i \ \ CATHERINE SFORZA CATHERINE SFORZA. AT THt Aoc or la i*ai. From a Painting aUributed to Marco Palmaygianl (rorll Oallery.) CATHERINE SFORZA BY COUNT PIER DESIDERIO PASOLINI AUTHORIZED EDITION, TRANSLATED AND PREPARED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE AUTHOR BY PAUL SYLVESTER ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS REPRODUCTIONS FROM ORIGINAL PICTURES AND DOCUMENTS HERBERT S. STONE & CO. CHICAGO & NEW YORK MDCCCXCVIII 2>e&icate£) BY PERiNIISSION TO THE QUEEN OF ITALY TRANSLATOR'S NOTE The translator is too keenly alive to the charm of the original work not to realize that some of its elements must evaporate in the process of translation. Among these he accounts the contrast afforded by the modern colloquialisms of the Italian narrative to the archaic diction of the quotations by whiek yi is enriched. By this perhaps unconscious artifice the voices of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are made to speak in the ear of the nineteenth, so bridging over the gap, that the author may well claim to have made tangible the great dim phantom of that wonder of her age, of whom a modern critic has happily said — (/e son vivant elk dcvint mytJie. The numbers of the documents quoted in the course of this volume refer to an appendix, which, besides letters and other documents, includes Gli Experimenti (some five hundred household and other recipes) of the Lady of Forli. — Cater ijia Sforza, Vol. III., di Pier Desiderio Pasoliiii, Roma, Loescher. PREFACE A SHORT life of Catherine Sforza was written by Fabio Oliva towards the middle of the sixteenth century, and another, in three volumes 4to, less than a century ago by the Spanish Abb6 Burriel, who, with others of his order and nationality, spent many years of exile in Forli. To Burriel must be ascribed the merit of examining con- temporary chronicles. But from lack of critical acumen, lie failed to interpret and sometimes even to utilize them ; in Catherine Sforza he was bent upon recognizing a second Countess Mathilda. It has been my good fortune to read more than five hundred of Catherine's letters ; Burriel never saw but one ; all the correspondence which elucidates her history remained unknown to him, and he published few documents. Extensive research in various archives, Italian and foreign, has yielded a large collection of documents, enabling me to gradually complete and rectify the narrative of many episodes of the life of Catherine, and to relate others, hitherto unknown, of her early youth and her later years. The figure presented to us by the biographers is so intangible that we cannot grasp it, the one created by tradition melts under the test of docu- ments. The legends have some, but not all of the elements of truth, and even this truth is vitiated, the exception standing for the rule, and fantastic stories for history. xii PREFACE The aim of the present book, which reproduces many of Catherine's letters, is to bring her nearer to us than has been done by any preceding work. The reader, to whom is revealed not only the life of the militant sovereign, but that of the private woman, will be the better able to judge of the moral significance of this historic figure, so famous and so little known. Pier Desiderio Pasolini. ERRATA P^gc 9> ^^^' ''"^ ^ut- one, rt'ad Lucia da Torsana, an excellent helpmate 39, descriptive names. No. 2, tif/cr Lungara read now Palazzo Corsini 56, beading of Chap. VI, y^r August 1881 reac/ 1481 59, line 2 1, y<7r twentieth ;r(zr/ nineteenth 59, line 2^, /or Leoni ;v;zr/ Leone 63, line 1 1, y^;- setters ;rrt(/ Segusian hounds 239, line S,/''^' Fortunalo rcat/ b'oriunali 275, line I, /or Imola read at Imola ; /or whose poor lord doth at commend /■cad doth commend 334, line 9, /or latter raad former 341. line 27, /or Borsi read Boss'i CONTENTS BOOK I ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA CHAP. I. Catherine's Ancestry ..... BOOK II CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD II. Childhood — Marriage ... III. The Assassination of Gale.\zzo . IV. Fro.m Milan to Rome . . . , 21 26 32 BOOK III CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO V. Who were the Riario ? . . . . VI. Catherine in the Romagna and Venice . VII. Catherine, the Riario, Orsini and Colonna VIII. Catherine in the Castle of St. Angelo . IX. Catherine leaves Rome — The New Pope . X. The Taxes of Forli ..... XI. Catherine and Innocenzo Codronchi XII. The Conspiracy of the Roffi XIII. The Assassination of Girolamo Riario 45 56 69 75 82 89 98 103 107 CONTENTS CHAP. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. BOOK IV CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD Catherine and the Assassins The Legend of the Fort . The Flight of the Orsi The Restoration . Catherine's Vengeance PAGE 128 148 161 BOOK V A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE XIX. The Castellane of Ravaldino . XX. Charles VIII. in Italy XXI. The Assassination of Giacomo Feo . XXII. Catherine and Ludovico il Moro 171 179 188 200 BOOK VI THE HOUSE OF MEDICI XXIII. Giovanni Popolano XXIV. The Florentine Alliance . XXV. Assassins in Romagna . XXVI. The Legation of Machiavelli 211 228 239 BOOK VII CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA XXVII. 'Jill, Defences of Forli XXVIII. Valentino takes Imola XXIX. Forli before the Siege XXX. Valentino at Forli XXXI. 'J'he Fall of Ravaldino xxxn. C/ESAR Victorious. XXXIII. 'I'lii. I'kiso.nkr of War. XXXIV. 'I III, I'oi'e's Lmi'eachment XXXV. Till. Deliverance. XXXVI. 'I'm, l,\s'r Tkoui'.lks and iii I'^NI) 265 284 289 300 310 -122 339 348 357 372 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Catherine Sforza ..... Frofitispiece House of the Attendolo-Sforza Family, Cotignola . 4 House of the Attendolo-Sforza Family, Cotignola . 5 Autograph Letter of Girolamo Riario • • ■ • 35 Panorama of Rome in the Time of Catherine Sforza . 38 Panorama of Rome (part ii.) 39 The Librarian Platinus before Sixtus IV. ... 48 Coins Struck by the Riario ...... 60 Palace Built by the Riario-Sforza, 1484 . . .61 Autograph Letter of Catherine Sforza to the Signory OF Sienna 71 Castle of St. Angelo in the Fifteenth Century . . 78 Castle of St. Angelo before the Demolitions of 1892 79 BiANCA Maria Sforza 95 Palace of the Podesta 119 The Church of St. Mercurial 153 The Miracle of the Fowls 176 Giovanni de' Medici delle Bande Nere . . . .218 CosiMO de' Medici, Son of Giovanni . . . .219 OcTAviANO Riario. Medal Coined by Nicolo Fiorentino 224 Letter of Catherine Sforza, dated September 14, 1498 230 Arms of Pope Alexander VI 248 Arms of C^sar Borgia 265 Fort of Imola ......... 287 Woman's Armour, probably made for Catherine Sforza 312 Woman's Armour {back) 313 Fort of Ravaldino : Present D.\y 323 C^SAR Borgia ......... 325 Castle of Mal.\test.\, or Murata . . . . -335 ■ t. . I.— . . ij. ■1 , 1 mmmtmmmt^ xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Castle of Malatesta, or Murata {another vie7v) Arms of C^sar Borgia Castle of St. Angelo in the Fifteenth Century . Castle of St. Angelo ...... Passage from the Vatican to the Castle of St. Angelo Window in the Castle of St. Angelo Cannon's Mouth, Castle of St. Angelo . Window, Castle of St. Angelo .... Autograph Letter of Catherine Sforza Castello, a Villa of the Medici near Florence . Maria Salviati de' Medici Medici Castle, Florence ...... PAGE 337 343 345 349 353 355 357 367 381 390 392 BOOK I ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA CHAPTER I CATHERINE'S ANCESTRY At the latter end of the fourteenth century bands of foreign mercenaries roamed at will over the bloodstained lands of down-trodden Italy, fighting now for one prince, now for another. Indifferent to the rights or wrongs of those who paid them, they remained constant only in their desire to amass wealth; an ambition which in the case of their leaders, or condotticri, was sometimes supplemented and gratified by the acquisition of a State and the foundation of a princely dynasty. The Italians, in course of time, followed their example. Alberigo da Barbiano, a young gentleman of Romagna, raised a banner with the motto: Liber Ital. ab. exter., and by the union of rival factions opened a new field to the prowess and hopes of all. Little was heard, henceforward, of old feuds in the villages and castles of Romagna, where all were banded together in new aims. The movement spread rapidly ; the boldest youths escaped from home, joined the nearest camp, and Italian companies, eager and in unison, prevailed against alien ones. Not only was the honour of Italian arms saved, but foreign hirelings were supplanted by Italian condotticri. The most brilliant example of a movement that was individual rather than collective, military than national, is found in the family of the Attendolo-Sforza of Cotignola. Its members surpassed the most famous condotticri in war and statecraft, and in their history it is easier to follow the steps that led them to a principality than in that of any other Italian family. IlOUSi: UK line ATlIiNDOI.O-SI'ORZA KAMII.V, CO TKiNOl.A. CATHERINE'S ANCESTRY 5 " Sforza (Muzzo from Giacoino or Giacomuzzo)^ was born at Cotignola, an old community of the Romagna, close to the Via Emilia in the county of Faenza," writes Zazzera in his Nobilta iV Italia. " His father was Giovanni of the Attendoli, a family of greater influence than nobility : of great wealth, HOUSE OV TIIK ATlK.NDOl.d-SKOKZA FAMILY, C(.)T1(;.N()LA. however, and flourishing by reason of a numerous progeny given to the service of arms. His (Muzzo's) mother was ' This same account of his name and origin was given by "Muzio" Sforza to Robert of Bavaria, wlien the latter wished to grant him a new coat of arms, which would have connected him by descent with a city and a royal liouse of Dacia. Muzzo became afterwards corrupted into " Muzio" by adulators of the Sforza princes who affected to trace the descent of the great coidottierc from Mutius SccBVola. 6 -ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA Elisa, a woman of virile mind, of the clannish House of the Petrascini. . . . She gave birth to twenty-one children, whom she so educated that they set no store by ornate garments, delicate viands, nor soft beds ; and all, being of a certain vigorous valour of mind, upheld the reputation of the family by frequentl}' resorting to arms.^ . . . At that time the halls and chambers in the houses of the Attendoli were not hung with tapestries, but with shields and armour ; the beds were wide and without coverings. Therein slept troops of armed kinsmen, and all were so alert and hardy that, without either choice or order, they partook in common of the frugal viands that were served up to them by serving-boys and muleteers." The education received by the Attendoli from their mother tempered and adapted them to those new times in which simple soldiers of fortune, from a little Romagnole village, could attain to the dominion of one of the foremost of European States. In the few generations in which the marvellous career of this family was developed, the ancestral type of Elisa was never lost : wives and sisters fought side by side with husbands and brothers, or in their stead, and by the renown of their valour and beauty upheld their State and lent security and honour to their lives. Their glory culminated in the heroic deeds of a warlike princess, the great-granddaughter of Muzzo or Muzio Attendolo, and the last, but perhaps the most perfect type of the knightly heroine of the middle ages. One evening of the year 1382, Giacomo (Giacomuzzo) Attendolo, afterwards surnamed Sforza, was quietly digging the paternal land when he heard the sound of pipes and drums. Some soldiers of the company of Boldrino of Panicalc liad been .sent into that country to recruit. Behind ' " For," continues Zazzera, '" tliey liad a mortal enmity to tlie I'asolini wlio were their equals ; Martino Pasolino, head of that House, having forcibly detained a iiohle maiden with a great inheritance for her dower, who was affianced to IJartolo, lirother of Sforza (Muzzo). l'"f)r this reason they were wont to fall on each other as in veritable battle, and UKiiiy were slain. In the end Martino, having lost his son and all his friends, was driven from the Commune." Zazzera, Ihlla Nobilla d' Ilalia (della Faiiiii^lia Sforza). CATHERINE'S ANCESTRY 7 them he perceived some of his own companions who had been already enrolled. " O Muzzo ! " (Giacomuzzo) cried the latter, " cast away your spade, and come with us to seek your fortune ! " Muzzo threw his spade into an oak, meaning, if the spade fell, to take it up again for ever ; if it stayed there, to be a soldier. The spade did not fall, and when night came, Muzzo fled from Cotignola, on one of his father's horses, and joined the camp. Two years later Muzio^ returned to visit his parents, but as his heart was ever with arms and armaments, his father said, "Be then a man of arms! go back to the camp and make thy fortune!" And he pledged a strip of land to buy him four horses and his arms. Muzio returned to the camp followed by a troop of his kinsmen, eager to acquire power and riches ; his violence earned him the nickname of Sforza ; bold and turbulent, he could scarcely endure to hear of the adventures of more fortunate condottieri. Broglio of Chieri was Lord of Assisi, Biordo of his native Perugia ; Acuto (John Hawkswood), an Englishman, of Cotignola. Their success kept Sforza sullen by day and wakeful by night. "Am I not as good as these.?" he asked himself. " May I not beat these strangers, who plunder our richest soil and capture our fairest cities ? " For the cup was brimming over, and the foreign orgy was nearing its end. The butchery at Faenza (March 29, 1376), and the more horrible slaughter, by the Bretons and English, of Acuto, by command of Robert, Cardinal of Geneva, had stirred the whole peninsula. Romagna arose from that bath of blood with a sense of revolt against the foreign hordes, and of envy of the luck of their leaders. " But among all," says Giovio, " Alberigo Balbiano, illustrious by the splendour of his arms, inflamed him (Sforza) to follow the wars." Sforza and his Romagnole band went to swell the ranks of the company of St. George, composed exclusively of Italians who had sworn never to turn their backs upon the enemy. After these had, in more than one place, vanquished the Bretons, killed the French, beaten the Germans, broken the ^ Vide note on Muzio (corruption of Muzzo) on page 5. 8 ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA Spaniards, and routed the Savoyards and the English, they sufficiently proved that the Italians had still some claim to a reputation for valour. Thus the fortunes of the House of Sforza grew with the renascent glory of Italian arms. Sforza was the greatest and most fortunate of cottdottieri — he fought for four popes and four kings. After the death of King Ladislaus of Naples he attached himself to Joan, his sister and successor, who " lived shamelessly, surrounded by a varied and ever-changing circle of lovers. . . . Sforza, a most gallant soldier, took his place among these." ^ Sforza was not without a certain rustic cunning, but " inexpert in intrigues and in the ways of Courts, he fell an easy prey to treason."- Pandolfo Alopo, his rival in the Queen's love, thrust him into prison, then appealed to him to help him to oppose Giacomo del la Marca, whom Joan had chosen for her husband despite his age, " the better to manage and circum- vent him." But the latter, who cared more for his crown than for his queen, deprived the unhappy princess of her power and tormented her ; Alopo lost his head on the scaffold, and Sforza, in chains in a dungeon, awaited torture. The Virgin appeared to him and promised him that he should not suffer. Invoking her name, he resisted his tor- mentors, and the new King failed to extort from him the pass-words of the fortresses : he pined in prison, but faith upheld him. The King sent to Tricarico to take possession of the city. Margaret, Sforza's sister, who was its ruler, met the King's envoys, sword in hand, and cast them into prison, vowing to hang them all by the neck unless her brother were set at liberty. Sforza was immediately liberated. Sforza now strove to acquire riches as a means to power, but ever fearful of their influence, turned away his eyes from coin, lest the sight of heaps of gold should weaken him. He balanced his exjjcnditurc with the revenues of castles and stijjcnds ; he did not understand figures, yet never made a mistake in jjaying. He never failed his creditors, for he held that credit consisted rather in a loyal reputation than in ready ' V. SimoneUa, VHa di J-'rancesco Sforza. • Giovio. CATHERINE'S ANCESTRY 9 money. When in need, no one was ever so rich as he " because of the singular esteem in which the bankers held him." ^ He never hesitated to shed blood, even by treacherous means, and his discipline with his soldiers was iron. He who stole forage was dragged by a horse's tail ; traitors were hung to the roadside trees and their bones left to be picked by the birds; strokes were administered for a spot, or even a little rust on arms ; they whose helmets were unadorned by a fine plume were hissed. His reviews were splendid and sumptu- ous. The horses' harness was gilt or enamelled in the Persian fashion, the trappings heavy with gold and silver embroidery. He tolerated neither gambling nor swearing in camp. On days of leisure, he practised gymnastics with the soldiers and proved his superiority in suppleness of limb and muscular strength. At night the legends of the paladins of France were read to the soldiers ; he made generous offers to men of letters to translate for him the Greek and Latin historians, apologizing for his ignorance " in that he had not learnt to hold book and sword in the same hand." He wrote few letters and these in hasty and unformed characters, signed with a simple cipher that he had learned in the prison of Castel deir Ovo. His tabic was hospitable, in his house he neither tolerated unbelievers, madmen, nor jesters. He attended mass every day and partook of the Communion once a year. He received and employed the old enemies of his family, but advised them not to return to Cotignola ; for although he forgave them freely, there were those among his kinsmen who would neither forget nor forgive.- Matrimony was, to this fighting peasant, who had castaway his spade in the hope of a sceptre, the most rapid way to riches and power. To this end, he did not hesitate to sacrifice the celebrated Lucia da Torsana, an excellent wife, who had already borne him Francesco and six other sons. When he ^ Giovio. - Among these was Maitino Pasolino (head of a House witli whom that of Sforza was at enmity), who, finding himself ruined and hunted from every refuge, cast him- self in despair at the feet of Muzio, who immediately forgave and employed him. Doc. I, 2, 3 : Documents relating to "Experiments" of Catherine Sforza— Pier Desiderio Pasolini — Rome, Loescher. lo ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA became rich and famous, he no longer looked upon her as his equal, and wishing to be free to contract a princely alliance, he looked about him, until at fifty he succeeded in wedding the widow of Louis of Anjou, King of Naples. For the rest, his morals are in no way to be commended. When Francesco, his son, set out to make his fortune, he gave him the following advice : '•' Do not look at the wife of a friend ; do not beat any one, or if you have beaten him, make your peace with him and send him far away; ride no horse that hath a hard mouth or a tender heel : " for these three things had endangered his own life. On January 4, 1424, Sforza, then in his fifty-sixth year, gave battle to the Bracceschi at the mouth of the river Pescara. To complete his victory, there remained but to pursue the enemy. But a sudden vv'ind blew from the north ; the sea howled, the river swelled and some squadrons of horse, that were still on the other side of the river, hesitated to cross. Sforza, who had already crossed, signed to the soldiers and called to them by name ; then, seeing that none of them ventured to move, dashed once more into the river as an example to those who were afraid. In mid-current he perceived that a beloved page who had followed him, bearing his helmet, had lost his saddle and was on the point of drowning. " Poor boy! " cried Sforza, " will no one help you ? " Approaching him, he threw himself completely on one side, and by extending his arm succeeded in gripping the page by the hair. In doing this he unwittingly tightened his horse's rein. He rode a fine charger, of so delicate a mouth that it reared at the slightest touch of the bit ; its hind-legs caught in the river mud and the rider was thrown. Unburdened of his weight, the horse swam to land. liut Sforza, dragged down by the weight of his aruKjur, disappeared where the lUshing river lost itself in the waves and the roar of the sea. Twice his mailed gloves were seen to rise out of the water and join. None dared to breast the current. His corpse was never fountl. Tiu,- P.racccsclii had Incii aire id}- driven back within the CATHERINE'S ANCESTRY ii city of Pescara, when a runner arrived with the news of Sforza's death. From every side came cries of sorrow and discourage- ment. But Francesco, impassable, continued to give battle and held the command until the victory was complete. Some hours later, when the wind was down and the water low, Francesco, the victor of the day, drew rein at the river- side. He consigned his horse to a squire, lest he should trample on the body of his father, sprang into a small ruinous boat, which he rowed with a branch he had cut from a tree with his sword, and kneeling, bareheaded, regardless of the enemy's arrows, crossed the river which had become his father's grave. He was immediately surrounded by Sforza's weeping soldiers. " Be faithful to me," he said, " as you were to my father ; with God's help I will yet lead you to glory and fortune." In that same January of 1424, Francesco, with a following of forty men-at-arms, offered his services as his father's successor to Queen Joan of Naples. The unhappy Queen, on seeing him, cried, weeping bitterly : " O Sforza, Sforza ! ^ your name at least shall live. Francesco Sforza, be Sforza the surname of your sons and brothers." In Francesco was no trace of his father's rustic bearing; he had already won twenty-two battles, his achievements were as famous as those of his father before him, and no ambition was disproportionate to his merit. His constant aim was as his father's, a crown, and he pursued it by like means and with the same capacity. Matrimony was to complete what had been begun with valour and the fortune of arms. Bianca Maria, daughter of Philip, last of the Visconti, by his mistress, Agnese del Maino, conferred on him the rights and privileges of an old and princely name. At the time of the death of Duke Philip, Francesco and his wife were at Cotignola. He hastened with four thousand horse and two thousand foot soldiers to Cremona, a city that Bianca had brought him in dowry. Maria of Savoy, widow of Duke Philip, who had subjected ■* Sforza, a nickname actjuired by Muzio Attendolo on account of his extreme violence and impetuosity. 12 ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA her to many humiliations, was venerated by his subjects. She persuaded them to ally themselves with her brother, Ludovic, Duke of Savoy, an alliance which was to be frustrated by Bianca Maria, the daughter of her rival, who was determined not to lose the paternal heritage. Francesco Sforza declared he would turn the Dukes of Savoy out of Italy and enrich his followers with the Piedmontese tei-ritory. He put to death soldiers and subjects of the Duke of Savoy, scoffed at the Duchess Dowager of Milan, and sent to advise the magistrates of that city to put no faith in the promises and fables of the House of Savoy. As Captain- general of the Milanese Republic, he had beaten the Venetians at Caravaggio. He then allied himself with them, turned upon the Republic and besieged Milan, which opened her gates to him after thirty months of anarchic liberty. On February 26, 1450, Francesco made his state entry. He ordered his soldiers to give up their bread to the starving populace, and refusing to enter the chariot, with its baldaquin of cloth of gold, which the Milanese had prepared for him, was almost carried into the Dome on horseback by the enthu- siastic crowd which surrounded him too closely to permit of his dismounting. The appearance of this typical warrior and prince of the fifteenth century is thus described in a letter of Pope Pius II. " Of tall and imposing stature and serious expression, ever calm and affable in speech ; in truth, a princely bearing." None left him dissatisfied, nor were ever disappointed in him. I le honoured men of virtue and merit ; was benevolent and for- bearing to the weak, of quick temper, but prompt to atone by acts of spontaneous kindness for offence given, deaf to mali- cious insinuations, careful of religious observance, just and unrevengcfu!. In the licence and cruelty of his times, Fran- cesco Sfor/.a, despite his ten natural children and more than one act cjf violence, was accounted luunane, moral, and true to his given word. At that time, diversity of faith and country divided the human family,but when the Duke had erected thechief hospital, he decreed that despite diversity of faith and country the sick CATHERINE'S ANCESTRY 13 and maimed of all nations and creeds should be received there. The citizens often met him, walking with his children or riding to inspect the new buildings in progress. Like his father, he loved to dine in good company, but the ducal table was frugal. Besides his guests, any one might approach him at meal-times, when he would listen, with infinite courtesy and patience, to long stories of misfortune and continual api)cals for help. He was a loving husband to Bianca Maria, of whom he was wont to say that, "of all the good things for which he thanked God, that for which he was most grateful was that he had been found w^orthy of such a woman, who had not her equal upon earth." Whence it will be seen, that in the family of these fortunate adventurers, although the end was often used to justify the means, and legitimacy of birth was regarded as a negligible quantity, many simple, domestic virtues went hand in hand with military fame and the pomp of power. Bianca INIaria Visconti was eight years old when she was affianced to Francesco Sforza. Later, her father betrothed her, for political reasons, to two other princes, but Bianca would wed none other than Francesco, so that on October 25, 1441, when he was forty and the bride seventeen, they were married. A year later, Francesco entrusted her with the government of the Marca d'Ancona. She was happiest in the midst of her soldiers, but to avoid slander did not appear in camp except when councils were held, or in moments of extreme danger. Hearing, while her husband was away fighting in Bresciana, that the castle of Monza had fallen into rebel hands, she started on foot, calling to her guard : " Let those who love me follow," and appearing suddenly, with her escort, in the rebel midst, obtained the immediate restitution of the castle. On another occasion, fearing that Francesco, wearied by continuous rain, would raise a siege, she joined him, and finding that he had placed seven cannons in position, persuaded him to add to them two others and to bombard day and night. The fortress fell, and Francesco declared that he trusted even more in his wife than in his army. In 1448 Francesco was at war with Venice. The battle 14 ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA raged under the walls of Cremona. Bianca, who was then twenty-three, mounted her horse, called the citizens to arms, and placing herself at their head, led them to the camp. "Mark, St. Mark!" cried a Venetian soldier, from a tower. Bianca threw her lance at him and he fell dead. The burghers of Cremona, led by the voice of their liege lady, fought until night, wherever the danger was hottest, and having beaten the Venetians, led her back in triumph to the city. It was Bianca who, after the death of her father, advised her husband's alliance with the Venetians, and when the latter recalled their men and Francesco began to fear that their plan had fallen through, exhorted him "to fear naught, for the daughter of Duke Philip was capable of raising the spirits of the Milanese." When, during the siege of Milan, grain was selling at sixty ducats per measure, Bianca, by means of secret agents and letters, sent word to the people that they would be "blessed" if they summoned her and her "husband within their walls ! Your Duke will be a father and brother to you ! " Francesco was summoned ; Bianca recaptured the paternal State, and giving it to her husband, became the foundation pillar of Lombard statecraft under this new regimen, and beloved by her people, ever ruled them with justice. Many she freed from death, imprisonment and exile, and lavishly rewarded old servants and soldiers of her father.^ " When reproached with being too munificent and generous," says Sabadino, " she replied, raising her beautiful white hands, laden with jewelled rings, that she could never do enough to satisfy her soul."