DON TARQUINIO
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DON TARQUINIO
\The author reserves U. S.,
serial,
dramatic,
and
translation rights.]
DON TARQUINIO A KATALEPTIC PHANTASMATIC
ROMANCE
BY
FR.
ROLFE
AUTHOR OF " HADRIAN THE SEVENTH,"
ETC.
LONDON
CHATTO
&
WINDUS
1905
TO
H.
R.
FROM HIS
AFFECTIONATE BROTHER
To
some, Love comes so splendid and so soon,
With such wide That
wings, and steps so royally,
they, like sleepers
wakened suddenly
Expecting dawn, are blinded by His noon.
To
some, Love comes so silently and late, all unheard He is ; and passes by,
That
Leaving no
gift
but a remembered sigh,
While they stand watching But some know Love
at
at the
another gate.
enchanted hour
Him singing like a bird afar Him coming like a falling star
hear
They They see They meet His
:
:
eyes
and
all
:
their world's in flower.
ETHEL CLIFFORD.
PROLOGUE DEAR HERBERT:
When
the
last
a certain idiot asked
of one day in the in
was a-dying,
century
me
to write the history
man of
of a
life
the era of the Borgia.
It
fashion
was to include
every single act and
deed of his during a because it was given four-and-twenty hours wanted for a magazine, which proposed to :
of such histories illustrating the manners and customs of the Smart Set publish
a
series
in all ages.
Of
course
graphs which
I
instantly thought of the holo-
Don
toletes Poplicola edification
Tarquinio Giorgio Drakondi Santacroce wrote for the
of his son
port to have
Prospero.
been written about
as the leisurely effort of a ix
man
They
pur-
1523-1527,
of unbounded
PROLOGUE
x
energy very anxious to express himself; and there was one of them which certainly seemed
my
pat to
Don
all
doings
Tarquinio's
m
fr
1495,
(
actually did describe
It
purpose.
on
one day in
a little before) 6 p.m. to 6 p.m.
round the clock.
was very exciting and
It
very comical.
So as
did
I
But
it.
readily
you'll
that the frightful
age
man wrote an
No
Latin.
was
:
which was
of his own, wasn't
was by no means easy understand when I hint it
Greek
macaronics
his English tralator's difficulties
And boil
down
You
see,
that
I
was
he
to
But
explained
with a wealth of
my
down
set
did.
a
into
terms of
the
gentleman
And
book
a
it
he all
detail
:
but
it
his
consider
!
what
again, think
then
jargon
where
doubt the fashion of
write
to
all
Italian
it
means to
magazine article. commission were everything did so
such
a
the lot.
voluminously,
which simply could
not be omitted.
And
of
course
my
version
was
rejected.
PROLOGUE was
It
mere category
a
xi
not
a
story.
I
myself could see that. I
the
put
curses,
on
the
a
in
thing
who
idiot
cupboard with had invited me
on myself enough to waste four months
do a
to ass
make
to
useless
in
trying
of a silken purse
out
sow's ear
a
for being
thing,
mean, in attempting to compress a piece of real and serious and elaborate history, and an amazingly amusing character study, I
and a breathlessly ture,
a
into
intricate
story
adven-
of
merely ephemeral ten pages or
so of journalism.
There the papers lay until a week ago, when I had just finished my new book,
and was rummaging
among my belongings with the idea of tidying-up before beginning something fresh. They looked
as
though
they
might
be
interesting. I
took
them
out
;
and
conned
them
over. Little
by
little
I
saw what
an
accented
PROLOGUE
xii
fool
had been not to
I
own
Don
let
own
Tarquinio
quaint
acute
humorous sensuous conscientious way.
For
tell
it's
his
tale,
nonsense
all
his
in
to
say
that
Fifteenth
the
Century can't possibly speak to the Twentieth, because it is the Fifteenth and not the
and because those two centuries
Twentieth, haven't got have.
It's
And,
me
to
Common Denominator. Human Nature. a
since
so,
write
a
which
Catholic clergymen, or
silly
bothering
always
you're
book
not
is
my
Waterman's Ideal be
let
and
tralate to
You'll
you Don
find
him
about
incomprehensible
abnormal modernities antiquities, or I'll
They
his
for once
Barnum,
Tarquinio's holograph.
and
his
fellows just
as
and comically silly, and just as haphazardly and unexpectedly wise, and just deliciously
and just as bad, as the people whom you meet every day of your life, who always go such a frightfully long way round in as good,
their
not
endeavours to attain their objects, and bit like the disagreeably unnatural
a
PROLOGUE in
people
In
books who
ordinary
do the right thing right moment. short,
if
beings, these are
in
you're
the
tells
plight
the
right
risked
Great Ban,
should, and to
at
the
human
in
his
says of himself, and
Mark how
longings.
his
life
anxious
live,
and to
to
to
win act
love.
From CRABS HERBOROUGH,
On
way
your ones.
story of his fortunate
the
how he
and
persistently
interested
Read what Tarquinio his
xiii
the Feast of Saint Mildred.
day. release
as
he
Learn
a
from prince
DON TARQUINIO i
DURING
the
of
paparchy
Guicciardini
from
the
present year,
Clement,
1
of the
first
Messer
Francesco
and Messer Paolo Giovio came
Fiorenza,
bringing
written manuscripts
:
me
to
to the
their
end that
I
well-
might
read the same, and praise them or vituperate
them, as well for the purity of the good of the race of men.
But the
said manuscripts
letters as for
ought to be burned
;
and no copy of them ought to be preserved. These scribes are, as I have said, of Fiorenza
;
and they have written of events which took 2 place in the City when they were little boys. 1
Pope
Clement
Seventh
began
" to a the only " City
Roman.
the
A.D. 1523. 2
Rome
is
to
reign
DON TARQUINIO
2
They have no means of knowing these events, They have dared to except from hearsay. that which
write
they have
man Roman
impossible for any to
fully
of
intreat
Fiorentini
And
always
of Fiorenza truth-
by cause Carthaginian, which
of the hatred, indelible, all
for they
:
But we know well that
certainly never saw. it is
heard
bear
events,
Romans.
us
to
myself do know these their histories for I indeed was to be false and shameful I
:
concerned in the the City, at
making of history here in the same time of which these men
have dared to write mendaciously. Messer Francesco is a rather vain vacuous
man, incapable of dealing with grave matters. I
believe that
his shallow
he wisheth to be honest
mind causeth him to
:
but
collect gossip,
without testing its truth, as may be seen in the manuscript wnich he will not burn, where
They
say,
and
It
is
and
said,
and other suchlike forms are
Messer
Paolo,
on
the
written gossip as though
it
I
am
told that,
reiterated.
other
hand,
hath
were history: nor
DON TARQUINIO hath he deemed tions
Moreover, when
Francesco.
of his
The
in these three
I
showed
plainly
words, saying
:
people wish to be deceived.
them
deceive
will
Messer
that, to
responded
And,
aforesaid
mine own knowledge, certain allegations were false, he audaciously
him how
"
qualify his asser-
to
right
manner of the
the
in
it
3
an
after
return
in
hundred
I
will 1
for
gold
sequins.
years,
my
mendacity
have become verity."
