of
-some of these holy virgins casting themselves into pits or into the
-river to escape the soldiers. Three hundred of the noblest ladies of the
-town took refuge in a tower. The Duke of Valentinois broke in the doors,
-chased out for himself forty of the most beautiful, and handed over the
-rest to his army.
-
-The pillage continued for three days.
-
-Capua once taken, Frederic saw that it was useless any longer to attempt
-defence. So he shut himself up in Castel Nuovo and gave permission to
-Gaeta and to Naples to treat with the conqueror. Gaeta bought immunity
-from pillage with 60,000 ducats; and Naples with the surrender of the
-castle. This surrender was made to d'Aubigny by Frederic himself, on
-condition that he should be allowed to take to the island of Ischia his
-money, jewels, and furniture, and there remain with his family for six
-months secure from all hostile attack. The terms of this capitulation
-were faithfully adhered to on both sides: d'Aubigny entered Naples, and
-Frederic retired to Ischia.
-
-Thus, by a last terrible blow, never to rise again, fell this branch of
-the house of Aragon, which had now reigned for sixty-five years.
-Frederic, its head, demanded and obtained a safe-conduct to pass into
-France, where Louis XII gave him the duchy of Anjou and 30,000 ducats a
-year, on condition that he should never quit the kingdom; and there, in
-fact, he died, an the 9th of September 1504. His eldest son, Dan
-Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria, retired to Spain, where he was permitted to
-marry twice, but each time with a woman who was known to be barren; and
-there he died in 1550. Alfonso, the second son, who had followed his
-father to France, died, it is said, of poison, at Grenoble, at the age
-of twenty-two; lastly Caesar, the third son, died at Ferrara, before he
-had attained his eighteenth birthday.
-
-Frederic's daughter Charlotte married in France Nicholas, Count of
-Laval, governor and admiral of Brittany; a daughter was born of this
-marriage, Anne de Laval, who married Francois de la Trimauille. Through
-her those rights were transmitted to the house of La Trimouille which
-were used later on as a claim upon the kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
-
-The capture of Naples gave the Duke of Valentinois his liberty again; so
-he left the French army, after he had received fresh assurances on his
-own account of the king's friendliness, and returned to the siege of
-Piombino, which he had been forced to interrupt. During this interval
-Alexander had been visiting the scenes of his son's conquests, and
-traversing all the Romagna with Lucrezia, who was now consoled for her
-husband's death, and had never before enjoyed quite so much favour with
-His Holiness; so, when she returned to Rome she no longer had separate
-rooms from him. The result of this recrudescence of affection was the
-appearance of two pontifical bulls, converting the towns of Nepi and
-Sermoneta into duchies: one was bestowed on Gian Borgia , an
-illegitimate child of the pope, who was not the son of either of his
-mistresses, Rosa Vanozza or Giulia Farnese, the other on Don Roderigo of
-Aragon, son of Lucrezia and Alfonso: the lands of the Colonna were in
-appanage to the two duchies.
-
-But Alexander was dreaming of yet another addition to his fortune; this
-was to came from a marriage between Lucrezia and Don Alfonso d'Este, son
-of Duke Hercules of Ferrara, in favour of which alliance Louis XII had
-negotiated.
-
-His Holiness was now having a run of good fortune, and he learned on the
-same day that Piombino was taken and that Duke Hercules had given the
-King of France his assent to the marriage. Both of these pieces of news
-were good for Alexander, but the one could not compare in importance
-with the other; and the intimation that Lucrezia was to marry the heir
-presumptive to the duchy of Ferrara was received with a joy so great
-that it smacked of the humble beginnings of the Borgian house. The Duke
-of Valentinois was invited to return to Rome, to take his share in the
-family rejoicing, and on the day when the news was made public the
-governor of St. Angelo received orders that cannon should be fired every
-quarter of an hour from noon to midnight. At two o'clock, Lucrezia,
-attired as a fiancee, and accompanied by her two brothers, the Dukes of
-Valentinois and Squillace, issued from the Vatican, followed by all the
-nobility of Rome, and proceeded to the church of the Madonna del Papalo,
-where the Duke of Gandia and Cardinal Gian Borgia were buried, to render
-thanks for this new favour accorded to her house by God; and in the
-evening, accompanied by the same cavalcade, which shone the more
-brightly under the torchlight and brilliant illuminations, she made
-procession through the whole town, greeted by cries of "Long live Pope
-Alexander VI! Long live the Duchess of Ferrara!" which were shouted
-aloud by heralds clad in cloth of gold.
-
-The next day an announcement was made in the town that a racecourse for
-women was opened between the castle of Sant' Angelo and the Piazza of
-St. Peter's; that on every third day there would be a bull-fight in the
-Spanish fashion; and that from the end of the present month, which was
-October, until the first day of Lent, masquerades would be permitted in
-the streets of Rome.
-
-Such was the nature of the fetes outside; the programme of those going
-on within the Vatican was not presented to the people; for by the
-account of Bucciardo, an eye-witness, this is what happened--
-
-"On the last Sunday of the month of October, fifty courtesans supped in
-the apostolic palace in the Duke of Valentinois' rooms, and after supper
-danced with the equerries and servants, first wearing their usual
-garments, afterwards in dazzling draperies; when supper was over, the
-table was removed, candlesticks were set on the floor in a symmetrical
-pattern, and a great quantity of chestnuts was scattered on the ground:
-these the fifty women skilfully picked up, running about gracefully, in
-and out between the burning lights; the pope, the Duke of Valentinois,
-and his sister Lucrezia, who were looking on at this spectacle from a
-gallery, encouraged the most agile and industrious with their applause,
-and they received prizes of embroidered garters, velvet boots, golden
-caps, and laces; then new diversions took the place of these."
-
-We humbly ask forgiveness of our readers, and especially of our lady
-readers; but though we have found words to describe the first part of
-the spectacle, we have sought them in vain for the second; suffice it to
-say that just as there had been prizes for feats of adroitness, others
-were given now to the dancers who were most daring and brazen.
-
-Some days after this strange night, which calls to mind the Roman
-evenings in the days of Tiberius, Nero, and Heliogabalus, Lucrezia, clad
-in a robe of golden brocade, her train carried by young girls dressed in
-white and crowned with roses, issued from her palace to the sound of
-trumpets and clarions, and made her way over carpets that were laid down
-in the streets through which she had to pass. Accompanied by the noblest
-cavaliers and the loveliest women in Rome, she betook herself to the
-Vatican, where in the Pauline hall the pope awaited her, with the Duke
-of Valentinois, Don Ferdinand, acting as proxy for Duke Alfonso, and his
-cousin, Cardinal d'Este. The pope sat on one side of the table, while
-the envoys from Ferrara stood on the other: into their midst came
-Lucrezia, and Don Ferdinand placed on her finger the nuptial ring; this
-ceremony over, Cardinal d'Este approached and presented to the bride
-four magnificent rings set with precious stones; then a casket was
-placed on the table, richly inlaid with ivory, whence the cardinal drew
-forth a great many trinkets, chains, necklaces of pearls and diamonds,
-of workmanship as costly as their material; these he also begged
-Lucrezia to accept, before she received those the bridegroom was hoping
-to offer himself, which would be more worthy of her. Lucrezia showed the
-utmost delight in accepting these gifts; then she retired into the next
-room, leaning on the pope's arm, and followed by the ladies of her
-suite, leaving the Duke of Valentinois to do the honours of the Vatican
-to the men. That evening the guests met again, and spent half the night
-in dancing, while a magnificent display of fireworks lighted up the
-Piazza of San Paolo.
-
-The ceremony of betrothal over, the pope and the Duke busied themselves
-with making preparations for the departure. The pope, who wished the
-journey to be made with a great degree of splendour, sent in his
-daughter's company, in addition to the two brothers-in-law and the
-gentlemen in their suite, the Senate of Rome and all the lords who, by
-virtue of their wealth, could display most magnificence in their
-costumes and liveries. Among this brilliant throng might be seen Olivero
-and Ramiro Mattel, sons of Piero Mattel, chancellor of the town, and a
-daughter of the pope whose mother was not Rosa Vanozza; besides these,
-the pope nominated in consistory Francesco Borgia, Cardinal of Sosenza,
-legate a latere, to accompany his daughter to the frontiers of the
-Ecclesiastical States.
-
-Also the Duke of Valentinois sent out messengers into all the cities of
-Romagna to order that Lucrezia should be received as sovereign lady and
-mistress: grand preparations were at once set on foot for the fulfilment
-of his orders. But the messengers reported that they greatly feared that
-there would be some grumbling at Cesena, where it will be remembered
-that Caesar had left Ramiro d'Orco as governor with plenary powers, to
-calm the agitation of the town. Now Ramiro d'Orco had accomplished his
-task so well that there was nothing more to fear in the way of
-rebellion; for one-sixth of the inhabitants had perished on the
-scaffold, and the result of this situation was that it was improbable
-that the same demonstrations of joy could be expected from a town
-plunged in mourning that were looked for from Imola, Faenza, and Pesaro.
-The Duke of Valentinais averted this inconvenience in the prompt and
-efficacious fashion characteristic of him alone. One morning the
-inhabitants of Cesena awoke to find a scaffold set up in the square, and
-upon it the four quarters of a man, his head, severed from the trunk,
-stuck up on the end of a pike.
-
-This man was Ramiro d'Orco.
-
-No one ever knew by whose hands the scaffold had been raised by night,
-nor by what executioners the terrible deed had been carried out; but
-when the Florentine Republic sent to ask Macchiavelli, their ambassador
-at Cesena, what he thought of it, he replied:
-
-"MAGNIFICENT LORDS,-I can tell you nothing concerning the execution of
-Ramiro d'Orco, except that Caesar Borgia is the prince who best knows
-how to make and unmake men according to their deserts. NICCOLO
-MACCHIAVELLI"
-
-The Duke of Valentinois was not disappointed, and the future Duchess of
-Ferrara was admirably received in every town along her route, and
-particularly at Cesena.
-
-While Lucrezia was on her way to Ferrara to meet her fourth husband,
-Alexander and the Duke of Valentinois resolved to make a progress in the
-region of their last conquest, the duchy of Piombino. The apparent
-object of this journey was that the new subjects might take their oath
-to Caesar, and the real object was to form an arsenal in Jacopo
-d'Appiano's capital within reach of Tuscany, a plan which neither the
-pope nor his son had ever seriously abandoned. The two accordingly
-started from the port of Corneto with six ships, accompanied by a great
-number of cardinals and prelates, and arrived the same evening at
-Piombina. The pontifical court made a stay there of several days, partly
-with a view of making the duke known to the inhabitants, and also in
-order to be present at certain ecclesiastical functions, of which the
-most important was a service held on the third Sunday in Lent, in which
-the Cardinal of Cosenza sang a mass and the pope officiated in state
-with the duke and the cardinals. After these solemn functions the
-customary pleasures followed, and the pope summoned the prettiest girls
-of the country and ordered them to dance their national dances before
-him.
-
-Following on these dances came feasts of unheard of magnificence, during
-which the pope in the sight of all men completely ignored Lent and did
-not fast. The object of all these fetes was to scatter abroad a great
-deal of money, and so to make the Duke of Valentinois popular, while
-poor Jacopo d'Appiano was forgotten.
-
-When they left Piombino, the pope and his son visited the island of
-Elba, where they only stayed long enough to visit the old fortifications
-and issue orders for the building of new ones.
-
-Then the illustrious travellers embarked on their return journey to
-Rome; but scarcely had they put out to sea when the weather became
-adverse, and the pope not wishing to put in at Porto Ferrajo, they
-remained five days on board, though they had only two days' provisions.