- Iler greatest pleasure was to make peace where there had been discord. She gave money where she gave advice, and thus put an end to enmity with other miseries, provided (lowers and arranged the marriages for the daughters of impoverished but deserving nobles, and albeit "was habited with such pomp and magnificence, that the like was never seen,"-' fasted like a nun and visited the shrines, in and out- ' Sabadino dc li Aricnti, (Jyitevcra de la dare donnc. - Jbid. ^ Jbid. CATHERINE'S ANCESTRY ' 15 side Milan, clothed like a penitent, barefoot, privately and in inclement weather. A careful education, in the seclusion of the castle of Abbiategrosso, enabled the Duchess to direct the education of her children. "We must remember," she said to one of their learned teachers, " that we have to train princes, not literati!' One of the themes she propounded to them was : " Of the manner, rules and artifices whereby the contracts between princes are made." The matter was to be treated in Latin by children from thirteen to sixteen. Ludovico il Moro was then nine. In a childish letter, written some years later from the country, Ludovic assures his mother, to whom he sends seventy quails, two partridges and a pheasant, that his love of sport {caccici) does not cause him to neglect his studies, "which will one day be very useful to him." Bianca divided her children's days into hours of study, hours for gymnastic and hours for military exercise. Some ladies of the Court were deputed to teach them good manners. They sometimes went on foot to pay visits to citizens of importance in their houses : they were expected to entertain the lords and gentlemen who came to Court from other cities, and to dance with their ladies. When the life of Francesco was despaired of, Bianca, remembering that the Sforza sovereignty lacked the imperial sanction, recalled her eldest son Galeazzo from the war in Dauphine : " It is our will," she wrote, "that immediately on receipt of this our letter you mount your horse and come away, flying, without any intermission of time." The Duke died on March 8, 1466. In the same night Bianca summoned the chief personages of Milan, took measures to frustrate an}' attempt to incite the people to rebellion, and wrote to the Italian Powers. She shed no tears, but her aspect compelled the pity of every witness. When her duties were fulfilled she went to pray by the corpse of her husband, where she watched for two days and nights and whence she had to be torn by force by the friends and doctors who surrounded her. Then only she lost her fortitude, and raining passionate tears and kisses on the dead face, upbraided herself for having some- i6 ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA times opposed her lord, praying God to receive his soul in peace. Bianca had saved the State for her son and shared its government with him so wisely that "all Italy spoke of her with reverence." But she soon became irksome to the new Duke, whose pride had been inflated by his marriage with Bona of Sa\oy, an alliance which made him brother-in- law to the King of France and son-in-law to that Duke Ludovic whom his father had threatened to turn out of Piedmont. His mother sought refuge from her humiliation in her own city of Cremona, where upon arrival she suddenly fell ill, and soon her life was despaired of. None ventured to tell the pious Duchess of her danger, until Michael Carcano (afterwards beatified), learning from the physicians that she could not outlive the following day, took heart of grace and said : " Gracious Lady, your hour is near." She calmly asked for the Sacrament, made her will and to Duke Galeazzo, who had hastened to her bedside, recommended her " Milanese and all our other subjects. But the Cremonese," she added, "who came to me as my paternal dower, I give and bequeath to thee." And having prayed him to so requite her household that none might sa)- they had in vain spent time and service on her, and having blessed the Duke and her other children, "presently fell asleep." The decadence of the race of Sforza began with Galeazzo, son of Francesco and Bianca, who inherited the paternal energy without its power of organization. To the vicissitudes of Romagna, Muzio owed his mental vigour ; to the pursuit of war and the thirst of power, Francesco owed his firmness and the temjjerament that is born of a high ideal. Galeazzo, who ascended the throne at twenty-two, had never measured his .strength with an enemy, an equal, nor a ri\al ; unac- customed to restraint, he was foolhardy, sensual and cruel. His violent nature was leavened by two weaknesses, in- constancy and vainglory, owing to which, the astute could bend his will to their own ends. His best adviser was Cicco Simonetta, who iiad been secretary to Duke Francesco. I'opularity being the chief aim of Galeazzo, his first care was CATHERINE'S ANXESTRY 17 to ensure the cheapness of victuals, and knowing that the people, next to abundance, cared most for public festivities, he determined that the Milanese should be proud of the splendour of his Court. He patronized and affected letters, and sought the praise of every kind of artist ; he spent treasure on musicians, singers, sculptors and painters. But even as a Maecenas he was mad and tyrannous ; he ordered a room in the Castle of Porta Giovia (built, but not decorated by his father) to be decorated, in one night, with the portraits of the ducal family, their courtiers and pages. Yet it was in the nature of things that, caring so much for praise, he should sometimes achieve that which was praise- worthy. Corruption existed no longer in the administration ; there was discipline in the army and liberty in commerce. The prince's word was considered as good as his bond. But his life was a continual contradiction, because his acts did not spring from an innate sense of good. He offered his people abundance, feasts and cavalcades, yet wrote to his treasurer : " Have a care not to emancipate our subjects, like those of Savoy." A contemporary defined him as " a monster compounded of virtues and vices ; " the Diario of Ferrara is more explicit : " He was a man who committed acts of madness and things that cannot be written." Milanese licence was so unbridled that Galcazzo could abandon himself to any sort of profligacy without fear of endangering his popularity ; his example not only corrupted manners, but principles; modesty was re- garded as barbarism, husbands were honoured by the prince's irregularities, his favourites were the leading ladies of the capital ; he did not hesitate to torture, mutilate, and bury alive any supposed rival in their fickle affections. A terrible suspicion cast its shadow over him ; he was reputed to have poisoned Dorothea Gonzaga, his affianced bride, that he might be free to woo Bona of Savoy. The sudden and mysterious death of Duchess Bianca was ascribed to the same cause by the populace, and when they saw him hasten to her deathbed at the Castle of Melegnano, they recoiled from what they believed to be hypocrisy. The callousness with which c i8 ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA Galeazzo received official condolence confirmed this rumour, which is not justified by history, while proofs are not wanting that his mother died of a broken heart. "Mental anguish" wrote Bianca's physician to the reigning Duke, " is most conducive to bodily suffering." Galeazzo had married Bona of Savoy in 1468. She is described by contemporaries (among whom was the Duke's brother, Tristan Sforza, his proxy at the wedding at the Castle of Amboise) as beautiful, gracious, gentle and in every way worthy of her name. By dint of tact and patience she obtained great influence over her erratic husband, and, shocked by his excesses, interceded between him and his victims. In 1474 the Sforza prisons and dungeons were crowded ; in many places gallows were erected, and everywhere terror and indignation prevailed, when the Duke, " touched by the entreaties of the Duchess" (writes Campi), "caused a general pardon to be proclaimed ; " a few were kept in chains, but no blood was shed. Bona, henceforward known as " the first Madonna of Italy," bore her husband five children : Giovan- Galeazzo, Alexander, Hermes, Bianca-Maria and Anna. His illegitimate offspring were Carlo, Octavian, Chiara, Galeazzo and one who must ever live in history as Catherine Sforza, not for having initiated a new era, but because she stands out from it, like a great figure from an older time. BOOK II CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD CHAPTER II CHILDHOOD. MARRIAGE The name of Catherine Sforza is first mentioned in a letter written by Duke Galeazzo (then in camp with the Florentine and Neapolitan armies in Bolognese territory) to his mother. Catherine, who was in her sixth year, had been left in the guardianship of her paternal grandmother ; she was ill, and as there was no improvement in her condition, two couriers had left Milan on the same day to convey news of the child. There was no mention of her mother. Duchess Bianca was then forty-one, still beautiful, although she had little more than a year to live, and an affectionate grandmother to the child of her son's first love, an error which had been quickly condoned by her, and had not scandalized any one else. Catherine was born about the year 1463, in Milan or Pavia, where the ducal family spent part of the year. Her mother, Lucretia Landriani, was remarkably beautiful, but there is nothing to prove her possession of the intellectual gifts with which she is accredited by some historians. She plays no part either in the education or the history of Catherine, who was, however, constant in her love for her. She had several children : Bianca and Pietro were legitimate, not so Stella, who yet was no daughter to Galeazzo. Galeazzo legitimized Catherine. On the death of her heroic grandmother she was adopted by Bona, his wife, who loved her as if she had really been her daughter, and educated her with maternal solicitude. Meanwhile her father, who intended her to serve his political aims, affianced her at the age of seven to Onorato, son of Count Marcantonio Torelli. 22 CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD Onorato's early death paved the way to Catherine's higher fortune. Catherine's education was most elaborate : the Duke, her father, prided himself on his literary acquirements. His Court was thronged by scholars and humanists ; the best masters were at hand, and the pupil was apt and of remarkable memory. The princesses of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were generally educated with their brothers, the field of learning being limited to the study of the classics. Italian and Latin verse, written by the women of the period, is virile in character, and in no wise distinguishable from that of the men. The study of music, in which it does not appear that Catherine was proficient, was generally confined to the lute. In the Italian Courts of the fifteenth century woman held a position equal to that of man — she was in every way his peer. Marriage, instead of blending two beings in one, united two equals, while enthusiasm for antique ideals and the conviction that classic culture was the principal ornament of life, made it essential to maidens who were destined to govern like men. The first important event which can have been retained by Catherine's memory was her visit to Lorenzo Medici. Galeazzo, conscious that the annexation of the county of Imola was obnoxious to the Medici, and desirous of averting a war with Florence, left, under the pretext of a pilgrimage to the Annunziata, for that city in March 1471 with his wife Bona and daughters Anna and Catherine. It would appear, from the sumptuousness of his travelling and hunting equipage and the splendour of the liveries and trappings of their nuincrcms following, that Galeazzo challenged com- parison with the magnificent Florentine, who received the ducal family in his own house, while the Court were lodged in the city at the expense of the Commune. Galeazzo was spellbound by the combination of magnificence and the highest art in Casa Medici. And the humour of the l'"lorcntincs was so unconstrained in its gaiet)' that " if the said Duke found the town steeped in effeminate delicacy CHILDHOOD. MARRIAGE 23 and in customs opposed to those of every well-ordered city, he left it worse than he found it," says Machiavelli. Genoa was not less splendid in her reception of the Duke and Duchess, but despite the warmth of the official reception, and the value and variety of the official presents, the tyrant betrayed his terror lest he should be assassinated, and after ordering the fortifications to be strengthened so that Genoa might continue to be held in subjection, Galeazzo, who had left Milan like a satrap, returned to it in fear and trembling, almost as a fugitive. Thus Florence and the Medicean Court were the first spectacle witnessed by Catherine, destined to become a member of a family who were mortal enemies of the Medici, and to be a witness of her husband's conspiracy against, and punishment by, the Medici, without lessening the irresistible sympathy which attracted her to the Florentines. One of her sons took service under the Republic ; she entertained Nicolo Machiavelli, a Medici was her last love, and as his widow she found her last resting-place in Florence, where a long line of her descendants became famous rulers in peace and war. Pope Sixtus IV. resorted to princely alliances as a means of aggrandizement for his nephews. For Leonardo he had secured a daughter of the King of Naples, for Girolamo he sought an alliance with the reigning House of Milan and a State in Northern Italy. In December 1472, Girolamo Riario arrived in Milan from Bologna for the solemnization of his betrothal to Constance, daughter of Conrad Fogliani (half-brother of Francesco Sforza). The preliminaries were satisfactory to all parties until Gabriella Gonzaga, mother of the bride, demurred to some of the exactions of Girolamo, who was therein supported by the Duke of Milan. Galeazzo stormed, menaced and coerced in vain. Gabriella (on whom he afterwards revenged himself by a law-suit) remained unshaken and Catherine Sforza, in lieu of her cousin, was offered in marriage to Riario, who, placated by the promise of so much beauty and the prospect of a marriage in a 24 CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD political sense more advantageous, concluded a hasty be- trothal with Catherine at the Castle of Pavna on February 23, 1473. Three days later the bridegroom's gifts to the bride were consigned to Duchess Bona, in the presence of four Court officials, among whom was Pietro Landriani, Master of the Household and husband of the fair Lucretia. The legal act of donation shows ^ that the gifts comprised two dresses, one of gold brocade and the other of green velvet, embroidered with 1538 large and as many small pearls, three rows of large pearls, two thimbles, set with diamonds, emeralds and sapphires, a jewel " in the form of a peasant," the head being formed by a large pearl, a jewelled clasp with a pear-shaped pearl for a pendant, two crosses set with diamonds, pearls and rubies, a purse of gold, seven girdles set in silver, and two pairs of sleeves of silver brocade. In September of the same year Cardinal Pietro Riario, preceded by the fame of absolute power and regal magnifi- cence, arrived in Milan as the Pope's legate, and was received with a pomp which could not have been exceeded had he been Pope. This young Cardinal had been instrumental at the conclave in the election of his uncle to the papacy. He had quickly risen to such power that he ruled the Pope and squandered an income of 60,000 gold florins in the most shameless profligacy. No sooner had he arrived than he asked to see Catherine, by whose precocious beauty and talent (she was then eleven) he was so impressed that he lavished upon her caresses and presents. He confirmed the marriage contract that had been entered into the preceding \-ear, stipulated that the bride's dowry of 10,000 ducats should be augmented by the Forest of Alexandria and that the town, lands and castle of Imola which the Duke had obtained from the Manfredi of Faen/.a, in defiance of the Medici, should become the property of the Church. To this Galeazzo agreed on the understanding that Imola should be the appanage of Girolamo Riario, as the Pope's vicar, and his heirs. The price of the ' 1 )()C. 60, State Archives of Milan. CHILDHOOD. MARRIAGE 25 cession of this little State to the Church was 40,000 ducats. The Pope declared that the price was excessive and that the gift of Imola, which by right belonged to the Church, to Girolamo, went somewhat against his conscience, but he granted it because " it was not meet that the daughter of so great a prince should live like a simple gentlewoman." Thus Galeazzo secured the Pope's favour, the Pope had the satisfaction of regaining an ancient fief for the Church, of founding a State for Girolamo and of spiting Lorenzo Medici. On the 7th of the following November, Girolamo was invested with the County of Imola, paying a yearly tribute of two hundred instead of the five hundred ducats which the Church had levied from the Manfredi. The Cardinal, contrary to the Duke's advice, left Milan for Venice, where he was again received with great honours. But his politics aroused suspicion, and the profligacy of his conduct, offence and scandal. He therefore fled to Rome in the disguise of a simple priest, after a five days' ride through Bolognese territory. He died in January 1474, at the age of twenty-eight, a victim to his own vices, or, as some people averred, to poison administered to him by an agent of the Signory of Venice. His death was hailed by many as a deliverance from a moral pest that had exceeded the licence and degradation of pagan Rome, but the populace, to whom his lavish expenditure had endeared him, mourned him, and the Pope, crying " My son and my hope ! " wept so bitterly at his grave that a contemporary describes his grief as " undue." So great was the instinct of family aggrandizement in Cardinal Pietro, that his last care had been for the future of his brother Girolamo, and on him the Pope concentrated henceforward all his affection. Catherine's affianced husband inherited all the riches of his brother, to whose diplomacy he already owed the dominion of Imola. In his hands was soon vested all military and ecclesiastic power, and he became the centre of the intrigues and political crimes of his day. His primary need was a faction ; he therefore assured himself of the Orsini and soon rose to such pre-eminence that he was known as the " Arch-Pope." CHAPTER III THE ASSASSINATION OF GALEAZZO The tacit hate and bitter satire of the scholars and rhetoricians who at that time controlled public opinion, was aroused by the arrogance of Galeazzo, then in the full tide of his success. Among the most intolerant of the Duke's critics was Cola Montana, who had established a school of rhetoric in Milan in the year 1466. This man, without any common sense or even a conception of the logical sequence and inexorable law that govern events, felt himself called upon to reorganize society. He had been the tutor of Galeazzo and had later been found guilty of one of those offences which he most disapproved in the Duke. The latter, delighted in an opportunity of requiting the punishments inflicted on him by Cola, had him whipped in public. This increased his hatred of Galeazzo, which, owing to the vogue of classic literature and the examples of ancient Greece and Rome, passed for hatred of tyranny. Cola never ceased in his attacks upon the Duke ; he inflamed the }'outh of Milan against his excesses and declared only those to be happy who lived under a republican govern- ment ; Catiline was his greatest hero, Sallust his favourite author, tyrannicide the supreme achievement of a life. Giovan-Andrca Lampugnani, reduced to a poverty which was insufferable to his jjridc, had been condemned to death by Francesco and i)ardoncd by Galeazzo. Carlo Visconti could neitlier forget lliat the SfcMza had usurped the honours of his fainil)- nor that the Du]x. Parma die XXVII. Aprilis 1477. " Vestra servitrix ct fillia " Caterina Vicecomes." On the same day, after describing to her sister Chiara the great feasts that everywhere had been given in her honour, she adds that she was well ct sc/wnsolata d^nd sends affectionate greetings to her nurses and "in general to all my women," On the 28th she was at Reggio, on the following day at Modena, where there was a solemn reception and many visits ; her gentlemen in waiting had advised her how to receive them, which had been " little trouble because of her great intelligence and discretion." At Bologna she was entertained by Giovanni Bentivoglio. On May i, before sunset, she made her state entry into Imola. The people had come out in masses to meet her, the Ancients of the city presented her with the keys, all along the streets from the gates to the palace the arms of the Pope, the Sforza, and the Riario were garlanded with flowers ; allegorical groups were formed and children sang verses and sonnets. A great pavilion, ingeniously decorated with many- coloured draperies, banners and arms, had been erected in front of the palace ; under this pavilion Catherine and her suite dismounted, when the crowd rushed in, disputing " with cries, blows and much tearing of hair " the honour of seizing the lady's horse, according to the custom of the time. The confusion which resulted from so much popular enthusiasm ■" was not displeasing " to Catherine. Under the pavilion, D 34 CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD Violantina Riario-Ricci, wife of the governor of Imola, sur- rounded by many ladies, received her sister-in-law, and led her within the palace, which was furnished with beautiful tapestries and hangings embroidered in gold and silver and hung with crimson velvets and satin and white damask silks. But what most attracted the admiration of the Milanese was a crcdcnza, or cupboard, of great height and beauty, laden with artistically wrought silver, a costly gift of the Pope to Count Girolamo. Imola in its outward aspect was pro- nounced small and badly built, while the fortress, a recent construction of the Duke of Milan, was admired ; the citizens, and especially the women, were well dressed and the dancers in the streets " with their many curtseys, bows, exchanges and shuffling of the feet " were singularly quaint. Catherine was permitted to rest in her chamber,^ the roof and walls of which were hung with white silk, brocaded with gold, while her suite were conducted over the other magnifi- cent apartments, which seemed to be endless, returning to conduct Catherine to a collation, after which Catherine shook hands with some of the ladies who had received her and dismissed them, inviting others to sup with her. After supper, as Catherine, although in good health and spirits, was "somewhat wear\%" the guests were permitted to retire, the foreigners being escorted, with many torches, to their apartments or to the lodgings allotted to them in the town. On May 2 Catherine attended mass and enter- tained some citizens and ladies to dinner; en the 3rd, which was market-day, the town was full of country people who had brought presents of comestibles to their new lady and succeeded, through the mediation of a jester named Piasentino, in being admitted to her presence. She gave her hand to each of the peasants, who shared the enthusiasm of the populace and citizens for the youthful Countess. "They never cease from feasting me," wrote Catherine to her sister, " even tlie stones rejoice because of my coming." She hoped to leave for Rome on the following Tuesday, and ' Narrative of some jjcntkiiicii of Catherine's suite. Librairic Nalionalc, Paris, Doc. 91. FROM MILAN TO ROME 35 begged her sister to send her a certain cap whicli had been given to her by "the wife of Don Ciccho" (Simonetta). Mean- while because of the insanitary condition of Rome at that ^ ^ '^f- y-y AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF GIROI.A.MO RIARIO. season, and because the recent death of Duke Galeazzo would cast a gloom over the projected festivities, the Pope had 36 CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD decided to send Count Girolamo on a short visit to his subjects, to console his bride for the postponement of her triumphal entry. This plan fell through by reason of a con- spiracy of the Venetian patriarch and the cardinal of San Pietro in Mncoli (later Pope Julius II.) against the life of the bridegroom. It appears from the letters of the Orator of Milan to his Government and from one of Girolamo Riario to the Duchess of Milan, that Rome was in a state of ferment, malaria, hunger and sedition ; the populace were capable of the utmost violence ; it would not do for the bride to arrive at so inauspicious a time. But these injunctions did not reach Imola until after the departure of Catherine and her suite, on May 13, who riding onwards through the provinces of Romagna and La Marca, atclaimed and feasted at every resting-place, reached Castel Novo, belonging to Stephen Colonna, on the 24th and there halted for the night. She was within fourteen miles of Rome. Departing thence after dinner on the following day, at the eighteenth hour, they rode for seven miles and were then met by Count Girolamo, escorted by a goodly following of his friends and servants, all habited alike in sable velvet and satin. The bride and bridegroom " dismounted, and taking each other by the hand, tenderly kissed and embraced." They all rested in a wood, and after an interchange of elaborate courtesies, remounted their horses and once more turned towards Rome. The first to join the united cavalcade was the Pope's nephew, Antonio Riario ; at every succeeding quarter of a mile, they were joined by prelates and members of the households of cardinals. Within three miles of the city the Prefect of Rome, the ugly and wicked Leonardo, elder nephew of Sixtus, brought a great company to pay homage to the bride. At Ponte Mollc, on the Tiber, they were met by the papal Court and, turning to the west, by the ambassadors of Naples and Spain, who, joining the cavalcade, escorted the bride to the palace of the Cardinal of Urbino at Monte Mario. Here the bride and bridegroom dismounted and supped (before sunset), the escort and the horses returning to the city. After supper, the Count, who was recalled to Rome by the Pope, presented FROM MILAN TO ROME 37 his wife, on leaving, with a necklace of pearls "with a pendant jewel of the value of 5000 ducats." " Next day, being Pentecost " the horses were again led up to the door and Catherine, surrounded by her Milanese and escorted by the ambassadors and cavaliers as on the preceding day, by Gianfranccsco Gonzaga and several members of the Orsini and Colonna families, mounted hers. She wore " a cloak of black damask, brocaded with gold, a skirt of crimson satin and sleeves of black brocade and was splendidly adorned with jewels." The road to St. Peter's (a distance of two miles) was lined with spectators on horseback. Passing through the Porta Angelica and dismounting at the ancient Basilica (soon to be pulled down and rebuilt by Julius II.), Catherine was led to where Sixtus IV., in pontifical vestments, sat surrounded by the whole of the Sacred College. The mass lasted three hours. Then a young cardinal of thirty-four, Julian della Rovere (Cardinal of San Pietro in Vincoli, after- wards Pope Julius II. and the same who was suspected of connivance with the Venetian patriarch against his cousin's life), approached the bride who, attended by her suite, Count Girolamo and the orators of the Duke of Milan, was led by the Cardinal to the Pope : a rugged, ill-built, monkish figure surmounted by an austere, expressive face, with a hooked nose and piercing eyes. The tall, slim figure of Catherine emerged from her surrounding escort and kneeling before the awkward figure that seemed so ill at ease in the heavy pontifical garments, kissed the foot of Sixtus IV. " When she had arisen, Bossi, Orator of the Duke of Milan, read the Pope a lengthy Latin address on the virtues of the youthful Countess," upon which, contrary to all precedent, he was complimented by the Holy Father, who commanded him to take Catherine by the hand, spoke the sacramental words and allowed Girolamo to place the ring on her finger. Catherine again kissed the Pope's hand and foot. The Pope, among other affectionate courtesies, said to her that "he would marry her over again, and causing her to remove the chain of pearls given to her by my Lord the Count, put in its place another, all set with most precious jewels, valued at 4000 gold ducats. 3« FROM MILAN TO ROME 39 with so many caresses that it appears to us that Her Lady- ship is so well beloved by His Holiness, that he makes no difference between her and my Lord the Count" — who seemed to the narrator ^ cold in comparison. Catherine, instructed by Bossi, then kissed the hand of each cardinal, PANORAMA OK ROME (PART II.). 1. Palazzo Orsini at Campo di Fiore. 2. Villa Riario at the Lungara (no Palazzo Coesini). 3. Monte Aventino. i6. Ponte Sisto. 41. Circo Flaminio. 82. Casa Farnese. 83. Casa Capoferri. 86. Casa Mattel. 87. Orchards of the Riario. 88. Villa of Agostino Chigi (later Farnesiiia). P. Porta Settiiniana. who one and all declared themselves her servants, the Pope blessed and dismissed the escort, who then escorted the bride and bridegroom to the palace of Cardinal Orsini, in Campo 1 Doc. 105, Lib. Nat. Paris. 