The
said
Messer Paolo thus hath confessed
himself to be a
liar,
flagrant, impenitent.
So
long as he was content to write of those things of which he had cognition, for example the
Book About
Fishes 2 which
printed, so long he as a rather
used his 1
but
The it
lately
hath
been
was worthy of observance
pagan man who diligently But, seeing that he ability.
rustic
little
gold zecchino was worth about half-a-guinea,
had about four times the
latter's
purchasing
value. 2
I
suppose isy
Don
Tarquinio to mean
De
published A.D. 1524. I
2
Piscibus
DON TARQUINIO
4
falsehoods
but
also openly hath boasted of the same, let
him
not
and
hath written
only
his
It
dead be anathema. that
simple matter.
a
is
me
to
appeareth
history
many
the
writing
of
Let each man,
from the age of puberty, write of the things So few men can which happen to himself. that
write
written.
more
not
Also,
than
enough
will
be
some men, having been born
under benignant stars, will rise while others, having been born under malignant stars, will :
fall.
The
their
successors
writings of the will
will live
;
and
by reading what
profit
The
they have written.
first
writings of the second
die and disappear with the corruptible carcase
of their writers.
Wherefore
myself will write the history
I
of one day of mine thou,
my
son,
mayst
own
life,
learn
in
the
order that
true
method
of writing history that is to say, with knowledge, with a share in the fact, with truth as :
before
the
of persons
priest,
and
with things,
accurate
descriptions
but chiefly
without
DON TARQUINIO desire
any
of
persuading.
5
But
the
four
stumbling-blocks to truth, which the Anglican
mage are
1
must be avoided, and they
invented,
:
The
influence of fragile or
thority
Custom
The
unworthy au-
:
:
imperfection of undisciplined senses
:
Concealment of ignorance by ostentation of seeming wisdom. Furthermore, as to what truth
is, I
will say
faith
from the truths of our most holy which are of divine revelation and there-
fore
not to be questioned, the truth
that, apart
is
that
which every man may acquire from the apprehensive nature of perfectly cultivated senses :
or, is
as
the
Zeno
the Stoic saith, the test of truth
Kataleptic
o Prospero,
I will
the evidence of 1
Phantasm.
For
this cause,
write history for thee from
my
proper senses alone, and
This would be Br. Roger Bacon, O.F.M.
DON TARQUINIO
6
not from the
of ungoverned and
idle reports
ungovernable tongues. to write the I will choose day on which
history of the
was delivered from
I
disability,
of the day on which Alexander, magnificent, I will invincible, made me what I now am. write
history of
the
that day,
had no
Of
share.
know
But, to
write.
things were done in which
many
little
these
of
Cardinal
of
Borgia
The
Prince
Ferrara,
and
Prince
Squillace,
should
persons,
and
write
seeing that 1
of
I
I
will
I
knoweth and
as
as
I
am
I
will write.
the
Gioffredo other
am moved, capable,
and
Nevertheless,
none of these have written, thou
Regnator Olympl
The 2
as
2
1
innumerable
moved
be
and should be capable should
Olympos
that
must
needs
things
I
the history of that day
absolutely as the Ruler of it,
On
fortunate day.
my
is
Don
Tarquinio's designation
Deity.
am
led
to
Machiavelli called
believe
The
that
Prince
Cardinal of Valencia, and later
this viz.,
Duke
is
he
whom
Cesare (Borgia), of Valentinois.
DON TARQUINIO be content to take
shalt
a
good enough
at
that
that
wish
I
be
It will
father.
history, seeing
making and
its
history of that
the
day from me, thy loving
7
assisted
I
to
tell
the
truth.
Thou
1 know, o virginal Prospero, that, in the year MCCCCLXXXXV after the Admirable Parturition of the Mother-Maid, our house was
shalt
For xij years before, on the ninth day of the kalends of March, mine uncle and our baron Madonno Francesco, the same who suffering for
its sins.
was the model for Messer Simone Fiorentini's 2 image of our primate Saint George of Seriphos, had been stabbed in a brawl by one of the
We instantly had
infamous Dellavalle.
leagued
with Orsini against this our hereditary
enemy
This Prospero was born xiii Sept. 1513 /.*., under the Sign Virgo and the Planet Mercury. He seems to have been of a singularly pure mind, very He left a studious, and an excellent man of affairs. 1
great
name behind him
nuncio 1
;
and
as cardinal, plenipotentiary,
as the introducer of tobacco into Italy.
This sculptor was commonly known
tello.
The
and
image of
St.
George
is
as
at Florence.
Dona-
DON TARQUINIO
8
and Colonna
and had comported ourselves in such wise that, during iij months, the blood of ;
those monsters
But,
City.
of ridding
befouled
when we were this
the
in the very article
land of those
George our
Saint
in
every gutter
even as
reptiles,
progenitor ridded his
said
of Seriphos of the pterodactyl, for very few
Isle
of them
remained
1
Paparch
His
Own
alive,
reinforced
then
our Lord the
them with the bands of
house of Dellarovere and with those
of Riarj to which He was allied by the marriage of His sister. Then indeed we tolerated many
His
evils.
the
said
man,
City,
Sanctity expelled us
woman,
priest,
from
all
and
child,
encumbering us with the Great Ban so that we never should return ; and, further, He ordained
the
Catinari.
2
cause
my
where we 1
2
of
demolition It
was done
cousin
now
;
our
and
for
buildeth that
palace this
new
on
same palace
shall live.
Xystus the Fourth (Francesco Dellarovere). Piazza Catinari, where the earthenware dishes
came from.
DON TARQUINIO my
Marcantonio,
said
g
being mine
cousin,
Being of a singular habit of mind, anxious to evade the society of most men, and not having a taste equal in age, retired to Fiorenza.
he became a disciple of Messer Lionardo da Vinci that miracle of
either for
war or
for letters,
genius,
who loved him
Phaidon
for his beautiful hair
studied
the
painting,
like bats or
castle
men might
swim with webbed
loved
whom
he
architecture,
fortifications,
arts,
of fly
ingenious with wings
feet like tritons.
of the junior branch made way to our of Deira by Squillace in the Kingdom, 1
which thou never
That
with
:
and the construction
machines whereby
We
Sokrates
as
demesne
Greater Greece,
seen
hast
was
formerly
but shalt
see.
denominated
2
by cause that while yet the City was no more than a cluster of Alban 3 shepherds' huts on Campidoglio and Latium a 1
"
Lo Regno "
/.*.,
Southern
of Naples. 8
The
line Hill.
space between the
2 rj
Italy, the
Kingdom
pe>ya\r} 'EXAa?.
two peaks of the Capito-
DON TARQUINIO
io
took kingdom, numbers of our progenitors ship from Athens, violet-crowned, immortal,
and founded
But
at
fighting
states
and
cities
Deira we
fortified
men and
youths
among
the
arteries
of these were
natives
;
and, filled
on these
shores.
ourselves, drawing
apt
war from
to
by cause
that the
with the blood of
Athenian heroes mixed with the blood of those fierce
Northmen,
vicinity
who
also
about the time when
a-building, that
is
settled
our
in
castle
say about the year
to
our
was
ML
Redemption, our potency became superior to that of all other barons of
since our Fructiferous
the said Kingdom.