-During the last three days the pope lived on fried fish that were caught
-under great difficulties because of the heavy weather. At last they
-arrived in sight of Corneto, and there the duke, who was not on the same
-vessel as the pope, seeing that his ship could not get in, had a boat
-put out, and so was taken ashore. The pope was obliged to continue on
-his way towards Pontercole, where at last he arrived, after encountering
-so violent a tempest that all who were with him were utterly subdued
-either by sickness or by the terror of death. The pope alone did not
-show one instant's fear, but remained on the bridge during the storm,
-sitting on his arm-chair, invoking the name of Jesus and making the sign
-of the cross. At last his ship entered the roads of Pontercole, where he
-landed, and after sending to Corneto to fetch horses, he rejoined the
-duke, who was there awaiting him. They then returned by slow stages, by
-way of Civita Vecchia and Palo, and reached Rome after an absence of a
-month. Almost at the same time d'Albret arrived in quest of his
-cardinal's hat. He was accompanied by two princes of the house of
-Navarre, who were received with not only those honours which beseemed
-their rank, but also as brothers-in-law to whom the, duke was eager to
-show in what spirit he was contracting this alliance.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII
-
-
-The time had now come for the Duke of Valentinois to continue the
-pursuit of his conquests. So, since on the 1st of May in the preceding
-year the pope had pronounced sentence of forfeiture in full consistory
-against Julius Caesar of Varano, as punishment for the murder of his
-brother Rudolph and for the harbouring of the pope's enemies, and he had
-accordingly been mulcted of his fief of Camerino, which was to be handed
-over to the apostolic chamber, Caesar left Rome to put the sentence in
-execution. Consequently, when he arrived on the frontiers of Perugia,
-which belonged to his lieutenant, Gian Paolo Baglioni, he sent
-Oliverotta da Fermo and Orsini of Gravina to lay waste the March of
-Camerino, at the same time petitioning Guido d'Ubaldo di Montefeltro,
-Duke of Urbino, to lend his soldiers and artillery to help him in this
-enterprise. This the unlucky Duke of Urbino, who enjoyed the best
-possible relations with the pope, and who had no reason for distrusting
-Caesar, did not dare refuse. But on the very same day that the Duke of
-Urbina's troops started for Camerino, Caesar's troops entered the duchy
-of Urbino, and took possession of Cagli, one of the four towns of the
-little State. The Duke of Urbino knew what awaited him if he tried to
-resist, and fled incontinently, disguised as a peasant; thus in less
-than eight days Caesar was master of his whole duchy, except the
-fortresses of Maiolo and San Leone.
-
-The Duke of Valentinois forthwith returned to Camerino, where the
-inhabitants still held out, encouraged by the presence of Julius Caesar
-di Varano, their lord, and his two sons, Venantio and Hannibal; the
-eldest son, Gian Maria, had been sent by his father to Venice.
-
-The presence of Caesar was the occasion of parleying between the
-besiegers and besieged. A capitulation was arranged whereby Varano
-engaged to give up the town, on condition that he and his sons were
-allowed to retire safe and sound, taking with them their furniture,
-treasure, and carriages. But this was by no means Caesar's intention;
-so, profiting by the relaxation in vigilance that had naturally come
-about in the garrison when the news of the capitulation had been
-announced, he surprised the town in the night preceding the surrender,
-and seized Caesar di Varano and his two sons, who were strangled a short
-time after, the father at La Pergola and the sons at Pesaro, by Don
-Michele Correglio, who, though he had left the position of sbirro for
-that of a captain, every now and then returned to his first business.
-
-Meanwhile Vitellozzo Vitelli, who had assumed the title of General of
-the Church, and had under him 800 men-at-arms and 3,000 infantry, was
-following the secret instructions that he had received from Caesar by
-word of mouth, and was carrying forward that system of invasion which
-was to encircle Florence in a network of iron, and in the end make her
-defence an impossibility. A worthy pupil of his master, in whose school
-he had learned to use in turn the cunning of a fox and the strength of a
-lion, he had established an understanding between himself and certain
-young gentlemen of Arezzo to get that town delivered into his hands. But
-the plot had been discovered by Guglielma dei Pazzi, commissary of the
-Florentine Republic, and he had arrested two of the conspirators,
-whereupon the others, who were much more numerous than was supposed, had
-instantly dispersed about the town summoning the citizens to arms. All
-the republican faction, who saw in any sort of revolution the means of
-subjugating Florence, joined their party, set the captives at liberty,
-and seized Guglielmo; then proclaiming the establishment of the ancient
-constitution, they besieged the citadel, whither Cosimo dei Pazzi,
-Bishop of Arezzo, the son of Guglielmo, had fled for refuge; he, finding
-himself invested on every side, sent a messenger in hot haste to
-Florence to ask for help.
-
-Unfortunately for the cardinal, Vitellozzo's troops were nearer to the
-besiegers than were the soldiers of the most serene republic to the
-besieged, and instead of help--the whole army of the enemy came down
-upon him. This army was under the command of Vitellozzo, of Gian Paolo
-Baglioni, and of Fabio Orsino, and with them were the two Medici, ever
-ready to go wherever there was a league against Florence, and ever ready
-at the command of Borgia, on any conditions whatever, to re-enter the
-town whence they had been banished. The next day more help in the form
-of money and artillery arrived, sent by Pandolfo Petrucci, and on the
-18th of June the citadel of Arezzo, which had received no news from
-Florence, was obliged to surrender.
-
-Vitellozzo left the men of Arezzo to look after their town themselves,
-leaving also Fabio Orsina to garrison the citadel with a thousand men.
-Then, profiting by the terror that had been spread throughout all this
-part of Italy by the successive captures of the duchy of Urbino, of
-Camerino, and of Arezzo, he marched upon Monte San Severino,
-Castiglione, Aretino, Cortone, and the other towns of the valley of
-Chiana, which submitted one after the other almost without a struggle.
-When he was only ten or twelve leagues from Florence, and dared not on
-his own account attempt anything against her, he made known the state of
-affairs to the Duke of Valentinois. He, fancying the hour had came at
-last for striking the blow so long delayed, started off at once to
-deliver his answer in person to his faithful lieutenants.
-
-But the Florentines, though they had sent no help to Guglielmo dei
-Pazzi, had demanded aid from Chaumont d'Amboise, governor of the
-Milanese, on behalf of Louis XII, not only explaining the danger they
-themselves were in but also Caesar's ambitious projects, namely that
-after first overcoming the small principalities and then the states of
-the second order, he had now, it seemed, reached such a height of pride
-that he would attack the King of France himself. The news from Naples
-was disquieting; serious differences had already occurred between the
-Count of Armagnac and Gonzalva di Cordova, and Louis might any day need
-Florence, whom he had always found loyal and faithful. He therefore
-resolved to check Caesar's progress, and not only sent him orders to
-advance no further step forwards, but also sent off, to give effect to
-his injunction, the captain Imbaut with 400 lances. The Duke of
-Valentinois on the frontier of Tuscany received a copy of the treaty
-signed between the republic and the King of France, a treaty in which
-the king engaged to help his ally against any enemy whatsoever, and at
-the same moment the formal prohibition from Louis to advance any
-further. Caesar also learned that beside the 400 lances with the captain
-Imbaut, which were on the road to Florence, Louis XII had as soon as he
-reached Asti sent off to Parma Louis de la Trimouille and 200
-men-at-arms, 3000 Swiss, and a considerable train of artillery. In these
-two movements combined he saw hostile intentions towards himself, and
-turning right about face with his usual agility, he profited by the fact
-that he had given nothing but verbal instructions to all his
-lieutenants, and wrote a furious letter to Vitellozzo, reproaching him
-for compromising his master with a view to his own private interest, and
-ordering the instant surrender to the Florentines of the towns and
-fortresses he had taken, threatening to march down with his own troops
-and take them if he hesitated for a moment.
-
-As soon as this letter was written, Caesar departed for Milan, where
-Louis XII had just arrived, bringing with him proof positive that he had
-been calumniated in the evacuation of the conquered towns. He also was
-entrusted with the pope's mission to renew for another eighteen months
-the title of legate 'a latere' in France to Cardinal d'Amboise, the
-friend rather than the minister of Louis XII. Thus, thanks to the public
-proof of his innocence and the private use of his influence, Caesar soon
-made his peace with the King of France.
-
-But this was not all. It was in the nature of Caesar's genius to divert
-an impending calamity that threatened his destruction so as to come out
-of it better than before, and he suddenly saw the advantage he might
-take from the pretended disobedience of his lieutenants. Already he had
-been disturbed now and again by their growing power, and coveted their
-towns, now he thought the hour had perhaps come for suppressing them
-also, and in the usurpation of their private possessions striking a blow
-at Florence, who always escaped him at the very moment when he thought
-to take her. It was indeed an annoying thing to have these fortresses
-and towns displaying another banner than his own in the midst of the
-beautiful Romagna which he desired for his own kingdom. For Vitellozzo
-possessed Citta di Castello, Bentivoglio Bologna, Gian Paolo Baglioni
-was in command of Perugia, Oliverotto had just taken Fermo, and Pandolfo
-Petrucci was lord of Siena; it was high time that all these returned:
-into his own hands. The lieutenants of the Duke of Valentinois, like
-Alexander's, were becoming too powerful, and Borgia must inherit from
-them, unless he were willing to let them become his own heirs. He
-obtained from Louis XII three hundred lances wherewith to march against
-them. As soon as Vitellozzo Vitelli received Caesar's letter he
-perceived that he was being sacrificed to the fear that the King of
-France inspired; but he was not one of those victims who suffer their
-throats to be cut in the expiation of a mistake: he was a buffalo of
-Romagna who opposed his horns to the knife of the butcher; besides, he
-had the example of Varano and the Manfredi before him, and, death for
-death, he preferred to perish in arms.
-
-So Vitellozzo convoked at Maggione all whose lives or lands were
-threatened by this new reversal of Caesar's policy. These were Paolo
-Orsino, Gian Paolo Baglioni, Hermes Bentivoglio, representing his father
-Gian, Antonio di Venafro, the envoy of Pandolfo Petrucci, Olivertoxo da
-Fermo, and the Duke of Urbino: the first six had everything to lose, and
-the last had already lost everything.
-
-A treaty of alliance was signed between the confederates: they engaged
-to resist whether he attacked them severally or all together.
-
-Caesar learned the existence of this league by its first effects: the
-Duke of Urbino, who was adored by his subjects, had come with a handful
-of soldiers to the fortress of San Leone, and it had yielded at once. In
-less than a week towns and fortresses followed this example, and all the
-duchy was once more in the hands of the Duke of Urbino.
-
-At the same time, each member of the confederacy openly proclaimed his
-revolt against the common enemy, and took up a hostile attitude.
-
-Caesar was at Imola, awaiting the French troops, but with scarcely any
-men; so that Bentivoglio, who held part of the country, and the Duke of
-Urbino, who had just reconquered the rest of it, could probably have
-either taken him or forced him to fly and quit the Romagna, had they
-marched against him; all the more since the two men on whom he counted,
-viz., Don Ugo di Cardona, who had entered his service after Capua was
-taken, and Michelotto had mistaken his intention, and were all at once
-separated from him. He had really ordered them to fall back upon Rimini,
-and bring 200 light horse and 500 infantry of which they had the
-command; but, unaware of the urgency of his situation, at the very
-moment when they were attempting to surprise La Pergola and Fossombrone,
-they were surrounded by Orsino of Gravina and Vitellozzo. Ugo di Cardona
-and Michelotto defended themselves like lions; but in spite of their
-utmost efforts their little band was cut to pieces, and Ugo di Cardona
-taken prisoner, while Michelotto only escaped the same fate by lying
-down among the dead; when night came on, he escaped to Fano.
-
-But even alone as he was, almost without troops at Imola, the
-confederates dared attempt nothing against Caesar, whether because of
-the personal fear he inspired, or because in him they respected the ally
-of the King of France; they contented themselves with taking the towns
-and fortresses in the neighbourhood. Vitellozzo had retaken the
-fortresses of Fossombrone, Urbino, Cagli, and Aggobbio; Orsino of
-Gravina had reconquered Fano and the whole province; while Gian Maria de
-Varano, the same who by his absence had escaped being massacred with the
-rest of his family, had re-entered Camerino, borne in triumph by his
-people. Not even all this could destroy Caesar's confidence in his own
-good fortune, and while he was on the one hand urging on the arrival of
-the French troops and calling into his pay all those gentlemen known as
-"broken lances," because they went about the country in parties of five
-or six only, and attached themselves to anyone who wanted them, he had
-opened up negotiations with his enemies, certain that from that very day
-when he should persuade them to a conference they were undone. Indeed,
-Caesar had the power of persuasion as a gift from heaven; and though
-they perfectly well knew his duplicity, they had no power of resisting,
-not so much his actual eloquence as that air of frank good-nature which
-Macchiavelli so greatly admired, and which indeed more than once
-deceived even him, wily politician as he was. In order to get Paolo
-Orsino to treat with him at Imola, Caesar sent Cardinal Borgia to the
-confederates as a hostage; and on this Paolo Orsino hesitated no longer,
-and on the 25th of October, 1502, arrived at Imola.