40 CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD di Fiore, which had been prepared for Catherine pending the completion of the improvements begun at the Riario palace, in view of the postponement of Catherine's entry. The streets that led to Campo a Fiore were decked with " woollen draperies " and the arms of the Pope, the Riario and the Duke of Milan in leaves and flowers ; perfumes were burnt and the air was redolent of sweet odours ; the spacious court of the palace, hung with rich stuffs, led to apartments sumptuously furnished, and sumptuous were the dresses of the eighty Roman ladies who received Catherine. Even the chambers prepared for the Milanese suite were of princely magnificence. At the seventeenth hour, a child, habited as an angel, announced inverse that dinner was ready ; Catherine entered the dining-room, water for the hands was handed to each guest, and to the table of the bride and bridegroom were bidden Antonio Riario, " the despot of Morea," the Bishop of Parma, who was one of the Milanese orators, the French Ambassador, Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, the wife of Giovanmaria Visconti, the wife of Fioramonte and the wife of the nephew of the Cardinal of Milan. At the other tables were prelates, ambassadors, lords and ladies, in all about two hundred persons. There were twenty-two courses, besides the sweets, and between every five courses a child recited verses from a triumphal car that was led in by several persons, while others represented classical subjects, such as the adventures of Medusa, Hercules and Theseus, dancers performed a ballet, a "morcsca" and a Florentine dance, and six children, dressed as hunters, brought Catherine a quantity of cooked animals, "all served in their natural forms." The banquet lasted five hours, the guests were only kept awake by the novelty and variety of the entertainments. The presentation of gifts by the guests began as soon as the table-cloths were removed, and Catherine's presents were valued at 12,000 ducats. The effect produced by this welcome is reflected in a letter, written from Milan by Duchess liona to her adopted daughter : " D(jminJ'; Ca'ihi-.kin/k : " Magnified filia nostra dilcctissiina. We cannot sa)^ FROM MILAN TO ROME 41 with what great pleasure We have learnt of the honours and of the gracious reception accorded to thee by His Holiness and the whole Court of Rome. We hold all this as if it had been done to Ourselves, by reason of the singular love we bear thee. And although We suffer from the privation of thy sweet company, none the less, whenever We are reminded of the happiness of thy estate We experience an incredible consola- tion, to which nothing is wanting but the sight of thee. And We are assured that thou hast the same desire to see Us, which at this present cannot be. Therefore We exhort thee to be of good cheer and brave heart, assuring thee that this is the greatest pleasure thou canst procure to Us. We send thee three of the girdles thou didst order when here : and will send thee anything else from here, at thy pleasure." In another letter the Duchess assures Catherine that "When we hear thee well spoken of. We experience the happiness which Cometh to every good mother in the happiness of a dear daughter, such as thou art to Us." This correspondence bears the stamp of a pure and simple domestic life and proves that Catherine, whose virile qualities were destined to astound her contemporaries, was, in her early youth, a gentle and affec- tionate maiden. Of her appearance on the occasion of her official entry into the capital of Christianity, Fabio Oliva writes as follows : " That which was most remarkable in the diversity and multiplicity of spectacles was the rare and incomparable beauty of Catherine and her almost miraculous erace " BOOK III CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO CHAPTER V WHO WERE THE RIARIO? The Riario were the favourite nephews of a new pope, who was the daring and ill-starred initiator of a new era. On the death of Paul II., Duke Galeazzo Maria had sent a list of cardinals, friendly to him, to his orator in Rome, requesting him to do everything in his power to secure the appointment of one of them to the papacy. Among these was the Car- dinal Francesco della Rovere, a learned Franciscan, a native of Savona, a city subject to the Duke. At the same time the Duke sent an envoy to Rome, with instructions that were too secret to be written, and so much influence was brought to bear on the Conclave that Della Rovere assumed the tiara with the name of Sixtus IV. on August 9, 1479. During the ceremony of taking possession of the Lateran, the populace revolted and attacked the litter of the new pope with stones. Sixtus, who combined a common exterior with an un- common egotism and a strong mind, was unscrupulous, intolerant of contradiction, and imbued with unbounded ambition for himself and his family. He was the son of a poor Ligurian fisherman and was, at the time of his exaltation, in his fifty-eighth year. He immediately provided his fifteen nephews with honours and riches. Julian (afterwards Julius II.), a sinister and dissolute man, generally considered insignifi- cant, was made cardinal and Bishop of Carpentras. But the Pope, having but little regard for him, advanced another nephew, Pietro, to the titles and benefices of Cardinal of San Sisto, Patriarch of Constantinople, Archbishop of Florence, Seville and Mendes and Bishop of Treviso. His premature end has been chronicled in these pages. 45 46 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO The blind affection of the Pope for this young man might have been explained by the services he was known to have rendered in the Conclave, but public rumour accounted for it by other reasons of a scandalous nature. Both he and his brother Girolamo, known to be the sons of the Pope, were the reputed or adopted children of Bianca, the Pope's sister and Paolo Riario, a middle-class citizen of Savona. Girolamo, Catherine's husband, who was perhaps the worst member of his clan, had been a clerk in the custom-house of Savona, until Sixtus summoned him to Rome. His rugged and savage nature recoiled from things ecclesiastic, yet he was keenl}^ alive to the advantages pertaining to cope and mitre. Although violent and uncultured, his arrogant, impetuous temperament appeared to Sixtus to be adapted for power. Not venturing to begin by making a prince of him he made him Captain- general of the papal forces and Governor of the fort of Sant Angelo. Girolamo, as pivot of the Church's temporal power, drew large revenues and availed himself of every opportunity of acquiring riches, influence and power. The avarice of Paul II. had scandalized Christendom ; he had accumulated treasure without spending any part of it and had been heard to declare, more than once, that his treasure chests contained fabulous sums. Sixtus only acknowledged to have found 5000 florins in the treasury, but his nephews, who astounded Italy and the whole of Europe by a luxury so sudden and unbridled, made it patent to all that their uncle had permitted them to rifle the hoards of the Church. This was the beginning of that deplorable epoch in the annals of the papacy which included the whole of our heroine's political career, in the course of which we meet with three popes, all of them famous in the sinister light of the Church's history. Although Catherine was the idol of one pope and the victim of another, her robust piety never permitted her to doubt the divineness of their mission, while she ascribed to human frailty the manner in which they exercised it. The papal bulls, and other documents which have been handed down to us, prove that even the worst popes, judged from their conduct as men and princes, were dogmatically WHO WERE THE RIARIO ? 47 irreproachable with regard to their guardianship of the Church's traditions. It is for this reason that ecclesiastical corruption could not undermine the Christian conscience : the evil times of Sixtus IV., Innocence VIII. and Alexander VI. passed like a summer storm which every one knows to be circumscribed within our terrestrial sphere, while overhead remains the peace and the eternal light of heaven. In the reign of Sixtus, there appeared with the secularization of the papacy a new phenomenon, a new disease : Nepotism ; the outcome of an alliance between celibacy and that family instinct which prompted the popes to found a nepotistic dynasty. The popes, being debarred from conquest or coloniz- ation, could only establish a family State by plundering the Church, and therefore elected to alienate from her possessions the province of Romagna, which long misrule and ferment had fitted more or less for new methods of government. Sixtus IV. was the first of a line of popes in whom the princely prevailed over the sacerdotal character. " This pontiff," says Machiavelli, " was the first who revealed the full extent of pontifical power, and how many things, which hitherto have been regarded as errors, may be hidden under its authority."' During the reign of Sixtus, the papacy fell into great discredit. The number of pilgrims had dwindled in the jubilee of 1475, and the few who came found the curia given up to usury, simony and traffic in office. A garment of paganism at once profaned and adorned the Holy City. At the time of the election of Francesco Rovere, Italy civilized, or at least vivified, by classical reminiscence, had feared that she might be thrust back into the barbarism of the past by the monkish austerity of this poor Franciscan : a false alarm ! for the new Pope was too ambitious not to be imbued with the spirit of his time. He built the bridge of San Sisto, the churches of Santa Maria della Pace and Santa Maria del Popolo ; the Hospital and Tower of Santo Spirito ; the Sixtine Chapel ; restored the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, and for the decoration of the new edifices summoned to Rome Mantegna, Perugino, Botticelli, Ghirlan- daio, Melozzo of Forli, Filippo Lippi, Luca Signorelli and 48 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO others, uniting them in the confraternity of St. Luke. He founded the library of the Vatican, patronized letters and furthered the triumph of humanism. rilK I.IliKAKIAN I'l.ATlNUS liEFORE SIXTUS IV. The figure behind tlie kneeling Platinus, ivitli Iiamis hidden, is Ciiivldinn Riario. In 1495. King Ferdinand of Naples advised the Pope to widen the streets and pull down the towers, loggias, balconies and other projections likely to facilitate disturbances. "You WHO WERE THE RIARIO ? 49 will never," he said, " be master of Rome while the women, by throwing down stones, can put to flight your best soldiers ; " and the Pope decided to follow this advice, if only to abolish the cause of much pestilence. But Sixtus IV. did not attempt this great undertaking until five years later, when he created a magistracy of public works, with power to purchase and pull down houses wherever it might be necessary to enlarge the streets, some of which were too narrow for two horsemen to ride abreast. When Catherine entered Rome, it was dark and uninhabitable. During her sojourn, it became gradually transformed into the splendid and artistic capital of Christen- dom. The pontificate of Sixtus IV. was glorious in the annals of art. With a change in politics came a change in the social life of Rome : banquets, sumptuous hunts, and nightly revels which, under the predecessors of Sixtus, would have been the cause of scandal, became the habitual recreations of high ecclesiastics and an acceptable spectacle to the populace. Sixtus was wont to say that the hand, ink and paper of the Pope sufficed to procure any given sum of money, and was so forgetful of his sacerdotal character as to be called the first pope-king. For many years there had been no princess on the steps of the papal throne, and the Riario were too unpolished, the curia too corrupt to be influenced by the charm of a daring, honest and beautiful woman. Catherine's influence was very limited during the lifetime of Sixtus IV., whatever later historians may say to the contrary. The harsh and discourteous Pope cannot have inspired her with any sympathy, nor could the descendant of famous condottieri delight in Girolamo, her husband, who, cowardly as he was violent, was always surrounded by ruffians, being too much hated to trust himself in the streets of Rome alone. A certain proud conception of her personal dignity saved her from being corrupted, and the dreams of an ever-soaring ambition enabled her to endure the moral filth which surrounded her. Her ambition bound her to her husband : she would have preferred him valorous and popular, yet found consolation for his baseness in his power and the fear it inspired. 50 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO One of the most important factors in the hfe of Girolamo Riario was the conspiracy of the Pazzi, which ended in the tragedy of Santa Reparata. This conspiracy which was, in a measure, an imitation and consequence of the one in which Galeazzo Maria had perished, was headed by Sixtus IV. in alHance with the King of Naples, at the instigation of Girolamo Riario, and formed in opposition to the Lega. This league included the powers of Milan, Venice and Florence, where the Medici were no less hostile to the Pope's transform- ation of the States of the Church into an absolute monarchy. Girolamo Riario who had acquired the State of Imola without the sanction of Lorenzo Medici could not feel secure in its possession so long as the latter lived. The thread of the conspiracy was spun in the Vatican, the plan of the assassination being probably withheld from the Pope, who would naturally refrain from inquiring into matters that could not obtain sacerdotal sanction, while he was ready to absolve his nephew of the consequences of the means he might employ. In this conspiracy, which like the one against Galeazzo ended in a church, Giuliano Medici was murdered and Lorenzo wounded. The youthful Cardinal Raphael Riario, nephew to Girolamo, and the Pope's legate in Florence, was suspected of the murder. Imprisoned in the palace, he was not set at liberty until June 5. Andrea Bernardi, a contemporary, ascribes the unnatural pallor which ever after distinguished this young prelate as an effect of the fear of death by torture during his imprisonment. The fact remains that the Pazzi were the emissaries chosen by Girolamo Riario. The effects of this conspiracy were the humiliation of its originators, the exaltation of the family it aimed at exterminating, and a two years' war between the Florentines and their allies, on the one hand, and the Pope and the King of Naples, on the other. Undaunted by this result, and more than ever determined to wrest Morcncc from the Medici, so that the Pope might bestow it on himself, Girolamo resorted to a curious fiction. By agreement with a priest of Imola, he sent the latter to WHO WERE THE RIARIO ? 51 Florence, with instructions to affect great hatred of him (Girolaino), and to offer to poison him on condition that Lorenzo should provide the poison. Once in possession of the poison, Girolamo would have produced it before the Pope and the Consistory as a proof that Lorenzo sought his death. For this service the priest had been promised the custody of one of the gates of Imola. But the priest was taken and put to torture on his arrival in Florence, so that Girolamo was again baulked of his hopes. Later, Riario planned with certain Florentine exiles, who were enemies of the Medici, to remove Lorenzo by any means in their power. The day appointed for his assassina- tion was May 30. It was postponed for repairs to some armour. Meanwhile, on June i one of the accomplices was taken, and having named the others all were hanged from the windows of the Bargello, It is scarcely credible that, in her sixteenth year, Catherine can have had any part in these conspiracies. Perhaps an echo of the terrors and bloody consequences of the great design may have reached her after the birth of Bianca, her eldest child, in 1478, when she was absorbed, not by political cares, but by the first maternal ones. In 1479, in the midst of the turmoil of the rumours of war, and of the furious excommunication of the Florentines, Sixtus feasted the birth of the eldest son of his favourite nephew, to whom Catherine gave birth September i. He was christened Octavian, and was held to the font by Rodrigo Borgia, a Spanish cardinal. Yet a few years and this cardinal would occupy the chair of St. Peter and rob Catherine of throne and State. Meanwhile Duchess Bona, who ruled Lombardy for her little son, Gian Galeazzo, had weakly reposed all her con- fidence in a certain Antonio Tassino, a Ferrarese of humble origin, but elegant and attractive appearance. To him the Duchess referred all the deliberations of the council and every act and word of Cicco Simonetta, the experienced and trustworthy Secretary of State, who, conscious of having I 52 CATHERINE AM) THE RIARIO saved the State for Bona, refused to bend the knee to the new favourite. Tassino, in hatred of and opposition to Simonetta, brought about a reconciHation between Ludovico il Moro, the young Duke's ambitious uncle, and the Duchess. This sudden and unauthorized return of Ludovic and his gracious reception at the Castle of Milan surprised and offended Cicco. Nor was he disarmed by the deference with which Ludovic affected to treat so valued and trustworthy a servant of the House of Sforza. No sooner was he alone with the Duchess than he expressed his strong disapproval of what had happened, concluding with : " Most illustrious Duchess, I shall lose my head and you will lose your State." Three days later Ludovic coerced the Duchess into granting a decree for the incarceration of Cicco at Pavia. Two letters of Catherine, dated September i8, one to Battista Calco and the other to Duchess Bona, express the writer's satisfac- tion in the occurrence. She assures her stepmother that: " Next to the consolation of seeing her father resuscitated she could have none greater than knowing all the fire (discord) in Italy was ended by the imprisonment of that villainous Cicco . . . the homicide of our House and of his own flesh . . ." ^ " God be praised ! now she could venture on visiting her mother at Milan."- A letter of Sixtus IV. of the same date ^ not only expresses his approval but his regret that his advice on this matter had not been acted on sooner. Catherine, who had been informed by letters from Milan, and by her Roman advisers, that Cicco was a traitor, was too young to suspect the deception practised on her. She could neither refuse to write as she was bidden by the Pope nor divine the tragic end of the unfortunate minister, who after torture that drove his wife (a Visconti) to despair and madness, was decapitated at the Castle of Pavia on October 30, 1480. The omnipotence of Tassino dates from the death of Cicco. The Duchess's favour made him so arrogant that he often kept Ludovic Sforza and other personages waiting in his anteroom while his hair was dressed. But he overreached 1 ijoc. 137. -■ I>oc. 13S. •' Doc. 139. WHO WERE THE RIARIO ? 53 himself when he tried to fjive his father the command of Porta Giovia, and was exiled from Lombardy, whence he departed with a great quantity of money and pearls. Ludovic took this opportunity of investing the Duke, who was then twelve years old, with the government, requesting the Duchess '•' to occupy herself henceforward with her devotions." " Bona was so enraged," writes Corio, " that forgetful of her honour and dignity, she determined also to cross the mountains ; nor could she be dissuaded from this unwise plan, but regard- less of her children's love, abandoned them to the guardianship of Ludovic Sforza." Ratti, after minute research, affirms the innocence of Bona's relations with Tassino. Her whole life is a protest against this calumny, invented to serve the designs of Ludovic, who seized the unhappy Duchess on her way to take refuge in Piedmont, and confined her for the rest of her life in the fortress of Abbiategrosso, where some historians say she died from poison administered by him in 1494. It would, how- ever, appear from a letter in the archives of Mantua that Bona was alive in France about the year 1500. Meanwhile the fortunes of the Riario grew day by day. The Pope's chief care was to give them a State, and the papal army fought only on their behalf. The chronicles of Forli narrate how, on the death of Pino degli Ordelaffi on I'ebruary ii, 1480, the dominion of the city, amid the clash of factions and rumours of intrigue, amours, and poison, was lost by the Ordelaffi, who had reigned over it for a hundred and fifcy years, and had been from the earliest times the most valiant and heroic family of Romagna, A quarrel between the two lines of the ancient house of Ordelaffi was a pretext for Sixtus to seize their dominion in the name of the Church, and give it to his favourite nephew. Sinibaldo, the infant heir, was dead of poison ; the fortress had surrendered to the representatives of the Pope, who, delighted to have won the game so easily, invested Girolamo Riario, his wife Catherine and their heirs, until the line should be extinguished, with the possession of Forli, from which Antonio and P'rancesco Maria Ordelaffi were deposed, " for 54 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO having used violence, killed and wounded the soldiers of the Church, and attacked the fortress with bombs and cannon." In Count Girolamo, as vicar of the Church, were vested all the civic rights of the city, subject to a yearly tribute of 1000 florins. The acquisition of Forli, combined with that of Imola, became of political importance. These two cities, sufficiently fortified, might, under given circumstances, conduce to the maintenance of the balance of power between the northern and meridional powers of Italy. P'or there were only two roads from the States of Milan and Venice to the States of the Church and the kingdom of Naples, and one of these was the Tuscan and the other that of the Romagna, which passed through Imola and Forli. This position, despite its danger, entailed the support of one of the greatest of the powers, so that the first step of Girolamo Riario was to commission Maestro Giorgio Fiorentino to strengthen the fortress of Ravaldino, and add to it a citadel, where the whole Court could take refuge in case of rebellion or invasion. The first stone was laid June i, 148 1. Festivities followed one upon the other, and on the day after the dispatch of the brief of investiture the new I.ady of Forli gave birth to a second son. The citizens of Forli were happy and full of confidence. Since it was written that the city must have a master, that it should have fallen to the lot of the Pope's favourite nephew seemed a guarantee of many advantages in the future. Four orators left for Rome to tender thanks to the pontiff and homage to the new lord, who annulled the odious tax on flour and those hitherto levied on the division of jjroperty, dowries and provisions. He summoned to Rome many citizens of Forli, who each, according to their desires and capabilities, were provided with lucrative office. He added that he wished to visit his subjects, but how could he abandon His Holiness in the midst of such terrible anxieties ? Tiie moment was one of great danger. The Pope was on the worst of terms with tiic Duke of Milan and the King of Naples, who had sent his son Alfonso to invade the States of the Church. News had arrived of the occupation of WHO WERE THE RIARIO ? 55 Otranto by 15,000 Turks. Where would these barbarous heretics stop ? Italy was entirely open to their attacks. There were those who advised the Pope to take refuge in France, while others opined that the expedition a^^ainst the Turks should proceed from the Holy See, not only in defence of its own States, but of the whole of Christendom. These terrors hung over Italy until May 3, 148 1, when the Sultan died, and, as if by enchantment, the Turkish fleet disappeared from the shores of Italy. Then only did Girolamo and Catherine obtain the papal sanction to visit their subjects in Romagna. CHAPTER VI CATHERINE IN THE ROMAGNA AND VENICE (JULY- AUGUST 1881) ROMAGNA had been for two centuries the most unhappy of the many disturbed and unhappy provinces of Italy. In the place of their old nominal suzerainty, the popes had succeeded in establishing a real dominion which they had sought to render ever more direct and immediate. This policy, and the action and rebellion it evoked, had been accompanied by intrigue, fraud, treason and bloody wars ; the character of the Romagnole population, and especially of the papal Court, had fallen into extreme discredit. The perennial instability of the papacy in which, as in all elective monarchies, everything was subject to change with the person of the piince, increased the evil. The distance moreover which separated the Romagna from Rome, to which it was bound by political and traditional, but not by natural, ties, necessitated a separation of the administrative government from the sovereign rule ; each individual pope had made it over for an annual tribute to one of the more influential families in each city, or had even sold it outright. The Ghibclline and Guclph factions and personal and dynastic ambitions brought about civil war, internal broils and fratri- cide among these papal vicars who were, more or less, the autonomous tyrants of every Romagnole city. The populace was a minor factor, for civic liberty, at first suppressed by individual tyrants and later by the centralizing action of papal rule, had never obtained in Romagna. After their flight to Avignon, the popes determined at any cost to possess a State in Italy, their craving for temporal, 56 CATHERINE IN THE ROMAGNA AND VENICE 57 having increased with their loss of spiritual, power. They spent untold treasure in the attempt to reconquer Romagna, to the scandal of Christendom. More than once they flooded this most rebellious of provinces with blood, and abandoned it to the fire and sword of ferocious mercenaries, led by avaricious and inhuman prelates. More often than any other province, Romagna had been laid waste by bands of French, Germans, Gascons and Bretons, whose excesses, instead of subduing her, had aroused the spirit of military honour and jealous love for the glory of Italian arms, which, combined with cupidity and ambition, had given to Italy the first of her great coiidotticri. The Romagna, at the time with which we arc concerned, was already the brawling province of forty years later, that has been described by Guicciardini. Corrup- tion and party violence were the rule in all her cities, and this lamentable condition lasted till 1590, when the first century of the new era had nearly come to an end. The approaching solemn entry of Girolamo and Catherine was announced at Forli and Imola. Such changes, not unfrequent in those unhappy communities, always awakened new hopes and were marked by great festivities. During eight days, long lines of mules, whose burdens bound with silken cords were covered with cloths on which the Serpent of the Visconti, quartered with the rose of the Riario, were broidcred in gold and silver, and carts laden with chests and trunks that contained costly household utensils, were seen to enter the town. Then came the long file of members of the household and servants and, at last, Catherine's little children. The Count and Countess did not arrive until eight days later, on July 15. Triumphal arches were erected and tapestries hung in the streets, where the first to receive them were a company of white-clad youths, bearing palm-branches. The Riario descended from their litter, thanked them for the peaceful augury, and continued on their way, the Count on foot, the Countess riding a white palfrey whose trappings were of cloth-of-silver embroidered with pearls. The young nobles in white and gold received them under a stately 58 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO canopy, which they had carried for a mile from the town. The clergy were headed by the Bishop Alexander Numai, with whom, after an exchange of compliments, the Riario proceeded to the Porta Cotogni, Here they were received by the magistracy, whose chief presented the keys of the city on a silver shield. The sounds of music, the ringing of bells, the neighing of horses and clamorous cries of the people made it impossible for any one of those present to hear a word of the magniloquent discourse, but it was remarked that the manner in which the Signori replied to the magistrate left no room for doubt that they had appreciated every word of it. They continued on their way, accompanied by Giordano and Paolo Orsini, Girolamo Colonna, Gabriello Cesarini, and many other Roman noblemen, and followed by all who had already met them. The ever-increasing crowd was presently parted by a triumphal car full of prettily-adorned children representing the Graces, who declaimed verses, while a genius saluted the new rulers. Riario, who had by this time mounted a powerful bay charger covered entirely with cloth-of-gold, was surrounded by twenty-four guards habited in green silk, with stockings broidered with his " device " and bearing halberds and Castilian blades. Women and maidens pressed close to the horses, holding out their hands to Girolamo and Catherine, who smilingly gave theirs in return. Then followed other amenities, after which the pageant reached the piazza, where an artificial " giraffe, ugly but very cleverly constructed, performed many wonders," says an anonymous chronicler. On arriving at Santa Croce, the Count was carried from his horse b}' men dressed in white and deposited on the high altar. Priests intoned the Tc Deuni. On approaching the palace, he passed under an arch where three women, who represented Justice, Moderation and Power, raised their voices in song. At the entrance to the palace, Girolamo, turning to the men who were waiting to lift him from his saddle, said : " T(j your arms I commend myself, save my horse for me and I will do my duty." It was the custom for the populace to take possession u{ the prince's horse, for whose recovery he paid a ransom. CATHERINE IN THE ROMAGNA AND VENICE 59 When Catherine was preparing to dismount, she was suddenly seized by some young men who carried her up the palace staircase. Others fought and even wounded each other in the piazza for the possession of her horse, whose gold harness was broken and divided in a thousand pieces. Catherine ransomed her palfrey by giving in exchange her cloak of cloth-of-silver. Meanwhile the nobles and their ladies awaited the Count and Countess in the palace, where, after an exchange of courtesies, they took their places on a sort of throne under a canopy and listened to an eulogy delivered in their honour by Dr. Guido Pepi, a scholar learned in the vulgar tongue, in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The reply of Riario was prompt and happy. Impatient to prove his good-will, he confirmed the exemptions he had granted from Rome, to which he added other immunities, assuring them that in future he would do still more for the public weal. After the speeches, refreshments were served, and a pro- digious quantity of sweetmeats and pastry thrown out of the windows to tiie populace. At the ball on the same evening, Catherine — then in her twentieth }ear, wearing her most precious jewels and a turban whence depended a long veil wrought with the device Diversoruni operuin, and a rising sun piercing the clouds in silver and pearls — was more beautiful than ever. Leoni Cobelli, painter, musician, dancing-master and chronicler, was among the musicians ; words fail him to describe her grace and the beauty of the whole scene. After the ball, envoys from the various castles of the little State made their obeisance to Girolamo, presenting him with " fowls, calves, wax, sweets, forage, and other household necessaries." ^ On the following da}', the moneys coined for this occasion were thrown to the people from the balcony of the palace. There was a tournament in which the Orsini, Colonna, Tolentino and other gentlemen took part, and a wooden castle which had been erected at the Crocetta v/as taken by assault. This castle, which was an allusion to the burning topic of the day, represented Otranto besieged by the Turks ' Marches!. 