But, though
we
lived in
shewing ourselves rather dangerous to any who would have been our enemies, yet we maintained ourselves with all the incessant
peace,
stringency of siege, at
first
in
preparation for
an assault by the Riarj, with our ancient foes, (which never was delivered, I suppose by cause that the whole orb of earth knew that we were very gravely to be feared being driven to bay
;)
and even afterward, when Xystus had migrated
H
DON TARQUINIO to
The Lord and
had
lost their
the Riarj and the Dellarovere
predominance,
we
our precautions, seeing that concerning
the
manner
paparch Innocent
1
abated none of
we were which
in
ignorant
new
the
would use Himself toward
us.
In those xij
o Prospero, thy
years,
father
passed from the care of nurses to boyhood and I am not to even to the gate of adolescence. intreat of those years now, nor of the manner
in
which
I
spent them.
But
I
will say that,
something of the solitary habit of Marcantonio, and being not entirely engrossed
having
by martial exercises or by human
my
fellows
made
thinking
deemed
were,
it
Maker of
I
me
learned chafe,
to
think
;
and
by cause that
I
to be a terrible sacrilege against the
the
pelled to waste
Deira,
I
letters as all
being
World
my fit
in
that
I
should be com-
among the rustics of mind and body to equal
life
any patrician in the City. My syllogism was the syllogism of the Alexandrian mages :
1
Innocent the Eighth (Giambattista Cibo).
DON TARQUINIO
12
Intelligence
God
is
must be Active :
Intelligent
Therefore, of His Nature for a force
God
not a force.
is
the Creator
Own I
Therefore,
But
at
Deira
He
create
:
:
Image He created also must Create. I
must
which engendereth nothing
is
In His
:
was
Me
:
as a bird in a cage, as a
prisoner in a dungeon, as a scorpion in a circle
of
fire
1
nor was there any release
i
Wherefore
the
new
for
of
adolescence
me. me,
exquisite, ebullient, very grievously did chafe.
But by chance, on the Valentine
occurred
in
to
the
me
year
the
of
Saint
MCCCCLXXXXV, there
Most
Cardinal- A. of Santa Lucia 1
festival
Illustrious in
Silice
Lord
alias in
Don
Tarquinio seems to have been born under the Sign Scorpio and the Planet Mars : which accounts for his queer character. I think this expression to be an allusion to the scorpion's well-known practice of
committing suicide by stinging by
fire.
itself
when surrounded
DON TARQUINIO
13
Orfea, the Prince Ippolito d'Este of Ferrara.
He
came with an admirable company out of Syracuse where he had been buying wrestlers :
was very curious in every kind of human monster, and his collection of athletes was
for he
without
He
rival.
being abnormal
:
vermilion
hat.
way of
was of the age of xvij years he had worn the
for he
and during
years,
himself also was by
ij
He
was
tall
of
frame
and
supple of sinew and mighty of limb, having fortified
his adolescence
exercises.
face
Grace and charm
of him.
with healthful
gleamed
with archery and other
with
bloomed on the
His olive-coloured skin glowed His bright black eyes pallor. grave
tranquillity,
meriting
His whole aspect was most basilical. praises. He was an expert swimmer and, with whatso;
ever weapons he adroitly strove, he did inure
himself
to
heat
and
cold
and
night-long
1
vigils.
Thou 1
shalt
know, o
my
rosy Prospero, that
Ciacconius, in his Lives of the Pontiffs, seems to
have availed himself of this description of the Cardinal of Ferrara.
DON TARQUINIO
i4
two kinds of beauty, videlicet the beauty of the body and the beauty of the soul.
there
are
The
latter
manent
;
is
be preferred: for
to
and
he
who
possesseth
is
it
per-
psychical
immortal gods, divine ones beauty Yet this kind inhabiting heavenly mansions. of beauty is not easily perceived. Wherefore is
like the
the possession of the other kind
is
much
to be
by cause that physical beauty maketh the world to turn round and to stand at gaze, desired
:
whereby perception of psychical beauty, there be, is
the
is
facilitated.
more important
when
its
first
any
Hence, physical beauty :
although, unless to
be added psychical beauty, invalid
if
it is
effect
liable to
it
become
should have faded.
But the Cardinal of Ferrara had both kinds of beauty, even as
I
the present scribe have both
kinds of beauty.
When we
first
looked upon each other, our
attention was arrested by sight
:
but,
nized each
means of the sense of
when words had other
as
passed,
we recog-
being of equal texture,
even as one star doth recognize another cross-
DON TARQUINIO
15
as travellers ing the firmament of heaven, or
returning to their dear homes recognize their
kindred standing on the threshold greeting. After many words had been spoken for, as :
soon
the glances of our eyes
as
together,
striking
the
first
clashed
of
sympathy, burned in our minds, spark
whereby a certain fire and as Harmodios and Aristogeiton loved each other so did
we
then the mighty Ippolito thus
:
addressed me " It is not meet that such an one should be :
chained
to
this
rock of
Deira,
vultures of impotent desire and
where the of annulled
energy consume thine heart and liver." Thus he spoke: but there was a his
in
saying "
mind,
perceiving which
plan
responded,
:
Only the successor of Him,
Us
and
able
to
Our house with deliver
Alexander." 1
I
;
and
Who
the Great
that
is
the
chained
Ban,
is
Paparch
1
Alexander the Sixth (Rodrigo de Borja y Borja,
commonly
called Borgia).
DON TARQUINIO
16
Ippolito answered
"
We
me
again, saying
:
Ourself are in the grace of the said
Moreover
Alexander, magnificent, invincible. the Great
Ban
not run in thy despite so
will
long as that thou shalt be in Our company and Rome hath for, where Este is, Ferrara is :
;
no
jurisdiction in Ferrara."
His saying
was a true one.
having collected heart
Cardinal of Ferrara,
anon, with the
As we
Rome.
rode,
rode to
we conversed concerning
might be manifested
exhibit
the
had not such
contended. firmed
my
me no
that,
though
limberness and quickness cause to blush while
discovery
we gave names
manner was.
appeared
when our
But,
by the
qualities,
It
irresistible strength as Ippolito
had, nevertheless
of eye gave
:
of our
nor did we omit to
beauty of our bodies in feats of
strength and agility. I
I
things, in order that the beauty
many souls
my my
turned
I
Wherefore,
familiars, with a joyful back upon Deira ; and
To
alliance
of
our
we
was conadmirable
to each other, as the
Ippolito,
I
gave the name
DON TARQUINIO 1 Hebe, on account of
17
To
his xvij years.
me,
he gave the name Sideynes, 2 on account of my xv years. And so conversing and contending,
we reached
the City.
was agreed that
It
should
I
the Estense Palace,
in
live as a
guest
such time when
until
Ippolito should find occasion for speaking of
me
to
was. City,
And so it our Lord the Paparch. But, as soon as we had invaded the
I
became conscious that
had exchanged on account of the I
one prison for another for, Great Ban, it was not convenient that :
from the Estense
out
go
decurion
3
Palace,
I
should
unless
a
of the cardinalitial familiars attended
and surrounded me. Thus,
was precluded from seeking such my youth and my spirit required.
