150)
 
 VALENTINO
 
 AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE OF THE SIXTEENTH 
 CENTURY IN ITALY 
 
 WILLIAM WALDORF ASTOR 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 MDCCCLXXXV
 
 PS 
 
 fltf 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1885, BY 
 WILLIAM WALDORF ASTOR. 
 
 Press of J. J. Little & Co., 
 Nos. 10 to 20 Astor Place, New York.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Castle and Vatican 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 A Morning Call ....................... . ...... 26 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The 'Borgias ................................. 43 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Old Love and the New ..................... 75 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Ormes ....................................... g
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Urbino ................................ . ..... 120 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 For?a Maggiore .............................. 144 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 A Falcon Hunt .......................... .... 168 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1 88 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Diplomacy ................................... 208 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Magione ..................................... 229 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Revolt ...................................... 247 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 'By the Tiber ................................. 264
 
 CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A Masterpiece 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The belvedere Villa . . 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 29?
 
 VALENTINO. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CASTLE AND VATICAN. 
 
 IN Rome, on a crisp December morning in the 
 year 1501, Monsignor E/occamura, Governor-Gen- 
 eral and Prelate of the Castle of St. Angelo, stood 
 at the rampart of that fortress gazing upon the 
 eddying Tiber at his feet, upon the houses op- 
 posite, and upon the Alban hills stretching away 
 southward in varying tints of verdure. He had 
 stepped from the balcony of a colonnaded building 
 which served as residence for himself and his mil- 
 itary lieutenants. In the centre of the court rose 
 the massive tower of Hadrian's tomb, which served 
 the double use of arsenal and dungeon. Along 
 the castle terrace loitered a couple of cross-bow- 
 men ; at the gate a dozen halberdiers sat upon 
 rude benches throwing dice, while one of their 
 number stood sentry ; over all rested the grace and 
 glory of the Italian sun, cordial and beneficent 
 even on a winter's day.
 
 2 VALENTINO. 
 
 Within the enclosure an armorer worked in 
 leisurely fashion at a corselet, a few soldiers 
 were wiping off their harness, two bent over a 
 grindstone, but all of them ever and anon cast 
 a look towards the cook's stalls, where hung a 
 score of slaughtered sheep and pigs, while a dozen 
 menials busied themselves in preparations : for 
 to-night was a feast in honor of the nuptial cor- 
 tege from Ferrara which should presently pass the 
 gates of Home and betake itself to the Vatican to 
 lay its homage before Lucretia Borgia, on behalf 
 of her new husband, and the garrison was to be 
 regaled with meat stew, and puddings scalded with 
 olive oil, and tuns of the wine of Velletri. The 
 commander surveyed the scene the passers on 
 the bridge, the neat walk along the rampart flanked 
 with heaps of cannon balls and iron bolts for the 
 cross-bowmen, the groups within the walls. Then 
 turning towards the doorway, he called : 
 
 " Capitano Vela." 
 
 A burly officer, some years the commendatore's 
 senior, appeared. " Capitano," said his superior, 
 "at noon I go to the Ponte Molle, where Don 
 Michele will align the troops. The necessary 
 orders have been given, you will see them re- 
 peated. Of course I leave you in command : mind 
 well the tower, where," he added with a smile, " I 
 go to salute our amiable guest." 
 
 "It shall be so done, rnonsignore," replied the
 
 CASTLE AND VATICAN. 3 
 
 other with deference then as his chief turned he 
 muttered, " Left in command ! the others go to galas 
 and I stay in this dungeon ; the others get promo- 
 tion, while I am all my life captain of pikemen. It 
 would be like them to bid me watch on the ram- 
 part to-night while they eat and drink themselves 
 besotted." 
 
 Meanwhile, the commendatore had reached the 
 door of the tower, upon which he knocked ; a sen- 
 try peeped out through an iron grating and imme- 
 diately opened. Within was a guard-room furnished 
 with a table, some beds of hide, laid on rough 
 trestles, a few stools, and against the wall, racks 
 containing halberds and swords and a line of 
 arquebuses. The commander ascended a stair- 
 way, over the top of which fell an iron grating ; 
 this was unbolted and raised by another sentry 
 outside a chamber within which had been con- 
 fined for two weeks Count Isidore Savelli, prisoner 
 of Cesare Borgia, abducted from Kocca Savello for 
 reasons unknown to his captors and jailers alike. 
 Drawing back the bolt, he stepped in and bowed 
 courteously to the captive, who rose from his seat 
 without otherwise replying to the salutation. 
 
 " What is it this morning, commendatore," he 
 exclaimed, " a release, or a death warrant, or an in- 
 quiry whether I am going to turn butterfly and 
 make my way out through the bars of this window ? " 
 
 " Neither, that it know of," suavely replied the
 
 4 VALENTINO. 
 
 other, " but it is two days since I had the honor of 
 inquiring after your health, and to-day being a 
 feast with us, I thought to bring a pleasure by in- 
 forming you that a pasty made by my own cook and 
 served with flasks of white wine and red will be on 
 your table after Ave Maria. And if some further 
 relish be wanted " 
 
 " Prithee," broke in the prisoner, " enough said 
 of dainties to a man who wants no more than a 
 crust. But if you would do me a kindness, and one 
 that should bring you the blessing of my patron 
 saint, let one of your scullions give this filthy 
 abode a cleaning. Look at the cobwebs and the 
 dust ; it has not been swept in a twelvemonth. 
 Yesterday, while having my fifteen minutes on the 
 terrace, I noticed a lusty fellow polishing a lot of 
 horse accoutrements, and methinks if he could be 
 spared me for an hour with a bucket of water, all 
 your pasties and pots o' wine might go to my fat 
 friend Capitauo Yela, who loves them so much and 
 who keeps me company at meal-time." 
 
 In saying these last words the count smiled 
 with a wry grimace. He alluded to his refusal the 
 day after his capture to eat or drink of anything of 
 which one of the officers of the castle had not pre- 
 viously partaken. And while the commendatore 
 had been talking of the pasty so carefully pre- 
 pared, the count was reflecting that so particular a 
 dish was one to beware of. The temptation might
 
 CASTLE AND VATICAN. 5 
 
 be great to make tlie wedding feast one of funereal 
 import for him. 
 
 The commendatore glanced round the dim walls 
 and said, " In truth you are the first that ever con- 
 descended to observe the condition of this humble 
 apartment, but," he added after a queer hesitation, 
 "it is not all who remain so long as you have 
 done." 
 
 " Stabbed in the back while eating, or smothered 
 as they slept, eh? May my departure be other- 
 wise." 
 
 The commendante gave a shrug of the shoul- 
 ders. " Let us have no more sombre words," he 
 said. " The varlet you spoke of shall be at your 
 service shortly, and I wish you good appetite in 
 spite of the drawbacks." And so saying the com- 
 mendatore made an inclination, left the room, 
 barred the door as before, and returned to the 
 rampart terrace. 
 
 An hour later an unkempt, ill-clad man made 
 his way up the tower stair bearing cleaning uten- 
 sils and water, and grumbling as he went all man- 
 ner of plagues upon the head of so troublesome a 
 prisoner. 
 
 " Ho, master sentry ! " he cried, on arriving at 
 the trap-door, " lift up the gate ; here is a dainty 
 soul within must have his kennel cleaned, and the 
 commander could do me no better turn this holi- 
 day than to What, Como, is it thou ! " he ex-
 
 6 VALENTINO. 
 
 claimed, as the guard's face became distinguish- 
 able, " was there ever such a fool's errand as this, 
 to make a tidy nest for a man who is presently to 
 be laid under the sod ? " 
 
 " Perhaps for that very reason he wants to have 
 a clean face while he may," replied the other. 
 "The commander ordered me to admit you, and 
 no doubt he thoughtfully bade thee bring me 
 that flask that sways at thy girdle ; we are friends 
 of only a day or two, but I am willing to drink to 
 thy health all the same." And so saying the sol- 
 dier detached the fiaschetto from its place and 
 stuffed it into his own side-pocket. 
 
 " Forsooth, Como, thou hast the freest ways of 
 any man in the garrison. I brought it to wash out 
 my own mouth presently, and now " 
 
 "And now," interrupted the soldier with a grin, 
 " make haste and perhaps there will be a sup for 
 thee at the bottom." And so saying the sentry un- 
 barred the prison, and pushed the other in, closing 
 and rebolting the door. 
 
 At sight of the untidy water-bearer the prisoner 
 rose to his feet in silence, while his lips grew white 
 with emotion, and as the bars grated back into 
 their place, he stepped abruptly forward, threw 
 his arms about the neck of the supposed attend- 
 ant, and said in a tremulous voice : 
 
 " Oliverotto, my deliverer, at length the end is 
 near."
 
 CASTLE AND VATICAN. 7 
 
 " Hush," ejaculated the other, " not so loud ; and 
 let us drown our words while we talk ; " and so say- 
 ing he whom the prisoner called Oliverotto plunged 
 his broom into the bucket and sent a splash 
 against the wall nearest the sentry. Then he 
 turned and whispered, " Are the bars cut ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied Savelli, " the saw held out almost 
 to the end ; a good tug would bring two of them 
 away." 
 
 " Then it must be for to-night," rejoined Olive- 
 rotto, making a great scraping across the ceiling 
 until he stood beside the prisoner's bed, which, as 
 in the case of those used for the garrison, consisted 
 of a leather pallet, and deftly slipped under it a 
 twist of small knotted cord which had been con- 
 cealed beneath his jerkin. 
 
 " From this window to the rampart," he pursued 
 hurriedly, " are thirty feet, and the rope is beyond 
 that length. From the rampart to the ditch 
 twenty-five more. Here is a knife. Use the last 
 bit of the rope, cut your tunic into strips, and, 
 as for the other half way why, the mud is soft 
 at the bottom. The brick-work of the ditch to 
 the westward has crumbled ; you can climb it and 
 thence edge yourself to the elm trees, where you 
 will be out of sight of the sentries and the sen- 
 tries will be heavy-eyed to-night. Then run to the 
 left till you strike a cross-road, and a couple of Co- 
 lonna's men will be somewhere thereabout with
 
 8 VALENTINO. 
 
 horses. Leave this tower when the bells strike 
 midnight ; two hours later you can be in the sad- 
 dle, and sunrise will find you at Kocca Savello." 
 And the speaker plunged his brush anew into the 
 water and used it upon the incrusted dirt of years. 
 "Gallant fellow," exclaimed Savelli, under his 
 breath, " you save my life how can I ever repay 
 
 you?" 
 
 "Easily," answered the other, in the same 
 guarded voice ; " I have not done this for love 
 of you, be sure of that. Your cousin Elvira left 
 Ferrara four weeks ago. Why she came here I 
 know not. Cesare had left the army, and there 
 being nothing to detain me, I accorded myself a 
 hasty leave and followed her. Never having been 
 to Borne, I thought to pass unrecognized. By 
 chance I learned of your arrest. With you dead 
 there would be no one to maintain my suit. The 
 only way to get near you and a bold way of se- 
 curing a hiding-place was to beg a menial's em- 
 ployment in the castle. The man Pietro whom 
 you had at Ferrara was here with the same pur- 
 pose, and another he called Titolano. We agreed 
 to stake our lives together for your rescue. I may 
 have small chance with Elvira we will speak of 
 that hereafter but I have a thought a thought 
 say I my brain is ablaze, my heart is in a fever 
 mind you, in my aim to save, if not to win, you 
 shall be steadfast ! "
 
 CASTLE AND VATICAN. 9 
 
 The count meditated a moment in astonishment 
 at the depth and intensity of the other's passion. 
 Then he said, "You know I cannot compel my 
 cousin, but I will do all I can." 
 
 " Will you work as earnestly for me as I have 
 striven for you ? " 
 
 " So far as my efforts can be made to apply I 
 will." 
 
 " To apply" echoed Oliverotto, " I and Pietro 
 and Titolano did not talk thus coolly five nights 
 since when we resolved your rescue." 
 
 A shadow gathered in Savelli's eyes. "Where 
 is Pietro? " he asked. 
 
 " Arrested on suspicion before he had been in 
 the castle two hours." 
 
 "And Titolano?" 
 
 "Was seized last Monday as a supposed spy. 
 He came disguised as a friar pardie, he looked 
 like anything else ! " 
 
 "And then?" ejaculated the other. 
 
 "And then," concluded Oliverotto, impassively, 
 " he was taken before Monsignor Koccamura, and 
 that afternoon they whipped him to death. But 
 enough. Though willing to risk the gallows again 
 for Elvira, to hazard once for you is sufficient. 
 Shift for yourself now. I shall have left this castle 
 ere noon." And so saying he rapped on the prison 
 door, which, a moment after, was again closed and 
 
 bolted behind him. 
 1*
 
 10 VALENTINO. 
 
 The sun was at the meridian when Monsignor 
 Roccamura and his suite rode across the bridge of 
 St. Angelo attended by their battalion of men of 
 war, steel-clad and bearing a forest of pikes. The 
 commendatore had exchanged his riding costume 
 of the morning for a suit of velvet embroidered with 
 gold. The way led through narrow streets, by the 
 Corso, to what is now the Piazza del Popolo, out- 
 side the gate of which the monsignor stationed his 
 followers. 
 
 At the beginning of the sixteenth century the 
 approach to Eome by the Ponte Molle was along a 
 country road between almost vacant fields. A few 
 common buildings stood where now an almost con- 
 tinuous row of houses lines the street ; and where 
 to-day extend the alluring groves of the Borghese 
 Villa, stretched meadow lands interspersed with 
 clumps of trees. 
 
 The Piazza del Popolo bore no resemblance in 
 1500 to its present aspect. The Monte Pincio was 
 a deserted waste ; where is now the Bipetta were 
 canebrakes, the refuge of water-fowl. There was 
 neither obelisk nor fountain, nor the twin churches 
 of Santa Maria. Even the gate was of different 
 form and the church of Santa Maria del Popolo 
 was the only building in view. There was no Villa 
 Medici, no obelisk upon Trinita dei Monti. To the 
 left a lane, now called il Babuino, led to vegetable 
 gardens, converted two centuries later to the Piazza
 
 CASTLE AND VATICAN. 11 
 
 di Spagna ; there was no Propaganda, no Barcaccia, 
 no flight of steps. The Corso was a broad track 
 deriving its name from the races which at Carnival 
 time were run upon it by buffaloes, by Barbary 
 steeds, and by half -naked Jews ; where now stands 
 the Palazzo Sciarra, it was spanned by the Arch of 
 Claudius beyond was the Palazzo di Venezia 
 in appearance but little altered; there was no 
 regular line of houses, and not one of the palaces 
 of the modern nobility had yet been built from the 
 wreck of ancient Rome. The general condition of 
 the city was little better than its abject state of one 
 hundred years before. Exposed to fires and inun- 
 dations, decimated by pestilence, the buffet of in- 
 terminable wars, massacred by hirelings, outraged 
 by the nobles, pillaged by the Popes, tortured, 
 poisoned, drowned in the Tiber how low indeed 
 had fallen the Populus Eomanus ! So great had 
 been the devastation that the locality of the Forum 
 had become a matter of conjecture, and the Mons 
 Capitolinus was known as the sheep pasture of 
 Monte Caprino, upon whose crest stood the solitary 
 church of Ara Cceli. 
 
 The calvacade sent by Duke Ercole of Ferrara 
 to receive the bride of his son Alfonso had halted 
 at the bridge ; it comprised five hundred persons, 
 all weary enough as their jaded steeds brought 
 them to the end of a fourteen days' winter journey 
 through the Apennines, over difficult mountain
 
 12 VALENTINO. 
 
 roads, in the face of dust and rain, and often with 
 but insufficient shelter at night. But to-day they 
 had donned fresh gala dresses, and filling the air 
 with music, marshalled themselves for a triumphal 
 entrance. Two thousand horse and foot came to 
 their rencontre, forming on either side their line of 
 march. Nearer the gate advanced the bride's re- 
 doubtable brother Cesare Borgia, already famous, 
 though aged but twenty-seven years. He was 
 dressed in purple velvet lined with violet, and wore 
 a gold belt. He was mounted on a superb charger, 
 caparisoned with trappings studded with gold and 
 precious stones. Behind him followed a procession 
 of four thousand men gentlemen on horseback, 
 his own body-guard of arquebusiers, the squadron 
 of Turkish light horse, troopers, pikemen all in 
 successive groups, brilliant alike in costume and 
 weapons. Last of all came the Swiss Guard, in- 
 stituted in 1475 by Sixtus the Fourth, and still 
 somewhat of a novelty in their costume of black and 
 yellow velvet, which differed but little from that de- 
 signed for them in 1540 by Michael Angelo. Upon 
 the approach of Cardinal Hypolite, the commander 
 of the Ferrarese, and Don Ferrante, brother of 
 the groom, for whom he appeared as proxy, Cesare 
 sprang to the ground, and hastening forward to 
 meet his father's illustrious guests, embraced each 
 of them on both cheeks. This formality over, they 
 rode on together to the gate where a large assem-
 
 CASTLE AND VATICAN. 13 
 
 blage of prelates was in waiting, and where ad- 
 dresses of welcome lasting two hours were made. 
 At length the motley and much enduring host filed 
 into the Corso, and crossing the bridge of St. An- 
 gelo amid salvos of artillery, approached the Vati- 
 can, from a window of which Pope Alexander Sixth, 
 his daughter Lucretia, and the beautiful Giulia 
 Farnese, observed their arrival. 
 
 While Alexander, attended by a dozen cardinals, 
 received the ambassadors, Don Ferrante, conducted 
 by Cesare Borgia, was led to a vast stairway, at 
 the top of which waited Lucretia, robed in white 
 and resting on the arm of an old courtier. Her 
 dress was heavily embroidered with gold ; from 
 her shoulders hung a brown velvet cape fringed 
 with fur ; the narrow sleeves of brocade were 
 slashed after the Spanish fashion ; her hair was 
 bound with a fillet of gold, supporting two rows of 
 pearls ; around her shapely throat she wore a 
 heavy collar from which hung an uncut ruby. The 
 Ferrarese envoy lost no time in writing home his 
 agreeable impressions. " She showed herself dis- 
 creet and amiable, good natured and respectfully 
 devoted to your excellency and to the illustrious 
 Don Alfonso. Moreover, she possesses a finished 
 grace in all her accomplishments, which is veiled 
 by a modest diffidence. Her beauty would be am- 
 ply sufficient, even were it not enhanced by a rare 
 charm of manner. She is also a perfect Christian ;
 
 14 VALENTINO. 
 
 to-morrow she goes to confession, and receives the 
 Eucharist at Christmas." 
 
 Among the hundreds assembled at the Vatican 
 was Monsignor Roccamura. He found the great 
 audience-chamber filled with the concourse of the 
 Ferrarese and of the Papal Court. His Holiness, 
 in the splendor of jewelled vestments, received the 
 envoys with smiling cordiality, bade them wel- 
 come, and gave assurance that this marriage oc- 
 casioned him the liveliest satisfaction, which was, 
 for once, the truth. He was still a handsome man, 
 with fresh, rosy face and luminous brown eyes, 
 though the years with their burden had whitened 
 his hair and bent a little his figure. Standing 
 about were knots of officers and courtiers and the 
 ambassadors of France and Spain and Yenice, and 
 at the end of the hall sat Alexander's far-famed 
 favorite, Giulia Farnese, surrounded by a group 
 of ladies and cavaliers. They were talking in 
 the familiar form of conversation of that time, 
 half of elaborate circumlocution, half of out- 
 spoken freedom that would be startling to modern 
 ears. 
 
 "For my part," said the Contessina Gallinara 
 from behind her fan, " I do not like the Venetian, 
 nor any of his compatriots they are all flatterers." 
 
 "It is evident, my dear," said Giulia, "that he 
 has not flattered you enough." 
 
 " Nay," said Cardinal Corneto, till recently con-
 
 CASTLE AND VATICAN. 15 
 
 fidential secretary to the Pope, and whose appre- 
 ciation of youth and beauty had deepened in pro- 
 portion as wrinkles and infirmities had come to 
 him, " the signorina should not take offence if men 
 now and then forget a delicate reserve and tell her 
 what all feel and all were fain to say." 
 
 " It is to be hoped then for the virtue of Traste- 
 vere," answered Giulia, " that all young men have 
 not the good intentions of ambassadors and cardi- 
 nals. But here," she added, " comes a wench, I 
 warrant, would cajole austerity itself." 
 
 The lady thus referred to was Elvira d'Este, who 
 some hours before had been the subject of Olive- 
 rotto's hasty discourse with Savelli. Arrived from 
 Ferrara a few days previously, she was one of 
 the guests at Court. Her coming had been unan- 
 nounced, and so sudden a departure was explained 
 only by her attachment of years ago for Lucretia, 
 when as girls they studied at the convent of San 
 Sisto ; for Italians of the sixteenth century were too 
 civilized to ask questions upon delicate matters. 
 
 Giulia Farnese was morbidly jealous of her ven- 
 erable, yet quick affectioned lover, and towards the 
 Countess of Este this feeling had sprung to a 
 furious passion at the mere suspicion that the 
 youthful Elvira had designs upon the favors of the 
 Pontiff, an ambition of which she assumed every 
 woman capable. Elvira had entered attended by a 
 Spanish officer named Brazos, at the side of whose
 
 16 VALENTINO. 
 
 broad proportions her lithe figure gained some- 
 thing beyond its usual grace. 
 
 Cesare Borgia had returned to this apartment 
 some minutes before, and at this moment the vis- 
 itor, who had been conversing with him, and who 
 was the Venetian envoy referred to by the ladies, 
 bowed and withdrew ; Roccamura immediately ad- 
 vanced and greeted his master with dignified salu- 
 tation. 
 
 "May I have many years, you say," replied the 
 other ; " so hope I, though fortune has brought us 
 to troubled waters. Between the French and the 
 Spaniards, next spring will wear a grim visage ; 
 worst of all we have to beware of some who are not 
 open foes ;" then, as if conscious of an indiscreet ut- 
 terance, he pursued hastily with an amused expres- 
 sion, "this schemer Zorzi has been talking to me 
 about the seizure of Savelli ; he thinks it covers 
 some political stroke, as if we were not sufficiently 
 in alliance with the Orsini ; well, well, hold you the 
 prisoner safe the while." 
 
 " He must be bird or lizard to leave the tower of 
 St. Angelo," answered Roccamura, and he bowed 
 again as with a pleasant salute Cesare turned away 
 and moved toward a conservatory filled with 
 plants and tropical birds, whither the ladies and 
 some of the men had sought refuge from the 
 throng. 
 
 "You are fortunate, as ever, to-night, "said Mon-
 
 CASTLE AND VATICAN. 17 
 
 signer Eoccamura to Brazos, who was passing by, 
 " always the favorite of beauty." 
 
 " Favorite, indeed," laughed the other ; " would 
 . that I were so ; when I look upon the marbles of 
 your sculptors I sigh to think they may not love or 
 be loved, but when I gaze on the lady of Este, I 
 would fain turn her to marble that her form might 
 endure, even though in heartless beauty." 
 
 "Sentimentalizing," retorted Roccamura, as he 
 slapped the other condescendingly on the shoul- 
 der, "we shall have you writing sonnets anon, 
 or singing ditties with your cross-bowmen for 
 chorus." 
 
 Cesare Borgia made his way to the side of Elvira 
 d'Este, who was standing alone in the midst of 
 palms and clustering flowers. She looked up as he 
 joined her, and one less well informed than we 
 might have supposed her awaiting his coming. 
 " Fair cousin," said he, taking her half playfully, 
 half gallantly by the hand, which he raised to his 
 lips, " you are not pleased at the sight of so many 
 strangers." 
 
 She let her hand rest upon his for a moment ere 
 slowly withdrawing it she said : " What should I 
 care for strangers so I knew myself welcome to 
 you?" 
 
 " And what marvellous circumstance makes you 
 think yourself otherwise? Do not Giulia's sour 
 looks show that you are only too welcome ? "
 
 18 VALENTINO. 
 
 " Then you do not think it overbold in me to 
 have come unbidden ? " 
 
 "You shall not easily leave us," answered 
 Cesare. 
 
 "What would the gossips say?" replied the girl 
 with a laugh and a faint flush ; " and so I shall 
 return to Ferrara as soon as I dare." 
 
 " As soon as you dare ! " exclaimed Cesare, " what 
 strange words are these ? " 
 
 " It is too long a story, nor will you think it a 
 pretty romance when told." 
 
 " And when shall I hear it ? " 
 
 " At the opportunity," she answered with an ex- 
 pressive glance, as she moved away towards a 
 group of ladies. 
 
 Shortly before the Ave Maria when the wintry 
 yellow of the western sky had turned to rose that 
 deepened to gray on the Alban hills a banquet 
 was served at which several hundred guests as- 
 sembled, Cesare Borgia presiding in his father's 
 place. Later in the evening the musicians of the 
 palace filled the air now with martial strains that 
 stirred the blood to fire, now with the light refrains 
 of the dance. 
 
 The revelling was at its merriest and the bells 
 of a dozen churchss had sounded midnight, when 
 Cesare passed unobserved to a terrace and gained 
 a path that led through an orange grove at the side
 
 CASTLE AND VATICAN. 19 
 
 of the Vatican gardens. A few steps brought him 
 to a gate which opened on a narrow vicolo. Here 
 he paused and clapped his hands softly together. 
 The signal was repeated from the other side, and 
 the duke thereupon lifted the heavy iron latch 
 which fastened the gate on the inner side, and 
 passing out closed it behind him. A tall sinewy 
 man with a rough cloak about his shoulders, and a 
 felt hat slouched upon his brow, stood in the path, 
 and raising his hand in salutation, led the way 
 through a succession of dark and narrow alleys, 
 till a man shrouded like himself stepped from a 
 doorway and said " Capitano." 
 
 The individual thus addressed whispered to 
 Cesare, " Go with him ; up stairs are your weapons 
 and equipment, and I shall await you at the bot- 
 tom of this lane where the horses are ready." 
 
 Cesare did as he was desired, and presently 
 emerged by a ladder into a room of such consider- 
 able size that the wick which flickered in its midst 
 only partially revealed the furniture and objects 
 ranged along the walls. 
 
 "Ah, Canzio," he exclaimed to his guide who 
 bowed obsequiously, " at last I see who it is ; and 
 art thou to go with us to-night? " 
 
 " No, maestro mio, to-night I keep house." 
 
 " Keep house do you ? " echoed Valentino, as he 
 drew on a pair of riding boots and replaced his 
 velvet coat with a leather doublet. And glancing
 
 20 VALENTINO. 
 
 round, he observed indistinctly the close-barred 
 windows, the rude table and half dozen chairs, the 
 sombre presses against the walls, the racks of 
 weapons in the corner. " So this is your house, is 
 it? You see I have come to pay you a visit." 
 " It is an honor to make us immortal." 
 Cesare buckled on a rapier, and feeling his way 
 down the ladder, presently reached the end of a 
 lane, where through the darkness could be dis- 
 tinguished the forms of men and horses. The 
 Capitano del Nero ordered one of his men to ride 
 ahead, directed two others to follow, and took his 
 place beside Valentino. " Half-way to Kocca Sa- 
 vello," he said, "is a stone house where are more 
 of my fellows, and there we can find shelter or 
 reinforcement if required. In a glade not far from 
 Boscobel will be two men with provisions ; a caval- 
 cade like this should not be large it is best to 
 avoid too many clattering hoofs." 
 
 The observant Giulia Farnese did not notice 
 Cesare's absence for half an hour, and the thought 
 of him was recalled to her by seeing Elvira d'Este 
 listening to the small talk of a young officer and of 
 an old dignitary of the palace. She had supposed 
 them together all this while, and her suspicions 
 again took fire. It was the father, not the son, that 
 this designing girl was setting her cap at. At this 
 moment passed Don Michele di Careglia, Borgia's
 
 CASTLE AND VATICAN. 21 
 
 trusted counsellor, and often his right hand in 
 action. 
 
 " Where is Cesare ? " she asked abruptly. 
 
 He could not repress a smile, whether at her 
 eagerness, or that the substance of his answer 
 seemed droll to him, as he said, "A sudden call 
 upon urgent affairs ; he had to be gone at a mo- 
 ment's notice." 
 
 The alertness of anger and mistrust faded for an 
 instant from the Farnese's sparkling eyes, and she 
 seemed not insensible to some veiled humor in this 
 simple reply. 
 
 She crossed the room presently to where one of 
 Lucretia's court ladies was standing an apparently 
 indifferent spectator. 
 
 " Donna Catalina," she began, " have you the 
 mind to do me a service ? " 
 
 "At your command, my lady," assented the other, 
 the shadow of mature years vanishing at the words 
 which followed. 
 
 " You shall have this ring when it is completed. 
 Yonder girl of Este needs an eye upon her ; who 
 knows but she might do something indiscreet that 
 we should guard her from ? It would be well to see 
 that - 
 
 "Enough," interrupted the other, with a ma- 
 levolent look towards the unsuspecting subject of 
 their words " her chamber door shall not open 
 or shut without my knowledge."
 
 22 VALENTINO. 
 
 Cesare and his escort passed the walls of Traste- 
 vere, trotted in the starlight by the road that at 
 this day leads beside the Tiber to the Ponte Molle, 
 and there crossed to the left bank of the river. As 
 they passed, the guard at the bridge raised his hand 
 to del Nero, who with his companions drew rein. 
 
 " Have you three men in advance ? " he asked. 
 
 " No," said the condottiere, " only one." 
 
 " Yes, Filipe he is just in front ; but ten minutes 
 ago two men close muffled, on horses as good as 
 yours, galloped over the bridge, took to the left 
 yonder and disappeared." 
 
 Borgia and his condottiere attendant sought 
 in vain for an explanation of this circumstance ; 
 to men habitually surrounded by dangers, every- 
 thing unusual assumes the aspect of a menace ; 
 and it was not till after a moment's reflection that 
 Cesare exclaimed "Bah, none but you and I and 
 Filipe know where we are going ; what have we to 
 do with who prowls Campania at midnight ? " 
 
 " Some belated men of the Pazzi Castle, doubt- 
 less," chimed in del Nero ; " we do not pass near 
 there." 
 
 "Forward then," said Cesare, and they put 
 spurs to their horses. Sometimes they rode over 
 the broad spectral plain of Campania, now in some 
 defile, now crossing a watercourse. At the stone 
 house near Torre Tre Teste they halted : " Maes- 
 tro," said del Nero, " I will offer you here a cup of
 
 CASTLE AND VATICAN. 23 
 
 hot wine ; these fields reek with fever." As he 
 spoke, his men advanced and one of them said 
 
 "There are others abroad to-night." 
 
 " How many ? " asked the condottiere. 
 
 "Two." 
 
 " What direction ? " 
 
 " To the hills yonder ; we durst neither speak 
 nor fire, and they passed at a canter." 
 
 " The same that crossed the bridge," said Valen- 
 tino ; "let us hasten on, we can overtake them 
 five to two ; " and he drained the goblet of mulled 
 wine. 
 
 "We will pursue in force then," said del Nero; 
 " mount the three of you," he said, " and follow : how 
 much start have they ? " 
 
 " Less than fifteen minutes," was the answer, and 
 the cavalcade, now reinforced, galloped rapidly in 
 the direction taken by the mysterious horsemen. 
 But whether their horses were better, whether 
 they turned in some other course, no trace of them 
 was discoverable. 
 
 Two hours later, at break of day, they sighted the 
 white houses of Rocca Savello. 
 
 " It is a pleasure to behold the daylight," mur- 
 mured Cesare half to himself. 
 
 "Ah yes," exclaimed the condottiere captain 
 at his side, whose quick ear caught the words. 
 " Sacred for me is the joy of the sunrise these last 
 nine years."
 
 24 VALENTINO. 
 
 "And why nine years? " asked the duke. 
 
 " Because, signore, its rising on the day I think 
 of dispelled an eternity of darkness and doubt, and 
 even the shadow of death. I was with one Cris- 
 tofero Colombo, a name famous in Spain. For 
 days I sailed with him through seas till then un- 
 known, amid the perils of the deep, with only the 
 cheerless horizon by day, and surrounded at night 
 by uncouth monsters that rose from the waves. 
 Our stores failed, no hope pointed the way, we 
 drifted week after week, severed as it seemed from 
 earth on into space as vague as eternity. Despair 
 fell on me, a thousand hideous phantoms beset my 
 dreams and made the reality of waking the worst 
 nightmare of them all. One evening we caught a 
 glimpse of something like a sparkle of fire, and 
 with the dawn was revealed land the land that to 
 us was life." 
 
 " I have heard much of this," said Cesare, " it 
 was the nearer side of the golden Indies." 
 
 " Aye, and the light was the glitter the savages 
 make tossing great ingots in play." 
 
 "But you did not get the ingots," observed 
 Cesare. 
 
 " Maestro," replied the other, " it is a land of 
 mystery, and the people make their treasures 
 vanish with the wish. And so with the fountain 
 of youth ; we sought for it, that returning home we 
 might be if not rich at least light hearted ; but
 
 CASTLE AND VATICAN. 25 
 
 one of their chiefs drank it dry, and when we came 
 there was nothing but rocks, bare rocks." 
 
 " He, at least," said Cesare, " must have become 
 a child ; but could you find no way to make the 
 savages give up their treasure ? " 
 
 " Our capitano," replied del Nero, " would not let 
 us have our ways ; we roasted a couple of them, 
 but even this Colombo stopped. He is, indeed, 
 a strange man great, but by his greatness unset- 
 tled in his mind." 
 2
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A MOBNING CALL. 
 
 CBESTING a spur of the Alban hills stood, at the 
 time we write of, the fortified Castle of Eocca Sa- 
 vello, then the stronghold of the Savelli family. 
 Its picturesque situation in the midst of olive 
 groves, veiled the misproportions of towers and 
 outworks which had been added piecemeal by suc- 
 cessive occupants, and after occasional sieges and 
 dismantlings. Its present owner was Count Isidore 
 Savelli, recently a prisoner, as we have seen, in the 
 Castle of St. Angelo, and a staunch adherent of the 
 Colonna family, which, with the Orsini, kept up an 
 enduring strife in the troubled bosom of the Church. 
 
 For some years Count Isidore had been a prom- 
 inent figure in the events of his time ; the heart- 
 burnings caused him by the wife whom he loved 
 and who loved the world, had made him a morose 
 and embittered man, and at a relatively early age 
 he had abandoned all pursuits and retired with 
 her to this spot, amid the quiet of the hills and 
 the silence of the vast Campania, where, with- 
 drawn from the ways of life, he could be spared
 
 A MORNING CALL. 27 
 
 the pangs which the meaning admiration of others 
 caused him. In the time of her greatest triumphs, 
 his bitter cup had been to stand afar and watch 
 the worship of her, and often she gave him this 
 measure to the full. 
 
 To his wife this retreat had seemed a cruel dep- 
 rivation, the more as her only offending had been 
 in the gratification of vanity and the pride of a 
 beauty which had filled Italy with its renown. But 
 her tears and repinings had been in vain. 
 
 But though Count Isidore now held his treasure 
 aloof, he did not delude himself that the excite- 
 ment of adulation, of friendship which trembled 
 beyond the Platonic, could be extinguished by se- 
 clusion. The isolation could not be made so com- 
 plete but that some echoes floated in from the 
 world of pleasure and gallantry some shadow 
 brooded ominously on the border-land of his retire- 
 ment. And yet they were but echoes and shadows, 
 so watchful was his vigilance, so faithful his men 
 at arms. Six months had elapsed, during which it 
 seemed no one of all those cavaliers who whilom 
 sought Ginevra's hand in the dance, or followed 
 with her in the falcon hunt, or sang in the star- 
 light beneath her window, had ventured within the 
 glades of Boscobel. But at length this calm was 
 broken. One morning his wife's maid, an elderly 
 woman, with expressionless face and cold gray 
 eyes, came to him and said :
 
 28 VALENTINO. 
 
 "Master, the signora has given me this letter 
 and ten crowns." 
 
 He drew a purse from his girdle ; " Here are 
 three Spanish ducats," he answered : then open- 
 ing the letter, he read these words : 
 
 I dare not see you. You must not write again 
 / receive your letters at too terrible a risk. How 
 selfish you must think me, and yet you say you love 
 me still. Dear friend, I am unworthy of so much 
 devotion and yet I have a heart, I believe, after aU. 
 Let me at least have respect from you if love be sin. 
 Seek to forget me farewell. 
 
 Savelli read this feminine epistle without 
 change of feature till the last line ; then he broke 
 into a chuckling laugh. " She has a heart after 
 all," he repeated. Turning to the woman, he asked 
 abruptly, " For whom was this ? " 
 
 "Duke Cesare Borgia il Valentino some call 
 him," she answered. 
 
 " And what," pursued the count, " of these let- 
 ters that she had from him ? " 
 
 " I know nothing of them," replied the other. 
 
 " How could they have reached her ? " 
 
 " The mistress is shrewd ; she does not always 
 travel the same road, nor use the same hand for 
 every service." 
 
 "We must watch," mused Isidore, "and mean-
 
 A MORNING CALL. 29 
 
 while I will consider. Send this letter forward as 
 you were bidden," he added, " and I shall make 
 ready for Valentino." 
 
 " The seal is broken," objected the woman. 
 
 " True," he assented, fixing his eyes upon the 
 impression of a harp surrounded with the motto, 
 "Je reponds a qui me louche" which Ginevra had 
 affixed. Stepping to a writing-table, he folded the 
 sheet as before, and covering it with fresh wax, 
 pressed upon it a die which produced in its stead 
 a thistle. Struck with the aptness of this trans- 
 formation, he chuckled to himself as before. 
 
 His preparations for Borgia's irruption were 
 still in the stage of contemplation when, on the 
 following afternoon, he strolled for an hour through 
 his garden, plunged in what would have been 
 an overpowering melancholy, but for the rage of 
 jealousy and hate which filled him ; besides the 
 neighboring villagers of Albano, he had a com- 
 pany of forty armed men, and as lovers do not pay 
 surreptitious visits with an army jingling in steel 
 and brass at their back, his force would more than 
 equal Borgia's escort. But would he come, and if 
 so, when ? His wife's letter was as plain a sum- 
 mons as woman ever wrote. Would their rendez- 
 vous be in the park, or in the castle ? Enough to 
 keep close watch upon her, to have his little corps 
 always on the qui vive. And Borgia, once in his 
 power for his meditation assumed this conclusion
 
 30 VALENTINO. 
 
 what should be done with him ? Should he be 
 carried to some remote Colonna stronghold and 
 kept there in a dungeon till life wasted ? Should 
 he give himself the luxury of one deep plunge of 
 the stiletto how deep it should strike ! Or 
 should he tear out the eyes that had gazed with 
 desire upon his Ginevra? 
 
 He never knew how it happened it was all so 
 quickly done ; in the midst of his meditations, 
 strong arms seized him from behind, something 
 was thrown over his head, there was the noise of 
 hurrying footsteps, he was down, pinioned, borne 
 away. His instinctive thought, the first struggle 
 over, was of Ginevra left alone to Valentino and 
 at that the faintness of despair possessed him, 
 His own danger never suggested itself till after 
 del Nero and his band had delivered him within 
 the gate of St. Angelo ; then, as we have seen, he 
 refused to eat till another had partaken of the food. 
 Whatever Ginevra' s weariness of Boscobel, her 
 husband's peril found her true. The announce- 
 ment that he had vanished did not greatly astonish 
 her, but she wrote to his captor " hurt him in any 
 way or so much as injure his health, and you shall 
 never see me more." It was, as Cesare commented, 
 the old familiar feminine perverseness. 
 
 The face and statuesquely graceful figure of 
 Ginevra, as she appeared at the time of her great-
 
 A MORNING CALL. 31 
 
 est fame and triumphs, have been preserved on can- 
 vas by an unknown hand. The attention of the 
 most indifferent visitor to the Doria Gallery must 
 be attracted by the ideal loveliness of that rare 
 and subtly smiling countenance. One may not 
 know if perchance some chemical change has af- 
 fected the colors, or if, in life, her violet eyes had 
 the barely perceptible tinge of emerald with which 
 they look from the picture. The effect is to lend 
 a feline cast to the expression. The workmanship 
 of the picture is carried out with elaborate minute- 
 ness of detail, with lingering touch, with exquisite 
 refinement of finish. The peach-flushed cheeks, 
 the curved lips, the soft chestnut-brown hair, the 
 shapely neck bared at the throat after the fashion 
 of the day all are rendered with such delicate 
 appreciation, that one may suspect the unknown 
 artist had himself been fascinated by the form and 
 features he had been employed to paint, and that 
 in accomplishing his task he has left to us the 
 image of a face he adored. 
 
 The apartments in which she had spent her mo- 
 notonous days had balconies packed with growing 
 flowers, and were shaded by curtains which gave a 
 hue of crimson to their interior ; in each were rich 
 and curious ornaments. On the walls hung tapes- 
 tries and embroideries and fancy work from her 
 own hand, made by the blending together of spec- 
 imens of rare materials of sparkling and iridescent
 
 32 VALENTINO. 
 
 and crystalline light and color, so that the effect ri- 
 valled the brilliancy and the glory of a butterfly's 
 wing. A cabinet contained porcelains from France, 
 glass goblets from Bohemia and Germany, and 
 ivory carvings ; on a small bracket stood a diminu- 
 tive Cupid, in one corner leaned a lute and on 
 the ceiling were frescoed figures girls and youths 
 dancing amid clouds that betokened no coming of 
 shadow or storm. 
 
 The sun was well above the horizon when Cesare 
 rose from a light repast served him in the glen of 
 which del Nero had spoken, and where, as he had 
 assured, men were in waiting with provisions. He 
 called the condottiere to him and said, 
 
 " Capitano, you tell me you have stationed six of 
 your men in sight of the postern ; that makes us 
 then sixteen here in all." 
 
 " Yourself, and fifteen of us." 
 
 " And the guard at the gate ? " 
 
 " Has been withdrawn at sight of the signal." 
 
 Still Valentino hesitated. " This may prove a 
 venturesome errand," he said ; " three remain here 
 with the horses, three on watch in the wood ; you 
 and the eight others will follow me at a distance 
 and wait in hiding near the little gate by which I 
 enter, and of which you must keep possession. If 
 you hear the note of this whistle, make your way 
 to me with your fellows."
 
 A MORNING CALL. 33 
 
 Half an hour's walk through the grounds called 
 Boscobel, brought Cesare to the castle, at the side 
 entrance of which the old servant Marietta was 
 waiting. 
 
 " Heaven prosper your grace," she said, with a 
 curtsey ; " may your way be always as open and 
 joyous as this path to the rooms where my lady 
 awaits you ; " and she fixed her stony eyes on his 
 face with a furtive expression of nervous excite- 
 ment. 
 
 " Thou hast performed thy part well," said the 
 duke, as he dropped some gold pieces in her hand. 
 
 The woman watched his figure while it remained 
 in view ; then softly she closed the door and locked 
 it on the outer side, muttering as she did so, " Mer- 
 ciful Madonna, what a rapier he carries ! but he will 
 find it a heavy morning's work. And Ginevra ! the 
 saints have mercy on her, for Savelli will take her 
 life this day the madman he is ! He must have 
 gotten safely up the private stairs ; should I have 
 warned her? no, my duty was with him, alone, just 
 escaped from the clutch of his enemies their blood 
 be upon them. An old woman like me trembles at 
 the thought of the coming hour I will go as far 
 as the church and light a double taper ; " and so 
 saying, she dropped the key in her pocket and 
 walked away. She had proceeded but a few paces 
 when a quick step was heard, and glancing back, 
 she saw the condottiere captain at her heels. 
 2*
 
 34 VALENTINO. 
 
 " A pleasant stroll to you," he said, in a jeering 
 tone ; " but that key in your pocket is unnecessary 
 weight." 
 
 " Who are you?" ejaculated the frightened woman, 
 " and what key do you talk about ? " 
 
 "Enough spoken," said the condottiere, as his 
 hand dropped carelessly on the hilt of his stiletto. 
 " You have locked the gate by which one who has 
 entered will presently need to come out. You will 
 wait with us now, and if anything befalls I bury 
 this blade in your body." 
 
 A grave and stolid maestro di casa awaited Cesare 
 in the court, and led the way up the stairs. His 
 heart beat quicker as he passed the portal of Gine- 
 vra's apartment, and hers may have fluttered at the 
 sound of his approaching step. She rose as he en- 
 tered, advanced to meet him with a quick half- 
 frightened smile of pleasure, gazed fixedly in his 
 face for one instant, then gave him her hand, which 
 he raised to his lips. He was the first to speak 
 as she seated herself, at the same time motioning 
 him to a chair. 
 
 "It is a year since we parted," he said ; " a year 
 of silence and of waiting since that one delicious 
 evening do you remember, Ginevra? when we 
 walked along the terrace in the moonlight. Every 
 instant of it comes back how the touch of your 
 hand thrilled me, my passionate words, even the
 
 A MORNING CALL. 35 
 
 air that the mandolins were sobbing far off in the 
 distance, and the tear that moistened your eyes as 
 I spoke " 
 
 " Cesare," interrupted the lady gravely, " you re- 
 member all that I bade you forget, or, if you could 
 not dismiss these phantoms, at least not to distress 
 me with them ever again." 
 
 " Does it distress you to have the love of a heart 
 and the devotion of a life that for your sake would 
 dare and suffer all? " 
 
 " Hush ! " exclaimed Ginevra, " something tells 
 me there is danger in this day for both of us." 
 
 " I am here," urged Valentino, " to face danger 
 for you death for myself if need be. But the 
 man who would part us is far ; what danger then 
 threatens ? Let us be serious and brave you know 
 what I mean " and he caught the lady's hand in 
 both his own. 
 
 " Oh, Cesare ! " she cried, disengaging herself, 
 " if you loved me you would not tempt me thus." 
 
 " I would persuade you only to relief, to happi- 
 ness, to the joy of our lives united. Is that so 
 horrible a fate ? What is there that you cling to 
 here?" 
 
 " I am a pure woman, and here is honor can 
 you understand ? " she replied. 
 
 "Yes," answered the other, not regarding the 
 sarcasm. " You women make your lives miserable 
 from what you call duty."
 
 36 VALENTINO. 
 
 " Is not that the noblest spring in our nature ? " 
 broke in Ginevra; "are you without it? are you 
 insensible to the hopes which are centred upon 
 you, of the splendid destiny that is yours if you 
 will?" 
 
 " Say, rather, if we share it together." 
 
 " Nay," answered Ginevra, with a displeased 
 look, " it seems vain to talk to you of what I think ; 
 to be one of those who shall drive the stranger 
 from our soil, who shall help to make our cities 
 once more free, and our country Italian all Italian 
 that, were I a man, would be my aim, and now 
 it is what I wish for the man I admire." 
 
 She sank back upon the canopy, and Cesare, em- 
 boldened, seated himself at her side. 
 
 " The night that we parted," said he, " you gave 
 me a flower ; it is here in this charm. Every day 
 have I looked at it, every day has the sight of it 
 seemed to me an augury." 
 
 " Would the remembrance of that fateful even- 
 ing had faded with it ! " exclaimed his companion. 
 " Throw it away, and in its place I will give you 
 another as a token that henceforth I follow you 
 from afar, that the fame of every gallant deed will 
 bring a pulse of joy to me." And rising to place 
 a rose in his doublet, she bent her graceful head 
 down upon him as he sat, till her hair brushed 
 against his brow and then, in that instant his 
 heart kindled to a blaze.
 
 A MORNING CALL. 37 
 
 He sprang to his feet, caught her unresisting in 
 his arms and their lips were together in a long 
 embrace. 
 
 There was a tremulous movement of the curtain 
 which draped a doorway, a sound like a sigh or a 
 sob, but the lovers were conscious only of their 
 own emotions. 
 
 Then she broke from him. 
 
 "Begone!" she passionately exclaimed, ."it has 
 been the misfortune of my life that I ever met 
 you never let me see your face again." 
 
 "That means you love me as I do you," ex- 
 claimed Cesare. 
 
 " Love you ! no, I cannot. I have not the heart 
 to love. You have a sort of fascination for me 
 what more can I say in my weakness. I should 
 not be a woman and deny the sweetness of being 
 loved. Cesare, nay heart is very full I dare not 
 tell you all but you must leave me all is over 
 between us we must meet no more forever." And 
 with a sob she raised his hand to her lips, then 
 struggling back and away from his arms, which 
 sought to enclasp her, she overthrew the little 
 Cupid from its resting-place on the bracket, and 
 which, in falling, was shattered. 
 
 " Behold the omen," she exclaimed " there can 
 be no love between us." 
 
 " Say, rather, that, Cupid's service being done, 
 there is no further need of him."
 
 38 VALENTINO. 
 
 " Enough," answered Ginevra abruptly " go, 
 never come back, and forget me." 
 
 "Forget you," repeated Cesare ; "how shallow 
 must be your nature if you can so easily forget 
 how poorly must you think of mine. You repel 
 me after having gone hand in hand with me to what 
 moralists call a mental fault. I go to wait till you 
 summon me again, till you fill my life with yours." 
 And he -bent his lips upon the white hand she ex- 
 tended to him, then hastily turning, he left the 
 room. 
 
 Down the steps and out into the sunlight went 
 Valentino, vaguely conscious that Ginevra was 
 further removed from him than ever, that by the 
 fortitude of her own principle she was lost to him. 
 For once, in this nature so corrupted with moral 
 perverseness, the voice of a great passion had 
 spoken. The obliquity of his conscience, added to 
 the license of his time, hid from him all that was 
 shameful in his attempt, and he experienced only 
 the chagrin of failure, the disappointment of an 
 ardent purpose frustrated. 
 
 His face was still flushed with excitement his 
 lips yet felt the electric thrill of the kisses he had 
 snatched from Ginevra' s when, issuing from the 
 cortile, he came in view of a figure, the sight of 
 which instantly effaced every thought that was 
 throbbing through his brain, and thrust upon him 
 one of the critical moments of life. Before him,
 
 A MORNING CALL. 39 
 
 with his back to the postern gate, stood Savelli, a 
 drawn sword in his hand, his face in a flame of fury, 
 his eyes bloodshot, a tumult of rage choking his 
 utterance, so that he stood there silent, desperate, 
 terrible. The amazement which flashed upon Ce- 
 sare at sight of his prisoner passed with the 
 thought ; he was accustomed to deal with facts, 
 and there was no leisure for surprise. Quickly as 
 he halted, he raised his silver whistle and blew a 
 shrill note that reached far over the grounds of 
 Boscobel. 
 
 Savelli was upon him before the sound ceased, 
 but Cesare was ready with his rapier, and parried 
 with a turn of the wrist the other's first desperate 
 lunge ; both were accomplished swordsmen, Cesare 
 more in practice than his opponent, who, besides, 
 was so blinded by rage that in nearly all his passes 
 he exposed himself to a quick return, had not the 
 other maintained a strict defensive. And now were 
 heard the beat of hurrying footsteps and the clink 
 of weapons. Savelli's men had stealthily resumed 
 their stations at the gate from which the command 
 of Ginevra had withdrawn them, while others came 
 pouring into the cortile. At the same instant, del 
 Nero's condottieri dashed through the postern be- 
 hind which they had lurked unnoticed. At sight 
 of the odds gathering about him, Valentino caught 
 his opponent's blade with a deft froissement, and 
 thrust him through the shoulder. The wounded
 
 40 VALENTINO. 
 
 man's arm failed, Valentino dashed by him, and 
 springing through the melee, stood in the midst of 
 his men. Two of the garrison had been disabled 
 by the superior swordsmanship of the condottieri, 
 their chief was hors de combat, they saw before them 
 the dreaded Duke of Eomagna, and they paused. 
 
 " Spare yourself a useless loss," called this latter 
 to a lieutenant of Count Isidore ; " molest us no 
 further, and I and my men will withdraw." 
 