6o CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO in'the preceding year. It was painted in red and white, the ancient colours of the town. The tower was adorned by a prodigious rose encircled by a serpent with the motto : Servabit odor em. The Riario immediately began to adorn the interior of the palace. The chronicles describe great cupboards, ten feet high, filled with precious plate and china, that were placed in the great hall. The citizens, courteously admitted to view t'll.NS S'I'RL'CK 1!Y Tllli RlARlo. this unusual magnificence, estimated its value at not less than 100,000 ducats, Catherine often appeared in public, her garments and those of her maids of honour were more splendid every day ; she displayed daily a new dress during her stay in Forli. ]5y these and other apparently futile means, the Riario succeeded in convincing the people of l-'orli that the wealth of the new rulers was boundless ; and CATHERINE IN THE ROMAGNA AND VENICE 6 1 that there was no fear of their demanding money — on the contrary, they had come to enrich them. Despite the warmth of his reception, Girolamo, who felt PALACE BUn.T liV THE RIARIO-SFORZA, I484. that the people hated him, shut himself up in his own house. This reserve was looked upon with suspicion. " Since his 62 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO arrival, he has hardly ever left his room, so that the men of Forli are beginning to murmur," wrote the Milanese orator. On August 12, the Riario, with an escort chosen from the inhabitants of Forli, rode to Imola, which had then been in their possession for several years. The Sassatelli and Vaini rode to meet them with so many friends and retainers that they might have been taken for a well-ordered army. The nobles awaited them at the river Santerno and accompanied them under a canopy to the gates, where they were received by the clergy and the magistracy, who presented the keys of the city. Imola had been greatly rebuilt and adorned by Riario, who had spent large sums in pulling down old hovels built of mortar and replacing them by .better buildings, in paving the muddy streets, mending the walls, adding towers and bastions to the gates, and completing the fortress which had been built by Catherine's father. In the opinion of Philip of Bergamo, Riario's munificence had converted "the dregs of Romagna into one of its most beautiful cities." Yet Girolamo was not loved in any part of his dominions, and it was commonly said that he might be obliged to cede Forli to the Venetians. He employed a hundred workmen, with master-builders and carpenters, in the erection of his new palace at Imola, yet the Milanese envoy found the whole country ready to turn against him. There is ample proof that Girolamo, who was hated as a prince throughout Romagna, was harsh in his relations to his wife, and that Catherine was afraid of him. " Madama sent her chancellor to me," wrote the Milanese envoy (Appiani) from Forli in July i48i,"to inform me that Her Ladyship had tried to obtain permission to go to Milan, but that My Lord the Count, her Consort, had refused it, not without some anger. Therefore if, as she suspected, I had come with the purpose of obtaining this j^ermission for Her Ladyship, she begged me not to ask it ; for this would make a breach between herself and her Lord, who would believe that she had been the cause of my coming." .... To the urgent appeal of Appiani, the Count had opposed excellent reasons for refusing the invitation. "Then I suggested that he should CATHERINE IN THE ROMACNA AND VENICE 63 send his Illustrious Consort, with her august children. He replied that he could not live without her .... The aforesaid Madama Contessa has two children and is five months pregnant. She is beautiful, splendid in her apparel, and well-adorned with jewels." He adds, in conclusion, that he had given a gold ducat "to two drummers in the apartment of the Countess, who play while Her Ladyship is at table." About this time Catherine wrote to the Duchess of Ferrara for some greyhounds, "good runners for hunting the fleet mountain goats in the Roman Campagna, a couple of good setters and a couple of falcons." On September 2 Girolamo and Catherine left for Venice. The official pretext for the journey was to bring about an alliance between the Signoria and the Pope against the infidels. The Turks still held Otranto, and all over Italy fear prevailed that they might suddenly invade the peninsula. This danger had always been a favourite pretext of the popes for levying soldiers, hiring mercenaries, demanding money and imploring the help of the Powers. There was no Italian capital where this was believed to be the true, or at least the only reason for the journey. The Turk's name was ever on the Pope's lips, but in his heart was the aggrandizement of the Riario. And besides all the rest, Riario was really sent to Venice to perorate /rc) domo sua. In the war between the Pope and the Florentines, con- sequent on the conspiracy of the Pazzi, Duke Hercules of Ferrara, although a vassal of the Church, had been one of the condotticri of the Florentine army. He was excommunicated and declared to be deposed. But the rebel had laughed at his deposal and his excommunication, and vowed that by virtue of his sword he would continue to be Duke of Ferrara. The Venetians were violently opposed to him, especially since his marriage with Eleonora, daughter of King Ferdinand of Naples, their chief enemy, who might avail himself of his son-in-law's fortresses to carry the war into the heart of their possessions on the mainland. Venice, having established her 64 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO confines as far as the duchy of Milan, would fain liave extended her territory as far as the Florentine State. To do this, it was needful to find a pretext for invading the duchy of Ferrara. The Pope, who hoped to dispose of the House of Este as he had done with the Ordelaffi, seized this opportunity of allying himself with the Venetians against the Duke of Ferrara and invading the States of this excommunicated rebel ; and as these States were in part tributaries of the Church and partly of the Empire, it had been agreed between the Pope and the Venetians that Venice should take the imperial cities, Modena and Reggio, while Ferrara should return to the Church, to be given by the Pope to Girolamo Riario. It was to confirm this agreement and revive the zeal and friendship of his new allies that the Pope had sent Girolamo and Catherine to V^enice. Besides Dr. Ludovico Orsi, who accompanied them in the capacity of assessor, and others, the Riario chose a certain Matteo Menghi, Archdeacon of Forli, who, unknown to them, was a spy of Lorenzo Medici. All along the road, from Ravenna to Chioggia, they were met by Venetian noblemen, and received by forty of the leading citizens on their arrival at Malamccco, At the island of San Clemente, the Doge, Giovanni Mocenigo, accompanied by " 115 noble ladies, for attendance on Madonna Contessa," came to meet them on the Bucentaur. Among them shone the youthful daughter-in-law of the Doge "habited all in gold." ^ " They entered the city amid the joyous acclamations of the people, and the Doge, with all his following of gentlemen and ladies, accompanied the Riario to their house. When, on the following morning, the Count visited the Doge, the latter met him at the foot of the palace stair." Another day "he took him to visit the arsenal." "They have made him," writes Menghi to Lorenzo Medici, "a patrician of Venice, and, to show him how their Council was organized, they summoned the Supreme Council in his presence. Certain electors having to be chosen from among them by lot, the Count, to do liim greater honour, was chosen by acclamation, ' .Samito, Croiiaca J'eitcla. CATHERINE IN TllK RoMACxNA AND A'ENICE 65 and when he had designated Mcsser Bernardo Bembo as Podesta of Ravenna (which had to be confirmed by the Council) it was immediately agreed upon. In fact, if he had been the Emperor, I do not think they could have done him greater honour." Some of the Venetian festivities on this occasion are described by Giacomo da Volterra, who says that on Sunday, September 9, in the great hall of the Doge's palace, one hundred and thirty-two noble maidens, radiant in gold, gems, and pearls, presented a spectacle as magnificent as it was delightful. The crowd of nobles and citizens was so great that Giacomo avers he had never seen so great a concourse, except in Rome at the time of the jubilee. The Doge, wearing his mantle of cloth-of-gold, took his seat between Girolamo and Catherine, then the others accord- ing to their rank. The dances were rather confused, because of the great multitude. At sunset a banquet was served to the princes, the magistracy, and the people ; " wax candles made the night lighter than day . . . and the dress of the women represented a value of 300,000 gold coins {iiwncte doroY But the political triumph of the Riario was far from complete. Girolamo could not but recall the experience of his brother, the splendid cardinal, who had been overwhelmed with honours, but to whom a deaf ear had been turned, or worse. The Venetians flattered, fascinated, and dazzled their guests with feasting and homage, without yielding an inch to them, and sent them away deluded in the principal object of their coming. Menghi, the Archdeacon of Forli, ends his letter to Lorenzo Medici with the assurance that after all he need not feel aggrieved by the honours of which Girolamo had been the recipient : " inasmuch, when all is said and done, this his journey has not produced aught that can be displeasing to Your Magnificence and to our other friends. Therefore I do not regret it, for it has given His Lordship the opportunity of seeing more things displeasing than pleasing to him." According to Burriel, the Venetian Signori, con- sidering that the Pope was held to be the weakest prince in 66 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO Italy ; that his States lay in the midst and were open to the attacks of so many others, and that the re-acquisition of Ferrara would be his ruin and that of his allies, informed Girolamo that their republic would neither sanction nor co-operate in it. At last the Riario, having tendered the Signori their thanks for the reception that had been accorded to them, left Venice discontented and disillusioned, and travelling again by the Comacchio road, to avoid j^Ferrara, arrived at Ravenna on September 22. Immediately after their depart- ure, news reached Venice that the Duke of Calabria had taken Otranto, and the Pope, unwilling to continue the war against the Turks, although the civil wars among them rendered the moment opportune, had recalled his vessels. He preferred to keep his influence for the internal affairs of Italy ; he wanted to give the whole of Romagna to Girolamo. War was declared against the Duke of Ferrara in the follow- ing year, but the Pope deserted and excommunicated the Venetians, the alliance was broken and the Riario never obtained possession of Ferrara. From Ravenna, the Riario, with part of their escort, went to Imola, where fresh trouble was brewing during their absence. Two conspiracies had been suppressed between the time of their investiture in the preceding year and their recent state entry, and had ended in the execution of some of the culprits, and the hanging of their bodies from the palace windows. The Riario had believed these dangers to have been surmounted, and were ingenuously awaiting the expression of tiicir subjects' gratitude for the exemptions granted to them, when tiicy were informed of the existence of a conspiracy among the lower orders to reinstate the Ordclaffi, and to put the Count and Countess to death on their arrival at Forli. " What think you of our subjects at T'orli .<* " (jucricd Girolamo of the governor of that city. Count Gian Francesco Mauruzzi, surnamed Tolentino, whom he had summoned in haste to Imola. "Is this my reward for the immunilics I have given them? But for the love of God,. CATHERINE IN THE ROMACNA AND VENICE 67 hold thy peace, and tell no one of this thing until after my departure." ^ Hemmed in by men-at-arms, Girolamo and Catherine rode into Forli, and, on the following day, attended mass at St. Mercurial, surrounded by three hundred armed retainers. There was no feasting nor public rejoicing on this occasion. The Signori were rarely seen, and never unless protected by their men-at-arms. On the 14th they left for Rome, impatient to escape from danger, and to leave the governor free to deal with the culprits. Girolamo took with him some Imolese and many more citizens of Forli, ostensibly to provide them with office in Rome, but in reality as hostages. Catherine went to Imola, where, before joining her husband, she deposited her children and all her valuables. They were met within two miles of Rome by the Milanese orators, who wrote their duke that "His Lordship's Illustrious Consort had journeyed in two baskets, on a mule, because of her advanced pregnancy.'' At Forli no punishment was inflicted until ten days after the departure of the Riario ; on November 15 five bodies were seen to hang from the palace, while some persons were fined or exiled. But soon the Count ordered their return, and assigned the sums accumulated by the fines to the completion of the Dome. Girolamo had risen to power by the help of the nobles, but the Ordelaffi were deeply rooted in the heart and traditions of the people, who were easily induced to conspire on their behalf. And because the Ordelaffi sought to undermine the power of the Riario where it was weakest, the conspiracies of Forli were always hatched among the populace and peasantry. It was remarked that Catherine, who showed neither fear nor resentment at what had occurred, did not open her lips on the subject. It was surmised that this reserve, unusual in a character untempered by age and experience, was im- posed upon her by her husband, who looked upon silence and dissimulation as his only safeguards. But Catherine could find no peace, knowing as she did the part taken by Lorenzo 1 Cobelli. 68 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO Medici in this conspiracy and her husband's part in the cause of his enmity. Nor was she reassured by a letter written by Lorenzo in reply to Girolamo's inquiry, in which the former deprecated recent occurrences without absolutely denying his share in them. Both the Riario had trembled on receiving this letter, but Girolamo, preoccupied with the condition of Rome and the affairs of Italy in general, soon forgot it. Catherine, by reason of that political acumen and strength of purpose with which she was endowed even at the age of nineteen, realized the necessity of initiating a personal policy by w^hich, without ceasing to aid and defend her husband with all her power, she might win for herself and her children the indispensable friendship of Lorenzo. In the event of Girolamo's perishing in the struggle with the untiring vengeance of the astute Florentine, the latter would be bound by the ties of the old friendship w^hich had subsisted between himself and her father, Galeazzo, and her uncle Ludovic ; and so com- pelled to defend and protect the rights of the daughter and niece of his allies, and withheld from wresting the States of Imola and Forli from the children of Girolamo Riario. CHAPTER VII CATHERINE, THE RIARIO, ORSINI AND COLONNA On their return to Rome the Riario found the Pontiff aged and irritated. The King of Naples had demanded right of way through the papal States, for the troops he was sending to the Duke of Ferrara to fight the Venetians. The Pope refusing, the King sent the Duke of Calabria to attack the States of the Church. On June 6 Girolamo advanced with the standard of the Church on Grottaferrata, where the Duke was, and halted at San Giovanni in Laterano. Here he passed the, day casting dice on the altars with Virginio Orsini and his captains, or astride on the shrines that held the sacred relics. The faithful turned and fled with horror from the threshold of the Basilica. Such was the respect in which the Pope's nephew, the Defender of the Church, held holy things and places ! He gambled away the money confided to him by the Pope and the Venetian Republic, until he had none left wherewith to pay his men, who plundered the houses and stole the grain in the Cam- pagna while the peasants appealed to the Pope, who promised to indemnify them. Meanwhile they ground their corn in the city. But in this they were thwarted by Count Girolamo, who ordered his soldiers to seize and sell it, and retain the proceeds in lieu of pay. The Pope lost confidence in his nephew, and asked the Venetian Republic to contribute a contingent under Robert Malatesta of Rimini, son of the famous Sigismund, who was in their service. The Venetian senate sent him at once, and Malatesta, with a company of foot, immediately attacked the Duke, on which the latter retreated. While in the Lateran 69 70 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO Girolamo spent his time in drinking, swearing, and losing the money of the faithful, and while his soldiers were maltreating and contaminating the population of Rione Monti, a young and beautiful woman, followed by the loving reverence and the blessings of the people, haunted the churches and sanctu- aries of Rome. In the garb of a penitent, she knelt for hours at the tombs of the apostles and gave alms to the poor, while her pallor and emaciation told of nights spent in prison, of fasting, and of penance. This woman was Catherine Sforza, wife of the Captain-general, who awaited the issue of the impending battle with a harrowing anxiety. It transpires from several documents that Catherine knew her husband to be wanting in courage. She trembled lest he should be held up to the contempt and derision of the camp. The instinct which causes every woman to despise a coward and glory in a hero was strongest in Catherine Sforza, and by means of ministrations to the poor and afflicted, nightly vigils and the torments of corporeal penance, Catherine strove to become the creditor of heaven, demanding as her reward the triumph of Girolamo Riario. On August 21, the Duke of Calabria was at last forced into an encounter in a desolate spot which to this day is known as Campo IMorto, where he sustained a crushing defeat. Providence would appear to have taken pity on Catherine, for although her husband did not appear on the field, he succeeded in monopolizing the honours of victory, the news of which was dispatched to the Pope by a mounted courier. That same night Catherine, in the ecstasy of her joy, wrote as follows to the Signory of Sienna — " Magiiifici Viri tauquitui patrcs Jionorandi. At this sixth hour (jf the night, the Illustrious Lord my consort informs His Holiness by one of his equerries that at the sixteenth hour he gave battle to the Duke of Calabria. The battle lastcfl until the twenty-third hour, when, to our utmost honour and glor)-, the enemy was annihilated. I write only this to Yf)ur Magnificences because I have no other news. I felt it incumbent on me to y<» • it rv» /»*Mv» i' Ll^ ^Ur^ ^,.^^f, l.j^,4U. ^^^,,,^ ^ ^p(/ -^ 5 i'^ AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF CATHERINE SFORZA TO THE KIGNORV OF SIENNA. for having favoured a conspiracy to reinstate the Ordelaffi in 1480 ; he had never ventured to attack Malatesta openly, but in the event of his death had determined to seize Meldola and the whole State of Rimini. The Pope had won a great victory, but his nephew had been defeated. Malatesta had returned unharmed from the battle and his hopes were at an end. Moreover, the truth leaked out, and the Pope commanded that Malatesta should make a triumphal entry into Rome, with a cardinal to hold his horse's bridle. Then on the 29th Malatesta suddenly fell ^ Archives of Siena, Atti del Coiichloro. 73 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO ill of dysentery and expired on September lo, in the house of his kinsman, Cardinal Nardini. Thither hastened Sixtus IV. to administer the Sacrament, but to his apparent profound grief he found him already dead, according to popular rumour of poison, at the instigation of Girolamo Riario, and to official report, of fever contracted in the pestilential plains of Campo ]\Iorto. After ordering solemn obsequies for the dead hero and a monument in St. Peter's, the Pope dispatched Girolamo Riario to Rimini to seize the heritage of the infant heir of Malatesta, in which he was thwarted by the Florentines, who protected the widow and child of Malatesta. In Rome Girolamo Riario and his nephew the Cardinal could do anything with impunity; "the Pope has given up the government, both temporal and spiritual, and moneys and everything else to the Count and San Giorgio (Cardinal Raphael;, and there are not wanting judges who give sentences according to their pleasure," wrote Lanti, the Siennese Orator to the Signory. Girolamo, who was now feared as much as he was hated, invaded, in conjunction with the Orsini, the possessions of the Colonna, and cast the Cardinals Colonna and Savelli, whose wealth he appropriated, into prison in chains. One of the most piteous episodes of Girolamo's reign of terror is the capture, torture, and execution of the Protonotary, Lorenzo Colonna. The Pope's mercenaries sacked all the churches in the neighbourhood of the Quirinal, and the whole quarter in which stood the houses of the Colonna. The council of the people sent deputies to make peace between Sixtus and the Colonna, but Count Girolamo, tyrant of the Pope and people, would not consent to it. Dismayed by the excesses of which they knew Girolamo to be capable, the Colonncsi promised the Pope Marino, Rocca di Papa and Ardea, leaving to his mercy the life of the unhappy I'rotonotary. I'ut Girolamo i)ut to death the ambassador who carried this message, and replied that he would not be content with a few of the Colonna castles, he would have them all, and he CATHERINE, THE RIARIO, ORSINI AND COLONXA 73 would take them by force, with cannon and bombs. He insisted on the execution of Lorenzo Colonna, whose trial was relegated by the Pope to a special tribunal. On June 30, 1484, at daybreak, Lorenzo, who had surrendered to Virginio Orsini, was dragged into a courtyard of the Castle of Sant Angelo. He heard his sentence with calmness and resigna- tion, and retracting the confessions that had been torn from him by torture, protested his innocence. After a reverent and resigned salutation of the Pontiff who had condemned him to death, he placed his head on the block, calling three times on the name of Jesus. "At the third time his head was severed from his shoulders." ^ His body was deposited in Santa Maria Transpontina, whence none of his friends and partisans ventured to remove it, until some priests and monks, sent by the mother of the murdered man, carried it to the church of the Santi Apostoli. The unhappy lady caused the coffin to be opened, and gazing upon the body, crushed by torture to a single wound, held the severed head by the hair so that the people might see it, crying — "This is the head of my son! This the faith of Pope Sixtus, who promised that if we gave up Marino to him, he would have given me back my son ! " A week later the unhappy mother died of grief. The blind obstinacy with which Sixtus insisted on the annihilation of the Colonna had no other motive than to enrich his nephew Girolamo with that of which they were despoiled. " No one has moved in the matter," wrote Lanti to the Signori of Sienna on June 30. " The populace boils over a little at first, and then is silent. ... I know not what will happen next. Marino is in the power of the Pope. The plague is ravaging Rome." At the Court of Rome, the luxury, which surpassed even that of Milan, so deadened and cloaked everything else that it would have sapped the moral energy of Catherine had this not been sustained by her ambition. In the aspiration, the determination to rise to higher power, Catherine, imbued with ^ Infessura, R.I.S.P., c. 1173-75. 74 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO the idea common to the poHticians of her time — which was that a strong will combined with astuteness might vanquish any obstacle in the attainment of a given end — was at one with her husband. Yet she did not abandon herself to the current of folly and crime which subsequently led to the ruin of both Sixtus and Girolamo. Despite the cares of her household, her children, the Court and State, she appears to have found time for much reading, chiefly of historical and devotional books, and without affecting the erudition which had become the fashion among the ladies of her time, to have delighted in the society of the cultured and learned. It may be read between the lines of contemporary history how a feeling of disgust and loathing stirred her strong soul against her husband's baseness, and that sometimes she reproached him for the vileness of his acts : to which Girolamo retorted by such brutal and personal violence that Catherine confided later to a Milanese envoy she "had often envied those who died," because of the treatment she endured at her husband's hands. Either frightened by the corruption of the papal Court, or to show that she had no share in her husband's atrocities, or to escape from his violence, she seized the opportunity of his absence on July 7, 1484, and, accompanied by a strong escort, fled to Frascati. It cannot have been long before these clouds were dis- persed, for soon Catherine was back in Rome under her husband's roof ^ at the Lungara, where, without participating in his crimes, she again co-operated in his ambitious schemes. ' Now I'alazzo Coisini. CHAPTER VIII CATHERINE IN THE CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO Meanwhile the affairs of Italy assumed a new aspect. The Pope, in his terror of the Venetians, under pretext of preventing them from acquiring Ferrara, declared a " Most Holy" league with the other Italian powers on January 6, 1483, and on May 25 excommunicated the Venetian senate. This act reversed the state of the various parties. The King of Naples was now the Pope's ally, the Duke of Calabria came to Rome to kiss his foot and showed great friendliness to Girolamo Riario, his late conqueror. Towards the end of February, a congress was held at Cremona to decide the plan of war and nominate the captains-general. Among these was Girolamo Riario. On June 16 Catherine arrived with Count Girolamo at Forli, from Rome. The Count went to Imola to assume the command of the troops encamped in that district, and having placed the fortress on a war footing, went on to Bertinoro for the same purpose, returning to Forli in August, where he was present with his wife during the great earthquake of Santa Chiara. Houses were destroyed and bells tolled lugubriously for a month. Catherine and Girolamo inhabited a tent pitched within the precincts of the fortress. The cloister of St. Francis, which was being built at their expense, being partly destroyed, they restored and enlarged it. Catherine gave the example of public prayer and penance and, to appease the Divine wrath, the Riario made a vow to visit the shrine of St. Clara every }'ear, with the chapter of the dome and the magistracy, on the name-day of that saint, to pray 75 76 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO for her intercession with the Almighty, so that a hke calamity might henceforward be averted from the city. Meanwhile Sixtus wrote to his nephew and niece, informing them that he did not feel safe in Rome in the confusion caused by the war between the Orsini and Colonna, and that he needed soldiers, money and friends. He needed the support of their presence. They therefore returned to Rome at the end of August, a weightier reason having conduced to hasten their departure. Letters from the Ordelaffi to certain monks had been intercepted, revealing a widespread conspiracy to assassinate Girolamo and Catherine, who, alarmed by the discovery of so much treachery, and convinced of the necessity of secrecy, were glad to escape the risk of becoming the victims of the plot or of being hated for retaliating on their assailants. They therefore left for Rome, after enjoining on the governor not to shed more blood than was necessary. Yet when the trial was ended, the bodies of two women (one of whom was a nurse of the Ordelafifi), a man, and all the monks were seen hanging from the windows of the palace throughout November 2, 1483. The year 1484 began with a repulsive spectacle for the people of Forli. The body of one Landi, a man of low condition, whose crime had never been divulged, was exhibited hanging from one of the palace windows. It was rumoured that despite recent warnings, he too had been found guilty of conspiring with the Ordelafifi. In the course of the year, the Pope's chronic gout became acute. He was embittered by the failure of his policy ; for Ludovic Sforza had left the league and gone over to the Venetians, whose alliance he needed in his designs on the throne of Milan. The Pope felt his loss of prestige and that he was no longer master of Rome : many more soldiers and much more money were needful for his security, and more than once he had thought of leaving it. In the midst of these terrible anxieties he learned that despite earlier successes, a disadvantageous peace had been concluded at Bagnolo. This fell as a thunderbolt on the Pope, whose gout flew to the chest. On the evening of August 12 he received the envoys, who read to him the conditions of the treaty. " This," he CATHERINE IN THE CASTLE OE ST. ANCiELO ^^ exclaimed, " is an ignominious peace ! My sons, I can neither give it sanction nor blessing." The envoys, perceiving that the agitated old man was losing strength, and that his speech was becoming inarticulate, replied that they hoped to find His Holiness calmer on a future occasion, meanwhile they prayed him to give his blessing to a peace that could not be revoked. Then the Pope, withdrawing a gouty hand from its enveloping bandage, raised it in a gesture that was interpreted by some as a contemptuous refusal, by others as a blessing on the envoys and the peace. He never spoke again, and expired in the night. " On the following morning," wrote Infessura, "the body of Pope Sixtus, wrapped in a ragged chasuble, was carried with only twenty torches and but a small following to St. Peter's. His corpse was black and disfigured . . . nor was there any one who blessed his memory, save only a certain monk of St. Francis, who watched alone by the body and endured its fearful exhalations." Like many another, who, abandoned and deceived by the world in his declining years, concentrates his affection on a few, Pope Sixtus, disillusioned and tired with every one, centred in the Riario his whole life and ambition. It was natural that he should take pleasure in the society of Catherine, who day by day developed fresh beauties of mind and person. So marked an admiration for the fair Milanese seemed unbecoming to the age and dignity of the old Francis- can pope, and was the cause of wonder, and perhaps some scandal. But the Pope, to whom this was indifferent, put less restraint as time wore on in the cordiality of his relations to his niece, or rather his daughter-in-law. A picture by a young Roman painter represented the siege of Cavi by the papal forces, with Count Girolamo, as chief of the expedition, in the foreground. The Pope, who wished to see this faithful presentment of the siege, discovered therein the figures of a Franciscan and a woman. In the Franciscan he recognized himself, in the woman he divined an allusion to Catherine. Both the allusion and the satire were terrible. The artist was thrown into prison, beaten and tortured, and his house sacked. 