I
adventures as
Now
and then,
order that 1 97/87;
I
I
accepted
the
restraint
:
in
might see the world's metropolis,
= youthful
prime
(in
Sparta,
the eighteenth
year). 2
aiSevvrj^
=a
youth of
fifteen
to
sixteen
(Laconian). 3
Ten
soldiers
and a lieutenant. 2
years
DON TARQUINIO
18
of which
myself was no mean
I
the estate of
my
But
citizen.
procession terribly irked
me
;
would not have gone out any more, save for a maid whom I espied on the third
and
day
I
and she was thy proper mother, o ProsFor, when I saw the tender girlishness
;
pero.
of her, and her blue-black black eyes, and her rosy
hair, flesh,
and her bluewhich was so
and pure that I knew it to be soft and firm and cool to touch, then the fire of bright
love was kindled
in
my
dear breast
;
and
I
But her very name was yearned after her. hidden from me: nor might I ask it of any, for I was environed by my guards, and she was
in
the
train
Her
of a princess.
gait
of equal age with me.
She appeared to be For which causes, I
pervaded the City
hours in hope of an
proclaimed her nobility.
at all
auspicious encounter.
Once
I
scattered primroses
of her beauty.
ward
:
but
I
low
at
the
feet
She gazed modestly downlooked where I loved.
II
THAT
was the third day. The eighth was my fortunate day. set down the history of the said day, Kal.
Mar.,
day of Mars
the
being
I
will
a.d. vij
in
the
year MCCCCLXXXXV.
Divine Phoibos was finishing his course, and his radiant horses were about to plunge
when
into the ocean-stream, trious Silice
Most
the
Lord Cardinal-A. of Santa alias in
Ferrara, with
Orfea,
Illus-
Lucia
in
Prince Ippolito d'Este of
me, Prince Tarquinio Georgio
Drakontoletes Poplicola di Hagiostayros, 1 came 1
The
gentleman's actual surname, of course, was
Santacroce
mania of the
:
his
but,
being
epoch
Greek form of
for
rabidly
infected
with
the
Greek, he must needs give
it
c
Ayioaravpos.
Regarding
his
frequent allusions to Saint George of Seriphos as his progenitor, the
curious
may remember 19
2
that
2
it
was
DON TARQUINIO
2o
meadow beyond the Milvian where we had been playing at great-
from a Bridge
certain
1
ball.
2
on
his
A
of patrician pages had played
pair
which was red
side,
pair played
on
my
side,
names of the that
portance
Many
persons
I
said pages I
should
have
and
another
which was blue
the red were victorious. the
;
but
:
cannot remember it
of im-
remember
them.
nor
:
thrown
is
the
great-ball
Deykalion threw stones and the names of the throwers have gone down into oblivion.
since
;
These throwers were among those. Having come to the bank of Tiber, we Perseys of Seriphos that Perseys'
who
slew a dragon (pterodactyl
mother Danae founded Ardea
r),
in
Latium, that Publius Valerius Poplicola came to Rome from Ardea, that the house of Santacroce descends from him,
and that the armorials of Santacroce are the armorials of Saint George, argent a cross potent gules.
which considerations a somewhat
From
startling theory
may
be formed. 1
2
Now
called
Ponte Molle.
Pallone, a deliriously scientifically ferocious
common
in Italy.
game
DON TARQUINIO
21
Indian oars-
ascended the cardinalitial barge.
men
propelled
flesh
resembled the
wheat when
as
it
and the colour of
;
some
colour of a
their
of ripe
field
zephyr sways the
delicate
stems in the sunlight not more than half rebut their eyes were like vealing poppies :
of
pools
ink,
upon
fathomless,
glittering
pearl, very beautiful, and quite unintellectual. Servitors crowded amidships.
mother
o'
Turkish
and
arbalisters
manned
Ferrara
bulwarks.
the
from
halberdiers
Pages,
in
liveries
resembling vermilion skins from toe to
throat
and
tabards, cross,
in
bearing
displayed
to
the
at
life
and
whenever
barbarians
of Gaul
on the one
Paparch the
of
Tarquinio,
would
they
cardinals
play
at
days when the Keltic
were occupying half the side
Alexander Castle
For, like
princes
great ball, in those old
in
their
prow the double-
teach discretion.
Ippolito,
risked
City
armorials on
golden, and the high Estense gonfalon,
order
like
wrist,
of
was
Tiber,
being
Santangelo
while
the
beleaguered
on the
other.
DON TARQUINIO
22
For
this cause Ippolito displayed his state,
any man of
that
who
evil
mind,
so
presumptuous,
should be tempted of the devil to molest
might know that he would incur the ban of Holy Mother Church for molesting a car-
us,
dinal
not
less
than
the
ban of Ferrara
for
molesting an Este.
The
We
above the river was growing chilly. were heated with the game needed to
air
who
continue in action, that
we might evade
perils
of ague or of fever or of the Pest, most per-
Wherefore
nicious.
as possible
I
wrestled as vigorously
with Ippolito inside
curtains of the canopied poop.
strength reduced
and he threw times, I
till
me
:
But
his great
suppleness to no price
once and twice
and
he was weary of easy victories
was weary of the carpet. Abaft Ripetta, 1 came one
rumours It
my
the vermilion
with
whom we
in a little boat
:
;
six
but
with
instantly collogued.
was said that some sort of a peace had been 1
The
port
Umbria was
where the
landed.
agricultural
produce
from
DON TARQUINIO It
patched-up.
was about
mind became inflamed with
King
we descended from
desire
having crossed the
Wherefore,
inquiry.
river,
said that the Keltic
to relinquish the City.
Ippolito's
of
was
23
the barge
and made
;
we might
haste toward Vatican, in order that
get the news from that side.