 The appearance of four more of del Nero's bra- 
 vos, who had been left in reserve, and who had 
 heard the shouts of the combatants, decided the 
 wavering garrison ; Cesare and his men passed out 
 at the gate, which they heard barred behind them. 
 As they walked, del Nero said, "The woman you 
 spoke with locked the postern behind you here she 
 is, she would not speak, though I tried persuasion." 
 
 Marietta lay on the ground in the midst of some 
 trees, and the process of persuasion had evidently 
 been painful. Borgia bent over her, and at sight 
 of him she raised her head. 
 
 " You locked the gate ? " he asked. 
 
 She nodded in silence, and a gleam of triumphant 
 malice came in her face. 
 
 Cesare turned to the condottieri who stood near, 
 and curtly bade them move on. 
 
 " You knew the count had escaped ? " 
 
 " He appeared this morning more like a ghost 
 than a man."
 
 A MORNING CALL. 41 
 
 " And you betrayed me ? " 
 
 " His wife betrayed you." 
 
 " What ! " cried Cesare, for an instant deceived. 
 " Ginevra knew " 
 
 "She whispered to me you should be none 
 other's," answered Marietta, with a groan ; " it was 
 she planned the attack in the court ; it was she 
 ordered me to fasten the gate that none should help 
 you." 
 
 " False hag ! " cried Borgia furiously then his 
 voice softened almost to compassion, " is it with 
 such ingratitude thou wouldst repay me and serve 
 thy mistress ? " 
 
 But the old woman closed her eyes, and answered 
 no more. She had sped her Parthian shaft in re- 
 turn for the torments of del Nero, and she lapsed 
 suddenly to indifference or unconsciousness one 
 could not well have determined which. 
 
 The condottiere chief grew impatient over this 
 dialogue, and called to his patron that their danger 
 was not past, that they should hasten to put dis- 
 tance between them and the soldiers, who could be 
 seen peering after them from the rampart. The 
 words recalled Borgia, and presently they rode to- 
 gether across the bright fields of the Campania 
 amid silence broken only by the cawing of crows, 
 the twittering of birds, the occasional barking of 
 dogs. Behind lay the Alban hills, a graceful out- 
 line of purpling gray against the sky. Twice they
 
 42 VALENTINO. 
 
 rode in sight of mounted parties like their own ; 
 twice they passed herds of the impassive Eoman 
 cattle. Above was the liquid blue of Italy ; around 
 them a desolation haunted with fragmentary traces 
 of a vanished world. On dismounting in the court 
 of the Vatican, Borgia asked for Don Michele, who 
 presently waited upon him in his room. 
 
 " How did it happen?" he asked simply. 
 
 " He became possessed of a file and a rope-lad- 
 der," answered the Spaniard, " and we found written 
 in charcoal on his table 
 
 " ' THE SARCASTIC WAYS OF FATE: "
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE BORGIAS. 
 
 ON the morning succeeding the foregoing events, 
 Pope Alexander VI. Kodriguez Borgia was oc- 
 cupied in one of the many chambers in the Vatican 
 set apart for the purposes of affairs. On a table 
 lay a pile of unopened letters and despatches, while 
 on either hand were arranged those already con- 
 sidered in two heaps, the one reserved for further 
 perusal, the other intended for the hands of his 
 secretaries. 
 
 He had been busy thus since dawn, between 
 papers and occasional brief reveries, and now and 
 then a turn up and down the long room. From 
 early manhood he had been attentive to business, 
 and assiduous to its demands whenever his per- 
 sonal interests were affected. As matters of im- 
 portance increased in proportion as station and 
 power had been absorbed in his grasp, his devotion 
 to the charms of beautiful women had diminished. 
 To the abstemiousness of his habits in other par- 
 ticulars must be attributed his capacity for unflag- 
 ging application. When affairs of state were to be 
 treated, envoys received, finances considered, or
 
 44 VALENTINO. 
 
 some machination set afoot, lie was himself wont to 
 say that day and night were the same. He drank 
 only pure red wine, and his midday meal con- 
 sisted of a broth followed by one dish of meat, a 
 couple of vegetables, and cheese and cakes to end 
 with. The ambassadors thought it penance to 
 dine with a sovereign who feasted them thus spar- 
 ingly. 
 
 The crisis of his life had been at his election to 
 the Papacy ; for this he had manipulated and 
 promised beforehand, bribed without stint at the 
 decisive moment, and rewarded magnificently after 
 the triumph. His greatest chagrin had been in the 
 death of his eldest son, the Duke of Gandia, whose 
 assassination had been brought about by his 
 brother Cesare. The corpse of this ill-fated youth 
 was carried to the Vatican covered with the ooze 
 of the Tiber, and with half a dozen sword thrusts 
 from back to front. 
 
 Summoned to his father's presence, Cesare as- 
 sumed the act with cold assurance. He gave his 
 motive without concealment ambition to be with- 
 out competitor in the task he proposed to himself, 
 to carve a dukedom in the centre of Italy of which 
 he should be the head, independently of the Holy 
 See. In the hour of anguish which followed, Alex- 
 ander shrank horror-struck before his terrible son, 
 and from that instant Cesare's ascendency over his 
 father became established.
 
 THE BORGIAS. 45 
 
 From this time he had completely fallen in with 
 Cesare's designs, and the latter had executed the 
 initiatory part of his project with vigor and rapid- 
 ity and with military skill. From Pesaro was 
 driven Giovanni Sforza, Lucretia's first husband. 
 The Marches of Komagna, comprising the towns of 
 Imola, Faenza, and Forli, had been occupied, after 
 more or less resistance, and in them was now 
 quartered an army of condottieri mercenaries, 
 faultless in arms, perfect in discipline so long as 
 danger was near, valorous so far as those can be 
 who fight only for pay and plunder, of doubtful ad- 
 hesion in adversity, as had already often appeared 
 in the campaigns of Southern Europe. 
 
 The last success upon which Alexander had set 
 his heart was some brilliant marriage for Lucretia. 
 Since the conquest of Naples by the French, the 
 outcast house of Aragon had become a threadbare 
 alliance, and as the young Alfonzo would not con- 
 sent to a divorce, he was set upon one afternoon 
 on the stairs of the Vatican, and found appar- 
 ently moribund an hour after. Borne to his wife's 
 apartment, Lucretia swooned at the sight, and 
 Alexander, hastily called, blanched in recognizing 
 again the handiwork of his sanguinary offspring. 
 There is reason to believe that Lucretia sincerely 
 loved this her second husband, so far as her shallow 
 nature was capable of affection. She watched at 
 the side of the wounded youth, tending him zeal-
 
 46 VALENTINO. 
 
 ously, till slowly his robust constitution brought 
 him towards consciousness. On the second day 
 Cesare heard of this, and in the night entered the 
 sick-room, followed by two sbirri, drove Lucretia 
 and her sister-in-law Sancia into an inner chamber, 
 cynically exclaiming " that which failed by day 
 shall be done at night," and stabbed the helpless 
 Alfonzo to death. 
 
 The way was now open for another transfer of 
 Lucretia, as an investment is changed according as 
 circumstances render expedient. She was allowed 
 to withdraw with her grief Infelicissima, she signs 
 her letters at this time to Spoleto, where for a few 
 weeks she cherished a lively aversion for her 
 brother. In her absence, Alexander and Cesare 
 made tender of her hand to the son of the Duke of 
 Ferrara. To their mortification the proposal was 
 flatly refused not only with emphasis, but with 
 disgust. The bastard daughter of a profligate Pope, 
 with one husband divorced and one murdered, with 
 a red-handed fratricide for a brother, and the 
 reputation of a virtue not above suspicion, was 
 scarce the wife desired by Ferrara for the scion of 
 its house. 
 
 But the Borgias were not easily to be deterred : 
 as an alliance, this marriage would be greatly to 
 their advantage, and as placing a friendly state 
 between the new acquisitions of Cesare and the 
 rapacious jaws of the Venetian Lion of St. Mark,
 
 THE BORGIAS. 47 
 
 it could not but prove of pre-eminent importance. 
 Nor did they desist, father and son, till they had 
 brought about this union, although under the not 
 flattering condition that Lucre tia should bring a 
 dower of three hundred thousand ducats, equal 
 in our time to half a million pounds sterling- 
 enough silver coating to make the nauseating pill 
 go down. 
 
 The sorrowing widow of Alfonzo of Aragon 
 the Infelicissima in her Spoleto retreat so far 
 plucked up spirit as to take an active and efficient 
 share in smoothing aside some after-difficulties 
 that supervened. The Ferrarese princes (Duke 
 Ercole and his son Alfonzo) and their represen- 
 tatives at Rome, until the consummation of the 
 marriage, continued to look upon their bargain 
 with deep-rooted mistrust. In this they were in 
 harmony with the prevailing sentiment, that who- 
 ever dealt with the Borgias must expect to be 
 deceived in a more or less costly or sanguinary 
 degree. 
 
 The character of Lucretia has until recently 
 been so exclusively considered that of a frenzied 
 adulteress using poniard and poison in all direc- 
 tions, and consumed by bursts of tremendous 
 passion, that we can only accustom ourselves 
 gradually to the portrait of her as drawn by her 
 Roman contemporaries, as indicated in her letters, 
 and as outlined by the diplomatic agents of Fer-
 
 48 VALENTINO. 
 
 rara, who, in speaking what they deem blunt truth, 
 take evident satisfaction in reciting their agreeable 
 impressions. 
 
 There is no fragment of evidence that she ever 
 committed, or abetted, or desired the murder of a 
 human being; her sternest critic, writing during 
 her life-time, makes no such charge ; her crimes 
 began to be committed a couple of centuries after 
 her death, in the minds of her commentators. In 
 Ferrara, where Donizetti and Victor Hugo lay the 
 scene of her supposed atrocities, she lived for 
 seventeen years esteemed, honored, beloved and 
 died regretted by a community which, at the time 
 of her arrival, was certainly not prepossessed in 
 her favor. She was blonde, petite, sprightly, blue- 
 eyed, auburn-golden haired. Her beauty, her ac- 
 complishments, her proficiency in the classics, her 
 grace in the dance, her sweet and courtly manners, 
 were acknowledged everywhere. 
 
 Her departure for Ferrara was an emancipation 
 from the tutelage of her father and brother ; with 
 them she was pliant to the degree of nothing more 
 than a tearful remonstrance when the husband she 
 declares she loved was done to death before her 
 eyes. The preparations for her new life had been 
 conducted by her with delighted impatience, and 
 with almost childish glee, so that she must quite 
 have laid aside grieving for her Neapolitan hus- 
 band murdered six months and sixteen days be-
 
 THE BORGIAS. 49 
 
 fore her marriage (by proxy of Don Ferrante) to 
 Alfonzo of Ferrara. 
 
 El Prete gave a naive description of her a few 
 days after the arrival of the Ferrarese. " The il- 
 lustrious Madonna Lucretia is little seen, being 
 absorbed with preparations for her departure. 
 On Sunday evening, calling at the Vatican, I 
 found her ladyship seated near her bed ; in one 
 corner of the room were a score of girls dressed 
 in peasant costume, and near them were the ladies 
 of honor to the number of ten. The dance was 
 commenced by a gentleman of Valencia and a lady 
 of the court, after which madonna danced very 
 well and very gracefully with Don Ferrante. She 
 wore a black velvet dress with gold tassels, tight 
 sleeves, the dress cut open at the neck, showing 
 an under garment of linen stitched with gold. 
 About her neck was a sparkling collar; on her 
 head floated an emerald gauze bound with rubies." 
 
 Pope Alexander Sixth was, at this time, advanced 
 in years, though still of handsome face and com- 
 manding presence. In his prime he was remarka- 
 ble for the elegance and suavity of his address, the 
 refined and benignant beauty of his face, the pure 
 and cultivated tenor of a conversation widely at 
 variance with the habits of his life. Now grown 
 to be an old man, even the shadows of conflicts and 
 the remembrance of crimes could not banish an 
 aspect of intellectual repose, of gentle amiability, 
 3
 
 50 VALENTINO. 
 
 of power born to command. His health was still 
 robust, his physical condition hale and vigorous. 
 Apparently, no compunction, no regret, no sting of 
 conscience, no thought of the travesty of his sen- 
 suous career upon his sacred office ever troubled 
 the calm of that placid contentment. He lived 
 now in the midst of diplomatic aspirations, of in- 
 trigues for the advancement of his children, and in 
 the amorous companionship of the beautiful Giulia 
 Farnese. 
 
 His consideration of the letters before him was 
 suspended on the entry of a confidential servant, 
 who wheeled up a small table bearing the custom- 
 ary frugal breakfast of chocplate, toast, and eggs. 
 He was a valuable member of the papal house- 
 hold discreet, silent, save when spoken to, and 
 mute upon irregular circumstances. 
 
 " When my son stirs," said the Pope, " say that 
 I have need to speak with him." 
 
 "Is haste required?" enquired the other re- 
 spectfully, but without form ; " the duke returned 
 tired from the dance last night, and said he would 
 stay late abed this morning." 
 
 " It was but Wednesday," exclaimed his Holi- 
 ness, " he received the Ferrarese ambassadors 
 lying on a couch, with the excuse, ' The fetes, the 
 fetes;' and now, with urgent business, the drone 
 takes to his bed. You must waken him at once." 
 
 The cameriere presently removed the breakfast
 
 THE BOROIAS. 51 
 
 things, bowed, and withdrew. Half an hour after, 
 the door opened again, and Cesare Borgia entered 
 his father's study with a brief salutation, threw 
 himself into a chair, and asked listlessly, "What 
 ill news now ? " 
 
 " Another letter from Candale at Imola," replied 
 Alexander, "repeating what he said ten days 
 since." 
 
 At these words the languor vanished from Ce- 
 sare's bearing. His mien became instantly alert, 
 intent, with eye cold and fixed, and lips com- 
 pressed, though still with a trace of the cynical 
 little smile familiar to them. 
 
 " He says," pursued the Pontiff, " that Vitellozzo 
 does nothing but cast about to get another town 
 for himself ; that Oliverotto is filled with the same 
 ambition and is at times absent from his command 
 for weeks together, no one knows where; that 
 Ramiro has driven the peasantry to despair with 
 his cruelties and Pesaro to frenzy with his exac- 
 tions. There is the letter, read for yourself." 
 
 The young man glanced over the parchment, 
 then laid it down, and after a moment's reflection, 
 said : " About Ramiro, the hills are full of brigands 
 who call themselves peasants, and I bade him 
 crucify some of them by the roadside ; as to 
 Pesaro, my troops must be paid; and for Vitel- 
 lozzo and Oliverotto that a condottiere chief 
 wants a town to himself is no new story. When
 
 52 VALENTINO. 
 
 this harlequinade is over, I will set out at once, 
 and be at Imola in six days." 
 
 "The urgent necessity is to have regiments in 
 your own pay instead of hiring bands that serve 
 under uncontrollable leaders." 
 
 " That is always in my thoughts. You know the 
 difficulties : these companies are hardened men at 
 arms ; to replace them with others of my own 
 training would take two years to make the change 
 suddenly is to bring together recruits that the 
 shock of a veteran corps like that of Vitellozzo 
 would scatter. It is half a year since I com- 
 menced the formation of a division of my own at 
 Imola, another at Faenza, and a troop of horse at 
 Forli, that having got rid first of the Swiss and 
 next of the French, the condottiere bands may be 
 replaced." 
 
 Almost before he had finished speaking, the 
 Pope, whose attention had passed to another 
 theme, unfolded a second letter, remarking, " Here 
 is from Colonna. He vows he will raise an evil 
 storm if Savelli be not set free." 
 
 "He is spared the trouble," answered Cesare, 
 undisturbed ; " Savelli escaped night before last, 
 and is now somewhere in the Alban hills." 
 
 " So Michelotto told me ; but what freak led 
 you to seize him ? What folly to edge the Colonna 
 further." 
 
 " He was always plotting," answered Cesare
 
 THE BORGIAS. 53 
 
 then to shorten discussion upon this point, he said, 
 " I am resolved to visit the French King at Milan ; 
 I will go there as soon as these alarms from Ro- 
 magna are removed. For our leave to march 
 through upon Naples, he must help us to dispose 
 of many troublesome friends." 
 
 "That we will talk of and ponder long there 
 must be no mistake. Who knows were it not best 
 to join with the Spaniards and Venice, give Milan 
 to St. Mark, Naples to Ferdinand, and Tuscany to 
 you ? The Venetian ambassador is coming to talk 
 about it again." 
 
 " Better join with both until it becomes possible 
 to calculate their chances." 
 
 " It will be difficult," objected the Pope, " to im- 
 pose long upon Louis, he is himself too guileful. 
 But I will sound Zorzi further, and we will take 
 counsel together before you leave. And now," he 
 continued, with darkening face, " to the subject for 
 which I called you ; I was amazed yesterday at 
 something the Venetian said. His remark was of 
 no consequence, but you remember that private 
 letter King Louis wrote me at the end of last Sep- 
 tember ? " 
 
 " It is in the secret space of the iron chest yon- 
 der, behind the painting of Ariadne." 
 
 "You have never removed it thence?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Nor spoken of it?"
 
 54 VALENTINO. 
 
 " Never." 
 
 " Neither have I ; yet Marin Zorzi showed that 
 he knew its contents." 
 
 Cesare started with unfeigned surprise ; his 
 father eyed him curiously narrowly ; his son was 
 hardly beyond suspicion of treachery even in a 
 case like the present, where a weighty personal in- 
 terest placed him above its reasonable attainment. 
 
 " Who," he asked, " besides ourselves, has 
 knowledge of that box ? " 
 
 " Only Corneto," replied the Pope ; adding sig- 
 nificantly, "even the workmen who made it no 
 longer live." 
 
 " Had Corneto access to it ? " 
 
 " No ; only once or twice I took papers from it 
 while he sat writing at this table. But he knows 
 not the springs, nor can he even have seen the 
 key. Besides, it were idle to suspect Corneto." 
 
 " Then the French have betrayed themselves in 
 an unguarded moment." 
 
 " Or else," said Alexander, starting to his feet, 
 " some one has discovered the chest, and learned 
 to open the secret compartment." 
 
 " What papers have you there now ? " 
 
 "None of importance. I took out the King's 
 letter and a few other things last night, sealed the 
 lid of the secret locker, far back, out of sight, so 
 that it cannot now be opened without leaving posi- 
 tive trace."
 
 THE BORGIAS. 55 
 
 Cesare shook his head disparagingly. " That is 
 not enough," he said ; " have some one concealed 
 in the room." 
 
 " But whoever opened it," objected Alexander, 
 " must be an important official in the Vatican, and 
 I might confide the watching to some one in his 
 employ." 
 
 "Leave that to me," replied his son; "del 
 Nero's men are not to be trifled with, and two of 
 them shall watch whenever you are absent I will 
 give the order, but beware how you enter in the 
 dark." And with a hasty fdice giorno, Cesare 
 Borgia left the room. 
 
 On returning to his own apartment, he found 
 Don Michele awaiting him ; he was one of the two 
 or three who received as much of Cesare's con- 
 fidence the conclusions of his silent night ses- 
 sions as he vouchsafed to any. "Cesare," says 
 Machiavelli, " never communicates a thing until he 
 orders it done." 
 
 Although the Duke of Yalentino was, like his 
 father, of frugal habits, however sumptuous might 
 be his life before the world, yet his private 
 rooms in the Vatican gave token of refined educa- 
 tion and cultivated tastes, which make his crimes 
 seem darker by very contrast. He had a passion 
 for printed books, then still a rarity, was a col- 
 lector of fine weapons, particularly arquebuses, in
 
 56 VALENTINO. 
 
 the use of which he was an adept, touched the lute 
 and the Spanish guitar agreeably, studied algebra 
 as a pastime, and took delight in works of art, 
 carvings and paintings of his own time, gems, 
 bronzes, and vases from the antique. 
 
 He was still revolving his father's startling com- 
 munication, and it was with a distrait air that he 
 addressed to his lieutenant the familiar query 
 "Anything new?" 
 
 "An indication that may prove worth some- 
 thing," answered the Spaniard ; " I have the name 
 of the fellow who got Savelli out of the tower ; he 
 is an adventurer, by name Vallon d'Avrees." 
 
 " How did you learn this ? " 
 
 " He obtained entrance to the castle as a scullion, 
 asked leave to go out for an hour the day of the 
 escape, and Rossi, who is always suspecting some- 
 thing, sent a boy to notice whither he went; he 
 crossed the Ripetta and entered a house on the 
 river. Last night I arrested the inmates and 
 seized everything. A man and his wife in the mez- 
 zanino came out at once with the story that 
 he had called for a letter; that none had been 
 then received, but that this came later in the 
 day." 
 
 Cesare read the address aloud : 
 
 "Le Capitaine Vallon d'Avrees, 
 
 chez le banquier Schmitt"
 
 THE BOROIAS. 57 
 
 " A Jew usurer and a cipher," he ejaculated, 
 unfolding the paper, which bore the following : 
 
 Izby ux jvruz tzsl ryqpp io fngmblok bj dik hrgrfv 
 eadd crbe of zjykzb. 
 
 11 Yes," assented Don Michele, " I make nothing 
 of it. Schmitt holds to it he knows not the man 
 that it is part of his trade to receive private letters 
 and to charge a silver piece for their delivery. 
 We could find nothing irregular in his belongings." 
 
 " We must have that letter read," mused Valen- 
 tino. 
 
 " Suppose you try yourself," answered his com- 
 panion. 
 
 "Yes, leave it with me," answered Cesare, taking 
 the proposal seriously. 
 
 Don Michele mentally observed that the result 
 of this study would be unsubstantial ; then he said 
 aloud : " I have set some fellows from the castle 
 who saw this d'Avrees to watch the Eipetta on the 
 chance of his coming back which, of course, he 
 will not be fool enough to do." 
 
 " Which he will do, five chances to one," answered 
 Cesare ; " he knows not he was followed, and will 
 return for this letter." 
 
 " I have been thinking," said the Spaniard re- 
 flectively, " whether Pulcio might not be of use in 
 this ; he knows all the canaille with French names 
 in the city." 
 3*
 
 58 VALENTINO. 
 
 " It is easy to say a word to him," mused Cesare ; 
 and as a servant entered at this moment announcing 
 breakfast, he called to him, "Find Master Pulcio 
 quickly, ask him to take a chocolada with me 
 say it waits ready." 
 
 Five minutes later, Pulcio the hunchback jester 
 was ushered in, where Valentino and Don Michele 
 were already seated at table. He bowed obse- 
 quiously, and at the former's summons hobbled to 
 a third chair. 
 
 " What is the matter, Pulcio," asked Cesare, " you 
 look solemn as a funeral ? " 
 
 " If," answered the dwarf, with a wry face, " I 
 who am a jester look like a funeral, it is because I 
 sometimes joke in a grave way." 
 
 Poor Pulcio ! Borgia's invitation had occasioned 
 him scant pleasure. To be called to such a tete- 
 a-tete was not in the course of ordinary events 
 to Pulcio it had never happened before. The mes- 
 senger's face was no sooner turned than he thrust 
 a small poniard under his doublet, deriving as he 
 did so exquisite satisfaction from the thought that 
 a scratch from that particular blade was cureless. 
 
 In passing through the long corridor he en- 
 countered the Spanish adventurer Brazos. The 
 dwarf shuffled to him with his halting limp, took 
 him by the hand, and said, " Copadre, a word. 
 You have been forbearing with me when all others 
 were cruel, and my heart, which is not so poor or so
 
 THE BORGIA8. 59 
 
 deformed a thing as iny body, is grateful. I thank 
 you. Addio farewell." 
 
 " But wherefore addio ? good friend with the 
 small body and the great heart," asked Brazos. 
 
 " Bend down that I may whisper," answered the 
 dwarf, glancing cautiously around ; " Borgia has 
 called me to chocolate you know what that 
 means," he added, with lips whitening and with a 
 slight moistening of the eyes. 
 
 Brazos' face became overcast. " Bah ! " he ex- 
 claimed, " it cannot be ; why should he seek to 
 destroy an insignificant little jester ? " 
 
 " That know I," muttered the fool ; "but tush, I 
 must begone." 
 
 The dwarf's strained nerves relaxed considerably 
 when he saw his hosts partaking freely of what 
 was served to him. Neither Borgia nor Don 
 Michele noticed the sudden light that flashed in 
 his eyes, or the faint color that rose to his withered 
 old cheeks at the mention of the name of Vallon 
 d'Avrees. And so we leave them together, Don 
 Michele talking of the mysterious stranger with a 
 French name, the hunchback listening intently with 
 pursed-up mouth, and Cesare dividing his attention 
 between what was said and the cipher letter which 
 he had drawn from his pocket. 
 
 Later in the day, the Venetian ambassador was 
 received by the Pope in one of the audience cham-
 
 60 VALENTINO. 
 
 bers of the Vatican. After the customary saluta- 
 tions, the Venetian said : " Your Holiness, I ask 
 leave first to discharge a duty just intrusted to me, 
 and which is the more welcome since it gives this 
 grateful opportunity to withdraw all that may have 
 been said amiss by me on the subject of your new 
 alliance with our neighbor of Ferrara, and to put 
 myself in perfect accord with the joy of these pres- 
 ent festivals. The Venetian Senate has till now 
 opposed the marriage of Donna Lucretia with the 
 young Alfonzo ; that marriage is about to be con- 
 summated; our opposition has been unavailing, 
 and so it ceases ceases in good faith and we 
 offer to you and to the Duke Valentino, as to Fer- 
 rara, our loyal amity." 
 
 "I am indeed content to hear this," said the 
 Pope. " One cannot have too many friends ; and 
 with Orsini and Colonna feuds in Rome, the Span- 
 iards at Naples, the French at Milan, you on the 
 sea, and the Turks in the distance, the patrimony 
 of St. Peter seems cursed with unrest." 
 
 "The contests of the church are sanctified and 
 prospered," answered Zorzi, "and through them 
 she will attain universal spiritual dominion as 
 ancient Rome by frequent collision hardened her 
 arm and her heart till both became iron, and then 
 she conquered the world." 
 
 " And you," pursued the Pontiff with sarcastic 
 inflection, his eyes resting upon the fox-expres-
 
 THE BORQIAS. 61 
 
 sioned face of the Venetian "you of San Marco 
 conquer by commerce even to the remote realms 
 of the known verily a much-conquered universe." 
 
 " That is the mission of Venice," answered the_ 
 envoy with satisfaction ; " our flags float in every 
 port, our merchants bring the learning of the 
 Arabs from the Levant, and over the trackless seas 
 of the north our argosies pursue the stars but it 
 is peace and prosperity, not arms, that we bear." 
 
 " The Lion of St. Mark grows fat upon it too," 
 observed the Pontiff. " You have somewhere in 
 Venice an emblem of a lion very robust and strong, 
 which typifies the power of your republic on the 
 sea and the same lion grown thin and weak, 
 denoting what would be the fate of Venice should 
 maritime ascendency be exchanged for acquisitions 
 on land. But I think of you as two lions a stout 
 one on the waves, a puny one on shore." 
 
 " That puny lion on the shore has been thought 
 no mean antagonist by some who tried his mettle," 
 answered Zorzi. 
 
 " Which brings us to where we stood yesterday," 
 resumed the Pope. " You will no doubt continue 
 to maintain that you can meet the forces of Louis 
 single-handed always supposing you were relieved 
 from your war with the Turks." 
 
 " That we could encounter the army of the 
 French King with even chances is certain; that 
 we are likely to risk it, is improbable in the ex-
 
 62 VALENTINO. 
 
 treme. I say certain, because by drafting from our 
 ships we can put in line a veteran force superior in 
 number to his, and equal in discipline if not quite 
 in arms. Improbable I deem it, because our in- 
 terest and our position, as well as this never-ending 
 conflict with the Turk, incline us to delay if others 
 join with us we wait their coming; if we must 
 stand alone, it shall be for our own sake, in the 
 midst of our strongholds behind the Adige." 
 
 Alexander listened attentively, nodded as if ap- 
 proving the justice of this argument, but remarked 
 abruptly, and with some acrimony, "Yet you will 
 not deny that your thin lion has designs on Milan ; 
 Sforza with what admiration do I recall him 
 is an outcast, and friendless as are always the 
 unfortunate; and were Lombardy torn from the 
 clutch of the French, you would deem it a glorious 
 addition to your lands nay more, you well know 
 you would unsheathe the sword of your patron, St. 
 Theodore, against whoever but yourselves took a 
 stride towards it." 
 
 "All that may be," answered the ambassador 
 with a candor equal to the impending crisis in 
 Italian politics, and therefore superior to the petty 
 deceits of diplomacy ; " but it is not to take from 
 Louis that the republic proposes, but to prevent 
 his taking from us ; and from which of us is it to 
 be you, or we, or Florence, or Naples ? So long 
 as his army remains at Milan, it is a perpetual
 
 THE BORGIA8. 63 
 
 menace ; if it move to Naples, trouble will arise 
 with Spain, for two such wolves cannot divide a 
 carcass without rending one another. Then, the 
 military position of Spain would be the better : an 
 army numerically equal, holding Capua, Gaeta, and 
 the forts of Naples, enjoying undisputed superiority 
 on the sea, and with the disadvantage to the French 
 of a long line of communication perchance of 
 retreat through a country which yet burns with 
 their outrages, and which, were they disabled by 
 an unfortunate battle, would encircle them with 
 fire. Then would be our opportunity, and in the 
 repartition that would follow our success if Milan 
 fell to us Florence would be defenceless against 
 you." 
 
 So aptly had the far-seeing Venetian calculated 
 the chances of the future, that whoever reads the 
 history of the French in Italy, is aware that his 
 forecast as to them was almost literally fulfilled. The 
 Pope was thinking while he listened that the plan 
 looked sound certainly the advantages to be de- 
 rived from its fortunate conclusion were brilliant 
 as his desire ; but his secret thought still pondered 
 on the profits to be derived from Louis, before 
 joining with that monarch's enemies the use of 
 his army against the malcontent Roman nobles, and 
 the expediency of remaining in good relations 
 with him while his troops the elite and pride of 
 France, and formidable as five times their number
 
 64 VALENTINO. 
 
 to-day made their way through the States of the 
 Church to the Neapolitan frontier. And they 
 talked on in the same strain for half an hour 
 longer, enlarging the detail of their views, and 
 each seeking to get a glimpse from the other's true 
 stand-point, if perhaps that presented a wider 
 survey or a keener analysis than his own. 
 
 The Belvedere Villa was a recently constructed 
 appendage to the buildings of the Vatican, on the 
 further side of a garden of the same name, and 
 upon a spot now occupied by a modern addition to 
 that enormous palace. It was furnished with 
 balconies and shaded windows, which indicated its 
 destination as a summer retreat. It was rarely 
 opened in winter, and the supper served there one 
 evening a week later was intended partly as a 
 refuge from the bustle and crowd of the papal 
 apartments, which for the last week had been filled 
 with a caravansary of Ferrarese guests, and more 
 especially that Alexander might have the society 
 of his daughter on this*her last evening in Home. 
 Only seven were to be present, and all were willing 
 to escape to the seclusion of this adjacent cottage 
 for an hour before entering upon the celebrations 
 of the night, which were intended to be the most 
 magnificent of the series in honor of the auspicious 
 remating of Lucretia. 
 
 For the much-desired marriage had been ac-
 
 THE BORGIA8. 65 
 
 complished. On the evening of the 30th of De- 
 cember, Don Ferrante led Lucretia to the throne- 
 room of the Vatican, where waited Alexander, 
 surrounded by all the pageantry of his brilliant 
 court, and attended by his son and thirteen cardi- 
 nals. She was dressed in crimson velvet, brocaded 
 with gold and trimmed with white ermine; her 
 sleeves fell to the ground, her long train was borne 
 by her maids of honor ; her fair hair was bound 
 with a tissue of gold and silk ; about her neck was 
 a collar of pearls, to which were attached an eme- 
 rald and a ruby. On the stair was gathered an 
 orchestra and chorus, which filled the air with song 
 as they passed. The nuptial discourse of the 
 Bishop of Adria was so long that the Pope inter- 
 rupted it. Seated at a table before him were Don 
 Ferrante and Lucretia. The exhortations having 
 been thus cut short, Ferrante, as proxy for his 
 brother, addressed her the necessary question, and 
 upon her affirmative answer, he placed upon her 
 finger a ring, with the words "Illustrious lady 
 Lucretia, the illustrious Don Alfonzo sends you 
 this wedding ring, and in his name I present it to 
 you." To which she answered, "I accept it of my 
 own free will." Thereupon were presented the 
 bridal gift of jewels, chains, rings, precious stones 
 magnificently mounted, and strings of pearls, which 
 ware Lucretia's favorite gem. 
 
 The Pope was the last to enter the room, wherein
 
 66 VALENTINO. 
 
 a table had been laid, and which was lighted by 
 oil lamps and warmed by two braziers of glowing 
 coals. On this day, the 4th of January, 1502, at 
 six in the evening, it was already dark, and the 
 winter air without was damp and chill. Alexander, 
 Cesare, Lucretia, and Giulia Farnese were of the 
 family ; Elvira d'Este, Don Michele, and Cardinal 
 Corneto, formerly secretary to the Pope, and now 
 one of his most trusted advisers, had been asked 
 as intimates with Pulcio, ex-officio, to relieve by 
 their presence the sadness which began to gain 
 upon Alexander as the hour for Lucretia's depar- 
 ture from Rome, and from his sight forever, drew 
 near. 
 
 " How tired I shall be to-morrow," ejaculated 
 Lucretia, " to dance all night, and to-morrow after- 
 noon to begin this two weeks' journey." 
 
 " Leave your horse for a litter at the Ponte 
 Molle, ' suggested Giulia, " and have a good sleep 
 on the way." 
 
 " So Vanozza said just now poor dear mamma, 
 how she cried ! She gave me this ring see, it con- 
 tains a fragment of the true cross," and Lucretia 
 pressed her lips devoutly upon it. 
 
 " There is a good deal of the true cross," ob- 
 served, with a shake of the head, Cardinal Corneto, 
 who in private was sceptical about such matters. 
 
 Elvira d'Este entered at this moment, and after 
 a brief greeting from Lucretia, and a formal saluta-
 
 THE BORGIAS. C7 
 
 tion from the Farnese, the three lapsed into desul- 
 tory chat upon the dresses to be worn, and the 
 dances to be executed that night. " I am to dance 
 with Cesare," said Lucretia ; " nothing new, only 
 the Espanola, but the Moresca that follows will be 
 beautiful, all the dresses silver and crystal and 
 white and the enchanter sits on a lofty pedestal 
 of lights and flowers, and throwing silken cords to 
 the dancers, guides the measures with his wand. I 
 saw the rehearsal this afternoon, and my head is full 
 of it yet." 
 
 "Is it a real Moresca," asked Elvira, " or some- 
 thing of our own composition ? " 
 
 "The maestro claims it as his own, an improve- 
 ment on some barbaric dance of the Orient ; but the 
 Venetian Zorzi, who was looking on with me, said 
 it was exactly the dance of the Moorish girls of 
 Granada twenty years ago." 
 
 " There will be nothing to look at equal to your 
 pearls," said Elvira ; "when that box of jewels was 
 opened, it was like sunlight on the water." 
 
 "Gems and the stars," muttered Pulcio, who 
 had been listening silently " love and immortal- 
 ity." 
 
 " Methinks, Pulcio," said Giulia, " you grow triste 
 of late. Immortality for jesters will be a small 
 place apart in purgatory, and the only gems for you 
 are the bells on your cap." 
 
 " They will ring the changes on many an up and
 
 68 VALENTINO. 
 
 down before I try conclusions with the next world," 
 replied the dwarf, with a malicious grin. " A jester 
 is the only favorite that improves with age." 
 
 Alexander's mistress turned away with visible 
 annoyance. " How I wish we were at table," she 
 exclaimed ; " it will take me two hours to dress." 
 
 At this moment Alexander entered, the three 
 young women gathered about him, and brought 
 forward a chair, in which he seated himself with a 
 sigh of satisfaction. 
 
 Cesare, on first entering the room, had motioned 
 Don Michele to the recess of a window, and there 
 producing the cipher letter, said in a low tone, " I 
 have read it ; the translation is on the back." 
 
 Don Michele took the paper, and read : 
 
 "FERME A vous, noiLE A NOUS. D'AUBIGNY." 
 
 " Diavolo ! " he exclaimed, " how did you read 
 it?" 
 
 " Easily," replied the duke ; " every alternate 
 letter is a blank, that is, the alphabet backwards, 
 there remain the letters of the message ; from each 
 letter count alternately three forward, and at the 
 next three back. The great Julius used a combi- 
 nation similar to this. I was misled at first by as- 
 suming the letter to be in Latin." 
 
 " This d'Avrees must be a French spy," said Don 
 Michele ; " but what can be the intention of that 
 singular message ? "
 
 THE SORGIA8. 69 
 
 " That," replied Cesare, " it will not take long to 
 ascertain, when this mad Frenchman is in our 
 hands." 
 
 At this moment half a dozen servants entered, 
 bearing dishes of roasted pigeons, to which the 
 company immediately applied themselves, while 
 Pulcio withdrew to the alcove where Cesare and 
 Don Michele had been standing. The Pope was 
 ending something he had been saying to Lucretia, 
 whom he loved with affectionate pride. " My dear 
 daughter," he repeated, " when you arrive in your 
 new home, ask me for whatever you desire, and you 
 shall have it from me." 
 
 The fair Giulia placed herself opposite Lucretia, 
 on the left hand of the Pontiff, Cesare seated him- 
 self beside Elvira, and with the two others filled 
 the remaining half-circle of the table, which was 
 spread with a pale yellow damask cover ; before 
 each guest was a porcelain plate, a silver drinking 
 goblet, a curved knife, and a short, thick spoon 
 the frivolity of forks had not yet been substituted 
 for the reality of fingers. 
 
 Cardinal Corneto began the venerable narrative 
 of his dinner with the savages of the African coast 
 when he was an explorer long ago in that region, 
 and how horror of horrors what he had taken 
 
 for pig had proved to be But it was a story 
 
 that all present except Elvira had heard before, 
 and she was in the midst of a talk with Cesare,
 
 70 VALENTINO. 
 
 and the others bade the cardinal think of some 
 more appetizing reminiscence. 
 
 "Do you have sports here on the Campania?" 
 asked Elvira of Cesare. 
 
 " One can only venture on it armed and in good 
 numbers," he answered. " There are foxes in plenty, 
 boars in the grove by the sea, and birds for a fal- 
 con to follow ; but the chase might end in a pur- 
 suit of the hunter." 
 
 " Last year," said she, " we hunted the stag in 
 the mountains north of us ; that is exciting enough." 
 
 " The finest sport at Borne," said Cesare, " is 
 the bull-fight ; I had the first here two years ago, 
 with bulls and men from Spain I killed two my- 
 self." 
 
 " Two bulls or two men ? " asked Elvira ; then, 
 laughing at her own question, she continued, " the 
 next time you ride outside the walls with horses 
 and dogs, I wish you would take me with you ; no 
 doubt Giulia would go." 
 
 "You would dare after what I have said? "asked 
 Valentino, looking at her with surprise. 
 
 " With you I would venture anywhere," answered 
 Elvira simply. 
 
 The second course was now served, of venison, 
 accompanied by flasks of Montepulciano. 
 
 A few minutes more passed in general talk upon 
 the fete, for which all present were shortly to pre- 
 pare, when from the street came the sound of
 
 THE BORGIA8. 71 
 
 music, a rich, full voice, accompanied by the guitar 
 of Castile. 
 
 It did not escape the watchful Cesare that 
 Elvira at the first words started slightly; had 
 the jester been under the same observation, it 
 would have been seen that he too recognized the 
 voice. 
 
 " A good baritone," exclaimed Alexander ; " soft 
 and rich as that of your Ferrarese brother-in-law," 
 he added, addressing himself to his daughter ; then, 
 as if amused at the thought, he continued, "it 
 would be a romantic conceit now for your hus- 
 band's proxy to serenade you." 
 
 "Some one should answer him," exclaimed Lu- 
 cretia ; " Cesare, will you sing ? " 
 
 " Not after supper, for the rhymes do not come 
 when one has eaten ; besides, we cannot open a 
 window to this chilly weather." 
 
 " Pulcio is the only one," said Don Michele jok- 
 ingly, " who, according to Valentino's opinion, is at 
 this moment fit to reply." 
 
 "A good thought," said Alexander; "sing, fool, 
 and speak thy fairest." 
 
 " Alas," replied the dwarf, " with me 'tis as usual 
 in all things the opposite of what it should be ; I 
 can find neither tune nor poesy in an empty 
 stomach." 
 
 " Drink this cup then," said the Pope, filling his 
 own goblet to the brim.
 
 72 VALENTINO. 
 
 The jester received it on bended knee, drained it 
 slowly to the last, while Cesare, turning to the 
 servants, said, " There are here two lutes; go, fetch 
 the smallest of them." 
 
 " May I sing to the ladies ? " asked the jester with 
 a gallant obeisance. 
 
 " Sing to whom thou wilt," assented Alexander, 
 "so thou be quick." 
 
 The three young women, Lucretia Borgia, Giulia 
 Farnese, and Elvira d'Este placed themselves on a 
 canopy, the Pope seated himself at a little distance, 
 and cast on the group a look of unequivocal ad- 
 miration. 
 
 And now entered the dwarf, and at sight of him 
 arose a ripple of laughter; the servants, mali- 
 ciously interpreting Cesare's command for the 
 smaller lute, had brought the larger, called an 
 archiliuta, an immense instrument over five feet 
 in length. 
 
 The jester, too, smiled at the grotesque dispro- 
 portion as he adjusted the silken band of the un- 
 wieldy instrument across his narrow body ; his 
 fingers ran for a moment over the strings, while his 
 eyes rested upon the radiant trio opposite, as if 
 seeking there the inspiration of his theme ; then, 
 with a pensive gaze, and eyes fixed far away as 
 though upon some spiritual prospect invisible to 
 those who listened, he sang of mountain solitudes, 
 with summits colored with dahlia tints of the set-
 
 THE BORGIAS. 73 
 
 ting sun, where the mellow voice of shaded foun- 
 tains charmed the nymphs back to their haunts of 
 the golden age till those who listened forgot the 
 ill-shapen singer in the picture of his song. 
 
 " Prettily done," said Alexander ; " though a 
 failure as to the task proposed ; however, I do not 
 wonder the foreground put the gentle minstrel 
 yonder out of your head. And now our litters 
 must be in waiting, you my three sweet daughters 
 must be in haste to prepare for the merry-mak- 
 ing but first will I give to each of you my bless- 
 ing." 
 
 At this Cesare laughed, while the jealous Far- 
 nese's face darkened ; but his Holiness heeded 
 nothing, saluting first the rosy Giulia, who bent to 
 him her brow, then his Lucretia on the lips, and 
 lastly the maiden of Este, while his mistress looked 
 on with manifest displeasure. 
 
 " We shall meet in two hours," whispered Cesare 
 to Elvira, " perhaps I may kiss the other cheek 
 who can say? By the way," he pursued, "you know 
 our serenader of this evening." 
 
 Elvira had now reached the group of her atten- 
 dants ; " I ! " she exclaimed, " how should I know 
 him?" 
 
 "Because," answered Cesare, "you started and 
 changed color." 
 
 " And you noticed that ; then I will confess my- 
 self in a word : it is a condottiere officer with a 
 4
 
 74 VALENTINO. 
 
 French name who pursued me at Ferrara in 
 truth, half the motive of my coming here was 
 
 "And his name? " broke in Borgia impatiently. 
 " His name is Vallon d'Avrees."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW. 
 
 AT noon on the following day, all Trastevere was 
 in the streets and at the windows of those quarters 
 through which should pass the nuptial cortege. 
 The Pope, after a last adieu to his daughter, sta- 
 tioned himself at a casement of the Vatican 
 whence he could behold Lucretia in the pomp and 
 magnificence of surroundings which recalled the 
 splendors of a triumphal procession of old. The 
 humble Pulcio observed it from an aerie among lofty 
 roofs. Del Nero, with half a dozen of his men, 
 watched it from the crossing of a lane. Giulia 
 Farnese occupied a window of the Vatican with a 
 few favorite ladies, from whose number her jeal- 
 ousy had excluded Elvira d'Este. At first, Giulia 
 and Lucretia had been in uncertainty as to whether 
 the Estense were setting her cap at the rose- 
 cheeked, grizzly headed Pontiff, or at his blond, 
 thoughtful son. That kiss last evening had deter- 
 mined their doubts, and one of Lucretia's words of 
 parting had been, " If you do not wish to be shown 
 the door, you must put that bold-faced girl out- 
 side it."
 
 76 VALENTINO. N 
 
 The Roman rabble waited through the passing 
 hours, impatient, yet consciously rewarded at the 
 end. The procession which should have moved at 
 one, started at three, owing to the natural delay in 
 getting together so numerous and varied an escort 
 and marshalling them for a fifteen days' journey. 
 First came two hundred men at arms, next the 
 Ferrarese portion of the convoy, numbering three 
 hundred ; after them a so-called escort of honor, 
 the gift of Cesare, amounting to three hundred 
 more, in cavaliers, musicians, and clowns ; the per- 
 sonal Court comprising one hundred and eighty 
 individuals followed, and after them were the car- 
 dinals, the magistrates, the ambassadors, all at- 
 tended by their respective suites an escort to the 
 Ponte Molle only. Lucretia, habited in a scarlet 
 silk dress trimmed with ermine, and wearing a felt 
 riding hat crested with plumes, rode a snow-white 
 palfrey. At her right was the Ferrarese Prince, 
 at her left her brother, who was to accompany her 
 beyond the city wall. The train from Rome to 
 Ferrara numbered a thousand souls, independently 
 of the baggage attendants, who had pressed for- 
 ward at an early hour, driving forty heavy wagons, 
 and leading one hundred and fifty mules on which 
 trousseau and personal effects were packed. 
 
 It was nearly sunset when this lengthy train 
 crossed the Tiber, at which point Cesare, having 
 saluted his sister, turned back to the Vatican, while
 
 THE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW. 77 
 
 she and her followers addressed themselves to the 
 serious part of the day's duty, the accomplishment 
 of the sixteen miles which lay between them and 
 their first resting-place of Castelnovo, no trifling 
 promenade for such a motley assemblage, knights, 
 soldiers, prelates, and ladies, sandwiched with 
 cooks, dancers, musicians and buffoons, especially 
 in the dusk of a winter's evening and over a Cam- 
 pania road. Gradually it filed into the narrow 
 gorge through which the road leads to-day, there 
 vanishing to the view of those who yet lingered. 
 
 At this twilight hour there arrived, by one of the 
 gates at the opposite side of the city, the Countess 
 Ginevra Savelli. Half a mile outside she had left 
 her horse for a litter which with bearers and guards 
 awaited her coming. When her * husband was 
 brought in wounded and raving, she had reflected 
 that no act of hers could increase or diminish the 
 severance between him and herself. How strange 
 a chance had brought him to Boscobel at the hour 
 of Borgia's visit she had learned, and Marietta had 
 confessed how she had warned him of Valentino's 
 coming. Her danger determined her removal to 
 Borne. 
 
 She experienced now a restful, yet animating con- 
 tentment at breathing once more the atmosphere 
 of a thronging city, of being thus again in contact 
 with humanity, after having so long lived face to 
 face with the solemn silence of the Alban hills. At
 
 78 VALENTINO. 
 
 a familiar corner sat an old man with iron tripod of 
 roasted chestnuts, well remembered, for often had 
 she passed him by ; beyond, at his shop door, stood 
 a baker deep in altercation with his customers ; 
 down an alley came the wine vender with his heavy 
 terra cotta jars ; before an osteria a group of pfi- 
 ferari piped their pastoral strains ; a few women of 
 the sturdy, low-browed contadina type hastened 
 basket laden homeward ; a patrol of men at arms 
 passed down the main thoroughfare, while up a 
 narrow street went a score of white-robed monks 
 chanting and bearing to some death-bed the final 
 consolations of the Church. At the palace every 
 familiar object claimed her notice room after 
 room recalled occasions with which each was asso- 
 ciated. Nothing seemed changed since the day her 
 husband, in a fit of fury at some unknown sere- 
 naders, had spirited her away to the hiding-place 
 of Boscobel. She was in the midst of this hasty 
 survey, when the major-domo approached and said : 
 " Contessa, a stranger asks to see you upon an af- 
 fair of urgency ; he said at sight of this you would 
 grant him admittance," and he presented a letter 
 which on opening she found to be a note dated that 
 morning, addressed by her husband to Vallon 
 d'Avrees. She knew d'Avrees only by having 
 heard Savelli speak of him as an officer in Borgia's 
 service who had become infatuated with Elvira 
 d'Este. But for the impatience she felt for infor-
 
 TUE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW. 7'J 
 
 mation upon the startling events which had been 
 transpiring around her, and a caprice to see the 
 man who had accomplished the feat of rescuing 
 her husband from the inexorable stronghold of the 
 Church, d'Avrees would have been denied ; but 
 curiosity prevailed and she commanded him to be 
 admitted. We shall meet him presently under an- 
 other than the assumed name of Vallon d'Avrees. 
 His appearance this evening was no longer that of 
 his disguise at St. Angelo ; he was wrapped in a 
 stout cloak, wore a cap with a single hawk's feather, 
 and carried the usual rapier at his side. He en- 
 tered, cap in hand, bowed unceremoniously, seated 
 himself, the door closed, they were alone. 
 
 She was the first to speak. ""What is the object 
 of this visit from a stranger ? " she asked haughtily. 
 "There stands a bargain betwixt me and your 
 husband," replied the other. " If at the risk of 
 my life I saved him from St. Angelo, it was for 
 my own advantage and in consideration of a pledge 
 that he should persuade or coerce his cousin El- 
 vira d'Este to become my wife." 
 
 " She has refused, then, that honor?" 
 " She has done worse than refuse it." 
 " My husband's aid is not now likely to advance 
 you," said Ginevra, maliciously. 
 
 " No ; but the time may come when he can help 
 me to revenge, and that is sweeter than love than 
 the bitterness of love unrequited."
 
 80 VALENTINO. 
 
 " You are a spy for the French ; you are a watch- 
 dog in the employ of Savelli ; you ask him to co- 
 erce the girl who spurns you, or to avenge your 
 wounded feelings for shame." 
 
 " Not that," answered d'Avrees, with calmness ; 
 " I might harm Elvira in hot blood to save her 
 from dishonor, but to meditate it beforehand, no 
 matter to what abasement she has humbled me 
 never. It is not her I would strike, but " 
 
 " But who then ? " ejaculated Ginevra, as he 
 paused with well-feigned emotion. 
 
 " Her seducer," replied d'Avrees, in a stifled 
 voice. 
 
 " And has it come to that ? Great heaven ! " 
 
 " If not so now, it will be," answered the condot- 
 tiere, as he buried his face in his hands. 
 
 "And who is the--?" 
 
 D'Avrees raised his head and replied : " The 
 same who has ruined so many Cesare Borgia." 
 
 " What!" cried Ginevra, starting to her feet, 
 " how know you that ? But it cannot be ; you de- 
 fame the name of a gentle prince married to a 
 sister of the French King is he to run after a 
 jade a girl with no other suitor than an outcast 
 adventurer?" and the magnificent Ginevra's utter- 
 ance grew thick with sobs. 
 
 The condottiere saw that his shaft had struck 
 home ; a cunning smile flitted across his face as 
 he reflected that here was a tool ten times more
 
 THE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW. 81 
 
 efficient than Savelli. It had flashed upon him 
 like an inspiration at sight of the count's note 
 that the jealousy of Ginevra might sever Elvira 
 from the contamination and the arts of her pres- 
 ent surroundings. 
 
 The lady turned upon him in a paroxysm. 
 " Prove it," she clamored ; " prove it if you can." 
 
 "Ay," replied d'Avrees, appearing not to notice 
 the sudden violence of her speech and manner, 
 " proofs you shall have in plenty. Go to the Vati- 
 can; she lives there under the roof with him and 
 his father sangue di San Gennaro with both of 
 them. Every woman in the palace must know; 
 you have but to ask." 
 