-
-Caesar received him as an old friend from whom one might have been
-estranged a few days because of some slight passing differences; he
-frankly avowed that all the fault was no doubt on his side, since he had
-contrived to alienate men who were such loyal lords and also such brave
-captains; but with men of their nature, he added, an honest, honourable
-explanation such as he would give must put everything once more in statu
-quo. To prove that it was goodwill, not fear, that brought him back to
-them, he showed Orsino the letters from Cardinal Amboise which announced
-the speedy arrival of French troops; he showed him those he had
-collected about him, in the wish, he declared, that they might be
-thoroughly convinced that what he chiefly regretted in the whole matter
-was not so much the loss of the distinguished captains who were the very
-soul of his vast enterprise, as that he had led the world to believe, in
-a way so fatal to his own interest, that he could for a single instant
-fail to recognise their merit; adding that he consequently relied upon
-him, Paolo Orsino, whom he had always cared for most, to bring back the
-confederates by a peace which would be as much for the profit of all as
-a war was hurtful to all, and that he was ready to sign a treaty in
-consonance with their wishes so long as it should not prejudice his own
-honour.
-
-Orsino was the man Caesar wanted: full of pride and confidence in
-himself, he was convinced of the truth of the old proverb that says, "A
-pope cannot reign eight days, if he has both the Colonnas and the Orsini
-against him." He believed, therefore, if not in Caesar's good faith, at
-any rate in the necessity he must feel for making peace; accordingly he
-signed with him the following conventions--which only needed
-ratification--on the 18th of October, 1502, which we reproduce here as
-Macchiavelli sent them to the magnificent republic of Florence.
-
-"Agreement between the Duke of Valentinois and the Confederates.
-
-"Let it be known to the parties mentioned below, and to all who shall
-see these presents, that His Excellency the Duke of Romagna of the one
-part and the Orsini of the other part, together with their confederates,
-desiring to put an end to differences, enmities, misunderstandings, and
-suspicions which have arisen between them, have resolved as follows:
-
-"There shall be between them peace and alliance true and perpetual, with
-a complete obliteration of wrongs and injuries which may have taken
-place up to this day, both parties engaging to preserve no resentment of
-the same; and in conformity with the aforesaid peace and union, His
-Excellency the Duke of Romagna shall receive into perpetual
-confederation, league, and alliance all the lords aforesaid; and each of
-them shall promise to defend the estates of all in general and of each
-in particular against any power that may annoy or attack them for any
-cause whatsoever, excepting always nevertheless the Pope Alexander VI
-and his Very Christian Majesty Louis XII, King of France: the lords
-above named promising on the other part to unite in the defence of the
-person and estates of His Excellency, as also those of the most
-illustrious lords, Don Gaffredo Borgia , Prince of Squillace, Don
-Roderigo Borgia , Duke of Sermaneta and Biselli, and Don Gian Borgia,
-Duke of Camerino and Negi, all brothers or nephews of the Duke of
-Romagna.
-
-"Moreover, since the rebellion and usurpation of Urbino have occurred
-during the above-mentioned misunderstandings, all the confederates
-aforesaid and each of them shall bind themselves to unite all their
-forces for the recovery of the estates aforesaid and of such other
-places as have revolted and been usurped.
-
-"His Excellency the Duke of Romagna shall undertake to continue to the
-Orsini and Vitelli their ancient engagements in the way of military
-service and on the same conditions.
-
-"His Excellency promises further not to insist on the service in person
-of more than one of them, as they may choose: the service that the
-others may render shall be voluntary.
-
-"He also promises that the second treaty shall be ratified by the
-sovereign pontiff, who shall not compel Cardinal Orsino to reside in
-Rome longer than shall seem convenient to this prelate.
-
-"Furthermore, since there are certain differences between the Pope and
-the lord Gian Bentivoglio, the confederates aforesaid agree that they
-shall be put to the arbitration of Cardinal Orsino, of His Excellency
-the Duke of Romagna, and of the lord Pandolfo Petrucci, without appeal.
-
-"Thus the confederates engage, each and all, so soon as they may be
-required by the Duke of Romagna, to put into his hands as a hostage one
-of the legitimate sons of each of them, in that place and at that time
-which he may be pleased to indicate.
-
-"The same confederates promising moreover, all and each, that if any
-project directed against any one of them come to their knowledge, to
-give warning thereof, and all to prevent such project reciprocally.
-
-"It is agreed, over and above, between the Duke of Romagna and the
-confederates aforesaid, to regard as a common enemy any who shall fail
-to keep the present stipulations, and to unite in the destruction of any
-States not conforming thereto.
-
-"(Signed) CAESAR, PAOLO ORSINO.
-
-"AGAPIT, Secretary."
-
-At the same time, while Orsino was carrying to the confederates the
-treaty drawn up between him and the duke, Bentivoglio, not willing to
-submit to the arbitration indicated, made an offer to Caesar of settling
-their differences by a private treaty, and sent his son to arrange the
-conditions: after some parleying, they were settled as follows:--
-
-Bentivaglio should separate his fortunes from the Vitelli and Orsini;
-
-He should furnish the Duke of Valentinois with a hundred men-at-arms and
-a hundred mounted archers for eight years;
-
-He should pay 12,000 ducats per annum to Caesar, for the support of a
-hundred lances;
-
-In return for this, his son Hannibal was to marry the sister of the
-Archbishop of Enna, who was Caesar's niece, and the pope was to
-recognise his sovereignty in Bologna;
-
-The King of France, the Duke of Ferrara, and the republic of Florence
-were to be the guarantors of this treaty.
-
-But the convention brought to the confederates by Orsino was the cause
-of great difficulties on their part. Vitellozza Vitelli in particular,
-who knew Caesar the best, never ceased to tell the other condottieri
-that so prompt and easy a peace must needs be the cover to some trap;
-but since Caesar had meanwhile collected a considerable army at Imola,
-and the four hundred lances lent him by Louis XII had arrived at last,
-Vitellozzo and Oliverotto decided to sign the treaty that Orsino
-brought, and to let the Duke of Urbino and the lord of Camerino know of
-it; they, seeing plainly that it was henceforth impossible to make a
-defence unaided, had retired, the one to Citta di Castello and the other
-into the kingdom of Naples.
-
-But Caesar, saying nothing of his intentions, started on the 10th of
-December, and made his way to Cesena with a powerful army once more
-under his command. Fear began to spread on all sides, not only in
-Romagna but in the whole of Northern Italy; Florence, seeing him move
-away from her, only thought it a blind to conceal his intentions; while
-Venice, seeing him approach her frontiers, despatched all her troops to
-the banks of the Po. Caesar perceived their fear, and lest harm should
-be done to himself by the mistrust it might inspire, he sent away all
-French troops in his service as soon as he reached Cesena, except a
-hundred men with M. de Candale, his brother-in-law; it was then seen
-that he only had 2000 cavalry and 2000 infantry with him. Several days
-were spent in parleying, for at Cesena Caesar found the envoys of the
-Vitelli and Orsini, who themselves were with their army in the duchy of
-Urbino; but after the preliminary discussions as to the right course to
-follow in carrying on the plan of conquest, there arose such
-difficulties between the general-in-chief and these agents, that they
-could not but see the impossibility of getting anything settled by
-intermediaries, and the urgent necessity of a conference between Caesar
-and one of the chiefs. So Oliverotto ran the risk of joining the duke in
-order to make proposals to him, either to march on Tuscany or to take
-Sinigaglia, which was the only place in the duchy of Urbino that had not
-again fallen into Caesar's power. Caesar's reply was that he did not
-desire to war upon Tuscany, because the Tuscans were his friends; but
-that he approved of the lieutenants' plan with regard to Sinigaglia, and
-therefore was marching towards Fano.
-
-But the daughter of Frederic, the former Duke of Urbino, who held the
-town of Sinigaglia, and who was called the lady-prefect, because she had
-married Gian della Rovere, whom his uncle, Sixtus IV, had made prefect
-of Rome, judging that it would be impossible to defend herself against
-the forces the Duke of Valentinois was bringing, left the citadel in the
-hands of a captain, recommending him to get the best terms he could for
-the town, and took boat for Venice.
-
-Caesar learned this news at Rimini, through a messenger from Vitelli and
-the Orsini, who said that the governor of the citadel, though refusing
-to yield to them, was quite ready to make terms with him, and
-consequently they would engage to go to the town and finish the business
-there. Caesar's reply was that in consequence of this information he was
-sending some of his troops to Cesena and Imola, for they would be
-useless to him, as he should now have theirs, which together with the
-escort he retained would be sufficient, since his only object was the
-complete pacification of the duchy of Urbino. He added that this
-pacification would not be possible if his old friends continued to
-distrust him, and to discuss through intermediaries alone plans in which
-their own fortunes were interested as well as his. The messenger
-returned with this answer, and the confederates, though feeling, it is
-true, the justice of Caesar's remarks, none the less hesitated to comply
-with his demand. Vitellozzo Vitelli in particular showed a want of
-confidence in him which nothing seemed able to subdue; but, pressed by
-Oliverotto, Gravina, and Orsino, he consented at last to await the
-duke's coming; making concession rather because he could not bear to
-appear more timid than his companions, than because of any confidence he
-felt in the return of friendship that Borgia was displaying.
-
-The duke learned the news of this decision, so much desired, when he
-arrived at Fano on the 20th of December 1502. At once he summoned eight
-of his most faithful friends, among whom were d'Enna, his nephew,
-Michelotto, and Ugo di Cardona, and ordered them, as soon as they
-arrived at Sinigaglia, and had seen Vitellozzo, Gravina, Oliveratta, and
-Orsino come out to meet them, on a pretext of doing them honour, to
-place themselves on the right and left hand of the four generals, two
-beside each, so that at a given signal they might either stab or arrest
-them; next he assigned to each of them his particular man, bidding them
-not quit his side until he had reentered Sinigaglia and arrived at the
-quarters prepared for him; then he sent orders to such of the soldiers
-as were in cantonments in the neighbourhood to assemble to the number of
-8000 on the banks of the Metaurus, a little river of Umbria which runs
-into the Adriatic and has been made famous by the defeat of Hannibal.
-
-The duke arrived at the rendezvous given to his army on the 31st of
-December, and instantly sent out in front two hundred horse, and
-immediately behind them his infantry; following close in the midst of
-his men-at-arms, following the coast of the Adriatic, with the mountains
-on his right and the sea on his left, which in part of the way left only
-space for the army to march ten abreast.
-
-After four hours' march, the duke at a turn of the path perceived
-Sinigaglia, nearly a mile distant from the sea, and a bowshot from the
-mountains; between the army and the town ran a little river, whose banks
-he had to follow for some distance. At last he found a bridge opposite a
-suburb of the town, and here Caesar ordered his cavalry to stop: it was
-drawn up in two lines, one between the road and the river, the other on
-the side of the country, leaving the whole width of the road to the
-infantry: which latter defiled, crossed the bridge, and entering the
-town, drew themselves up in battle array in the great square.
-
-On their side, Vitellazzo, Gravina, Orsino, and Oliverotto, to make room
-for the duke's army, had quartered their soldiers in little towns or
-villages in the neighbourhood of Sinigaglia; Oliverotto alone had kept
-nearly 1000 infantry and 150 horse, who were in barracks in the suburb
-through which the duke entered.
-
-Caesar had made only a few steps towards the town when he perceived
-Vitellozzo at the gate, with the Duke of Gravina and Orsina, who all
-came out to meet him; the last two quite gay and confident, but the
-first so gloomy and dejected that you would have thought he foresaw the
-fate that was in store for him; and doubtless he had not been without
-same presentiments; for when he left his army to came to Sinigaglia, he
-had bidden them farewell as though never to meet again, had commended
-the care of his family to the captains, and embraced his children with
-tears--a weakness which appeared strange to all who knew him as a brave
-condottiere.