As we
hurried
through
the
streets,
heart was sad and disconsolate in
cause of
mine
my
ill-used
by of cause and by longing and I was oblivious of all
secret
body
my
mine
;
breast,
other things. Ippolito perceived to console
me,
knew not
ail
my
grief,
and
set
we walked along
as
the causes of
my
:
himself
but he
He
distress.
spoke only of the Great Ban, which indeed weighed heavily, and moreover it was the root
and source of
mine
all
For, had
ill.
been for that grave impediment,
been a
free prince
could have
won
;
I
it
not
should have
and, with
the desire of
my freedom, I my soul, and also
body to advantage. Thus passed, from grieving over
could have used
my
he spoke: but
I
DON TARQUINIO
24
mine unknown maid and
my
bruised
flesh, into
most profound trouble by cause of my disAnd that trouble was so sore that very ability. I would soon it changed into furious despair.
do
:
but
I
could not do, by cause that
To
not do.
myself
merely a bandit.
seemed
I
Yet
I
I
useless.
might I was
got no joy of
banditry as other bandits did,
my
by cause that
I
was too foolish or too wise to comport myself as a bandit.
was
Blood thoughts
;
to Vatican
and I
blinding
my
lips
mine
quivered
eyes
at
fiercely.
came, in a passion of rage.
these
Thus
Ill
I
SAW
those great stone stairs leading to the
long fortified gallery which extends from the Apostolic Palace to the Castle of Santangelo.
saw the porphyry-coloured lines of paparchal I also saw men-at-arms which guarded them. I
knots of chamberlains
the porphyry-coloured
and pages and prelates which clustered upon them. All around me were voices and the noise
of movement.
and barons, each with
Cardinals
and bishops
his
company, continually were arriving and ascending the stairs and disappearing along the gallery above, or emerging
therefrom and descending and departing. All this time, Ippolito was pouring sympathetic I
words into
my deaf ears.
contrived to hear
him say
As he
left
me,
:
" Be of good heart, O Sideynes, for thy chance may be near even now. Fortune never 25
DON TARQUINIO
26
ceaseth to turn her wheel
may Then he
to-day
pages
and
;
Our
ij
and what
is
down
be up to-morrow."
climbed the I
was
stood by a
1
;
stair,
attended by his
left alone.
window
decurions
in the hall,
remained,
very sad.
waiting
in
my
vicinity, but not so near as to intrude upon
my my
secret.
Mine
breast, silently,
which came
in
heart began to
very bitterly
weep within
but the crowds
:
and the crowds which went out
were ignorant of
my
grief.
To
the genuinely
nothing more distracting (and consoling) than the knowledge that he is aggrieved,
there
is
keeping his grievance to himself.
Anon,
a certain princess entered, attended
by
a galaxy of maids-of- honour, all chattering like
She was most virginal and young, with a long sheet of shining yellow hair flowing loosely from a garland of jacinths. Her
jays, very flippant.
robe of mulberry-coloured silk was embroidered
The paparchal pages with gold herring-bones. swept us against the wall to make a passage for her.
I
took one by the
ear,
demanding the
DON TARQUINIO lady's
name
for a very valid reason.
Madonna
that she was
said
27
Having
Lucrezia Borgia-
Sforza, the daughter of the Paparch's Sanctity,
the wife of the Tyrant of Pesaro, a pearl of
women, to
all,
with I
and good, gentle and courteous
anon he threatened
my
for
lovely
iij
abuse of his silver
tore out of
whose
But
ear.
with penalties 1
consoled him
ouches shaped like herons which
my
cloak
through the throng, to the princess
me
:
I
;
made
and, having pushed a very
low obeisance
for I wished to be seen of her
myself had noted my maid. When Madonna Lucrezia had given me a frank and simple look of admiration, for I was in
train 1
not unnotable in a knitted habit like a skin of nacre-coloured silk embroidered with a flight
of silver herons, 1 she also climbed the disappeared
:
stairs
and
but her maids-of-honour waited in
the gallery.
was standing below, strenuously looking Courtiers came forward up there, upward. I
1
The word Ardea
of Ardea
is
signifies
" a heron."
The
the cradle of the race of Santacroce.
city
DON TARQUINIO
28
to pairing with the girls, strutting
and
fro like
muster of peacocks. One of the maids had no companion. She of apes and
a troop
a
was walking by herself. An enormous baron, one of the loyal Cesarini, came from the gallery. His company gathered
round him
The
began the descent of the stair. maid also stepped down in his
as he
solitary
when
was sinking again into my melancholy; and then I saw no more of anyone,
train, just
I
but only her.
Her
sea-blue robe was girdled by great cat's-
Her mane
eyes set in gold. floated beryls.
around her from a coronal of sea-blue
There was
her eyes,
blushes
of blue-black hair
modest look of seeking in Tender half-veiled by lovely lashes. a
her
flesh.
I
watched her very cautelously, maintaining
my
brightened
dejected attitude
powers of
my
by the window, using
will to
times she passed
diaphanous
me
draw her
as she
to me.
paced the
hall.
all
the
Several
Anon
she stayed by me, lifting her lashes, fulfilling
me
with the light of her regard ; and she said
:
DON TARQUINIO "
O
art
Madonnino, why
29
thou so unutterably
sad?" and wrenched myself from my distress comported myself as one to whom a divine I
;
vouchsafed, letting a look of recog-
vision
is
nition
gradually
went to her
come
into
mine
So
eyes.
and drew her into the embrasure
;
of the window, where the mailed backs of decurion
walled
us
off
not
angry
modest, not unwilling.
but
:
dawn
in spring.
sweetly
Her mood
mine; and mine heart became sea at
I
City.
tender,
brightened
She was not mine
continued to speak.
I
:
for
said
;
I
but
which that
I
means of approaching her even now was ignorant of her name and
hitherto had had no that
I
as blithe as the
she was to be had for the asking
cause
that
my
She was
my
from the passers-by.
two firm knees, I told her had loved her since first I saw her in the
And, on
I
:
;
used the sacred language of lovers. She begged me to rise, lest some passer-by and her eyes darted should misunderstand me I
;
up the
stairs
to the other maids with
their
DON TARQUINIO
3o
She was very young, and perhaps a
partners.
by the violence of love, though I she by no means was for flying from it. stood up and, by cause that I most fervently
little
terrified
;
regarded her, she
her eyelids droop a
let
while she responded to me, telling
Anon
and condition.
in the sweet affray,
she used a
demanding
speak about myself. into
the citadel of
my
her
name
new stratagem that
I
should
was driven back
I
So,
me
little
sadness,
mine
assault
She pushed me closer, persisting, gently urging me. Anon I told her how that our house had been being prevented.
notwithstanding that we were
xij years in exile,
Book
the most noble patricians in the Golden
of
Rome
and
spoke of Saint George the Dragon-slayer of Seriphos, of the Great Ban, of our razed palace, of our baron fooling at ;
Fiorenza.
I
I
said
that
I
was a scion of the
younger branch, and innocent of the murders which had caused us to be banned and I ;
told her of
my
necessary to notice of
breeding, with
be
mine
known by arts
and
all
her.
parts.
other matters I
gave her
There
I
was
DON TARQUINIO
31
to serve her, as she could see, young, strong,
well-instructed, not uncomely, and burning for I also an opportunity of doing deeds. spoke of Ippolito, my friend, who had brought me to the City in search of that opportunity which
was not
at Deira.
She, with divine tenderness, feared for safety.
the
observed
precautions
and
the
privileges
the Estense familiars.
enjoyed among side of these things, I
as yet
our
said
I
Further,
We
mine house.