 Ginevra listened abstractedly ; she had caught 
 only half to the Vatican then her thought flew 
 off to Giulia Farnese, her old-time friend and com- 
 panion, and what they might contrive together. 
 
 " I will go to the Vatican," she said, turning to 
 d'Avrees ; " you can follow my litter to see me 
 safe as far as the piazza. Or, better still, come 
 to-morrow and I will throw your slander back in 
 your face." 
 
 " How you love him ! " murmured d'Avrees, as 
 with a curt salutation he withdrew. 
 
 An hour later Ginevra was seated beside the 
 Farn6se in a boudoir of surpassing richness, 
 though Paris in these present years might con- 
 demn a similar equipment as provincial.
 
 82 VALENTINO. 
 
 After the compliments which their friendship 
 and the separation of several months prompted, 
 Ginevra disclosed her purpose. Ignoring her 
 husband's and her own past excitements, she 
 had heard with amazement, she began, that one 
 of the maids of Ferrara was to remain at the 
 Vatican. She had hastened expressly to caution 
 Lucretia that a scandal at this moment, with the 
 eyes of Italy upon them, would involve both Home 
 and Ferrara, and to urge that she be invited to re- 
 turn with the cortege to her home. And finding 
 herself too late learning that Lucretia had gone 
 and that the imperilled Estense remained she had 
 come to Giulia with the same friendly warning. 
 
 All this was framed and draped and colored to 
 give the improbable tale a savor of sincerity ; but 
 the astute Giulia was not to be deceived ; she lis- 
 tened, suspected the general motive, and made the 
 same reflection as d'Avrees, that here was a tool 
 shaped ready to her hand. Her reply was intended 
 to excite to the utmost those sentiments which a 
 keen intuition had surmised. Her own conjecture 
 rested upon the venerable Pontiff, partly because 
 she knew his ways so well, partly because of Lu- 
 cretia's alarming adieu, partly because no ground 
 of suspicion could be discerned against his son. 
 She reversed this in her answer and painted El- 
 vira as hotly assailed by Cesare, and that no time 
 should be lost in placing her beyond his reach.
 
 THE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW. 83 
 
 Ginevra, never doubting, listened with gathering 
 fury. And that man, she thought to herself, as the 
 Farnese filled in the details of her picture, would 
 have had me believe myself the object of a first at- 
 tachment that even his wife is nothing to him. 
 She restrained any disclosure of the flame which 
 Giulia's words had stimulated, and remarked with 
 studied indifference, "You, dear friend, will be able 
 to devise means to guard against this shame. Mer- 
 ciful saints! what are these Borgias that they 
 must be in chase of half a dozen women at a 
 time?" 
 
 " Half a dozen," cried the other " but stay, of 
 course you do not know, you have been living out 
 of the world and did not hear that five months ago, 
 at Capua, after the assault, a couple of hundred 
 ladies were taken in a tower where they had 
 sought refuge, whereupon Cesare had them passed 
 in review before him, and selected forty whom he 
 sent here for his pastime." 
 
 But now it was Ginevra who became incredulous ; 
 the exaggeration nay, the falsehood seemed so 
 grossly apparent that she rejected it without effort. 
 As well four hundred as forty. Moreover, she held, 
 as we have seen, a grotesquely erroneous apprecia- 
 tion of the character of the man who had possessed 
 the art to flatter her vanity and to lead her by that 
 thread alone to the edge of a precipice ; her attri- 
 bution to him of only high purposes, pure motives,
 
 84 VALENTINO. 
 
 and lofty devotion was so sincere ; her compas- 
 sion for their mutual frailty, as a lamentable yet 
 sublime passion, so self-deluding, that a coarse or 
 vulgar charge upon her ideal fell to the ground of 
 its own weight. 
 
 Ginevra prepared herself to leave, and in so do- 
 ing repeated, " You, dear Giulia, will best know 
 what measures should be taken " hoping as she 
 spoke the words to gain her companion's counsel 
 and have the satisfaction of knowing what ingenious 
 device was to be set afoot. Her wish was not dis- 
 appointed, for the Farnese intended nothing less 
 than a consultation which should assign a share in 
 the difficulties to Ginevra. 
 
 " There is no time for long meditation," she 
 replied ; " we must act immediately something 
 must be decided on to-night." 
 
 " Cannot you write Lucretia to call Elvira after 
 her?" 
 
 " She is not strictly of the escort," objected Giu- 
 lia ; " she came as a volunteer, and only her family 
 control her movements. We cannot explain our 
 situation to her brothers," she added with a frank 
 laugh. 
 
 " Then," said Ginevra, whom impatience spurred 
 to what her companion evaded " one of two alter- 
 natives, either she must be removed, and set free, 
 safe and sound, at a distance from Home, or else " 
 and she paused ominously.
 
 THE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW. 85 
 
 " Or else she might fall ill ? " said Giulia softly, 
 reading the other's thought in her eyes. 
 
 " What better can you suggest? " 
 
 " It is not enough to say so and so might be done ; 
 how are either of these things to be brought about 
 without delay, and above all without alarm ? " 
 
 "If you wish something very safe and very easy," 
 pursued the suggestive Ginevra, " speak to her 
 duenna ; she must have some one with her." 
 
 " Yes, but ill abed ever since the day she came ; 
 a winter's journey through the Apennines was too 
 much for her years." 
 
 " Then you are brought back to my alternative. 
 I have the man of all others to carry her off, with 
 some assistance from us but if the other course 
 be necessary, then you must manage for yourself." 
 
 Giulia smiled at this timidity, but did not lean to 
 any plan involving separation from one who might 
 become an efficient and determined auxiliary. She 
 affected to be struck at the instant with an idea 
 which in fact had been in her thoughts ever since 
 Lucretia's warning words. " Ormes," she exclaimed, 
 as one who hits upon some bright solution. " No 
 one consults him in vain ; he knows me not you 
 we will go together it may not be amiss to be 
 prepared with both conclusions." 
 
 " Well," answered Ginevra dubiously, " I am 
 willing to go and listen." 
 
 " Who is this man you speak of? "
 
 86 VALENTINO. 
 
 " A discarded lover named d'Avrees ; once in his 
 hands she will need no duenna afterwards." 
 
 " I must see him," said Giulia, as her visitor rose 
 to go ; " suppose he follows as your escort to-mor- 
 row night ; I will send word to Ormes that I am 
 coming, and you can join me on the other side of 
 the bridge, two hours after dark." 
 
 The gardens of the Vatican palace were laid out 
 in the spaces which a later age converted almost 
 wholly to courtyards. Towards the close of the fif- 
 teenth century additions had been made to the 
 already vast pile of buildings, spread gridiron-like 
 beside the incomplete basilica of St. Peter's, and 
 the fancy of designers had been allowed free scope 
 in the decoration of the squares and parallelograms 
 which lay between successive wings and their con- 
 nections. The last of them, extending inward from 
 the Belvedere Villa and taking thence its name, 
 was an enclosure upon which Alexander had lav- 
 ished taste, wealth and leisure. A quadrangular 
 walk occupied the sides ; along the walls were 
 trained rare tropical shrubs and plants; sweet- 
 smelling box of great size had been transplanted 
 thither ; four fountains in the centre filled the quiet 
 air with the soothing and melodious sound of fall- 
 ing water ; quaint arbors concealed in miniature 
 labyrinths were covered by groups of African 
 palms blended with the foliage of the oak and
 
 THE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW. 87 
 
 myrtle. Statues there were here and there, chosen 
 from the hundreds unearthed wherever the digging 
 of a builder or the more casual excavations induced 
 by a reviving taste for the works of the ancients, 
 opened a trench or displaced the rubbish of fallen 
 walls. From the baths, from the Appian Way, 
 from random burrowings they were gathered, green 
 with the mouldy darkness of their long night 
 imprint yet with the realism, and the myths, and 
 the habit of the nude of their pagan day. Half 
 concealed by a grove of low spreading cacti was a 
 small shelter roofed with glass, within which were 
 stored the rarer flowers to be set out a few weeks 
 later, and from whose open door exhaled a volume 
 of perfume the blended odors of a thousand buds. 
 At the farther extremity a cascade fell over rocks 
 amid ferns and plants where stood a water nymph 
 beckoning in allurement to a faun who lingered 
 tempted, yet hesitant on the bank. 
 
 In summer it was a fragrant retreat, bright with 
 patchwork of flower-beds and with the crystal 
 sparkling of fountains in the midst of its shaded 
 walks and darkened arbors. Even at this winter 
 season the genial sun of Italy that mellows the 
 gray of the rocks and softens the green of the cy- 
 press filled it with a sense of pleasant warmth and 
 brought the birds singing to its branches. 
 
 Through one of its alleys on the morning follow- 
 ing Ginevra's visit to the Vatican, strolled Cesare
 
 88 VALENTINO. 
 
 Borgia abstracted, concentred in the ambitions 
 which filled his heart and flitted through his brain, 
 darkened as they sometimes were by the shades of 
 inexorable memories. The marriage of Lucretia 
 had been accomplished ; the barrier of Ferrara was 
 interposed against the designs of Venice ; now the 
 unwelcome aspirations of his lieutenants, all reck- 
 less as himself, however inferior in ability, de- 
 manded his first attention ; after that, a further 
 zone of cities to be seized Camerino, Urbino, 
 Sinigallia, Arezzo, Siena, and finally, when the time 
 was ripe, a bold stroke upon Florence the rich 
 Medicean centre of arts, "the Athens of Italy," 
 as her citizens delighted to call her. And ever and 
 always to play so deft a game between King Louis 
 and his French at Milan and Gonsalvo de Cordova 
 with his Spaniards at Naples, as to draw succor 
 from both, give nothing but promises to either, and 
 finally stand by harmless and watch them rend one 
 another in the conflict which he foresaw to be in- 
 evitable. 
 
 So mused he when a light step fell on his ear 
 followed by the voice of Elvira d'Este, who, as she 
 spied him through the foliage called out, " Good- 
 morning to you, cousin Cesare. I have come to 
 pluck some flowers in your garden am I in the 
 way?" 
 
 " What a bright, rosy face," answered Valentino, 
 smiling in the young girl's sparkling brown eyes.
 
 TEE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW. 89 
 
 "Nay," replied she, "T thought you revolving 
 affairs of state ; have you nothing more serious to 
 say?" 
 
 " Affairs of state ! " he exclaimed ; " this fresh 
 hour is the sweetest of the day ; why then cumber 
 it with worldly thoughts ? " 
 
 " You love it as I do," cried Elvira, with the 
 exuberance of youth ; "to me it is more delicious 
 than music." 
 
 "The voice of nature is sweeter than song, is 
 it not ? " assented Cesare ; then turning, he said, 
 "but at this season you will find flowers under 
 cover only ; with your leave I will gather you a 
 posy of my favorites, and see if they be not yours 
 also." 
 
 " Let us go together," answered Elvira, as she 
 led the way in. 
 
 The duke made his choice without hesitation; 
 honeysuckles, a cluster of pansies, and a spray of 
 green ; Elvira fastened them in her bosom and 
 said, " Now one white rose for my hair." But the 
 adjustment of this last was attended with diffi- 
 culty ; she stood for a moment's endeavor with 
 both arms raised, and the wide sleeves falling back 
 from them, leaving their graceful contour bare to 
 the elbow. " There," she said, " it is placed at 
 last;" and dropping her arms from their statu- 
 esque pose, she nodded gayly to her companion and 
 ran out into the garden.
 
 90 VALENTINO. 
 
 " And now I will go," she said, archly ; " for a 
 bird tells me you have a tryst to keep." 
 
 "With whom?" 
 
 " With the lady who called on Giulia last even- 
 ing ; my maid told me of it this morning, and she 
 got it from " 
 
 " Good, good, but the lady's name ? " 
 
 " The Countess Savelli, wife of him who escaped 
 so wonderfully from St. Angelo ; " then, without 
 noticing the fixed attention with which her words 
 were listened to, she continued, " they say she is 
 the most beautiful woman in Rome that many 
 think so, that you think so most of all. Is it 
 true ? " she asked, looking up. 
 
 Cesare's face wore a listless expression as he 
 answered, " She has been living in villegiatura 
 somewhere away from Rome, and this is the first I 
 know of her return and is likely to be the last," 
 he added with unconcern. 
 
 While Elvira spoke, his thoughts had reverted 
 o the lost Ginevra with a delighted perception of 
 the opportunity which chance threw in his way. 
 He had acknowledged to himself on leaving Rocca 
 Savallo that the woman had triumphed ; he did 
 not discern very clearly whence came his defeat, 
 but even now, if Ginevra's jealousy could be 
 aroused ; if her vanity could be piqued through 
 his pursuit of this girl, might not 
 
 " So you are not going to see her ? " asked the
 
 THE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW. 91 
 
 Estense, unconsciously interrupting his medita- 
 tions. 
 
 "No," answered Valentino, upon whom the 
 thought grated, " my time is brief you know I 
 leave for the army to-morrow." 
 
 " Is it so? " murmured Elvira, with a look of dis- 
 appointment. 
 
 " Yes, I have been away many weeks, and things 
 will not prosper of themselves." 
 
 " That reminds me I have been away an hour 
 from my duenna. So adieu. Pleasant reverie to 
 you." 
 
 But Cesare restrained her. " You promised to 
 tell me your story," he said, " tell it me now ; and 
 let me know, too, who is this Vallon d'Avrees you 
 spoke of?" 
 
 " I will tell you all in a word then, for indeed I 
 must be gone. I know but little of him, save 
 that he is chief of a band of condottieri. A year 
 ago at Ferrara he rode in a tourney ; it was as- 
 signed to me to deliver the wreath to the victor 
 he, an unknown adventurer, without even a blazon 
 on his shield, unhorsed two of our knights. He 
 was led up to receive the laurel, gazed at me 
 fixedly, and from that day has haunted me wher- 
 ever I go. After six months he made an offer of 
 marriage through my brother. ' What ! ' I ex- 
 claimed, ' you come as the herald of a nameless 
 soldier.' He became embarrassed, stammered
 
 92 VALENTINO 
 
 something about obligations, promised never to 
 speak of the man again, and left. But d'Avrees 
 redoubled his efforts when once he knew me con- 
 scious of his thought, until one day he gained 
 access to the garden where I was sitting, and over- 
 whelmed me with the pleading of his shall I call 
 it love ? I bade him be gone. He threatened vague 
 mischiefs if I would not listen, upon which I 
 dashed my glove in his face and told him if he 
 crossed the threshold again my brother's lackeys 
 should whip him out. A month ago he re-ap- 
 peared at Ferrara ; wherever I went he followed. 
 My brother seemed possessed as by some spell ; 
 not a day passed but I beheld that detested 
 face gazing from a house by the way, from some 
 break in a hedge, from the turning of a street, 
 until at length in despair and disgust I fled this 
 marriage of Lucretia was my pretext. I thought 
 to escape my persecutor what wonder if I 
 changed color at the sound of his voice the other 
 evening ? " 
 
 Cesare listened with interest, yet with a half- 
 amused expression. " He followed you in time," 
 he observed, "to give evidence of extreme devo- 
 tion to Savelli. At the risk of his own life he 
 furnished him means of escape. What motive 
 could induce this ? " 
 
 "Savelli calls himself my cousin through some- 
 body's marriage fifty years ago; d'Avrees mis-
 
 THE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW. 93 
 
 judged his influence as a relative, but Savelli did 
 speak to my brother and the same day came to 
 me ; he never came again." Here the girl burst 
 into a peal of laughter, and, lifting her merry eyes, 
 she said, " I told him before presuming to counsel 
 others upon marriage he should trim his " and 
 her last word was lost in a whisper. 
 
 " That was forcible," answered Valentino, dryly, 
 and Elvira wondered that he did not relish more 
 the humor of her repartee. Then he turned upon 
 her, took both her hands, and said, " We have been 
 friends for years ; I am leaving for a long, perhaps 
 a perilous absence ; there is no one in this palace 
 you can appeal to for advice or protection, and this 
 madman is uncaught. I can conceive you safer 
 than in Rome. It may be you will return to Fer- 
 rara, if so, you must needs pass near where I am, 
 and we shall meet again," then, letting fall her 
 hands, he pursued quickly,." you may be obliged to 
 go in haste, an escort more trusty than the palace 
 troopers may be required; if so, or if you need 
 protection, or some service rendered, or whatever 
 it may be, send this to an officer of mine, del Nero, 
 at the end of the Vicolo dei Santi Martiri, speak to 
 him with candor, and your wishes shall be ex- 
 ecuted." And so speaking, he slipped from the 
 golden chain at his neck the whistle that has been 
 noticed at Boscobel. 
 
 Speaker and listener were alike pre-occupied ;
 
 94 VALENTINO. 
 
 the branches obscured surrounding objects, and an 
 occasional rustling through them and the steady- 
 trickling and splashing of the water would have 
 veiled any slight sound from their attention. On 
 the outer side of the garden wall lay planks, bricks 
 and building debris left from recent repairs. Be- 
 side them lay a ladder, forgotten by the workmen, 
 or left for some remaining use. Vallon d'Avrees 
 gliding stealthily along the outer wall of the Vati- 
 can precincts, devoured by the thought of the 
 degradation of his love, heard the pealing laughter 
 of Elvira, and listening intently, distinguished the 
 soft measured voice that replied. Not a word 
 caught he, nor cared to hear ; it was the work of 
 an instant to poise the ladder against the wall, to 
 reach the coping undiscovered ; thence he saw 
 them, Borgia holding the Estense's hands unresist- 
 ing in his own, and in that moment of delirium 
 that filled his veins at the sight, he snatched from 
 beneath his cloak a small steel cross-bow of great 
 power, drew back the cord, adjusted a slender iron 
 bolt, and as Elvira bent her head over the toy 
 dropped in her hand, pulled trigger and the 
 missile flew evenly between her and her com- 
 panion. He had dropped before Cesare's eyes 
 were upon him, but Elvira's quick glance recog- 
 nized her pursuer. " Oh, Cesare," she cried, seiz- 
 ing the arm of Valentino, "save me from that 
 man ! " and she would have sunk to the ground had
 
 THE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW. 95 
 
 not the duke caught her lightly and borne her 
 among the trees and trellices beyond reach of a 
 second shaft. Then he shouted lustily for the 
 guard. Two officers and a score of men came run- 
 ning from the main buildings, three others sprang 
 from the Belvedere. He addressed them abruptly, 
 " A man on the wall yonder has not had time to 
 leave the street bring him dead or alive." The 
 soldiers scattered at the instant, and gaining 
 various means of egress, left Cesare once more 
 alone with Elvira, who was now sufficiently re- 
 stored to rise from the seat where he had placed 
 her. No word was spoken as he led her to the 
 foot of the stairs that conducted to the suites of 
 rooms above then springing through the long 
 corridors he snatched a sword from the guard- 
 room and running at full speed from one chamber 
 to another, came out upon the vicolo, glanced up 
 and down its empty extent, surveyed for an instant 
 the ladder whence the bolt had been discharged, 
 and stood irresolute ; the street was deserted by 
 pursued and pursuers ; there were half a dozen ways 
 d'Avrees might have shaped his flight, and so Ce- 
 sare walked briskly forward at random, supposing 
 to meet presently some of his men-at-arms ; but 
 none appeared, and he saw only a boorish conta- 
 dino driving his goats from milking, and a stall- 
 keeper setting his wares in order for the day, 
 neither of whom had seen the fugitive. He paused
 
 96 VALENTINO. 
 
 at length, not sorry to find that his chance course 
 had brought him to the abode of del Nero. 
 
 The house wore an exterior as peaceable as the 
 walls of a convent. Cesare rapped on the iron- 
 barred door with the pummel of his sword, for 
 knocker there was none, and at an upper window a 
 lattice was turned, then cautiously opened, and the 
 watchman seeing the top of' only one man's hat, 
 leaned out and hallooed : " Chi ce ? " and the face 
 below being upturned, he immediately withdrew, 
 hastened down the stair, passing a word to his 
 chief as he went, and admitted the visitor with 
 every mark of reverence. 
 
 " Quick, the padrone." 
 
 An obsequious indication was made to the stairs, 
 down which del Nero hastened ; through the guard- 
 room, where four of his lambs had risen to their 
 feet from a breakfast which smelled of bacon, 
 Borgia was ushered into what the condottiere 
 chief called the studio ; this room was furnished 
 after a purely practical ideal : a large table ; a 
 cabinet subdivided into drawers and shelves and 
 pigeon holes, all stuffed with manuscript books 
 and bundles of papers ; a pen and ink map of the 
 environs of Home, on which was marked every 
 house, lane, brooklet, and hillslope ; a few arms of 
 precision, and several common but comfortable 
 chairs. 
 
 The condottiere placed one of these before his
 
 THE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW. 9? 
 
 employer, remained himself standing until twice 
 bidden to be seated, and this little formality of 
 etiquette disposed of, Cesare commenced a rapid 
 conversation in which the transfer of the silver 
 whistle and the necessity of making an end of this 
 troublesome jack-in-the-box lover were the topics 
 considered. 
 5
 
 CHAPTER V, 
 
 OBMES. 
 
 TWILIGHT closed in gray and chill as the sun 
 sank amid heavy clouds which soon after poured 
 down a steady rainfall Through the long unoccu- 
 pied afternoon, Ginevra had watched for the com- 
 ing of d'Avrees ; and as the hour appointed for 
 departure neared, and still he came not, in the 
 midst of her reverie of expectant triumph and the 
 mysterious apprehension with which her hopes 
 were overcast, she felt troubled at the absence of 
 so earnest a coadjutor. Thrice she looked long 
 and eagerly from her window, impatient to discover 
 his figure lurking under some covert but in vain. 
 At length a servant announced her litter ; she de- 
 scended the stair, and saw far down the street the 
 muffled form of a man approaching ; she watched 
 intently, and observing that the figure halted on 
 discovering the group of guards and bearers be- 
 fore her door, she stepped from their midst, indif- 
 ferent to the beating rain, and waved a handker- 
 chief. The stranger, reassured by this signal, 
 advanced, and with a salute of recognition, strode 
 to her side.
 
 ORMES. 99 
 
 "Not a minute remains for explanations," she 
 said, " I am already late ; know only that I go with 
 Giulia Farnese to contrive measures for the rescue 
 
 of her , and that it is your interest to 
 
 come with me." 
 
 D'Avrees had passed no tranquil day since his 
 adventure of the morning, and had almost for- 
 gotten his appointment, but when it recurred to 
 him, he instantly bestirred himself in the hope 
 that something might be communicated by Ginevra 
 to occupy his anxiety. Accordingly, he followed 
 through lane after lane, all unpaved and muddy, 
 till they came in sight of the bridge of St. Angelo 
 and of Giulia's train which stood disconsolately 
 about her litter, their torches extinguished and the 
 men wondering among themselves at this sortie of 
 their luxurious mistress. 
 
 "I thought you were never coming," exclaimed 
 the Farn^se, as Ginevra was carried within speak- 
 ing distance, " and is ke with you ? " 
 
 " Yes ; but we shall confer better at our desti- 
 nation;" and at her request the litter of Ginlia 
 moved on before. 
 
 Another ten minutes' trudge between lightless 
 houses, whose doors and windows were for the 
 most part close barred, even at that early hour, 
 brought them to the wizard's abode, vaguely dis- 
 tinguishable by the glimmer of the three flickering 
 lanterns their party still mustered.
 
 100 VALENTINO. 
 
 The door opened before any summons was made ; 
 the ladies and d'Avrees entered, and were bidden 
 by the gesture of two silent servants to a room 
 brightly illumined behind its drawn curtains of 
 Oriental tapestry, and within which the most wel- 
 come object at that moment was a brazier of live 
 coals. One of the servants desired them to be 
 seated, and pouring from a flagon at a side table, 
 offered each a goblet of wine which the consid- 
 erate magician had ordered to be in readiness for 
 the invigoration of his visitors. 
 
 As the door closed upon them, Ginevra said, 
 " Capitano d'Avrees, I present you to Madonna 
 Farnese ; the motive of this visit cannot be fully 
 communicated at this present for want of time ; but 
 you understand that we are one in purpose to res- 
 cue a certain lady from a danger which threatens " 
 
 " Threatens," muttered d' Avrtes with an oath. 
 " and which can only be averted by our joint and 
 earnest effort." 
 
 " I have often heard of you as an officer of dis- 
 tinguished merit," said Giulia, speaking the flat- 
 tering falsehood with a smile so ingenuous that the 
 disguised condottiere started at the thought that 
 his incognito had been pierced, " but I never ex- 
 pected to hear your name so often as it has been 
 spoken to-day ; you have set the Vatican agog ; we 
 are all wondering for which one you meant that 
 shaft for Cesare, or the woman ! "
 
 ORMES. 101 
 
 The entrance of the magician interrupted their 
 discourse. He was a sedate, sad eyed, courteous 
 mannered old man, of intellectual face, speaking 
 with an accent savoring of the Orient, habited in 
 plain black, with broad laced collar and ruffles at 
 the wrists. He dissembled with admirable self- 
 possession his surprise at finding a cavalier in 
 company with the two ladies of whose visit he 
 had been forewarned, and while he bids them wel- 
 come and Jeads them to an upper chamber, we will 
 communicate to the reader some episodes of his 
 career in Borne. 
 
 Landed on the coast of the Papal States from a 
 Turkish ship of war eight years previously, he 
 had presently established himself in the house he 
 now occupied. He attracted little attention, living 
 as he did in monkish seclusion. Two weeks after 
 his arrival, he was received by his Holiness in 
 private audience, upon transmission of a letter 
 bearing the signature of Sultan Bajazet, and which 
 related to a matter that had been the subject of 
 correspondence between the Sultan and the Pope. 
 Upon the death of Mahomet II., a conflict had 
 arisen between his sons Bajazet, the elder, born 
 before his father attained the throne, and Djem, 
 born thereafter, who asserted Bajazet to be mere- 
 ly the offspring of a private individual. A san- 
 guinary struggle ensued, from which Djem fled 
 to the Knights of Rhodes, thence to France, and
 
 102 VALENTINO. 
 
 finally to Rome. Here, instead of an honorable 
 asylum, he found a prison Bajazet paying forty 
 thousand ducats annually to the Pope ostensibly 
 as a pension to defray his brother's expenses, but 
 given and received for his detention. After a few 
 years, this confinement seemed not sufficient 
 guaranty, and to have him put out of the way, the 
 Sultan offered two hundred thousand ducats, a 
 precious Christian relic, and the alliance of his 
 arms. The approach of Charles VIII., among 
 whose projects was an invasion of Turkey, taking 
 Djem as a lieutenant to succeed the dethroned Ba- 
 jazet, brought these negotiations to a climax/ 
 Bajazet's bribe became so large, and his entreaty 
 to have this dangerous rival destroyed grew so 
 appealing that the sympathetic heart of the Pon- 
 tiff was melted. On the demand of King Charles, 
 Prince Djem was indeed surrendered to him, but 
 arrived at Capua a few days later, he suddenly 
 sickened and died. It was Ormes who rendered 
 this service by means of a preparation of arsenic, 
 which, acting slowly upon the vital parts, made it 
 possible to deliver the victim in outward health. 
 He had been sent to Rome by the Turkish mon- 
 arch for this task, should it prove possible to bring 
 Alexander to a resolve, and this function dis- 
 charged, he had been induced to linger ; for the Pope 
 was not slow to perceive that other occasions might 
 arise for the employment of so skilled a hand, and
 
 ORMES. 103 
 
 Cesare forsaking the compounders of coarse drugs, 
 conferred upon him his entire favor. He was soon 
 exchanging for large sums powders similar to that 
 administered to the Turk or an antidote to the 
 three poisons most frequently in use or fram- 
 ing for the credulous, predictions upon the future, 
 with apparitions, and the dead brought back to 
 a semblance of their living selves, and answering 
 in the familiar accents of the flesh. 
 
 His latest service to the Pope had been rendered 
 eighteen months previously, when Giacomo Caetani, 
 whose family was to be spoiled of its possessions 
 under guise of a sale to the Church, refused in his 
 dungeon at St. Angelo either to sign consent to the 
 confiscation of his estates, or to eat poisoned food. 
 To avoid the tumult his open assassination might 
 arouse, it became necessary to allow him food pre- 
 pared by his own attendants pending the conclusion 
 of a suit which was part of the drama. In this 
 emergency, Alexander sent for Ormes; the ma- 
 gician removed alone to St. Angelo, and during the 
 small hours took from the room of Caetani's sleep- 
 ing servant a porcelain cup containing paste used 
 in the process of his master's shaving ; shortly 
 after it was restored to its place, without change in 
 appearance but the next night Caetani was seized 
 with convulsions and died in the arms of his at- 
 tendant ; the cup of shaving paste was missing from 
 his scanty prison effects, but the disappearance of
 
 104 VALENTINO. 
 
 so trifling an object attracted no comment. Only, 
 among a few intimates at the Vatican, shaving soap 
 became the theme of pungent jests. 
 
 Visited soon after by Alfonzo of Aragon (Lu- 
 cretia's recently murdered husband), he had 
 startled that Prince by his fearful incantations, 
 the end of which was a frank prediction violent 
 death. To Lucretia he had assured many years' 
 life and an unknown grave. For Giulia he had 
 found only auspicious prognostications, which per- 
 haps accounted for the ready facility with which 
 she visited him. The sceptical Cesare had never 
 conferred with him upon the future, having small 
 faith in conjurers, however high might be his 
 estimate of powdered arsenic. 
 
 He led the two ladies to an upper chamber, with 
 which one of them was familiar ; by tacit consent 
 d'Avrees was left below until the delicate part of the 
 conference had been disposed of. He acquiesced in 
 this arrangement with contemptuous indifference ; 
 in consenting to accompany Ginevra he had antic- 
 ipated the development of some daring enterprise, 
 upon whose probable nature he had already been 
 speculating : to be dropped from these practical 
 considerations to the level of a conjurer's tricks, was 
 a disenchantment so utter as to render him indif- 
 ferent to whatever might be proposed. 
 
 The room in which Giulia and Ginevra found 
 themselves was a large apartment with no preten-
 
 ORME8. 105 
 
 sion to anything beyond the comfort an elderly man 
 of sedentary habits would desire ; manuscripts 
 there were in abundance, astronomical globes and 
 charts, a clock, still something of a rarity, a large 
 fire-place in which glowed a heavy log, oil lamps in 
 sufficient number to supply a cheerful light, several 
 leather-covered chairs, and cabinets the doors of 
 which were closed. Ginevra correctly inferred this 
 to be the consulting room of the wizard, not the 
 scene of his incantations. 
 
 He seated himself before them, and, turning to 
 Giulia, said : " You wish to speak with me upon a 
 matter of extreme importance of life and death 
 according to your letter. Is this lady equally 
 interested?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And the cavalier below ? " 
 
 " Has more at stake than we ; it is in his interest 
 we are here, though, to be brief, let us say our in- 
 terest is equal." 
 
 " You are one and all in equal danger ? " 
 
 " Not so," replied the Farnese with some asper- 
 ity ; " danger there may be to one who has crossed 
 us. We are here to study the fates, to seek guid- 
 ance as to means and opportunities and possibly 
 the hearing of thus much may suggest that in 
 which we are deficient." At the last words the old 
 man glanced from one woman to the other, and 
 each read in that look that he had understood. 
 5*
 
 106 VALENTINO. 
 
 He had indeed grown adept in reading thoughts, 
 and callous to the vices and crimes with which 
 every month brought him in contact. Not desire 
 of money alone determined his co-operation with 
 the clientele which sought him. More potent 
 motives were love of that power which the astute 
 hold over the credulous, and an enjoyment in the 
 skilful application of his circuitous methods sim- 
 ilar, somewhat, to the zest of a mathematician 
 in the solution of a problem ; or the satisfaction 
 of an inventor in the exercise of his gifts. Occa- 
 sionally some critical issue, some complicated 
 situation was confided to his judgment, with rich 
 results in prospect and knotty entanglements about 
 the execution, and then it was that he labored 
 patiently and with refinement of elaboration to 
 group circumstances and determine time, and fix 
 the opportunity, and secure concealment, till in his 
 eyes his perfected scheme seemed an artistic master- 
 piece. 
 
 "If it be your pleasure," saidOrmes, " now that 
 I am informed of your wishes, we will pass to the 
 laboratory, and you shall witness the experiments 
 we will attempt together." 
 
 In the adjoining room was the paraphernalia re- 
 garded in that century as the machinery of those 
 arts which whoso practised stood in certainty of 
 hell fire, and in danger of the fires of the Church. 
 Ormes, however, while regarded as in league with
 
 OEME8. 107 
 
 the devil, was also under the protection of the 
 Pope, and, consequently, on Earth, at least, lived 
 unmolested. There was a furnace of peculiar con- 
 struction, shelves filled with vials, several tables, a 
 large basin on a tripod, a metal plate against the 
 wall, a canvas adapted to receive colored reflec- 
 tions, an ebony cabinet, a pile of atlas-like books, 
 and a mirror covered with a gauze veil, upon all of 
 which the unsophisticated Ginevra gazed with trepi- 
 dation ; she made as though to cross herself ; but, 
 checked by the consciousness that the intention of 
 the present errand was not one the powers above 
 could be asked to bless, she abstained from the 
 protecting symbol. 
 
 Ormes desired them to face the fire, which he 
 replenished. Then having laid upon it the metal 
 plate or shield which hung against the wall, he 
 drew forward a chair for himself, turned smil- 
 ing to Giulia and said : 
 
 "I will endeavor to show you with that an ex- 
 periment that will be new ; and now to what in- 
 vestigation shall we first proceed ? " 
 
 " Ormes," said Giulia, " we wish for any hints 
 your appliances can give, but you must already 
 have divined that we need something else." 
 
 " I knew it the instant you entered the house ; 
 but there is an incompleteness in your thought 
 which makes my perception less exact than ordi- 
 nary. You must either tell me what is needed, or
 
 108 VALENTINO. 
 
 resolve it definitely in your mind, when it will be 
 unnecessary to speak." 
 
 "It is true my thoughts are not distinct; in sub- 
 stance we require that which will dispose whoever 
 receives it to hasten from Eome : some distemper 
 of the blood, a temporary congestion " 
 
 " And a fatal termination ? " 
 
 " No," hastily interposed Ginevra, who had not 
 spoken till now. 
 
 " No," chimed in Giulia, committed by her com- 
 panion's reply. 
 
 The wise man had expected a quite different an- 
 swer : he resumed, " And how is time to be propor- 
 tioned?" 
 
 " Immediate use," said Giulia, to whom this sin- 
 gular query was not unintelligible, "and effect 
 within two days." 
 
 The magician consulted a large volume, produced 
 a chemist's scale, took down several of the little 
 bottles, weighed out a few grains from each, and 
 delivered the mixture to Giulia, remarking in the 
 matter-of-fact tone of a physician to his patient, 
 " In a glass of wine not water, for the color would 
 show ; not in a dish, for the entire mixture must 
 be taken." 
 
 The Farnese dropped the poison into a leather 
 reticule at her belt. " And now," she said with a 
 relieved expression, " to the experiments." 
 
 " May not we admit d' Avrees? " suggested Ginevra.
 
 OEME8. 109 
 
 " That depends," observed Giulia, " upon what is 
 to follow." 
 
 " I intend first to show you upon that canvas a 
 fac-simile of the signature of the lady who has been 
 in your thoughts ; second, the water in this basin 
 shall reflect a picture of her life past, and another 
 of her life to come ; lastly, on this plate that is heat- 
 ing, you shall see her face as it will appear after 
 death." 
 
 " After death ! " ejaculated Ginevra. 
 
 " Let him come, if that be all," said Giulia. 
 
 The magician touched a knob, and a servant ap- 
 peared, whom his master addressed in a language 
 unknown to his visitors ; he then busied himself 
 with the arrangement of sundry appliances, and, 
 while thus engaged, d'Avrees entered, and without 
 speaking, placed himself behind the ladies. The 
 lamps were extinguished, leaving the room illu- 
 mined by the red glow of the oven. The magician 
 desired them to fix their eyes on the surface of 
 the canvas. From the opposite wall now fell upon 
 it a lurid light in the form of a disc, over which a 
 moment later flitted the words in a hand none of 
 of the startled trio had ever before seen 
 
 Elvira d?Este di Ferfara. 
 
 The disc vanished ; the magician relighted his 
 oil lamps, saying in an explanatory tone to d'Av- 
 rees, " The person about whom I have been con-
 
 HO 
 
 suited, but whose name, as these ladies will bear 
 witness, has not been communicated to me." 
 
 D'Avrees looked puzzled lor a moment, then he 
 said : " However ingenious TOOT juggleries* there is 
 the same defect in all that they lead to noth- 
 ing. You prate of gold, and are necessitous ; you 
 sell the water of youth, and cannot stay your own 
 decay ; you know the future, yet are overtaken by 
 unexpected misfortune." 
 
 The magician's placid face darkened as he lis- 
 tened to this discourteous speech ; then with an 
 assumption of urbanity he answered : " When Ifefl, 
 it is owing to the weakness of human rnJirmity 
 which sometimes overflows the sources of my 
 strength. Those who live only for the sake of in- 
 dulgence, know not that in self-conquest there is a 
 power so vast as to be capable of arresting even 
 the forces of Nature." 
 
 " You mean that you can defer the approach of 
 death?" 
 
 " Only in one who practises the self-discipline 
 that masters every passion and extinguishes tzhe 
 elements that draw us to earth." 
 
 " You yourself will not die ? " interposed OMB 
 vra. 
 
 " Not so," ambiguously answered OrmeSy turning 
 to her. " In the course of nature, the end of life 
 proceeds from suspension of the vital principle : 
 only in one in whom both mind and tibre at body
 
 ORM&S. Ill 
 
 have been brought into subjection, can vitality be 
 resuscitated. When I choose to die, my life will 
 cease. By the effort of a will which self-abnega- 
 tion has rendered perfect, I prevent the diminution 
 of the sustaining element. And should an unsus- 
 pected accumulation of the dross of humanity 
 threaten, I possess in this an element akin to life." 
 And he took from the ebony cabinet and held be- 
 fore them a crystal, wherein a drop of water was 
 distinguishable. 
 
 " In that moisture," he said, " is the primeval 
 element of life. It is of the mist that ascended 
 beneath the warmth of the sunshine of the day of 
 creation, or of the dew that fell on the night that 
 followed. It is free from the contamination of 
 man, and death was unknown when it became en- 
 closed in its little recess. Who shall say that it 
 retains not, even after the lapse of ages, some- 
 thing of the essence of life ! " 
 
 Ormes now drew the basin half filled with water 
 to the centre of the room, poured into it a few 
 drops of something resembling black oil, which at 
 once spread in a mirror-like surface. 
 
 " Upon that," he remarked, " you will presently 
 behold two scenes in the life of the woman whose 
 name has been reflected." 
 
 He now turned once more to the big books, 
 from which he read aloud some passages in an 
 Oriental tongue, then lighted a few grains of
 
 112 VALENTINO. 
 
 a chemical preparation which emitted an odor of 
 bitter aloes ; this, when the flame had subsided, he 
 threw upon the oil, which, at the contact, was 
 filled with iridescent coloring. The three visitors, 
 who had risen to their feet to observe the better, 
 gathered on the other side of the basin. But they 
 looked and waited in vain. The conjurer exhausted 
 all the selections which he found appropriate, the oil 
 gradually lost the changing aspect it had acquired 
 from the burning substance, and returned to its 
 dull, murky tint, and the interest which had ap- 
 peared on d'Avrees' countenance gave place to a 
 contemptuous sneer. The magician abandoned his 
 unsuccessful experiment without loss of equanim- 
 ity, returned the basin to its place, and said 
 
 " And now for our third trial." 
 
 By a small tongs he raised from the fire the 
 metallic plate that had been lying upon it, whose 
 surface presented the appearance of oxidized sil- 
 ver, with a deep glow of heat. 
 
 Upon it the conjurer could produce the picture 
 of past or future events. For Alexander, he had 
 recalled the waste of waters of the Deluge, a sem- 
 blance of the streams of fire upon Gomorrah, the 
 white, frightened face of Lot's wife, Thermopylas's 
 heroic despair, Alaric's armies thronging through 
 the Alps, the toil of the Jews in their Babylonian 
 captivity, the physical aspect of the new discov- 
 ered hemisphere the prairie, the everglade, the
 
 ORMES. 113 
 
 mountain yet unsealed all these had been re- 
 flected on that magic shield. 
 
 He now poured upon it a spoonful of liquid which 
 spread simmering and became quickly dissipated 
 in light vapor, and next requested d'Avrees to ex- 
 tinguish the lamps ; this done, he busied himself 
 in scattering upon the plate some grains that 
 looked like salt, and which the heated metal in- 
 stantly consumed. 
 
 At the end of a few moments, the conjurer ex- 
 perienced what resembled an electric or magnetic 
 shock ; his frame quivered, his lips ceased to 
 repeat the muttered incantations, his hand firmly 
 clenched the tongs by which he raised the metal 
 aloft, now made brighter by the drugs just con- 
 sumed, and upon which appeared a white spot 
 which enlarged till it fille.d the lower half of the 
 plate. 
 
 What it represented, none could say ; it might 
 have been a sheet or a pile of linen, or a snow- 
 drift. Both the women, and even d'Avrees felt an 
 undefinable dread as above it shimmered forth 
 the vague semblance of a woman's face, dim 
 and inscrutable as a reflection seen on polished 
 marble. 
 
 Slowly its contour became more determined, the 
 pallor of the cheeks grew distinct, the disordered 
 hair fell at one side, the eyes were closed in 
 death at the throat was a severing line, as though
 
 114 VALENTINO. 
 
 the head they gazed on had been parted from its 
 body. 
 
 " Elvira ! " cried d'Avrees in a paroxysm of ex- 
 citement. 
 
 At that word the charm which held them all 
 spellbound was broken ; the face faded into dim- 
 ness. 
 
 Giulia gave an hysterical gasp of relief, Ginevra 
 wiped the beads from her brow. 
 
 " You should not have spoken," said the wizard 
 as the last trace of the apparition disappeared. 
 " The face would have grown clear as a portrait in 
 a moment more." 
 
 " How did you produce that horrible image ? " 
 asked d'Avrees. 
 
 " I produce nothing ; were these mere tricks con- 
 trolled by me, think you I should have failed a 
 moment ago? They are forecasts which no hu- 
 man agency could bring about." 
 
 " I, for one, have had enough of them," cried 
 Ginevra ; " may I never again behold that face." 
 
 " You will behold it again though, and twice," re- 
 plied the seer ; " the last time at the hour of death." 
 
 On hearing this prophecy of uncomfortable im- 
 port, Ginevra rose abruptly : 
 
 "It is late," she observed uneasily to Giulia, 
 " and methinks our purpose is accomplished." 
 
 "Think you so? " ejaculated d'Avrees; "then 
 our purposes in coming here were not the same."
 
 ORMKS. 115 
 
 Ormes tossed his plate back upon the stove, re- 
 lighted two of the lamps and touched again the 
 knob. 
 
 " I am fatigued to-night," he said, " and can do 
 no more ; you will pardon the weakness of an old 
 man ; but since this gentle cavalier is not content, 
 I will ask for a look at the palm of his hand he 
 shall hear something more nearly satisfactory;" 
 and taking the condottiere's hand in his, he scruti- 
 nized it attentively, and remarked with some asper- 
 ity: 
 
 " Your true name is not that by which you are 
 known here to-night." 
 
 The individual thus abruptly addressed listened 
 with a look half of disdain, hali of uneasy sur- 
 prise. The magician continued 
 
 " I see written here a name yours, or that of the 
 place where Fortune awaits you a single word 
 F-E-B-M-O." 
 
 The condottiere at hearing this snatched his 
 hand away, and with a curse and a menacing scowl, 
 "Enough of this jesting," he cried; "I will be 
 gone." 
 
 The servant appeared and they descended to- 
 gether accompanied by the magician to the lower 
 hall, where the women wished him felice notte, and 
 passed to their litters. 
 
 D'Avrees gave only a surly nod, at which the 
 wizard smiled as the door closed behind his visit-
 
 116 VALENTINO. 
 
 ors. He returned to his upper chambers, opened 
 the windows of his laboratory to rid it of the 
 fumes of his drugs, replaced the plate, emptied 
 the basin, and poured out for himself a wineglass- 
 ful of a clear, amber-colored liquid, which he oc- 
 casionally dispensed as an elixir, and which is 
 still taken as such under the name of Certosa or 
 Chartreuse. He sipped it with unctuous satisfac- 
 tion while musing aloud 
 
 " What a lucky devil is Valentino ; just in the 
 nick of time to-day, or I should have given these 
 women the potion they asked for and then alas 
 for this Elvira they all have their brains full of ! 
 How absurd in Oliverotto to imagine I would not 
 know his face." And the wizard, pouring out an- 
 other glassful, sat down for a moment's meditation. 
 
 This last subject of his reverie troubled him- 
 self no further about the ladies, but turning in the 
 opposite direction from their way, passed instantly 
 out of sight in the murky darkness. 
 
 " What an ill-mannered varlet," exclaimed Giu- 
 lia. 
 
 " Confess, dear, that the evening has not been 
 auspicious for him," interposed Ginevra laughing, 
 and recovering her spirits in the open air despite 
 the rain. 
 
 " It was his errand that brought us out in this 
 storm peste ! the water has soaked through every-
 
 ORMES. 117 
 
 thing ; suppose you come home with me we will 
 have supper, and you shall sleep in the room ad- 
 joining mine. We must talk over our plans, and you 
 can leave in the morning at whatever hour you 
 please." 
 
 " Willingly," answered Ginevra, who in the ex- 
 cited state of her nerves had no great desire to 
 return alone to the forsaken halls of the Savelli 
 palace. 
 
 The condottiere threaded his way through a 
 maze of narrow streets till he found himself by the 
 waterside, a few hundred yards from the bridge of 
 St. Angelo, upon which, needless to say, he dared 
 not show himself. 
 
 A boatman crouched half asleep in the shadow, 
 whom he roused with an unceremonious kick, then 
 feeling his way into the skiff which was drawn to 
 shore, they pushed swifty across the turbid current 
 and gained the opposite bank. Here he whispered 
 an order to his attendant, and then sprang to land, 
 and, cautiously making a detour, came finally to a 
 house the door of which he opened with a key 
 he took from his pocket. Drawing a wax taper 
 out of the same receptacle, he lighted it, and, with 
 this glimmer to guide his steps, proceeded to climb 
 the stair, flight after flight, till finally he reached a 
 garret on a level with the roof. 
 
 Here he was not unexpected, for the door im-
 
 118 VALENTINO. 
 
 mediately opened, revealing the form and features 
 of the dwarf Pulcio, who bowed him ceremoniously 
 in, addressing him with obsequious words as Sig- 
 nor Oliverotto. The latter cut short his phrases. 
 
 "Supper, master fool, and quickly I must be 
 gone to-night. Serve me bread and meat and a 
 flask to drink, and let us talk the while I have a 
 weighty matter to trust to that big head which has 
 never failed me yet, and great haste presses." 
 
 Five minutes later a plate of cold mutton, a loaf 
 of coarse bread and a terra-cotta jug of vino nero 
 were placed on a table at which he seated himself. 
 
 " I have been discovered," he began sullenly. 
 " I can venture nothing more. My men will be on 
 the alert presently an hour hence we shall mount 
 together and make our way towards the Apennines. 
 When I am gone, Pulcio, give a message to Giulia 
 Farnese, but for life's sake breathe not my name ; 
 speak of me as Yallon d'Avrees, she knows me as 
 such only." 
 
 He interrupted his discourse to apply himself to 
 the viands with the appetite of vigorous manhood 
 half-famished, and continued 
 
 " Tell her I am called far hence by duty and am 
 banished from Rome by a danger she understands. 
 Say that for the present I can be of no service, but 
 urge her to remove the lady of Este from the Vati- 
 can. But hearken : I know not to what malice or 
 violence she may go, and therefore I charge you,
 
 ORMES. 119 
 
 Pulcio, as you value my favor, or as your hate of 
 Borgia is still quick look to it that no ill comes to 
 the girl." 
 
 The dwarf assented in silence ; Oliverotto quaffed 
 deeply from the jug, and gathering his cloak and 
 his rapier in one arm and taking his lighted wax 
 taper, nodded addio to his humble friend and felt 
 his way down the winding stairs till the listening 
 dwarf heard his steps grow fainter, fainter, and 
 finally cease.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 URBINO. 
 
 FOLLOWED by an escort of two hundred horse, 
 Cesare had passed the defiles of the Umbrian 
 Apennines, and approached the town of Fossom- 
 brone, whither he had summoned two of his lieu- 
 tenants with the forces at their command. He 
 had ridden nine hours daily in the midst of his 
 clattering cavalcade, over steep and narrow moun- 
 tain roads. By night they halted at some con- 
 venient town none durst refuse the formidable 
 Valentino where his men made shift as best they 
 might, the townspeople thinking themselves fort- 
 unate if nothing worse than equivocal thanks 
 were the return for food and shelter. 
 
 Riding at Borgia's side by day and sharing his 
 frugal refreshment at twilight, was Don Michele, 
 and often they talked together in Spanish, uncom- 
 prehended by their followers, beguiling thus with 
 the thoughts and interests that preoccupied them, 
 the tedium of the long hours. 
 
 The situation in Eomagna, and the last cam- 
 paign in the Marches, which were mainly the
 
 URBINO. 121 
 
 subjects of their desultory talk, deserve some re- 
 trospective notice. 
 
 In November, 1499, Borgia, with a ravenous 
 army composed of French, commanded by Ives 
 d'Allegre, of Swiss under Baron Herbsch, and of 
 Italian mercenaries led by the veterans Vitellozzo 
 Vitelli, Pagolo Orsini, the Duke of Gravina, and 
 Oliverotto da Fermo, had appeared from Milan on 
 the northern horizon of the triangle between the 
 Primaro, the Apennines, and the Adriatic; the 
 eight or nine principalities occupying this space 
 were unequal to successful resistance, even had 
 not the feuds of years prevented mutual support. 
 A declaration of hostilities was no more awaited 
 than is a bugle note of warning looked for from 
 the midnight robber. The lords of Rimini and 
 Pesaro fled ; the garrison of Forli surrendered 
 after an heroic defence by Caterina Sforza; Fa- 
 enza fell after five months' siege, and Imola 
 yielded without a blow. Valentino wisely halted 
 to cement these conquests. 
 
 He had been forbidden by Louis XH. of France 
 to conquer Bologna, whose confines he had ap- 
 proached. He, however, exacted tribute and a 
 couple of outlying castles from Bentivoglio, to 
 whom in return he betrayed his negotiations with 
 the Marescotti family, the staunch supporters of 
 their prince. Bentivoglio caused the gates of 
 Bologna to be closed, and butchered Agamemnon 
 6
 
 122 VALENTINO. 
 
 Marescotti and thirty-four of his sons, daughters, 
 brothers, and other relatives. 
 
 Meanwhile Kamiro d'Orco, a man of merciless 
 traits, was made governor of Romagna with un- 
 limited authority, and with instructions to sup- 
 press the brigandage of a swarm of freebooters 
 who under the weak-handed princelings had plun- 
 dered unresisted, and to establish in each town a 
 potesta for a semblance of equity in place of re- 
 prisals. The towns received prescribed adminis- 
 tration which, however crude, was an improve- 
 ment upon the vagaries of seigneurial authority. 
 Life and property began to be safe, and the popu- 
 lation turned to Borgia with a wondering admiration 
 unusual in the sentiments of the ruled of that day. 
 