-
-The duke marched up to them holding out his hand, as a sign that all was
-over and forgotten, and did it with an air at once so loyal and so
-smiling that Gravina and Orsina could no longer doubt the genuine return
-of his friendship, and it was only Vitellozzo still appeared sad. At the
-same moment, exactly as they had been commanded, the duke's accomplices
-took their posts on the right and left of those they were to watch, who
-were all there except Oliverotto, whom the duke could not see, and began
-to seek with uneasy looks; but as he crossed the suburb he perceived him
-exercising his troops on the square. Caesar at once despatched
-Michelotto and d'Enna, with a message that it was a rash thing to have
-his troops out, when they might easily start some quarrel with the
-duke's men and bring about an affray: it would be much better to settle
-them in barracks and then come to join his companions, who were with
-Caesar. Oliverotto, drawn by the same fate as his friends, made no
-objection, ordered his soldiers indoors, and put his horse to the gallop
-to join the duke, escorted on either side by d'Enna and Michelotto.
-Caesar, on seeing him, called him, took him by the hand, and continued
-his march to the palace that had been prepared for him, his four victims
-following after.
-
-Arrived on the threshold, Caesar dismounted, and signing to the leader
-of the men-at-arms to await his orders, he went in first, followed by
-Oliverotto, Gravina, Vitellozzo Vitelli, and Orsino, each accompanied by
-his two satellites; but scarcely had they gone upstairs and into the
-first room when the door was shut behind them, and Caesar turned round,
-saying, "The hour has come!" This was the signal agreed upon. Instantly
-the former confederates were seized, thrown down, and forced to
-surrender with a dagger at their throat. Then, while they were being
-carried to a dungeon, Caesar opened the window, went out on the balcony
-and cried out to the leader of his men-at-arms, "Go forward!" The man
-was in the secret, he rushed on with his band towards the barracks where
-Oliverotto's soldiers had just been consigned, and they, suddenly
-surprised and off their guard, were at once made prisoners; then the
-duke's troops began to pillage the town, and he summoned Macchiavelli.
-
-Caesar and the Florentine envoy were nearly two hours shut up together,
-and since Macchiavelli himself recounts the history of this interview,
-we will give his own words.
-
-"He summoned me," says the Florentine ambassador, "and in the calmest
-manner showed me his joy at the success of this enterprise, which he
-assured me he had spoken of to me the evening before; I remember that he
-did, but I did not at that time understand what he meant; next he
-explained, in terms of much feeling and lively affection for our city,
-the different motives which had made him desire your alliance, a desire
-to which he hopes you will respond. He ended with charging me to lay
-three proposals before your lordships: first, that you rejoice with him
-in the destruction at a single blow of the mortal enemies of the king,
-himself, and you, and the consequent disappearance of all seeds of
-trouble and dissension likely to waste Italy: this service of his,
-together with his refusal to allow the prisoners to march against you,
-ought, he thinks, to excite your gratitude towards him; secondly, he
-begs that you will at this juncture give him a striking proof of your
-friendliness, by urging your cavalry's advance towards Borgo, and there
-assembling some infantry also, in order that they may march with him,
-should need arise, on Castello or on Perugia. Lastly, he desires--and
-this is his third condition--that you arrest the Duke of Urbino, if he
-should flee from Castello into your territories, when he learns that
-Vitellozzo is a prisoner.
-
-"When I objected that to give him up would not beseem the dignity of the
-republic, and that you would never consent, he approved of my words, and
-said that it would be enough for you to keep the duke, and not give him
-his liberty without His Excellency's permission. I have promised to give
-you all this information, to which he awaits your reply."
-
-The same night eight masked men descended to the dungeon where the
-prisoners lay: they believed at that moment that the fatal hour had
-arrived for all. But this time the executioners had to do with
-Vitellozzo and Oliverotto alone. When these two captains heard that they
-were condemned, Oliverotto burst forth into reproaches against
-Vitellozzo, saying that it was all his fault that they had taken up arms
-against the duke: not a word Vitellozzo answered except a prayer that
-the pope might grant him plenary indulgence for all his sins. Then the
-masked men took them away, leaving Orsino and Gravina to await a similar
-fate, and led away the two chosen out to die to a secluded spot outside
-the ramparts of the town, where they were strangled and buried at once
-in two trenches that had been dug beforehand.
-
-The two others were kept alive until it should be known if the pope had
-arrested Cardinal Orsino, archbishop of Florence and lord of Santa
-Croce; and when the answer was received in the affirmative from His
-Holiness, Gravina and Orsina, who had been transferred to a castle, were
-likewise strangled.
-
-The duke, leaving instructions with Michelotto, set off for Sinigaglia
-as soon as the first execution was over, assuring Macchiavelli that he
-had never had any other thought than that of giving tranquillity to the
-Romagna and to Tuscany, and also that he thought he had succeeded by
-taking and putting to death the men who had been the cause of all the
-trouble; also that any other revolt that might take place in the future
-would be nothing but sparks that a drop of water could extinguish.
-
-The pope had barely learned that Caesar had his enemies in his power,
-when, eager to play the same winning game himself, he announced to
-Cardinal Orsino, though it was then midnight, that his son had taken
-Sinigaglia, and gave him an invitation to come the next morning and talk
-over the good news. The cardinal, delighted at this increase of favour,
-did not miss his appointment. So, in the morning, he started on
-horseback for the Vatican; but at a turn of the first street he met the
-governor of Rome with a detachment of cavalry, who congratulated himself
-on the happy chance that they were taking the same road, and accompanied
-him to the threshold of the Vatican. There the cardinal dismounted, and
-began to ascend the stairs; scarcely, however, had he reached the first
-landing before his mules and carriages were seized and shut in the
-palace stables. When he entered the hall of the Perropont, he found that
-he and all his suite were surrounded by armed men, who led him into
-another apartment, called the Vicar's Hall, where he found the Abbate
-Alviano, the protonotary Orsino, Jacopo Santa Croce, and Rinaldo Orsino,
-who were all prisoners like himself; at the same time the governor
-received orders to seize the castle of Monte Giardino, which belonged to
-the Orsini, and take away all the jewels, all the hangings, all the
-furniture, and all the silver that he might find.
-
-The governor carried out his orders conscientiously, and brought to the
-Vatican everything he seized, down to the cardinal's account-book. On
-consulting this book, the pope found out two things: first, that a sum
-of 2000 ducats was due to the cardinal, no debtor's name being
-mentioned; secondly, that the cardinal had bought three months before,
-for 1500 Roman crowns, a magnificent pearl which could not be found
-among the objects belonging to him: on which Alexander ordered that from
-that very moment until the negligence in the cardinal's accounts was
-repaired, the men who were in the habit of bringing him food twice a day
-on behalf of his mother should not be admitted into the Castle Sant'
-Angelo. The same day, the cardinal's mother sent the pope the 2000
-ducats, and the next day his mistress, in man's attire, came in person
-to bring the missing pearl. His Holiness, however, was so struck with
-her beauty in this costume, that, we are told, he let her keep the pearl
-for the same price she had paid for it.
-
-Then the pope allowed the cardinal to have his food brought as before,
-and he died of poison on the 22nd of February--that is, two days after
-his accounts had been set right.
-
-That same night the Prince of Squillace set off to take possession, in
-the pope's name, of the lands of the deceased.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV
-
-
-The Duke of Valentinois had continued his road towards Citta di Castello
-and Perugia, and had seized these two towns without striking a blow; for
-the Vitelli had fled from the former, and the latter had been abandoned
-by Gian Paolo Baglione with no attempt whatever at resistance. There
-still remained Siena, where Pandolfo Petrucci was shut up, the only man
-remaining of all who had joined the league against Caesar.
-
-But Siena was under the protection of the French. Besides, Siena was not
-one of the States of the Church, and Caesar had no rights there.
-Therefore he was content with insisting upon Pandolfo Petrucci's leaving
-the town and retiring to Lucca, which he accordingly did.
-
-Then all on this side being peaceful and the whole of Romagna in
-subjection, Caesar resolved to return to Rome and help the pope to
-destroy all that was left of the Orsini.
-
-This was all the easier because Louis XII, having suffered reverses in
-the kingdom of Naples, had since then been much concerned with his own
-affairs to disturb himself about his allies. So Caesar, doing for the
-neighbourhood of the Holy See the same thing that he had done for the
-Romagna, seized in succession Vicovaro, Cera, Palombera, Lanzano, and
-Cervetti; when these conquests were achieved, having nothing else to do
-now that he had brought the pontifical States into subjection from the
-frontiers of Naples to those of Venice, he returned to Rome to concert
-with his father as to the means of converting his duchy into a kingdom.
-
-Caesar arrived at the right moment to share with Alexander the property
-of Cardinal Gian Michele, who had just died, having received a poisoned
-cup from the hands of the pope.
-
-The future King of Italy found his father preoccupied with a grand
-project: he had resolved, for the Feast of St. Peter's, to create nine
-cardinals. What he had to gain from these nominations is as follows:
-
-First, the cardinals elected would leave all their offices vacant; these
-offices would fall into the hands of the pope, and he would sell them;
-
-Secondly, each of them would buy his election, more or less dear
-according to his fortune; the price, left to be settled at the pope's
-fancy, would vary from 10,000 to 40,000 ducats;
-
-Lastly, since as cardinals they would by law lose the right of making a
-will, the pope, in order to inherit from them, had only to poison them:
-this put him in the position of a butcher who, if he needs money, has
-only to cut the throat of the fattest sheep in the flock.
-
-The nomination came to pass: the new cardinals were Giovanni Castellaro
-Valentine, archbishop of Trani; Francesco Remolini, ambassador from the
-King of Aragon; Francesco Soderini, bishop of Volterra; Melchiore Copis,
-bishop of Brissina; Nicolas Fiesque, bishop of Frejus; Francesco di
-Sprate, bishop of Leome; Adriano Castellense, clerk of the chamber,
-treasurer-general, and secretary of the briefs; Francesco Boris, bishop
-of Elva, patriarch of Constantinople, and secretary to the pope; and
-Giacomo Casanova, protonotary and private chamberlain to His Holiness.
-
-The price of their simony paid and their vacated offices sold, the pope
-made his choice of those he was to poison: the number was fixed at
-three, one old and two new; the old one was Cardinal Casanova, and the
-new ones Melchiore Copis and Adriano Castellense, who had taken the name
-of Adrian of Carneta from that town where he had been born, and where,
-in the capacity of clerk of the chamber, treasurer-general, and
-secretary of briefs, he had amassed an immense fortune.
-
-So, when all was settled between Caesar and the pope, they invited their
-chosen guests to supper in a vineyard situated near the Vatican,
-belonging to the Cardinal of Corneto. In the morning of this day, the
-2nd of August, they sent their servants and the steward to make all
-preparations, and Caesar himself gave the pope's butler two bottles of
-wine prepared with the white powder resembling sugar whose mortal
-properties he had so often proved, and gave orders that he was to serve
-this wine only when he was told, and only to persons specially
-indicated; the butler accordingly put the wine an a sideboard apart,
-bidding the waiters on no account to touch it, as it was reserved for
-the pope's drinking.
-
-[The poison of the Borgias, say contemporary writers, was of two kinds,
-powder and liquid. The poison in the form of powder was a sort of white
-flour, almost impalpable, with the taste of sugar, and called
-Contarella. Its composition is unknown.
-
-The liquid poison was prepared, we are told in so strange a fashion that
-we cannot pass it by in silence. We repeat here what we read, and vouch
-for nothing ourselves, lest science should give us the lie.
-
-A strong dose of arsenic was administered to a boar; as soon as the
-poison began to take effect, he was hung up by his heels; convulsions
-supervened, and a froth deadly and abundant ran out from his jaws; it
-was this froth, collected into a silver vessel and transferred into a
-bottle hermetically sealed, that made the liquid poison.]