He
to reign.
So
had been
laid
if
bade her to know that
Paparch
had not manifested
and,
I
He
Wherefore
how
whom
I
so
well
might execute that Alexander so far
special
virulence
were bandits when found
us.
willed,
He
had taken the
toward
He
began
The Great Ban
on us by His
of meeting an opportunity. her
But, by
was not a notable person upon
Lord the
justice.
my
gave her confidence again, reciting
I
predecessors
could
annul
the sake
risk, for
And
;
it.
1
showed
that Ippolito, being in the Paparch's
was watching daily for a fortunate moment in which to plead my case. Not
favour,
DON TARQUINIO
32 that
wished to sue for favours
I
:
but
was
I
seeking an opportunity for doing some signal service,
which should merit and compel pa-
parchal approbation.
But, until
my
preferred to help myself.
I
should have been re-
disability
was (so I said) like a prisoner chains, unable to use myself.
moved,
She moved a
little
nearer to me, lifting the
sweet deep wells of her eyes for in
;
"
and she
O
said
I
I
O
Madonnina,
pity,
responded,
instantly
proper eyes to hers, saying
me
to bathe
:
Madonnino, how
But
pity
is
how
I
pity
bending
at
the word,
!"
my
:
akin to love."
saw mine image shrined within those mirrors of her soul.
And,
in
I
I
inIt
was an omen, very fortunate, very invigorating. If Hersilia loved me, that nerved me and I ;
would
persevere.
So
I said.
She wished to speak for me to Madonna Lucrezia saying that that one was beneficent :
to everybody and all-powerful with her
Holy
Father.
But
I
denied her.
A
Most
man
DON TARQUINIO ought to fortunes I
raise
owe
himself and not to
women.
to
33
That was
also said that Hersilia
was
his
sentence.
my
like the angel
who
formerly delivered the Paparch Saint Peter from
She
chains.
myself. a
little
had made
me
free
Nothing more was necessary except patience and a fortunate event.
She gave her hand to mine hot was as dainty as a baby's.
At
to
strong
that
moment, Ippolito and
kisses.
It
Madonna
Lucrezia appeared together in the gallery ; and began the descent of the stairs. There was a
sudden collecting of companies. Long-legged pages darted hither and thither with much confusion striding
He
;
and anon
I
was by Ippolito's side
down Borgo.
had no news for me.
Our Lord
the Pa-
parch was playing with chess against His favourite 1
and only had whispered ij words to the cardinal. What those ij words
page out of Spain
1
j
This perhaps would be the Pierotto Calderon Cesare is said to have murdered so very
whom
romantically indeed.
3
DON TARQUINIO
34
were, was Ippolito's secret. for him.
was
my
What secret.
I
Nor had
had heard from
down
any news
my
Together we went
pondering our proper affairs. So we ascended the waiting barge ceeded
I
;
and pro-
Tiber, rapt in meditation.
the sun set in gold.
maid,
in silence,
And
mi WHEN
the barge had
swung
of the shoal
free
of smaller boats by the quay, and had attained mid-stream, Ippolito anon emerged from his I
thoughts.
was a gleam of I
returned
setting
emerged from mine.
also
hilarity in his
trouble
black-eyed glance.
was understood that we were
It
it.
aside
for
the
engaging each other in some as our manner was.
Having blessed
plunged
There
moment, and feat
of daring,
cast off his vermilion robes, Ippolito
his
into
body the
;
and
forthwith
river,
strongly
smoothly
swimming
with a huge leap sideways and a circular sweep
of alternate arms
and a double
downward
thrust of his
mighty haunches. I for a few moments watched him, while I strengthened my proper arms by swinging the heavy armshields,
wooden,
cylindrical, 35
studded
32
with
DON TARQUINIO
36
we had used in our game Anon, having made ready, I
square knops, which
of
great-ball.
climbed on the high shoulders of the steersman, standing there till Ippolito saw my whiteness
;
and so
dived into
I
the
barge's
wake, and swam.
The oarsmen ours
;
diminished
their
to
speed
and we swam between the right bank,
where our Lord the Paparch kept His court in the Castle of Santangelo, and the left bank,
where the army of the Keltic king inravished half the City.
gether
We
continued swimming to-
under the new
Xystine
Bridge,
and
under the Cestian Bridge, and by the Island, 1 until the barge was moored by the Estense
quay
in Trastevere. 2
which Ippolito got out of Morocco, attended us when we climbed Their chestnut-coloured bodies were inboard. Gigantic jatraleiptai,
with azure-green. Using pure oil of olives in which violets were macerated, they girdled
1
The
2
This
Island of Saint is
Don
Bartholomew
Tarquinio's word
for
in the Tiber.
shampooers.
DON TARQUINIO
37
imparted friction with their hands to our chilled
When my
flesh.
skin had the rosy glow
nut-brown
of
vair
muffled himself in
me
robed
pomegranates, they
squirrels
:
of
cloak
a
in
of
but
Ippolito
the ermine and vermilion
of his great-cloak, covering his head with a coif of the same. Chamberlains with vj torches went before him,
when we
Our
went before me,
the barge and entered the palace.
left
teeth
iij
chattered
articulate speech
:
with
cold,
preventing
but our bodies were warm.
There was an immense crowd of
familiars
along the quay and by the water-gate, free-
from
lances
Ferrara,
Gothic
halberdiers,
Dacian slingers, red-haired Skythian wrestlers very gigantic, roe-footed runners from Utter
North
Britain,
athletes, Indian
singular
crowd,
African
have
Ethiopic
acrobats, all selected for
physical
as I
Moors,
beauty said,
or capability.
some
The
seemed to be immense
:
but considering that Ippolito was a prince as well
as
persons
a
cardinal,
was
by
no
a family
means
of over
merely -
cccc
abundant.
DON TARQUINIO
38
barons
Many
are well
persons families
many sacredly purpled known to keep much larger
but Ippolito cared more for quality
:
and he cared nothing at This trait of for ostentation or display.
than all
and
for
quantity,
was very pleasing to me: for I all times would rather have those
his character
myself
at
exquisite things which no other
prince hath,
than a superfluity of those things which are
common to all. The water-gate,
iron-barred,
clanged behind
us.
Armed footmen
stair.
vermilion
Slight
lined the
patrician
on
on
that,
made
obeisance in
xv antechambers.
A
bevy
of delicate
this side, plebeian
the
pages,
iron-shielded,
youngsters, whose hair glittered like cocoons in candlelight, joined our progress.
1 for pay cccmd golden sequins of these specimens of The Creator's
was wont one
handiwork than
Ippolito
to
he had collected no more
and
;
viiij.
He
I
admired
greatly
1
told
About
me
them
;
this,
seeing
how
and he described
7,000, or $30,000.
DON TARQUINIO the
which
difficulty
sole to crown.
we passed
the
to
chambers.
From
thou
know how that
on
go
our
to
bathing-
a cardinal kept state in
father's
no
But
youth.