 In the substitution of one petty tyrant for an- 
 other during the middle ages, one general conse- 
 quence was assured to the people that their 
 condition would be nowise bettered. One prince 
 might have vices that another escaped ; if one 
 plundered his subjects, the warlike ardors of the 
 next brought siege and famine. The redeeming 
 feature of the minor Italian despots is their en- 
 couragement of the arts and of such learning as 
 existed outside the Church. All were ready to re- 
 ward poets, painters, musicians, architects, through 
 whose creations some veiling of oblivion might be 
 cast over the sanguinary footsteps that often had 
 led to power.
 
 URBINO. 123 
 
 Borgia had conceived the wider aspiration of 
 a state similar to that of the Sforza in Lombardy, 
 of the Medici in Tuscany a dukedom, not a fief ; 
 and while maturing the military and physical de- 
 tails of his undertaking, he had made ready that 
 best apology of an usurper a government com- 
 mending itself to the governed. 
 
 The complications of Italian politics, the intri- 
 cate web of many jealous states, the duplicity of 
 all, the rich reward of success, the certainty of 
 extraordinary chances where all was fluctuating, 
 made the arena upon which Valentino had entered 
 one of vast possibilities. 
 
 Between French and Spanish invasions, Naples 
 lay prostrate, and for an hour he had dreamed 
 the possession of its crown. From the Vatican 
 spread ramifications that covered half of Europe. 
 In the north three republics Venice, Milan, Flor- 
 ence had balanced one another for two centuries ; 
 to-day the power of St. Marc was drained by in- 
 terminable conflicts with the Turk, following wars 
 which had ruined the rival republic of Genoa. At 
 Milan, Ludovico Sforza had, with the hand of a 
 master genius, doubled the power and possessions 
 of his predecessors, but his stately structure had 
 fallen before the French invasion. At Florence the 
 successors of the unwarlike Medici were absorbed 
 by the agitations of internal feuds. 
 
 In the reorganization of his forces, Cesare re-
 
 124 VALENTINO. 
 
 turned to his father the Swiss mercenaries. He 
 placed his Spanish relative Candale in command 
 of a camp at Imola, where commenced the assem- 
 bling of lances brisees, as were called itinerant 
 knights with a dozen men at arms behind them. 
 The French under their accomplished commander, 
 Ives d'Allegre, he dismissed. 
 
 The Italian condottieri under Vitellozzo, Gra- 
 vina, Orsini and Oliverotto, were cantoned in 
 momentary inactivity, and it was during this ab- 
 sence of occupation that their chiefs had sought 
 to realize their furtive purposes, each aiming at 
 the acquisition of a scrap of territory round some 
 village, a title in prospective, gold, and the smiles 
 of fair women. Vitellozzo, from his tenure at 
 Citta di Castello, meditated a swoop upon the 
 Tuscan border. Oliverotto, bivouacked with his 
 men at Fossombrone, cast envious glances at 
 Fermo, where his uncle ruled his uncle who had 
 reared him in youth and had sent him forth in 
 manhood with wealth and training. The Orsini 
 brothers were ever busy upon the advancement of 
 their family, then as for centuries at permanent 
 strife with the Colonna, and in occasional differ- 
 ence or in desultory service with the reigning 
 Pope. 
 
 At the head of their weather-stained escort, Ce- 
 sare and Don Michele emerged from the defile of
 
 URBINO. 125 
 
 Acqualagna and rode downward into the plain. 
 Some miles to the front could be discerned their 
 destination ; to the left at a greater distance lay 
 Urbino ; here and there a house dotted the fields, 
 but on approaching these habitations of more 
 peaceful years, it was usually found that their oc- 
 cupants had abandoned such defenceless abodes. 
 
 " There is smoke rising from that chimney yon- 
 der," observed Cesare, "yet it seems much this 
 side of Fossombrone." 
 
 "It is an inn outside the town one at which 
 we might fare well to-night," answered Miche- 
 lotto. 
 
 " You have had enough of our mountain fare ? " 
 
 " In truth yes ; likely we shall find Vitellozzo 
 thereabouts the montepulciano is excellent." 
 
 The signal to trot was given and the long calva- 
 cade, gladdened by the sight of their halting place, 
 started briskly forward. 
 
 Don Michele was right in surmising that Vitel- 
 lozzo would be found near the fountain of good 
 wine. At an earlier hour in the afternoon he and 
 Oliverotto, in whom the reader may presently 
 recognize the assumed Vallon d'Avrees, had ridden 
 from the bivouac of their respective regiments to 
 dine at the trattoria Abbiategrasso, where they had 
 invited to meet them their colleagues Kamiro 
 d'Orco and Candale. A messenger had brought 
 word that the duke would arrive towards twilight,
 
 126 VALENTINO. 
 
 and his chief lieutenants might thus be conven- 
 iently placed to meet him before the city posts, at 
 the same time that their waiting need not be 
 wholly vain. 
 
 The host, a portly, red-faced, good-humored 
 looking man, received them at the door, while 
 some stable boys ran out to take their horses. 
 
 " Keep that beast out of the air," ordered the 
 burly Vitellozzo, " and mind the range of his heels ; 
 he broke a man's leg yesterday." 
 
 " Good Tomaso," began his companion, tapping 
 the tavern-keeper on the shoulder, " Vitellozzo is 
 starved with the short commons of the town, and I 
 am jaded and famished after three days in the 
 saddle : we are come to have one of the old- 
 fashioned dinners, and two others will be here 
 anon, one is Candale he that will not eat 
 onions and wants his meat well cooked you 
 remember?" 
 
 " He is already here, and Master Ramiro d'Orco 
 with him. But prithee, signor, if you would have 
 the old-fashioned dinners, you must give me back 
 the old-fashioned days. I cannot keep a cow or a 
 pig or a chicken for the marauders, and this very 
 morning a couple of officers of your corps eat out 
 my larder, drank two cans o' wine each, and went 
 off without leaving me a florin : they had but a 
 trifle of silver, they said, and that appetite waits 
 not for arrears of pay."
 
 URBINO. 127 
 
 " Never fear," interposed Vitellozzo, " I will 
 make good their score. Ah, Ramiro ! " he exclaimed, 
 as a familiar form appeared ; and they all entered 
 the dingy eating-room from which the kitchen 
 opened. The walls were wainscoted to the height 
 of the shoulder, and on the spaces above were 
 grouped trophies of the chase. Near the door were 
 ranged mugs, goblets and runlets of wine, and rows 
 of the wicker-covered glass fiaschi which were set 
 before the guests. Four tables and some wooden 
 chairs occupied the centre, and from the raftered 
 ceiling depended oil lamps, which a sandy-headed 
 youth had just lighted ; for already, though barely 
 three hours past the meridian, that sombre little 
 room with its dark walls and narrow, diamond- 
 paned windows, grew murky. 
 
 Ramiro d'Orco was Governor-General of Cesare 
 Borgia's newly acquired Duchy of Romagna. Of 
 robust frame, his physique betrayed but slight ev- 
 idence of those fatigues and hardships of arms 
 which had been the habit of his life for twenty 
 years. Only a tinge of gray through the close- 
 cropped hair, and now and then the listless look of 
 one who has grown weary with watching, and with 
 the alerts and surprises of campaigning, gave token 
 that the prime had passed. His dress was a peaked 
 cap, a tunic of blue serge, stout riding breeches, 
 and undressed leather boots. 
 
 At one of the tables sat a pale, thoughtful-faced
 
 128 VALENTINO. 
 
 man, who had laid his helmet and sword before 
 him, and who now rose to greet his comrades. He 
 shook Vitellozzo and Oliverotto by the hand, and 
 in a discouraged way remarked : 
 
 " He has no fish." 
 
 "No fish," said Vitellozzo, in a humorously 
 sympathetic tone ; "that is sad, but I fear there is 
 worse to be told : it appears the larder is empty 
 did I so understand you ? " he asked, turning to 
 the waiting padrone. 
 
 Before the latter could utter the lie his lips were 
 framing, Bamiro interrupted, 
 
 " Empty, then why a slow fire in the kitchen? " 
 
 " My masters," answered the innkeeper," there is 
 a broth of herbs simmering, which with crusts of 
 bread will be the first meal of my household since 
 last night's supper." 
 
 "Your broth of herbs gives out a smell of meat," 
 rejoined Ramiro. 
 
 " Meat ! " ejaculated Oliverotto ; " if thou hast 
 meat and refuse it to us 
 
 " My noble patrons," broke in the host, yielding 
 to the pressure of men who however stolidly good- 
 natured at one moment, might, if angered, think it 
 sport to slit his ears the next, " I have too long 
 the habit of truth to speak a falsehood glibly, and 
 my heart bids me give you my best. But the little 
 that remains has been ordered for the Duke of 
 Eomagna, who is even now on his way here, and
 
 URBINO. 129 
 
 who a courier said would likely sup at Abbiate- 
 grasso." 
 
 " I care not," answered Vitellozzo, " if two dukes 
 are coming ; say what thou hast and serve 
 quickly." 
 
 " I can give you," stammered Tomaso, " the beef 
 broth of the house, after that cabobs, and cheese 
 and wine as you will." 
 
 " Son of a Jew, why didst not thou say so at 
 once." 
 
 " After my experience this morning " 
 
 " Dull knave, thou shouldst have known us 
 better. But haste, bestir thyself, lose not a 
 minute, and while we wait, serve wine ; diavolo ! 
 to think it need so much talking to order a meal. 
 It should be good after such lengthy discourse." 
 
 "No," objected Candale, "more words, poorer 
 fare. The best dinners I ever had were at a con- 
 vent in Madrid, where I went on Sundays ; the cook 
 was deaf, and the Superior dumb Madre Dolo- 
 rosa ! what a podrida they made." 
 
 " Come, let us be seated," said Vitellozzo, un- 
 buckling his belt with a fat man's gasp of relief. 
 " Ramiro, you look hungry, and you, Candale, seem 
 out of sorts. Let us drink, my friends," he added, 
 as wine, and a dish covered with sausage, salt fish, 
 and olives the modern antepasto were set before 
 them. " Let us 'drink stay what was that toast 
 of Gravina's? " 
 6*
 
 130 VALENTINO. 
 
 " I remember it," interposed Candale : 
 
 " ' Drink to the present, oh my lips ! 
 Drink to my love, oh my heart! 
 Drink to the future, oh my soul ! ' 
 
 "A man is not thirsty when he has so much to 
 say with a glass in his hand," remarked Oliverotto, 
 as he drained the big mug which he had selected 
 from the vessels beside the door. 
 
 "On the contrary," rejoined Ramiro, "he must 
 have a bucket the size of that cup of thine to 
 pledge to so many things at once. The present, 
 my love, and the future what is there beside? " 
 
 " Leisure to stretch one's legs when weary, and 
 a fire to toast one's feet after galloping day and 
 night in the wet and losing one's way in these 
 trackless Apennines," answered Oliverotto. 
 
 " You talk as connoisseurs," observed Vitellozzo, 
 refilling his goblet. " You, Ramiro, have been in 
 the mountains ; you might have quenched your 
 thirst there I have heard the Barolo is so ex- 
 quisite among the Tuscan hills it will drown all 
 the cobwebs out of one's memory." 
 
 " So will any wine if you take enough." 
 
 "No," again demurred Candale, "I am often 
 triste over a bottle." 
 
 " That is because your chronic melancholy sours 
 the wine to weak vinegar." 
 
 " What have you been doing in the mountains ? " 
 asked Oliverotto, filling his mouth with sausage.
 
 URBINO 131 
 
 "There were some men in the woods who 
 dodged the patrol, and word being brought of their 
 whereabouts, I took a troop of Gravina's horse 
 and came upon them." 
 
 " Half starved," interrupted Yitellozzo. 
 
 " Not so starved as I am now ; the rogues had a 
 shelter against a rock, covered in with trees, a fire 
 to hang a kettle on, a couple of tuns of wine and a 
 score of pigs and sheep in a pen near by." 
 
 " You roasted them out ? " 
 
 " We expected to surprise them, but they got 
 the alarm, and some held a defile long enough for 
 the rest to slip off, and though we followed, it was 
 only to exchange shots." 
 
 Tomaso and his tow-headed assistant now set 
 before each guest a bowl of broth scalding hot, 
 with floating scraps of carrots, potatoes and poma- 
 dori. As Oliverotto remarked, nothing artistic, but 
 it went to the right place. The cabobs that fol- 
 lowed are remembered by every howadji as bits of 
 roasted mutton on a wooden skewer, with alter- 
 nate slips of onions. They were first introduced 
 in Europe by Crusaders returning from the siege 
 of Askalon, where perhaps the knights learned to 
 cook them in the course of dalliances which were 
 a subject of contemporary reproach. 
 
 " I hear you feasted mightily at Urbino the 
 other day when the Ferrarese passed through," 
 remarked Oliverotto to Eamiro, " and that to divert
 
 132 VALENTINO. 
 
 the ladies, Guidobaldo opened some old tombs in 
 search of Etruscan treasure ; found you aught 
 better than pea-green jewels of bronze ? " 
 
 " Nay, 'twas but one tomb opened the morning 
 the cortege left, though in faith it bore marks of 
 having been broken into before. Jewels there 
 were none a terra cotta urn containing ashes, and 
 beside it, fragments of Eoman armor and on a 
 stone shelf a short thick trumpet with a twist to 
 it. The only metal I have ever seen taken in good 
 preservation from a columbarium." 
 
 " 'Twas the sepulchre of a legionary bugler," 
 remarked Vitellozzo. 
 
 " Doubtless," assented Kamiro, " and the instant 
 Donna Lucretia spied it, she clapped her hands, 
 and cried a blast! Blow me a blast upon that 
 ancient bugle and awake the echoes of a thousand 
 years ago ! " 
 
 " Ha ! a droll conceit," laughed the triste Can- 
 dale ; " and could you produce a tuneful strain?" 
 
 " Not a sound, for the breath, so to speak, was 
 out of its body, and one might as reasonably have 
 looked to hear a dead bird sing." 
 
 In addition to cabobs, there were two other 
 dishes in good repute at the osteria of Abbiate- 
 grasso, one of minced chicken rolled in cabbage 
 leaves, the other of pigs' feet wrapped in sausage 
 and overlaid with a white and yellow blanket of 
 fried eggs. For the absence of these, Tomaso
 
 URBINO. 133 
 
 excused himself, and as he placed a gorgonzola 
 cheese before them with six more of wine, the 
 convives were sufficiently solaced to forgive what 
 could not be helped. Ramiro settled himself 
 comfortably in his chair as one who has disposed 
 of the weightier fatigues of dinner, and remarked 
 with the pompousness attending the exhilaration 
 of meat and wine, 
 
 "This gorgelet Don Ferrante gave me looked 
 small enough when first I saw it, but after one 
 has well eaten, it weighs heavier than unforgiven 
 sin." 
 
 " What then would have been thy lot had he 
 given thee a whole suit of mail ? " asked Oliverotto. 
 
 " Or a rapier like this he gave me ? " said Can- 
 dale, drawing to him with evident pride a basket- 
 handled weapon of fine workmanship. 
 
 " And did he give thee with it that cut on thy 
 cheek?" 
 
 " That is the foolery of a French fencing-master 
 Ives d'Allegre brought with him ; he fell ill of 
 fever, was sent back to us at Faenza, where I had 
 him somewhat cared for. The fellow came to me 
 a week ago and said I had saved his life, and that 
 in return he would teach me a sword stroke which 
 in emergency might guard mine ; a great secret, he 
 said I believe the fellow was half delirious yet 
 and it proved a secret I failed to fathom, for with all 
 his talk and crossing of swords, I could discover
 
 134 VALENTINO. 
 
 nothing but a feint and legamento, and when his 
 blade grazed my face, I went at the chattering 
 rogue and gave him a thrust that has sent him 
 back to bed again." 
 
 "D'Allegre will not thank you for that; he 
 treats his maitres d'armes like brothers." 
 
 ''What has become of d'Allegre?" asked Oli- 
 verotto. 
 
 " Facing the Spaniards somewhere in the Abruzzi, 
 while recovering from the effects of the oysters of 
 Fusano. He said oysters were either very good or 
 very bad ; at Putzuoli he eat six dozen one morn- 
 ing, pronouncing them the finest in the world. 
 He spent three days in his tent afterwards, and 
 now he thinks all oysters bad especially those of 
 Fusano." 
 
 " Did he ever tell you of that queer notion he has 
 on moonlight nights in winter when snow lies on 
 the ground ? " 
 
 " No ; what is it ? " 
 
 " He and I were in the trenches before Faenza 
 you remember how deep the snow lay. One night 
 we walked together beyond our outposts to scan 
 the walls. He remained at the red bastion we 
 afterwards carried, while I moved cautiously along 
 the counterscarp. It was starlight, but one could 
 discern little. Suddenly the moon came through 
 a rift in the clouds, and at that instant d'Allegre 
 fired his musquetoon. I ran back and found him
 
 URBINO. 135 
 
 spellbound looking into the ditch. He and a 
 sentry on the wall had discovered each other and 
 fired ; the soldier's cross-bow shaft glanced from the 
 steel corselet d'Allegre's bullet crushed through 
 his nose and brain, and he tumbled into the ditch 
 and lay there on his back in the snow, with the 
 moonlight full on his face, and the blood gurgling 
 up with a gasping noise. I dragged d'Allegre 
 away it was time, for steps came hurrying along 
 the rampart ; the moon disappeared, all grew dark 
 again, and we regained our lines." 
 
 " Nothing remarkable in that," observed Bamiro, 
 as the narrator paused to drain his cup. 
 
 " But the curious thing," resumed Oliverotto, 
 " is that every clear moonlight night since then, in 
 winter, if snow lie on the ground, d'Allgere hears 
 behind him the gasping and gurgling of that dying 
 man." 
 
 "An unpleasant companionship," rejoined Ra- 
 miro, laughing ; " such is the cost of killing men 
 unshriven." 
 
 " Methinks," interposed Candale, "you will need 
 a prettier story than that when Valentino asks 
 where you have been this last fortnight, and what 
 all these mysterious absences are for. Pedro de 
 Castro came from your camp a week ago, and found 
 that your officers knew neither your whereabouts, 
 nor when you should return." 
 
 "I was in search of two valuable things," an-
 
 136 VALENTINO. 
 
 swered Oliverotto without hesitation, " recruits 
 and information ; when Valentino teaches me to 
 do without them, I will leave camp no more." 
 
 As he spoke, Tomaso announced a numerous 
 company debouching from the hills. 
 
 "To horse, then," exclaimed Vitellozzo, in his 
 haste almost forgetting to pay for their repast, a 
 circumstance of which his attentive host softly 
 reminded him. 
 
 The officers rode forward, followed by a troop 
 which had waited near by. Cesare, at meeting, 
 greeted them with a pleasant smile, shook hands 
 familiarly with each, and said, 
 
 "Let us to some place where we can talk an 
 hour undisturbed." 
 
 " Suppose we sup at Abbiategrasso ; we can talk 
 as well there as in one of your bivouacs and eat 
 better," said Don Michele, addressing the condot- 
 tieri. 
 
 "Alas," sftid Oliverotto, "we come thence, and 
 both cellar and larder have been cleared." 
 
 A twinkle came in Vitellozzo's eye as he added, 
 "Poor Tomaso told us he had only a pottage of 
 herbs left for himself." 
 
 " For the first time I came thirsty from Abbiate- 
 grasso," said Eamiro, who in summer required half 
 a barrel to cool, and in winter rather more to warm 
 him. 
 
 " We will go to a house behind the potesta," said
 
 URBINO. 137 
 
 Cesare, more intent on business than supper ; " no 
 matter that it be a Jew's." 
 
 Their stormy summons brought the terrified 
 Israelite in view of the officers and their retinue 
 thronging at his door. He was brushed aside with 
 a mocking word, and while Cesare and his lieuten- 
 ants seated themselves in an upper room,which gave 
 token of the former affluence of its master, Don 
 Michele ordered the house searched from cellar 
 to attic for whatever provisions might be hidden. 
 
 " Vitellozzo," began Cesare, as he removed his 
 weightier accoutrements, "I am stiff from the 
 saddle ; let us speak briefly ; is your regiment all 
 here?" 
 
 "Two thousand foot, five hundred horses, and 
 four cannon." 
 
 "And yours, Oliverotto ? " 
 
 " Ready in all but cannon. Candale took my 
 six guns to Imola upon your order. That leaves 
 me fifteen hundred horse and foot." 
 
 " Force abundant, and to remedy our deficiency 
 in material, I intend to ask from the lord of Urbino 
 the loan of his artillery train, which is said to be 
 admirable, and for which he can have at present no 
 use." 
 
 The officers glanced significantly at one another 
 at the thought of so novel a mode of campaigning. 
 
 " You, Candale, will go to-morrow and make the 
 request of him."
 
 138 VALENTINO. 
 
 " And say lie will be repaid for the favor," added 
 Don Michele. 
 
 "And if the wolf object to take the fangs from his 
 jaws?" 
 
 " Then use no more persuasion than to say we 
 had supposed him a good neighbor. And now, 
 Oliverotto, tell me why you are absent so much 
 and so often." 
 
 " Signer Duca, I have no excuse to make for be- 
 ing my own master. Like you, I come and go as I 
 please. I serve you here at your command I 
 stand ; but I am above the sentry that beats twelve 
 paces of turf." And so saying, he bowed slightly, 
 and accompanied by Yitellozzo, who had listened 
 to this declaration with half-concealed satisfaction, 
 he left the room. 
 
 Valentino made no reply, and answered not the 
 salutation. He cast after the speaker a long, steady, 
 impassive look, and then turning about, busied 
 himself through the ensuing hour with Candale and 
 Ramiro, questioning them upon the new levies at 
 Imola, the state of the towns, the schemes of the 
 Orsini, the ambitions of the generals who had just 
 departed, the supplies and munitions for the troops 
 and listened, while Don Michele, weary to ex- 
 haustion, dropped asleep. 
 
 Day broke radiantly above the broad stretch of 
 green between the Adriatic and the Apennines as
 
 URBINO. 139 
 
 Fossombrone awakened from its slumber. The sun 
 touched the sombre winter foliage and flushed the 
 mountain crags with rose and gold. The great gray 
 cattle gazed with solemn eyes across their pastures; 
 the crows flew straight to some far destination; 
 the breeze swelled up from the sea and set the tree- 
 tops rustling. Already the troops were astir with 
 buckling on of harness and trumpet note and the roll 
 of drums which Christendom had borrowed from the 
 Turk. 
 
 Borgia inspected men, arms, accoutrements, am- 
 munition, with minuteness, passing round each 
 phalanx of pikemen, scanning the troopers and no 
 less the steeds, the companies of cross-bowmen, the 
 battalion of archers, the little squads that stood 
 about Vitellozzo's four small, long-barrelled can- 
 nons, the flags and guidons that fluttered above the 
 hard, weather-browned faces. 
 
 Guidobaldo of Urbino listened with alarm to 
 Candale's message. He possessed twenty pieces of 
 artillery, and these he was asked to lend to one 
 whom no man trusted. True, there was no shadow 
 between them ; moreover, to refuse might be more 
 dangerous than to consent. 
 
 " It was," said Candale in a blunt yet plausible 
 way, " to aid a meditated stroke of rich promise ; 
 the cannons possessed by Valentino were inferior ; 
 a recompense should not fail." He returned to 
 Fossombrone with the reluctant promise that
 
 140 VALENTINO. 
 
 the guns should be delivered on the following 
 day. 
 
 Before the next day's noon, Valentino's troops 
 marched from Fossombrone, cavalry first, archers 
 and cross-bowmen next, lastly the long files of pike- 
 men, four by four. Cesare watched them defile as 
 Candale approached. 
 
 " We have but one armorers' train," he said, as 
 two heavy wagons passed, followed by smiths and 
 mechanics ; " in the Spanish service there is one 
 for every thousand men. Set out at once for 
 Imola Eamiro will be off in three hours with an 
 escort ; you can go with him take the first wagons 
 you find, fit out three trains with men, forge and 
 tools complete." 
 
 Cesare and Don Michele put their horses to a 
 canter and gained the head of the column, now but 
 a couple of miles from Urbino. The troops were 
 ordered to move across the fields through copses 
 which screened their approach. The city walls 
 rose clear in view, gray and dun-colored, with 
 towers and battlemented ramparts in picturesque 
 grouping. The cavalry drew up behind Miche- 
 lotto ; an adjacent wood filled with archers, the 
 pikemen were formed to the left out of sight. 
 
 It was past the hour for the delivery of the guns, 
 and many a face among Valentino's officers peered 
 watchfully at the closed gate ; even Cesare toyed
 
 URBINO. 141 
 
 impatiently with his reins. Vitellozzo and Olive- 
 rotto drew to his side, the latter reiterating, 
 
 " No guns will come ; the duke has sent to 
 Venice for rescue ; meanwhile he will hold his 
 walls how he must have laughed at Candale." 
 
 As he spoke, a platoon of horsemen appeared at 
 the gate, and after them, distinctly visible as they 
 wheeled down an incline, came the cannon twenty 
 they counted, six small guns and fourteen lumber- 
 ing pieces. 
 
 Cesare turned with a savagely exultant expression 
 on his pale face. 
 
 " Michelotto," said he, "take the cavalry and 
 close in behind when they enter yonder defile. 
 Vitellozzo, place a line of men on this ridge ; and 
 you, Oliverotto, when you see the moment, dash 
 in among them with your archers." 
 
 An interval of suspense ensued. Slowly the 
 drivers advanced. There was but an officer's escort 
 before them, but suddenly a column of cavalry 
 trotted into view and circled round. They halted 
 mechanically, stood gazing upon the trap which 
 had closed, and their leader, who wore a white 
 cloak, let it fall. At the same instant Vitellozzo's 
 halberdiers appeared while Oliverotto and a cloud 
 of archers sprang upon the guns. 
 
 Cesare advanced, caused them to be disarmed, 
 and addressed himself to their officer. 
 
 " Capitano, you are at liberty upon the small
 
 142 VALENTINO. 
 
 condition that you retrace your steps and announce 
 to the duke that in one hour I cannonade the town." 
 
 The officer had dismounted to gather his cloak 
 from the ground : he listened and asked, 
 
 " Will any terms be allowed the garrison? " 
 
 " Those who choose may enrol in my regiments 
 at Imola ; the rest disbanded." 
 
 The officer bowed, mounted his horse and gal- 
 loped away. 
 
 "And now," said Valentino "alert! You, Mi- 
 chele, surround the town with cavalry, take me the 
 duke without fail. Vitellozzo and Oliverotto, di- 
 vide these guns and advance to the walls." 
 
 The cavalry cantered off in two directions to 
 close the gates of the city, and the infantry passed 
 to the front, all merry over this humorous jest. 
 Before forty minutes elapsed, a white flag was 
 raised, and Vitellozzo received the custody of the 
 gate before him. Cesare followed with Oliverotto 
 and a column of halberdiers, and hastened amid 
 the terror-stricken populace to the piazza, disarmed 
 the garrison and occupied Guidobaldo's palace. 
 
 Sword in hand, from room to room hastened Ce- 
 sare and Vitellozzo. The destruction of a deposed 
 prince was an elementary axiom in Italian political 
 science. A clattering of hoofs in the street diverted 
 their attention, and springing to a window, they 
 beheld Michelotto, a score of troopers and a pris- 
 oner but not the duke.
 
 URBINO. 143 
 
 The story was told in a word. The captive had 
 attended the duke at the rampart where an excited 
 debate had continued between Guidobaldo and his 
 chiefs. The signal of the fallen white cloak un- 
 deceived him. Followed by a few officers, the 
 panic-stricken Prince, abandoning every hope but 
 that of life, had ridden out of the town. The 
 speaker's horse had fallen in leaping a ditch, the 
 girths had broken, and rising, he had seen the 
 others galloping likS madmen in the distance.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FOEZA MAGGIORE. 
 
 PULCIO'S retreat on the tile tops looked over 
 half Rome. From the graceful upper structure of 
 St. Angelo, the eye reached to the waving greens 
 of Monte Pincio, along the ridge of the Quirinal to 
 the mammoth arches of Constantine's Basilica, to 
 the cypress bluffs of Aventinus. A terrace skirted 
 the roof, whence the glance fell upon narrow 
 streets ; almost black they looked at the bottom, so 
 deep was their shade contrasted with the stream- 
 ing sunlight. 
 
 The jester habitually returned at night to his 
 rookery ; sometimes there was a day's escape from 
 serfdom. No one ever came to his refuge neither 
 tradesman, nor provision boy, nor visitor, however 
 humble. The companions of his solitude were 
 some pots of flowers ranged upon the balcony, and 
 his chief pleasure was in caring for them. 
 
 "They were hers" he sometimes murmured to 
 himself ; " she placed them here, and I think of her 
 through them as it were between the blossoms." 
 
 One night he brought a theme for meditation. 
 Giulia Farnese had proceeded in her design against
 
 FORZA MAGGIORE. 145 
 
 Elvira with the caution and promptness of one ac- 
 customed to such combinations. 
 
 Having divined the dwarfs hatred of Valentino, 
 she employed him with Catalina in the execution 
 of her plan. She had secured the adventurer 
 Brazos and two trusty fellows who undertook to 
 remove Elvira at midnight to a distance from 
 Rome. Lastly she had contrived the absence of 
 the sentries for one hour. Pulcio lent himself 
 immediately to her scheme, hoping to thwart any 
 intended injury to the girl, and that after her 
 seizure she should be delivered to his patron 
 Oliverotto da Fermo, to whom he communicated 
 the Farnese's project, asking that a patrol of 
 troopers be sent to meet the abductors. 
 
 For this task Brazos was well chosen. He had 
 passed from ten years' service in the Spanish in- 
 fantry, to more profitable independent employ- 
 ment, and now the fire of early manhood slackened, 
 he had accepted the luxurious commission of cap- 
 tain of a company of arquebusiers. He served 
 father and son impartially, and was useful on many 
 an errand which Don Michele would not touch, or 
 which might be too delicate for del Nero's sum- 
 mary methods. In appearance he presented the 
 type of the Spanish officer ; large figure, swarthy 
 face, beard neatly trimmed, hair close cropped, hard 
 black eyes nothing peculiar about him except the 
 missing half ear which a cutlass stroke had severed. 
 7
 
 146 VALENTINO. 
 
 Three hours after dark on the evening of the 
 day appointed, he had gone with his two bravos 
 to the fork of three lanes where Pulcio had en- 
 gaged to meet him, and where he found the dwarf 
 pacing in the starlight; Brazos followed across 
 courtyards and down one alley to another, till they 
 came to the precincts of the Vatican. 
 
 " I know not," he remarked, " how much ex- 
 perience you may have had in such business as 
 this, but in affairs requiring delicate dispatch 
 everything hinges upon small details. The less 
 they look the larger they develop at the critical 
 juncture ; you agree with me ? We have but one 
 danger in to-night's work, and that is from patrols 
 between the Vatican and the Tiber ; the Farnese 
 thinks it sufficient to put a couple of sentinels off 
 duty. I did not contradict her what use to argue 
 with a woman ? but the truth is the Vatican is 
 watched by triple videttes ever since a desperate 
 rogue fired a cross-bow at Valentino over the garden 
 wall you have not heard of it ? Ah, so much for 
 living on the roof tops. To resume, then, the 
 chance of getting from the palace to the river 
 without molestation, carrying a woman, is a chance 
 not to be trifled with. So I persuaded Herbsch to 
 give me to-night's password. Then Roccamura 
 has pickets that go prowling about in the dark, 
 and on the representation that I should be out on 
 a mission for the court, he gave his countersign.
 
 FORZA MAGGIORE. 147 
 
 Lastly, there is a knave called del Nero, who may 
 be run against at any hour ; for him, if we meet, 
 I have this," and with a laugh he produced a 
 forged order, addressed to the condottiere, and 
 enjoining assistance and protection to the bearer. 
 "Best of all, I have watched and timed these 
 various nighthawks, and with luck we can pass 
 down the Vicolo del Giardino, which three men will 
 observe, ready to give us timely warning. At the 
 water's edge waits a boat ; we all get into it and 
 away a mile down the river to a hovel where will 
 be horses, lights, and a bite and sup. It is under- 
 stood that there I leave the woman to be carried 
 wherever Giulia orders." 
 
 " Are you sure of overpowering a woman with- 
 out noise ? " asked Pulcio. 
 
 " Giulia's words were wring her neck if she 
 screams." 
 
 " And what is in that bundle ? " 
 
 "A handkerchief to put in her mouth ; a cloth 
 to bind round to keep the muzzle in place, a linen 
 bag to drop over her head, and a cord for the 
 wrists. From the bedding we will take a blanket 
 to wrap her in, and there will be a robe and a cloak 
 in the boat." 
 
 A convivial party was that assembled in one of 
 the dining chambers of the Vatican Giulia Far- 
 nese, Ginevra Savelli, Elvira d'Este, Donna Cata-
 
 148 VALENTINO. 
 
 lina, and the Venetian Marino Zorzi. Not one of 
 the gala rooms, but a cosey apartment for a quiet 
 supper, in the absence of his Holiness, whom gout 
 confined to his couch. 
 
 To oysters from Baiae had succeeded trout from 
 Tivoli, two brace of pheasants from Albano, a 
 young boar's head, which Elvira had never tasted 
 and which she was afraid of now, and lastly an 
 assortment of the sweets in which Giulia de- 
 lighted, and for the better preparation of which 
 she had recently imported a Parisian patissier. 
 In an adjoining room, quite out of view, was the 
 Farnese's latest toy, a mandolin quartette, and 
 ever and anon- some sweet refrain trembled on the 
 air. 
 
 Giulia was in a gale of good spirits, and Ginevra 
 and Elvira caught something of her unusual gayety. 
 Connoisseur as he was, the Venetian could not de- 
 termine which was the loveliest of the three. 
 
 "You shall see them to-morrow," exclaimed 
 Giulia ; " six superb Arab horses, a service of fili- 
 greed silver, bright plumaged birds, and, sweetest 
 of all, two little monkeys." 
 
 " The Sultan is a friend worth having," remarked 
 Zorzi ; " would that we in Venice had been mindful 
 of it." 
 
 " What have you done with the monkeys ? " 
 asked Elvira. 
 
 "They are neighbors of yours for to-night, till a
 
 FORZA MAGGIORE. 149 
 
 place can be arranged to-morrow. They played 
 and scampered about all the afternoon and fell 
 asleep at dusk, curled up together with a blanket 
 tucked over them." 
 
 " How amused Lucretia would have been." 
 
 " I shall write and tell her about them." 
 
 "Is it true a letter was received to-day from 
 Ferrara?" 
 
 " Yes ; Lucretia announces safe arrival and sweet 
 welcome." 
 
 " Does she speak of Alfonzo ? " 
 
 " Pronounces him handsome and charming, but 
 in general terms. What fetes they will have there 
 now," continued Giulia ; " how dull it seems after 
 the brilliant galas of three weeks ago. You have 
 often told me," she added, addressing Zorzi, "of 
 the celebrations at Venice on the water ; could not 
 we arrange something of that sort here ? " 
 
 " You have the Tiber," answered the envoy, " but 
 forgive me, you have not the graceful gondolas, the 
 gilded pleasure galleys, the argosies with pink and 
 citron sails. Here none dare venture to church or 
 festival unarmed ; in Venice the days pass as though 
 the gentle surf-beat on the Lido attuned the 
 chords of life. Your eddying Tiber is not the 
 placid Grand Canal, glistening in the sun by day 
 beneath the marble carvings of a hundred palaces, 
 and at night sparkling with lanterns and reverbe- 
 rent with voices of song."
 
 150 VALENTINO. 
 
 "I leave for Ferrara in three days," said Elvira, 
 " thence I will write you of the latest pageants in 
 Venice ; they may serve in suggestion." 
 
 Giulia exchanged a furtive glance with Donna 
 Catalina, who had scarcely spoken, plunged as she 
 seemed in abstraction. Neither of them put faith 
 in this declaration of departure, and a strangely 
 similar expression rested for a moment on both 
 their faces, while it lasted making the youthful 
 countenance of the Farnese resemble that of her 
 hard-featured confidante. 
 
 "That will be like you," she replied; "always 
 thoughtful and kind." 
 
 "Suppose," said Ginevra, "we go on a visit to 
 Lucretia, thence to Venice, and have our fete on 
 the water as Messer Zorzi described it." 
 
 " He might take us thither by water," observed 
 Giulia playfully. 
 
 " I will bring my own barge to Ancona," answered 
 the envoy. 
 
 " To Ancona only ; you must bring it to Rome." 
 
 "A chariot across the Apennines, and a galley 
 on the sea." The Venetian's half spoken reply was 
 drowned by the merriment of his companions. 
 
 " In recognition of his gallantry," said Giulia, 
 " we will drink the health of our host that is to 
 be. Not in ordinary wine there is a flask from 
 Spain yonder what, have all the servants left ? 
 then, good Catalina, do me the service to place it
 
 FORZA MAGGIORE. 151 
 
 here we will use those little glasses 'tis of an 
 exquisite flavor, sent me by the King and made 
 at his own vineyard at Oporto." 
 
 The amiable Donna Catalina rose and brought 
 the desired flask and glasses ; Giulia's hand 
 trembled perceptibly as she filled them, returning 
 the flask to Catalina who replaced it on the carving 
 table. Each of the guests took one of the little 
 ^glasses. In resuming her seat at the right of El- 
 vira, Donna Catalina's long sleeve upset that before 
 the Estense. " With all my heart I ask your par- 
 don," she said ; " fortunately it is not broken, there 
 is no ill-luck ; you forgive me ? I will refill your 
 glass " 
 
 "And now," said Giulia, diverting attention to 
 herself, " it is agreed we go to Venice, and Messer 
 Zorzi shall be master of the fetes and " 
 
 " And here, fair Elvira, is your glass replen- 
 ished," whispered Catalina. 
 
 " And in the meanwhile let us pledge him to the 
 last drop; he shall drink to us when we float by 
 the Bialto together." 
 
 They emptied their glasses. Giulia glanced 
 again towards Catalina and noticed that her face 
 from being pale had flushed crimson. At this 
 instant Pulcio entered. He too seemed in a mood 
 more jocular than even his usual wont, and made 
 merry over the bumper that the Venetian handed 
 him wherewith to toast the proposed journey.
 
 152 VALENTINO. 
 
 Ginevra rose to go, and Giulia followed to the 
 adjoining room. 
 
 " Some one travels far to-night," she said in a 
 low voice. 
 
 " I saw that Catalina gave it," whispered the 
 Savelli, half frightened, half glad. 
 
 " Yes ; and more than that, all is arranged as I 
 told you yesterday. She will be carried hence 
 within two hours ; you will never see her more * 
 nor will I hush, some one comes, it is Zorzi." 
 
 The Venetian joined them, and offered to Gine- 
 vra his hand down the broad stairs, at the foot of 
 which, near the Swiss sentries, stood their ser- 
 vants. 
 
 Elvira rose as Giulia re-entered. " I too must 
 leave," she said ; " my poor Innocenta has suffered 
 all day, and I promised to spend a moment with 
 her." 
 
 " Afflicted lady, does she receive everything she 
 needs ? " 
 
 " Yes, sweet friend ; warm weather alone will 
 restore her, and it is for her sake I have waited 
 till now, in the hope of less inclement skies." 
 
 "If you speak thus, you will make us pray for 
 storms." 
 
 " Dear Giulia, I kiss you good-night ; may your 
 rest be untroubled." 
 
 " That yours will not be," thought the Farnese, 
 returning the salutation.
 
 FORZA MAGGIORE. 153 
 
 The next moment she was alone with the dwarf 
 and Donna Catalina. 
 
 "Oh, Giulia," exclaimed the latter, unable to 
 contain herself even in presence of the jester, " if 
 you have deceived me if it prove fatal " 
 
 " Peace, croaking raven ! what danger is there in 
 a little night air?" interposed Giulia, seeking to 
 apply the words of her accomplice to the at- 
 tempt before them. But Pulcio was quick-witted, 
 and a swift suspicion had fired his brain. Giulia 
 resolved to remove him instantly from the con- 
 science-stricken Catalina. 
 
 "Where are they?" she asked abruptly. 
 
 " Hidden at the head of the lane." 
 
 "Good. One hour before midnight the Torre 
 gate sentries will be withdrawn. You will bring 
 them in at that moment ; hasten to the floor above 
 this, and wait in the room at the angle till I sum- 
 mon. Go be quick." 
 
 The dwarf left the room. Giulia wheeled upon 
 Catalina with a frenzy intensified by her over- 
 wrought nerves. 
 
 "Imbecile!" she hissed, "would you ruin all! 
 Two fools to serve me instead of one." 
 
 Catalina burst into tears and gasped herself to 
 the verge of hysteria. " Stop no noise," exclaimed 
 Giulia, clutching her arm, then releasing it as she 
 perceived that one of her factors was being fright- 
 ened to uselessness. "There," she resumed, less 
 7*
 
 154 VALENTINO. 
 
 harshly, " if I spoke thus, it was but to check that 
 moment's panic here, drink we each a glass of this 
 cordial to put us in heart so, are you yourself 
 again ? " 
 
 " Oh, mistress, if only I felt sure there is no ter- 
 rible mistake ! " 
 
 "Why, thou prating jade, it is even as I said, a 
 sleeping potion. How could we have removed her 
 without it, or how can you suspect me of using 
 anything more potent ? " 
 
 Catalina sobbed herself to comparative steadi- 
 ness. "Another glass of your cordial," she said, 
 " and then we must be going ; it is time yet how 
 slowly the minutes drag." 
 
 A moment later they were together in Giulia's 
 room, each replaced her robes with a light wrap 
 and noiseless slippers. Half an hour passed. They 
 stole to a casement which commanded Elvira's 
 window ; the light in it was still burning : a little 
 further was her duenna's apartment, and there, 
 too, appeared a light. 
 
 " Innocenta is very ill ; strange that her lamp is 
 not extinguished." 
 
 " Sick people dread the dark." 
 
 " Her light and her wakefulness will not inter- 
 fere with us ; who cares if she does hear a scuffle." 
 
 " Besides there is a passage and two doors be- 
 tween their rooms ; one of them, at least, will be 
 closed,"
 
 FORZA MAQGIORE. 155 
 
 Presently the bells of a dozen churches sounded 
 the hour before midnight, and simultaneously the 
 light in Elvira's room disappeared. " Darkness ! " 
 murmured Giulia, " how strange will the light seem 
 to her when she next beholds it. Stay you here, 
 Catalina, and watch, and I will meet the men. How 
 my heart beats." 
 
 Fifteen minutes passed, and the jester, followed 
 by Brazos and two rough hirelings, hastened up the 
 stair. " The sentries were withdrawn," whispered 
 Pulcio to Giulia, " but the guards in the palace are 
 everywhere doubled." 
 
 " That is nothing ; Herbsch feared the conse- 
 quences, and so doubled the watch at every other 
 post, like the dullard he is." 
 
 " We must be quick," said Brazos ; " show us the 
 way at once." 
 
 " Hush ! " exclaimed Giulia, " some one comes." 
 
 Catalina hastened to them ; " The light in the 
 duenna's room is out ; it is half an hour since El- 
 vira's was extinguished" then whispering in Giu- 
 lia's ear, she said, " The potion must have taken ef- 
 fect ; 'tis now an hour and a half." 
 
 " To it then ! You, Pulcio, keep watch on the 
 stairs, I will remain here, Catalina will open the 
 door, and you, Brazos, and your men will do the 
 rest." 
 
 The Spaniard listened absently, as if immersed 
 in his own thoughts, or not caring what a woman
 
 156 VALENTINO. 
 
 might say at such a moment : and now Catalina led 
 the way, the men following softly, bearing the 
 cords and bandages in their hands. They reached 
 the door, which was in one particular of unusual 
 construction, though there were others like it 
 among the guest chambers. A hidden spring was 
 pressed by Catalina, and she drew open one of the 
 panels. Introducing her hand, she threw back the 
 bolt and noiselessly opened the door. All within 
 was silent, all was dark, save for the faint light 
 from the hall behind, which barely made objects 
 distinguishable. Giulia at the end of the corri- 
 dor stood watching them ; and now all four passed 
 from her view. 
 
 Catalina pointed to the bed, where the outline 
 of a figure was discernible. Brazos seized the arms 
 of the sleeper, his attendants, ere a scream could 
 pass the lips of the awakened woman, forced a 
 handkerchief between her teeth, bound a strip of 
 linen over it, and drew a muslin sack over her 
 head, which fell back upon the pillow as if their 
 victim had swooned in affright. It was the work 
 of an instant to tie her hands, two blankets were 
 wrapped about her, and the men raised her between 
 them. 
 
 Giulia saw them come out and hurry past, bear- 
 ing their inanimate and ominous burden her eyes 
 swam, her nerves relaxed after the long excitement, 
 she tottered against the wall, as they passed
 
 FORZA MAGGIORE. 157 
 
 down the stairs, vanished from her sight, and were 
 gone. 
 
 "Let us to your room," exclaimed Catalina in 
 a muffled voice ; " you faint you will fall to the 
 ground." 
 
 " Did they get out before the sentries returned ? " 
 
 " Pulcio has followed to see." 
 
 " Did you close the spring at her door ? " 
 
 " Yes, and shut the door when we came out." 
 
 In Giulia's room they waited. The bells sounded 
 midnight, but the jester came not ; finally Catalina 
 stole out into the hall-way, and called down a small 
 winding stair ; two drowsy maids answered her 
 summons. 
 
 " Wait ho longer," she said, " put out the lamps ; 
 but first one of you look if the guards at the Torre 
 gate are awake." 
 
 The woman returned with an affirmative answer, 
 which Catalina bore to her mistress. "They 
 would not let Pulcio in at this hour," she added. 
 
 " Probably they had resumed their posts before 
 he got back," mused Giulia ; "strange that he 
 should have gone outside." 
 
 " Let us to our beds now," urged Catalina, tak- 
 ing up a small taper, " we are both exhausted, and 
 it is idle wondering why this, why that." 
 
 " Yes, go you and sleep ; I too will doze a little 
 if I can; another such night as this would make 
 me begin to look old."
 
 158 VALENTINO. 
 
 " They are in the boat now," she thought ; and 
 the vision of that helpless, muffled figure came 
 back to her. " The poison will take effect to-mor- 
 row," she muttered, " sufficient to make resistance 
 unavailing." And the alarm in the morning who 
 would first make the startling discovery of Elvira's 
 disappearance ? Would it be the sick duenna, or 
 more probably some maid come to arouse her ? And 
 by degrees the thoughts became less distinct, grew 
 more and more spectral, till Giulia dropped into a 
 fitful slumber, with an occasional start from visions 
 of troops of stalwart men and grinning dwarfs glid- 
 ing by in endless succession, and bearing corpse 
 after corpse before her. 
 
 She was roused by a noise too positive to belong 
 to the land of dreams ; a blending of voices and 
 foot-falls in the hall below. It was no longer dark ; 
 the gray of dawn spread all across the sky. A 
 hurried step passed her door. She threw on the 
 garments that lay nearest and looked out. No one 
 appeared in the corridor ; from a window she could 
 scan the court-yard where two soldiers stood talk- 
 ing ; suddenly a woman came running up the stair. 
 
 " What is it ? " cried Giulia, placing herself be- 
 fore the new-comer, whom she recognized to be 
 the Estense's maid. But the woman answered 
 not, and darting by, hurried on to Elvira's door 
 what ! could she be mistaken ! the servant had 
 gone to the door beyond Elvira's ah, yes, to sum-
 
 FORZA MAGGIORE. 159 
 
 mon the duenna, that was a matter of course ; 
 then came the sound of voices, she listened, she 
 went nearer a cold spasm struck her, she has- 
 tened to the room and there before her stood 
 Elvira d'Este. 
 
 Giulia Farnese was dumbstruck with overwhelm- 
 ing disappointment. It seemed like magic though 
 Ormes could play no tricks like this or like the 
 protecting agency of some uncanny power. She 
 remained speechless, and scarcely heard the first 
 words spoken. 
 
 " Oh, Giulia ! " cried Elvira, bewildered as one 
 who is painfully awakened, and her eyes filled 
 with tears, " what is it that has happened what 
 can Felicia mean ? " 
 
 " Did you sleep in this room ? " asked Giulia, 
 not noticing the question. 
 
 " Yes ; the next is mine, this is Innocenta's." 
 
 " Haste you, lady," interrupted the maid ; " throw 
 something on and come down, or she may die ere 
 you see her." 
 
 " Why did you leave your own ? " asked Giulia, 
 absorbed by one thought. 
 
 Elvira threw on the gown her servant held. 
 " Last evening," she began, " I found Innocenta in 
 a paroxysm of alarm. Your monkeys had been 
 placed in the room adjoining ; she learned of it 
 and fancied she heard their chatter. She said she 
 would as leavo have a monkey in her room as in
 
 160 VALENTINO. 
 
 the room beside her, so but what were you tell- 
 ing me, Felicia she was found in the lane by a 
 patrol of guards ? " 
 
 " She can scarcely speak they summoned me 
 from my bed, I was only with her a moment, and 
 ran back to call you." 
 
 There came the noise of measured steps in the 
 corridor. Felicia peeped out and said : " They 
 are bringing her now, here she is this way, lay 
 her on her own bed ;" and slowly four guards en- 
 tered, bearing a dishevelled and half-conscious 
 woman wrapped in a blanket. 
 
 " Poor lady ! " exclaimed Elvira, horror-struck, 
 " what strange thing is this ? " The men left the 
 room ; Giulia lingered and listened. 
 
 " Innocenta," continued Elvira, " what has be- 
 fallen you ? " 
 
 The old woman drew a long sigh of relief as she 
 was laid tenderly on her bed. " Oh, Elvira ! " she 
 answered, speaking with difficulty, " what have I 
 not suffered ! " 
 
 " Tell us in a few words how you left my room 
 speak slowly, little by little." 
 
 The sick woman looked wearily around. " Lit- 
 tle by little. Yes, I am so tired. Last night I 
 was seized it is all so vague, my head swam, 
 my heart stood still ; I felt myself carried into 
 the night air; there seemed to be a number of 
 men ; some were talking, and one said : ' I know
 
 FORZA MAOOIORE. 161 
 
 it ; not an instant is to be lost, or she will be 
 dead before morning. ' ' 
 
 " What could that mean ? " ejaculated Elvira, 
 as Innocenta paused to take breath. 
 
 " The others answered : ' We cannot stop here 5 
 it is not safe ; wait till we get to the boat.' ' 
 
 " The boat ! " cried Elvira, amazed. 
 
 " Soon after they stopped ; I heard them trying 
 to strike a light. ' Never mind your lantern,' said 
 one ; ' I have an emetic here ; open her mouth 
 and I will pour it down.' ' She will scream,' ob- 
 jected another. * Nay,' insisted the first, ' do you 
 not see that she is unconscious ? The poison has 
 taken effect already.' They began undoing the 
 wraps about my head, and all the time I heard 
 the striking of the flint and steel. My lips were 
 glued together. I could not cry aloud. A bottle 
 was forced into my mouth ; its contents gurgled 
 down my throat ; at last the lantern was lighted ; 
 I saw the men before me, and foremost, holding 
 the bottle, a hideous dwarf oh, the ghastly dis- 
 torted face ! and then one of the others uttered 
 an oath, tore the covering from my face ; they all 
 began talking at once ; their draught sickened me ; 
 I fainted, and 
 
 Innoceuta ceased speaking ; her voice had failed. 
 
 " A patrol discovered her an hour since," added 
 the maid, Felicia, " rolling on the ground and rav- 
 ing."
 
 162 VALENTINO. 
 
 A light dawned upon Elvira ; she was slow in 
 making the first discovery ; she did not yet asso- 
 ciate Giulia with what had happened, and turned 
 to speak to her, but the Farnese had heard enough 
 and had slipped noiselessly from the room. 
 