-
-Towards evening Alexander VI walked from the Vatican leaning on Caesar's
-arm, and turned his steps towards the vineyard, accompanied by Cardinal
-Caraffa; but as the heat was great and the climb rather steep, the pope,
-when he reached the top, stopped to take breath; then putting his hand
-on his breast, he found that he had left in his bedroom a chain that he
-always wore round his neck, which suspended a gold medallion that
-enclosed the sacred host. He owed this habit to a prophecy that an
-astrologer had made, that so long as he carried about a consecrated
-wafer, neither steel nor poison could take hold upon him. Now, finding
-himself without his talisman, he ordered Monsignor Caraffa to hurry back
-at once to the Vatican, and told him in which part of his room he had
-left it, so that he might get it and bring it him without delay. Then,
-as the walk had made him thirsty, he turned to a valet, giving signs
-with his hand as he did so that his messenger should make haste, and
-asked for something to drink. Caesar, who was also thirsty, ordered the
-man to bring two glasses. By a curious coincidence, the butler had just
-gone back to the Vatican to fetch some magnificent peaches that had been
-sent that very day to the pope, but which had been forgotten when he
-came here; so the valet went to the under butler, saying that His
-Holiness and Monsignors the Duke of Romagna were thirsty and asking for
-a drink. The under butler, seeing two bottles of wine set apart, and
-having heard that this wine was reserved for the pope, took one, and
-telling the valet to bring two glasses on a tray, poured out this wine,
-which both drank, little thinking that it was what they had themselves
-prepared to poison their guests.
-
-Meanwhile Caraffa hurried to the Vatican, and, as he knew the palace
-well, went up to the pope's bedroom, a light in his hand and attended by
-no servant. As he turned round a corridor a puff of wind blew out his
-lamp; still, as he knew the way, he went on, thinking there was no need
-of seeing to find the object he was in search of; but as he entered the
-room he recoiled a step, with a cry of terror: he beheld a ghastly
-apparition; it seemed that there before his eyes, in the middle of the
-room, between the door and the cabinet which held the medallion,
-Alexander VI, motionless and livid, was lying on a bier at whose four
-corners there burned four torches. The cardinal stood still for a
-moment, his eyes fixed, and his hair standing on end, without strength
-to move either backward or forward; then thinking it was all a trick of
-fancy or an apparition of the devil's making, he made the sign of the
-cross, invoking God's holy name; all instantly vanished, torches, bier,
-and corpse, and the seeming mortuary chamber was once more in darkness.
-
-Then Cardinal Caraffa, who has himself recorded this strange event, and
-who was afterwards Pope Paul IV, entered boldly, and though an icy sweat
-ran down his brow, he went straight to the cabinet, and in the drawer
-indicated found the gold chain and the medallion, took them, and hastily
-went out to give them to the pope. He found supper served, the guests
-arrived, and His Holiness ready to take his place at table; as soon as
-the cardinal was in sight, His Holiness, who was very pale, made one
-step towards him; Caraffa doubled his pace, and handed the medallion to
-him; but as the pope stretched forth his arm to take it, he fell back
-with a cry, instantly followed by violent convulsions: an instant later,
-as he advanced to render his father assistance, Caesar was similarly
-seized; the effect of the poison had been more rapid than usual, for
-Caesar had doubled the dose, and there is little doubt that their heated
-condition increased its activity.
-
-The two stricken men were carried side by side to the Vatican, where
-each was taken to his own rooms: from that moment they never met again.
-
-As soon as he reached his bed, the pope was seized with a violent fever,
-which did not give way to emetics or to bleeding; almost immediately it
-became necessary to administer the last sacraments of the Church; but
-his admirable bodily constitution, which seemed to have defied old age,
-was strong enough to fight eight days with death; at last, after a week
-of mortal agony, he died, without once uttering the name of Caesar or
-Lucrezia, who were the two poles around which had turned all his
-affections and all his crimes. His age was seventy-two, and he had
-reigned eleven years.
-
-Caesar, perhaps because he had taken less of the fatal beverage, perhaps
-because the strength of his youth overcame the strength of the poison,
-or maybe, as some say, because when he reached his own rooms he had
-swallowed an antidote known only to himself, was not so prostrated as to
-lose sight for a moment of the terrible position he was in: he summoned
-his faithful Michelotto, with those he could best count on among his
-men, and disposed this band in the various rooms that led to his own,
-ordering the chief never to leave the foot of his bed, but to sleep
-lying on a rug, his hand upon the handle of his sword.
-
-The treatment had been the same for Caesar as for the pope, but in
-addition to bleeding and emetics strange baths were added, which Caesar
-had himself asked for, having heard that in a similar case they had once
-cured Ladislaus, King of Naples. Four posts, strongly welded to the
-floor and ceiling, were set up in his room, like the machines at which
-farriers shoe horses; every day a bull was brought in, turned over on
-his back and tied by his four legs to the four posts; then, when he was
-thus fixed, a cut was made in his belly a foot and a half long, through
-which the intestines were drawn out; then Caesar slipped into this
-living bath of blood: when the bull was dead, Caesar was taken out and
-rolled up in burning hot blankets, where, after copious perspirations,
-he almost always felt some sort of relief.
-
-Every two hours Caesar sent to ask news of his father: he hardly waited
-to hear that he was dead before, though still at death's door himself,
-he summoned up all the force of character and presence of mind that
-naturally belonged to him. He ordered Michelotto to shut the doors of
-the Vatican before the report of Alexander's decease could spread about
-the town, and forbade anyone whatsoever to enter the pope's apartments
-until the money and papers had been removed. Michelotto obeyed at once,
-went to find Cardinal Casanova, held a dagger at his throat, and made
-him deliver up the keys of the pope's rooms and cabinets; then, under
-his guidance, took away two chests full of gold, which perhaps contained
-100,000 Roman crowns in specie, several boxes full of jewels, much
-silver and many precious vases; all these were carried to Caesar's
-chamber; the guards of the room were doubled; then the doors of the
-Vatican were once more thrown open, and the death of the pope was
-proclaimed.
-
-Although the news was expected, it produced none the less a terrible
-effect in Rome; for although Caesar was still alive, his condition left
-everyone in suspense: had the mighty Duke of Romagna, the powerful
-condottiere who had taken thirty towns and fifteen fortresses in five
-years, been seated, sword in hand, upon his charger, nothing would have
-been uncertain of fluctuating even for a moment; for, as Caesar
-afterwards told Macchiavelli, his ambitious soul had provided for all
-things that could occur on the day of the pope's death, except the one
-that he should be dying himself; but being nailed down to his bed,
-sweating off the effects the poison had wrought; so, though he had kept
-his power of thinking he could no longer act, but must needs wait and
-suffer the course of events, instead of marching on in front and
-controlling them.
-
-Thus he was forced to regulate his actions no longer by his own plans
-but according to circumstances. His most bitter enemies, who could press
-him hardest, were the Orsini and the Colonnas: from the one family he
-had taken their blood, from the other their goods.
-
-So he addressed himself to those to whom he could return what he had
-taken, and opened negotiations with the Colonnas.
-
-Meanwhile the obsequies of the pope were going forward: the
-vice-chancellor had sent out orders to the highest among the clergy, the
-superiors of convents, and the secular orders, not to fail to appear,
-according to regular custom, on pain of being despoiled of their office
-and dignities, each bringing his own company to the Vatican, to be
-present at the pope's funeral; each therefore appeared on the day and at
-the hour appointed at the pontifical palace, whence the body was to be
-conveyed to the church of St. Peter's, and there buried. The corpse was
-found to be abandoned and alone in the mortuary chamber; for everyone of
-the name of Borgia, except Caesar, lay hidden, not knowing what might
-come to pass. This was indeed well justified; for Fabio Orsino, meeting
-one member of the family, stabbed him, and as a sign of the hatred they
-had sworn to one another, bathed his mouth and hands in the blood.
-
-The agitation in Rome was so great, that when the corpse of Alexander VI
-was about to enter the church there occurred a kind of panic, such as
-will suddenly arise in times of popular agitation, instantly causing so
-great a disturbance in the funeral cortege that the guards drew up in
-battle array, the clergy fled into the sacristy, and the bearers dropped
-the bier.
-
-The people, tearing off the pall which covered it, disclosed the corpse,
-and everyone could see with impunity and close at hand the man who,
-fifteen days before, had made princes, kings and emperors tremble, from
-one end of the world to the other.
-
-But in accordance with that religious feeling towards death which all
-men instinctively feel, and which alone survives every other, even in
-the heart of the atheist, the bier was taken up again and carried to the
-foot of the great altar in St. Peter's, where, set on trestles, it was
-exposed to public view; but the body had become so black, so deformed
-and swollen, that it was horrible to behold; from its nose a bloody
-matter escaped, the mouth gaped hideously, and the tongue was so
-monstrously enlarged that it filled the whole cavity; to this frightful
-appearance was added a decomposition so great that, although at the
-pope's funeral it is customary to kiss the hand which bore the
-Fisherman's ring, not one approached to offer this mark of respect and
-religious reverence to the representative of God on earth.
-
-Towards seven o'clock in the evening, when the declining day adds so
-deep a melancholy to the silence of a church, four porters and two
-working carpenters carried the corpse into the chapel where it was to be
-interred, and, lifting it off the catafalque, where it lay in state, put
-it in the coffin which was to be its last abode; but it was found that
-the coffin was too short, and the body could not be got in till the legs
-were bent and thrust in with violent blows; then the carpenters put on
-the lid, and while one of them sat on the top to force the knees to
-bend, the others hammered in the nails: amid those Shakespearian
-pleasantries that sound as the last orison in the ear of the mighty;
-then, says Tommaso Tommasi, he was placed on the right of the great
-altar of St. Peter's, beneath a very ugly tomb.
-
-The next morning this epitaph was found inscribed upon the tomb:
-
-    "VENDIT ALEXANDER CLAVES, ALTARIA, CHRISTUM:
-      EMERAT ILLE PRIUS, VENDERE JUKE POTEST";
-
-that is,
-
-    "Pope Alexander sold the Christ, the altars, and the keys:
-      But anyone who buys a thing may sell it if he please."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV
-
-
-From the effect produced at Rome by Alexander's death, one may imagine
-what happened not only in the whole of Italy but also in the rest of the
-world: for a moment Europe swayed, for the column which supported the
-vault of the political edifice had given way, and the star with eyes of
-flame and rays of blood, round which all things had revolved for the
-last eleven years, was now extinguished, and for a moment the world, on
-a sudden struck motionless, remained in silence and darkness.
-
-After the first moment of stupefaction, all who had an injury to avenge
-arose and hurried to the chase. Sforza retook Pesaro, Bagloine Perugia,
-Guido and Ubaldo Urbino, and La Rovere Sinigaglia; the Vitelli entered
-Citta di Castello, the Appiani Piombino, the Orsini Monte Giordano and
-their other territories; Romagna alone remained impassive and loyal, for
-the people, who have no concern with the quarrels of the great, provided
-they do not affect themselves, had never been so happy as under the
-government of Caesar.
-
-The Colonnas were pledged to maintain a neutrality, and had been
-consequently restored to the possession of their castles and the cities
-of Chiuzano, Capo d'Anno, Frascati, Rocca di Papa, and Nettuno, which
-they found in a better condition than when they had left them, as the
-pope had had them embellished and fortified.
-
-Caesar was still in the Vatican with his troops, who, loyal to him in
-his misfortune, kept watch about the palace, where he was writhing on
-his bed of pain and roaring like a wounded lion. The cardinals, who had
-in their first terror fled, each his own way, instead of attending the
-pope's obsequies, began to assemble once more, some at the Minerva,
-others around Cardinal Caraffa. Frightened by the troops that Caesar
-still had, especially since the command was entrusted to Michelotto,
-they collected all the money they could to levy an army of 2000 soldiers
-with Charles Taneo at their head, with the title of Captain of the
-Sacred College. It was then hoped that peace was re-established, when it
-was heard that Prospero Colonna was coming with 3000 men from the side
-of Naples, and Fabio Orsino from the side of Viterbo with 200 horse and
-more than 1000 infantry. Indeed, they entered Rome at only one day's
-interval one from another, by so similar an ardour were they inspired.
-
-Thus there were five armies in Rome: Caesar's army, holding the Vatican
-and the Borgo; the army of the Bishop of Nicastro, who had received from
-Alexander the guardianship of the Castle Sant' Angelo and had shut
-himself up there, refusing to yield; the army of the Sacred College,
-which was stationed round about the Minerva; the army of Prospero
-Colonna, which was encamped at the Capitol; and the army of Fabio
-Orsino, in barracks at the Ripetta.