I
thing which
single
will
did
I
day may be hidden from thee. Well-grown pages, girt with white napkins, that
spread the floor-sheets and sponged
with
warm
water, rubbing
emollient.
alkaline,
jasmine-water fine flax,
over
me
me,
they indued
and
me
cloths.
Wrapped
in
a
my
flesh
with lupin-meal,
Having
poured dried
me
cold
with
with knitted under-
garb of soft wool, swathing
I
;
this description, o Prospero,
the days of thy continue,
conversing,
grooms and our gentlemen
we parted
shalt
Thus
wardrobe, where the master
waited with his so
in
was no blemish on
them from
and
had
had
agents
there
for
them,
finding
his
39
my
wet hair with
woollen
night-gown,
encountered Ippolito similarly arrayed in the
wardrobe.
The
grooms
produced
various
and our pages deftly did them on sheathed in Ippolito's grand legs were
habits
us.
;
silk
DON TARQUINIO
40
hosen, tyrianthine-coloured.
of the same covered
A
loose doublet
was open on the breast and the long wide sleeves, shewing the laces and embroidery of his smock.
His
poignard
his
dangled
body.
from a
It
belt
golden
formed of linked dryades and naiades. his shoes were vermilion. cap and pectoral his
cross was hidden in his
chain
was
set
His
His
smock
;
and
with those periapts which
procure fearlessness and avert drowning, passion, incubi and succubi, videlicet carnelian,
And
topaz, coral.
I
must not omit
jasper,
to record
that the sapphire of his ring, worth dc sequins, 1
was engraved with a figure of the Heroic Herakles strangling the Nemean Lion, which inchanteth against
But
I,
on
my
colic
part,
and
gaineth
favour.
chose to wear no smock
that night, preferring a certain habit of white
which clung to my contours. shaped like an inverted chevron on silk
It
was
breast
and back, with broidered bands of pearls on silver and I chose it by cause that I could ;
1
About
1,200, or $6,000.
DON TARQUINIO more
breathe
freely
when
my
41
was
throat
mine heart was very full of the joy which cometh to him who hath done well bare, for
Indeed
with his body. still
I
hardly could stand
while the pages very carefully rubbed the
on me, smoothing the wrinkles but, when this was done, I knew that I had chosen rightly, for this habit was no restraint delicate fabric
A
to me.
:
pointed belt of linked silver medals
engraved with the
loves
of
and
Leykippe
Kleitophonta bound a brief close flounce silver-banded silk round
my
loins
;
and
of
my
were of white buckskin, clasped with below my knees. at an handsbreadth
boots silver
brought me a white silk cap proud with plumes, and a thick cloak of white velvet
They
also
reversed with ermine.
So that
I I
stood, while Ippolito praised
resembled
thalerose image of
me, saying
Messer Verrocchio's
lithe
David carven of shimmer-
Concerning which same image, and concerning also the other image of David by Messer Donatello, I took occasion ing mother
o'
pearl.
DON TARQUINIO
42
to narrate the tragicomedy of the said images,
and
of
the
of
adolescents
ij
Deira named
Baldonero Fioravanti and Rufo Drudodimare,
and
of
their
And
cardinal. 1
an appendix, 2 the mention of it
But
same history I shall put seeing that no more than was so pleasing had made an end of
discourse
when
I
me
speaking, he sent to rings for
pertinent to this present
is
my
to Ippolito that,
a page with a tray of
mine acceptance. adornment of
vj for the
first-fingers
and
white-faced
the
the
in
history.
with
doings
my
Wherefrom
my
I
chose
thumbs and
third-fingers
my
videlicet a
:
cockatrice, intagliate in green jasper, for avert-
the
ing
combed, joy:
an
evil
the 1
a
fair
boy's
head well-
in
smaragd, for preserving Apollino with a necklace of herbs,
intagliate
in
intagliate visibility
eye:
heliotrope,
which conferreth
when anointed with
Kythereia Rafaele
and
Ares,
Sansoni-Riarj,
marigold-juice
intagliate
struck
in-
pallid
in
at
:
chalsixteen
when he was expecting to be murdered by the Medici. Which his present tralator takes leave to omit.
DON TARQUINIO for
cedonyx,
victories
gaining
mene, intagliate
43 the
:
Anadyo-
in sea-blue beryl, fine, brilliant,
very large, also for gaining victories ring set through on
and ass-hoof, for
The
venom
against
thanked Ippolito, patrician
sides with
I
sent
him the
pages,
who
shadows, quietly quarrelled while
filled
they
a silver
toad stone
augmenting manlihood and
for
protection
all
:
and,
;
having
rest in the tray.
stood
in
among themselves
our burses with
perfumes,
comfit-boxes, kerchieves, combs, mirrors, lets,
tablets,
rosaries,
our
and other
gear.
amu-
We
struck them in the rear with spatulas from time
Nor would we permit them
to time.
the said burses to our
would have been
belts
:
to affix
our forms
for
falsified thereby.
Wherefore, to were compelled carry them, they perforce attending served.
us
closely,
But we
sat
buffeted resting
as
in
occasion
arm-chairs,
while the grooms covered us with sheets with fringes, drying
and combing and scenting our
raven-hued and yellow-silver hair. For our solace, a chamberlain admitted a
DON TARQUINIO
44
pair of chaplains in black cymars with an arch-
book of hours.
luth and a
intoned vespers with
kneeled, and
They
At the
completorium.
Sign and Et fidelium animae, the bells of the
new manner, strange
City began to sound in a
then
me, but
to
familiar
o Prospero, videlicet
v
strokes,
iij
to
iiij
thee,
strokes,
stroke, xiii strokes in all.
/
strokes,
enough
looked with inquiry toward Ippolito. He smiled for he had been at the heart of things I
:
that
day
and he
;
that
said
it
was the new
ordinance of our Lord the Paparch.
Our coverings
were removed.
instantly
vermilion cushions were placed before us.
The
sank on the knees. intoned, in tion
;
Two All
Cardinal of Ferrara
honour of the Fructiferous Incarna-
and we responded to him, saying
F. Angelus
Domini
R. Et cocepit de
Mariae
Spiritu S^cto.
Aue V. Ecce acilla
nutiavit
Maria,
Domini
etc.
:
R. Fiat michi secudu' Verbu* Tuu'
Aue
Maria,
etc.
:
:
DON TARQUINIO V. Et Verbu' Caro factu' est
R. Et
habitauit
45
:
nobis.
i'
Aue
Maria,
etc.
Ora pro nobis, Sacta Dei Genitrix R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus V.
:
Christi.
Gratia' Tua', quaesumus, Domine, V. Oremus. metibus nostris ifude, ut Qui, Sgelo nutiate, Christ
Tui
Filj
Icarnatione' cognovimus, per Passione' Ejus
ad
Cruce'
et
Resurrectionis
Gloria'
Per Eiide' Christu' Dominu' nostru'
perducamur.