 The attentions which Elvira and her maid be- 
 stowed upon the exhausted duenna were inter- 
 rupted by the arrival of Giulia's physician. He 
 was a man in advance of the medical science of his 
 age. He pronounced bleeding unnecessary ; that 
 no strong drugs were required ; that the poison- 
 since they all talked of poison had certainly been 
 removed by the emetic ; that he would leave two 
 pellets to be taken soothing, warming to the 
 system. More than this, a light broth at inter- 
 vals through the day. He stopped at Giulia's 
 door to give news of the patient. She drew him 
 into the room and bade him be seated, addressing 
 him by the name of Ormes. 
 
 "Will she die?" 
 
 " She is in no danger ; it is weakness ; she has 
 been roughly dealt with." 
 
 " Elvira received the drops last evening ; when 
 will they take effect ? " 
 
 The magician appeared to reflect profoundly. 
 " It depends upon many circumstances : the con- 
 dition of her system ; the state of the weather, 
 and so on. But it should be either to-day or to- 
 night."
 
 FORZA MAGGIOEE. 163 
 
 "That is too late," said Giulia, half talking to 
 herself. "An inquiry will be made; no story can 
 cover so bad a case I must have a short way out 
 of this," she said, starting up. 
 
 Ormes knew that these words portended sure, 
 swift, agonizing death to the unsuspecting Elvira. 
 He sought for some pretext to look in again on his 
 patient and warn the Estense. But this might be 
 at the risk of his own life if Giulia learned of his 
 return to the sick-room. He renounced the idea, 
 therefore, with the Oriental reflection" It is her 
 fate ! " 
 
 But rescue arrived from another and a surer 
 source. Not long after the supposed leech had 
 left Innocenta's room, Felicia announced a stran- 
 ger impatiently waiting in the boudoir. 
 
 " If I intrude upon you thus abruptly and at so 
 unreasonable an hour," said the new-comer, " it is 
 for a reason you will think sufficient. My name is 
 Candale ; I am sent here by the Duke Valentino. 
 I made such haste from Imola that I ruined three 
 horses and it seems I was well-nigh too late." 
 
 "Too late for what?" 
 
 " I learned of your escape when I galloped in 
 just now ; the guards were talking about the 
 woman found poisoned ; your enemies got her by 
 mistake. My orders are made tenfold more im- 
 perative by this. Valentino was warned of your 
 danger by a magician, and I am commanded to
 
 164 VALENTINO. 
 
 remove you from the Vatican to a place of safety, 
 and thence to Ferrara." 
 
 He ceased speaking as Catalina appeared. She 
 bowed slightly to him, and addressing Elvira, said: 
 " Giulia Farnese greets you, and bids you to break- 
 fast with her two hours hence ; she has much to 
 ask, everything to offer." 
 
 " My thanks to Donna Giulia, but I am fatigued 
 and troubled beg her to excuse my absence," and 
 Catalina withdrew without a word. 
 
 " Quick, if you value life ! " ejaculated Candale. 
 
 "What mean you?" 
 
 " Mean that what failed last night is to be 
 achieved before sunset. Leave everything with 
 this lady, she is not their object ; bring your maid 
 with you and come." 
 
 " But" began Elvira. 
 
 " Lady," interrupted Candale, " I have explained 
 my mission ; do not compel me to use force." 
 
 " What place is this," cried Elvira with a burst 
 of anger, " where women are seized in their beds 
 by night, and threatened with force in their rooms 
 by day?" 
 
 " Cesare Borgia is better able to explain that 
 than I." 
 
 " You are a stranger to me : this may be another 
 decoy." 
 
 "How dull to have forgotten !" and Candale 
 drew from under his doublet a gold chain which
 
 FORZA MAGGIORE. 165 
 
 the Estense recognized as one Cesare habitually 
 wore. 
 
 " I am satisfied," she said ; " grant me a moment 
 to make ready." 
 
 The Spaniard's patience failed. "A plague 
 on all women," he said ; " we are fortunate if we 
 escape now; Catalina will have warned her 
 mistress of my arrival we may find a picket of 
 condottieri on the stair." And he caught the 
 young girl by the wrist, and sternly bade Felicia 
 follow. 
 
 " At least my cloak " and throwing it on as she 
 followed, and with her terrified maid at her heels, 
 Elvira fled, leaving her duenna stunned by the 
 words she had overheard. 
 
 The sun was up as they issued forth unchal- 
 lenged. They walked as fast as the women could 
 go, Candale leading to del Nero's, where their 
 arrival caused some astonishment. Elvira was 
 shown with her maid to a room hastily cleared 
 for their accommodation. Del Nero, roused from 
 a long winter night's sleep, put on an excessive 
 show of gallantry until brought to seriousness by 
 the sight of the silver whistle and the gold chain. 
 " Are you ready to set out this morning ? " asked 
 Candale of him. 
 
 " By mid-day I will have good horses, provisions, 
 and ten trusty men equipped. Is there danger of 
 pursuit ? "
 
 166 VALENTINO. 
 
 " We were not followed here," replied Candale, 
 " but to-morrow news of the direction of our flight 
 may come." 
 
 " Then," said del Nero, " let me dispatch a mes- 
 senger direct to Valentino ; he will send a troop of 
 horse half way." 
 
 " Well thought," answered Candale. " Lady El- 
 vira," he continued, " spare us your maid ; one of 
 the men here will attend her, she can make such 
 purchases as are essential. And however humble 
 this abode, you will presently make a more auspi- 
 cious breakfast than Giulia Farnese would have 
 set before you." 
 
 Candale had placed his charge in safety when 
 Ginevra appeared in Giulia's apartment. " It 
 failed then ? " she said under her breath. 
 
 "Yes ; no time to explain. I am glad you are 
 here. She refuses to come to me ; something must 
 be done. I am brought to bay." 
 " Oh Heaven, Giulia, be prudent ! " 
 "It were imprudence to hesitate now." 
 Catalina burst upon them in a tumult of excite- 
 ment. " My lady," she cried, " we are betrayed 
 it must be Candale." 
 
 "What mischief have you now to tell?" ex- 
 claimed Giulia fiercely. 
 
 " Elvira has left the palace escaped ! " 
 
 They looked at one another, Catalina in conster-
 
 FORZA MAGGIORE. 167 
 
 nation, Giulia scarlet with rage. Then Ginevra 
 laughed bitterly as she said, " If you cannot man- 
 age better than this, Lucretia's words will yet 
 come true that girl will drive you from the 
 Vatican."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A FALCON HUNT. 
 
 IN a sombre, deep-raftered chamber of the pal- 
 ace at Forli which two years before had been the 
 residence of Catarina Sforza, sat the brothers Pa- 
 golo and Francesco Orsini. The clear winter day 
 was fading before the twilight which crept stealth- 
 ily over the sky and extinguished its fires. A chess 
 table stood between them, and absorbed in the com- 
 binations of the game, the players had made their 
 alternate moves for an hour, almost without speak- 
 ing. Though not handsome men, both were in- 
 tellectual looking not always a characteristic of 
 soldier captains in an age when war was merciless 
 and conquest unsparing. Both were habited in 
 cloth tunics, tight-fitting breeches, and tanned 
 boots ; a poniard at the side, a gold chain round 
 the collar, their swords and feathered caps near 
 by : it was the equipment of chiefs off duty and 
 able to dispense with burdensome accoutrements. 
 Pagolo was the elder a black-bearded man with 
 firm profile, sad-expressioned eyes, hair thin at the 
 temples and frosting at the sides. Francesco
 
 A FALCON UUNT. 169 
 
 Duke of Gravina as he was often called was in age 
 half a dozen years his junior, but the difference be- 
 tween them in appearance was greater ; time had 
 told less upon the younger brother. Both had 
 lived since youth amid the schooling and excite- 
 ment of arms ; Pagolo was the more skilful com- 
 mander, Francesco the more impetuous. The game 
 just finishing was an index to their natures ; Gra- 
 vina had commenced a clever but imperfectly com- 
 bined attack upon his opponent's developing posi- 
 tion, had, through an oversight, exchanged a rook 
 for a knight, had lost the move, and seeing a for- 
 midable onset gathering, had conceived a bold 
 counterstroke, when, in the course of a change of 
 front, his Queen became ensnared among the ene- 
 my's light troops. 
 
 "It grows so dim," said Pagolo, " we must either 
 call for lights, or imagine the game ended." 
 
 " No great effort of fancy is required for that," 
 answered Gravina, with good nature. " It is fin- 
 ished, or would be in a moment ; " and rising, he 
 walked to the door and ordered a servant in wait- 
 ing to bring lights. A candelabrum was forthwith 
 placed upon the centre table casting a flickering 
 glow about the room, which was hung with three 
 solemn portraits of departed Sforzas, one a knight 
 whose lineaments looked unbending as his armor, 
 another of a lady in the dress of a by-gone century, 
 and the third of a boy incased in toy cuirass, his
 
 170 VALENTINO. 
 
 faded little face looking from the dark background 
 with wistful, wondering gaze. An oaken press 
 faced the high, shallow fireplace, some carved 
 chairs with leather cushions, two tables and a buf- 
 fet on which stood wine flasks, completed the fur- 
 niture. To one of these latter Gravina now turned 
 his attention. 
 
 " To the defeated, chess is a thirsty game," he 
 remarked. His brother had risen and was looking 
 from the window at the Piazza, where lights ap- 
 peared here and there in the windows. 
 
 "Remember that Ramiro sups with us pres- 
 ently," Pagolo answered. 
 
 " Which means a swallow, not a draught, eh ? 
 By the way, have we something dainty, or only gar- 
 rison fare ? " 
 
 " What epicures our soldiers grow ! We shall 
 have better than ordinary ; did not I tell you that 
 while Ramiro eats at our table, it is he who brings 
 the provision ? " 
 
 " So much the better ; he will have bagged all 
 the milk and honey in the land which reminds me 
 that Cesare has some new-fangled idea about sup- 
 plies following in wagons; the old way is much bet- 
 ter ; let the army pursue the supplies so means 
 our motto Avanti" 
 
 " In truth we fare poorly," quoth Pagolo ; " be- 
 tween dried beef and scanty levies, I wish myself 
 in Rome. We might have been absent a month ;
 
 A FALCON BUNT. 171 
 
 nothing has been doing all winter, though we shall 
 presently have occupation enough." 
 
 " Cesare has not come to Forli merely to inspect." 
 
 " 'Tis three months since we saw him ; he has 
 not been idle the while ; the husband he wanted for 
 Lucretia, Urbino taken, and now this affair at Ca- 
 merino." 
 
 " Which think you the greater fool, Guidobaldo 
 to give up his artillery, or Varano to wait and be 
 strangled?" 
 
 " Valentino is in high spirits over it all ; he was 
 writing verses this morning." 
 
 " It is Vitellozzo who incites him against Flor- 
 ence ; he has not forgotten the murder of his 
 brother." 
 
 " Less to avenge his brother than to add a strip 
 to Citta di Castello : call it revenge and profit 
 combined ; the two make a high sense of duty." 
 
 Gravina stroked his beard reflectively as he ob- 
 served, " I have heard him say that his chief pleas- 
 ure is in thinking what he would do to his enemies 
 men and women were they in his power." 
 
 " How much a man must have suffered before he 
 speaks thus, even in jest,'* answered the philosophic 
 Pagolo ; " for he has too good a digestion to be 
 really bad at heart. Talking of digestion, I would 
 that Ramiro were here with his supper." 
 
 " You spoke of accompanying him on some ex- 
 cursion last night."
 
 172 VALENTINO. 
 
 " Ay, a fool's errand to Castel del Moro." 
 
 " Hidden treasure again ? " 
 
 " Ghosts this time ; Eamiro said that thieves had 
 found refuge in it, and had been taken for goblins 
 by a patrol. I said, ' I will take a score of men 
 and bring you whatever is there.' ' So be it,' he 
 answered, adding that he would go with me for the 
 sake of the night ride. An hour brought us to the 
 ruin, and a more plague -stricken spot I never be- 
 held." 
 
 "Nor I who digged through its foundations for 
 the sake of that dying soldier's story." 
 
 "And you left the subterranean passages ob- 
 structed, and the wet has gathered and soaked till 
 there is an odor of decay about the very stones. 
 We searched the cellars and found only lizards and 
 toads, thence I led the way up some winding steps ; 
 an owl on the rampart gave a cry something be- 
 fore me moved, I drew pistol and fired all was 
 still then the soldiers behind came clambering 
 after bearing torches. Absurd as it was to be 
 alarmed, the men were under great excitement. I 
 sought to reassure them, and Bamiro ordered all 
 to the upper chambers. We climbed over fallen 
 stones to that steep bend which leads by a sort of 
 fox burrow to the terrace. Whilst we were peer- 
 ing about, the rain burst upon us, and it became 
 impossible to keep the torches alight except under 
 cover. Ramiro swore at the men and ordered them
 
 A FALCOtf HUNT. 173 
 
 on, while I remained alone a moment looking 
 around me ; and will you believe it, I saw " 
 
 The door opened, and Ramiro d'Orco, dressed 
 with unusual ornament, entered. 
 
 " A thousand pardons for having kept you wait- 
 ing," he began, " 'tis not my fault, as I have but 
 this moment left Valentino's study. He was tun- 
 ing a guitar when I came in, whence I inferred 
 that the business to which he had summoned me 
 would be brief ; but it lasted an hour. May we 
 lay our little spread on this table ? " he continued, 
 as servants followed bearing wicker baskets. 
 
 " Lay on in the name of all the saints, and never 
 was visitor more welcome." 
 
 The governor laughed. 
 
 " May the contents of the panniers prove to your 
 taste," he said, throwing aside his hat and sword. 
 " It is the result of a levy on two refractory house- 
 holds the tit-bits from each." 
 
 The domestics were busy with the table service, 
 and the three officers had seated themselves, when 
 llamiro interrupted their chat, and with a humor- 
 ous smile, unusual to his stern physiognomy, ex- 
 claimed, 
 
 " Hark, the guitar Cesare is about to sing, we 
 can hear him from the hall." 
 
 " It must be the song I left him composing this 
 morning," whispered Pagolo, as they rose. 
 
 "Another of his ballads," answered Eamiro
 
 174 VALENTINO. 
 
 under his breath ; " he writes a couplet a day when 
 in good humor." 
 
 A prelude of mournful sweetness filled the air ; 
 then the familiar voice sang the following stanzas 
 with tender and lingering expression : 
 
 Je t'ay bien ayme, ma mye, bien aymee ; 
 Et mon cueur bat d'yvresse et d'envye 
 Quand ton bel souvenir me souryt. 
 Ce fust ail renouveau, emmy les fleurs 
 Nous fusmes au printems de la vie, 
 A 1'appel respondirent nos cueurs, 
 Tu me donnas une fleur et un bayser. 
 
 Aujourdhuy c'est le triste yver qui chante. 
 Seule fleur ce soir est de toy la pensee, 
 Et ce soir de ta vive ymaige animee 
 Je te vois je sens ta voix charraante, 
 Ton regard altier, le. parfuin de tes levres, 
 De ceste jeunesse renaist les Sevres 
 Je t'ai bien ayme, ma mye, bien aymee. 
 
 " French," ejaculated Pagolo ; " heretofore he 
 has rendered his doggerel in our own tongue." 
 
 "A droll theme for one who has debauched so 
 many virtues," remarked Ramiro. 
 
 " Nay," answered Gravina, " to a roue there is 
 no memory so poignant as that of the girl he first 
 kissed and who escaped him." 
 
 They returned to the supper from which the 
 Orsini could no longer have been kept, however 
 sweet a bird had carolled. An appetizer of lobster
 
 A FALCON HUNT. 175 
 
 was followed by a saddle of mutton, a brace of 
 pheasants, a ham, and preserved fruits. 
 
 "Valentino could have had nothing of conse- 
 quence to say if he required an hour to talk," 
 remarked Gravina ; " when important things are 
 to be dispatched, his speech is brief as a rep- 
 artee." 
 
 " Mere details," answered Ramiro. " He has 
 been inspecting at Imola, and after some play here 
 with your pretty battalions, he intends to bring 
 Vitellozzo and Oliverotto to this neighborhood, 
 and you are to do great things." 
 
 " Against Florence, of course ; which puts us in 
 an embarrassing attitude towards King Louis." 
 
 " Cesare will act first and explain afterwards ; 
 besides, the French alliance was a temporary make- 
 shift." 
 
 "It were with ill grace Louis should move 
 against his sister's husband." 
 
 " What sort of woman is Charlotte d'Albret ? " 
 asked Gravina. "Will she never come to Italy?" 
 
 " I have heard from Ives d'Allegre that she is a 
 woman with no aim or occupation or interest in 
 life ; but on one point she is decided : three days 
 with Borgia were sufficient ; she vows she will 
 never look him in the face again." 
 
 The brothers laughed, while the more serious 
 Kamiro continued to describe Valentino's pungent 
 married life. His narrative was nearly at an end,
 
 176 VALENTINO. 
 
 and the fowls were picked to the bone, when an 
 officer entered, and saluting Eamiro, said, 
 
 " She has arrived." 
 
 " Ha ! " exclaimed Eamiro, " it is a girl from 
 Ferrara, in whom Cesare takes such interest that 
 he sent a troop to meet her on the road to Home. 
 I learned that much from Michelotto." 
 
 The door again opened, and Cesare's major- 
 domo, Don Jayme de Eesequenz, bowed and said, 
 " The duke desires the governor's presence." 
 
 " So soon," muttered Eamiro ; " quick," he 
 added, speaking to the servants, " a basin of water." 
 He washed his hands a necessary observance 
 before forks were used and promising to rejoin 
 his companions, strode across to Cesare's apart- 
 ment. 
 
 Valentino was seated at a spacious table strewn 
 with letters ; in the middle was a wooden writing- 
 case containing ink, a bundle of quills, seals, wax, 
 a taper, and parchment paper ; beside it were two 
 tin water-proof cylinders in which important docu- 
 ments were carried. Before him was seated Can- 
 dale, splashed and travel-stained. 
 
 " Eamiro," said the duke, as that personage 
 entered, " listen to this." 
 
 " I was giving an account of my journey to 
 Eome," explained the Spaniard, with a salutation 
 to his colleague. "At Urbino a cavalry escort 
 met us, and we proceeded without further concern.
 
 A FALCON HUNT. 177 
 
 I was charged with the safety of a lady. The fifth 
 day five horsemen came in view behind us. They 
 halted ; we were but twelve in number, and I sup- 
 posed them the advance of a pursuit we expected. 
 In that moment's pause the lady began screaming, 
 and galloped off, leaving no choice but to follow. 
 Whoever the men were, they did not pursue us 
 farther." 
 
 "You lost your head as badly as did your 
 charge," said Cesare. "You and half the men 
 could have made an end of the knaves, Eamiro. I 
 summoned you, that you may scatter light horse 
 southward, and bring me those five fellows." 
 
 And Ramiro having withdrawn, Cesare returned 
 to the story of the attempt to seize Elvira, which 
 Candale had been briefly relating. 
 
 On the evening of the eighth day after Bamiro's 
 supper with the Orsiui, a rough clad man bearing 
 a basket and armed with cross-bow slung at the 
 back, trudged out of Forli, and gained the wood 
 that lies to the north of the city ; his progress be- 
 came more difficult as he proceeded, and often he 
 stopped in the twilight, seeking some indication of 
 his course. After an eight-mile tramp, he came in 
 sight of some rocks over the top of which a watch- 
 man was peeping, and on making his way to the 
 farther side, he found an officer preparing a fire, 
 while a soldier dressed a piece of meat for the 
 8*
 
 178 VALENTINO. 
 
 evening repast, and another trimmed branches for 
 fuel. 
 
 " Fieschi ! " exclaimed he by the fire, rising and 
 holding out his hand, "you are indeed welcome." 
 
 "And glad am I to be here," said the newcomer ; 
 "I feared for my life at every hour in Forli." 
 
 Seating themselves apart from their followers 
 the two fell into whispered discourse. 
 
 The pursuit which Candale described had been 
 made by the five men from a hiding-place in the 
 Apennines where Oliverotto had stationed them 
 to receive Elvira in case of her abduction by 
 Brazos, of which the dwarf had informed him. On 
 the failure of the plot, Pulcio had sent to their 
 captain, indicating the direction taken by the fugi- 
 tives. Fieschi, finding his object guarded by a 
 larger escort than the jester had described, had 
 given over further pursuit, and both he and his 
 colleague Campana would have abandoned so per- 
 ilous an adventure, but for the thought of their 
 captain's displeasure. 
 
 Giulia Farnese had explained the Estense's 
 abrupt departure to the Pontiff with the words, 
 "Your son's mistress has gone to join him ;" and 
 the indifference with which the venerable debau- 
 chee listened, revealed to Giulia the error of her 
 suspicion, and to Pulcio she now forbade the men- 
 tion of their failure. 
 
 Fieschi and Campana, followed by their three
 
 A FALCON HUNT. 179 
 
 troopers, had turned aside from the highway and 
 had taken refuge in the thicket where we now find 
 them. The plan to seize Elvira in the garden of the 
 Isotella palace, had been dismissed as beyond their 
 daring. The two confederates had ventured into 
 the city in search of information, whence Campana 
 returned without other result than a hair-breadth 
 escape from a patrol; but Fieschi had made his 
 way to a trattoria kept by a fine-looking woman 
 with whom his acquaintance was not of recent 
 date. Concealed off the large room in which her 
 visitors seated themselves for refreshment and 
 gossip, he gathered an outline of a gala-day in the 
 fields which Cesare had commanded for Elvira's 
 amusement. A groom mentioned the number of 
 attendants, a thirsty horseman boasted of being 
 one of the corps d 'elite which should be stationed 
 where it was proposed to hunt, a pastry cook made 
 the mouths of his auditors water by his descrip- 
 tion of the dishes for a repast al fresco. 
 
 "We will watch the edge of this wood," said 
 Fieschi, closing the recital of the particulars he 
 had gathered ; " the birds may fly hither, the 
 falcons will indicate the course of the cavalcade, 
 one may presume this girl will be at the front ; as 
 for the attendants, galloping scatters them." 
 
 At an early hour on the following morning, 
 Cesare, accompanied by Francesco Orsini, Miche-
 
 180 VALENTINO. 
 
 lotto and Candale, and followed by pages and at- 
 tendants bearing the hooded falcons of the chase, 
 rode to the palace where Elvira had been lodged, 
 and where she mounted the white palfrey selected 
 for her. The fatigue of her flight through the 
 Apennines and the tension of her last hours in 
 Rome had produced a nervous prostration. Cesare 
 sent to inquire after her health, and on the third 
 day, returning from a drill of Gravina's troops, he 
 stopped to dissuade Elvira from immediately pro- 
 ceeding to Ferrara, and advised awaiting her du- 
 enna ; reverting to something she had once said of 
 the chase, he proposed a falcon hunt. He made 
 no allusion to the events of that Sunday night, 
 merely remarking : 
 
 " You will find Forli a pleasanter residence than 
 the Vatican, and as for Donna Innocenta, here is a 
 letter from Giulia Farnese, saying she mends fast, 
 and expressing the belief that the miscreants who 
 disturbed her will presently be brought to light." 
 He left to return on the morrow, inquiring if she 
 yet felt equal to a day in the fields ; they strolled 
 awhile up and down the garden, and continued 
 the promenade the day after. 
 
 Said Don Michele : " That woman will yet do 
 Valentino as much mischief as he can bring her ; 
 he has never been so neglectful of affairs." 
 
 "I attended him to the practice of Gravina's 
 cross-bowmen," remarked Candale, "and he took
 
 A FALCON HUNT. 181 
 
 no more heed of their shooting than had they been 
 barking dogs." 
 
 A galaxy of brilliant figures they rode out of the 
 town, with horses gaudily caparisoned, the hunts- 
 men bearing falcons and a guard of troopers follow- 
 ing. To Elvira, the sunshine, the balmy air, the 
 violet tints of the Apennines were as grateful as 
 the sense of security after danger. 
 
 "How fragrant is the breeze that comes from the 
 mountains," she exclaimed, her face flushing with 
 enjoyment. 
 
 "It is sweeter than the perfume of wine," an- 
 swered the matter-of-fact Gravina. 
 
 " And will it be clear till evening ? " 
 
 " Yes, for the sun dispelled the clouds ere he had 
 run an hour on his course." 
 
 "Such a day brings a pang with its briefness 
 and beauty ; one thinks of the things that make it 
 happy and that pass with it." 
 
 "You should be a painter," laughed Valentino, 
 " to catch the fleeting brilliance." 
 
 They turned from the highway and rode towards 
 a glade where Cesare, unknown to his fair guest, 
 had stationed men with cages of captive birds. 
 Two pheasants rose, apparently from the branches, 
 and Elvira set free the falcon which had been 
 placed hooded upon her hand, and the fierce little 
 creature, with one nervous glance around, dashed 
 away in pursuit.
 
 182 VALENTINO. 
 
 "Let slip yours too, Michelotto," said Borgia, 
 " or that second escapes ; " he busied himself 
 meanwhile with his own falcon, which was an 
 exceptional gamester, reserved for serious com- 
 bats. 
 
 Don Michele's bird was off like an arrow, and 
 the pheasants, dividing slightly in their flight, 
 the cavalcade became similarly separated, Cesare 
 and Elvira and Gravina hastening after the first 
 falcon, and Candale galloping in the direction taken 
 by Michelotto's. It was a brief course, the pheas- 
 ants being quickly overtaken. The falcons had not 
 yet returned when three pigeons arose. 
 
 " A hundred sequins my Hector takes them all !" 
 cried Gravina. 
 
 "Accepted," answered Cesare, and the Orsini 
 rode after his bird, which having killed one pigeon 
 turned in pursuit of the second, while the third, 
 profiting by the moment's opportunity, flew swiftly 
 in an opposite direction. 
 
 And now from the well-stocked grove appeared 
 an eaglet, which after an upward half circle, direct- 
 ed its course towards the Apennines. Candale 
 from a neighboring field dispatched his falcon, and 
 Cesare unhooded " Romulus." 
 
 The hawks gained upon their prey, and the king 
 of birds became conscious of impending attack. 
 Wheeling abruptly, he darted upon Candale's fal- 
 con, which was the nearest, and would have over-
 
 A FALCON HUNT. 183 
 
 powered his assailant, but for the arrival of 
 " Romulus," who joined with beak and talons in 
 the fray and feathers were seen to fall, and cries 
 distinctly heard. "Romulus" decided the contest; 
 taking advantage of an instant when their foe's 
 attention was occupied by his companion, he darted 
 upward and fastened his talons in the eagle's back, 
 the latter freed himself with a violent plunge, and 
 abandoning the battle, flew northward pursued by 
 his assailants. 
 
 " Quick, thy bow ! " exclaimed Cesare to an 
 archer ; he sent the shaft straight towards the 
 eagle, but at a few hand-breadths from its mark, 
 the arrow ceased its upward course and dropped 
 back. The cavalcade now became divided, the 
 more ardent far in front, the guards and servants 
 cantering after in no haste to go far from the ap- 
 pointed rendezvous, where a bite and sup awaited 
 the humblest. In approaching the wood, they 
 plunged together among the trees, Borgia leading, 
 Michelotto some distance to the left, Candale still 
 farther beyond him, Elvira a few lengths behind, 
 and all were instantly lost to the sight of their fol- 
 lowers. 
 
 Michelotto, Candale, and Cesare heard it, a faint 
 cry of alarm, but Cesare alone divined what was 
 occurring. Now there was an ominous silence, and 
 they dashed at random this way and that. Miche- 
 lotto was the first to come upon the spot where
 
 184 VALENTINO. 
 
 Elvira had run full upon those who had gathered 
 as she approached, and who had sprung upon her, 
 silenced her, and were tying a thong about her 
 wrists. 
 
 " Be off with her quick," cried one of the men, 
 drawing his sword and wiping the blood from a 
 gash in his face that Elvira's stiletto had made. 
 
 "To the rescue," shouted Don Michele, un- 
 sheathing his own blade as they spurred their 
 horses upon one another, while Elvira and her 
 captors disappeared in the greenwood. 
 
 This combat would have proved a difficult one 
 for the Spaniard, armed as he was with only an 
 ornamental fleuret, while his antagonist wielded a 
 long and heavy sword, but for the arrival of Can- 
 dale, when, without further ado, the condottiere 
 wheeled about and galloped off, hoping to draw 
 their pursuit after himself; in this he was for a 
 few moments successful, but the steeds of his pur- 
 suers were no match for a fresh horse, and their 
 riders presently drew bridle. 
 
 " Call the guards," said Michelotto to Candale, 
 " whilst I hasten after the men that seized Donna 
 Elvira ; they cannot have led her far." 
 
 In this conjecture he was right, and for the rea- 
 son that Cesare had ridden into their little group. 
 When Don Michele arrived upon the scene, there 
 were three persons in view. Elvira dismounted, 
 or fallen from her horse, Cesare supporting her in
 
 A FALCON HUNT. 185 
 
 his arms, while a few paces distant lay Fieschi 
 dead, with a thrust of Valentino's blade through 
 his heart ; the men had taken flight upon the fall 
 of their leader. Michelotto laughed to himself as, 
 through the branches, he caught the first words 
 that Elvira uttered 
 
 " You are splendid ! " she cried aloud, and Ce- 
 sare's answer, " I knew not till now that I love 
 you." 
 
 Michelotto, Candale, and a score of troopers and 
 servants appeared, and Elvira was raised to her 
 saddle ; having seen her cared for, and ordered his 
 lieutenants to escort her, Cesare galloped back to 
 Forli, called del Nero, told him what had happened, 
 bade him add as many soldiers to his band as he 
 pleased, and never give over the chase. The next 
 morning the condottiere returned, and after some 
 hasty questions and answers as to the result of his 
 search, made the following report. 
 
 When I found the trace we followed it to a camp, 
 and thence across a brook where were the prints 
 of four horses, showing that the man who crossed 
 swords with Don Michele had fallen in with his 
 comrades. We continued at a trot, till at the 
 Campodifiori cross roads it became a guess had 
 they turned right or left; as we were twenty, I 
 sent ten to the left, and took the right with the 
 others. Passing Castel del Moro, Felipe remarked 
 a man would take refuge there, so we surrounded
 
 186 VALENTINO. 
 
 the place. It was dark now, but we had lanterns. 
 I fear nothing but a ghost is not to be trifled with. 
 In the main building all was deserted, and we had 
 just reached the top, when a great light flared on 
 the wall, and in the midst of it appeared Satan 
 himself, horns, tail, red eyes and from overhead 
 came a peal of laughter ; then the light faded, the 
 spectre vanished, and we tumbled over one another 
 till we were out of the place and astride our 
 horses. 
 
 Occasionally meeting a patrol, we rode as far as 
 the town, questioning the guards and searching the 
 few houses. It came to be sunrise, and I thought 
 to rest an hour at an hostelry within the gate. 
 While the woman served, she that is mistress of 
 the house, tears gathered in her eyes : " What is 
 amiss, commadre ? " I asked, and she answered 
 her cat had died, and sobbed, and said it mat- 
 tered not. I watched her keenly while remark- 
 ing, " There was a fine young fellow killed in the 
 woods yesterday, and we are after his mate had 
 she seen one or more cavaliers?" and she changed 
 color, and her hand trembled. 
 
 " Speak out," I thundered, " or you shall learn 
 the duke has means to loosen stiff tongues." 
 
 Then she burst out crying, and dropped on her 
 knees, and vowed it was no affair of hers a man 
 had arrived on foot at dark with his head bound 
 and a bleeding gash down his face, and he asked
 
 A FALCON HUNT. 187 
 
 for a leech, saying he could go no farther. So she 
 called the blacksmith, who presently heating a 
 nail red hot, caught a moment when the other's 
 eyes were closed, and was going to draw the iron 
 along the cut, but at the first touch the stranger 
 gave a yell, bounded out into the street and was 
 seen no more. She declared with many protes- 
 tations she knew him not, so I left three men to 
 guard her and hastened hither. 
 
 "She shall be made to tell," mused Borgia. 
 " Ramiro ! " he exclaimed, " take her to the castle 
 and put her to the question and haste, minutes 
 are precious. Have you heard nothing, Candale, 
 from the patrols? " 
 
 " Only that the country for miles swarms with 
 them, and that the dead officer has been recognized 
 as captain of a troop of horse in Oliverotto's 
 corps." 
 
 Valentino, Don Michele, and del Nero listened 
 with amaze to this declaration, but it only added 
 a motive for persuading the woman to speak alas 
 for her ! the woman for whom the question was 
 to be made ready.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AEEZZO. 
 
 THE Tuscan campaign, for months anticipated by 
 Borgia's lieutenants, and apprehended by the Ke- 
 public which was its aim, was opened later in the 
 season than either had expected. A new amour 
 could divert even Borgia from the crisis of his de- 
 signs, and not till the end of May were Cesare's 
 armaments perfected, and the battalions and squad- 
 rons moved into convenient -proximity without 
 making a threatening assemblage at any single 
 point. Cesare was ever slow in making ready, ac- 
 cording to his maxim : 
 
 The more time to prepare, the less to execute. 
 
 At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the 
 Republic of Florence had reached a critical degree 
 of inaptness in arms. The old strength still ex- 
 isted, but the pacific policy of the Medici had soft- 
 ened her mettle ; an eight years' struggle with her 
 sturdy little Pisan rival had drained the last re- 
 maining military resource ; the strife of Guelph 
 and Ghibelline for power, and the bitterness of in- 
 dividual feuds, had poisoned the spirit not only of 
 her citizens, but of the villages and valleys of Tus-
 
 AREZZO. 189 
 
 cany. Patriotism, though always narrow, had once 
 been deep ; now, its conception was contained in the 
 defence of a space the eye could coyer. 
 
 Dante never imagined a united Italy ; and Machi- 
 avelli, the most profound and astute commentator 
 upon the affairs of the Peninsula, aspired to a league 
 of republics as the loftiest ideal. Both were Floren- 
 tines, both present to us the pulse, the measure, 
 the accent of their time ; the latter understood bet- 
 ter than any other of his age the source of Italian 
 weakness and its remedy ; yet he finds it in him to 
 give this sinister counsel to King Louis : " If you 
 would retain Milan, kill the head of every leading 
 family " a speech more significant of degradation, 
 when considered as the utterance of an Italian 
 statesman prescribing to an invader the means of 
 perpetuating the subjection of an Italian city than 
 the mere analysis and classification of accepted 
 theories as set forth in his celebrated treatise 
 upon force and fraud, II Principe. 
 
 And now before a commonwealth thus stripped 
 of sword and buckler, and distraught by a thousand 
 hates, appeared the menace of French invasion 
 from the north ; while to the southward gathered 
 the bands of the stealthy son of the Church. The 
 impending attack had been so long threatening, the 
 campaign season was so far advanced without even 
 a menacing concentration, that hostilities seemed 
 deferred at least until autumn.
 
 190 VALENTINO. 
 
 On the first of June, Oliverotto's division still lay 
 cantoned at distant Camerino ; the corps under Vi- 
 tellozzo was distributed through his little tenure of 
 Citta di Caste llo ; at Imola, Borgia was expected to 
 resume drills and inspections. Suddenly the columns 
 of the Orsini traversed the Apennines and joined 
 with Vitellozzo ; a cavalry division under Candale 
 crossed the frontier ; a hired band of conspirators 
 raised a tumult in Arezzo, the town most imme- 
 diately exposed to attack ; its commandant sent for 
 succor ; but with a force ten times his own with- 
 out, and defection within, he yielded on the third 
 day. Vitellozzo entered at the head of his corps, 
 amid strains of martial music rude, harsh, stri- 
 dent, and suited to the grim soldiery that trudged 
 behind him dust-covered and travel-stained, but 
 with weapons and armor faultless in kind and con- 
 dition. After them rode Candale with long files of 
 horsemen and the cannon train of Urbino. The 
 arms of the Church were both long and strong in 
 those days, and the timid townsfolk, confronted by 
 invasion after many years of repose, looked on with 
 silent and sombre forebodings. But they were 
 presently relieved from immediate alarm. 
 
 Vitellozzo, albeit in Borgia's pay, and command- 
 ing the vanguard of his army, had personal aspira- 
 tions not included within the scope o'f his employer's 
 programme ; he intended to annex Arezzo to his 
 own adjacent patrimony, in realization of a long-
 
 AREZZO. 191 
 
 nursed project, which now, thus easily effected, 
 doubled his acres at a stroke. He possessed an 
 independent barony at Citta di Castello, where 
 were his wife, his children, and his worldly goods, 
 and where it was easy to hold undisputed mastery, 
 provided he owned allegiance to some prince or 
 state able to shield him in emergency. 
 
 The ominous thought had lately forced itself 
 upon him that Urbino and Camerino were also al- 
 lies and under the protection of Home, and what 
 costly and sanguinary protection had it proved ! 
 Of Cesare's lieutenants the roughest and the most 
 reckless of speech, one tender emotion remained 
 love for his wife, his little Anselmo, and the seri- 
 ous-eyed Francesca. A lifetime passed amid scenes 
 of bloodshed and extortion had hardened the man, 
 till but that one responsive spot remained. Yet 
 whoever had seen them, Vitellozzo, Anselmo, and 
 Francesca, the three at play together in the or- 
 chard, tossing apples towards the tree tops, or at 
 the mill-pond launching mimic argosies, or in some 
 hayfield chasing one another with peals of mirth, 
 might have deemed them young of heart and guile- 
 less one as the other. 
 
 To be with them, and with the gentle helpmate 
 who was the peaceful centre of his stormy life, 
 was Vitellozzo's only pleasure, apart from the 
 triumphs of his profession ; to add to the extent 
 and consideration of his tenure for Anselmo's
 
 192 VALENTINO. 
 
 sake, was now his absorbing aim his only mo- 
 tive for continuing in the career of arms. It 
 was as yet a diminutive possession. His palace 
 was insignificant. His castle was of the uncom- 
 promising architecture of the time a couple of 
 plain towers, a central keep, and surrounding walls 
 pierced on one side by the main gate, on another 
 by a postern which commanded the ravine below. 
 Around were two or three hundred houses, a couple 
 of churches, a monastery, a windmill. Such was 
 Citta di Castello. Such it is still, save that the 
 windmill is replaced by clumsier modern mechan- 
 ism, the monastery converted to a public school, 
 the palace to a wayside inn, the castle grown hoary 
 and seamed with age. 
 
 Vitellozzo had bidden farewell to his wife with 
 good cheer, to Francesca with a caress, to Anselmo 
 with a jesting promise : 
 
 "Little rogue, thou shalt be Prince of Arezzo 
 ere the new moon." And he kissed them all ten- 
 derly, and mounted his horse and rode away. 
 
 The cold-blooded Candale was not astonished at 
 Vitellozzo's greedy humor about "my conquest at 
 Arezzo ; " he had seen too many strange things to 
 be any more surprised, but he listened and watched. 
 And now arrived the two Orsini with their sturdy 
 regiments, and after came the harpies that scent 
 the spoils. These were Pandolfo Petrucci of 
 Siena, Baglioni, Prince of Perugia, having as aide-
 
 AREZZO. 193 
 
 de-cam,p the young Fabio Orsini, and lastly Cardi- 
 nal de Medici and Piero de Medici, both girded for 
 a triumphal entry into Florence, its government 
 overthrown, its demagogues chastised, its haughty 
 pride humbled. 
 
 Yitellozzo, with his companions-in-arms and his 
 self-invited guests, rode around the town surveying 
 it as one who takes note of a house just acquired. 
 And in the exultation of a long-coveted possession 
 he cried aloud, 
 
 " This shall be a Princedom for my Anselmuccio." 
 
 But Candale looked grave, and answered, " Have 
 we not jointly taken this for our master, and is it 
 not his ? " 
 
 Then Yitellozzo swore a great oath, and stop- 
 ped them all as they trooped across the rolling 
 meadows, and said, 
 
 " The lion's share is enough for our master ; let 
 the jackals that do his bidding find a morsel once 
 in their lifetime." 
 
 " It is a bold course," again objected Candale. 
 
 " No bolder than for him to strip the tenements 
 and the life from them that serve him ! Have you 
 forgot that Guidobaldo was a friend ? We drove him 
 forth houseless after a trick so shameful that as a 
 soldier I despise myself for having shared in 
 it." 
 
 " He was lucky to escape with his life," inter- 
 posed Petrucci.
 
 194 VALENTINO. 
 
 "And," continued Vitellozzo, whose brain seemed 
 burdened with other people's grievances, "and 
 Camerino was not Yerano as much Cesare's ser- 
 vant as I? and Cesare had him and his son stran- 
 gled not one hundred days gone, that he might 
 own their humble patch of land. And before that, 
 Pesaro taken from an ally, and Forli from a woman, 
 and Faenza from the Manfredi he had promised to 
 protect, and Imola, because it could not resist is 
 it strange if I wonder who shall be next ? Will it 
 be you, Pagolo," he exclaimed, turning to the elder 
 Orsini " you whose possessions are equal to the 
 Borgias', father and son together ? " 
 
 A shade passed over Pagolo' s face as he an- 
 swered : " You are of cheerless humor ; one would 
 think you had lost instead of taken Arezzo ; for 
 myself, I fear no foe and dread no fortune; but 
 methinks the dullest should see that our security 
 with Valentino lies in that we are instruments not 
 to be replaced." 
 
 The Medici listened to this dispute with keen 
 relish ; to the weak there is no music so sweet as 
 the discord of the strong. 
 
 " Hear I not yonder a bugle ? " interrupted Can- 
 dale, chafing; "let us ride on." 
 
 Said Petrucci, as they followed at a little dis- 
 tance : " Poor Vitellozzo, his temper was soured ; 
 all this irritability comes from that letter his let 
 me think, was it his great-grandfather? "
 
 AEEZZO. 195 
 
 " His great-grandfatlier's uncle," corrected Fabio 
 Orsini. 
 
 " True ; well, I cannot wonder he thought him- 
 self the victim of an unfeeling jest. Fancy a sealed 
 paper handed down through generations towards an 
 unborn descendant ; imagine yourself that favored 
 heir ; assume that you have heard that sacred let- 
 ter talked of in boyhood, and have impatiently 
 waited for it through youth ; picture the visions 
 and loves and conquests you have built upon the 
 treasure it is to reveal ; open that letter on the 
 appointed day, and, instead of a clue to the 
 gold of the Caliphs, find ten sheets of good 
 advice." 
 
 "No wonder," laughed the younger Medici, 
 " that for a day or two he vowed he would join the 
 Barefoot Friars." 
 
 "He would have made a stalwart mendicant," 
 assented his brother the cardinal, with his eyes 
 upon Vitellozzo's huge proportions ; " the women 
 would all have confessed to him." 
 
 " Then 'tis better he wait till time consume his 
 fires," chuckled Baglioni of Perugia. "At seventy 
 he will make a grand old Monsignore." 
 
 An hour later half a dozen of them sat in the 
 bishop-governor's castle, still clad in the armor 
 which incased them, save that their visors were 
 thrown up, and their gauntlets laid aside. 
 
 Said Candale : " We should profit by this sur-
 
 196 VALENTINO. 
 
 prise and hasten on at dawn to-morrow. Valentino 
 will be with us in five days, and you, Vitellozzo, 
 had best have something valuable to offer if you 
 think to keep this to yourself." 
 
 The experienced Pagolo joined in this counsel : 
 " Let us move this afternoon," he said, " on Borgo 
 San Sepolcro, and assault it to-morrow." Then, 
 very seriously and earnestly, he added, "But do 
 not, Vitellozzo, take this capture to yourself. It is 
 neither yours nor mine. It was the first object and 
 aim of us all. Why should you more than another 
 say, This prize is mine ? Ask it as a gift, and I 
 will urge your request, but till then be it our com- 
 mon gain." 
 
 "Pagolo," answered the Condottiere thus ad- 
 dressed, " what you say is discreet, and according 
 to rule and custom, and it lies not with me to dis- 
 tribute. But this shall be mine to the dogs with 
 rule and custom. This," he continued in a voice 
 swelling with emotion, " I have watched for years. 
 This I have followed in its little growth, planning 
 how it should increase under my hand. For years 
 this has been my purpose, something to strive for 
 to-day, something to occupy my declining years 
 hereafter. And now I have my desire, my troops 
 hold its gates, the town was taken without blood- 
 shed, the citizens will not couple the remembrance 
 of their dead with their thought of me, the longing 
 of hope is realized and in the first pride and joy
 
 A&EZZO. 19? 
 
 of possession, you bid me stand back and I an- 
 swer you all, beware ! " 
 
 "Methinks," said Gravina, as he watched the 
 angered Vitellozzo pacing up and down, " that this 
 is not ours to settle. As Pagolo says, let us to 
 horse, march to some town, I care not which, 
 thence to another, till we come upon the enemy, or 
 till Cesare arrive to direct us." 
 
 This was agreed to, and an hour later the troop- 
 ers of Candale departed with Vitellozzo's corps, 
 except the garrison of Arezzo, following. Pagolo 
 Orsini and the Duke of Gravina came after with 
 their regiments, their relatives the Medici, and 
 the chiefs of Siena and Perugia in their midst 
 casting admiring glances at the artillery, the gift, 
 as it was facetiously termed, of Guidobaldo. All 
 the mounted officers were cased in mail, and for 
 the most part in black-painted armor, a fashion re- 
 cently in vogue. Some of the visors were worked 
 in droll imitation of the human face, Gravina's 
 having a sharp, aquiline nose, Candale's wearing a 
 sinister smile upon its curving iron lips, Pagolo' s a 
 solemn, menacing expression, and Vitellozzo's be- 
 ing of such weighty construction about the jaws as 
 to give the head a boar-like expression, whence his 
 surname among the soldiers II Cignale. 
 
 The troops bivouacked before San Sepolcro, and 
 lighting a line of fires sat down to supper, while 
 Gravina advanced and summoned the garrison. This
 
 198 VALENTINO. 
 
 was refused, with great show of valor, by the gov- 
 ernor, who had never seen a stroke dealt in anger ; 
 but when the next day's sun revealed the swarm- 
 iog masses of infantry and a score of cannon ready 
 to batter his vine-cumbered walls and when the 
 carnage of an assault rose to his imagination, he 
 opened the gates and bade his men lay down their 
 bloodless arms. 
 
 The intelligence of the capture of Arezzo had 
 been promptly dispatched by Candale to Valen- 
 tino. By changing horses at relays upon the rear 
 of the army, it was possible for the messenger to 
 reach Faenza two days after the capture, only to 
 find that Cesare had left that morning for Imola. 
 The rider was soaked by the rain which had been 
 falling for some hours, but mounting a fresh horse, 
 he spurred away through the storm. When nearly 
 in sight of his destination, he came upon a caval- 
 cade accompanying a travelling carriage which, at 
 that time in Italy, was a long cart on four wheels, 
 without pole or springs, and with a covering of 
 canvas stretched over wooden hoops. From it 
 had alighted two women, and it could be seen that 
 one of the supports had broken and that the cov- 
 ering had split, exposing the interior to the rain. 
 Before them stood a young man who had sprung 
 from his horse, and whom the messenger recognized 
 to be Valentino.
 
 AREZZO. 199 
 
 " We shall have it in order on the instant," he 
 heard Cesare say, as the rent cover was tacked 
 with twine, and Elvira and her maid, wrapped in 
 trooper's cloaks, resumed their places : the caval- 
 cade was about to move, when Cesare's glance fell 
 on the stranger, whose equipment showed him to 
 be of Candale's troop. 
 
 " What news ? " he asked. 
 
 The man dismounted, saluted, and said : 
 
 "Arezzo was taken two days since without loss." 
 
 "Do you hear, Elvira?" exclaimed the duke, 
 " the first flower of this campaign ; it shall be 
 yours." Then turning to the soldier, he said : 
 
 " Follow me to Imola, and you shall carry back 
 a dispatch." 
 
 At Imola, where they alighted an hour later, 
 Cesare and Elvira pursued their talk and their 
 pastimes and the sports that were ordered for their 
 diversion for five days, with ever and anon a decla- 
 ration from Cesare that on the morrow he would 
 speed to the field. 
 
 At last came a morning prolific in the intelligence 
 for which he declared himself waiting. First a let- 
 ter from the Pope, filled with suggestions as to this 
 new enterprise, and correctly predicting that the 
 French King would require a weighty sop. 
 
 " My counsel," wrote the old statesman, " is to 
 strike at Florence ; take it by assault, and then 
 buy off the French ; they will permit the complete
 
 209 VALENTINO. 
 
 overthrow of their ally as easily as attacks upon 
 her frontier ; and the one will be no more costly 
 than the other." 
 
 Following this came a dispatch from d'Aubigny, 
 forbidding, in the King's name, any further aggres- 
 sions upon Florence, and announcing the departure 
 of a force of two thousand French and three thou- 
 sand Swiss, all under command of le Sieur Langres, 
 to the relief of her threatened frontier. The King," 
 concluded the writer, "is incensed against these 
 condottieri, who have plundered so many princes, 
 and are now presuming to molest the domain of an 
 ally of France." 
 
 Next arrived a cautious epistle from Candale, 
 dwelling upon Vitellozzo's appropriation of Arezzo, 
 and hinting at lukewarmness on the part of the 
 Orsini, whom he suspected of being in treaty with 
 the French, or with the Florentines, or with both. 
 The writer complained that the army was still 
 at Borgo San Sepolcro, where it had lain inactive. 
 
 " In treaty with the French ! " ejaculated Cesare, 
 laying down the parchment with evident and pro- 
 found concern. " Can they have so far anticipated 
 me?" 
 
 Then he fell into a reverie over this sudden 
 entanglement. Ought he to have led the army? 
 It now seemed so, for no dissensions would then 
 have paralyzed his hirelings. His shallow strata- 
 gem of loitering at Imola had deceived no one, and
 
 AREZZO 201 
 
 he began to wonder what lethargy had stolen these 
 last weeks from him. His amour had proved 
 costly. It was now too late to save the military 
 situation. No alternative remained but to reverse 
 his attitude of an assailant, and avert from himself 
 the fatal wrath of the French King. With this 
 aim he dispatched Don Michele to Milan with 
 a letter and a douceur for Cardinal Amboise, who 
 had his Majesty's ear ; Michelotto was to give 
 every assurance that this irruption had been made 
 without Cesare's knowledge, that he would will- 
 ingly turn his arms against the upstart Yitellozzo, 
 and he was to ask that Valentino be received by 
 his royal brother-in-law, when all should be ex- 
 plained. To Candale he wrote, bidding him hasten 
 from the coming storm and withdraw across the 
 Apennines with his horsemen and with whatever 
 else would follow. To Vitellozzo and the Orsini 
 he sent no word, silently leaving them to bear the 
 brunt of a possible rencounter with the French. 
 
 " A thinning out would tame these unruly var- 
 lets," he muttered passionately, "and they fight 
 savagely enough to damp this French ardor for 
 meddling with me at every turn ; twice before has 
 Louis baulked me ; it might be a stroke of fortune 
 if they met." 
 
 His meditations were interrupted by the an- 
 nouncement of a Spanish gentleman named Pedro 
 cle Castro, serving with Oliverotto, and reputed an 
 9*
 
 202 VALENTINO. 
 
 officer of distinguished qualities. At Cesare's bid- 
 ding he seated himself. 
 
 " You must have had an evil spirit behind you," 
 remarked Valentino, surveying the other's boots 
 and breeches, all splashed with mud. 
 
 " What tidings from Camerino ? " 
 
 " None from Camerino, all there is quiet ; but 
 Olive rotto " 
 
 " Is he dead ? " cried Borgia, with startling ab- 
 ruptness. 
 
 " It might be well." 
 
 " Quick, tell me the substance." 
 
 " The substance is that Oliverotto has killed his 
 uncle, and seized Fermo for himself." 
 
 There was a moment of silence. Borgia's pale 
 face grew livid ; he controlled himself with an 
 effort, and muttered a few words above his breath. 
 