-
-On their side, the Spaniards had advanced to Terracino, and the French
-to Nepi. The cardinals saw that Rome now stood upon a mine which the
-least spark might cause to explode: they summoned the ambassadors of the
-Emperor of Germany, the Kings of France and Spain, and the republic of
-Venice to raise their voice in the name of their masters. The
-ambassadors, impressed with the urgency of the situation, began by
-declaring the Sacred College inviolable: they then ordered the Orsini,
-the Colonnas, and the Duke of Valentinois to leave Rome and go each his
-own way.
-
-The Orsini were the first to submit: the next morning their example was
-followed by the Colonnas. No one was left but Caesar, who said he was
-willing to go, but desired to make his conditions beforehand: the
-Vatican was undermined, he declared, and if his demands were refused he
-and those who came to take him should be blown up together.
-
-It was known that his were never empty threats so they came to terms
-with him.
-
-[Caesar promised to remain ten miles away from Rome the whole time the
-Conclave lasted, and not to take any action against the town or any
-other of the Ecclesiastical States: Fabio Orsino and. Prospero Colonna
-had made the same promises.]
-
-[It was agreed that Caesar should quit Rome with his army, artillery,
-and baggage; and to ensure his not being attacked or molested in the
-streets, the Sacred College should add to his numbers 400 infantry, who,
-in case of attack or insult, would fight for him. The Venetian
-ambassador answered for the Orsini, the Spanish ambassador for the
-Colonnas, the ambassador of France for Caesar.]
-
-At the day and hour appointed Caesar sent out his artillery, which
-consisted of eighteen pieces of cannon, and 400 infantry of the Sacred
-College, on each of whom he bestowed a ducat: behind the artillery came
-a hundred chariots escorted by his advance guard.
-
-The duke was carried out of the gate of the Vatican: he lay on a bed
-covered with a scarlet canopy, supported by twelve halberdiers, leaning
-forward on his cushions so that no one might see his face with its
-purple lips and bloodshot eyes: beside him was his naked sword, to show
-that, feeble as he was, he could use it at need: his finest charger,
-caparisoned in black velvet embroidered with his arms, walked beside the
-bed, led by a page, so that Caesar could mount in case of surprise or
-attack: before him and behind, both right and left, marched his army,
-their arms in rest, but without beating of drums or blowing of trumpets:
-this gave a sombre, funereal air to the whole procession, which at the
-gate of the city met Prospero Colonna awaiting it with a considerable
-band of men.
-
-Caesar thought at first that, breaking his word as he had so often done
-himself, Prospero Colonna was going to attack him. He ordered a halt,
-and prepared to mount his horse; but Prospera Colonna, seeing the state
-he was in, advanced to his bedside alone: he came, against expectation,
-to offer him an escort, fearing an ambuscade on the part of Fabio
-Orsino, who had loudly sworn that he would lose his honour or avenge the
-death of Paolo Orsina, his father. Caesar thanked Colanna, and replied
-that from the moment that Orsini stood alone he ceased to fear him. Then
-Colonna saluted the duke, and rejoined his men, directing them towards
-Albano, while Caesar took the road to Citta Castellana, which had
-remained loyal.
-
-When there, Caesar found himself not only master of his own fate but of
-others as well: of the twenty-two votes he owned in the Sacred College
-twelve had remained faithful, and as the Conclave was composed in all of
-thirty-seven cardinals, he with his twelve votes could make the majority
-incline to whichever side he chose. Accordingly he was courted both by
-the Spanish and the French party, each desiring the election of a pope
-of their own nation. Caesar listened, promising nothing and refusing
-nothing: he gave his twelve votes to Francesco Piccolomini, Cardinal of
-Siena, one of his father's creatures who had remained his friend, and
-the latter was elected on the 8th of October and took the name of Pius
-III.
-
-Caesar's hopes did not deceive him: Pius III was hardly elected before
-he sent him a safe-conduct to Rome: the duke came back with 250
-men-at-arms, 250 light horse, and 800 infantry, and lodged in his
-palace, the soldiers camping round about.
-
-Meanwhile the Orsini, pursuing their projects of vengeance against
-Caesar, had been levying many troops at Perugia and the neighbourhood to
-bring against him to Rome, and as they fancied that France, in whose
-service they were engaged, was humouring the duke for the sake of the
-twelve votes which were wanted to secure the election of Cardinal
-Amboise at the next Conclave, they went over to the service of Spain.
-
-Meanwhile Caesar was signing a new treaty with Louis XII, by which he
-engaged to support him with all his forces, and even with his person, so
-soon as he could ride, in maintaining his conquest of Naples: Louis, on
-his side, guaranteed that he should retain possession of the States he
-still held, and promised his help in recovering those he had lost.
-
-The day when this treaty was made known, Gonzalvo di Cordovo proclaimed
-to the sound of a trumpet in all the streets of Rome that every Spanish
-subject serving in a foreign army was at once to break his engagement on
-pain of being found guilty of high treason.
-
-This measure robbed Caesar of ten or twelve of his best officers and of
-nearly 300 men.
-
-Then the Orsini, seeing his army thus reduced, entered Rome, supported
-by the Spanish ambassador, and summoned Caesar to appear before the pope
-and the Sacred College and give an account of his crimes.
-
-Faithful to his engagements, Pius III replied that in his quality of
-sovereign prince the duke in his temporal administration was quite
-independent and was answerable for his actions to God alone.
-
-But as the pope felt he could not much longer support Caesar against his
-enemies for all his goodwill, he advised him to try to join the French
-army, which was still advancing on Naples, in the midst of which he
-would alone find safety. Caesar resolved to retire to Bracciano, where
-Gian Giordano Orsino, who had once gone with him to France, and who was
-the only member of the family who had not declared against him, offered
-him an asylum in the name of Cardinal d'Amboise: so one morning he
-ordered his troops to march for this town, and, taking his place in
-their midst, he left Rome.
-
-But though Caesar had kept his intentions quiet, the Orsini had been
-forewarned, and, taking out all the troops they had by the gate of San
-Pancracio, they had made a long detour and blocked Caesar's way; so,
-when the latter arrived at Storta, he found the Orsini's army drawn up
-awaiting him in numbers exceeding his own by at least one-half.
-
-Caesar saw that to come to blows in his then feeble state was to rush on
-certain destruction; so he ordered his troops to retire, and, being a
-first-rate strategist, echelonned his retreat so skilfully that his
-enemies, though they followed, dared not attack him, and he re-entered
-the pontifical town without the loss of a single man.
-
-This time Caesar went straight to the Vatican, to put himself more
-directly under the pope's protection; he distributed his soldiers about
-the palace, so as to guard all its exits. Now the Orsini, resolved to
-make an end of Caesar, had determined to attack him wheresoever he might
-be, with no regard to the sanctity of the place: this they attempted,
-but without success, as Caesar's men kept a good guard on every side,
-and offered a strong defence.
-
-Then the Orsini, not being able to force the guard of the Castle Sant'
-Angelo, hoped to succeed better with the duke by leaving Rome and then
-returning by the Torione gate; but Caesar anticipated this move, and
-they found the gate guarded and barricaded. None the less, they pursued
-their design, seeking by open violence the vengeance that they had hoped
-to obtain by craft; and, having surprised the approaches to the gate,
-set fire to it: a passage gained, they made their way into the gardens
-of the castle, where they found Caesar awaiting them at the head of his
-cavalry.
-
-Face to face with danger, the duke had found his old strength: and he
-was the first to rush upon his enemies, loudly challenging Orsino in the
-hope of killing him should they meet; but either Orsino did not hear him
-or dared not fight; and after an exciting contest, Caesar, who was
-numerically two-thirds weaker than his enemy, saw his cavalry cut to
-pieces; and after performing miracles of personal strength and courage,
-was obliged to return to the Vatican. There he found the pope in mortal
-agony: the Orsini, tired of contending against the old man's word of
-honour pledged to the duke, had by the interposition of Pandolfo
-Petrucci, gained the ear of the pope's surgeon, who placed a poisoned
-plaster upon a wound in his leg.
-
-The pope then was actually dying when Caesar, covered with dust and
-blood, entered his room, pursued by his enemies, who knew no check till
-they reached the palace walls, behind which the remnant of his army
-still held their ground.
-
-Pius III, who knew he was about to die, sat up in his bed, gave Caesar
-the key of the corridor which led to the Castle of Sant' Angelo, and an
-order addressed to the governor to admit him and his family, to defend
-him to the last extremity, and to let him go wherever he thought fit;
-and then fell fainting on his bed.
-
-Caesar took his two daughters by the hand, and, followed by the little
-dukes of Sermaneta and Nepi, took refuge in the last asylum open to him.
-
-The same night the pope died: he had reigned only twenty-six days.
-
-After his death, Caesar, who had cast himself fully dressed upon his
-bed, heard his door open at two o'clock in the morning: not knowing what
-anyone might want of him at such an hour, he raised himself on one elbow
-and felt for the handle of his sword with his other hand; but at the
-first glance he recognised in his nocturnal visitor Giuliano della
-Rovere.
-
-Utterly exhausted by the poison, abandoned by his troops, fallen as he
-was from the height of his power, Caesar, who could now do nothing for
-himself, could yet make a pope: Giuliano della Rovere had come to buy
-the votes of his twelve cardinals.
-
-Caesar imposed his conditions, which were accepted.
-
-If elected, Giuliano della Rovere was to help Caesar to recover his
-territories in Romagna; Caesar was to remain general of the Church; and
-Francesco Maria della Rovere, prefect of Rome, was to marry one of
-Caesar's daughters.
-
-On these conditions Caesar sold his twelve cardinals to Giuliano.
-
-The next day, at Giuliano's request, the Sacred College ordered the
-Orsini to leave Rome for the whole time occupied by the Conclave.
-
-On the 31st of October 1503, at the first scrutiny, Giuliano della
-Rovere was elected pope, and took the name of Julius II.
-
-He was scarcely installed in the Vatican when he made it his first care
-to summon Caesar and give him his former rooms there; then, since the
-duke was fully restored to health, he began to busy himself with the
-re-establishment of his affairs, which had suffered sadly of late.
-
-The defeat of his army and his own escape to Sant' Angelo, where he was
-supposed to be a prisoner, had brought about great changes in Romagna.
-Sesena was once more in the power of the Church, as formerly it had
-been; Gian Sforza had again entered Pesaro; Ordelafi had seized Forli;
-Malatesta was laying claim to Rimini; the inhabitants of Imola had
-assassinated their governor, and the town was divided between two
-opinions, one that it should be put into the hands of the Riani, the
-other, into the hands of the Church; Faenza had remained loyal longer
-than any other place; but at last, losing hope of seeing Caesar recover
-his power, it had summoned Francesco, a natural son of Galeotto
-Manfredi, the last surviving heir of this unhappy family, all whose
-legitimate descendants had been massacred by Borgia.
-
-It is true that the fortresses of these different places had taken no
-part in these revolutions, and had remained immutably faithful to the
-Duke of Valentinois.
-
-So it was not precisely the defection of these towns, which, thanks to
-their fortresses, might be reconquered, that was the cause of uneasiness
-to Caesar and Julius II, it was the difficult situation that Venice had
-thrust upon them. Venice, in the spring of the same year, had signed a
-treaty of peace with the Turks: thus set free from her eternal enemy,
-she had just led her forces to the Romagna, which she had always
-coveted: these troops had been led towards Ravenna, the farthermost
-limit of the Papal estates, and put under the command of Giacopo
-Venieri, who had failed to capture Cesena, and had only failed through
-the courage of its inhabitants; but this check had been amply
-compensated by the surrender of the fortresses of Val di Lamane and
-Faenza, by the capture of Farlimpopoli, and the surrender of Rimini,
-which Pandolfo Malatesta, its lord, exchanged for the seigniory of
-Cittadella, in the State of Padua, and for the rank of gentleman of
-Venice.
-
-Then Caesar made a proposition to Julius II: this was to make a
-momentary cession to the Church of his own estates in Romagna, so that
-the respect felt by the Venetians for the Church might save these towns
-from their aggressors; but, says Guicciardini, Julius II, whose
-ambition, so natural in sovereign rulers, had not yet extinguished the
-remains of rectitude, refused to accept the places, afraid of exposing
-himself to the temptation of keeping them later on, against his
-promises.