78 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO He was condemned to be hanged, and only escaped with his life on being declared insane. Twenty days later the Pope was no more. This incident proves that Catherine's reputation was un- justly contaminated by her relations with the Pope, although they were imposed upon her by duty and necessity. None could be reputed innocent who stood near to the shameless okl man. News of the I'ope's death reached the Captain-general at I'aliano, wlicrc he was encamped with the Orsini, and Cather- ine, who with her three clvidren shared with her husband the rigours of camp life. Girolamo was at the same time CATHKRIXE IX THE CASTLE OF ST. AN(;EL0 79 ordered by the Sacred College to return to Rome with the troops and testation himself on the other side of Ponte Molle. Each chose the most congenial part ; Girolamo obeyed the mandate of the Sacred College, and, accompanied by Virginio Orsini, brought his troops to Ponte Molle on the evening of the 14th, while Catherine, accompanied by Paolo Orsini, resolutely pursued her way and entered the P^ort of St. CASTLE OF ST. ANGEl.O BEFORE THE DEMOLITIONS OF 1S92. Angelo. The Romans, who had never been permitted by Catherine to forget that she was a Sforza, revered in her the personification of the power and influence of the duchy of Milan. They crowded the narrow streets in expectation of the coming conclave, crying, " Diica ! Duca ! Viva il Diica ! " on her passage. On her arrival at the castle, some doubted her right to enter, others were of opinion that they must await 8o CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO the orders of the Sacred College, but everything yielded to the imperious presence of Catherine, who, entering as the barred gates were opened, declared that she would hold the fortress for Count Girolamo, and ordered the entrance of the staircase which connected it with the Vatican to be strongly barricaded. The garrison trembled at a sign from her ! Soon the cardinals, knowing her within, must tremble. Innocenzo Cordrochi of Imola was vice-governor of the fortress. Catherine suspected him and sent him away, with other Imolese. Cardinal Riario sent an envoy to inform the Countess that he wished to see her, but Catherine, who had at that moment little confidence in cardinals, even when they were near relations, replied that he could not enter the Castle of St. Angelo at his pleasure, but that if he came with an escort, she would receive him in the presence of a witness. She was told that the envoy raged and stormed. " Ah ! " she exclaimed, " this man would match his wits with mine ! Does he not know that I have the brain of Duke Galeazzo, and am as headstrong as he .'' " These are the first indications of that militant and wilful humour, that, displayed in supreme moments, was later to make Catherine so famous throughout Italy. And it is in the Castle of St. Angelo that she first appears to us as she is described by Cerretani : " Wise, brave, great, with a full, beautiful face ; speaking little. She wore a tan satin gown with two ells of train, a large black velvet hat in the French mode, a man's belt whence hung a bag of gold ducats and a curved sword ; and among the soldiers, both horse and foot, she was much feared, for that armed lady was fierce and cruel." Meanwhile, Rome was a prey to extreme disorder. The anarch)' thai always followed upon the death of a pope was a festival for the populace, for murderers, thieves, and assassins of every degree, while (luict, decent people bent before the storm, and those in high places cither sallied forth to attack their rivals or entrenched themselves within their towers to resist them. Rome rang with the cries of victims, uncounted and uncared for. Jkit the worst was reserved for the favour- CATHERINE 1\ THE CASTLE OE ST. ANXELO Si ites and nephews of the late Pope, so that popular fury first vented itself on the house of the Riario on the Lungara^ close to what is still known as the Vicolo de Riario. This palace or villa had been furnished by Catherine with great magnificence, according to the fashion of her time, in which the most important article of furniture was a credetiza or high cupboard that contained vases, glass, majolica and silver reserved for the use and adornment of banquets. In the house of the princes and nobles there were many chests and cupboards, the largest of which stood in the entrance hall and contained the household linen. Along the walls stood heavy tables and wooden chairs, generally covered with leather with clamps of bright metal ; if without leather, the wood was covered with movable cushions ; the great wide beds were surmounted by a canopy. The flooring w'as of cold, bare tiles ; in princely houses the woodwork was carved, gilt and painted with the arms of the family. In the houses of private persons, even of the rich, the walls were simply whitewashed ; in the palaces of great personages they were covered, on solemn occasions, with figured tapestry. A reliquary and the image of a saint, especially of the Madonna, before which a lamp w^as ever burning, completed the internal decoration of a fifteenth- century house. The riotous populace, possibly led by an enemy of the Riario, sacked and ruined the contents of their house, even to the wooden galleries where carved arms of the Sforza and the Riario were emblazoned and painted. Windows were broken, doors torn from their hinges, even the stables were so com- pletely ruined that no horses could stand in them. In the garden the trees were cut down, and fire would have been set to everything, to the cries of *' Colonna ! Colonna!" if the conservators and other officials had not arrived on the spot. Yet, after all, the enraged populace did not succeed in destroying every trace of the Riario, for two hundred and fifty-four years later, when the nephews of Pope Clement XII. rebuilt the palace in its present form, they discovered human bones in the subterranean passages. 1 Now Palazzo Corsini. G CHAPTER IX CATHERINE LEAVES ROME. THE NEW POPE In a letter of Guidantonio Vespucci to Lorenzo Medici, dated August i8, the Florentine Orator writes that he had visited Girolamo Riario, who had told him that on "no account " would he tolerate the election of Cardinals San Marco, Savelli, nor Molfetta (Cibo who, after all, was elected under the name of Innocent VIII.) to the papacy. "He should keep on his guard, for if it happened that one of these were elected, he would have recourse to arms, and give a turn that suited him to. the affair." The Florentine Orator adds that he had tendered the offices of Lorenzo to Girolamo, in the protection of the latter's State in such wise " as to bring tears to the eyes of the Count." ^ It is difficult to believe in the sincerity either of Lorenzo's offer or of Girolamo's gratitude. They had been deadly enemies for years. The means employed by Catherine, who had appealed to Milan, were, as usual, more efficacious. " I know from a good source," wrote the Siennese Orator, " that the State of Milan is protecting the States of the Count, and has furnished him with soldiers for his safety. Whether or no it has intervened in the affairs of Rome, I do not under- stand. Every one's procedure is underhanded and silent. If treason, dissimulation and treachery were lost arts, they might be re-discovered here in these days." " God grant us a good change ! " wrote Lanti in another letter on the pre- liiiiiiiar}' intrigues of the election ; " we cannot do worse than heretofore." The obsequies oi Pope Sixtus, on the 17th, had been ' .lii/iivio McUiceo avanii il Priiuipato Fi/za, 39. 82 CATHERINE LEAVES ROME 83 attended by only eleven cardinals. The Cardinals Cibo, Savclli, Delia Rovere (related to Girolamo), and Ascanio Sforza (related to Catherine) had refused to attend them, rather than pass under the Fortress of St. Angelo while Catherine held it. They said that unless the Sacred College found means to seize the castle from that woman, and to deprive the partisans of the Orsini from the guardianship of the Vatican, they should refuse to attend the conclave. Then began the trea- ties to obtain a short truce and the opening of the conclave. The Orsini promised to retire to Viterbo for a month, the Colonna to Lazio, while to induce Girolamo to give up St. Angelo, and retire to his States, the Sacred College promised him 8000 ducats, with a continuation of all the stipends granted him by the late Pope, and the title of Captain- general of the Church, and also that the new Pope should confirm him in the possession of Imola and Forli, and pay him an indemnity for the destruction of his house. The cardinals, on the security of the silver and other pro- perty of Sixtus, contributed a loan of 7000 ducats, which was handed to Girolamo for the pay of his men-at-arms on the 22nd. Girolamo, accompanied by two prelates, was to leave on the 24th. " The monies were paid on Monday," wrote Lanti ; "the Countess is still in the castle," How could they get her out of it ? The Count had, as usual, yielded to threats and money, but there was no means of corrupting nor frightening her, whose evident intention was to hold the castle until the election of the new Pope, and then only yield to him when her claims had been satisfied. According to the agreement with Girolamo, the castle should have been sur- rendered on the morning of the 24th, but the sun went down and she had not moved. " The Countess is reported to be ill," wrote Lanti, " and therefore her departure has been post- poned." Her advanced pregnancy lent probability to this rumour, but in any case the indisposition was very oppor- tune, and if she were ill Catherine cannot be said to have been irractive. In the night, between August 24 and 25, Catherine, having previously revictualled the castle, secretly admitted a hundred and fifty of her husband's soldiers, whom 84 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO she and the garrison received with great demonstrations of joy. But this time she had gone too far. The Sacred Col- lege, suddenly acquiring a courage born of fear, affected a clamorous indignation at the violation of the contract, and threatened to repudiate its obligations with regard to the Count's revenue and safe-conduct unless the castle were imme- diately surrendered. When Catherine saw the game was lost, that she was betrayed by her husband, who had taken the money, and was herself, perhaps, really suffering from her condition and the pestilential air of Rome at that hot season, she was obliged to yield. On the evening of the 25th, eight cardinals presented themselves at the castle in the name of the Sacred College ; the Countess, hearing that among them was her uncle, Ascanio Sforza, ordered them to be admitted. The cardinals courteously assured Catherine of their pro- tection of herself and family, but determined to rid them- selves, once and for all, of so dangerous a woman, were unanimous in insisting on her immediate departure. Lanti, the Siennesc Orator, rode to the castle and witnessed the departure of Catherine, who, mounted on her palfrey, sur- rounded by the pikes and halberds of her men-at-arms, and followed by her household, looked pale and weary. Her husband, in allowing himself to be bought, had prevented her from holding the Castle of St. Angelo to the last, but fortune held in store for her another opportunity of showing the world how to defend a fortress, and how not to leave it by any other way than a breach in its walls. Ik'forc leaving Rome, Count Girolamo made a clear state- ment of his accounts to the Apostolic Chamber, with a result that left enormous sums to the credit of the Captain-general of the Church. This wise and provident step proved, after his death, of great service to Catherine and his children. On the road to Forli, news reached the Riario of the elec- tion of Cardinal Cibo (Molfetta) to the papacy, under the name of Innocent VIII. The news was unwelcome, for Cibo had been an o|)p()nent of Riario, who was well aware that no new ])opc had any tenderness for the nephews of his predc- CATHERINE LEAVES ROME 85 cesser; and the chief author of this election had been his cousin Giuliano Rovere. The characteristics of this handsome pope — amiable, gentle to irresolution, dissolute in his private, and not blameless in his political life — are indicated by Ves- pucci in his letter of the 2gth to Lorenzo Medici. " When he was a cardinal his nature was humane and benevolent. He has not much statecraft, nor literature, yet is not wholly ignorant. He has always been devoted to S. Pier in Vincula (Giuliano Rovere). He is very tall, and full in the face, about fifty-five years old, has one brother, at least one bastard son, and several daughters married here. When he was cardinal, he did not agree with the Count. S. Pier in Vincula ^ may now be looked upon as Pope, and he will maintain his influence better than under Sixtus." The Riario entered P'orli on September 4. On the 7th they received the much-coveted papal sanction of the investi- ture of Imola, Forli, and their other fiefs, the confirmation of Girolamo's title of Captain-general of the Church, and thirdly, the permission, despite this ofiice, to live in the Romagna instead of Rome, which last ironical concession seemed almost to annul the first. All had been the work of their cousin Giuliano Rovere, who led the inexpert and volatile Innocent according to his will. Though with minds ill at ease, the Riario affected the utmost satisfaction, which they celebrated in Forli and Imola by bell-ringing, fireworks and other public rejoicing for three days. There were, indeed, in Rome and Florence, those who had been long awaiting the election of a new pope to suppress the malefactor who, under the cloak of Sixtus, had, with impunity, committed so many atrocious crimes, who had been the tyrant of Rome, had originated the Conspiracy of the Pazzi and persecuted the Colonna and Savelli. It had even been determined to whom the States of Imola and Forli should be given after the removal of Girolamo Riario. Lorenzo Medici, secure in the unbounded confidence of the new Pope, most of all fanned this flame. " Lorenzo shall learn," said Innocent VIII. to Pandolfini, the P'lorentine legate, "that ' Cardinal della Rovere, later Pope Julius II. 86 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO never was a pontiff who loved him and his house as I do. And having learnt, by experience, the extent of his faith, integrity and prudence, I shall be governed by his memory and opinion."^ And Lorenzo, who remembered how narrowly he had escaped the daggers of Girolamo's emissaries, was terrible in counsel. There were besides Cardinal Savelli, whom Girolamo had offended, and whose election to the papacy he had there- fore opposed, and the Manfredi, lords of Faenza, who knew that the Riario coveted their State, and who hated them accordingly. All these intrigues to remove Riario by giving full scope to individual revenge, were conducted by the Pope with great prudence and mystery, for he was fearful lest Catherine should bring down upon himself and Lorenzo the reprisals of the Duke of Milan. The Riario had returned to their dominions, hampered with the occult and insidious enmity of Innocent VI n. and Lorenzo Medici. Encompassed by so many dangers, the Riario realized the necessity of striking deeper root in their Romagnole pro- vinces, by conciliating the affection of the people. There had been a bad harvest, and corn was dear. The Count imported it by sea, and on learning that his ships had been wrecked sent for others, whereby he was able to sell it at four lire per measure, while the landowners of Forli sold theirs at seven. The league had ravaged the territory they occupied ; the most able-bodied labourers had been recruited, and the peasantry were in desperate case. The Count re- mitted the meat tax for the whole of the following year. On October 30, in the midst of the rejoicing for these remis- sions, Catherine gave birth to a son, who, in honour of Forli, was christened Giovanni Livio.- The Fortress of Ravaldino was completed, and close to it arose a princely palace for the Riario and their Court ; barracks for the accommoda- tion of 2000 men were built, store-houses for provisions and ammunition, and the fortress was surrounded by a moat so ' Letter of l'nniriiii to Lorenzo Medici, Sept. 4, 1484. - He died in 1496. CATHERINE LEAVES ROME Zj deep and wide as to render it impregnable. The churches, began both at ForH and Imola, were completed, and the convents enlarged ; nothing was denied to monks and nuns. Thus Riario strove to win the favour of the people, save him- self from his enemies and win God's pardon for the sacri- legious spoliation of Rome. Instead of this, the effects of the designs of his enemies became apparent. The Zampeschi — whose castles of San Mauro, Giovedio, and Talamello had been seized by Sixtus in favour of Girolamo — encouraged by Lorenzo, the new Pope and others, attacked and took San Mauro, slaying the governor, and also recaptured Giovedio and Talamello. Girolamo was for dispatching Tolentino to recapture the castles immediately, but Catherine said: "Hector Zampeschi is in the pay of the Church; herein I see the finger of the Pope; no Roman tribunal will decide in our favour. Besides, the Zampeschi, in the execution of their design, must needs have passed through Florence, therefore with the sanction or knowledge of Lorenzo Medici. Let us not move in the dark, but rather fortify ourselves at home. In that we can never be mistaken." According to Catherine's advice the fortress was provisioned and ammunitioned as for a siege ; the city was surrounded by troops, and the palace so filled with them that it was proof against any attack. The advice was good, for they were tired of waiting in Rome, and had decided to kill the Count before the fortress could be ready for his habitation, or, should he enter it, the Pope had promised the funds for a siege. But the rumour of these armaments discouraged them from an attempt that might fail. Enemies of Riario at Forli warned Lorenzo Medici and Savclli that it would be useless, for the Riario were hemmed in by soldiers. Lorenzo, far from desisting, then encouraged Taddeo Manfredi to seize Imola. The latter, with a few men-at-arms, crossed the States of Lorenzo, and arriving at Faenza, planned the assassination of the Vice- Governor of Imola, who discovered the plot in time to catch the spies and scouts of Taddeo, who then took to flight. Of the thirteen spies, who were all Imolese, two were ex- posed hung by the neck, one by the feet, and two were tied 88 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO to a horse's tail and dragged round the city. The Riario were consoled by the knowledge that all the conspirators had been of the humblest class, unaided by any of the nobles. A year later, on December i8, 1485, a year of apparent peace and festivity, but of real and insidious danger, Catherine gave birth to another child, who was christened with stately ceremonial at St. Mercurial on January 18, i486, by the name of Galeazzo. The presence of the representative of Lorenzo Medici among those of the other Italian princes, which created some surprise, was a result of that personal policy initiated by Catherine without detriment to her co- operation with that of her husband, against the consequences of whose excesses guards and coats-of-mail might not always prevail. Were he to succumb in the struggle with Lorenzo, Catherine, who had constrained the latter to an exchange of courtesies, chose that in a possible future Lorenzo should rather regard herself as the sister of his ally than as the widow of Girolamo. Lorenzo might well have combined with his hatred of Girolamo a sentiment of affection and admira- tion for the fair and sagacious lady of Forli, and sent a representative to the christening of her son. Catherine had, meanwhile, perceived that the policy of the Pope and the Florentine was not solely dictated by venge- ance. The downfall of Girolamo Riario would spring from the principle to which he owed his fortune. Among the sons whom Pope Innocent did not trouble to represent as nephews was the evil, stunted P^ranceschetto, to whom the Pope des- tined those States which Sixtus had not been able to bestow on Girolamo. In furtherance of this design, the nuptials of PVanccschetto with Maddalena, daughter of Lorenzo Medici, were celebrated in the Vatican on January 20, 1488. This connection rendered indissoluble the alliance between Riario's worst enemies ; the daggers for his heart were sharpened, but how to drive tlicm home.'' lie lived in an impregnable fortress, or travelled surrounded by armed men. J^>very at- tempt at sedition had miscarried, and every intrigue patiently prci)ared in Morence and Rome. Patience to his enemies ! Led by an unlucl'ou swear (to these remissions) ? The people are poor and, I fear me, capable of some rash act!" The Count turned away from him, and again summoned Panzechi, to whom he confided the obstinate opposition of Orsi. " Oh, you are afraid ! " replied Panzechi. " You are afraid of these people of Forli— the vilest rabble of Romagna ! The Lord Pino (Ordelaffi) would not have been foiled by them. They are as cowardly as cur-pups." "We have honour, and could not endure blame." " Summon the council and leave the rest to me," replied Panzechi. "Of whom arc you afraid.?" said Catherine."' "Are the people of h'orli to be the only ones in the world who do not pay taxes.' Shall we govern and defend them and, alone ' Cobelli, p. 2S5. '•* The vote of the council vv:is cist willi white .ind l)]acl< beans. •' IJcrnanli, baste 448. THE TAXES OF FORLI 91 among princes, give our own substance to our subjects, who give us nothing? Who can reproach you with }^our vow, if they for whose good you made it absolve you of it ? The poor citizens clamour for office, because they are in want ; the officers claim their arrears of pay, and you have nothing to give them. Is every one to die of hunger because of your vow ? " And Catherine was to her husband as a sword that drove him to hasten his decision. The council met on December 27. " Now I," writes Cobelli, who on that day enjoyed the privileges that now belong to representatives of the Press, "desiring to hear and record the truth, entered, in spite of great difficulty, which was only permitted to me by the ministers of him (the Count), who, knowing that I wrote chronicles, were content, and so I entered and heard everything." On entering the hall, he saw the Count seated in the midst of the doctors and knights who formed the Magistracy of the Ancients (Upper House), in all forty councillors. Nicolo Panzechi spoke first, in the name of the Count, described his position, and recalled the tribulations of the people under Pino Ordelaffi, "who ate our hearts and tore our entrails from our bodies ; and persecuted us like dogs." " But now," he continued, "we have here our lord the Count Girolamo, who is an angel sent by God : a benign and clement lord, and a lamb without flaw. From him we have had many exemptions, and, but that the revenue of Forli is insufficient for his office and the State, he would fain confirm us in them. It has never sufficed ; that which he has, he brought with him from Rome, and he will not spend it in our stead. Yet must he live as our lord. Therefore, let us restore the ancient taxes to the Count, here present." At these words Girolamo rose to his feet and said with other things that " if the prince owed help to his subjects, justice willed that the subjects should help the prince in his need," concluding by reminding them that when they "had no better entertainment his house had at all hours been free and open to welcome them, nor had his purse been ever closed in avarice." More generous than provident, he was 92 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO now reduced to the absolute necessity of providing a remedy for his embarrassment, and after much thought could find none better, howsoever painful to him, than the modification, in times that had so sadly changed, of those concessions made in a time of opulence and boundless prosperity. He said : and sadly turned to leave the hall. But his words, none of which had been lost, had seemed so sincere, and his bearing so dignified, that a sense of compassion per- meated the council, so that when he would have left, the councillors, with gentle violence, detained him. Others spoke who queried : " Why should they deny to the Riario that which had alwa)'s been given to the Calboli, Orgogliosi and Ordelaffi .^ If the council renounced its privileges, the Count could no longer be bound by his vow." " Then," continues Cobelli, " Ser Nicolo Panzechi did cry Hor sii! Gentlemen, say yes or no : who wills that it shall be, and who wills it not. Hor su, ola!' The council appeared to be stupefied and all those present : and Ser Nicolo again asked, saying " Su ! with one accord. To your feet!" Then all rose to their feet, and somewhat unwillingly made their renunciation in favour of the Count. Panzechi at once requested the notary, who stood by his side, to obtain the signatures of the assembly, after each member had been sworn. " Oh, reader, for certain, many did sign with tears and sighs. God alone knows how willingly they renounced ! " adds Cobelli. The Count then thanked each orator respectively, and having thanked the council collectively, left the hall. On January i, i486, the tribute became due. The eldest son of Nicolo Panzechi was appointed notary to the com- mune, the younger writer to the customs, and later head factor. And every man who went to the toll said: "Accursed be tliy soul, oh Nicolo Panzechi!" And they who carried the wood cried, when they entered the gate, " Oh, Ser Nicolo Pan/.cchi, may your end be evil ! " " Oh, Ser Nicolo Panzechi," said others, "you have three offices this year, and the enmity of all these people!" And all wondered at his impudence. At first the general hatred vented itself on Panzechi, without reaching the Cuuul and Catherine, on whom, indeed, the THE TAXES OF FORLl 93 benefits of the revenue from the taxes had not yet rained Hkc manna from heaven. A way was yet to be found to levy them with certainty and the least possible vexation. At last the taxes were farmed out for a year, during which the factors would have nothing to pay ; but at the end of the year they were bound to deposit the whole sum in the Count's treasury. These transactions neither entailed danger nor mystery, for an innate sense of justice and gratitude led the citizens to pity and excuse the difficulties of the Riario, who could not be said to have fattened on their subjects, or to have given cause for complaint to any class among them. The first difficulty came from the peasants, once more sub- jected to the tax known as balia. As in other parts of Romagna, the county of Forii was divided into ville : each vi//a being taxed according to its size and produce by persons who rode from I'/V/a to I'/Z/a, and were appointed by the peasantry to levy their tithes, and pay them into the treasury. As it would have been difficult to collect the taxes in years of dearth, the peasantry had created a deposit that sufficed for the dues of the treasury, without subjecting them- selves to any annoyance. The prince in return pledged himself to protect the land and all the harvests. This pro- tection and surveillance were carried out by a corps of mounted yeomen, who went about from one place to another obliging those who caused any damage to indemnify the losers. In doubtful cases, they laid the matter before the da/ia (a sort of tribunal composed of a few nobles), whose judgments were enforced by a commissioner. When the peasants heard that the Riario were impoverished and about to impose the old tribute on them, they, fearing that it would be worse for them than before, and that they would suffer more than the citizens, began to murmur and threaten. Tiie Count wished to pacify them, and at last it was settled that they should be exempt from the tax and the expense attendant on the charges of the county, of which they would henceforward be themselves in charge on payment to him of 1200 lire. This freed the Count from the obligation of maintaining the yeomanry, and the auditor and the /w/m 94 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO from a number of appeals and intricate and wearisome law- suits. On the other hand the peasants preferred to defend themselves, rather than be defended by venal swashbucklers, who had fallen upon them when and how they pleased, eaten and drunk their substance, and in return for tyranny had exacted bribes and presents. It was Good Friday, and the Count looked down into the square from a window of the palace ; with him was a citizen, who, pointing with his finger, said : " Do you see that man who is carrying a lamb on his shoulders ? He is Antonio Butrighelli of Forlimpopoli, and your enemy, a bad and dangerous man — -seize him at once." Butrighelli was taken, and on him was found a letter from Antonio Ordelafifi to his partisans. He confessed that on that day Ordelaffi was to have entered Forli with six hundred men, kill the guard at the Gate of San Pietro and the Riario, and take possession of the city. Butrighelli was hanged at the Gate of St. Peter on the 3rd, but none of the accomplices he had named, or those to whom the letter was addressed, were molested. In September i486, Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Calabria, arrived at Forli, with the flower of the Neapolitan army, in pursuit of Robert Sanseverino, who had been sent by the Venetians to fight for the Pope. In the peace which had been concluded between the King of Naples and the Pope, on August 15, the former had pledged himself not to attack Sanseverino within the papal States. The Duke was there- fore waiting to throw himself upon him as soon as he passed the border ; but Sanseverino crossed the Ronco, and retired on Ravenna. The Duke had followed him as far as Imola, returning, after three days, to P'orli. His arrival enlivened the people, and the Riario, courteously inclined to the loser of the glorious day of Campo Morto, pressed their hospitality upon him. But he had fallen upon evil times ; plague and famine, despite the succour of Catherine, had left sad traces behind them, and the Count, whose [)ecuniary embarrassments had been common talk, was ill in bed. The Duke thanked them; I BIANCA MAKIA SFORZA. From the painting ly Leonardo da Vinct. 