 " The story," said the Spaniard, " is briefly told. 
 Oliverotto had obtained leave of his uncle Fogliani 
 to bring with him a squadron of troopers on the 
 occasion of his visit to Fermo. He had not been 
 there for ten years, not since he left, a stripling of 
 twenty and the favorite pupil of Vitellozzo, and it 
 was a humor with him to return with something of 
 the pomp of arms. It was to be the occasion of a 
 festival ; the people felt as proud and happy as 
 he. I was not among those called to attend him, 
 but went after with a dispatch from Vitellozzo. 
 A guard was at the gate, and would let none pass ;
 
 AHEZZO. 203 
 
 I asked what was amiss, and two of them laughed 
 they had all been drinking and said, ' We have 
 a Duke of our own, now.' I started at that, and 
 one continued, 'Yes, and I was present and saw 
 it all ; nay, if you will, look at the blado of my ra- 
 pier ' and he drew it half from the scabbard, and 
 showed the stain of fresh blood. And again I 
 asked what he meant, and he answered : ' They 
 were feasting when Oliverotto gave the signal we 
 awaited ; the old man made no resistance he 
 seemed dazed beyond word or motion as Oliverotto 
 cut him down and the rest of our corps has been 
 sent for and will be here at midnight." 
 
 " And the dispatch ? " asked Borgia. 
 
 De Castro laid it before him. 
 
 Cesare tore the enclosure open it conveyed to 
 Oliverotto the intelligence of Vitelozzo's seizure of 
 Arezzo, showing that the two, master and pupil, 
 had struck in concert. 
 
 The news from Fermo travelled to the army 
 cantoned around Borgo San Sepolcro. Vitellozzo 
 heard of the accomplishment of this coup with 
 grim indifference. The Orsini would have been 
 more interested, but for the intelligence of the 
 march of Langres with a column which report num- 
 bered at seven thousand men. The next morning 
 it was found that Candale, followed by fifteen hun- 
 dred horse and foot, had vanished. Vitellozzo
 
 204 VALENTINO. 
 
 alone, his possession of Arezzo threatened, sprang 
 from supineness to reckless counsels. He urged a 
 forced march in the direction of Florence ; if the 
 French had arrived, they would be eager to fight ; 
 were they still at a distance, the town could be 
 taken and plundered. In this project the Medici, 
 having much to win and nothing to lose, joined 
 heartily. 
 
 The answer of the Orsini was conclusive : they 
 refused to proceed further with an expedition 
 that exposed them to such perilous emergencies, 
 and in which their commander left them to shift 
 for themselves. They further declared their in- 
 tention of hastening across the Apennines, while 
 time remained to retreat. Vitellozzo, in his 
 chagrin, vowed he would cause his troops to fire 
 upon the first company that moved. And there- 
 upon, in their alarm at the general collapse, the 
 Medicean exiles gathered their effects, and sped off 
 without a further word. 
 
 Towards midnight, the two lords of Perugia and 
 Siena, with their followers, equipped for departure, 
 sought Vitellozzo. This officer had passed a cheer- 
 less evening filled with consternation at his predic- 
 ament between King Louis and Borgia. The hours 
 had dragged wearily, each marked by the dropping 
 of an iron nail, which, as the flame of the candle 
 reached it, fell from the wax in which it had been 
 inserted. He took up a volume from the table, a
 
 AREZZO. 205 
 
 printed book, and therefore a rarity, the gift of 
 Pagolo Orsini, and mechanically turned the pages. 
 It was a treatise by the famous Venetian general, 
 Pitigliano. There was a chapter on the defence of 
 towns, another on vedettes, some algebraic equa- 
 tions applied to the range of artillery, a compari- 
 son of the phalanxes of Swiss and Spanish foot, 
 through all of which would come another line of 
 thought an intrusive legion of forebodings till a 
 servant tapped, and Vitellozzo sprang startled to 
 his feet, as though already summoned by Borgia 
 and the French. 
 
 Baglioni and Petrucci were immediately intro- 
 duced. Yitellozzo greeted them pleasantly : 
 
 " You are going hence," he said, " and more 
 courteous than others, have delayed to bid me 
 farewell." 
 
 " Even so," answered Petrucci, " and a word 
 more are your walls secure, is it safe to speak? " 
 
 " The walls are deaf, and I will bolt the entrance 
 of the anteroom, then you may talk whatever 
 treason you will," and II Cignale laughed sardonic- 
 ally. He returned in a moment, pointed to a side 
 table on which stood wine, saying : 
 
 " It is well to warm the blood against the night 
 air, and if you have sad words, a cup may soften 
 them." 
 
 Then said Petrucci : " We would not choose our 
 words to be more sombre than our situation. Our
 
 206 VALENTINO. 
 
 conclusion is that if you at Citta di Castello 
 are engulfed, we shall fare likewise. Therefore 
 our interest is to sustain you. But you must 
 retire from Arezzo, and place yourself and your 
 battalions at the command of the French gen- 
 eral." 
 
 " What worse than that can happen?" groaned 
 Vitellozzo. 
 
 " In that case the peril of French attack is 
 averted ; then will be the opportunity to learn how 
 we all stand towards Borgia. You will hardly pre- 
 tend to have advanced in his favor. As for Olive- 
 rotto, 'tis a bold man that covets his place. The 
 Medici say that not only they, but also Pagolo 
 Orsini had letters from Florence, and when Cesare 
 hears that 
 
 "The saints preserve him!" ejaculated Baglioni. 
 
 " You may need the saints as well as another," 
 answered Vitellozzo ; " what does this lead to but 
 that we are all compromised in a greater or less 
 degree ? " 
 
 "We are all compromised," assented Petrucci, 
 " and therefore it is our life that we stand together. 
 To be more definite I should have to guess events, 
 and to know how others incline. Cannot we come 
 together with Oliverotto and the Orsini and deter- 
 mine some mutual course ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Vitellozzo, " I will come. The Or- 
 sini have been half hearted, and abandon me to-
 
 AREZZO. 207 
 
 morrow, but we may have grievous need of one 
 another hereafter." 
 
 His visitors rose satisfied with the result of their 
 conference, and from Vitellozzo's reassured tone as 
 they parted, it was evident that he too regarded 
 their interview with contentment. 
 
 On the morrow Vitellozzo rode alone to where 
 Pagolo and Gravina, mounted and armed, were 
 watching their troops form for the march. He 
 rode to the elder of the brothers, and said: 
 
 "Pagolo, we have been comrades too long to 
 quarrel. Forgive whatever I have said amiss ; it 
 was chagrin that overbalanced me. I am come to 
 bid you safe journey, and to own that I am recon- 
 ciled to abandon Arezzo. Before we part, I warn 
 you from an overpowering presentiment beware 
 of Cesare Borgia." 
 
 "Vitellozzo," answered Orsini, "your nerves 
 have been unstrung. I thank you none the less. 
 You shall never call on me in vain ! " 
 
 Half an hour later the Orsini vanished down the 
 road, and the line of their pikemen went glittering 
 away ; the morning sunlight tipped their spear- 
 heads and came streaming over the housetops of 
 the town they had forsaken, while Vitellozzo re- 
 mained standing where they had left him. At 
 length he turned with an unwonted moisture in 
 his eyes "Arezzo," he murmured "oh Arezzo."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 DON MICHELE acquitted himself with such adroit- 
 ness in his mission to Milan, that not only was the 
 desired audience accorded to Yalentino, but so 
 considerable a change was effected in the disposi- 
 tion of Cardinal Amboise, that an order was dis- 
 patched to de Langres countermanding that offi- 
 cer's march. Cesare received this answer with an 
 emotion of relief ; the rest, he thought, was easy. 
 
 His journey was not without risk, and he under- 
 took it in disguise, and attended only by two 
 valets and three well-appointed troopers. To 
 Ramiro he committed Romagna ; to Michelotto he 
 intrusted his negotiations with the fractious con- 
 dottieri, remarking with an approach to exultation 
 " In three weeks I shall be here with a French 
 army." And so he rode away northward, passing 
 through the dominion of his new brother-in-iaw to 
 make a hasty visit to his sister. 
 
 At the moment of Cesare's arrival at Ferrara, Lu- 
 cretia was at the summer palace of Belfiore : his 
 coming was a surprise, and, strange though it ap- 
 pear, a pleasure.
 
 DIPLOMACY. 209 
 
 " To-day," writes Secretary Castellus, . . . 
 "her highness diverted herself for a couple of 
 hours in pleasant converse with the Duke of 
 Komagna, which put her in great good spirits." 
 There was good news to talk of. Cesare had 
 added to his possessions, and if a storm gathered, 
 he anticipated its termination to his advantage. 
 Their correspondence had kept them mutually in- 
 formed of facts and events, but it was a sympa- 
 thetic satisfaction to dwell upon the particulars of 
 his recent triumphs. To the moral obtuseness of 
 the time, the story of the slaying of men was as the 
 record of a hunt, or of the master-stroke in some 
 hard-contested game. 
 
 Lucretia's was a gentler tale : she could laugh 
 yet at the recollection of her meeting with the 
 old duke, when he presented his natural brother, 
 and then a natural daughter, and then the three 
 natural daughters of Sigismund d'Este a battal- 
 ion of illegitimates to bid her welcome. She had 
 much to tell, fetes and dances at the palace, and 
 the sports and games for the townsfolk that Ercole 
 and his master of ceremonies had prepared ; of 
 the curious gift of the Venetian envoys, who, after 
 reading an address, had presented their long 
 cloaks, much to the merriment of all Ferrara; of 
 the verses composed by a youthful poet named 
 AEIOSTO. They chatted thus until time compelled 
 Cesare to resume his journey, courteously attended
 
 210 VALENTINO. 
 
 to the frontier by Lucretia's husband. Only a 
 slight acquaintance had heretofore existed be- 
 tween them, and Alfonzo eyed with curiosity this 
 self-created prince urbane, successful, red-hand- 
 ed; but Cesare's appearance was of ominous 
 suggestion, and it was with a contentment as full 
 as his regretful words of parting were suave that 
 he saw the Duke of Komagna resume his route to 
 Milan. 
 
 At Cremona appeared the first French troops 
 familiar enough to Valentino ; at Lodi, upon see- 
 ing the safe-conduct which Michelotto had brought 
 back, an officer joined his little company to pre- 
 vent the annoyance of stoppages at the successive 
 outposts. Nearing the outskirts of Milan towards 
 the close of a long summer's day, every distressful 
 sign of conquest was present in the deserted coun- 
 try houses, the uncultivated fields, the road for- 
 saken save by a few French officers enjoying the 
 cool of the afternoon. At the gate was a platoon 
 of Swiss on guard, sturdy, beef-eating peasants, 
 whose captain, despite the French officer's protest, 
 halted the party, and obliged Valentino to exhibit 
 his papers. 
 
 " We take orders only from our own command- 
 ers," retorted the Swiss. Then seeing the name 
 and the signature of d'Aubigny, he motioned them 
 to advance. 
 
 " These fellows grow more insufferable every
 
 DIPLOMACY. 211 
 
 day," grumbled the officer, whose dignity had been 
 thus slighted. 
 
 " I wonder that you employ them," observed 
 Cesare ; " your army is not considered to need 
 auxiliaries." 
 
 His companion caught a tinge of irony in the ac- 
 cent, but the earnest face at his side was seriously 
 placid. 
 
 "Were we to dismiss them now," he answered, 
 " they would take service with I know not whom, 
 and we might see five thousand men added to the 
 ranks of our enemies." 
 
 They rode through narrow streets, all guiltless 
 of sidewalks, paved with cobble stones and irregu- 
 lar slabs, and with an odorous gutter flowing down 
 the middle. On either side were colonnades, 
 projecting beams, fantastic iron work, lofty roofs 
 and gables, and pious inscriptions on the walls. 
 In turning a corner, Cesare caught a glimpse of the 
 lower fabric of the Duomo, then in construction. 
 
 "Is work upon the Cathedral interrupted?" 
 he asked. 
 
 " Yes ; we have sent to Paris for one of our 
 architects." 
 
 They entered the enclosure of the palace where 
 the King and Cardinal Amboise lodged, and to 
 which the duke had been bidden. A company of 
 arquebusiers was quartered in the court-yard, and 
 here and there moved officers or courtiers, attend-
 
 212 VALENTINO. 
 
 ants and pages of the royal retinue. Beside an 
 iron fountain leaned a group of blue and yellow 
 and white clad peasant women, with copper buck- 
 ets balanced beneath the crystal jets. Cesare was 
 received by the cardinal's clerical secretary, and 
 by a gentleman of the King, who conducted him 
 up a flight of steps. 
 
 " Monseigneur will be indulgent," remarked the 
 ecclesiastic, leading the way ; " we are here as in a 
 barrack." 
 
 "One must needs be patient campaigning," 
 added the equerry, rubbing his hands subservi- 
 ently ; " the King commanded that you be enter- 
 tained here that he might know you near him." 
 
 " And when will his Eminence deign to receive 
 me ? " asked Cesare, not caring had he been 
 housed in an attic, so opportunity were given for 
 the business which brought him. 
 
 "This very evening; he was impatient for tid- 
 ings of your coming, and while you are shaking off 
 the dust of the way, I will acquaint him with 
 your arrival." 
 
 Cesare was now left with his valets and his sad- 
 dle-bags. An hour later the secretary returned. 
 The duke had meanwhile habited himself, and re- 
 ceived with satisfaction the intimation that Cardi- 
 nal Amboise awaited him. 
 
 The eminent minister of King Louis was, like 
 his master, still in the prime of vigorous manhood.
 
 DIPLOMACY. 213 
 
 Trained in the schools of French, Spanish, and 
 Italian diplomacy, he had early made his way to 
 favor. Bold, supple, unscrupulous, he had for six 
 years conducted the affairs of France, and had ac- 
 quired immense ascendency over both monarch and 
 palace. Chiefly he owed advancement to fidelity 
 to the King during unfortunate conflicts of that 
 prince's earlier years. Avarice was the basis of 
 his character : the present Italian war had opened 
 precious opportunities for personal profit, and it 
 was with warm satisfaction that he learned of the 
 advent of the opulent briber. His one extrava- 
 gance was in the pleasures of the table. Habited 
 on this afternoon in the robes of his office, he sat 
 before a portfolio of maps of the Italian states, 
 which d'Aubigny had brought for the illustration 
 of his views upon the impending war with Spain. 
 He rose from his work and greeted the duke with 
 friendly cordiality, for they were old acquaintance. 
 
 " Young and handsome as ever," he began, shak- 
 ing his visitor by the hand and bidding him be 
 seated : " grown a trifle more robust since we 
 supped together in Paris do you remember those 
 Normandy pheasants ? But years have not brought 
 you discretion ; how much mischief you have made 
 with your condottieri." 
 
 " In truth," answered Cesare, reflecting the car- 
 dinal's amiable mood, " it is unwittingly that I 
 have troubled the peace ; it is this I have come to
 
 214 VALENTINO. 
 
 explain to my royal cousin and to your Eminence, 
 and we shall fasten the blame where it is due." 
 
 "Henceforth you must hold such overzealous 
 lieutenants in leash," observed the cardinal ; " here 
 are Florence and Venice both clamoring, and what 
 would be your condition were it not for the favor 
 of the King ! " 
 
 " The favor of Cardinal Amboise is sufficient ; is 
 the King sincere in these threatening messages?" 
 
 " You put him in a passion at your doings on 
 the Tuscan frontier, and you will find him sore 
 enough yet : could you not understand that to 
 harry his ally is an open contempt of him ? " 
 
 " And who could divine your alliance with Flor- 
 ence when the Florentines stand in such dread of 
 you that they quake at sight of the courier from 
 Milan ? But enough ; 'tis a misunderstanding, and 
 upon your Eminence I depend to soften the shad- 
 ows ; unless," he added, slowly, " you have no 
 longer need of me between here and Capua." 
 
 The cardinal's severe eyes softened at these 
 words, which recalled d'Aubigny's exposition of the 
 need of security for their long line of operations 
 between Lombardy and the Sicilies ; " Florence," 
 the general had said, " is too weak to help or to 
 hinder. The Borgia's eight thousand soldiers can 
 make our rear secure, or place us in peril after we 
 are hundreds of miles from our strongholds in a 
 semi-hostile country, with the Spaniards in front."
 
 DIPLOMACY. 215 
 
 " And apropos of the affairs we have to talk of," 
 pursued Valentino, " I have to crave pardon that 
 my usual contributions have not been paid ; it is 
 my treasurer's omission, the amount is here fif- 
 teen thousand sequins. It shall be delivered within 
 the hour, only be it between ourselves, or Louis 
 will be dunning me for more." 
 
 No such contribution had ever been paid, but 
 this was a way of tendering the inevitable bribe, 
 and the ecclesiastic showed satisfaction in his face 
 if not altogether in his words. 
 
 " Fifteen thousand ! " he cried, " methought 
 twenty was the full total ; well, well, perhaps you 
 are right ; you are assuredly wise to pay it to me, 
 else how speedily would it be squandered ; a very 
 apt and discreet youth ; I will see the King, there 
 shall be no difficulty . . . fifteen thousand in 
 an hour." 
 
 " On the instant, provided I have your leave to 
 withdraw and bring Levy's bills from my room." 
 
 " Sainte Marie ! you have not left bills for fifteen 
 thousand sequins in your room ! Nay haste fetch 
 me them, and we will sup together presently, I 
 have some terrines from Strassburg ; the only thing 
 fit to eat that Germany produces ; but haste, care- 
 less youth," and in his impatience Amboise pushed 
 the duke out of the door, where he remained 
 watching his return. 
 
 At noon on the following day, Valentino was in-
 
 216 VALENTINO. 
 
 terrupted in his chat with d'Aubigny and the Pre- 
 vost by a message that the King awaited him. His 
 relations with his royal brother-in-law had not al- 
 ways been serene, and unless Amboise had soothed 
 his majesty's temper, the Italian had the prospect 
 of an unpleasant hour. 
 
 Life till latterly had dealt hardly with Louis the 
 Twelfth of France. During the reign of his prede- 
 cessor, he had placed himself at the head of mal- 
 content factions, and had experienced exile and im- 
 prisonment, through which the faithful Amboise 
 had remained constant. If not possessed of supe- 
 rior mind or spirit, he had acquired a varied expe- 
 rience of the world, adroitness in affairs, and dis- 
 crimination among men. No sooner established 
 on the throne than he prepared for the assertion 
 of his right to the duchy of Milan, a claim founded 
 upon the visionary title of Valentine Visconti, heir- 
 ess of the dispossessed family of that name. Aban- 
 doned by his timid subjects, and betrayed by his 
 Swiss, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, fell a prey 
 to the invader, and Lombardy passed under the 
 sovereignty of France. The campaign for the re- 
 covery of the lost conquest of Naples had been fol- 
 lowed by such machinations in Northern Italy as 
 had detained there a considerable portion of the 
 French army. 
 
 The King's most noteworthy experience with the 
 Borgias was on the occasion of his divorce from a
 
 DIPLOMACY. 217 
 
 daughter of Louis XL, and of his marriage with 
 the widow of Charles VIII. In consideration of 
 the Duchy of Valentinois and the loan of some 
 troops to Cesare recently relieved from holy or- 
 ders and from a cardinal become a soldier duke 
 the Pope was prevailed upon to grant the neces- 
 sary dispensation, and Cesare was sent with it to 
 Paris. On arriving he announced to the monarch's 
 disgust merely the probable issuing of the coveted 
 decree, and meanwhile sought to make a more 
 profitable bargain than the Pope had stipulated. 
 To his discomfiture the King suddenly threw aside 
 negotiation and prepared for immediate union with 
 the baautiful Anne of Brittany. It was disclosed 
 some hours after that a certain Cardinal Cette had 
 sought the sovereign in his embarrassment and had 
 pointed a way out of the dilemma. " I have sure 
 knowledge," he explained, " that the dispensation 
 is signed and issued and is in the duke's possession. 
 Whether it be delivered to you or destroyed matters 
 not ; it cannot be recalled ; you are divorced al- 
 ready and are free to marry." It was an odd 
 coincidence that Cardinal Cette died a fortnight 
 after. 
 
 But for the moment Cesare was vanquished; 
 there was no alternative but an admission of de- 
 feat, and the production of the Pope's decree. 
 The marriage was consummated, Cesare received 
 the title of Due de Valentinois and was aided in 
 10
 
 218 VALENTINO. 
 
 the conquest of Romagna. The man who had 
 outwitted him had still kept to his word. 
 
 Louis awaited his visitor in a reception-room 
 which opened from his apartments. He was 
 dressed in an embroidered suit of green cloth 
 slashed at the sleeves, and garnished at the wrists 
 and collar with linen, which being unstarched, was 
 of a limp appearance. About his neck was a reli- 
 quary, and at his girdle hung the habitual poniard. 
 His face was clean shaven, his hair worn long at 
 the sides and back of the head, and cut short 
 across the brow. Scattered about were weapons, 
 chiefly fire-arms of the ungainly model of the time, 
 together with travelling equipment, camp baggage, 
 and articles of clothing. 
 
 Louis stood at a window absently examining the 
 mechanism of a silver inlaid arquebuse, his fingers 
 playing idly with the lock, and his gaze resting 
 indifferently upon it. He laid it down as the 
 door opened to admit Valentino and the pages 
 escorting him. The two met with an assumption 
 of friendliness. Louis shook Cesare by the hand, 
 peered into his face with his keen brown eyes, 
 smiled rather sourly and motioned to a couple 
 of chairs ; then, suddenly changing his mind, said : 
 
 " My cousin, follow me into my private study, 
 where we shall converse without listeners or inter- 
 ruption." 
 
 " Sire," exclaimed Cesare, " I cannot be seated
 
 DIPLOMACY. 219 
 
 until I hear from your lips of the health of my be- 
 loved spouse." 
 
 A merry twinkle lighted up the King's eyes ere 
 he answered : 
 
 " Charlotte is well in all but the excessive retire- 
 ment of her life, which displeases me." 
 
 "And," pursued Cesare, following towards the 
 inner room, " can no persuasion prevail upon her 
 to revisit Italy ? " 
 
 "Nay," replied the ting, "we do not talk of that; 
 it were w r aste of breath." 
 
 Cesare now found himself in an apartment which 
 served the King as cabinet de travail. Like the 
 outer chamber, it was strewn with objects of every 
 description. If it be true that the aspect of a 
 familiar room is a reflex of the mind of its occu- 
 pant, suggesting his tastes and habits, and to a 
 keen observer, much more, then Louis' ideas must 
 have been in some disorder. 
 
 " Be seated," began the King, indicating a chair, 
 and throwing himself upon an imitation of a Turk- 
 ish divan, "and tell me how you fare and what 
 news from Home, and how does the golden-haired 
 Lucretia?" 
 
 " My father is well, and my sister I saw three 
 days since at Ferrara ; she sent you her duty and 
 many messages." 
 
 Louis listened with distrait attention, and as 
 Cesare finished said abruptly :
 
 220 VALENTINO. 
 
 "What a plague you have stirred up for me, 
 as if I had not trouble enough in this accursed 
 country." 
 
 " I follow your majesty's example," answered 
 Borgia, " and take what I can get." 
 
 A sudden flush and threatening frown took the 
 place on Louis' countenance of the good-natured 
 indifference of a moment before. Ere he could 
 utter the angry words that flew to his lips, Cesare 
 interposed. 
 
 "I have come here," he said quickly, "to offer 
 the utmost atonement for an unintended fault; it 
 is by placing myself and my army at your dis- 
 posal." 
 
 " Myself and my army, sounds well," replied the 
 King, with sarcastic inflection ; " but in the past 
 you have deceived me, and now we hear that your 
 boasted army is not to be bitted or bridled." 
 
 " If such be seriously your sentiments towards 
 me, and your opinion of my troops, it were idle 
 to pledge myself, or to offer my men. At best it 
 were a sorry post to stand betwixt the heavy blows 
 of your impending settlements with Spain." 
 
 " Tush ! " ejaculated Louis, " by Saint Jacques, 
 what a fretful youth it is. Hast thou not learned 
 that the men who accomplish most are those who 
 lose their temper least ? " 
 
 " Let us leave these subjects, sire, that irritate 
 to no purpose. Give me leave to say rather that
 
 DIPLOMACY. 221 
 
 I have brought you two brace of falcons from the 
 Roman Campania, which : 
 
 " The devil fly your falcons ! " retorted the King ; 
 " we have serious things to talk about ; I am will- 
 ing to listen to the proposition you have come 
 here to make. I am willing to look at our situa- 
 tion with you, and to speak frankly as to a 
 friend." 
 
 " Sire, I am come to listen and to obey." 
 
 " First, then, we are evidently in a position to do 
 one another some mischief, not to say more. On 
 the other hand, we might each render the other an 
 invaluable service ; it remains to be seen in which 
 course lies the greater profit." 
 
 " Profit for you ? " queried Valentino. 
 
 "Nay, in good faith for both. It is strongly 
 suspected that you would not be the worse for a 
 vigorous helping hand." 
 
 " There falls on me the shadow of a difference 
 among my captains, or between them and me, on 
 the very ground for which you censure." 
 
 Louis observed the young man with a curiously 
 comical look. 
 
 " You mean," he said, " that you did not order the 
 taking of Arezzo ? " 
 
 At this inquiry Borgia good-humoredly laughed 
 aloud. 
 
 "Arezzo, in itself," he said, "was not worth 
 capture ; and had it been the prelude to some seri-
 
 222 VALENTINO. 
 
 ous enterprise, think you I would have been want- 
 ing at the head of my soldiers ? " 
 
 The King listened while he toyed with a tassel 
 that depended from the arm of his chair; then 
 dropping it with sudden impatience, he exclaimed : 
 " Cannot you understand that truth is the best 
 diplomacy between those who are to serve one an- 
 other! Let us be frank if this meeting is not to 
 be a mere exchange of words. Let us leave what 
 is past, your follies shall I call them ? at Arezzo 
 and Urbino and Camerino. Let us look at the 
 present and the future," he said, rising from his 
 poltrone and walking slowly up and down the 
 room, " our aims, our resources, our difficulties." 
 
 " I am resolved," pursued the King, halting be- 
 fore his visitor and swinging a bunch of small keys 
 that hung from his girdle 
 
 " I am resolved to keep Milan, come what may. 
 With this I should be satisfied, but the army 
 calls for a continuance of the Neapolitan occu- 
 pation. It is evident that we cannot remain there 
 permanently, yet we cannot abandon the Sicilies 
 to the Spaniard by an abrupt retreat." 
 
 "Neither can you enter Naples again without 
 first breaking the ranks of the Spanish pikemen ; 
 they are not Swiss to be bought." 
 
 " And therefore if a passage at arms should re- 
 sult from military demonstrations which the bal- 
 ance in the Peninsula makes necessary, it might be
 
 DIPLOMACY. 223 
 
 useful to have an ally in the centre of Italy whose 
 fortresses and stores would be so much vantage 
 gained upon the enemy." 
 
 "Say indispensable rather than useful." 
 
 "A question of degree, if you will," assented the 
 King with a little wave of the hand habitual to 
 him ; " but a question dependent upon how much 
 that friend can do, and how much of his engage- 
 ment will be fulfilled." 
 
 " You can determine those points by making 
 your success as valuable to your auxiliary as to 
 yourself. Self-interest and the fear of conse- 
 quences are motives that never fail." 
 
 Louis listened with a cunning grimace as he 
 drew from his pocket a gold box filled with brown 
 dust of which he applied a pinch to his nostrils. 
 He tendered the box to the duke, who eyed it sus- 
 piciously and shook his forefinger in that negative 
 gesture familiar to the modern Italian. 
 
 " It looks like mother earth, eh ? " pursued the 
 King ; " you have never seen it before ? 'Tis a pro- 
 duct of the new Indies beyond the sea, and given 
 me by a ship captain whose life I spared last win- 
 ter, and who said he possessed something worthy 
 to be offered to a King, something the odor of which 
 clears and composes the brain and lengthens the 
 mental vision." 
 
 A blast of martial music interrupted their dis- 
 course. The King strode to the open window and
 
 224 VALENTINO. 
 
 motioned Cesare to his side in the deep casement. 
 It was the regiment called Auvergne, led by a clus- 
 ter of brilliantly attired officers returning from 
 review on the Piazza d'Armi, a broad stretch be- 
 fore Francesco Sforza's citadel, which stands to 
 this day almost as he left it four centuries ago. 
 
 A bevy of girls in the street below stopped their 
 feminine chatter to look as the long column of stur- 
 dy men at arms went by, the heavy silken banners 
 drooping at intervals along the line, the sunlight 
 caught by many a casque or halberd blade, the 
 music growing faint in the distance. A gleam of 
 exultation passed over the King's face. " Tell me," 
 he said, " what ally needs he who has such daunt- 
 less friends at his back ?" 
 
 "So asks de Cordova when the yellow clad 
 regiments of Castile defile before him in his Nea- 
 politan camps," rejoined Borgia. 
 
 The King's expression clouded ; then jeeringly 
 he said, " It is less with Spain than with prince- 
 lings like yourself or with decrepit Republics 
 such as Genoa and Florence that I have to do." 
 
 "Ah!" ejaculated the other with a sneering 
 assumption of surprise " abandon the acquisition 
 of your predecessor the Italian pearl in the 
 French crown ! Nay, if you come with such pacific 
 intentions, it was unnecessary to bring all those 
 fine soldiers merely to threaten the weak." 
 
 "Threaten, say you par St. Denis!" cried
 
 DIPLOMACY. 225 
 
 Louis angrily, " know you that I have five thou- 
 sand men on your Tuscan frontier - 
 
 "About to march against my captains in Ro- 
 magna ; against troops their equal in mettle and 
 double their number. Believe me, the result could 
 not have been auspicious as the first page of your 
 struggle with Spain. Think you that the day you 
 wrest Romagna from me I will not withdraw to the 
 defiles of the Abruzzi and stand there against you 
 as the vanguard of de Cordova's army ? " 
 
 " I should have moved without giving you time 
 to withdraw, had not the certitude of an amicable 
 settlement prevailed over my confidence in the 
 superiority of my troops." 
 
 " Your belief in an amicable settlement is so 
 strong that you are at this moment awaiting rein- 
 forcements of which I can give you the latest news. 
 You await the arrival of a corps led by the Con- 
 stable of Ocean, composed of two hundred knights, 
 a thousand archers, and three thousand halber- 
 diers all at latest accounts en route to the Alps 
 from Grenoble." 
 
 The King gazed at him with a stare of blank 
 surprise. 
 
 " It will be glad news for Italy," continued the 
 duke, " when your Majesty makes known his 
 preference for negotiation over arms. It would be 
 no ordinary contest, no tilt to decide the line of a 
 frontier or the possession of a town but a strug- 
 10 s
 
 226 VALENTINO. 
 
 gle to determine supremacy from here to Palermo ; 
 preponderance with the Church ; power and pres- 
 tige even beyond the Emperor's." 
 
 There was a moment's pause ere the King an- 
 swered, 
 
 " You are well informed, but in part you are 
 mistaken ; listen, I will tell you a secret I leave 
 for Paris in twenty days." 
 
 Cesare scanned the King's face intently, seemed 
 satisfied with its sincerity, and dropping back 
 astonished in his chair, said, 
 
 " You forsake the fateful days of your life for 
 some woman the Queen of course," he added under 
 his breath. 
 
 " I shall return in time." 
 
 " For yourself, yes ; but not in time for me." 
 
 " You are sore pressed by your faithful army? " 
 
 " If I am to be of use to you hereafter, you must 
 help me at once. Lend me a few thousand men, 
 and you shall have them back when you return." 
 
 To this proposition had Louis desired to lead 
 his astute guest, the balance in its favor having 
 been determined by the cardinal's opinion. 
 
 "What use is to be made of my soldiers?" he 
 asked with seeming hesitation. 
 
 " Sire, my cousin," answered Cesare, " the life to 
 which I aspire divides itself into two parts. The 
 second will commence at my father's death, which, 
 when it happens, will find me prepared, so far as
 
 DIPLOMACY. 227 
 
 human foresight can make ready, for every event. 
 But I am yet in the first period, and what is urgent 
 is the completion of the task to begin which you 
 lent me Ives d'Allegre." 
 
 "Your province will suffer an indigestion if it 
 absorb too much Florence, for instance." 
 
 "It is difficult to be explicit where so many con- 
 tingencies may arise." 
 
 " But you will give me back my regiments deci- 
 mated, if you fling them at every rampart." 
 
 " I will pay a purse of gold for every man killed." 
 
 " And should I later have a disagreement with 
 de Cordova ? " 
 
 " I will stand as your buttress against the 
 Spaniard, ready to open you a broad avenue of 
 approach when you seek him on the Volturno." 
 
 " You shall give me a hostage for this." 
 
 "You shall have the Pope himself." 
 
 " I expect a war contribution." 
 
 " Whatever sum named shall be paid." 
 
 "And supplies for my troops at points on the 
 route," pursued the King, finding his visitor so 
 complaisant. 
 
 "They shall be fattened for the slaughter," an- 
 swered Cesare with a laugh. 
 
 " And stay ; my beloved spouse is building an 
 oratory ; find me a pair of alabaster pillars ; upon 
 these conditions you shall have Langres' corps for 
 a couple of months. And now farewell ; you must
 
 228 VALENTINO. 
 
 be tired no? remember you sup with me this 
 evening ; till then adieu ; all is now understood 
 and agreed between us, is it not? " 
 
 Cesare Borgia in that instant beheld the real- 
 ization of his utmost wish ; his turbulent lieuten- 
 ants humbled ; Florence at his feet : central Italy 
 welded for him into the largest and strongest state 
 in the Peninsula and he took the hand the King 
 extended, kissed it, and answered impassively, 
 " Sire, my cousin, it is so agreed between us."
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MAGIONE. 
 
 THE Castle of Magione, near Lake Thrasimene, 
 was one of the strongest fiefs of the Orsini, and to 
 it, in the moment of alarm, had the condottieri 
 generals, and two or three who shared their danger, 
 been summoned for the council which Pandolfo 
 Petrucci proposed. 
 
 It has suffered little change in outward appear- 
 ance. Only the defences of the gateway are gone, 
 the cortile has been modernized, and the chambers 
 and broad balconies around it are dismantled. It 
 is a quadrangular enclosure with four tall and mas- 
 sive towers, beside one of which is a hall designated 
 by tradition as that in which the barons met. 
 
 Towards the close of the last day of September, 
 1502, Cardinal Orsini and Giovanni Baglioni set 
 out from Perugia and rode away in the liquid yel- 
 low of the twilight towards the great pines that 
 stood motionless upon the northern horizon. 
 
 At Magione, Pagolo and Francesco Orsini awaited 
 the secrecy which that age so well understood was 
 pledged by all, and every precaution of vedettes
 
 230 VALENTINO. 
 
 concealed without and of sentinels within the 
 castle had been observed. 
 
 The first to appear was Oliverotto, who now 
 styled himself "da Fermo." Vitellozzo presented 
 himself soon after ; at ten o'clock came Petrucci, 
 who had been ferried across the lake, and had 
 walked, portly and breathless, up the hillside. 
 Half an hour later Cardinal Orsini and Baglioni ap- 
 proached from Perugia, and all having now arrived, 
 the gate was closed and a repast of frittura of fish, 
 followed by cold meats, with a damigiana of red 
 wine, was served in the refectory. 
 
 The common danger made all equals, but it like- 
 wise produced a taciturn constraint ; moreover, 
 Baglioni detested Vitellozzo ; Petrucci had never 
 met the plebeian Oliverotto ; while Vitellozzo, sus- 
 pecting Cardinal Orsini of designs upon Citta di 
 Castello, addressed him as Eminentissimo len venuto 
 with poorly dissembled ill-will. They were served 
 by a single servant, of whom Pagolo remarked he 
 was more trusty than his betters. Oliverotto eat 
 in silence with affected nonchalance ; Vitellozzo 
 sipped a little wine, and then, resting both arms on 
 the table, listened indifferently to the gossip with 
 which the cardinal sought to pass away the min- 
 utes. 
 
 Pagolo took advantage of a pause to remark 
 upon the fatigue which those of his guests who 
 had ridden from a distance must experience, and
 
 MAOIONE. 231 
 
 to suggest that nothing profitable could be deter- 
 mined that night. 
 
 "Let me commend you to refreshing sleep," he con- 
 cluded ; " the morning's refection will be served in 
 your chambers, and at noon we will assemble here." 
 
 Baglioni waited to talk with Gravina ; Pagolo 
 and Petrucci escorted the cardinal to his door, 
 while Vitellozzo and Oliverotto lingered on the stair. 
 
 " You have been more favored than I," observed 
 the former. 
 
 " Yes," answered Oliverotto with the accent of a 
 man haunted rather by some unwelcome remem- 
 brance than encouraged by a memory of triumph. 
 " The stroke succeeded ; for six years have I borne 
 it in my thoughts, and often seen it distorted in 
 dreams ; but now that it appears no longer as a 
 purpose, but only as an afterthought, I grow weary 
 of it by day, and by night it hinders my slumber." 
 
 " Bah ! " ejaculated Vitellozzo, "you sacrifice but 
 scantily to fortune, if such be your thanks. I too 
 carried a project from my youth and beheld its 
 realization torn from me. And now the Orsini dis- 
 trust me, the Florentines hate me, and Borgia " 
 
 " Hist," whispered his companion, " here comes 
 Pagolo to bid us to our cells." 
 
 The morning of the first of October, 1502, opened 
 cold and damp, and after one faint effort to pierce 
 the clouds, the sun disappeared and the rain fell
 
 232 VALENTINO. 
 
 steadily. A mist gathered on the hillside, conceal- 
 ing Lake Thrasimene, while the features of adjacent 
 slopes and summits remained undistinguishable. 
 Within, those who had arrived the night before lay 
 late abed, with no motive to set them afoot, and 
 nothing to think of but the impending conference 
 which each was conscious would be accounted 
 treason. Should they fail to come in accord, and 
 ever pass within the scope of vengeance, how slight 
 must be their hope of escape or mercy. This re- 
 flection put them into as conciliatory a mood to- 
 wards one another as was possible for designing 
 and relentless men. 
 
 The room wherein they assembled was such as 
 is found in every mediaeval castle, with red-tiled 
 floor, carved chairs covered with fox-skins, a press 
 at one end, a settle at the other, a dining table in 
 the centre with a wooden bread rack suspended 
 above it, and groupings of weapons and armor on 
 the walls; projecting into the room was a huge 
 fireplace, in which were often grilled and roasted, 
 before the eyes of the hungry feasters, the meats of 
 their repast ; along the sloping mantel were drink- 
 ing vessels, while on the wall hung two pictures 
 from the hand of Leonardo da Vinci, then rising to 
 fame. On a shutter at a southern window, between 
 lattices of straw matting, was a fantastically colored 
 sun-dial, and beneath in old Italian the inscription ; 
 / mark but the shining hours.
 
 MAGIONE. 233 
 
 The superstitious Petrucci noted the words and 
 its signless front as of ill omen, accentuated by the 
 boding aspect of a cat which crouched in the win- 
 dow and fixed its great green eyes upon him. On 
 the opposite panel, in monkish Latin, was the in- 
 scription : 
 
 The three chief misfortunes : childhood without 
 parents ; manhood ivithout love ; age without money. 
 
 " Who have we in the room adjoining mine that 
 lies so ill ? " asked Baglioni of Pagolo Orsini. 
 
 " An old monk brought in two days since, weak, 
 hungry, suffering, half dying ; our capellano took 
 compassion and gave him food and lodging for a 
 few days : we had to despatch our riverente on a 
 journey before this rendezvous, so the stranger is 
 left to shift pretty much for himself, which he does 
 by sleeping at least he has been in a doze when- 
 ever my brother or I peeped in. He is safe under 
 lock and bolt, never fear." 
 
 Petrucci approached Cardinal Orsini. 
 
 "How fares your Eminence to-day?" he cour- 
 teously inquired. 
 
 "Ill, sorely ill," answered the cardinal, raising 
 his hand to his cheek; "toothache all night this 
 wet weather makes it worse. Teeth are the greatest 
 curse with which nature plagues us : through life 
 they arc at the mercy of every roving leech, and in 
 old age the few that have escaped the pincers drop 
 out or split the head with pain."
 
 234 VALENTINO. 
 
 ' ' Know you that there is a battle-field yonder 
 where Hannibal routed the legionaries of the Con- 
 sul Flaminius ? " asked Baglioni of Gravina. 
 
 "I must have ridden across it while falconing, 
 but 'tis impossible to identify the spot." 
 
 " I have always believed," said Cardinal Orsini, 
 joining them, " that the Roman defeats were due to 
 the absurd shortness of the sword. The Gauls of 
 Brennus, the Germans under Arminius, the Cartha- 
 ginians led by Hannibal, all used long swords, and 
 all vanquished the Romans with their thick, little 
 blades." 
 
 " Then why did not the Romans lengthen their 
 weapons ? " 
 
 " Because the soldiers of Marius and Cunctator 
 preferred death to owning a mistake." 
 
 They seated themselves around the table, and a 
 silence followed which was broken by the cardinal. 
 
 "Methinks," he said, "that we have separate 
 things to consider which should be treated in suc- 
 cession; some have suffered wrongs, some stand in 
 present danger, all are concerned for the future. 
 Shall we take them in this order ? " 
 
 Petrucci and Baglioni nodded approval, and 
 Vitellozzo said : 
 
 " Mine is the grief and the danger. I have lost 
 Arezzo, Borgia has sold my life against the favor 
 of the French how can I resist singly ? " 
 
 " But you are not alone," answered Petrucci ; " I
 
 MAGIONB. 235 
 
 for one will stand with you since in your fall I see 
 my own. Valentino, whom you have followed to 
 your misfortune, proposed to Florence an alliance, 
 provided he were allowed to take Siena and 
 
 " And I," interrupted Baglioni, " stand in similar 
 peril. It comes to me from the Vatican, through 
 sources not to be denied, that Perugia is viewed as 
 the link to cement Romagna with Borne. I have 
 only eight hundred trained men, but the people 
 cast their lot with me, and I, like Petrucci, dare 
 not let you perish ; but on your side, you shall 
 pledge to maintain us." 
 
 "I, too, enter that compact," said Oliverotto. 
 " Secure me Fermo, and I promise two thousand 
 men." 
 
 "Four of us of one mind already," ejaculated 
 Petrucci ; " the Orsini only have not spoken," he 
 added, with a glance at the cardinal, who in answer 
 to this challenge, and speaking with more measure 
 than was usual to his fluent discourse, said : 
 
 "I answer for myself, and for one not here 
 Guidobaldo of Urbino. That some of us are ready 
 to stand by one another for self-interest's sake is 
 obvious. There is a wider reach that holds all that 
 is most important. Our peril is not to be dissem- 
 bled. Were it not wise, think you, to reduce the 
 danger by diminishing the force which threatens ; 
 to strike at the same time that we gather side by 
 side, to seize the opportunities of surprise, to smite
 
 236 VALENTINO. 
 
 the wolf in the fangs by restoring his possessions 
 to the lord of Urbino ? " 
 
 So bold a proposition was received in silence. 
 Presently Pagolo answered : 
 
 "To join for mutual protection is one thing; to 
 assail Borgia on his own ground is to double the 
 hazard." 
 
 " There can be no half measures," broke in Gra- 
 vina ; " this meeting alone severs our fealty ; we 
 shall inevitably be destroyed unless we deal a crip- 
 pling blow at the outset." 
 
 " A ' crippling blow ' is easily said," retorted 
 Vitellozzo, " but suppose Cesare comes back from 
 Milan with a French army ! " 
 
 This seemed an unanswerable suggestion, but 
 the ready cardinal took up the thread again, and, 
 modifying his discourse, resumed : 
 
 " But you have not allowed me to finish ; I was 
 going on to say there is a middle course which the 
 Venetian ambassador proposed to me. Suppose 
 Guidobaldo presents himself at Urbino, you can 
 let him enrol a few hundred of your men as his 
 own ; the people will rise against the garrison, 
 which is not a strong one, and the loss of the place 
 would be so severe a stroke that Borgia would be 
 disposed to accept our terms." 
 
 "That may do if we deal with him alone, but 
 you evade the contingency of his bringing an army 
 from Milan."
 
 MAGIONE. 237 
 
 " There is such a thing as bestowing too much 
 importance upon the French ; if Venice were but 
 clear of the Turks, the French could not maintain 
 themselves this side the Alps." 
 
 " That, however, is merely an ' if ; ' we need look 
 for nothing from the Venetians but their detesta- 
 tion of the French and their dislike for Borgia." 
 
 "Suppose," said Pagolo Orsini, "that we cast 
 up our resources and see what army we could put in 
 the field. I have two thousand five hundred men." 
 
 "And I," added Graviua, "have twenty-three 
 hundred." 
 
 " I can spare fifteen hundred from Fermo," re- 
 marked Oliverotto. 
 
 "And I a thousand from Citta di Castello," said 
 Vitellozzo. 
 
 " Only a thousand only fifteen hundred," cried 
 Baglioui, who was keeping count. "Your corps 
 have shrivelled like birds shrunk to grasshoppers. 
 I should never have feared you, Vitellozzo, had I 
 known your band so scanty." 
 
 "You had three thousand at Arezzo," interposed 
 Gravina, " and lost not fifty men in the campaign." 
 
 " You can bring more than a thousand," remon- 
 strated Pefcrucci; "even I will bring that many, 
 though in doing so I leave Siena defenceless." 
 
 "Well," answered Vitellozzo, doggedly, "my 
 strength shall equal Oliverotto's." 
 
 "And adding five hundred of mine," resumed
 
 238 VALENTINO. 
 
 Baglioni, " makes a total of nine thousand three 
 hundred. Who can tell what force of Valentino's 
 remains in Romagna ? " 
 
 The speaker addressed this inquiry to Pagolo 
 Orsini, who replied, 
 
 "The garrisons of Camerino, Urbino, Pesaro, 
 Forli, and Faenza, taken together, cannot be more 
 than one thousand men. Candale has a thousand. 
 At Imola there is a training camp, which Michelotto 
 commands. I have heard him speak of the force 
 gathered there as fifteen hundred men." 
 
 " More than that. Bamiro d'Orco told me last 
 May that two thousand men were in the ranks, 
 and they must have increased since then." 
 
 " At most four thousand five hundred, to our 
 nine thousand three hundred,' ' ejaculated Petrucci ; 
 "ours all available for the field, and one-fourth 
 part of his chained to a string of towns." 
 
 " We cannot fail if we strike swiftly," exclaimed 
 Gravina. 
 
 " Even if he lead a division of French," assented 
 Oliverotto. 
 
 " You have satisfied us," said Petrucci, address- 
 ing himself to the cardinal, " that Venice is not in 
 condition to render us aid; think you something 
 may be looked for from Florence ? " 
 
 " You should be the best to answer that ques- 
 tion," replied the cardinal. 
 
 " If such be the opinion of your Eminence, I
 
 MAOIONR 231) 
 
 will say something of an interview I had ten days 
 since with Niccolo Machiavelli, whom I went to 
 see in his house beside the Ponte Vecchio." 
 
 The auditory listened to this announcement with 
 interest, and the cat, walking to Pagolo's side, 
 looked up in his face, then turning, fixed its eyes in- 
 tently upon the only door giving access to the room. 
 
 " I told him some of us had disapproved the 
 attack on Arezzo ; that none of Borgia's captains 
 desired a collision with Florence, knowing it must 
 presently bring them in conflict with the arms of 
 France." 
 
 " A plague on the arms of France," cried Gra- 
 vina, angrily. 
 
 " I added that after the affairs of Camerino and 
 Urbino not one of us felt safe, and he laughed and 
 said, 'It takes a brave man to dare be Borgia's 
 servant.' Then I asked if Florence would make a 
 league with us, to which he answered, ' On which 
 side, will be tJie French ? ' and though I spent an 
 hour trying to convince him that King Louis and 
 Valentino were now embroiled, I could not get a 
 word further than this in one shape or another: 
 ' Show me first which way will be the French.' " 
 
 "Your investigation has chiefly shown, then, that 
 Machiavelli is a man of doubt," observed the car- 
 dinal. 
 
 " Could not his uncertainty have been deter- 
 mined by a fat purse ? " asked Baglioni,
 
 240 VALENTINO. 
 
 " You little know him," answered Petrucci ; " he 
 is the purest man in Italy." 
 
 " Then," asked Oliverotto, impatiently, " to what 
 purpose was your visit? " 
 
 "My conversation with him," continued Pe- 
 trucci, studiously avoiding addressing himself to 
 Oliverotto, " satisfied me that should France re- 
 main neutral, we may expect a couple of thousand 
 Tuscans to aid us by way of retaliation for Borgia's 
 attack upon Arezzo." 
 
 "What a pity we have no news from Milan," 
 ejaculated Baglioni. 
 
 "It is comical," observed the cardinal, with a 
 chuckle, " that I, who am an old man, and come 
 from far, should discover what you young knights 
 near by have groped for in vain." 
 
 " What have you discovered ? " cried Vitellozzo, 
 eagerly. 
 
 " That Valentino offered King Louis gold with- 
 out count and the support of his arms in return 
 for aid ; that in reply the King reproached him 
 with ill treatment of his wife, overwhelmed him 
 with proofs of bad faith at Arezzo, and refused 
 more than a regiment of Swiss." 
 
 A murmur of surprise went round, and more 
 than one face beamed with exultation. 
 
 " How came you by this information ? " asked 
 the mistrustful Petrucci. 
 
 "I learned it through Cardinal Corneto, who
 
 MAGIONE. 241 
 
 stole Cesare's despatch to the Pope from among 
 his Holiness's private papers." 
 
 " If this be true, Borgia is at our mercy." 
 
 " How mean you, if it be true ? " 
 
 " That the Borgias are not easily caught nap- 
 ping." 
 
 " You might have been outspoken, and told us 
 this at once," said Vitellozzo, peevishly ; " it half 
 looks like a trick of the old fox." 
 
 " I did not tell it until you showed yourselves 
 in earnest and ready to stand together. As for a 
 trick, I tell you the letter was taken from Alexan- 
 der's private chest ; it is the confidential statement 
 of Cesare to his father." 
 
 " You have seen this letter ? " 
 
 " Only a copy." 
 
 " Is that copy here ? " 
 
 " Think you I durst travel with such evidence 
 upon me ? " 
 
 " I cannot satisfy myself that there is not some 
 pitfall here," objected Petrucci. 
 
 "We have had doubts enough," answered Gra- 
 vina ; "let us pass to a decision." 
 
 " There are two courses," said Pagolo Orsini ; 
 " either to watch events while Guidobaldo tries his 
 teeth on Urbino, or to join him in the attack with 
 one of our columns, while the rest of our force 
 pushes upon Imola." 
 
 " A hazardous adventure," commented Baglioni. 
 11
 
 242 VALENTINO. 
 
 11 But something must be risked, whatever we 
 do ; merely being afraid will neither disarm nor 
 conciliate." 
 
 "Be it determined by a vote," quoth the car- 
 dinal. " Is it to be the peril of resistance, or the 
 peril of attack, and all shall abide by the decision? " 
 
 " Be it so," assented those about him. 
 
 " You were first to speak," said the cardinal, 
 addressing Vitellozzo, " will you be first now ? " 
 
 "For the extreme course and Arezzo," answered 
 the lord of Citta di Castello. 
 
 "That is a just claim," threw in Oliverotto. 
 "And I speak for attack sudden and swift; and 
 you shall hold me harmless at Fermo." 
 
 " I agree to what you both have said," spoke up 
 Gravina ; " unlike you both, I have nothing to ask." 
 
 The words were followed by a pause. Three 
 had spoken for attack, four were yet to declare 
 themselves ; one more voice for the initiative, and 
 they stood committed to an immediate struggle 
 with their redoubtable commander. 
 
 "Come," cried Oliverotto, scowling about him, 
 " dare you not even confess yourselves afraid, and 
 say No" 
 
 " I accept the omen," exclaimed Pagolo, cross- 
 ing himself ; " my heart speaks for concession ; 
 let us arm and stand together, but nothing more." 
 
 "So, too, say I," assented the cautious Petrucci ; 
 " better the edge, than the bottom of the abyss."
 