-
-But as the case was urgent, he proposed to Caesar that he should leave
-Rome, embark at Ostia, and cross over to Spezia, where Michelotto was to
-meet him at the head of 100 men-at-arms and 100 light horse, the only
-remnant of his magnificent army, thence by land to Ferrara, and from
-Ferrara to Imola, where, once arrived, he could utter his war-cry so
-loud that it would be heard through the length and breadth of Romagna.
-
-This advice being after Caesar's own heart, he accepted it at once.
-
-The resolution submitted to the Sacred College was approved, and Caesar
-left for Ostia, accompanied by Bartolommeo della Rovere, nephew of His
-Holiness.
-
-Caesar at last felt he was free, and fancied himself already on his good
-charger, a second time carrying war into all the places where he had
-formerly fought. When he reached Ostia, he was met by the cardinals of
-Sorrento and Volterra, who came in the name of Julius II to ask him to
-give up the very same citadels which he had refused three days before:
-the fact was that the pope had learned in the interim that the Venetians
-had made fresh aggressions, and recognised that the method proposed by
-Caesar was the only one that would check them. But this time it was
-Caesar's turn, to refuse, for he was weary of these tergiversations, and
-feared a trap; so he said that the surrender asked for would be useless,
-since by God's help he should be in Romagna before eight days were past.
-So the cardinals of Sorrento and Volterra returned to Rome with a
-refusal.
-
-The next morning, just as Caesar was setting foot on his vessel, he was
-arrested in the name of Julius II.
-
-He thought at first that this was the end; he was used to this mode of
-action, and knew how short was the space between a prison and a tomb;
-the matter was all the easier in his case, because the pope, if he
-chose, would have plenty of pretext for making a case against him. But
-the heart of Julius was of another kind from his; swift to anger, but
-open to clemency; so, when the duke came back to Rome guarded, the
-momentary irritation his refusal had caused was already calmed, and the
-pope received him in his usual fashion at his palace, and with his
-ordinary courtesy, although from the beginning it was easy for the duke
-to see that he was being watched. In return for this kind reception,
-Caesar consented to yield the fortress of Cesena to the pope, as being a
-town which had once belonged to the Church, and now should return;
-giving the deed, signed by Caesar, to one of his captains, called Pietro
-d'Oviedo, he ordered him to take possession of the fortress in the name
-of the Holy See. Pietro obeyed, and starting at once for Cesena,
-presented himself armed with his warrant before Don Diego Chinon; a
-noble condottiere of Spain, who was holding the fortress in Caesar's
-name. But when he had read over the paper that Pietro d'Oviedo brought,
-Don Diego replied that as he knew his lord and master was a prisoner, it
-would be disgraceful in him to obey an order that had probably been
-wrested from him by violence, and that the bearer deserved to die for
-undertaking such a cowardly office. He therefore bade his soldiers seize
-d'Oviedo and fling him down from the top of the walls: this sentence was
-promptly executed.
-
-This mark of fidelity might have proved fatal to Caesar: when the pope
-heard how his messenger had been treated, he flew into such a rage that
-the prisoner thought a second time that his hour was come; and in order
-to receive his liberty, he made the first of those new propositions to
-Julius II, which were drawn up in the form of a treaty and sanctioned by
-a bull. By these arrangements, the Duke of Valentinois was bound to hand
-over to His Holiness, within the space of forty days, the fortresses of
-Cesena and Bertinoro, and authorise the surrender of Forli. This
-arrangement was guaranteed by two bankers in Rome who were to be
-responsible for 15,000 ducats, the sum total of the expenses which the
-governor pretended he had incurred in the place on the duke's account.
-The pope on his part engaged to send Caesar to Ostia under the sole
-guard of the Cardinal of Santa Croce and two officers, who were to give
-him his full liberty on the very day when his engagements were
-fulfilled: should this not happen, Caesar was to be taken to Rome and
-imprisoned in the Castle of Sant' Angelo. In fulfilment of this treaty,
-Caesar went down the Tiber as far as Ostia, accompanied by the pope's
-treasurer and many of his servants. The Cardinal of Santa Croce
-followed, and the next day joined him there.
-
-But as Caesar feared that Julius II might keep him a prisoner, in spite
-of his pledged word, after he had yielded up the fortresses, he asked,
-through the mediation of Cardinals Borgia and Remolina, who, not feeling
-safe at Rome, had retired to Naples, for a safe-conduct to Gonzalva of
-Cordova, and for two ships to take him there; with the return of the
-courier the safe-conduct arrived, announcing that the ships would
-shortly follow.
-
-In the midst of all this, the Cardinal of Santa Croce, learning that by
-the duke's orders the governors of Cesena and Bertinoro had surrendered
-their fortresses to the captains of His Holiness, relaxed his rigour,
-and knowing that his prisoner would some day or other be free, began to
-let him go out without a guard. Then Caesar, feeling some fear lest when
-he started with Gonzalvo's ships the same thing might happen as on the
-occasion of his embarking on the pope's vessel--that is, that he might
-be arrested a second time--concealed himself in a house outside the
-town; and when night came on, mounting a wretched horse that belonged to
-a peasant, rode as far as Nettuno, and there hired a little boat, in
-which he embarked for Monte Dragone, and thence gained Naples. Gonzalvo
-received him with such joy that Caesar was deceived as to his intention,
-and this time believed that he was really saved. His confidence was
-redoubled when, opening his designs to Gonzalvo, and telling him that he
-counted upon gaining Pisa and thence going on into Romagna, Ganzalvo
-allowed him to recruit as many soldiers at Naples as he pleased,
-promising him two ships to embark with. Caesar, deceived by these
-appearances, stopped nearly six weeks at Naples, every day seeing the
-Spanish governor and discussing his plans. But Gonzalvo was only waiting
-to gain time to tell the King of Spain that his enemy was in his hands;
-and Caesar actually went to the castle to bid Gonzalvo good-bye,
-thinking he was just about to start after he had embarked his men on the
-two ships. The Spanish governor received him with his accustomed
-courtesy, wished him every kind of prosperity, and embraced him as he
-left; but at the door of the castle Caesar found one of Gonzalvo's
-captains, Nuno Campeja by name, who arrested him as a prisoner of
-Ferdinand the Catholic. Caesar at these words heaved a deep sigh,
-cursing the ill luck that had made him trust the word of an enemy when
-he had so often broken his own.
-
-He was at once taken to the castle, where the prison gate closed behind
-him, and he felt no hope that anyone would come to his aid; for the only
-being who was devoted to him in this world was Michelotto, and he had
-heard that Michelotto had been arrested near Pisa by order of Julius II.
-While Caesar was being taken to prison an officer came to him to deprive
-him of the safe-conduct given him by Gonzalvo.
-
-The day after his arrest, which occurred on the 27th of May, 1504,
-Caesar was taken on board a ship, which at once weighed anchor and set
-sail for Spain: during the whole voyage he had but one page to serve
-him, and as soon as he disembarked he was taken to the castle of Medina
-del Campo.
-
-Ten years later, Gonzalvo, who at that time was himself proscribed,
-owned to Loxa on his dying bed that now, when he was to appear in the
-presence of God, two things weighed cruelly on his conscience: one was
-his treason to Ferdinand, the other his breach of faith towards Caesar.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI
-
-
-Caesar was in prison for two years, always hoping that Louis XII would
-reclaim him as peer of the kingdom of France; but Louis, much disturbed
-by the loss of the battle of Garigliano, which robbed him of the kingdom
-of Naples, had enough to do with his own affairs without busying himself
-with his cousin's. So the prisoner was beginning to despair, when one
-day as he broke his bread at breakfast he found a file and a little
-bottle containing a narcotic, with a letter from Michelotto, saying that
-he was out of prison and had left Italy for Spain, and now lay in hiding
-with the Count of Benevento in the neighbouring village: he added that
-from the next day forward he and the count would wait every night on the
-road between the fortress and the village with three excellent horses;
-it was now Caesar's part to do the best he could with his bottle and
-file. When the whole world had abandoned the Duke of Romagna he had been
-remembered by a sbirro.
-
-The prison where he had been shut up for two years was so hateful to
-Caesar that he lost not a single moment: the same day he attacked one of
-the bars of a window that looked out upon an inner court, and soon
-contrived so to manipulate it that it would need only a final push to
-come out. But not only was the window nearly seventy feet from the
-ground, but one could only get out of the court by using an exit
-reserved for the governor, of which he alone had the key; also this key
-never left him; by day it hung at his waist, by night it was under his
-pillow: this then was the chief difficulty.
-
-But prisoner though he was, Caesar had always been treated with the
-respect due to his name and rank: every day at the dinner-hour he was
-conducted from the room that served as his prison to the governor, who
-did the honours of the table in a grand and courteous fashion. The fact
-was that Dan Manuel had served with honour under King Ferdinand, and
-therefore, while he guarded Caesar rigorously, according to orders, he
-had a great respect for so brave a general, and took pleasure in
-listening to the accounts of his battles. So he had often insisted that
-Caesar should not only dine but also breakfast with him; happily the
-prisoner, yielding perhaps to some presentiment, had till now refused
-this favour. This was of great advantage to him, since, thanks to his
-solitude, he had been able to receive the instruments of escape sent by
-Michelotto. The same day he received them, Caesar, on going back to his
-room, made a false step and sprained his foot; at the dinner-hour he
-tried to go down, but he pretended to be suffering so cruelly that he
-gave it up. The governor came to see him in his room, and found him
-stretched upon the bed.
-
-The day after, he was no better; the governor had his dinner sent in,
-and came to see him, as on the night before; he found his prisoner so
-dejected and gloomy in his solitude that he offered to come and sup with
-him: Caesar gratefully accepted.
-
-This time it was the prisoner who did the honours: Caesar was charmingly
-courteous; the governor thought he would profit by this lack of
-restraint to put to him certain questions as to the manner of his
-arrest, and asked him as an Old Castilian, for whom honour is still of
-some account, what the truth really was as to Gonzalvo's and Ferdinand's
-breach of faith, with him. Caesar appeared extremely inclined to give
-him his entire confidence, but showed by a sign that the attendants were
-in the way. This precaution appeared quite natural, and the governor
-took no offense, but hastened to send them all away, so as to be sooner
-alone with his companion. When the door was shut, Caesar filled his
-glass and the governor's, proposing the king's health: the governor
-honoured the toast: Caesar at once began his tale; but he had scarcely
-uttered a third part of it when, interesting as it was, the eyes of his
-host shut as though by magic, and he slid under the table in a profound
-sleep.
-
-After half a hour had passed, the servants, hearing no noise, entered
-and found the two, one on the table, the other under it: this event was
-not so extraordinary that they paid any great attention to it: all they
-did was to carry Don Manuel to his room and lift Caesar on the bed; then
-they put away the remnant of the meal for the next day's supper, shut
-the door very carefully, and left their prisoner alone.
-
-Caesar stayed for a minute motionless and apparently plunged in the
-deepest sleep; but when he had heard the steps retreating, he quietly
-raised his head, opened his eyes, slipped off the bed, walked to the
-door, slowly indeed, but not to all appearance feeling the accident of
-the night before, and applied his ear for some minutes to the keyhole;
-then lifting his head with an expression of indescribable pride, he
-wiped his brow with his hand, and for the first time since his guards
-went out, breathed freely with full-drawn breaths.
-
-There was no time to lose: his first care was to shut the door as
-securely on the inside as it was already shut on the outside, to blow
-out the lamp, to open the window, and to finish sawing through the bar.
-When this was done, he undid the bandages on his leg, took down the
-window and bed curtains, tore them into strips, joined the sheets, table
-napkins and cloth, and with all these things tied together end to end,
-formed a rope fifty or sixty feet long, with knots every here and there.
-This rope he fixed securely to the bar next to the one he had just cut
-through; then he climbed up to the window and began what was really the
-hardest part of his perilous enterprise, clinging with hands and feet to
-this fragile support. Luckily he was both strong and skilful, and he
-went down the whole length of the rope without accident; but when he
-reached the end and was hanging on the last knot, he sought in vain to
-touch the ground with his feet; his rope was too short.