95 96 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO he preferred to put up at a hostelry close to the Bologna Gate, with his suite, but chivalry impelled him to accept the invitation of the Countess to supper on the 13th. He was accompanied by Virginio Orsini, Giangiacomo Trivulzio, Antonio della Mirandola and the Florentine commissioner. The Count left his bed to receive his illustrious guests. A frugal supper, without music or decoration, awaited them in the Hall of the Nymphs (so called from the paintings on its walls). It would seem as if the Riario, who with lavish magnificence had catered for popularity, had become almost ostentatiously penurious to excuse the recent taxation. No invitations had been issued, for the Duke, desirous of avoiding trouble to his hosts, had informed them that he would take his leave soon after supper, so that he might depart at dawn, with the troops. Catherine loved to recall the modest feast that had been graced by such distinguished guests, and the pleasure she had in receiving the great warrior who had suffered defeat on the day when her husband usurped the name of conqueror. Nor could the Duke and his companions forget Catherine, whose interest in military matters bore witness to her enjoyment of their society. She was simply dressed and wore no jewels, but to those present appeared more beautiful than ever.^ On returning to his hostelry, the Duke was surrounded by a friendly multitude bearing so many torches, that with the many illuminated windows, they made " night brighter than day." In the following November the Milanese Orator, Francesco Visconti, brought Catherine an invitation to the marriage of her sister, Bianca Maria, who was then betrothed to the son of the King of Hungary, but who eventually married Maximilian, Fmperor of Germany. Riario was penniless, and he and his wife shed tears in the presence of the Orator. Visconti writes further, that the Countess had gone secretly to his room,-' and there said to him : " You cannot imagine ' .She liad refused lo .appear at tlie Court of Milan without her jewels, whieh were in pawn. '■* .State Arcliives of Milan (Foreign Powers). THE TAXKS OK FORLI 97 the life I lead with my husband. It has often caused me to envy those who die." In January 1487, the nuptials of Hannibal Bcntivoglio with a daughter of the Duke of Ferrara were celebrated. The Riario, lords of a neighbouring State, could not absent them- selves from a ceremony at which the importance of the re- spective powers was gauged by the strength of their men anc horses, the number and sumptuousness of the suite. Thc) were represented by a commissioner, with seventy horses anc eighty " mouths." No other .State, except those of Milan anc Florence, sent so many. The Riario relied on the taxes for this unexpected and extraordinary expenditure. But there were serious disturbances at Forii, where some honest folk paid their dues without murmuring, while others not only refused to pay, but spread calumny and disaffection among the populace. Girolamo alternately feared the evil that might accrue from indulgence and impunity, and the bitterness that would be caused by repression. As usual, he fled from the centre of sedition, leaving the governor to administer justice, and bear the brunt of reprisals. Before the tumult had caused any bloodshed, Girolamo left for Imola with Catherine. Domenico Ricci, his brother-in-law, was sent to Forli, where his prudence and honesty enabled him to levy the taxes, and to obtain a sort of truce. Riario, when he found he could no longer maintain his favourite character of a liberal and splendid prince, out-stepped the bounds of decency. He raised the tax on flour from six to ten qiiattrini per hundred- weight, at Imola, and, what was worse, he mulcted each citizen of twenty bologjiiiii for the maintenance of four hundred horse, whereas he only kept a hundred, so that the Imolese were fain to perceive that by means of this deception their lord extorted from them about looo ducats. He coveted some mills that belonged to one Astorgio Bonmercati, forced him to sell them to him for a nominal price, and com- mitted other acts of violence by means of decrees, threats, confiscations and condemnations ; so that many lips formu- lated the words tyrant and death: words that are apt to follow each other in formidable succession. H CHAPTER XI CATHERINE AND INNOCENZO CODRONCHI Lorenzo DEI Medici exulted in the ever-increasing dan- gers that encompassed Girolamo : at last he was certain of the ruin of the Riario ; the course of events did but second his vengeful design. Catherine convinced herself that, despite the amicable nature of their relations, she could no longer hope that Lorenzo would renounce his vengeance in deference to her. A more potent factor was needful to attain that end, such counsel as might, should he turn a deaf ear to it, be converted into menace. She therefore went to Milan to obtain the co-operation of her brother, Duke Gian Galeazzo, and of her powerful uncle, Ludovico il Moro, giving as an ostensible reason for her departure her desire to revisit her family and her birthplace, in which there had been so many changes since she left it, as a maiden of fifteen, ten years ago, and also to see her mother Lucrezia Landriani, and her sister Stella. She added that she hoped to bring them back to live with her in Romagna, so that she might have some of her own people about her. In the beginning of April she arrived at Milan, with a numerous escort. In May she heard that Girolamo had fallen ill at Imola. Catherine did not hesitate a moment in leaving Milan and the dear delights of the Court. Neither the persuasions of her relations, nor the weakness inherent on her condition, could dissuade her from hurriedly riding back to Imola. She was at her husband's bedside on May 31. The Count had been given up by the doctors. " But," says Bernardi, " no sooner had her ladyship arrived, (although) it appeared that nothing had been left undone, (than) she sent 98 CATHERINE AND INNOCENZO CODRONCHI 99 all over Italy for the best physicians, who came from Bologna, Milan and Ferrara." The castcllane of the Fortress of Rivaldino at Forli was one Melchior Zocchcjo of Savona, an old ex-pirate and perse- cutor of poor Christians, whom the Count, his countryman and creditor, had placed there because he had no other means of repaying him. This castellane was an incubus to Girolamo, who therefore resorted to the daring of his wife to rid himself of him. One night, when the Count was still ill, Catherine mounted her horse, rode to Forli and approaching the fortress, called the castellane. The castellane came to the battlements and cried, " Oh, Madonna, what is your will?" Madonna replied, saying, "Misser Marchonne," [the spell- ing is Cobelli's] " I come on behalf of my lord, that you may surrender the fortress to me. Here is the countersign. I would enter." Replied the castellane : " And what of the Count ? I have heard that he is dead." Said Madonna: ''Mo (sic), that is not true. I left him of good courage." Replied the castellane : " Report hath it that he is dead. If he be dead, I will hold the fort for his sons ; if alive, I will give it up to him ; if he would turn me out to put another in my place, I would that he should give me my money that I lent unto him, and then I will give up the fort according to my will and pleasure." Without another word he turned and left the battlements, and Catherine " rode sadly back to Imola," In those days there abode in Forli that same Innocenzo Codronchi who, in the reign of Sixtus, had been constable of St. Angelo, whence he had been dismissed by Catherine. The Count had restored him to favour, appointed him Captain of his guard and Castellane of Ravaldino until the threats and importunities of Melchior Zocchejo induced Girolamo to re- place him by the ex-pirate. By order of the Count, Codronchi still came and went within the fort, never losing sight of the loo CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO castellane, with whom he often dined, supped and threw dice. The castellane, unconscious of this surveillance, had the utmost confidence in Innocenzo, one of whose relations lived with him in the fort. On August lO, Codronchi, according to his wont, dined with the castellane, and threw dice for the dinner of the following day, Codronchi being purposely the loser. Next morning he sent quails, partridges and capon to the fort by a soldier named Moscardino, to whom he also gave certain secret instructions. When the castellane saw Moscardino coming, he caused the doors of the fortress to be opened to him, and while the game was being plucked Moscardino " did as he had been bidden." At the appointed hour Codronchi entered the fort and dined with the castellane. After dinner the castellane rose to his feet. Codronchi,^ springing up suddenly, clutched him by his middle. A slave (probably a Turk captured by Zocchejo on the high seas) stabbed him two or three times, while Moscar- dino aimed at his head. Then Codronchi left hold of him and finished him with a blow from a scimitar. Then with his kinsman, the slave and Moscardino (who told the story to Cobelli), Codronchi took possession of the watch-tower, and raising the draw-bridges, remained isolated therein. Calling on the soldiers and household of the murdered castellane, who were in the court below, he cried — " Away with you ! away ! or, by my troth, we shall cut you in pieces." When they had all fled before a sudden shower of stones and other missiles, Codronchi carefully closed the fort, and with the help of his accomplices threw the body down a well, within a dungeon by the draw-bridge. Meanwhile the terrified guards and servitors ran to the governor, and in a moment the city rang with the news, which reached the Riario just as Girolamo was convalescent and Catherine near to child-bed. " On that same day," says Cobelli, " Madonna mounted her horse, and by dint of spur and bit, was at Forli by midnight, and rode through the city, to the foot of the fortress, and called Nocentc. . . . Then Nocentc came to the battlements and saw Madonna, and said, ' Cobelli. CATHERINE AND INNOCENZO CODRONCIII loi " O Madonna, whom do you seek ? " Said Madonna, " O Nocentc, for whom do you hold this fort ? " Replied Nocente, "For the Lord Octavian." Said Misscr Domenico Riccio,^ " Then is Octavian lord and not the Count ? " " Dead or alive, I hold this fort for the Count and his sons." Then, according to Bernardi, Catherine asked why he had killed the castellane. " Madonna, the fort should be confided to a man of brains, and not to drunkards." He here repeated what he had said to the governor. Then Catherine implored him to surrender the fort. Codronchi, full of pity for her condition, replied, gently, " Dear Madonna, for the present I can give you no other reply. . . . O Madonna, go and take your rest and fear nothing. There was no need for Your Ladyship to come hither on this errand. I pray you to dine here with us to-morrow." Then Catherine returned to the city, and having ordered a guard to watch the fort, entered her palace. Simulating prudence, for fear of poison, she ordered a dinner to be carried to the fort for her on the morrow and went to bed at dawn. " They that were with her do aver that Madonna did not sleep that night," says Cobelli. Next day Codronchi intimated that the Countess could only be attended by one maid of honour. Catherine, showing no sign of fear and followed by the maid of honour carrying her food, entered the fort. Codronchi is said to have told every detail of the story at table, where together they concerted a mock surrender and Catherine left the fort, whither she returned after three days, with Tommaso P"eo of Savona. To him Codronchi surrendered the fort, and Catherine leaving Feo within, passed out, followed by Codronchi. The courtyard was crowded with an impatient populace. At last Catherine appeared. " The fort," she said, " was lost to me and you, in the hands of this man, from whom I have taken it, leaving in his stead a castellane of my own choosing." The citizens would willingly have learnt more, but tiiat was not vouchsafed to them. The Countess rode away with Codronchi at her side, and behind her a long line of horsemen. This cruel and ingenious comedy faithfully reflects the ^ Domenico Gentile Ricci, husband of Violaiitina Riaiio and Governor of Forli. I02 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO spirit of the policy of a time that has been defined by Machiavelli in the words: "A statesman must know how to play the fox and the lion." Catherine, one of the hardest- headed politicians of her day, would not be deterred by any scruple from the suppression of her castellane, if he displeased her, nor from having him treacherously assassinated if that means assured the end. As for the consummate strategy of this betrayal, we must remember that the end and aim of human action was enjoyment by means of beauty. The sense of beauty had become the sole factor and criterion of the Italian conscience, whether manifested in art, pleasure, resistance, government, or rascaldom. The people of that day did not understand that a crime can never be beautiful. The ferocity of Ferdinand of Naples, in the conspiracy of his barons, seemed to them horribly beautiful ; the perfidy of Caesar Borgia at Sennigallia, is represented as a masterpiece by Machiavelli, and as iin bcllissimo inganno by Monsignor Paolo Giovio. There is no mention anywhere, after this event, of Innocenzo Codronchi. Did he meet his death by the hand of an enemy or of Riario, whose secret would thus be buried with him .-' Even that was then possible. On the morning after her return to Imola, the sun having risen on August 17, Catherine, who on the previous day had ridden ten miles (and more, if, as was her wont, she avoided 1^'acnza and took the long, rugged mountain road), gave birth to a boy, who was named Francesco Sforza and afterwards surnamcd Sforzino. CHAPTER XII THE CONSPIRACY OF THE ROFFI In the following September, Count Girolamo, who was of a heavy, lymphatic temperament, and had not completely recovered from his illness, had again taken to his bed, when a messenger arrived from the Governor of Forli. Ordclaffi had struck another blow, by means of certain Roffi, sturdy peasants of Rubano, who had great influence and many adherents among its rural population. They had taken the Cotogni Gate, which had been retaken : five rebels had been hanged and others lay in chains in the fortress. Catherine, who was recovering from childbirth, could not be held back from hurrying to the spot ; she sprang into her saddle, threw the rein on her horse's neck and reached Forli in an incredibly short time. Domenico Ricci, ex-governor of Forli, a man of mature age, but a bold and skilful rider, could scarcely keep up with the Countess. Giuliano Feo, the new governor, who rode to meet her " neither dead nor alive from fear," ^ accompanied her to the palace and gave an account of what had happened. The Countess said that she should without delay proceed to further inquiry, but not on that day, as it was Sunday. Early next morning she entered the fort and cross-examined the rebels. They confessed everything. " Why," said Catherine, " did you cry ' San Marco, Church and Ordelaffi ' ? " " Because," they replied, " we thought that part of the people would have risen to that cry." Nino, one of the Rofifi, related that on a certain day he had met another ^ Cobelli, who with Bernardi was an eye-witness of the events narrated in this chapter. I04 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO peasant, named Passi, to whom he had divulged the plot, and that the same Passi had entered into it. Catherine remanded the accused and ordered Passi to be brought into the fort. On the following day the poor w^-etch was caught, bound and brought into Forli. In the presence of Catherine, Nino recognized him and repeated the accusation. " Now do you lie in your throat," said Passi, " ribald glutton that thou art. I have not set eyes on you for eight months. And this I am wilhng to prove by the test of the rope." The Countess at once ordered Nino to be hung. Nino gave himself up for lost, and not daring to address the Countess, retracted to the podesta his statement, adding, " Madonna, for the sake of the relations (of Passi, who were many and influential), will pardon him and me, who have accused him. . . . The drowning man catches at a straw\" At these words the Countess rose from her seat, and with smiles and some emotion approached Passi, whom she led by the hand out of the fort, saying to him, in the presence of the assembled people, " Go, return in peace to your wife and children. And," adds Bernardi, "she gave him her blessing for a true and faithful servant." Catherine sent a written account of the second trial to her husband, whose answer was delayed for three days ; at last he wrote, sa)'ing that as he had sent her in the interests of true justice she might do as it seemed best to her. That was enough for this woman of twenty- five, convinced as she was of her duty in the dispensation of divine justice, which had been pressed, so to speak, into the service of her political needs. Part of this duty was the punishment of those w^ho attacked the rights of the House of Riario, "And then in the name of God," said Bernardi, " the Countess had the heads of six malefactors struck off in the square, and their bodies quartered." Much against his will, and to his infinite mortification, the corporal who had lost the Cotogni Gate to the rebels was made their executioner. The mutilated corpses were left on the ground until evening, when three of the heads were raised on lances and the bodies hung fiom the Cotogni Gate, and three others from the Gates of San IMetro and Ravaldino. When THE CONSIMRACY OF THE ROFFI 105 this came to the ears of the Countess, she ordered that the horrid sight be at once removed from the eyes of the populace and showed herself as lenient in her treatment of the lesser culprits as she had been inexorable to the ringleaders. Many were set free, but the kinsmen of the Roffi were for- bidden the city. Count Girolamo did not recover until the beginning of November. He was so weak physically, and so weighed down mentally, that for many months none but Catherine entered his room. The report of his death, which was supposed to be kept secret for political reasons, gained such credence that as soon as he could sit his horse, he rode all over Imola, to show himself, and for this purpose went to Forli on November 3. There he soon perceived that his presence inflamed the general dissatisfaction with the taxes. Since he had no longer the means to be generous, he made another bid for popular favour by solicitude for the public weal, and this gave rise to a singular episode. On the evening of November 18, a young hermit, blond and haggard, holding in his hand an iron cross, arrived at Forli. He was from Sienna, and was called Giovanni Novello. He halted in the burying-ground of St. Mercurial and began to preach, recommending the building of a Monte dl Pieta, a house where the poor might pledge their things for money. He was soon surrounded by a crowd. While he preached. Count Girolamo stood at a window of the palace with the Milanese Orator. At another, Catherine, with her children, her eye fixed on the preacher, listened attentively. By order of the Riario, all the shops had been closed ; silence reigned and the voice of the hermit filled the vast square. The Count ordered the hermit to preach a second time at the church of San Francesco and, through him, announced that he would contribute three hundred gold ducats towards the erection of the Monte di Pieta. He also sent him to the council to renew the offer, and his auditor to speak in praise of it. But the council received these overtures as an attempt to coerce them, and the proposal was io6 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO not accepted. The Count was more embittered by this repulse than he would have been by a rebellion, while Catherine recognized in it a discourteous manifestation of civic independence, intended to teach the Count that they were not to be won over by his liberality. CHAPTER XIII THE ASSASSINATION OF GIROLAMO RIARIO In January 1488, the peasantry, instigated by the emissaries of Lorenzo Medici, came in troops to Forli and demanded of the Count that they should be reheved from the taxes requir- ing that each villa, or parish, should furnish a certain number of cartloads of wood, barley, forage and straw for the use of the lord and the soldiers of his guard. When he heard that they had sold their lands to the citizens,^ and that they neither owed nor owned the wherewithal to pay, he said — " This is a just demand ; you cannot pay for what you do not own ; I will do the best I can to set the matter right." And he cast about for advice, but the councillors and the city were divided among themselves. " He who persuades you to listen to the peasants is prompted by the devil to lead you to break your neck and ours and bring about a revolution. Give no heed to him. Your lordship has it all your way ; what do you want more } The populace is quiet, asking no more than its daily bread, and to be your friends and partisans. Do not mind the peasants, for so long as the citizens and artisans agree, the others will dree their weird. Let those pay who are accus- tomed to pay, give them good words, and take no further heed. . . ." "O, Messer Ludovico," replied the Count, " there never was a wash but that you soiled it ; God help us ! I believe that you grudge me my life." And having said this, he turned upon his heel and went into his chamber. Ludovico Orsi ^ The citizens were divided into two classes, nobles and artisans, there being no middle-class. 107 io8 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO hastened home, where (in the presence of Cobelli, who was giving a dancing lesson to the youthful daughter-in-law of Checco) he repeated this conversation to his brother. In Lent Girolamo summoned Checco Orsi and asked him for the two hundred gold ducats due from him on the meat tax of the pre- ceding year. Orsi replied that he had lost by it, and after a violent altercation, went home in a rage, which he communicated to liis brother Ludovic, who was still smarting under his own grievance. " The flea was ah'eady in their ears," says Cobelli, who here interpolates a series of serio-comic anecdotes on the growing disquietude of the Orsi, to whom the agents of Medici interpreted every word that fell from the Count's lips as por- tending their death. One day, Checco Orsi ventured out of doors and whom should he meet in the square but the Count, who was returning from mass. " Don't you think it is time .'' " said the latter, alluding to the debt. "I'm expecting the money from day to day," replied Checco. Then the Count flew into a violent passion, and crying, " Checco, Checco, you will drive me to commit an act of folly," angrily turned into the palace. Soon after, Giacomo Ronchi, captain of a squadron, pre- sented himself, and begged for, at least, a part of his pay, adding that his family was dying of hunger. The Count, who had not }'et recovered from the recent meeting in the square, replied — " Get out of my sight, or I will have thee hanged." " My Lord," retorted the soldier, " thieves and traitors are hanged, of whicli I am neither. I deserve to die sword in hand, like the valiant man-at-arms that I am." Some time passed, when a certain Ludovico Panzechi, a captain of infantry, who had been employed by Girolamo in the conspiracy of the I'azzi, came, in ignorance of the storm in the air, and also asked the Count for some arrears of his pay. " Ah ! >'ou want to levy blackmail," said the Count, thinking that they had agreed among themselves to coerce him. J'anzcclii did not reply, but went away biting his lips. The narrow social margin of the little city soon brought THE ASSASSl NATION OF (}lROLAMO RIARIO 109 about a meeting Ijctween the two officers and the Orsi. And the devil in hell rejoiced to sec his design inarching to its end, says the "eye-witness." ^ Each told his tale to the others and caught fire from one another ; individual fear and tremors melted into the common terror. "That man will hang us," said the two soldiers, who regretted, Panzechi to have left the Florentine, and Ronchi the Calab- rian service, for that of Riario, who threatened them with the gallows when they asked for their pay. Checco Orsi had even more cause for complaint. " He had served Riario, with horse and foot, without pay ; he had leased that cursed meat tax to right himself, was ruined by it . . . and the Count wanted money into the bargain." " O Checco," said Panzechi, with a significant gesture, " shall we give him the money that he needs .'' " And so, with few words, they agreed to kill him, and the three, arm-in-arm, went to seek Ludovico Orsi, who had not dared to leave his house. Ludovic, who at first was like one dazed with horror, at last ejaculated — " And if w^e fail .'' " " Better to die sword in hand than by hanging, " replied the other three. " It is better to do so to him than that he should do it to us." " Onward then ! " said Ludovic, " and success attend us ! " " I am sure of the result," said Ronchi. ..." The people hate the Count because of the taxes. . . . Arm your friends in secret. Watch and wait. We will hasten the matter. When all is ready, we will come out with your following to the cry of ' Liberty ! Liberty ! ' We will sack the palace and you will take the square. At that cry all will join us, and we shall have won the day." The four conspirators were anxious to strike the blow before their adherents had time to cool down, or the secret to leak out, and to that end kept an eye on the Count from the following morning (Sunday /;/ albis, April 13), but without success. On April 14, at dinner-time, Ronchi parted from his friends and went to see his nephew, Gasparino, a youth in the ^ Leone Cobelli. no CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO household of the Count. " Gasparino," he said, "you know- how often we have wanted to talk to the Count about our own affairs and how we have ahvays been withheld by the presence of one or the other. At what hour could I speak to him without witnesses to talk over our grievances ? " " To-night," replied Gasparino, "after supper the Count will be alone, the household and the equerries will be at supper; I shall be on guard at the door of his chamber. So you can comiC to-night to talk over matters with the Count." " Good. But how shall I know when ? " "I will signal to you when the time comes; be ready in the square." Ronchi informed the others of his appointment. Towards sunset armed partisans made their way one by one to the square. Checco Orsi, captain of the guard, stationed them as he pleased, without fear of opposition, and sent his cousin, Deddo, to occupy the staircase that led to the tower com- municating with the apartments of Catherine. Doctor Ludovico Orsi was stationed at the foot of the grand stair- case. The fatal hour had struck. The Count w^as still at supper with his wife ; the three assassins (Checco Orsi, Panzechi and Ronchi), armed to the teeth, paced forwards and backwards in the square without showing themselves to those in the palace window, yet keeping an eye on it. At last Gasparino, waving his beret, signed to Ronchi to come. The three companions moved resolutely towards the palace door, climbed the stairs and stood at the door of the Hall of the Nymphs ; the Count was within. The Orsi, foremost among the citizens and intimates of the Count, had a right to enter unannounced, ihey held, according to the phrase of the day, the gilded key. Checco, leaving his two companions to listen outside, boldly opened the door. The Count, with his back to the open window, his elbow resting on the sill that looked towards Ravenna, was enjoying the cool of the evening, with his kinsman, Corradino Feo, of Savona, his chancellor, Girolamo of Casale, and Nicolo of Cremona, who was in waiting. The Count was chatting with his friends and was unarmed, his countenance merry and jovial. ... It would have been tlic right moment to ask a favour of him, so well THE ASSASSINATION OF OIROLAMO RIARIO iir disposed did he seem to listen and to grant it. Indeed, as soon as he perceived that Chccco had entered tlie room, he stretched out his right hand to him, saying with cordiahty — " How goes it, my Checco ? " " I have a letter that I would show you," replied Checco; "we shall soon have the money . . . and I shall be able to pay Your Lordship. . . ." While he was speaking, Orsi grasped the dagger that he had hidden about his person, and the Count felt his blade in the left breast, which, in offering his hand, he had exposed to the blow. " Ha, traitor ! " cried the wounded man, who would have sought refuge by dragging himself to Catherine's chamber, but that the two listeners behind the door, hearing his cry, broke into the room and seizing the victim by the hair, dragged him back to the spot where the first blow had been struck. The wound was not mortal, but in his horror and dismay, Checco was incapable of striking another. The two soldiers who knew their business better, and that in these affairs it is not well to stop midway, crushed him to the ground between door and window and barbarously finished him with murderous blows on his head and every vital part. Not a word could escape the lips of the wretched man, who struggled for escape for a (e\v seconds, until his dying eyes were fixed upon the assassins; while, more ferocious and savage than Ronchi, Ludovico Panzechi still steeped his blade in the blood of the victim. Ten years earlier, in that same month of April, Girolamo Riario, who was hatching the famous conspiracy of the Pazzi, had paid money, and made promises to Ludovico Panzechi to plunge that same dagger into the heart of Lorenzo Medici. This was the end, at the age of forty-five, of Girolamo Riario, who in the lifetime of Sixtus, while he was yet the omnipotent nephew of the Pope and master of the armies and treasure of the Church, had been a villain, yet whose rule in Romagna must, on the whole, be considered a mild and beneficent