 MAGIONE. 243 
 
 " And with that opinion stand I," spoke Bagli- 
 oni ; "let us arm, but not strike." 
 
 " Arm and be struck then," retorted Gravina. 
 
 All turned toward Cardinal Orsini, whose word 
 was now to decide the action of all. The eccle- 
 siastic glanced round the circle of eager faces, and 
 his gaze rested upon the anxious countenance of 
 Pagolo. For that brief instant the foreboding of 
 the younger man fell on the elder. Then, with a 
 brusque self-constraint he said : 
 
 " I cast my lot for attack. I should be here to 
 small purpose were it for else than to urge you 
 upon the common foe. Be of good cheer, bold 
 hearts, the superior force is yours, the advantage 
 of surprise is yours, yours will be the rich division 
 in place of the peril that spurs to this steep road 
 to safety." 
 
 Not till three hours after the meridian did the 
 confederates bring to a close their consultation 
 upon details. The sanguinary decision once 
 taken, the afternoon dragged heavily on, the sound 
 of falling rain continuing without, while within the 
 shadows deepened around the crackling fire. Now 
 and again Gravina paused in his fretful striding 
 up and down, and threw fresh logs across the and- 
 irons. Pagolo spoke in monosyllables, while Pe- 
 trucci and Baglioni listened with reserve to the 
 conclusions successively arrived at.
 
 244 VALENTINO. 
 
 At length Vitellozzo rose and stretched himself. 
 " We have had care enough," he said ; " give us a 
 morsel to eat, Pagolo, and a flagon apiece to warm 
 our blood for the night ride." 
 
 " They should have been offered before, but that 
 in resolves such as these one must beware the 
 coward courage of the cup." 
 
 So saying, Pagolo left the room to summon his 
 trusted attendant. 
 
 " I will not leave to-night in the face of this 
 storm," said Oliverotto, " provided Gravina will 
 let me rest within these walls." 
 
 " I shall ride to Citta di Castello without draw- 
 ing rein," exclaimed Vitellozzo, with reproof in his 
 voice. 
 
 " I long for Perugia," observed Baglioni. 
 
 "And I for Siena," echoed Petrucci; "it is a 
 sign of age that I sleep ill in any bed but my 
 own." 
 
 A loud, harsh cry of alarm rang from the stair- 
 way. 
 
 All recognized the voice of Pagolo. 
 
 " Gravina ! Vitellozzo ! " he shouted, " help, 
 quick ! We are betrayed ! " 
 
 They made their way to him before his words 
 ceased to sound along the wall ? Oliverotto, sword 
 in hand, was first at his side. 
 
 Pagolo's face had blanched to the hue of lep- 
 rosy. His hands clutched the arms of those who
 
 MAOIONE. 245 
 
 gathered about him, his frame quivered with 
 emotion, his voice, after that one effort, had sunk 
 to a husky whisper. He motioned to a half- 
 open door, and Gravina, Vitellozzo and Oliverotto 
 sprang to it, the cardinal, Baglioni and Petrucci 
 following at safe distance. 
 
 Gravina threw wide the door of the chamber to 
 which his brother pointed, and all entered. It was 
 the room that had been occupied by the infirm 
 Dominican. 
 
 On the floor lay the servant Niccolo dead, a 
 stiletto stab through his heart. 
 
 " Merciful powers ! " cried the cardinal, horror- 
 struck, " how conies this ? " 
 
 " The monk that lay here abed " 
 
 " What of him ?" 
 
 " Has disappeared ! " 
 
 " After listening to every word ! " 
 
 "He cannot have escaped; we shall find him 
 hidden somewhere in the castle." 
 
 "Look!" exclaimed Gravina, "Niccolo's keys 
 are gone." 
 
 " What keys were they ? " 
 
 "Duplicates opening every lock and door." 
 
 Pagolo smote himself in the face with both hands. 
 
 " Then he has escaped by the subterranean pas- 
 sage to the lake," he groaned. " It has long been 
 unused, the entrance is hidden it must have been 
 left unguarded."
 
 246 VALENTINO. 
 
 " Unguarded ! " cried Gravina in amazement ; 
 " oh, Pagolo, it is time to die when we leave our 
 castle gates unguarded." 
 
 "Nay," said the cardinal, "we know not but 
 that Fabio may have stationed a sentry at its en- 
 trance. Arouse the guards, scatter your troopers 
 in pursuit he may yet be taken." 
 
 Baglioni and Petrucci exchanged grim looks as 
 the Orsini, followed by Yitellozzo and Oliverotto, 
 rushed noisily from the room. 
 
 "An ominous commencement," muttered Pe- 
 trucci in his subdued tone. 
 
 The other beckoned to him, and together they 
 withdrew. 
 
 " Let us go, and quickly," said Baglioni " let us 
 save ourselves while we may."
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 REVOLT. 
 
 THE sun was disappearing amid a mass of opal- 
 escent clouds. Upon the horizon glowed the rich 
 coloring of October, and nearer, the landscape 
 brightened in places where the foliage tints had 
 mellowed on the mountain sides, and the vines on 
 terraces and garden-walls had crimsoned. 
 
 The sunset hues swooned to the grays of twi- 
 light as Valentino, at the head of a little cavalcade, 
 trotted along the Bolognese road towards Imola, 
 whose lights shone out ruddy through the gather- 
 ing mist. A startling summons had recalled him 
 from Milan, and he had been further hastened by 
 a second despatch received midway. Arriving at 
 the palace, he threw himself from his horse, and 
 returned the brief greeting of Michelotto and Can- 
 dale, who impatiently awaited his coming ; his face 
 was paler than usual, and beneath his eyes was the 
 tint of blue that betrays nervous fatigue. He 
 ascended the stair, motioning the others to fol- 
 low; they entered an apartment, the attendants 
 withdrew, and Caudale, noticing that his master
 
 248 VALENTINO. 
 
 cast distrait looks about, as though wondering at 
 the absence of some one, murmured : 
 
 " She left when the news came, and went to 
 Urbino." 
 
 " Urbino was no place of safety. Whose choice 
 was that ? " 
 
 " Donna Elvira's own. She declared you would 
 arrive in time to save the castle, and vowed her 
 life to prolong its defence so says the abbess of 
 the convent yonder." 
 
 " It is a useless danger ; you did wrong to let 
 her go." 
 
 " Nothing short of fetters would have kept her, 
 and as to useless danger, the garrison is filled with 
 ardor at her presence ; and whereas three days 
 since the walls would have been abandoned at 
 sight of the enemy, they will be held now till you 
 come." 
 
 The pages returned bearing a tray on which was 
 a fiaschetto of red wine and some toasted bread 
 and salt fish. Cesare unbuckled his sword, threw 
 aside his cape, drew off a pair of riding-boots and 
 substituted velvet slippers. He drank one glass 
 of wine, swallowed a morsel of bread, and address- 
 ing Don Michele, said : 
 
 " Let us speak and briefly: who is now in com- 
 mand at Urbino ? " 
 
 " Pedro de Castro for this day and night." 
 
 " You return, then, immediately ? "
 
 REVOLT. 249 
 
 " Yes. I came here to see you for an hour." 
 " You sent a despatch to Milan saying that Vitel- 
 lozzo, Oliverotto and the Orsini are in arms against 
 me." 
 
 " I heard their deliberation with my own ears." 
 " Ah ! " cried Valentino, with long-drawn sur- 
 prise. 
 
 " Yes," pursued Michelotto, " ever since the affair 
 of Arezzo, you have had Vitellozzo and the Orsini 
 watched ; your spies were of small avail for such 
 delicate work as finding how far the agreement of 
 half a dozen men had proceeded ; they discovered, 
 however, that towards the last of September the 
 Orsini betook themselves to a remote castle beside 
 Thrasimene. I hastened thither from Urbino, 
 assumed the dress of a mendicant friar, went 
 through the farce of being thrown from a mule, 
 begged leave to rest and recover, and was admitted. 
 " The Orsini looked in upon me in my darkened 
 chamber, but my cowl and a long gray beard worn 
 for the occasion would have disguised me against a 
 far more searching scrutiny. So lay I two days, not 
 daring to stir, scarce venturing so much as to answer 
 the questions of an old menial who brought me 
 pottage with bread and wine. On the second night 
 there was unusual stir the movement of horses in 
 the court-yard, the tread of soldiers. The only 
 opening in my room besides the door was a slip of 
 a window so high that one could get sight of noth- 
 11*
 
 250 VALENTINO. 
 
 ing except a bit of sky and, by straining much, a 
 line of mullions." 
 
 "To thy conclusion," broke in Valentino; "what 
 matter sky and mullions ? " 
 
 " At midnight I heard the voices of Vitellozzo 
 and Oliverotto. In the morning, when the old man 
 came, ' I scarce slept for the noise,' said I ; * has 
 some mishap befallen ? ' ' No,' he answered, 
 ' only a couple of knights stopped for shelter 
 from this storm.' All the morning I waited and 
 listened ; the old man took each a tray of food to 
 his room, and by this means I learned their num- 
 ber. One by one, towards noon, they went down- 
 stairs, and some one bolted my door on the out- 
 side. When all was still I cut a little hole in the 
 woodwork, pried back the bolt, and followed after 
 them. I heard all that was needful my despatch 
 gave you the substance of their discourse. 
 
 " I was returning to my cell, intending to bolt my- 
 self in, conceal the aperture I had made, and leave 
 the castle on the following day, when I came full 
 upon the old servant ; before he could stir or 
 raise an alarm, I stabbed him to the heart. 
 
 "I had heard of the subterranean passage of 
 Magione, and, guarded as the castle was, I could 
 leave by no other way. The old man had a bunch 
 of keys at his girdle; I took them and fled. 
 
 "I made my way noiselessly to the cellars and 
 passages beneath the castle. I scarce know how in
 
 REVOLT. 251 
 
 the darkness I found the entrance. I hastened 
 along the passage at length I was out, locked the 
 gate behind me, tossed away the keys and my friar's 
 disguise. The rain and mist were so dense I could 
 scarce discern the walls of Magione behind, or the 
 surface of Thrasimene before. A fishing-boat lay on 
 the beach, and some men loitered near by ; for a 
 ducat apiece they rowed me across to Castiglione. 
 Not long after we lost the sight of land came the 
 baying of dogs and the clamor of men from Magi- 
 one ; I shuddered at the sound, then laughed 
 laughed till the boatmen eyed me amazed, my 
 nerves recovered from their tension, the danger 
 that had been so imminent was over." 
 
 Valentino remained a moment lost in reverie; 
 then looking up, he said : 
 
 "Urbino may be taken while we talk ; haste you 
 back, and commence to-morrow the inevitable re- 
 treat ; instead of fighting there, we will gather 
 here three days nearer to the French." 
 
 "And lose Urbino!" ejaculated his lieutenants, 
 with one voice. 
 
 " Maledetto ! we will retake it when these wolves 
 are scattered. How strong is the garrison?" 
 
 "Less than a thousand." 
 
 " At best one to five. At dawn to-morrow send 
 hither the Lady of Este with an escort ; at sunrise 
 start the cannon, and towards noon march with 
 the garrison."
 
 252 VALENTINO. 
 
 " But you will be with us ? " 
 
 " Three dangers threaten. The least of them is 
 at Urbino, and that I bid you withdraw from. 
 The others are, that the French may delay, and 
 that Florence may turn upon us now that we are 
 at such disadvantage. These I remain here to 
 meet." 
 
 " It is for the first time, " answered Michelotto, 
 " that you command me to retire from an enemy ; 
 nevertheless, I obey." 
 
 In the gray of the following morning he reached 
 Urbino, and found all unchanged and the foe not 
 yet in view. Elvira was informed of the resolve to 
 abandon the town. Two hours later the cannon 
 drawn from the ramparts set out by the road that 
 she had already taken. Not long after appeared a 
 vedette announcing the approach of the enemy. 
 
 To supplement their deficiency in cavalry, the 
 confederates had placed a cross-bowman at the side 
 of each horseman, holding by the stirrup leather. 
 This vanguard, followed by Vitellozzo's corps, com- 
 menced a flanking circuit around the city, while 
 the Orsini approached in front with artillery. 
 Michelotto smiled as his practiced eye discovered 
 only the regiments of his former companions Pe- 
 trucci and Baglioni had evidently deemed absence 
 to be discretion. He turned to a knot of officers, 
 and pointing to the horsemen, said : 
 
 " They must not reach our rear ; we have seven
 
 REVOLT. 253 
 
 hundred men, half of them mounted ; we will sally 
 forth together as their flank is towards us, scatter 
 them, and gain the shelter of Macerate forest." 
 
 He and his lieutenants were in full view of the 
 approaching army a group of mailed knights 
 outlined on the rampart against the sky. 
 
 "Yonder is Michelotto," said Gravina to his 
 brother, as they advanced beside the vanguard; 
 " I should know those old yellow plumes the world 
 over." 
 
 "He turns to go," ejaculated Pagolo, " and the 
 others follow ; it is either flight, or a venture in 
 the open." 
 
 Michelotto's troops formed out of view, and at 
 the word the horsemen emerged with order and 
 rapidity from their concealment and trotted across 
 the plain, the three hundred pikemen following. 
 At this sight a bugle sounded from the confeder- 
 ate lines, then another, their cavalry wheeled to 
 meet the onset, and Pagolo Orisini took place 
 beside Vitellozzo. 
 
 The troopers of Borgia spurred their horses to a 
 gallop ; the cross-bowmen discharged their heavy 
 bolts, many of which glanced from the armor they 
 struck, though several men fell from their saddles 
 and a score of horses faltered and sank to the 
 earth. The horsemen of Vitellozzo now dashed 
 forward to the encounter, and the opposing squad- 
 rons met with a resounding clash of metal. In the
 
 254 VALENTINO. 
 
 melee that followed the cross-bowmen again dis- 
 charged their missiles, this time at short distance 
 and with deadly effect. At the same moment, a 
 large column of Orsini's infantry that came run- 
 ning from the centre of the field engaged the 
 pikemen whom Don Michele led, and broke their 
 ranks by weight of numbers. Their leader was 
 borne backward, and, seeing his manoeuvre to 
 check the enemy's pursuit a failure, and his troops 
 in hopeless disarray, he wheeled his horse, and 
 hastened from the field. One glance only he cast 
 upon Urbino, and beheld its parapets already 
 swarming with the advance of Oliverotto's di- 
 vision. 
 
 On the day of this conflict, some hours later in 
 the afternoon, a page brought to Cesare at Imola 
 a summons which called him abruptly from El- 
 vira. It was the announcement of the long-ex- 
 pected envoy from Florence, and Cesare started 
 at the word, impressed with the gravity of the con- 
 ference about to be held with so astute a person- 
 age as Niccolo Machiavelli. 
 
 The new-comer was ushered at once into a hall 
 occasionally used for banqueting, and fitted with 
 more than usual richness. On the raftered ceiling 
 were inlaid painted porcelain tiles, the latest lux- 
 ury of the time ; the windows were of illuminated 
 glass ; on the sideboards were ranged green and
 
 REVOLT. 255 
 
 ruby flagons, and silver beakers; upon the walls 
 were fixed sconces with candles ; while here and 
 there between the wainscoting were frescos of 
 dames and gallants strolling by the waterside, or 
 seated pensive with mandolin and lute beneath 
 garden porticoes, or dancing in slow and grace- 
 ful measure on the green sward, against the clear 
 transparent sky of an Italian evening. 
 
 They entered this room simultaneously the 
 two most subtle men the genius of their country 
 produced in their day the most renowned and 
 the least familiarly known of any historical char- 
 acters of the sixteenth century. 
 
 It was their first meeting, and they greeted one 
 another with the warmth of a mutual interest. 
 
 Cesare took in at a glance the spare, well-knit 
 figure of his still youthful visitor, clad in the travel- 
 ling costume in which he had just come by post ; 
 then his gaze rested upon the watchful, brilliant 
 eyes, the untroubled brow, the calm, thoughtful 
 face, stamped with mental application. 
 
 Both in ripeness of intellectual powers and in 
 maturity of political experience Machiavelli had 
 attained the acme of his life. Skilled by his 
 apprenticeship in the methods of the dark and 
 complicated statecraft which accented the decline 
 of Italian mediaeval greatness, he had come to re- 
 gard the life of a ruler as a magnificent game 
 power, the prize of the successful ; exile, impris-
 
 256 VALENTINO. 
 
 onment, death, the penalty of the vanquished. In 
 his scale of ethics the highest virtue was patriotic 
 love of home that took the place of country a 
 love so generous, that when the native city de- 
 manded a crime the voice of conscience was silent. 
 In his conception, the education of a Prince 
 should denude the heart of sympathy, the brain of 
 prejudice, the daily life of friendship. All men 
 should be friends or foes according to the occa- 
 sion ; all things should be good or bad according 
 to necessity. In the place of the softer traits, it 
 should develop the range of mental and historic 
 vision. It should produce nerves which could en- 
 dure long fatigue, be vigilant through the watches 
 of the night, ever ready to confront danger, and 
 able to suffer reverses, loss, physical pain, with 
 self-command. So far as his station in life per- 
 mitted, Machiavelli had reached the attainment 
 of his ideal ; in the promise of the young Duke of 
 Komagna he foresaw its complete fulfilment. 
 
 Cesare took his guest by the hand, and mo- 
 tioned him to seats within an alcove, through 
 whose windows the last rays of the sun were 
 streaming. 
 
 " You have kept me waiting," he began, smiling, 
 and with half-reproachful tone ; " now, at the 
 eleventh hour, you come to judge how it fares with 
 me in this storm." 
 
 " I tarried because those who sent me were yet
 
 REVOLT. 357 
 
 in consultation," answered the Florentine, in a 
 subdued, sweet voice. "Reputation and the op- 
 portunity, says the sage, should not be lost, and 
 the fortune of many being at stake, we armed our- 
 selves against the fool's fervor." 
 
 " Your Signoria has been put to trouble because 
 of ms." 
 
 " We were contriving means to win such a 
 friend." 
 
 " Whoso scans me so closely must discover 
 faults. But tell me, la bella Firenze deliber- 
 ates." 
 
 " We have sought to inform ourselves," replied 
 the envoy evasively. 
 
 Borgia eyed the speaker with attention. 
 " Let us come nearer the subject uppermost in 
 the mind of both," he said. "If not friends, we 
 would be good neighbors am I not right ? There 
 have been misunderstandings, and some of your 
 eminent men are estranged ; but in these perilous 
 days necessity is upon us both ; cannot our griefs 
 be healed cannot Arezzo, whosoever's fault it was, 
 be forgotten ? " 
 
 "Forgiven it might be ; forgotten no." 
 "You dwell upon an idle distinction." 
 " This is not an idle distinction ; love and hate 
 forget, but wounded vanity never." 
 
 " Vanity is too frivolous even for " 
 
 " Even for Florentines ? " suggested Machiavelli ;
 
 258 VALENTINO. 
 
 " but you forget that pride belongs to the strong, 
 and that it is with bubbles that old men and old 
 states beguile themselves." 
 
 " Call it forgiven, then, so we dismiss the thought 
 and apply ourselves to better purposes." 
 
 " In our Tuscan hills the peasants have a saying 
 Strength lays its roots at home" 
 
 " An excellent device for those who never stir 
 abroad. And by that you mean " 
 
 " That while all your officers and nine-tenths of 
 your men are in revolt, your alliance cannot be val- 
 uable ; nor your possession of Romagna as secure 
 as ours of Arezzo." 
 
 "You have not then heard the news? " 
 
 "No," answered the other dryly; "it must be 
 good news since you alone possess it." 
 
 " Ay, that it is ; nothing less than that the Or- 
 sini are about to resume their service with me." 
 
 "Then rid you of such faithless knights," an- 
 swered Machiavelli, " for behold this letter ; I got 
 it on my way to your presence." 
 
 And so saying he drew from his breast a parch- 
 ment which Valentino unfolded and read half aloud. 
 
 We assault Urbino to-morrow; the populace will 
 rise at our signal ; we are six thousand strong ; an- 
 swer our offer ; together we overthrow Borgia and 
 defy the French. 
 
 URSINUS,
 
 REVOLT. 259 
 
 " From a captain about to return to your ser- 
 vice," added the Florentine. 
 
 Valentino slowly raised his face and answered, 
 "these Barons seek to make the best terms for 
 themselves, but they must make terms with me ; I 
 am in treaty with them the details will arrange 
 themselves." 
 
 " Then you no longer need the French ? " asked 
 Machiavelli, with a searching gaze. 
 
 " You think one cannot visit King Louis without 
 buying his army. It was to persuade him to re- 
 main at Milan, to spare Central Italy his passage, 
 which would be the signal for an advance of the 
 Spaniards upon Rome, that I sought him." 
 
 " If that were indeed your motive," said the Flor- 
 entine, incredulously, " so noble an aim should be 
 prospered." 
 
 " You think ill of the French." 
 
 " I think ill of any stranger who comes with arms 
 in his hands." 
 
 " And I too detest the invaders, be they of the 
 Seine, the Tagus, or the Danube. May we not as- 
 pire to rest upon this mutual enmity, an alliance 
 which danger, if naught else, should render pos- 
 sible ? There are emergencies when defeat is not to 
 be compensated by a dozen subsequent victories 
 when success outweighs a score of reverses on less 
 decisive fields Such a crisis confronts me now. 
 Think you to treat better with Vitellozzo and the
 
 260 VALENTINO. 
 
 Orsini than with me ? or left alone and defenceless 
 how will you confront them, or how divert the rav- 
 enous army of Louis from projects each of which 
 involves you ? " 
 
 " Your army without you is less to be depended 
 on than you without your army ? " 
 
 " In treating with me, you have the warrant and 
 pledge of the Church." 
 
 " It was the Church which called even the Turk 
 into Italy. But enough. For the reason that on 
 you rests the last hope of averting several calami- 
 ties, I do not wish you the ill you think. My 
 recommendations depend upon your answers. I 
 can influence the Signoria; they need emphatic 
 words to harmonize their councils. First, am I 
 right in understanding that the armed support of 
 you by the French is a myth ? " 
 
 "A myth which two years ago did me infinite 
 mischief, and which now, were it proffered, I dare 
 not accept," answered Borgia, resorting to the only 
 means of cajoling his mistrustful guest. 
 
 " Of this you shall give me a guarantee more 
 substantial than the pledge of the Vatican." 
 
 "You shall have hostages, and in proportion 
 as you relieve my peril, will I serve you here- 
 after." 
 
 " I cannot relieve your peril further than to re- 
 strain the arms of Florence from joining with those 
 of your enemies."
 
 REVOLT. 261 
 
 "Grant me thus much and your love I ask 
 nothing more." 
 
 " On my side," continued Machiavelli, " I give 
 my promise, which has never failed. Our agree- 
 ment is a secret personal to ourselves. Upon your 
 assurance that the French shall not enter Eomagna, 
 and that there shall be no alliance betwixt you and 
 them, I engage that not a ducat or a man at arms 
 shall go from Florence to the Orsini." 
 
 These were conditions impossible for Cesare to 
 execute ; it was now, however, only a question of 
 concurring for the sake of gaining time. So it was 
 with an accent of spontaneous sincerity that he 
 answered 
 
 " It is agreed." 
 
 " And now," pursued Machiavelli, " the hos- 
 tage." 
 
 " Oh," answered Valentino, carelessly, " you 
 shall have any officers not absolutely needed." 
 
 "I would not deprive you of a single sword. 
 There is but one hostage I know of within easy 
 reach, whose danger will bind you : where the 
 treasure is, there will the heart be also." 
 
 " Treasure ! gold ! " exclaimed Cesare, surprised 
 at such venality. " It is yours." 
 
 " Gold ! " answered Machiavelli, with disdain, 
 " offer gold to your Roman nobles and prelates, or 
 to the starving mongrels that swarm across the 
 Alps. No ; I have a fetter you shall not slip.
 
 262 VALENTINO. 
 
 You ask my love ; in return you shall pledge me 
 yours. There is here one who, for your sake, has 
 sacrificed much ; for whose favor, this summer, 
 your interests have been neglected. When so 
 much that is precious is given, men must be right 
 that it is love. Her you shall pledge as your 
 surety." 
 
 Valentino saw the trap after it had closed. To 
 refuse, even to demur, would expose his bad faith. 
 He was conscious of having been outwitted. De- 
 prived of the strong arm of France, his mistress' 
 life was to rivet the bonds. To recede was to add 
 the forces of Tuscany to the camp of the revolted 
 Barons. 
 
 " She will not consent," he objected, after a 
 moment's thought. 
 
 "That," replied Machiavelli, "depends upon 
 you." 
 
 " You purpose to take her to Florence ? " 
 
 " Not take her thither myself, for I remain here ; 
 but I shall immediately place her in the care of 
 those who will answer for her safety." 
 
 "Then await my return, while I propose this 
 strange demand." 
 
 Valentino left the room, and the Florentine 
 seated himself and waited. He was never impa- 
 tient, least of all when circumstances had turned 
 to his advantage. That Elvira would consent, he
 
 REVOLT. 263 
 
 never doubted ; lie knew that women love a man in 
 proportion to his exactions ; her sacrifice, by the 
 violation of their agreement, did not accord with 
 his knowledge of Cesare's infatuation. As the 
 instants passed, he imagined what was being said 
 the tearful hesitation, the soft entreaty, the 
 pledge of prompt release, the vows of unwavering 
 
 fidelity 
 
 The door opened, and Cesare reappeared lead- 
 ing Elvira by the hand. Machiavelli advanced to 
 greet the Estense, his eyes fixed in admiration of 
 her loveliness, ere, yielding to embarrassment, she 
 dropped her veil without speaking. He extended 
 his hand to her, while Cesare, following to the 
 stair, gazed earnestly after them, till they passed 
 the doorway and were gone. Then he turned and 
 crossed the deserted chamber whence Elvira had 
 issued. He seated himself absently in reverie a 
 reverie abruptly ended as a messenger entered 
 bearing a dispatch from Don Michele. It con- 
 tained but five words, and Borgia read them in 
 silence that betrayed not the stroke he suffered : 
 
 Urbino capta est. Exercitu confoditur.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 BY THE TIBER. 
 
 ON the morning of the nineteenth day of Decem- 
 ber, 1502, his Holiness Pope Alexander Sixth was 
 the busiest man in Home. His habits of unflagging 
 industry had grown to a thirst for occupation : no 
 point of the horizon that shaped itself about his 
 family was beyond his scrutiny ; no thread in the 
 ever weaving and ravelling woof of Italian diplo- 
 macy escaped his attention. 
 
 The papers which usually covered his writing- 
 table had, for the moment, been pushed together 
 to make room for a sack of German gold two 
 thousand and odd pieces, the equivalent of many 
 years' indulgence for miscellaneous sins past or to 
 come, an absolution or a license, as the purchaser 
 preferred. 
 
 "How fruitful a spiritual soil is this of Ger- 
 many," chuckled the good-natured Pontiff ; " mag- 
 nificent missals and silver chalices, flaxen haired 
 girls for our nunneries, and gold in lien of the 
 unprofitable penances of former days." Then re- 
 turning the coins by handfuls into their leather
 
 BY THE TIBER. 265 
 
 pouch, he removed it, murmuring, " For Giulia 
 when she comes," and resumed the perusal of a 
 sequence of dispatches. 
 
 Giulia Farnese at this moment stood at the sum- 
 mit of the lofty flight of steps by which the descent 
 is made from Ara Coeli. She had come out from 
 that venerable church filled with the devout im- 
 pressions of the mass just recited ; the chant still 
 rang in her ears as she passed between the long 
 line of uneven pillars that we see to-day, and across 
 sculptured tombs set in the pavement, which the 
 tread of millions has worn to smooth indistinctness. 
 Now, the Roman sunshine flooded all about her 
 with radiance, mellowing the verdure and foliage 
 that lay over the buried Forum, and softening the 
 outline of the Alban hills. Her fellow worshippers 
 thronged from the church, while she paused to 
 gaze around. 
 
 To the left lay the Arch of Titus, and behind it 
 the Coliseum, in front stretched the verdant slopes 
 of Palatinus, and to the right at her feet was a 
 wooden cross, ornamented with the paraphernalia 
 of the crucifixion, before which the contadini rev- 
 erently paused. A short cut, of which the bearers 
 of her litter availed themselves, took Giulia through 
 one of the artisans' quarters a hive of industry 
 in times of quiet a centre of turbulence in riotous 
 days. Between the fluttering curtains she could 
 see the armorer hammering at his blades ; the 
 12
 
 266 VALENTINO. 
 
 potter turning a half-finished earthen vessel on his 
 lathe, while with deft fingers he gave it form ; the 
 girl seated at the loom, and casting the shuttle 
 from hand to hand ; the women at the upper win- 
 dows chatting across the narrow street. 
 
 As the litter was halted in the court-yard of 
 the Vatican, she roused herself from a deep pre- 
 occupation ; some of the officers of her household 
 hastened obsequiously forward, the most demon- 
 strative of whom was the jester Pulcio : but Giulia 
 was in no bantering mood, so bidding the hunch- 
 back be in waiting presently at her breakfast table, 
 whither he frequently brought such morsels of 
 gossip and scandal as the breeze blew in his way, 
 she hastened to the private apartment of Alex- 
 ander. 
 
 His Holiness rose from his employment as she 
 entered, took both her hands and kissed them. 
 
 " Before you recount the success of your mission," 
 he began, " here is a buona mano ; the laborer is 
 worthy of his hire, and whoever brings fish to land 
 with such dainty casts, should be laden with gold." 
 
 " Overladen ! " answered Giulia laughing, and 
 letting the weighty bag drop back upon the table. 
 " Is it with such grievous burdens you afflict the 
 bearer of good news ? " 
 
 " You, Giulia," replied the Pontiff, " are one of 
 the few that can always say I have succeeded. 
 And now sit you before me : your letter of last
 
 BY THE TIBER. 267 
 
 evening gave me the result ; tell me now the out- 
 line ; the details can wait." 
 
 " Ginevra and I brought our long parley to an 
 end last night," began the Farnese. " Savelli, after 
 this week's hesitation, consents to the conference 
 fixed for to-day. As you anticipated, he required 
 a hostage, and our cousin the cardinal is at this 
 hour in the hands of the Colonna ; the count ar- 
 rived last evening ; I talked with him, but met only 
 reticences, and as it grew late and Ginevra begged 
 me, I rested with her the night, and delayed but an 
 instant at Ara Goeli this morning. Ginevra dread- 
 ed a night alone with her hot-headed lord," added 
 Giulia maliciously. 
 
 "All this your letter told me," answered the Pope 
 with an expression of disappointment ; " but were 
 the reticences you speak of so inflexible that not 
 one of the temptations, not one of the stings I sug- 
 gested could move him ? " 
 
 " As well sting a bale of hay, or tempt an ox with 
 a penny. He was courteous, listened attentively, 
 and replied nothing. Further than the generalities 
 you indicated I dared not venture ; only at supper 
 I raised my goblet and whispered, Health to the new 
 governor of Rome, and what think you he answered 
 that the governors of Rome were usually too 
 short lived to make health an object ! " 
 
 " That was neither reticent nor courteous," ex- 
 claimed the Pope ; "you said he was both."
 
 268 VALENTINO. 
 
 " That repartee is the sole fruit of all your stings 
 and temptations." 
 
 " Seemed he robust and well ? " 
 
 " Sturdy as an oak." 
 
 " Good. No man of vigorous life disdains wealth 
 and power. You have done excellent service in 
 showing where and how he must be met and 
 trust me I have a bait shall take him ;" and Alex- 
 ander rubbed his hands. 
 
 " This will be pleasant for Cardinal Borgia," re- 
 plied Giulia ; " he stipulated for one week's confine- 
 ment at most, and should your aim be reached, he 
 must spend his remaining days in a fortress." 
 
 "What, a hostage for my own governor-general ! " 
 
 " The words are Ginevra's ; she said, ' My hus- 
 band will neither visit Rome nor live in it without 
 better guaranty than any safe-conduct. The re- 
 moval of the Orsini must needs be sanguinary, 
 and will not encourage him to become their suc- 
 cessor.' " 
 
 " And why," inquired the Pontiff, passing to an- 
 other thought, "why has not Ginevra been with 
 her husband in his exile?" 
 
 "They have not fared well together these last 
 years ; besides, she thought herself in greater 
 safety here." 
 
 "If there is nothing more between them than 
 a pettish jealousy, we must begin by reconciling 
 Savelli with his wife."
 
 BY THE TIBER. 269 
 
 "The laws of human nature do not apply to 
 madmen ; on the subject of his wife the count is 
 insane." 
 
 " And Ginevra ? It is months since I saw her." 
 
 " Not quite so blithe of spirit ; her nature, she 
 says, rather than circumstances, conspires against 
 her." 
 
 Giulia rose, took up her bundle of Peter's golden 
 pence, and said, "I must bestow your gift in safety; 
 moreover, I still fast. Summon me if my persua- 
 sions are needed with that difficult man." 
 
 The Pope did not long remain plunged in the 
 meditations in which his fair visitor had left him. 
 A clerical functionary presently announced Cardinal 
 Corneto in waiting for the audience to which he 
 had been summoned, and a moment later his Emi- 
 nence was ushered in. He had nowise changed 
 within the year since we met him at the Belvedere 
 Villa ; he retained in age that vigor which comes 
 from abstemious habits, and his most marked 
 characteristics love of wealth and fear of danger 
 survived in undiminished force. His restless eye 
 wandered incessantly as if searching for some indi- 
 cation of lurking peril. The loss of the perquisites 
 of his former office of secretary was made up for 
 by extortions wherever a thousand crowns could 
 be wrung from timid avarice, or cajoled from aspir- 
 ing intrigue. He entered, dignified yet subservient, 
 with the bland urbanity of the Italian priest, and
 
 270 VALENTINO. 
 
 having with flattering speech kissed the hand of his 
 Holiness, seated himself as bidden. 
 
 "Ever since the loss of your services," began 
 Alexander in the contemplative tone of one who 
 looks along a vista of years, " my affairs have suf- 
 fered. And not merely mine, but the fortunes of 
 Valentino want the prospered impetus or modera- 
 tion of those far-sighted communings. But though 
 the needs of your private concerns and the care of 
 benevolent works deprive me of your daily pres- 
 ence, you have continued to favor me with a keen 
 judgment where the range of my own vision failed. 
 It is for such a service I have summoned you ; it is 
 such a forecast that I need. May I depend upon 
 you?" 
 
 "Implicitly," promised the cardinal in a tone of 
 relief. 
 
 " It is no light matter." 
 
 "Your Holiness began by saying that I have 
 never been wanting." 
 
 " No ; but here secrecy is no less than wisdom. 
 I am about to place my own and Cesare's fortunes 
 in your hands." 
 
 So saying, Alexander rose from his chair and 
 paced up and down the room. Presently he 
 stopped midway, and, pointing to one of the walls, 
 said : 
 
 " You know that yonder is a sliding panel and an 
 iron box ? "
 
 BY THE TIBER. 271 
 
 Corneto remembered both well. He was not 
 likely to forget certain surreptitious visits to the 
 state papers, nor that his inspections had been in- 
 terrupted by the discovery a year before, that in 
 the Pope's absence a brace of condottieri were 
 stationed hard by. A tiny peep-hole in the outer 
 wainscoting had saved his life by this timely ob- 
 servation, and since then, with the exception of the 
 theft of the supposititious report of Cesare to his 
 father, which, as we know, he had sold to Cardinal 
 Orsini, he had abhorred the secret panel, and 
 shunned the Pope's study, save when bidden to it, 
 albeit he knew that the watchers had long since 
 been withdrawn. If his alarm had been awakened 
 by the summons to a strangely early conference, 
 his misgivings redoubled at this query as he re- 
 plied, 
 
 " Years ago your Holiness took papers from some 
 secret locker thereabouts to show me." 
 
 " Even so. And now I have put there a packet 
 of letters from Venice. Here is a resume of extracts 
 from some of them, without the names of the 
 writers ; they all relate to an alliance with St. 
 Mark. Take this paper ; ponder well the reasons 
 put forward, and two days hence give me a sage 
 counsel." 
 
 Alexander was accustomed to allow largely for 
 the accidents that unhinge the best-conceived de- 
 signs. Aware that his son was about to attempt a
 
 272 VALENTINO. 
 
 stroke against the Orsini, he had resolved, in addi- 
 tion to the temptation of the imaginary letters, to 
 give Corneto the opportunity to warn the in, hav- 
 ing ordered that every messenger leaving for Eo- 
 magna that day or the next should be intercepted, 
 so that were the cardinal in sympathy with the 
 barons he would betray himself. 
 
 To the Pontiff's exposition of his son's purposes, 
 the cardinal listened with a composure that came 
 of long familiarity with sudden emergencies, and 
 also with the resolve, if time yet remained, to warn 
 the brothers of their peril. Alexander vaguely 
 mentioned the following week for the casting of 
 the net to save their lives would bring the reward 
 of a coffer of ducats, and perhaps preferment when 
 the Borgias should be gone and a new Pope reigned ; 
 for like most old men, the cardinal built loftily for 
 the future. As to the advice Alexander sought, he 
 confined himself to an approval of Cesare's inten- 
 tions, curtly declaring that no truce could hold 
 with traitors. The Pope observed a slightly ab- 
 sent manner, and an occasional brevity of speech. 
 He drew his inference, and gave him conge without 
 further delay. 
 
 Once beyond the sacred presence, Corneto has- 
 tened along the vast corridor, between groups of 
 pages and domestics, with here and there a senti- 
 nel in casque and ruffled frill and gayly-colored 
 doublet and hose, leaning upon his halberd
 
 BY THE TIBER. 273 
 
 Already as he passed, unheeding the salutes ad- 
 dressed him, he was busy with his plan of rescue. 
 That young Trasteverino should ride the swift gray 
 stallion, starting from the Appian Gate, making a 
 wide circuit of the walls, crossing the Tiber miles 
 above the city, and bearing to Pagolo the one word, 
 
 Seicare .' 
 
 There must be no papers, and, if taken, the youth 
 should assume the character of a fugitive from his 
 master guilty of no worse than peculation. 
 
 Filled with these preoccupations, he was half- 
 way down the great stair of the Vatican when a 
 group beginning the ascent struck him with amaze 
 and instantly dispelled his benevolent intentions. 
 
 Foremost his safe-conduct in his hand came 
 Cardinal Orsini, uncle of Pagolo and Gravina, 
 attended by the secretaries of his Holiness, and 
 followed by a guard of honor. 
 
 It flashed upon Corneto that his colleague, while 
 imagining himself advancing to an audience of the 
 Pontiff, was already a prisoner that Alexander 
 had captured the one while his son was entrapping 
 the others. The chance which had prolonged his 
 own colloquy, and had brought the Orsini a trifle 
 earlier than his appointed hour, had put them 
 thus face to face. He understood that it must be 
 already too late to frustrate Cesare's plans; he 
 realized, too, that neither word nor gesture of 
 warning could pass from him without detection by
 
 J74 
 
 the eager eyes of those who followed the doomed 
 man. 
 
 He therefore resumed his way composedly ; and 
 with grave and courteous salutation the two cai- 
 dinals exchanged greetings, the one passing out 
 to the desolate space before the Vatican, which 
 has become the architectural Piazza of St. Peter's, 
 the other pursuing his way with the first qualms 
 of misgiving at the armed retinue which, im- 
 mediately upon his entrance, had closed behind 
 him. 
 
 That there was abundant reason for his doubts, 
 Orsini discovered a few steps further. 
 
 Instead of continuing in the direction of Alex- 
 ander's apartments, he was suddenly confronted by 
 Monsignor Eoccamura, who, discarding all accus- 
 tomed reverences, motioned him towards another 
 corridor. The cardinal, stunned by that abrupt 
 summons, and remembering Magione, trembled. 
 His eyes fell upon the unfolded safe-conduct, then 
 he glanced at the officers and soldiers and knew 
 his fate. 
 
 " As you hope for grace," he sobbed, " let me 
 throw myself at the feet of his Holiness." 
 
 His only answer was an imperative gesture. 
 
 He looked despairingly around, and there, at the 
 end of the hall, he perceived Giulia Farnese. 
 
 He gave one loud cry the entreaty of despair to 
 the mercy of woman then he was dragged by the
 
 BY THE TIBER 275 
 
 way his feet refused to bear him, through a suc- 
 cession of galleries, till his captors brought him to 
 an iron door which opens upon the famous passage 
 connecting the Vatican Palace with its citadel 
 the Castle of Si Angelo ; and along that passage 
 he was led, struggling, bewildered, terror-stricken, 
 almost fainting, till presently he came to himself, 
 alone in a prison cell of small dimensions, with no 
 light save the glimmer of a narrow aperture be- 
 neath the ceiling, and devoid of other furniture 
 than a wooden bench. 
 
 The guards on the terrace heard his cries all 
 that afternoon and through the following day, but 
 heeded not. 
 
 The sun rose and sank, and all was quiet ; the 
 weakness of starvation had silenced the prisoner. 
 And when, two days later, he was laid in state in 
 his own palace, those who came to gaze once more 
 upon the familiar face, suddenly sunken in death, 
 wondered at the calm serenity of the features, and 
 murmured one to another 
 
 " Be deeps, but his soul is icith God! " 
 
 The early hours of the day we have described 
 having been thus employed, the Pontiff betook 
 himself to the gardens of the Vatican for refresh- 
 ment in the crisp winter air. He was preceded 
 by a couple of pages, and followed by a few eccle- 
 siastics and lacqueys, this promenade being only
 
 276 VALENTINO. 
 
 for recreation and without the restraints of cere- 
 monial. 
 
 The pleasure grounds in rear of St. Peter's 
 had not their present extent or magnificence. A 
 painting of them of 1505 shows long, straight 
 walks, an occasional arbor, a fountain, here and 
 there a statue all stiff and formal, according to 
 the landscape gardening from which were derived 
 the terraces and trim parterres of Blois and Fon- 
 tainebellant. In front lay the vast substructures 
 of St. Peter's ; behind stretched the desolate Jani- 
 culum, and from an occasional eminence one looked 
 over Trastevere and caught a glimpse of the yellow 
 Tiber and the far Campania. Alexander walked 
 briskly, now calling one of the priests to his 
 side for some brief inquiry, now moving forward 
 alone, pensive and abstracted, anon stopping at 
 some favorite nook to listen to the persuasive 
 music of a fountain, or to scan the flowerless beds, 
 or to watch a lizard that darted timidly across 
 the wall and lingered to observe him with won- 
 dering eye. 
 
 After an hour he returned to the Vatican and 
 betook himself to a dining-room, where exactly at 
 the hour of noon his simple repast of broth, beef, 
 and red wine was served. Shortly after his return 
 to the study where he had passed the morning, 
 his secretary announced the attendance of Count 
 Savelli.
 
 BY THE TIBER. 277 
 
 It had been a year of strife and vicissitude for 
 the Colonna, driven from Home by their powerful 
 rivals the Orsini, and reduced to distant strong- 
 holds, where resistance might be indefinitely pro- 
 tracted, and whence they could return for occa- 
 sional rencounters in the field. The count had 
 found a healthful distraction in the command of a 
 section of the Colonna army. 
 
 He had not met Ginevra until Giulia brought 
 them together as an incident of Alexander's change 
 of alliance from one family to the other. 
 
 Count Savelli was ushered into the papal presence 
 with salute of honor, and with every dignity. In 
 the antechamber he was desired to leave his rapier 
 and stiletto, as was the etiquette for all not in the 
 militant service of the Holy See. 
 
 Alexander received him without rising, and ex- 
 tended his hand, which the count raised to his 
 lips as he bent on one knee. 
 
 "It is to those we love and from whom we have 
 been longest parted that the warmest welcome is 
 offered," said the Pontiff, with gentle benignity, 
 and motioning his visitor to a seat ; " even an old 
 man's heart warms at the story of your exploits in 
 the Abruzzi ; so valiant a son of the Church is per- 
 haps the dearer for the very reason of absence." 
 
 " The absence is not altogether my fault," ob- 
 served Savelli. 
 
 " Nor mine," quietly rejoined the Pope. " It is
 
 278 VALENTINO. 
 
 attributable to one who regrets it: The amends 
 I seek to make should satisfy. Justice is rarely 
 swift of foot" 
 
 " It rarely conies at all," assented the count. 
 
 "My offers have been communicated to you," 
 pursued Alexander, seeking to lead his visitor to 
 less sombre thoughts than those his memories 
 evoked. 
 
 " Holy Father, you bid us to a service to which 
 the Orsini were similarly called. They are now to 
 be disgraced. "Will their reward be ours ? " 
 
 "The faithless get the wages they earn," an- 
 swered the Pope, stung by the question. " Your 
 recompense shall be that which is withheld from 
 those who turn against us the swords we buy ! " 
 
 " Tour Holiness is at variance with the Orsini 
 the chosen guardians of the Church ? " 
 
 " They have outraged every duty." 
 
 "And the Colonna are to hold them fast while the 
 Duke Valentino strips off their goods, their castles, 
 their all." 
 
 " They have proved unworthy of the office that 
 shall be yours." 
 
 The count paused in silent meditation. In all 
 the farce, as he conceived it, of a pretended rupt- 
 ure between the Church and the Orsini, and in 
 this proposal of alliance with his masters, on whose 
 behalf he had been sent to this interview, Savelli 
 saw but a snare of stupendous malignity, wherein
 
 BY THE TIBER. 279 
 
 the Colonna, their soldiers and riches, were to be 
 taken at a single cast of the net. 
 
 " Know you not," cried the Pope, " that they 
 have conspired with the enemies of the Duke of 
 Romagna, and are in open revolt ? " 
 
 "I do not," replied the count, in these blunt 
 words expressing all his mistrust. 
 
 Alexander was silenced by the magnitude of the 
 suspicion disclosed ; an expression of malice and 
 cunning gathered upon his face ; he leaned forward 
 and whispered : 
 
 " You doubt my quarrel with the Orsini ! I will 
 convince you. Within five days you shall see the 
 dead face of Cardinal Orsini ; in twelve days more 
 you shall know the fate of his nephews." 
 
 Savelli received this ominous confidence without 
 emotion, and apparently without a diminution of 
 doubt. 
 
 " If the campaign in Romagna is earnest," he 
 answered, " we shall see the duke driven from his 
 possessions before Christmas greens are gathered." 
 
 "A little time will show," replied the Pontiff; 
 "but," he pursued, "if my words prove prophetic, 
 a great factor will drop from the statecraft of Rome, 
 and in presence of new elements, whose power none 
 can foresee, the Church will need your support." 
 
 " It is the Church that stripped the Colonna of 
 all their possessions and drove them outcast to 
 the mountains."
 
 280 VALENTINO. 
 
 " All shall be twice repaid, and in power, I will 
 place the Colonna among the stars." 
 
 " Many have been placed among the stars who 
 would fain have remained upon earth." 
 
 " The chief who dares not seize his fortune 
 should ungird his useless sword," retorted the 
 Pope. 
 
 " The swords are strong, and the hearts are bold ; 
 but after years of persecution we hesitate to en- 
 gage either." 
 
 " Fear not. But when you behold the deeds pres- 
 ently to be done, know that we have need of you, 
 and hasten to us. Tell the Colonna that were we 
 reconciled and the Orsini scourged for their crimes, 
 none would remain to disturb us. The present 
 should be carved in golden portions, and the future 
 be stormless go, tell them that." 
 
 The Venetian envoy Zorzi, passing through 
 Trastevere, looked with wonder as Colonna's 
 henchman issued from the Vatican. He returned 
 the count's salutation, then hastening through the 
 lanes which spread a labyrinth along the edge of 
 the river, he murmured to himself 
 " Corneto must be informed of this." 
 But even as he bent his steps towards the 
 cardinal's palace near by, he changed his mind ; 
 better, he thought, to alarm the heads of the 
 Orsini faction of the danger which menaced, than
 
 BY THE TIBER. 281 
 
 to lose an hour with Corneto. He altered his 
 course, and presently approached the fortified pal- 
 ace of that family. But the accustomed livery was 
 not at the gate ; the soldiers of the Church were 
 already in occupation, and in answer to his attend- 
 ant's inquiry, the ambassador was courteously in- 
 formed that Cardinal Orsini was from home.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A MASTEKPIECE. 
 
 FOB Cesare Borgia, who valued life in proportion 
 to its intensity, the month of December, 1502, held 
 the most stirring hours of his career. 
 
 The necessity (heretofore incomprehensible to 
 the historians of his time) in which he so suddenly 
 and strangely found himself, of countermanding 
 the approach of Langres' corps for the sake of the 
 hostage held by the Florentine envoy, placed him 
 in an extreme predicament ; but he discovered an 
 expedient even in the meshes which gathered about 
 his helplessness. 
 
 His assurance to Machiavelli that negotiations 
 with the barons had been commenced was true, 
 although his own hope of a satisfactory outcome 
 was not in agreement with the conclusion he pre- 
 dicted. The result of his advances was a complete 
 surprise ; shortly after the capture of Urbino, the 
 Orsini assented to a truce, and Pagolo showed 
 himself disposed to reconciliation. 
 
 The situation of the confederates was, to say the 
 least, equivocal. The timid Baglioni and Petrucci
 
 A MASTERPIECE. 283 
 
 had turned a deaf ear to the most importunate 
 summons. The force in the field was but half 
 the number counted on ; the Florentine Republic 
 spurned with disdain the proffered alliance of a 
 band of revolted condottieri. 
 
 King Louis threatened them as he threatened 
 all. That for two weeks Valentino stood upon the 
 brink of ruin, and that on any day during that in- 
 terval the Orsini could have marched to Imola, 
 and with a single onset have scattered the motley 
 companies there assembled, is no less certain than 
 that they were deterred from doing so by that dread 
 of some indefinite consequence, whose shadow so 
 often stays the strong arm and gives breathing- 
 time to those at bay. 
 
 So the opportunity slipped between their hesi- 
 tations, while to their enemy's camp swarmed men 
 at arms of every description free lances in quest 
 of booty, roving troops of German horsemen, squads 
 of pikemen attracted by the promise of unusual 
 pay until the numerical disproportion between 
 the camps of Imola and Urbino ceased. 
 
 Under these altered conditions the barons sig- 
 nified their willingness to parley. Cesare's first 
 meeting was with Pagolo Orsini, for whose safety 
 Cardinal Borgia was given in pledge ; the con- 
 dottiere returned two days later with gifts and 
 fervent assurances. 
 
 " It is I who am most to blame," Cesare had said.
 
 284 VALENTINO. 
 
 " I have fallen into grievous error. Without you I 
 am stripped of armor. Yet I meant no greater ill 
 than that I dared not follow in all your reckless 
 adventures ; but I should have spoken frankly and 
 not nursed anger. Your inexpert manoeuvres caused 
 such complications such startling rumors were on 
 every tongue, that I stood on my guard where you 
 had left me, while you with your bands melted 
 away in the mists of the Apennines. 
 
 " We have been mistaken in our judgments of each 
 other. If you have grudged me my successes, I 
 never have withheld a golden share in them ; if in 
 these last months I have harbored ungenerous 
 thoughts, forgive me, and let our arms be used 
 once more for mutual advantage. That which is 
 accomplished to your gain shall remain. Olive- 
 rotto shall keep Fermo ; Vitellozzo shall have 
 Pesaro in lieu of Arezzo, and Urbino itself is 
 yours if only all griefs between us be forgotten." 
 
 Emboldened by this hearing, Oliverotto next 
 sought Valentino, and the shade of embarrassment 
 which lay upon the condottiere was dispelled by 
 the welcome which greeted him. 
 
 Not since the first taking of Urbino had they met. 
 The identity of the dead Fieschi had led to investi- 
 gation, and Elvira's eyes having fallen upon a letter 
 of Oliverotto, she had instantly declared it the hand 
 of her Ferrarese suitor, Vallon d'Avrees. 
 