-
-The situation was a terrible one: the darkness of the night prevented
-the fugitive from seeing how far off he was from the ground, and his
-fatigue prevented him from even attempting to climb up again. Caesar put
-up a brief prayer, whether to God or Satan he alone could say; then
-letting go the rope, he dropped from a height of twelve or fifteen feet.
-
-The danger was too great for the fugitive to trouble about a few
-trifling contusions: he at once rose, and guiding himself by the
-direction of his window, he went straight to the little door of exit; he
-then put his hand into the pocket of his doublet, and a cold sweat
-damped his brow; either he had forgotten and left it in his room or had
-lost it in his fall; anyhow, he had not the key.
-
-But summoning his recollections, he quite gave up the first idea for the
-second, which was the only likely one: again he crossed the court,
-looking for the place where the key might have fallen, by the aid of the
-wall round a tank on which he had laid his hand when he got up; but the
-object of search was so small and the night so dark that there was
-little chance of getting any result; still Caesar sought for it, for in
-this key was his last hope: suddenly a door was opened, and a night
-watch appeared, preceded by two torches. Caesar for the moment thought
-he was lost, but remembering the tank behind him, he dropped into it,
-and with nothing but his head above water anxiously watched the
-movements of the soldiers, as they advanced beside him, passed only a
-few feet away, crossed the court, and then disappeared by an opposite
-door. But short as their luminous apparition had been, it had lighted up
-the ground, and Caesar by the glare of the torches had caught the
-glitter of the long-sought key, and as soon as the door was shut behind
-the men, was again master of his liberty.
-
-Half-way between the castle and the village two cavaliers and a led
-horse were waiting for him: the two men were Michelotto and the Count of
-Benevento. Caesar sprang upon the riderless horse, pressed with fervour
-the hand of the count and the sbirro; then all three galloped to the
-frontier of Navarre, where they arrived three days later, and were
-honourably received by the king, Jean d'Albret, the brother of Caesar's
-wife.
-
-From Navarre he thought to pass into France, and from France to make an
-attempt upon Italy, with the aid of Louis XII; but during Caesar's
-detention in the castle of Medina del Campo, Louis had made peace with
-the King of Spain; and when he heard of Caesar's flight; instead of
-helping him, as there was some reason to expect he would, since he was a
-relative by marriage, he took away the duchy of Valentinois and also his
-pension. Still, Caesar had nearly 200,000 ducats in the charge of
-bankers at Genoa; he wrote asking for this sum, with which he hoped to
-levy troops in Spain and in Navarre, and make an attempt upon Pisa: 500
-men, 200,000 ducats, his name and his word were more than enough to save
-him from despair.
-
-The bankers denied the deposit.
-
-Caesar was at the mercy of his brother-in-law.
-
-One of the vassals of the King of Navarre, named Prince Alarino, had
-just then revolted: Caesar then took command of the army which Jean
-d'Albret was sending out against him, followed by Michelotto, who was as
-faithful in adversity as ever before. Thanks to Caesar's courage and
-skilful tactics, Prince Alarino was beaten in a first encounter; but the
-day after his defeat he rallied his army, and offered battle about three
-o'clock in the afternoon. Caesar accepted it.
-
-For nearly four hours they fought obstinately on both sides; but at
-length, as the day was going down, Caesar proposed to decide the issue
-by making a charge himself, at the head of a hundred men-at-arms, upon a
-body of cavalry which made his adversary's chief force. To his great
-astonishment, this cavalry at the first shock gave way and took flight
-in the direction of a little wood, where they seemed to be seeking
-refuge. Caesar followed close on their heels up to the edge of the
-forest; then suddenly the pursued turned right about face, three or four
-hundred archers came out of the wood to help them, and Caesar's men,
-seeing that they had fallen into an ambush, took to their heels like
-cowards, and abandoned their leader.
-
-Left alone, Caesar would not budge one step; possibly he had had enough
-of life, and his heroism was rather the result of satiety than courage:
-however that may be, he defended himself like a lion; but, riddled with
-arrows and bolts, his horse at last fell, with Caesar's leg under him.
-His adversaries rushed upon him, and one of them thrusting a sharp and
-slender iron pike through a weak place in his armour, pierced his
-breast; Caesar cursed God and died.
-
-But the rest of the enemy's army was defeated, thanks to the courage of
-Michelotto, who fought like a valiant condottiere, but learned, on
-returning to the camp in the evening, from those who had fled that they
-had abandoned Caesar and that he had never reappeared. Then only too
-certain, from his master's well-known courage, that disaster had
-occurred, he desired to give one last proof of his devotion by not
-leaving his body to the wolves and birds of prey. Torches were lighted,
-for it was dark, and with ten or twelve of those who had gone with
-Caesar as far as the little wood, he went to seek his master. On
-reaching the spot they pointed out, he beheld five men stretched side by
-side; four of them were dressed, but the fifth had been stripped of his
-clothing and lay completely naked. Michelotto dismounted, lifted the
-head upon his knees, and by the light of the torches recognised Caesar.
-
-Thus fell, on the 10th of March, 1507, on an unknown field, near an
-obscure village called Viane, in a wretched skirmish with the vassal of
-a petty king, the man whom Macchiavelli presents to all princes as the
-model of ability, diplomacy, and courage.
-
-As to Lucrezia, the fair Duchess of Ferrara, she died full of years, and
-honours, adored as a queen by her subjects, and sung as a goddess by
-Ariosto and by Bembo.
-
-
-
-
-EPILOGUE
-
-
-There was once in Paris, says Boccaccio, a brave and good merchant named
-Jean de Civigny, who did a great trade in drapery, and was connected in
-business with a neighbour and fellow-merchant, a very rich man called
-Abraham, who, though a Jew, enjoyed a good reputation. Jean de Civigny,
-appreciating the qualities of the worthy Israelite; feared lest, good
-man as he was, his false religion would bring his soul straight to
-eternal perdition; so he began to urge him gently as a friend to
-renounce his errors and open his eyes to the Christian faith, which he
-could see for himself was prospering and spreading day by day, being the
-only true and good religion; whereas his own creed, it was very plain,
-was so quickly diminishing that it would soon disappear from the face of
-the earth. The Jew replied that except in his own religion there was no
-salvation, that he was born in it, proposed to live and die in it, and
-that he knew nothing in the world that could change his opinion. Still,
-in his proselytising fervour Jean would not think himself beaten, and
-never a day passed but he demonstrated with those fair words the
-merchant uses to seduce a customer, the superiority of the Christian
-religion above the Jewish; and although Abraham was a great master of
-Mosaic law, he began to enjoy his friend's preaching, either because of
-the friendship he felt for him or because the Holy Ghost descended upon
-the tongue of the new apostle; still obstinate in his own belief, he
-would not change. The more he persisted in his error, the more excited
-was Jean about converting him, so that at last, by God's help, being
-somewhat shaken by his friend's urgency, Abraham one day said--
-
-"Listen, Jean: since you have it so much at heart that I should be
-converted, behold me disposed to satisfy you; but before I go to Rome to
-see him whom you call God's vicar on earth, I must study his manner of
-life and his morals, as also those of his brethren the cardinals; and
-if, as I doubt not, they are in harmony with what you preach, I will
-admit that, as you have taken such pains to show me, your faith is
-better than mine, and I will do as you desire; but if it should prove
-otherwise, I shall remain a Jew, as I was before; for it is not worth
-while, at my age, to change my belief for a worse one."
-
-Jean was very sad when he heard these words; and he said mournfully to
-himself, "Now I have lost my time and pains, which I thought I had spent
-so well when I was hoping to convert this unhappy Abraham; for if he
-unfortunately goes, as he says he will, to the court of Rome, and there
-sees the shameful life led by the servants of the Church, instead of
-becoming a Christian the Jew will be more of a Jew than ever." Then
-turning to Abraham, he said, "Ah, friend, why do you wish to incur such
-fatigue and expense by going to Rome, besides the fact that travelling
-by sea or by land must be very dangerous for so rich a man as you are?
-Do you suppose there is no one here to baptize you? If you have any
-doubts concerning the faith I have expounded, where better than here
-will you find theologians capable of contending with them and allaying
-them? So, you see, this voyage seems to me quite unnecessary: just
-imagine that the priests there are such as you see here, and all the
-better in that they are nearer to the supreme pastor. If you are guided
-by my advice, you will postpone this toil till you have committed some
-grave sin and need absolution; then you and I will go together."
-
-But the Jew replied--
-
-"I believe, dear Jean, that everything is as you tell me; but you know
-how obstinate I am. I will go to Rome, or I will never be a Christian."
-
-Then Jean, seeing his great wish, resolved that it was no use trying to
-thwart him, and wished him good luck; but in his heart he gave up all
-hope; for it was certain that his friend would come back from his
-pilgrimage more of a Jew than ever, if the court of Rome was still as he
-had seen it.
-
-But Abraham mounted his horse, and at his best speed took the road to
-Rome, where on his arrival he was wonderfully well received by his
-coreligionists; and after staying there a good long time, he began to
-study the behaviour of the pope, the cardinals and other prelates, and
-of the whole court. But much to his surprise he found out, partly by
-what passed under his eyes and partly by what he was told, that all from
-the pope downward to the lowest sacristan of St. Peter's were committing
-the sins of luxurious living in a most disgraceful and unbridled manner,
-with no remorse and no shame, so that pretty women and handsome youths
-could obtain any favours they pleased. In addition to this sensuality
-which they exhibited in public, he saw that they were gluttons and
-drunkards, so much so that they were more the slaves of the belly than
-are the greediest of animals. When he looked a little further, he found
-them so avaricious and fond of money that they sold for hard cash both
-human bodies and divine offices, and with less conscience than a man in
-Paris would sell cloth or any other merchandise. Seeing this and much
-more that it would not be proper to set down here, it seemed to Abraham,
-himself a chaste, sober, and upright man, that he had seen enough. So he
-resolved to return to Paris, and carried out the resolution with his
-usual promptitude. Jean de Civigny held a great fete in honour of his
-return, although he had lost hope of his coming back converted. But he
-left time for him to settle down before he spoke of anything, thinking
-there would be plenty of time to hear the bad news he expected. But,
-after a few days of rest, Abraham himself came to see his friend, and
-Jean ventured to ask what he thought of the Holy Father, the cardinals,
-and the other persons at the pontifical court. At these words the Jew
-exclaimed, "God damn them all! I never once succeeded in finding among
-them any holiness, any devotion, any good works; but, on the contrary,
-luxurious living, avarice, greed, fraud, envy, pride, and even worse, if
-there is worse; all the machine seemed to be set in motion by an impulse
-less divine than diabolical. After what I saw, it is my firm conviction
-that your pope, and of course the others as well, are using all their
-talents, art, endeavours, to banish the Christian religion from the face
-of the earth, though they ought to be its foundation and support; and
-since, in spite of all the care and trouble they expend to arrive at
-this end, I see that your religion is spreading every day and becoming
-more brilliant and more pure, it is borne in upon me that the Holy
-Spirit Himself protects it as the only true and the most holy religion;
-this is why, deaf as you found me to your counsel and rebellious to your
-wish, I am now, ever since I returned from this Sodom, firmly resolved
-on becoming a Christian. So let us go at once to the church, for I am
-quite ready to be baptized."
-
-There is no need to say if Jean de Civigny, who expected a refusal, was
-pleased at this consent. Without delay he went with his godson to Notre
-Dame de Paris, where he prayed the first priest he met to administer
-baptism to his friend, and this was speedily done; and the new convert
-changed his Jewish name of Abraham into the Christian name of Jean; and
-as the neophyte, thanks to his journey to Rome, had gained a profound
-belief, his natural good qualities increased so greatly in the practice
-of our holy religion, that after leading an exemplary life he died in
-the full odour of sanctity.
-
-This tale of Boccaccio's gives so admirable an answer to the charge of
-irreligion which some might make against us if they mistook our
-intentions, that as we shall not offer any other reply, we have not
-hesitated to present it entire as it stands to the eyes of our readers.
-
-And let us never forget that if the papacy has had an Innocent VIII and
-an Alexander VI who are its shame, it has also had a Pius VII and a
-Gregory XVI who are its honour and glory.
-
-
-
-
-                                  ----
-
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