one. Danger had taught him prudence; prudence had taught him humanity. Yet all his greatness was the devil's harvest ; he had sown too much evil to reap anything but thorns and tribulations. All his efforts were tardy and CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO unavailing ; the agents of the new Pope — who, Hke Sixtus, had a nephew of whom he would have made a prince — represented him to the people, whose fidelity Riario had wooed by his benevolence, in the most odious colours. Besides, the Medici still coveted Imola ; above all they would have wrested it from Riario who had sought to compass their annihilation when he coveted Florence for himself. His State had teemed with Florentine spies and emissaries, sent to prepare the vengeance of Lorenzo Medici. Generosity, which was then considered necessary to the art of government, had brought about the financial ruin of Girolamo, of which the question of the taxes was the inevitable consequence, as well as the opportunity awaited by his enemies. Even as the Pazzi, in 1478, had been the emissaries of Riario in the plot against the Medici, so on the evening of April 14, 1488, the Orsi, with Panzechi and Ronchi, became the emissaries of the Medici in the assassination of Girolamo Riario. BOOK IV CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD CHAPTER XIV CATHERINE AND THE ASSASSINS The murder was committed in a few seconds. The suspicions of the chancellor and of Nicolo of Cremona were not awakened by the entrance of Orsi, but when the two others broke into the room they realized what was happening and took to flight. Nicolo ran to the apartment of Catherine and in a choking voice told her that Orsi, Panzechi, and Ronchi had murdered the Count. There was no time to lose in tears. There was no doubt that they meant to exterminate the whole family . . . they must save themselves. Catherine sprang to her feet, succeeded in blocking the door with chests, arm-chairs, and cabinets of prodigious weight, and ordered all the servants to arm themselves and pursue the assassins, so that none of them might escape with his life. And, counting on help from the people, she placed the women, children, and defenceless people at the windows, to cry : " Help ! Help ! They have murdered the Count ! They are trying to murder Madonna ! Help ! Help ! " While the widow of the murdered man gave such evidence of promptness and foresight, the murderers, dazed and con- fused, had not left the body. Corradino Feo, son and lieutenant of the castellane of Ravaldino, heard the Count's cry from the room next to the Hall of the Nymphs and returned to it, but lost his voice when his eyes fell upon the dreadful sight. As soon as he recovered, he placed himself at the head of four servants of the Countess, and calling to arms, prepared to attack the assassins. The palace was full 115 ii6 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD of rushing sounds, cries and the clank and clash of arms. Gasparino, who, in his ignorance, had given the fatal sign, first realized its meaning when he saw his uncle, fully armed, place himself outside the Count's door. At the same moment he heard the cry of the victim, and Ronchi, before he entered, told him to inform Ludovico Orsi, who was waiting at the foot of the stairs, that the Count had been dispatched. In blind obedience, Gasparino had descended the stair and with terror and amazement said to Ludovico : " They are killing him ! .... he must be dead already ! " Then came the cries of Catherine. The blow had been struck, it behoved Ludovic to save his friends, and he went out to summon in their defence those who waited in the square. Meanwhile Agamemnon degli Orsi, son of Checco, im- patient with standing in passive custody of the grand staircase, hastened to the protection of his father, meeting, as he mounted the stair, the affianced husband of Stella Landriani, Andrea Ricci, whose rooms were at the top of the staircase. Hearing cries of " Help ! Help ! " he had seized his arms and was on his way down-stairs before he knew what had happened. But he instantly realized it and did not hesitate to strike Agamemnon, who died from his wound twelve days later. Ricci, although wounded, succeeded in joining Corradino and the four servants, and with them entered the Hall of the Nymphs and surrounded the three assassins who stood over the body of their victim. They would have been cut to pieces in a moment, but for the arrival of Ludovico Orsi and his followers, who broke into the Hall, to the cry of " Liberty ! Liberty ! Long live the Orsi ! " Corradino Feo and Andrea, who were both wounded, had to retire before overwhelming numbers. The new cry, different to the one that had issued from the windows of Catherine, announced to the whole city that the conspirators were masters of the palace and that the fortunes of the Riario were fallen. As the news spread, men armed with pikes and clubs and the usual herd of the curious, who never fail to put in an appearance on occasions of terror or rejoicing, poured into the square, from every corner of it. Among the latter was the CATHERINE AND THE ASSASSINS 117 chronicler, Leone Cobelli.who in his eagerness to see, "so that he might write," had pushed his way through the crowd until he found himself standing under the great doorway of the palace, where stood Checco Orsi, wearing a coat of mail and holding a partisan. He was soon joined by Ludovic, and all, as they arrived, kissed them on the face and congratulated them, saying : " Fear nothing, we, all of us, will defend you ; we have determined, for your sakes, to meet death and destruction 1 " And they cried, " Liberty for ever ! Long live the Orsi, true Fathers of our Country ! " The crowd whence came these cries was entirely composed of artisans. None of the nobles had appeared in the square. They awaited the end of the tumult behind closed doors, in fear and trembling of the Orsi. Cobelli pushed his way into the courtyard and there he saw " Madonna, la Contessa, weeping and crying at her window, with her women. All her servants were in flight. And," he continues, " I soon found myself at the corner of the loggia] where the well is at the foot of the grand staircase, and suddenly I beheld Messer Antonio de Montechio, the bargcllo (lieutenant of police), flying before a murderous gang of artisans. He had but mounted three stairs, when he was laid low by a hundred blows from partisans, pikes, spears and swords." Cobelli heard a cry from the window, and raising his eyes saw Catherine desperately calling : " Forbear, for- bear ! do not kill him ! " But none gave heed to her cry. Instead, they stripped the body to its shift, and dragging it, before it was yet cold, to the well, set fire to the beautiful hair of which the poor bargcllo had been so proud. Then some peasants came upon the scene, who, although they saw that he was dead, tore the flesh from his body. " Then," continues Cobelli, " I saw Checco de I'Urso with the whole gang and Matio de Galasso mount those stairs and enter the chamber of Madonna." Catherine was alone, with her mother, sister, children and two nurses. The door was barricaded, but the conspirators burst it open and seized Catherine and her children. It is recorded that before she moved, she kissed each of her children and then went on in front, between Checco Orsi ii8 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD and Galasso. The crowd, awed by the majesty of that deHcate and beautiful face, made way in silence for the Countess. Neither insult nor violence was offered to her or hers. Only one of the ruffians in the suite of Checco Orsi thrust his hand in the bosom of Stella's gown in the search for hidden jewels. The young girl pushed him back with all the strength of her left hand, dealing him with her right so vigorous a blow that she nearly knocked the wretch's teeth out. Thus, on foot, at dead of night, Catherine was conducted to the house of the Orsi, which stood on the site of what is now the Monte di Pieta, and Checco Orsi was lord of the city. After the horrid murder of the bargello, the soldiers of the guard and other members of the household had withdrawn to the fortress, whither went also Corradino Feo, Andrea Ricci, Francesco Paolucci, and in haste and secrecy a certain Ludovico Ercolani, with the mission of enjoining on Tommaso Feo, the castellane, to write informing Bentivoglio of Bologna and the Duke of INIilan of the murder of the Count, entreating them in the name of the Countess to send sufficient troops to quell the revolution and reinstate her. No sooner had Catherine left the palace than the plunder began ; one seized a chest, another a casket, every one some- thing. The treasury of the customs and taxes was plundered, even to the chains and ropes of the clock on the tower. Gold, silver, and linen, " w^th the exception of the body-linen of Madonna and her children," all disappeared, and the horses and mules were taken from the stables. While Cobelli was looking at the sacking of the palace he perceived a strange and terrible sound. The body of Count Girolamo had been thrown into the square. Three of his (the Count's) favourite men-at-arms, Ciccolini, Carlo of Imola, and Scossacarri, had entered the Hall of the Nymphs and thrown the corpse to the people, crying : " This is that traitor who so persecuted us ! " Hardly had they done so when a certain Pagliarino, nephew to Konchi, dragged the body on the ground to where, despite a cry of horror from those present, it was stripped and mutilated, as had been that of the barcreUo. Some monks of the order nf the Black Flagellants placed the two corpses on CATHERINE AND THE ASSASSINS 119 the same bier and carried it to the sacristy of their church which, says Burricl, "is the same that is now known as the Church of the Nuns of Corpus Domini." It was night, and none barred the way to the bier, Tl'iis sinister spectacle caused a short interruption in the sacking of the palace, which soon began again with renewed clamour and rapacity. Doors and windows were wrenched from their hinges, every one robbed and destroyed all that he could lay hands upon ; the Orsi, abetted by their retainers, iiiK r()iji:siA. robbed more than any one else. When the intoxicated crowd happened to light upon money, plaudits and hurrahs for the Orsi, Fathers of the People, rent the air. Later, the Orsi summoned the council : Checco, in a pompous harangue, boasted of having put to death a ferocious tyrant, and declared that the city should be given to none but the Pope, and only to him in nominal suzerainty. He offered the people of Forli autonom\- and self-government. I20 CATHERIiXE'S WIDOWHOOD The chief magistrate, Nicolo TornielH, replied with spirit and wisdom that the Duke of Milan was capable of becoming the avenger of his sister's wrongs ; that in Rome there were many cardinals who were related and allied to the Riario, and that the Pope himself appeared well disposed towards them. Autonomy and liberty may have flourished in the city in by-gone times ; but the liberty so eulogized by the Orsi had begun in bloodshed, would not last eight days, and would make Forli and its magistracy the laughing-stock of the proletariat of every other Italian city. Whatever be the resolution they came to, it had best be " one that would not further irritate nor wound the Countess. That would not only be barbarous and inhuman, but would draw down fatal con- sequences upon the city, she being of subtle mind and of that high courage that was known to all, indomitable of spirit and inexorable in vengeance." He added that the only course open to them lay in submission to the Pope, as their direct and immediate sovereign, without grimace of popular liberty. The city should, with all due and legal formality, be consigned to Monsignor Savelli, protonotary and papal governor of Cesena. The council unanimously applauded and accepted the suggestion of Tornielli, to the indignation of the populace and the Orsi, who were still blinded and intoxicated by their victory. The act of allegiance was immediately drawn up and sent to Cesena. It surprised and perplexed Savelli who, however, recognizing the seal of the city and the signatures of the councillors, sent his auditor to Forli on the 15th. The latter, in the presence of the assembled council, took posses- sion of the city in the name of the Governor of Cesena, by the ancient rite of walking several times round the square, and returned to that place. Savelli, on hearing the account of the auditor, determined to conclude that which had been begun, and arriving at P^orli before nightfall, proceeded at once to Casa Orsi, to pay his respects to the Countess, both because of her great misfortune and because, as the Pope's representative, it behoved him to recognize the sovereign rights of the Riario as vicars of the Church. He expressed to the Countess, whom he had known CATHERINE AND THE ASSASSINS 121 in Rome, his horror and sorrow at the appalh'ng event, and excused himself for the haste of his coming in that as the Pope's legate, he could not appear to neglect the unsought gift which the city had made of itself to the Holy See, (Jn the other hand, although he had been constrained to accept this gift from the people of P'orli to the Pope, there was nothing to prevent His Holiness from confirming the children of the Count in the investiture of their father's dominions .... and next to his obedience to the Pontiff, there was nothing nearer to his (Savelli's) heart than his desire to render aid, service, and all that was possible of solace and comfort to the Countess. The sincere ring of these words of pity and respect so far mitigated her bitterness that Catherine,^ with modest integrity and directness, made such reply as her circumstances demanded, in words few and serious, and in no wise offensive. The sight of the young mother, to whom clung six terrified orphans whom she strove to comfort and console, — for in the house of her husband's murderers they were surrounded on all sides by guards armed with pikes and halberds, — so moved the worthy prelate that no sooner had he left them than he could not restrain himself from declaring to those concerned that " the Orsi were wild beasts in human form, than whom no Turks could have worse entreated Madonna." And having mounted his horse and ridden once round the square to confirm the possession taken of the city by his auditor, he passed onward to the Gate of St. Peter. There he relieved the guard by another composed of twelve artisans commanded by three noblemen who were held in high esteem in the city, and at the same time personally devoted to the Countess. Bartolomeo Capofcrri, Bartolomeo Serughi and Francesco Denti were soon to prove themselves worthy of his confidence. Savelli further enjoined on the Orsi to hold Catherine no longer a prisoner under their own roof, but to immediately conduct her to the Fort of St. Peter and there confide her to the honourable custody of the three gentlemen by him instructed to treat her with the respect due to her rank and ^ Burriel. 122 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD her misfortunes. These considerations had not withheld another priest, a partisan of the Orsi, from forcing his way into Catherine's room during SavelH's short absence, and seeking by intimidation to obtain the surrender of the Fortress of Ravaldino. " Count Girolamo's sins had found him out," said this priest to the widow ; " therefore, my sister, make up your mind to yield up this stronghold to us ; for you will neither eat nor drink until you have caused it to be surrendered to us, and we shall let you die of hunger." Catherine, in her anguish, could find no voice to answer him, but at last, regaining her power of speech, was able to cry : " O Misser Ludovico, I pray you, for the love of God, deliver me from this priest ! " Catherine, who in happier times recounted this episode to her friends and retainers, was wont to say that the words of this priest had hurt her almost more than the murder of her husband. Catherine was then led by Ludovico and Checco Orsi, Panzechi, and Ronchi, before the papal governor (Monsignor Savelli) to be publicly interrogated, and as she was now awaiting the succour she had demanded from Milan and Bologna, was able, in calm expectation of the result of her foresight, to make such promises and replies as were imposed upon her under penalty of death. She was next conducted to the Fortress of Ravaldino, which she had secretly in- structed Tommaso Feo to hold at any cost. When, there- fore, the latter appeared at the battlements the Countess cried : " Surrender the fortress to these people, to save my life and the lives of my children ! " "They can take me from here in pieces!" replied the castellanc. " I will not yield an inch." " They will murder me ! " " Wliom will they murder.'' They have too much reason to fear the iJuke of Milan." At these words he disappeared from the battlements, but the late captain of Catherine's guard, who knew her as well as (lid the castcllane, fixed his eyes upon her face and the point of his ])arlis,in on licr breast. CATHKKINE AND THE ASSASSINS 123 "O Madonna Caterina," he cried, "if you chose he would give it to us, but 'tis you who will not let him surrender ; I have a mind to bore thee through and through with this partisan, and to make thee fall down dead." The Countess replied, without sign of anger or alarm — " O Jacomo da Ronco, do not frighten me ; deeds canst do unto me, but canst not frighten, for I am daughter to one who knew no fear. You have killed my lord, you may as well kill me, who am a woman." Finding that they could do nothing with her, the con- spirators reconducted her to their house. Meanwhile Mon- signor Savelli superintended the works for the capture of Ravaldino, which were continued throughout the night. On the following morning, April 16, the same scene was re-enacted under the walls of the Fort of Schiavonia. " Castellane, give up the fort to these people," cried Catherine to Bianchino and his brother, who held it, " and I shall be content." " O Madonna, Your Ladyship will forgive us, you never gave us this fortress, nor will we give it to you, nor to any one. Retire, or we shall shoot. O Messer Ludovico, retire ! " At that moment the great parish bell rang to assemble the council, to which Monsignor Savelli, as papal governor, was also bidden. As no succour had as yet arrived from the Pope,'it was decided to send some citizens to Rome to invoke it. Soon after, according to the orders of Savelli, Catherine and her family were conducted to the Fortress of St. Peter, where they were received with reverent pity by the three gentlemen to whom they had been confided by Savelli. Catherine, her six children (the two youngest in the arms of their nurses), her mother, her half-sister Stella and Scipio (a natural son of Count Girolamo), were all confined in a small room, built in the thickness of the wall of a tower which rose above the gate. The terrors of the night had dried up the nurses' milk, the children sobbed and cried, and there was no change of linen, nor bedding for Sforzino, the youngest babe. In her despair the haughty Countess implored the compassion and help of her neighbours, and a cradle was immediately 124 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD brought her from the house of a certain Achille Bighi. Even the guards were touched with pity. " Who could be so hard of heart," says Bernardi, " but that he would not have felt some compassion for the said poor Madonna ! " At last Catherine was able to quiet her babies, but the elder children still clung in terror to their mother, while her mother and sister started at every sound, dreading the entrance of armed men and the nearness of death. But Catherine, delivered from the clutches of the Orsi, spoke brave words to her children, her sister, and her mother. And she was heard to comfort them, saying, that they " should fear no more, for they were no longer in the hands of traitors, but in the care of men of honour, whom she knew. Danger was over ; they must neithoi' have nor show fear, which was worse. . . . Muzio Attendolo and Duke Francesco, their forebears, had never been known to lose their fortitude ; they had not known the meaning of fear . . . and that is why they had always been proof against steel, fire and treason, and in their day had been great princes and great condottieri. . . . Their uncle, the Duke, would send hundreds and hundreds of armed men, with cannon and guns and famous captains to their rescue. Her father, like theirs, had also been assassinated in her childhood. Yet she had not lost courage . . . neither should they ! " When Catherine had somewhat comforted her people, she began to think how she could turn the change in her cir- cumstances to her advantage. She was now guarded by honourable citizens, faithful to their charge, yet kindly and reverently minded to her. She realized that Savelli and the Orsi coveted the possession of the fortresses, and that, through her, they would again attempt to persuade the castellanes to surrender. Could she but find a pretext to enter the fortress of Ravaldino! That and the arrival of help from Milan would be fatal to the plans of her enemies. Absorbed in this thought, she confided in a loyal servitor, who fortunately happened to be near her at the time, says the historian I'crnardi, in a iiiaiinei- which permits us to infer that he was CATHERINE AND THE ASSASSINS 135 himself this loyal servant. Ilim she dispatched to the castcllane, to warn him that she would certainly be again led in front of the fortress, which, if she could but enter, would save the situation. She therefore enjoined on him to concert with Francesco Ercolani, who was with him at Ravaldino, as to her possible mode of entrance. They agreed that upon the following day, Ercolani would see the governor, and inform him that the Castellane of Ravaldino, considering the great danger to which the Countess was exposed, and the impossi- bility of holding the fort against the impending army of the Pope, was ready to surrender, but as he came of a stock in which there had been no traitor, he would neither be nor appear one. He would therefore do the bidding of the Countess, and give up the fortress, but before doing so he demanded an interview with Madonna to settle his affairs, receive his salary, and receive from Madonna a written certificate of his honourable service, so that he might show himself in any company and none would dare to call him traitor. Having thus agreed, Ercolani hastened to communicate the agreement to Catherine, who approved it, and to the Governor, who promised not only that Catherine should enter the fort, but that he would induce the Orsi to take her there on that same morning. Ercolani, on leaving Savelli, proceeded to the Orsi, who, knowing Catherine too well to trust her within the fort, absolutely refused her any private colloquy with the castellane. They would take her outside, where she could speak with him, as before, in public. Ercolani then appeared before Tornielli and the magistracy to acquaint them with the proposals of the castellane. " Now our blockheads believed his words to be the truth," says Cobelli, and promised that they would do all that was necessary, " and more," to carry out this plan. " Then," adds Cobelli, " I went away to dinner, for it was late." Meanwhile two confidential persons, Luca d'Este and a certain Luigi, came and went at will, to inform Catherine of everything that happened, a proof that the severity of her custody was somewhat relaxed, and that her jailers closed 126 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD one eye. Even Savelli, who went forwards and backwards on the ramparts, directing the work of the batteries, perceived this coming and going without preventing it. At about eleven in the forenoon the Orsi, accompanied by Ercolani and their usual escort of conspirators, went to conduct Catherine by the road outside the walls to the fortress. The castellane appeared at the battlements, Catherine, almost weeping, entreated him to surrender the fort to Monsignor the Governor, the Pope's representative. The castellane repeated that he would do nothing of the kind. "Ah!" said Catherine, "if I might but enter the fortress and speak to you without witnesses, I would explain to you how things stand, and persuade you to surrender!" " In that case," said the castellane, " I know not what I might do, but in any case I should be guided by the conditions you might propose to me. Besides, I have already declared to the Governor and every one that, to make an end of it, I am willing for you to enter the fortress, on condition that you come alone." When the Orsi heard this they loudly opposed those who advocated sending the Countess within. They knew her too well . . . they feared her too much. Once within her fortress, would she come out of it again ? But, says Bernardi, they took heart of grace, remembering that she would leave her children in their hands, and yet could not make up their minds. " What are you afraid of? " queried Ercolani. " Have you not all her children in your hands? Do you think she would abandon them .'' Give her three hours with the castellane. If, when that time has elapsed, the Countess does not return, do what you will to her children, her mother and sister. Do not these hostages suffice .' I offer you my children as well. If the Countess is not here at the appointed time you can butcher them all together." " Where is the need that you should offer your children to us.^" replied the Orsi. "Arc you not, as well as your children, in our hands ? " This discussion, which took place in the presence of (Catherine, so grew in length and violence that at the sound of the cc^nlcnding voices Monsignor Savelli, who CATinCRINI-: AND THE ASSASSINS 127 never left the neighbourhood of the fortress, appeared upon the scene. His authority decided the question, and gave Catherine the right of entry to the fort. He announced that he Jiad observed certain persons going to and fro from the fort to Catherine, and he was aware that the castellanc had ah'cady agreed to surrender. And it behoved them, above all, to deprive the Duke of Milan of the slightest pretext for dis- pleasure, such as might arise from the prolonged imprisonment of his sister, or a refusal to permit her to treat for the surrender with the castellane. The Orsi could not, dared not, withstand this order, but they swore, cursed, and were consumed with anger. Three hours and no more were granted to Catherine in which to settle everything with her castellane. In a second Catherine's countenance underwent a complete change. Rising to her full height, she resolutely approached and crossed the draw-bridge; then turning to hurl a gesture of insult at the assassins, proudly entered the castle, followed by a single attendant, her faithful Luca d'Este.