 This discovery fastened a chapter of offences upon
 
 A MASTERPIECE. 285 
 
 Vitellozzo's pupil. The tell-tale cipher despatch, 
 " Fermo a vous, fidele a nous;" the shaft of the 
 Vatican garden ; the rescue of Isidore Savelli ; the 
 attack at the falcon hunt ; the mutinous seizure of 
 Fermo; complicity in the revolt of Magione all 
 these had Oliverotto to answer for, but all these 
 seemed extinguished in the amiable mood of Borgia, 
 who talked only of reconciliation, and of rich suc- 
 cesses to come. 
 
 Oliverotto's heart was relieved as well as glad- 
 dened, and in the contentment of no longer being 
 at odds with so formidable an adversary, he would 
 fain have bestirred himself forthwith upon some 
 errand of arms. It was with a smile at his own grim 
 humor that he thought to turn the tables upon his 
 faithless colleagues of Siena and Perugia, in sug- 
 gesting them as wealthy, defenceless, and within 
 easy reach. 
 
 Without dampening his lieutenant's zeal, the 
 duke musingly objscted that it were prudence to 
 prepare with greater deliberation before striking at 
 such important neighbors. 
 
 Then, urged Oliverotto, might not they aim at 
 smaller quarry Sinigallia, for instance if but to 
 seal the restored friendship? To this no drawback 
 offered, and the elated condottiere returned to 
 Urbino with greetings to Gravina and Yitellozzo, 
 appointing Sinigallia the try sting -place for all. 
 
 Of the four chiefs, Vitellozzo openly doubted
 
 286 VALENTINO. 
 
 the faith of Borgia, and was only persuaded to a 
 course he mistrusted by the arguments and assur- 
 ances of Pagolo, for whose wisdom he had a regard 
 akin to veneration. Gravina yielded to the judg- 
 ment of his brother, though with half a heart. 
 
 And so, at mid-December, the barons gathered 
 their veteran soldiery and marched upon the help- 
 less town, whose princeling put to sea in an open 
 boat at their approach, and whose crumbling walls 
 could not have delayed their entrance for an hour. 
 
 Contrary to expectation, Cesare was not present 
 at the entry of their regiments, which, however, 
 occasioned small comment, for they had daily news 
 from him, and he was known to have started from 
 Imola with thirty-five hundred men. But im- 
 mediately after the occupation, Pagolo received 
 from Cesare a despatch explaining that to disband 
 his remnant of French mercenaries had seemed 
 a means of allaying possible suspicions, and that 
 he devoted two days to its execution. All doubts, 
 save Vitellozzo's, subsided at this evidence of 
 loyalty. 
 
 It was the dawn of a winter's morning by the 
 Adriatic. The troops lay in their quarters in the 
 town ; the sentries gazed listlessly upon a distance 
 which harbored no enemy ; here and there an 
 officer drowsed in some sllelter or watched the 
 silvering orient ; the cocks crew, a dog barked in
 
 A MASTERPIECE. 287 
 
 the distance and another answered ; the birds 
 chirped fitfully, waiting for the inspiration of the 
 sun. 
 
 And Vitellozzo, undisturbed by these faint 
 tokens of a re-awakening world, slumbered and 
 dreamt. 
 
 HQ beheld the familiar scenes of Citta di Cas- 
 tello, the hill sides, the broad fields, the castle 
 gate of his home, and the faces of his wife and of 
 Anselmo and Francesca, sweet and tender as al- 
 ways, yet strangely sad as his eyes encountered 
 theirs. 
 
 The scene changed, and he beheld a banquet, 
 deserted by all but himself and a single lingering 
 guest who sat beside him at the table, indistinct of 
 face, till as the dreamer gazed intently the feat- 
 ures became clear and he beheld his murdered 
 brother, Paolo Vitelli. He saw again, as though 
 restored to life, the stalwart frame and handsome 
 countenance, the bronzed complexion, the high, 
 thoughtful brow, the speaking eye, the long dark 
 hair. His heart throbbed, but a resistless power 
 held him motionless. 
 
 Then the spectre smiled, and rising, beckoned 
 him to follow. Vitellozzo struggled vainly. He 
 sought to seize the hand that motioned, but the 
 figure moved away, and passing beneath a curtain 
 waved a salutation of final summons and with a 
 gasp the sleeper awoke.
 
 288 VALENTINO. 
 
 When the sun stood in the sky, and the 
 breath of scanty flowers and the odor of dead 
 leaves touched the winter air with perfumes faint 
 as the remembered pathos of the autumn, Pagolo 
 and Gravina and Vitellozzo rode together on white 
 mules caparisoned with bells and crimson trap- 
 pings, along a winding wood-path, with here and 
 there a glimpse through the olive branches upon 
 the far-off glistening sea. 
 
 They rode in silence. Behind followed their 
 escort of mounted troopers. No breeze stirred the 
 branches whose December foliage was raised above 
 them in metallic tints. No sound was upon the 
 air save the thud of hoof beats upon the turf, 
 and once from a monastery the sound of many 
 droning voices. 
 
 " On such a winter's morning as this," said Vitel 
 lozzo, at length interrupting their long silence, 
 "went I two years ago by Cesare's command along 
 this Asiatic shore, with guard of half a dozen 
 men, to see an unknown prisoner die." 
 
 "And your prisoner's offending was unknown?" 
 asked Pagolo, absently. 
 
 " Yes ; we were bidden to lead him to the water- 
 side at a given place, and there be the witnesses 
 of his death while he despatched himself." 
 
 "I never yet heard of an execution without a 
 headsman," remarked the matter-of-fact Gravina. 
 
 " The manner of his end was conceded to him :
 
 A MASTERPIECE. 289 
 
 at the edge of the water we unbound his hands and 
 feet ; he threw his cloak aside, and took something 
 into his mouth and gazed about while you might 
 count a hundred, upon the sparkling waves before, 
 and the blue sky above, and then he turned and 
 looked back at the uplands as though his fancy 
 were with the sunlit brooks amid the hills, and 
 then he dashed into the water and swam away, till 
 suddenly he raised himself then sank, and we 
 saw him no more." 
 
 " "Tis odd," remarked Pagolo, wearying of Vitel- 
 lozzo's sombre thoughts, "that so cheerless a 
 memory comes to you at this hour when we are on 
 our way to meet the triumphs and fortunes that 
 shall be ours ere another harvest." 
 
 " I think of him to-day," pursued Vitellozzo, heed- 
 less of the words, " for I remember his face and 
 the look that was on it, and I know now his thought 
 and the meaning that lay in his eyes that it is sad 
 to look one's last on Earth ! " 
 
 " Still the tremors of yesterday ! " ejaculated 
 Pagolo, impatiently. "Nay, turn back rejoin 
 Oliverotto at his regiment, or seek your own and 
 wait beneath the shelter of a thousand pikes till 
 to-night we bring you a wine-cup brimming from 
 the feast." Then more gently, and as though seek- 
 ing by his sympathy to lighten the gloom which 
 had settled upon his companion, he added : 
 
 " I, too, have my sombre hours ; often have I lain
 
 290 VALENTINO. 
 
 on the greensward of a secluded glade with some 
 solemn mountain face in view, and the voice of 
 nature speaking in the fall of a cascade and above, 
 the rustling tree-tops, and beyond them the white 
 clouds sailing across the blue and I have thought 
 how, when the sod covers me, the sunshine will be 
 bright and warm as ever, and the tidings of the 
 breeze as gladsome, and the birds continue to fill 
 the summer air with song." 
 
 " Ay, so shall it be ! " interrupted Vitellozzo, 
 discovering in his companion's words a reflex of 
 his own dream. "And when that which is to hap- 
 pen is upon us, remember that my last words were 
 spoken in our old love." 
 
 " What is it that is upon us and that is about to 
 happen ! " cried Pagolo, crossing himself and eye- 
 ing his comrade uneasily. 
 
 Before Vitellozzo could answer, a shout came 
 from Gravina, who had cantered ahead, as though 
 in reply to his brother. 
 
 "It is he, Valentino," he cried, "just before us." 
 
 The elder Orsini's attention was instantly di- 
 verted. 
 
 " Yes, it is Valentino ! " he exclaimed, with 
 a brightening face, as the young duke and his 
 retinue came in view ; " and at his side is Miche- 
 lotto, grave as ever and to think I could have 
 unsheathed my sword against a comrade." 
 
 Behind Cesare rode Bamiro d'Orco and Candale
 
 A MASTERPIECE. 291 
 
 with a troop of cuirassed horsemen. Further away 
 and out of view were long files of infantry advanc- 
 ing through the woods. 
 
 Never had Valentino seemed so joyous of mood 
 as when on this sunshiny morning he exchanged 
 greetings with his reinstated lieutenants. His 
 words were cordial ; he grasped the hand of each 
 with good-will ; his expression was smiling and 
 benignant. 
 
 "Shall we ride together?" he asked, suavely 
 addressing Pagolo ; and as they turned towards 
 the town, he beckoned Vitellozzo to ride beside 
 him at his left. 
 
 " For," said he pleasantly, " 'tis many a day 
 since we held converse together." None but Don 
 Michele, to whom it was directed, observed the 
 quick, stealthy glance which meant Oliverotto. 
 
 The Spaniard presently trotted on to speak a 
 courteous word to the officer commanding the 
 Orsini escort, and then cantered leisurely ahead. 
 Valentino rode between Pagolo and ViteUozzo, 
 and Gravina followed, accompanied by Ramiro and 
 Candale. They chatted lightly together, and more 
 than once Pagolo glanced towards the still de- 
 jected lord of Citta di Castello, as though to de- 
 ride his apprehensions. 
 
 Don Michele pursued his way to the gate of the 
 town, where, despite his preoccupations, he gave 
 a soldier's scrutinizing look at the rampart, the
 
 292 VALENTINO. 
 
 draw-bridge, the balcony screened with planks 
 whence scalding pitch could be poured upon the 
 assailants : entering upon a piazza, he beheld the 
 gayly colored frescoes, the poles stretched at the 
 second and third stories of each house, whereon 
 the housewife dried her linen, the windows pro- 
 jected over the narrow streets, the space growing 
 narrower till at the last windows the occupants 
 could have touched hands across the street. 
 
 In a square farther on Oliverotto was found 
 busy with his soldiers, assigning the guards for 
 the quarters of the town, and preparing for a 
 salute of honor a bugle flourish and a roll of 
 the high scarlet drums when the duke's approach 
 should be signalled. 
 
 The exchange of salutations was brief. Olive- 
 rotto's constraint took the form of a careless blunt- 
 ness which contrasted with the courteous bearing 
 of the Spaniard. 
 
 "Cesare has sent for you," said Don Michele; 
 " he marvels that you alone come not to welcome 
 him. Leave here your troops for an hour or, 
 better still, dismiss them to their quarters ; we 
 have near upon four thousand men to house some- 
 where in this town, and if trouble arises betwixt 
 your soldiery and ours as to whose lodging is this 
 or that, it will make a graceless beginning to the 
 day." 
 
 The thought of being dispossessed acted
 
 A MASTERPIECE. 293 
 
 promptly upon Oliverotto. He immediately or- 
 dered bis regiment to hasten to the street in 
 which it had been billeted, and there await further 
 commands. Then wheeling about, he put spurs to 
 his horse, and leaving Don Michele to follow as 
 he pleased, rode off towards the gate by which the 
 cavalcade must enter, and not far beyond which 
 he met Borgia surrounded as we left him. 
 
 Michelotto following after, stopped to chat with 
 the captain of the Orsini escort, who had halted 
 his command. Immediately behind rode Cesare's 
 horsemen, and Michelotto, as soon as they had 
 passed, desired the officer of the Orisini troop to 
 send his men to their quarters, adding 
 
 " It is the duke's wish that no soldiery follow to 
 the Potesta," 
 
 In this Michele was mistaken, for as Borgia and 
 the barons approached the gray stone house with 
 overhanging moss-green roof of tiles which had 
 served as palace to the Counts of Sinigallia, the 
 escort of Valentino's troopers rode at their heels. 
 At the door the officers dismounted and entered 
 together. Pagolo led the way, with Cesare beside 
 him. They passed into a spacious room on the 
 ground floor, and here Borgia suddenly faced 
 about. 
 
 There was the sound of many footsteps in the 
 hall, the guards thronged in, the outer door was 
 violently closed and fastened.
 
 294 VALENTINO. 
 
 "What means this?" cried the elder Orsini in 
 amaze, and trembling as his ghastly fate revealed 
 itself. 
 
 None answered but Vitellozzo, who, in a voice 
 hushed almost to a whisper, said : 
 
 " Pagolo, farewell ! " 
 
 A crimson flush of anger overspread Borgia's 
 face as he drew his rapier and passionately 
 stamped his foot. 
 
 Gravina was the first to recover from the stupor 
 of dismay. His long sword in his right hand and 
 in his left a basket-handled main gauche, he faced 
 the bravos who crowded upon him. Pagolo, 
 frenzied with despair and remorse, sprang to his 
 rescue. Oliverotto closed with the foremost of 
 two fellows, then deftly slipping his right hand to 
 his belt, drew thence a stiletto, which he plunged 
 to the hilt in his opponent's neck between the 
 casque and corselet. 
 
 The room resounded with the clash of weapons, 
 the heavy trampling of feet, the imprecations of the 
 combatants. 
 
 It was a struggle which numerical disproportion 
 rendered brief. 
 
 Pagolo was brought wounded to the floor. 
 Gravina's guard was beaten down by the strokes 
 of half a dozen blades, and he was disarmed and 
 bound. Oliverotto received a crushing blow from 
 a mace full on his iron helmet before he was well
 
 A MASTERPIECE. 295 
 
 clear of his first assailant. He struggled on with 
 the furious strength of despair ; it was the work of 
 several minutes to overpower him, to slip round 
 his throat a silken cord, draw it tighter till the 
 convulsive gasps ceased, till the eyes started from 
 the purple face, till the nostrils became fixed in 
 their dilatation for the breath that came not till 
 the lord of Fermo was dead. 
 
 And Vitellozzo alone stood looking on motion- 
 less, horror-struck, and unresisting. His eyes 
 passed from Borgia's vindictive, relentless face to 
 the struggles before him. His lips moved, but 
 no sound came ; the veins of his brow were dis- 
 tended ; his brain reeled ; the blood throbbed and 
 surged between his temples till the forms and ob- 
 jects before him became blurred. 
 
 And now flashed upon his mind one of those 
 momentary and mysterious transitions of thought 
 which in rare instances attend the presence of 
 death. 
 
 The gruesome scene before him vanished, and 
 in its place stretched the familiar landscape of 
 his Tuscan home shining now with a splendor 
 rarer than the beauty of Earth. It was a mirage 
 of the mind, a marvellous phantasm of the imagi- 
 nation. All else but it faded, all thought of danger 
 passed, till, while his last thoughts were thus ten- 
 derly centred far away, the sword-stroke of one 
 who stood near laid him lifeless.
 
 296 VALENTINO. 
 
 The Orsini were spared until news came from 
 Borne, two weeks later, of the seizure of their 
 uncle the cardinal. 
 
 Then they were strangled in the upper chamber 
 which had been their prison. 
 
 Simultaneously with the capture of the barons, 
 their troops were set upon in their quarters by 
 Borgia's soldiery, and being unprepared, were, 
 after some resistance, made prisoners and plun- 
 dered all but Oliverotto's regiment, which made 
 off in a body to Urbino, and there dispersed. 
 
 Thus culminated the crisis of Borgia's affairs in 
 Bomagna. 
 
 A single stroke restored to him its entire posses- 
 sion, destroyed the conspiracy which had held him 
 in its power, and brushed away the army of his 
 revolted lieutenants. 
 
 It was the absolute triumph of patient and pro- 
 found malignity, and to it in after years Ma- 
 chiavelli pointed with the finished judgment of a 
 connoisseur as having been the crowning master- 
 piece of the statecraft of his time.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE BELVEDERE VILLA. 
 
 AT sunrise on the 10th of August, 1503, Elvira 
 d'Este leaned from the window of a Palazzetto in 
 Rome. 
 
 The air was touched with the fragrance of hay- 
 fields reclaimed here and there upon the Cam- 
 pania, and in passing along the street below a 
 fruit-vender's cart scented it with a breath of 
 luscious sweetness. 
 
 A mist on Monte Cavo gave promise of sultry 
 heat. A contadino, followed by the shaggy dogs 
 bred on Italian pasture lands, drove in his flock 
 of bleating goats. The city lay yet in the drowse 
 of the morning. Few blinds were lifted ; not an 
 artisan stirred ; the quiet was ruffled only by sub- 
 dued and distant sounds. 
 
 The circle of walls which, as the last vestige of 
 the defence of the ancient world, speaks from its 
 crumbling fragments so eloquently, stood then a 
 sun-browned line of towers and curtains, whence 
 at long distances a sentinel looked upon the stretch 
 of vacant green, 
 13*
 
 298 VALENTINO. 
 
 Elvira, wrapped in a cashmere robe, leaned in 
 reverie at her casement. Her type is repeated 
 in the modern beauty of Italian girls ; deep, wist- 
 ful eyes ; brow half covered with careless hair ; 
 nose slightly aquiline ; face less full than fine ; a 
 glow of rose beneath the brunette complexion, and 
 with ever and anon a furtive, sidelong glance. 
 
 So preoccupied was she that the sound of persons 
 ascending the stair that led to her apartment was 
 unnoticed. She looked and listened as an officer 
 returning from a summer night's revel strode by 
 singing as he went a song which the soldiers of 
 Charles the Eighth had brought across the Alps. 
 She caught this fragment ere the singer's voice 
 was lost 
 
 L'odeur navrante dez fleurs 
 Fust le dueil de nostre amour, 
 La nuict que, parmy ses pleurs, 
 Elle me diet adieu pour tousjours. 
 
 C'est audessous dez fleurs qu'elle dort ; 
 Souvent je traverse le lieu : 
 Je plains son trespas et son sort, 
 Et je dys pour tousjours adieu. 
 
 And so Elvira heard not the steps that drew 
 nearer the light foot-fall of a woman, the guarded 
 tread of a man. The moment for this visit had 
 been chosen with exactness as that following the 
 withdrawal of the half dozen soldiers who every 
 night guarded the closed entrance. These had
 
 THE BELVEDERE VILLA. 299 
 
 marched away; the custode had previously been 
 bribed to inattention ; of all the servants, not one 
 stirred or noticed. 
 
 Once the woman had paused, assailed by such 
 an instant of hesitation as may shake a fixed pur- 
 pose even in the gentler sex, but the long-nurtured 
 resolve triumphed, and she hastened forward with 
 a murmur which repetition had rendered familiar 
 
 " I told him if ever he loved another, I would 
 kill her." 
 
 Her companion observed this hesitation with 
 impatient disdain. He was a workman simple in 
 his methods, strong, determined, unflinching he 
 had been well paid for the task in hand, and he 
 looked upon vacillation as beneath the human in- 
 telligence. At a sign from his companion, he pro- 
 duced an implement wherewith he softly opened 
 the clumsy fastening of Elvira's door, and they 
 entered her room together ; then he closed and 
 bolted it behind them : and at this instant a little 
 bird that hung in the window where Elvira stood, 
 turned the seed vessel of its wicker cage, and flew 
 away into the freedom of the sunshine and the 
 flowers. 
 
 In the quiet of an August morning the day wore 
 on with rare movement in the hot streets ; for of 
 traflic or manufacture there was little in medi- 
 aeval Rome. The mid-day meal of the populace,
 
 300 VALENTINO. 
 
 the pranzo of stewed meat and maccaroni was 
 followed by a siesta, or by doles far niente for those 
 to whom sleep refused to come. 
 
 Since the overthrow of the barons, Cesare had 
 beheld around him a cloudless horizon. 
 
 His dukedom assured ; his enemies dead or 
 scattered ; confident of a preponderating voice in 
 the selection of the next successor to St. Peter, 
 with youth, health, wealth, and a valiant army 
 what could the future refuse ? 
 
 Since his return from Komagna some weeks pre- 
 viously the problem around which all other inter- 
 ests had turned, was the old question of a choice 
 between France and Spain Louis at Milan, or de 
 Cordova at Naples. 
 
 The Pontiff had not been apprised by his son 
 of the hostage his dire straits had compelled him 
 to yield to Machiavelli ; and since it had not been 
 possible to employ the corps of Langres, Cesare 
 had with careless effrontery disowned his now use- 
 less compact with Louis, and had turned towards 
 an alliance with Madrid, wherein his father, by 
 blood and sympathy a Spaniard, had not been 
 loath to follow. It was the preliminary corre- 
 spondence with de Cordova which led to an inter- 
 esting discovery. 
 
 On the arrival of the last courier from Caserta, 
 Cesare had said : 
 
 "Whoever has been prying into the secret box
 
 THE BELVEDERE VILLA. 301 
 
 has free entrance to the Vatican, and must have 
 knowledge when important letters arrive. The 
 visits ceased upon discovery of the guard : for 
 months that guard has been discontinued ; the spy 
 is presumably aware that unusual matters are 
 being treated with the Viceroy ; he knows of the 
 arrival of a messenger ; surely if the room is left 
 vacant and un watched he will come." 
 
 So father and son went for a saunter in the gar- 
 den alleys, followed by their retinue of prelates 
 and pages, while ensconced in the niche of an un- 
 used door and behind a Leyden tapestry they left 
 Giulia Farnese. 
 
 " Suppose the unknown visitor discovers you ? 
 Cesare had inquired with a laugh. 
 
 " I fear him not," answered the young woman ; 
 "whoever comes on such adventure will be too 
 much pressed to play at hide and seek." 
 
 The Pope, anxious for the safety of his mistress, 
 unfastened the lock which closed the door behind 
 her. 
 
 "The moment you have seen him enter," he 
 explained, " your task is done ; open softly this 
 door and escape to your room." 
 
 The Pope and his son conversed in the hearing 
 of their reverent following during the long hour of 
 their promenade ; chiefly they spoke of the vast 
 Basilica whose walls had risen above the founda- 
 tions, and in view of which they passed. The
 
 302 VALENTINO. 
 
 Pontiff declared his purpose of using for its com- 
 pletion materials to be taken from the Coliseum, 
 and the duke urged him to this course as filling 
 the additional purpose of demolishing what had 
 served in by-gone days as the fortress of the Fran- 
 gipani, and might again be converted into a for- 
 midable stronghold by the enemies of the Church. 
 But their discourse was languid, and often the eyes 
 of both rested upon the windows of Giulia's apart- 
 ment, upon the sill of one of which was at length 
 displayed a vase of flowers the concerted signal 
 
 It is done ! 
 
 Basilica, Coliseum, Frangipani and attendant 
 retinue were all dismissed at a breath, and the 
 Borgias hastily returned to the room in which the 
 Farnese awaited them, her face aglow with excite- 
 ment. 
 
 Her story was concisely told. After an interval 
 which had seemed interminable, the door opened 
 and some one entered from the hall. She looked 
 and beheld Cardinal Corneto. He walked to the 
 secret locker, opened it with a key he held read}', 
 shuffled the papers with trembling hands, failed to 
 find what he was in search of, dropped them with 
 an imprecation, reclosed the compartment, and 
 withdrew. 
 
 The cardinal's fate was not long undetermined. 
 A messenger from the Pontiff brought to him at his 
 adjacent palace the gift of a rarely illuminated mis-
 
 THE BELVEDERE VILLA. 303 
 
 sal the Horce Beata Vergine and a kindly invita- 
 tion to supper in the Belvedere Villa at the setting 
 of the sun. 
 
 A guilty conscience awakened his alarm. There 
 was nothing extraordinary in the summons ; he had 
 often broken bread with his spiritual master in 
 the latter's favorite summer-house ; but now, in 
 the act of promising attendance, his voice changed, 
 and as the messenger made his ceremonious exit, 
 the cardinal sank unnerved in his chair. 
 
 He remained but a moment thus overcome. 
 Hastening through an obscure vicolo to a remote 
 part of the Vatican, he entered unannounced the 
 chamber of Resequenz, major-domo to the Duke of 
 Romagna, where he beheld that individual seated 
 at a table, and plunged in abstraction. 
 
 " Resequenz ! " exclaimed the cardinal in an 
 agony of apprehension, eagerly scrutinizing the 
 face of the man before him, as the latter with sud- 
 den start rose to his feet and made formal obei- 
 sance, " a fearful dread has come upon me I be- 
 hold a spectre from which you alone, perhaps, can 
 save me." 
 
 The official thus addressed had been taken off 
 his guard, and failed to show that instantaneous 
 self-possession which alone would have deceived 
 the searching gaze of his panic-stricken interlocu- 
 tor. Something unconsciously sinister in his face 
 confirmed the cardinal's alarms.
 
 304 VALENTINO. 
 
 Throwing himself on his knees in a frenzy 
 of terror, he clasped the hands of the silent 
 steward : 
 
 " It is true, then ! " he cried ; " play not upon 
 words, but answer ! " 
 
 "Would not your fate then be mine?" asked 
 the other, simply. 
 
 The cardinal rose to his feet. He trembled vio- 
 lently, but the transformation of a nervous fear to 
 the certainty of a danger from which he saw but 
 one escape, gave him presence of mind. 
 
 " You will not lay such inhuman cruelty upon 
 your soul," he pleaded. " Would you have to 
 answer for a crime against one of the heads of the 
 Church? Resequenz," piteously cried the cardi- 
 nal, "if you hope for mercy hereafter, take what 
 you will of my wealth and grant me life. To- 
 morrow I will fly ; and far from the vengeance of 
 my enemies, and remote from this centre of infamy, 
 I will end my days in seclusion, at peace with 
 Heaven and unmolested by the world." 
 
 "Why not escape at once? Why are you not 
 already on the road ? " 
 
 " Heartless man ! would you have me go empty 
 handed ? The sun is near the meridian ; betwixt 
 now and the hour of this accursed supper I will 
 make ready, and at midnight start for Viterbo with 
 my goods and a retinue of men sufficient to protect 
 me by the way, and pressing forward without stop-
 
 THE BELVEDERE VILLA. 306 
 
 ping to draw breath, I can be in safety at Perugia 
 ere pursuit can overtake." 
 
 "Gold! Gold!" ejaculated the other with a 
 sardonic laugh ; " its chains link you even to the 
 chance of death in preference to life without 
 it" 
 
 "But, dear Besequenz," interposed Corneto, 
 " there need be no chance of death." 
 
 ' And what would you pay me for the risk to 
 myself?" 
 
 " Fifty thousand sequins." 
 
 The major-dome's face illumined. 
 
 "It must be here before the supper," he said. 
 
 " Fear not. It would need a bolder man than I 
 to trifle with you now." 
 
 " You must feign to be poisoned cramp, vertigo, 
 quivering chill cause yourself to be assisted from 
 the room, and after that it will not be my fault if 
 antidotes cure you, and you escape from Rome. 
 But at Perugia you must pretend a lingering 
 illness." 
 
 " Of course ; the after-effect of the drug." 
 
 " Here," said the major-domo, " I put into your 
 hand this blue vial which the duke gave me an 
 hour ago. Both at the beginning and at the end 
 of the repast there will be sweet comfits, sugar- 
 coated nuts, and the like ; my orders are to pre- 
 pare the second course, which I shall serve myself ; 
 you will notice that the Pope and Valentino and
 
 306 VALENTINO. 
 
 the Farnese eat not a morsel from that dish, how- 
 ever much they take upon their plates. Do you 
 eat plentifully of it, and let the effect be manifested 
 within a quarter of an hour." 
 
 The cardinal nodded, pressed his benefactor's 
 hand in silence, and taking with him the poison 
 vial, turned to go. 
 
 " Be not seen going hence," whispered Resequenz 
 after him, " or a rope in the court of St. Angelo 
 would be presently waiting for us both." 
 
 Corneto turned with a sudden thought : 
 
 " Suppose that the Borgias examine the comfits 
 and discover why the dose failed ? " 
 
 " The instant you are out of the room," answered 
 the other, " every atom remaining in the dish will 
 be destroyed." 
 \ 
 
 At the Belvedere Villa, as the sun passed below 
 the line of the Ostian hills, Cardinal Corneto was 
 in waiting, and presently Pope Alexander, accom- 
 panied by his son and followed by Pulcio and 
 Resequenz, and the usual escort of pages, were 
 seen leisurely walking through the garden behind 
 the Vatican. All were in serene good spirits, and 
 no one scanning Corneto's placid face would have 
 suspected the tempest of the morning. 
 
 They seated themselves, Cesare and the cardinal 
 at the right and left of the Pope, the places at first 
 set for Giulia Farnese and for Michelotto having
 
 THE BELVEDERE VILLA. 307 
 
 been removed on account of the "indisposition" 
 of those personages. 
 
 The major-domo withdrew to superintend the 
 serving of the repast, and Pulcio addressed him- 
 self to a brace of chained falcons perched in shady 
 nooks upon a veranda where was also suspended 
 the frame of staples upon which the birds taken in 
 the chase were hung. 
 
 "I have a letter to-day from the Viceroy," said 
 the Pope to the cardinal ; " you shall read it to- 
 morrow ; his letters always put one in good humor ; 
 so calm, so practical, so decided, and so amiable 
 withal." 
 
 " The Viceroy is a man of the world," answered 
 Corneto, slightly troubled by an allusion to dis- 
 patches from Naples. 
 
 " Wait till he grows a few years older," remarked 
 Cesare, "and he may not be so smooth-spoken. 
 Time plants a crotchet beneath every white hair." 
 
 "Master," inquired the dwarf turning from the 
 birds, "do white hairs, think you, represent the 
 sorrows or the indulgences of life ? " 
 
 "When mine begin to come, Pulcio," answered 
 the duke, " I shall rather please myself by thinking 
 that each stands for a pleasure, than that all of 
 them have sprung from a grief." 
 
 Reseque'nz entered at this moment, accompanied 
 by servants who offered a prelude of sweets. 
 
 These were followed by the piece de resistance of
 
 308 VALENTINO. 
 
 the meal, a boar's head, with slices cut from the 
 hams prepared in the manner of the modern agro 
 dolce. 
 
 " I pray you eat heartily," said the Pope, "if but 
 to keep me company. It is said that large eaters 
 are not graceful men ; but surely a small eater 
 never was a good companion." 
 
 Agro dolce gave place to a peacock with tail 
 magnificently spread, which was the supreme effort 
 of the Italian cuisine. 
 
 " A beautiful dish," remarked the cardinal, de- 
 clining to be helped from it, " but a tough bird." 
 
 " So say I," assented Alexander, " but my cooks 
 would die of chagrin if I forbade their serving it 
 occasionally." 
 
 The silver chalices they drank from were replen- 
 ished with white wine of Montefiascone, or with 
 red from the slopes of Vesuvius. 
 
 " I notice we have a flask of Cyprus," said Ce- 
 sare, emptying his cup. 
 
 " I know nothing of it," answered Alexander ; 
 "it was brought doubtless as a matter of course." 
 
 "It stands in the ante camera," rejoined his son, 
 " but be it of your store or of mine, let us keep it 
 for the last." 
 
 Upon hearing this colloquy, the dwarf left the 
 room and returned a moment later. 
 
 " I have laid the Chypre in snow," he explained. 
 
 "Your Holiness will have been pleased," re-
 
 THE BELVEDERE VILLA. 309 
 
 marked Corneto, addressing the Pope, " to hear of 
 the discovery at Hadrian's Tiburtine villa." 
 
 " What is the discovery ? " inquired Cesare. 
 
 " A mosaic the size of this table, representing a 
 basket of flowers, and of marvellous workmanship." 
 
 " Those ancients were wonderful men ; they 
 made their roses and their loves immortal ; only 
 their songs cannot reach to us. "Tis pity, for how 
 melodious must the Greek and how inspiriting 
 must the Roman music have been." 
 
 "Simple and monotonous, though," objected 
 Alexander ; " cymbals, trumpets with three notes, 
 the lyre with half a dozen, and pipes in abundance 
 a wretched concert we should call that now." 
 
 The peacock was removed after sustaining but 
 moderate damage, and its place was filled by a heap 
 of sugar egg-shells, each of which contained a quail 
 stuffed with herbs. 
 
 There were no game laws in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, and quails were eaten in August as in Decem- 
 ber. This proved a welcome dish, and paid the 
 penalty of the peacock's toughness. 
 
 " Is there news from the French in the Abruzzi ? " 
 inquired the cardinal, moistening his fingers in a 
 silver basin. 
 
 " Only a budget of descriptions by eye-witnesses 
 of Ives d'Allegre's defeat ; the Spaniards set upon 
 him in a difficult place, and drove half his army 
 into the Garigliano."
 
 310 VALENTINO. 
 
 " Strange that France and Spain are not yet at 
 war." 
 
 " Nay, wherefore ! it was impossible for the van- 
 guards thrust thus far forward to remain month 
 after month in face of each other without collision. 
 The Spaniards, like good soldiers, caught their op- 
 portunity on the wing ; but peace between the two 
 countries might even yet be preserved." 
 
 " D'Allegre has an irritable disposition," ob- 
 served Cesare ; " this reverse has occurred through 
 impatience that made him accept battle at a disad- 
 vantage. To lose one's temper is the folly of our 
 nature. In Romagna d'Allegre was always quarrel- 
 ling ; being alone in command in the Abruzzi, with 
 no one to dispute with, he accepts the challenge of 
 his adversary with the petulance of a child. 
 
 " I recall an instance of fortitude that suggested 
 the possession in an individual of that self-mas- 
 tery which no provocation can shake. 
 
 " At the siege of Capua, the French were cannon- 
 ading, and only when the place was taken did we 
 know what havoc had been wrought. Each day a 
 company of musicians, concealed from view, played 
 to the defenders, sweet, soft, thrilling strains, of 
 which we, far away and standing amid the dis- 
 charge of our cannon, could sometimes catch a faint 
 refrain. 
 
 " It seemed the very type of calmness in the face 
 of death."
 
 THE BELVEDERE VILLA. 311 
 
 The fateful moment had come, and the second 
 course of sweets was placed before the feasters, by 
 whom it was observed with different sentiments. 
 Corneto bore himself with heroic self-possession. 
 Rising, he took the dish from the hand of Re- 
 sequenz, who was about to offer it to the Pope, and 
 with profound reverence presented it himself, by 
 that act implying that although permitted to sit at 
 the same table, he was but the menial of the head 
 of the Church. 
 
 Alexander took several pieces upon his plate ; 
 the cardinal resumed his place, the major-domo 
 handed him the dish from which he helped him- 
 self, and passed it to Cesare, who declined it, say- 
 ing : 
 
 " Sweets once at a meal is enough for my taste." 
 
 The wine of Cyprus appeared at this moment 
 fresh from its cold bath, and with a few flakes of 
 the snow of the Apennines in the spaces of the 
 straw wrapper that enfolded the glass. The gob- 
 lets were filled while the Pope nibbled a crust of 
 bread, leaving his sugar plums untasted. 
 
 Both he and his son observed that the cardinal 
 eat without stint of those on his plate. 
 
 Resequenz also watched him with interest, for 
 the part of a poisoned man was now to be acted 
 before the eyes of connoisseurs.. 
 
 The cardinal went on with his candies with in- 
 creasing relish.
 
 312 VALENTINO. 
 
 " To return to Ives d'Allegre," he said, address- 
 ing Valentino with the satisfied good humor of one 
 who has eaten and drunk well, " I have often 
 thought, and the mention of military affairs re- 
 calls the subject, that even if your superb stroke 
 at Sinigallia had not been made, you with your 
 army would none the less have crushed the Or- 
 sini." 
 
 " It might have been so," replied the duke re- 
 flectively ; " nothing is stronger than desire backed 
 by despair." 
 
 " But it was surer and safer in the method 
 adopted," pursued the cardinal, glad to talk upon 
 a subject which could not be agreeable to the re- 
 membrance of either of his companions. 
 
 "Sinigallia has made me many enemies," said 
 Cesare, answering the cardinal ; " success is the 
 one unpardonable sin." 
 
 " Success ! " exclaimed Corneto, emptying his 
 silver cup. "What a pregnant word is that. No 
 man can look without emotion down the vista of 
 life to the brilliant days when all was new, and the 
 future seemed a galaxy of stars. But how glad 
 must be the retrospect when the harvest is ours, 
 and all the things we coveted are garnered." 
 
 " Is the Chypre cold enough ? " inquired the 
 dwarf as the three goblets were set down empty. 
 
 " Ay, it keeps its subtle flavor, which too much 
 snow would spoil."
 
 THE BELVEDERE VILLA. 313 
 
 The servants had withdrawn from the room, and 
 only Kesequenz remained standing in respectful 
 attention and with his eyes fixed upon the cardinal. 
 It was time, he thought, for the effect of the 
 sweets. 
 
 "I once heard you say," remarked Corneto to 
 Cesare, " that there are seven ways to strike an 
 enemy; through life, health, freedom, reputation, 
 wife, children, property." 
 
 " I but quoted Galeazzo Visconti," answered the 
 duke. 
 
 " And have you never thought, since Sinigallia, 
 that the greatest of all faults is to suffer the heirs 
 of the dead to escape ? Think you the children of 
 Vitellozzo, and the son of Pagolo Orsini will not 
 rise to confront you with arms, or to strike you 
 unawares hereafter ? " 
 
 The answer was upon Valentino's lips, when 
 ' Kesequenz perceived at length the first indication 
 of the comedy to be enacted. 
 
 Alexander and Cesare also observed it, and fixed 
 their eyes in silence upon the cardinal, whose face, 
 till now flushed with the good cheer, had changed 
 color. His jaw dropped, his breath became la- 
 bored, the eyes stared vacantly, a shudder con- 
 vulsed his frame. 
 
 " Done to perfection," murmured Resequenz to 
 himself; "he must have seen a poisoned man die." 
 
 " What is it ? " cried Cesare in pretended amaze. 
 14
 
 314 VALENTINO. 
 
 " Give him air and water," he said as the major- 
 domo sprang to the cardinal's assistance. But the 
 latter shook him off with a gasp of anguish. 
 "Poisoned! Poisoned!" he shrieked with a wail 
 that rung down the silent gardens of the Belvedere. 
 " Your promise was false you have killed me ! " 
 
 Resequenz started with a sudden thrill of dismay. 
 
 " Yet no," continued Corneto in a stifled voice 
 "I wrong you . . . it is that hateful dwarf 
 . . . he got the vial from me ... he has 
 poured it in the wine ... oh ! ... it is 
 the wine that burns like fire ! " 
 
 Valentino sprang to his feet, and glanced hastily 
 about him, but the jester had vanished. His eyes 
 fell on the face of his father there too he beheld 
 the change of color, the vacant stare, the head 
 dropped backward, a foam gathering upon the lips. 
 
 Summoned by the cries of the cardinal, the ser- 
 vants rushed into the room. 
 
 " Quick," said Valentino, to the foremost of them, 
 " take me to the palace ... to my room 
 . . . one of you bring the drops that . . ." 
 
 His utterance failed, his body became rigid be- 
 neath the first spasm of the fiery poison, he would 
 have fallen, had not strong arms borne him from 
 the room. 
 
 By Resequenz's direction the Pontiff and the 
 cardinal were similarly removed, each to his cham- 
 ber.
 
 THE BELVEDERE VILLA. 315 
 
 Cesare was laid upon his bed, and a leech was 
 sent for. On hearing this order, he murmured, 
 "No . . . Ormes." 
 
 One of the servants hastened away in quest of 
 the magician ; a second ran to find some philter 
 of his own, the third stood awestruck. The duke's 
 power of speech had nearly failed, and his face 
 was distorted with the spasm of an approaching 
 convulsion, but with the supreme effort of one 
 whose life depends upon utterance, he said in ac- 
 cents barely audible : 
 
 "The ivory cabinet in the next room break it 
 in a secret drawer is an antidote . . ." 
 
 The servant hurried from the room, and a mo- 
 ment later was heard the crash of the cabinet 
 being wrenched to pieces. 
 
 The duke's eyes became fixed upon a presence 
 that had crept swiftly to his side. It was Pulcio, 
 his worn old face suddenly tenfold wrinkled, and 
 with mouth askew and quivering. " It was I did 
 it," he hissed in Valentino's ear ; " I met Corneto 
 with the blue bottle in his hand ; I knew what 
 it was, I had seen one like it before. I swore if he 
 did not give it me I would denounce him as plot- 
 ting to poison you ha ! ha ! " laughed the dwarf 
 the poor fool's last jest ! " And now my heart 
 is content, for she is avenged." 
 
 " She," faintly echoed Valentino, " of whom speak 
 you?"
 
 316 TALESTEfO. 
 
 " Of Nerina my little daughter whom you took 
 from me three years ago. She died dishonored 
 but that crime, at least, you expiate ! n 
 
 The steps of the returning servant were heard, 
 but ere he passed the threshold the fool had gone. 
 
 Valentino was past speech and barely conscious. 
 The servant poured a little of the essence into his 
 mouth. A moment after arrived Onnes, breath- 
 less; he snatched the vial from the domestic, 
 glanced at it, and raising the sufferer's head, 
 poured all that remained down his throat. 
 
 The effect of this remedy became presently ap- 
 parent ; the rigid muscles relaxed, the convulsion 
 which was commencing ceased, the breathing show- 
 ed that the heart was recovering its action. 
 
 Don Michele entered the room aghast at the re- 
 sult of the attempt upon the cardinal Soon after 
 came del Nero ; for the news had flashed over the 
 city that the Pope was dead, and the Duke of Bo- 
 miigiMt dving. 
 
 " Will he live? " asked the condottiere, 
 
 "Yes," answered Onnes; "begone all of you, 
 and by midnight I shall have brought him back to 
 consciousness.'* 
 
 The condottiere motioned Don Michele to fol- 
 low as he withdrew. They passed into a neigh- 
 boring room, and del Nero said : 
 
 ** I have here that which was delivered to me 
 from the lady Ginevra Savelli, with the message
 
 THE BELVEDERE VILLA, 317 
 
 that it should be given the duke without an hour's 
 delay." 
 
 " Nothing can be given him for a day or two at 
 the earliest," answered Michelotto. 
 
 " He was ever impatient to get whateyer she 
 sent him." 
 
 " He will not be impatient now." 
 
 " Shall I leave it here till to-morrow ? " 
 
 " What is it that you have ? " 
 
 " This basket" 
 
 " A basket of fruit ! nay, he wants no fruit now, 
 no matter by whom sent." 
 
 "Who said it was fruit? I know not its con- 
 tents." 
 
 Michelotto lifted a corner of the lid. 
 
 " Strange," he said, " it seems filled with linen." 
 
 " Look ! what is that '? " exclaimed the bravo, 
 peeping over his shoulder " it is stained with 
 blood." 
 
 A cloth was lifted, and there, the head severed 
 from the body, lay the white, agonized face of the 
 erring and ill-fated girL 
 
 A cry of horror escaped the lips of both the 
 hardened men who looked upon it 
 
 " Elvira ! Povera ragazza ! " ejaculated Miche- 
 lotto, " Ginevra's jealousy has killed her. Go get 
 this quickly out of sight, Cesare shall never see 
 it ; " and he pushed del Nero from the room with 
 his ghastly burden in his arms.
 
 318 VALENTINO. 
 
 The ccndottiere made his way through the 
 streets which thronged with the populace, flocking 
 this way and that, bearing torches, questioning 
 one another, and adding to the general alarm by 
 the fearful rumors which sprang into circulation. 
 At the bridge of St. Angelo the guards had been 
 doubled ; hurrying from their barrack came a col- 
 umn of infantry to seize the approaches to the 
 Vatican. 
 
 The posts at the city gates were ordered to 
 be on the alert ; it was vaguely feared that some 
 calamity was about to smite the city, and that the 
 Pope and his son had been but the first victims 
 of an unknown enemy. 
 
 But none spoke a word of commiseration. 
 
 Some shouted for Colonna, and some called that 
 the Orsini were at hand : but all, between the ex- 
 clamations of apprehension and the faction cries 
 with which they made the air resound, cursed the 
 fallen Borgias. It almost reached the sick man's 
 room that startling cry of rage and vengeance 
 long restrained 
 
 " To the Tiber with Duca Valentino ! "
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ALEXANDER expired eight days after the supper 
 at the Belvedere Villa. Cardinal Corneto, who re- 
 covered and lived for several years, bears competent 
 witness to the power of the poison to which his 
 host succumbed. 
 
 "Soon after swallowing the wine," he wrote 
 to Paolo Jove, " I felt a burning flame within 
 me." 
 
 Contemporaneous writers add particulars which 
 their age accepted that the devil appeared and 
 gazed impatiently on the sick Pontiff, and that a 
 black dog, which took neither meat nor drink, 
 could not be driven from the room. 
 
 The chamber in which the Pope breathed his 
 last may still be seen by the favored few to whom 
 the Appartamento Borgia is opened. Upon its 
 wall hangs Alexander's portrait as one of the Magi, 
 kneeling before a Virgin personified by Giulia Far- 
 nese. 
 
 Few relics survive of the Borgias. 
 
 Of all the likenesses painted of this family, but 
 one remains of the Pope, three of Valentino, and 
 only a medal of Lucretia. One of the state swords
 
 320 VALENTINO. 
 
 of Valentino, which, was borne before him in proces- 
 sion at Naples a magnificent blade inlaid with 
 gold is in possession of the descendant of his 
 old enemies the Caetani. 
 
 At the Church of St. Paul, where are the more or 
 less ideal portraits of all the Bishops of Rome, a 
 blank space till recently appeared, where should 
 have been the features of Alexander; the Holy 
 See would fain have forgotten him, and have 
 brought others to do the same. 
 
 The visitor to St. Peter's sees to-day the sculp- 
 tured portrait of Giulia Farnese above the sar- 
 cophagus of her brother Paul III. She reclines in 
 graceful not to say voluptuous ease, gazing down 
 the distance of the Basilica. Her nudity shocked 
 Innocent X., and he caused a leaden drapery, paint- 
 ed white, to be applied to her marble limbs. 
 However vague many parts of her life, its ignoble 
 fact is not to be veiled ; she remains to history a 
 figure of beauty, famous as the mistress of Pope 
 Borgia, whose love she retained to the last. 
 
 At Ferrara in 1506 Don Ferrante fomented a 
 conspiracy to assassinate his brother Alfonzo. 
 The plot was discovered, and its author seized. 
 Don Ferrante threw himself at his brother's feet. 
 The latter, in his rage, struck the culprit heavily 
 in the face with a stick, destroying the sight of one 
 eye.
 
 CONCLUSION. 321 
 
 At the intercession of Lucretia, sentence of 
 death was changed at the scaffold to perpetual im- 
 prisonment in a tower adjoining the palace. 
 
 So the brothers lived thirty-four years, the one 
 in a prison cell, with but the drifting clouds in 
 view by day, and the solemn stars at night, the 
 other ruling in joyous magnificence till death, re- 
 moving him, liberated Don Ferrante at the age of 
 sixty-three, gray, bent, so long unconscious of the 
 world as to have grown indifferent to it. 
 
 For seventeen years Lucretia lived at Ferrara, 
 ever more and more beloved and honored a duti- 
 ful wife, an exemplary mother, bearing so great a 
 tribute to the bonds of blood that she lamented 
 the death of Valentino. 
 
 The judgment of impartial contemporaries pre- 
 sents her as amiable, well meaning, frivolous, and 
 unfortunate in the influences of her early life. 
 Her faults resulted from vicissitudes for which she 
 was only partly answerable. She sought to efface 
 by the rectitude of her after years the stigma 
 which, deservedly or not, had been fastened upon 
 the repute of her youth. 
 
 During the night of the 24th of June, 1519, sur- 
 rounded by her husband and her children, she 
 passed away. 
 
 Her body was laid in the vaults of the Convent 
 of Corpus Christi. The place of her interment 
 was included in demolitions hastily made for mili- 
 14*
 
 322 VALENTINO. 
 
 tary purposes a century ago, and now even its origi- 
 nal situation is uncertain. 
 
 Thus is curiously fulfilled the prediction of the 
 magician Ormes " an unknown grave" 
 
 Her vengeance accomplished, Ginevra fled to a 
 villa of the Colonna family near the modern town 
 of Fondi. 
 
 But no suspicion fastened upon her. Elvira's 
 death was attributed to Borgia, and when the out- 
 cry from Ferrara subsided, she was remembered 
 only as one of his victims. 
 
 Filled with the fame of the Countess Savelli's 
 beauty, Heyradin Pasha landed one night with a 
 hundred Barbary Moors and attempted to carry her 
 off. 
 
 Boused by the noise, she sprang from her bed- 
 room window and escaped to the hills. A dan- 
 gerous fever followed this exposure, and she died a 
 week later at the Convent of Santa Maddalena, 
 where she had taken refuge. 
 
 She passed away in convulsive delirium, and the 
 sister who watched beside her listened amazed to 
 ravings of the white face of a dead woman. 
 
 Once more did Valentino see Machiavelli : of 
 that interview the Florentine relates that Borgia, 
 lying paralyzed in his darkened room, told that he 
 had anticipated the contingencies that might arise
 
 CONCLUSION. 323 
 
 at his father's death, and had made provision for 
 them all, but that he had not foreseen himself 
 crippled and helpless at that juncture. 
 
 Deprived of his guiding hand, and left? adrift 
 amid stormy times, his fortunes foundered while 
 he still lay beneath the shadow of death. 
 
 The treasure which he committed to Candale to 
 be delivered to Lucretia for safe keeping, was 
 seized by the Florentines. 
 
 The Orsini raised a host against him in Ro- 
 magna, and conquered his dukedom by a few swift 
 strokes. 
 
 The Colonna faction, too long alienated, listened 
 to appeals and promises and threats with equal in- 
 difference. 
 
 Julius della Eovere, who cherished an implaca- 
 ble hatred of the Borgias, succeeded to the Pontif- 
 icate in November ; the French King sustained re- 
 verses, the Spaniards remembered Valentino's 
 alliance with their enemy neither friend nor re- 
 source remained. 
 
 Oblivious to the fact that others could be 
 faithless as himself, he ventured on board ship at 
 Civita Vecchia under safe conduct, was seized by 
 order of the Pope, and delivered to Gonsalvo de 
 Cordova, who sent him to the Castle of Seville. 
 
 Here he remained a prisoner for two years, suf- 
 fering occasionally acute relapses from the poison 
 that yet lingered in his blood.
 
 324 VALENTINO. 
 
 In October, 1506, lie escaped and took refuge 
 with the King of Navarre, at that moment in con- 
 flict with Don Loys de Beamonte, Constable of 
 Lerina; while awaiting better days, Cesare took 
 service under him and received command of the 
 corps put in the field against this revolted vassal. 
 
 On the 12th day of March, 1507, Cesare, at the 
 head of some light horse, pursued a sortie back 
 toward the castle limits and ran full into an am- 
 buscade. 
 
 His soldiers fled at the sight. 
 
 Unhorsed, he fought valiantly on foot, until 
 overwhelmed by numbers and pierced with wounds. 
 
 His body was stripped of armor and ornaments, 
 and being found on the ensuing morning by a 
 party of searchers, it was thrown across a mule, 
 borne to the Cathedral of Pampeluna, and there 
 buried. 
 
 So perished Valentino at the age of thirty-one, 
 leaving only the brief chapter of his dramatic and 
 sanguinary career. 
 
 Across four centuries of intermediate history we 
 look back to the suffering and desolation of me- 
 diaeval days in Italy. 
 
 We marvel at the ghastly visions which remain 
 of that sombre period : it is difficult to us to com- 
 prehend such men and such times. 
 
 The long anguish is ended. No more the tramp
 
 CONCLUSION. 325 
 
 of foreign soldiery : no longer the strife of city 
 with city. The light of a beautiful day has dawned. 
 The fairest hope of Dante has been surpassed, and 
 he, the poet-patriot, is honored and loved by a 
 united nation of his countrymen whose capital is 
 ROME.
 
 University or 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 Box 951381 
 
 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 
 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. 
 
 UIT16 
 
 PRINTED IN U.S.;" 
 
 CAT. NO. 24 )6I
 
 L/C SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A A 000199967
 
 H^l - >-* i '^4fu