^ 1 Cobelli had "gone to dinner, because it was late. But one way, or another, Madonna entered the fort . . . and according to Ludovico Hercolano, no sooner had the Countess mounted the bridge than siie turned and .... When I had dined, I picked up my lance and I'eturned to the fort, where Misser Ludovico and Checco, Jacomo da Ronco, and Ludovico Pansecco waited for Madonna to come out. They had a good wailing." — p. 322. CHAPTER XV THE LEGEND OF THE FORT TOMMASO Feo and Corradino, his son, who awaited Catherine within the fortress, were her husband's kinsmen and her personal friends. An atmosphere of safety and loyalty revived her spirits, while her presence inspired the whole garrison with renewed courage. Her first thought was to so dispose the artillery (cannon, bombs and mortars) as to command the city. Savelli had confided the custody of her dear ones to three loyal citizens, but in the event of their being overpowered by the conspirators, she would show that she was ready for terrible reprisals, and able to bombard the whole town. For a time, the Countess and the castellane occupied themselves with the transport and disposal of guns and ammunition. At last, when the churches and principal houses of the town were at her mercy, she sat down to dinner with Thomas and Conrad Feo, and was soon joined by Ercolani, who had succeeded in escaping from the Orsi and their braves, and to whose congratulations Catherine replied with thanks for the timely service he had rendered her. After dinner, the castellane persuaded her to take some repose in an isolated room at the top of the vmschio, or central tower, where no sounds from outside could reach her. Catherine undressed, and youth and fatigue triumphing over her anxieties, was soon asleep in the bed she had found prepared for her. When the three hours had expired, the Osi began to ask why she did not return, and to call her clamonjusl)'. Corradino replied from the ramparts that if 128 THE LEGEND OF THE FORT 129 they sent Luffo Nuinai and Lorenzo Orsclli as hostages for Catherine and her children,- the castellane would send the Countess to them, otherwise he would keep her in the fortress. The rage of the Orsi at this suggestion was un- bounded ; Numai and Orselli were among the principal citizens ; the demand for them seemed an additional insolence. At last Savelli, the Orsi and their myrmidons, irritated at having been made fools of by Catherine, returned to the city, and there was once more silence outside the fort. Ercolani having left its precincts and imprudently shown himself in the square, would have been put to death by the knives and partisans of the conspirators, but that he was rescued and conducted to his house by his brother-in-law, Matteo Galasso and the latter's followers. The legend runs otherwise. In the Hove di rccreatione ^ of Messer Ludovico Guicciardini, we learn that " the Lady having entered the fortress . . . appeared at the battlements and with exceeding bitter words, reproached the conspirators with the death of her husband, threatening them with every kind of torture. . . . Then they (the Orsi) having taken her children by the hand, did with a knife make pretence of slaying them in her presence if she broke her word with them. But the dauntless Countess, with unchanged counten- ance, gazed at them defiantly, and hfting her skirt said to them : ' E noii vi pare cgli, stolti, cJiio abbia le foruie da fame degl' altri ? ' " This is the reply repeated by almost every historian. Turn we, therefore, to the records of Cobelli and Bernard i who were present during the stormy episodes of that day. The only means which Savelli, in concert with the Orsi, could devise to compass the surrender of the fort by Catherine, was to threaten to murder her children, mother and sister, under her eyes. Checco Orsi, followed by many others, went to San Pietro, and in the names of the governor and the council, demanded the mother and sister of Catherine, her two eldest children and a nurse who w^as particularly dear to the Countess. They were led to weep and cry in the ^ Consiglio fe mini no esser talhora di gran ralore, p. 208. I30 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD moat of Ravaldino. First the nurse, then Stella, and finally Octavian were employed to entreat Madonna to " surrender the fort to Monsignore and for the love of God to save their lives." Instead of Catherine, who was asleep in the remote recesses of the castle, the castcllane replied by threat to threat, not to the poor women, whose cries could not waken their lady, but to those who dictated their appeal. But the shrill screams of Octavian made his hair stand on end. What if a mother's love were to sharpen her ears ; she would sur- render, and all would be over ! A subterfuge dawned upon him by which he might deaden all sounds from without, and he ordered all his available soldiers to cry : " Away with \-ou ! a\va\' ! or we shall kill you all," ^ at the same time sending others to make a loud noise under the windows of the tower where Catherine slept. Neither the conspirators nor the crowd who followed them moved an inch. The castellane, in despair, fired a few shots - which dispersed them in terror, when the conspirators turned back and reconducted Catherine's family, unharmed, to the Gate of St. Peter. These cries had awakened the Countess, who from the seclusion of the maschio thought she could hear her name. . . . She listened, the better to distinguish the sounds, but instead of her name, heard from the draw-bridge a deafening noise and the sound of blows ; this was surely the beginning of a battle. . . . She suddenly sprang from her bed and out of the room. In the scanty clothing in which she had slept, with unbound hair and bare feet, she quickly descended the spiral stair that is still to be seen in the chief tower, stopped for a moment at the bottom, and hearing shots ... in her impatience to know, see, and meet the emergency, crossed the courtyard that was crowded with soldiers, like lightning, and llcw to the small tower where the castellane stood b}' the big cannon. Th': castellane perceived her, guessed what had happcncil, and went to meet her. " W'liat tlid she fear? . . . why leave ' Hcrnardi, p. 14S. - \'cci:h\a.7./.ani, i/ort'a (/i J'or/i////>o/>o/i, p. 168. THE LEGEND OF THE FORT 131 her room ? Enemies ! Attacks ! A handful of drunken soldiers had had a scrimmage among themselves, and he had been obliged to fire a few shots. . . . Yes, the Orsi had come to fetch her, but had gone away peacefully . . . very frightened at the Duke of Milan ! " Reassured by the pious lie of the castellane, she was soon seen to retire to her apart- ments. Her face was calm, she passed serenely in front of the soldiers and soon disappeared. It would appear that the Countess on reaching the battle- ments of the tower by the gate was observed by those who stood outside the fortress. In any case, many soldiers of the garrison had seen her in her scant attire. Catherine's admir- able defence of the Castle of Forli soon became a sort of epopee, adorned by popular fancy and enriched by the boastful additions of those who had taken any part in it. It was this version that reached Machiavelli, who was only to make Catherine's personal acquaintance eleven years later : he believed it, and delighted in handing it down to history in its most cynical form. But the narrative of Machiavelli cannot stand against the absolute silence of such contemporaries as Cobelli and Bernardi. The person who appeared and who spoke to the crowd was the castellane ; Catherine was not on the battlements, but in bed, and when she did appear, wore, not armour, but her shift, which she was probably the last to perceive. At that moment the dauntless Countess was not alarming, but alarmed. Cobelli relates that when evening came, Ludovico Orsi called his brother and their associates away from the fort, saying : " Let us go to supper." Savelli remained to direct the work of the barricades, but Cobelli followed the others home, where the supper-tables were laid. Andrea Orsi, the octogenarian father of Ludovico and Checco, arrived from his country house at Casa Murata and seeing his sons with Panzechi and Ronchi washing their hands before they went to table began by saying : " O my sons, what have you done .'' " " We have done well," replied Ronchi, " for did not the preacher say : ' Who will be that mouse that will bell the 132 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD cat ?' We have belled the cat and freed the poor mice. We have freed this earth from the hand of Pharaoh!" . , . "O my Father ! " added Ludovico, " we have but done to him as he would have done to us." And he told him how the Count had been put to death, and of all the events that had happened up to that moment. Old Orsi, although he had just recovered from a severe illness and looked as if he were in his dotage, replied, with much wisdom : " My sons, to my mind you have neither done well nor done bravely, but have rather done ill, twice over. First, since you had killed the Count, you should have finished the others or have penned the whole family alive and kept them prisoners. Then you have let Madonna into the fort, to wage deadly war with you, and have banished the Marcobelli and Orzioli, who will return with fire and sword. God help you ! I would not have been drawn into it ! You have behaved like drivelling infants and will repent and suffer for it ; would that others need not suffer, nor I, who am old and ill ! I foresee where you will end ! " " O Orsi ! " cried his hearers, " doubt not but that w^e know what we have to do!" "No! you know not yet," insisted the old man. "Since you have killed the Count you should have finished them all." These words of Andrea Orsi, repeated to Catherine, enraged her more than ever, confirming her in her belief that all her troubles were due to the bloodthirsty old man, who had encouraged his sons to dye their hands in the blood of the Riario. On April 17, Catherine, trembling for her children's safety, and knowing of no other means to insure it but the display of her power to avenge them, fired on the town from time to time, by day and night. Several private houses, among which was that of Giovanni Battista Oliva, the great- grandfather of Fabio, Catherine's future biographer, were injured. It was hastily decided to raise barricades and bat- teries for the protection of the town, and to send to Cesena rr>r battering-rams and a cannon. Monsignor Savelli sum- moned all the i)ai)al soldiers from Cesena and within his jurisdiction. On the following day, these troops arrived ' THE LEGEND OF THE FORT 133 under the command of Count Guido di Bagno, Count Carlo Plan di Meleto and Hector Zampeschi. Since the night of April 15, Savelli had invested eight citizens with full authority, who were to reside day and night in the palace. This was the Council of Eight, of which Mdso Maldenti was president. Some of the members were bold and truculent, others silent and at heart uncertain of the issue, with a fore- boding that the Pope would turn a deaf ear, and the sense that the sword of Milan hung over their heads, Catherine, stronger and more wily than all of them, had seized the fort, whence she could bombard the whole city. All hope of frightening or touching her was at an end. CHAPTER XVI THE FLIGHT OF THE ORSI Giovanni Bentivoglio, Lord of Bologna and Catherine's ally, was anxious to avoid displeasing Lorenzo Medici, whom he knew to be the instigator of her husband's death : he also knew that the Florentine was personally favourable to her, and therefore Avrote him as follows : " The death of the quondam (sic) Count Hieronymus having occurred in the mode and form of which I know Your Magni- ficence to be aware, on the said death I will for the present express no opinion, either in praise or blame, preferring to be guided by the wisdom of Your Magnificence. . . ." The ducal orator, resident in Bologna, had begged him to do his utmost to save the States for the children of the Count : he had therefore ridden to Castel San Pietro, five miles from Imola, with Light Horse and infantry, and would "fain know what (under the circumstances) would seem meet to Your Magnificence, and what you consider should be done in the matter. . . ." Lorcn/.o ditl not rc[)ly, and licntivoglio wrote him again on the 19th, from Castel Bologncsc, " repeating his prayer, that he might be pleased to communicate to him (Bentivoglio) an inkling of his wise decision and opinion. . . ." These letters prove that Lorenzo was the soul and centre of these intrigues. Why therefore did he not trouble to reply to Bentivoglio .? 'Ihc cc.'nditions were altered: the conspiracy of the Pazzi, origin of these feutis, Jiad occurred ten years earlier, and vengeance had fallen when perhaps it was least desired. Ij4 THE FLIOirr OF THE ORSI 135 Besides, even if he had willed and worked the death of Girolamo, he now desired to avoid the odium of the assassin- ation. Meanwhile the news of it continued to reach him from other sources. Stefano of Castrocaro wrote him on the 19th, from Faenza, relating a conversation in which Galeotto Manfredi had asserted "that all had happened with the knowledge of Lorenzo." This he, Stefano, had defied him to prove. He added Galeotto's account of the assassination, and ended by stating that the body had been interred in "uncon- secrated ground." Galeotto had already, in a letter of the 17th, informed Lorenzo that BcntivogHo had shamefacedly asked his assent to the passage of forces he was sending to the defence of Catherine, but that, " to avoid responsibility," he had replied that he was too busy to see him, and had refused him a right of way through Faenza. He had learned that Bentivoglio would be followed by the Milanese forces : he would write Lorenzo everything that occurred, and would establish a service of couriers by the Marradi road, to carry letters backwards and forwards. He added that Catherine Sforza had entered the fort, and had given out that she would die there ; she was regardless of her children's danger, and had opened fire on the city.^ On the following day, he wrote again saying that " pending the ebullition," he begged Lorenzo to send a confidential person to him with whom he might confer in any circum- stance whatever. He referred to the endurance with which Catherine held the fort. Lorenzo had already received similar information, regarding Catherine, from Migliore Cresci, captain of Castrocaro, con- firmed by three letters of Corbizzi,"- who wrote that the assassins of the Count looked to him, Lorenzo, for protection. The most important letters are, however, those from Ludovico and Checco Orsi. The assassins did not spare the memory of their "iniquitous and accursed" victim, "whom we will not call Lord, for of that he was unworthy." They openly alluded to the part plajxd by Girolamo in the conspiracy of ^ Doc. 258. - Docs. 260, 261, 267. 136 CATHERINES WIDOWHOOD the Pazzi, as a pretext for the assassination, God had in- spired them ; in spite of all risks success had so attended them that they were constrained to recognize divine intervention. Not a drop of blood except that of the accursed one and a bargello of like nature had been spilled. " We announce these things to Your Magnificence, because having been sorely offended, Your Lordship will surely rejoice thereat." They had had good reasons of their own for putting Girolamo to death, but foremost had been their love for Lorenzo, whose help and counsel they now entreated. The accursed brood of the Riario would soon be stamped out : they hoped to take one of the two fortresses on that day, and to soon oblige the other to surrender. Thanks to their patriotism, love and peace now prevailed at Forli. . . . To this letter Lorenzo vouchsafed no response, merely telling the envoy who delivered it that he wished to live in peace for the short span that was yet allotted to him, and that no consideration in the world would induce him to dabble in such matters. Yet he still held the thread of the skein, and sent Stephen of Castrocaro to explore the humours of the assassins., Stcfano, having, "according to orders received, spoken separately wnth each" (Ludovico and Checco Orsi), wrote that he could not describe the cordiality of his re- ception. " I therefore told them that Your Magnificence having sent me to the Lord of Faenza had requested me to confer with them also, and to assure them that Your Lordship was naturally disposed to do all that lies in your power in their favour and for their benefit." They prayed Lorenzo to induce the Pope to come to the help of the people of Forli, who were still horrified by the memory of the Count, and determined to no longer tolerate the rule of tyrants. Here follows the assassin's account of the assassination. The Orsi declared that at the sacking of the palace they had found no money, but jewels and plate to the value of 60,000 ducats ; everything had passed through their hands, but they had kept nothing for llicmselves. (hccco's gravest assertion was that he had done the deed conscio pontijicr. The cry of all was C/iu'sa ! neither would THE FLKJHT OF THE ORSI 137 they hear of the Ordelaffi, " nor any other private Lord. . . , Come Milan, or any other potentate," they had continued, "we will be drawn and quartered, one by one, sooner than submit to a tyrant, for we have faith in the support of the Pope:" a transparent protest against the possibility of Forli being given to Franceschetto Cibo.^ Stephen added that the Fort of Ravaldino, one of the finest he liad seen, was ammuni- tioned for ten years. Having asked the Orsi what would be done with the Count's children, they replied that they were in a place where they would never be seen again, whence he concluded that they had killed them. The Orsi professed themselves well pleased that Madonna was in the fort, soon to fall into their iiands. Thus the Orsi, by suppressing facts and their real feelings, contrived to present a brave front to the envoy of Lorenzo Medici. Checco Orsi had concluded by saying that he "and all his house were the slaves of the Magnificent Lorenzo, and had I done nought else, should be content to have avenged that innocent blood of his brother ;'"- he had no other desire than " the certainty of Lorenzo's favour ; " a few words in his writing would suffice him. In short he wanted a few strokes in black and white as well as words. But Stephen knew his master's humour too well to promise anything of the kind. " I replied, that without any other testimony, he could believe and I certify . . . ." He here remarked, in the current of his letter, that if possession were taken by the Church, Lorenzo would no longer be able to dispose of Forli as if it were his own, having previously assured the Orsi that "they need not fear that his master, who desired but to end his days in peace, would attempt to impose upon them the Lord Francesco Cibo as ruler." And the Pope? Innocent VIII., ambitious but irresolute, had married his son to the daughter of Girolamo's deadliest enemy, and the envoys of the city, lately freed from the tyrant, had been graciously received at the Vatican. Yet, the Pope's lack of confidence in the appeal would tend to ^ Son of Innocent VHI. and son-in-law to Lorenzo Medici. ■^ Giuliano Medici, killed in the conspiracy of the Pazzi. 138 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD prove that he had no hand in the assassination, and was besides most probably deterred by fear from coming to any decision, since Catherine had so promptly called the Lords of Bologna and Milan to her aid. We learn from two letters of Giovanni Lanfredini, Florentine Orator in Rome, addressed to the Otto di Pratic(x} that the Pope had written to Forli that Catherine and her children were to be protected and taken to the Fortress of Cesena, and that having assembled all the orators of the league he had caused a letter from the Governor of Cesena and one from the Commune of Forli to be read, which set forth that the citizens would no longer tolerate tyrants, that Pope Sixtus had deceived them, that the Count's rule had been detestable, and that they craved the protection of the Church. The Milanese Orator had enjoined on the Pope the protection of the widow and children, and the punishment of the assassins. The Pope's instructions to his envoy at Milan betray the fears and indecision that consumed him. He sought to dissuade the Duke from sending forces for the defence of his sister, he wondered that the Duke could not entrust her defence to him, although he could not have done otherwise than accept the dominion offered by Forli to the Church. . . . What was nearest his heart was the peace of Italy, menaced as it was by the Turk.- After this protest, seeing that matters did not shape them- selves to his intentions, the Pope was deaf and blind to the affairs of Forli, which may have been due to the all-powerful influence of Cardinal Julian della Rovere.^' The Cibo family were of too lymphatic a temperament to bend the Cardinal to their will or to enforce their authority on the whole Curia: they limited themselves to the accumulation of treasure, especially by usury. Unlike the Riario before, and the Borgia after them, they knew not how to extract profit for themselves from the political relation of the papacy with the affairs of the world in general. ' State Ardiives of Florence^ Docs. 274, 275. ^ Secret Archives of the Vatican, Inslr. iv. Vol. 55, Doc. 2S^ ■' ;\ near rclnliDii of tlic Kiario. THE FLIGHT OF THK ORSI 139 On April 18, a herald of Bentivoglio arrived at Forli, requiring, of the Council of Eight, the reinstatement of the Riario. He warned them to do no harm to the children of Catherine under penalty of reprisals from the Duke of Milan. Savelli replied that there was nothing to fear for the children, especially if Catherine surrendered the fort : it would be impossible to reinstate her, because the city had offered itself spontaneously to the Pope, and had already dispatched orators to Rome. If the Countess surrendered, she might retire to her city of Imola. On returning to the square, the herald was met by Checco Orsi with words of insult for Bentivoglio and Bologna. These incidents caused some excitement in the city : Savelli, surrounded by his guard, appeared in the square, some voices cried Chiesa ! Chiesa ! but these demonstrations were due to bribery, and soon ceased. On the following day Savelli banished many suspects from Forli, sent for some partisans of the Orsi from Imola, and, to rid himself of the incumbrance of Catherine's mother and sister, summoned them to his presence, married Stella to her betrothed, Andrea Ricci, and sent them under honourable escort to Cesena. Checco Orsi, hearing that many artisans had been admitted to the fort to share in Catherine's defence, went in fury to their houses, dragged forth their wives, and led them to the fort where he forced them to call on their husbands, saying, that unless they came out the Orsi would kill their children. One of these women imitated the device of the Countess. " Could I but speak alone to my dear husband, Bernardino," she said, " I am sure I could persuade him to return with me." No sooner had she entered the fort than she declared she would never leave it. At the same time, the men cried from within, that they had sworn allegiance to their lady, and that neither promises nor threats would induce them to abandon her. On the morning of the 20th a courier from Bentivoglio arrived with a letter for Savelli from the Duke of Milan ; towards eveninsf another brouQ;ht one for the council. Both I40 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD condemned the presence of the papal governor, and demanded the reinstatement of the Riario. The replies were kept secret. There was no sign of help from the Pope, and the most influential citizens were heard to say that His Holiness was not even cognizant of what had happened. To avoid a panic Savelli had recourse to the publication of two forged bulls purporting to have come from Rome, by which the Pope's thanks were conveyed to the people of Forli for having given themselves to him, promising them support. On the 2 1st, the Duke of Milan's first envoy, accompanied by a trumpeter of Bentivoglio, entered Forli. They were on horseback, and when they arrived at the bridge known as Del Pane, close to the square, they were met by Checco Orsi and his followers, to whom their guide, instead of leading them to Savelli and the council, presented them. There, in the presence of the crowd, the envoy said, in a loud voice, that he had been sent by the Duke of Milan to request Orsi to bring to his presence the children of Girolamo. He must see them with his eyes. He added that Bentivoglio was at Castel Bologncse with his forces, and would soon be joined by those of the Duke. "We have already put them to death," replied Checco; " we neither will nor can show them to you, and I tell you to begone quickly, lest we hang you by the throat. We neither fear Bentivoglio, nor the Duke of Milan. Within three days, the Pope will send us sufficient forces to send them back whence they came." The envoy replied that the rank of the prince he served sufficed to protect him against their insults, but Orsi, ordering his m\'rmidons to take the horses by the bridle, confined both horses and riders in a neighbouring inn. Towards evening, two men were captured who brought letters to Catherine from l^entivoglio and tlic leaders of the Milanese forces. The Orsi would have put them to death, but Savelli saved them. On the following day an orator arrived from the Duke of Milan protesting against the detention of his envoy and the violation of the lihert}' of the people. The council apologized, Till-: FLl(;ilT OF ']"HE ORSl 141 laid the blame on Orsi, and immediately liberated the envoy and his companion. Other things the orator said, but they were kept secret, and secret were the words that Ludovico Orsi had whispered in his ear, Savelli, in the absence of news from head-quarters, con- tinued to contribute forged bulls for the encouragement of the citizens : the Eight, who relied more on their artillery than on the Pope, dragged 3. passavolajitc^ from the Fort of Schiavonia to a watchman's box that commanded the Valverde road and placed bombs in a house that stood near it, and on the 24th an edict of Savelii ordered both citizens and foreigners to bring* in a bundle of wood for the barricades : the peasants brought two each, but none were willing to work at the barricades nor to guard the cannon. As a bait to the populace, the Orsi prevailed upon the council to provide each workman at the barricade with a ticket, in return for which they could demand a pawned article from any of the Jews. But the Orsi reserved to themselves the promulgation of this edict. On the 26th, the artillery of the Orsi opened fire on the Fort of Ravaldino, which suffered little and replied vigorously, damaging the palace tower in several places, but neither touching that of St. Mercurial nor of the Dome. There were only two victims, the Countess being minded rather to frighten than to injure the city. On the 27th, one Battista of Savona, a relative of the late Count, and castellane of Forlimpopoli, actuated less by avarice than the conviction that Catherine's fortunes were fallen, gave up that fortress to Savelli for 4000 ducats : with his son and son-in-law as hostages while awaiting the payment of this sum. On April 29, the ducal army which had joined the forces of Bentivoglio (about 12,000 strong without counting the adventurers and camp-followers) encamped at Cosina, five miles from Fori i. It was led by Galeazzo Sanseverino, Count of Caiazzo, the future son-in-law^ to Ludovico il More and the ^ Passavolante — an old Italian piece of artilleVy used, before the invention of gunpowder, to hurl stones and other minute projectiles. 142 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD Lords of Bergamo, Mantua and Bologna, who had determined in council to send Giovanni Landriani, an officer of mark, to treat with the citizens of Forli, He arrived there at the twenty-first hour and was received by the Council of Eight, of which Savelli was president. He eloquently denounced the murder of Count Girolamo, and pointed out the political illegality of the act whereby the city had given itself to the Pope, since Sixtus IV. had given the lordship thereof to Girolamo Riario and his heirs forever, until the extinction of his line. His widow and children were the representatives of his rights, which would be enforced by the 12,000 men, led by the Lord of Bologna and the generals of the Duke of i\Iilan, brother of the Countess. Savelli had no right to accept the city on behalf of the Church and the league of the powers of Milan, Naples, Ferrara, Mantua and Bologna demanded the restoration of the Riario. Savelli replied firmly that the Riario had forfeited their rights by non-payment of the dues of the Church, wherefore the city had been justified in giving itself to the Church, and the Eight, to whom he appealed, were unanimous in support of his argument, declaring with one voice that it was impos- sible to undo that which had been done. Ludovico Orsi imprudently added that Count Girolamo had but had his deserts and that he congratulated himself even more on having freed the city from such a tyrant than on having given it to the Church. . . . Within six days Ludovico Orsini, Count of Pitigliano with Ser Domenico Orio and the papal army, strengthened by the forces of Malatesta of Rimini, would dispense the troops of the Duke of Milan, and the people of P^orli would be left at peace in their city. " The dues of the Church, forsooth ! The late Count was a creditor of tlie apostolic treasury for enormous sums," replied Landriani, after he had patiently listened to all that had been said. "If )'ou hold to your decision," continued Landriani, "the Duke, m)- lord, i)roposes that the government of Forli be confided pro Ion. to two commissioners, one on his own behalf, one for Holy Church, with the Pope as arbitrator. If he decides in favour of Forli I pledge my word as Ambassador THE FLIGHT OF 'IHK ORSI 143 that the Captains and soldiers of Milan and Bologna will return whence they came, and not another word will be said of the Duke's demands, the murder of the Count, the imprison- ment of the Countess and the rights of their children." Savelli contemptuously refused, the councillors applauded. His reply and their applause were too much for the patience of Landriani, who cried that they would bitterly repent and that the Duke of Milan would hasten in person to avenge the wrongs of his nephews, sparing neither the possessions nor the lives of the people of Forli. He bowed and left the hall. He was met in the square by cries of " Chiesa ! Long live the Church ! " for a certain Guriolo (brother-in-law to Ludovico Orsi) had ridden in by the Cotogni Gate, crying, " Good news, good news ! succour is at hand ! " and the news that the Count of Pitigliano had arrived at Ronco so strengthened the determination of the Eight that the orator was recalled to hear once more that they would stand and fall by the Church. The cries in the square may have been derisive, for, " I was in the square," says Cobelli, " when all the populace laughed, saying : ' This is really a hoax like the Ordelaffi used to treat us to ! ' ' O poor people of Forli,' cried a bag- gage-varlet, wlio was also in the square, ' the lords in the Milanese camp know better than that. No one cares to move a hand for us ! ' The truth was that everything was known in the Milanese camp. Many inhabitants of Forli, either fearing that their property at the Cosina was endangered, or in spite to their rivals, reported everything that occurred at Forli, at the camp at Cosina. Landriani, aware of the measures taken by the league to intercept help for Forli, could not believe that Pitigliano was at its gates. "At last, from afar, a troop of horse became visible in a cloud of dust. ... At the Cotogni Gate, instead of entering, they turned to the left and entered the fort. They were fifty horsemen sent by a cardinal who was related to Catherine, in her defence." The leaders of the army hastened to communicate Savelli's reply to Catherine, proposing at the same time, with her 144 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD consent, to advance and sack the city. But Catherine, who was already in possession of the facts, ordered those captains to do nothing for the present but to approach the fortress by the hills in the neighbourhood of San Martino and Busecchio. It was impossible to move the whole army to the city on that day, but every company had marching orders and the whole camp was in movement, folding tents, packing luggage and burnishing arms. Spies, of whom many hovered about the camp, ran to Forli with the news that the army was on the march to put the city to fire and blood during the night. A sudden, irresistible terror possessed the citizens : there was neither time nor in- tention, nor possibility of warding off the terrible blow; they could only weep and curse. The distracted populace paced the streets, calling those traitors and assassins of their country whom they had erstwhile exalted as liberators and by whom they had sworn to stand till death. Ludovico Orsi, Ronchi and Panzechi were wild with rage when they found them- selves abandoned by the people and their partisans. Ludovico, less audacious than his brother, was seen by his familiars to weep. " Oh 1 had we but listened to the voice of the people, at first, and called ' Ordelaffi and St. Mark' {i.e. the Venetians who at that time colonized Ravenna) as they sent to tell us, we should not now find ourselves in this labyrinth. . . . We would have nought but Church and Pope, and a pretty Pope we have got ! . . . I can remember the army of the Pope encamped outside Forli and yet unable to take it ; and now that lie could have had it without breaking a lance, he would liavc none of it. We have been gulled ! " He was joined by Panzechi, with a few followers, and later by Ronchi ; all were pale and bewildered. None dared to approach Checco Orsi ; the enraged populace cast threatening looks at him, he kept silent and apart. " I saw how things were going," says Cobelli, " and said to certain friends : ' they are in bad case, they have neither tail nor wings left and cannot fly ! ' . . . I looked on f