:
R. Amen. V.
*J<
requiescat
Et i'
fideliu'
pace
animae
per
Misericordia'
Dei
:
R. Amen.
hour of night. 1 Now, the day which for me It
was the
marked with
first
a white stone,
the great day of 1
About 6 p.m.
my
life
for
is
fortune-bringing,
was begun.
Each day was counted
sunset of the previous night.
ever
to begin at
WILL
I
Palace
:
tell
thee,
for
it
o Prospero, of the Estense impossible for thee to see
is
with thy proper
it
sea-blue eyes, by cause that
was pulled down in the year before thy birth, after the miraculous picture appeared on it
and hath given place to the of Theotokos with the new
the garden-wall
new
church
;
streets. 1 It
1
was a gigantic oblong, extending from the
This would seem
to indicate the locality of this
a miraculous Madonna was mysterious palace found on a garden-wall in Trastevere A.D. 1497, an(l :
for
the church of Santa Maria dell' Orto (Saint
the
Garden) was
before
The
the
birth
built
of
palace, therefore,
over
it
Cardinal
A.D.
Mary
of
1512, the year
Prospero
Santacroce.
must have stood upon a
slice
of
site now occupied by St. Michael's Hospice and the barracks of the Bersaglieri, with a water-gate on
the
Ripa Grande. 46
DON TARQUINIO
47
river-bank to the said garden-wall, having the
grove of the Divine Furina on the one side, and Saint Cecilia and Saint Mary of the Chapel on the other.
It
new
as that
was neither so
palace which
baron Marcantonio nari
a
:
but
was
it
my
nor so large
cousin and our
about to build on Cati-
is
and large enough for One end of the oblong
fine
cardinal.
foreign
fine
abutted on Tiber, where was the great barbacan
and the water-gate iiij
;
and
courts
equal-sided
by the
audience-chamber and the
where
thickness, galleries
know nized
were
walls
terior
and
but,
:
it
as the
pean, absolute.
on
the
cellars,
first
12
The braccie
ex1
in
builded
it,
I
do not
was pulled down we recog-
work of
a master-builder, cyclo-
All the chief apartments were floor.
Below
were
kitchens,
prisons, store-houses, military quarters.
Above were 1
it
v
and the
window-slits lighted only
Who
stairs.
hall
chapel.
fortifications
little
when
was divided into
it
feet
7 inches long.
iij
ii
floors for the familiars inches.
The
braccia
and the
was 2
feet
DON TARQUINIO
48
The
athletes.
the
to
allotted
court
first
soldiers
from the gate was the and servitors :
second, to the gentlemen and pages the
to
men
nobilities,
of
and to the
letters
supernities,
celsitudes,
magnificences, sublimities
court
:
the third illustrious,
tranquillities,
the fourth was the
:
of the women, where the
wives
and
daughters of the familiars cooked the food and
made
mended
or
and adolescents savage or seclusion
beyond the ruota.
machicolated chiefly
d
battlement,
fortified,
braccie
2
pent
clothes,
from
boys
military, in suitable
A
1
flat
crowned
roof, with
the
pile,
but also providing a terrace,
in total length,
/
braccie 3 in width,
for Ippolito's recreations.
These things being understood,
I
will
con-
tinue the history.
When we
stood up ready to proceed from
the wardrobe,
the people came and
all
A huge revolving cupboard, communication was made. 1
2
473 y ar(k
3
43 yards 2 inches.
x
f ot
I0 inches.
by which
made means
DON TARQUINIO their
The
genuflections.
cardinalitial double-cross
falon
went
with
pages
the
and the Estense gon-
The gentlemen
before.
with
49
followed
their
budding upper-lips. These were quite useless persons, not even showy, and only included in the family in after,
playing
order that they might learn manners.
have had gentlemen I
prefer pages
and
who
speak and
in
proper family
whom
servitors to
respond to
will
me
would rather be surrounded by
I
simpering youths
who
as for myself, rather
in
will for
The
And,
my
stairs
iij.
silent
And
than be a gentleman in
I
dear son.
the
turn.
barbarians,
I
would
will
for
Note
As we
myself, so also
it,
o Prospero.
passed
which led into the
be
prefer to
chamberlains preceded us with
torches and iiij
as
for
can
are merely noble.
another baron's family, a farmer.
:
I
Ippolito generally was, than by these
as
I
my
never
I
first
the vj
down
the
gallery, a
chamberlain slipped on a patch of tallow, which
had dropped from a rush-light badly placed in the sconce on the wall. He was a very fat 4
DON TARQUINIO
50
man
and
;
his
hosen
split
on the ham-bone
:
whose discomfiture we laughed, but Ippolito was promising a thrashing for someone.
at
In the private to give
dining-room,
I
was moved
an inkling of mine hopes to Ippolito,
continuing
to
whisper until we
had
through the state withdrawing-room
He
hall.
sighed
when
I
spoke of
passed into the
my
maid
;
and suddenly smiled, as one who locketh the box of his trouble when his friend unlocketh appeared to me that Ippowas not ignorant of an experience similar
box of joy.
his lito
to mine: affairs
the
prevented
concerning
My at
but
It
the
importance of my proper me from placing inquiries
his.
discourse was interrupted by the pages
door of the
hall
presenting
the
em-
bossed gold basin with the ewer of tepid rose-
water and diapered
towels, while
we washed
our fingers reciting the Psalm / will wash mine hands in innocency. Our seats on the dais were
by the vermilion baldaquin, IppoBelow on being on a step above mine.
canopied lito's
DON TARQUINIO our
was the table of the chaplains and of letters who knew the iiij human
right,
men
the
videlicet
languages,
the
general
secretaries,
Roman,
Greek,
Below on our
Hebrew. of
51
left,
was the table of
comptroller
Tuscan,
estates,
the
the chief steward, the auditor, the
notary, the datary, the captain and lieutenants
of the guard, the
herald,
the barber-chirurgeon.
were table,
tables,
physician,
Lower down
and long.
large
where the
the
salt-cellar
At
and
the hall
the middle
divided
patrician
from plebeian, the gentlemen sat and the bevy The rest of the family was at the of pages. end of the
The
hall.
their daily portions
plebeians each brought
from the canteen,
videlicet
xvj ounces of beef, xx ounces of fine or coarse bread according to condition, a pint and a half
of wine, pieces of their monthly pounds of All through the meal, they looked cheese. lickerishly
toward the
dais,
thinking of their
chances of our gentle leavings.
Wax dish
torches,
v
in
number, escorted each
from the ruota to the
carving-table
42
;
v
DON TARQUINIO
52
others illumined the tables
of the patricians
:
dim, twinkling wicks floating on oil in brazen lamps, and the blaze of the logs on
cool,
the hearth, gave light to the rest. tions of these
in
The
reflec-
the panels of the walls and
roof, oaken, wax-shining, resembled golden stars in a
brown
As
sea.
and Ippolito spread the napkins on our breasts for tying, there was some commotion at
I
the
pages'
table.
content with their
own
It
was seen
that,
not
napkin, they had stolen
one pertaining to the gentlemen, which napkin one of the last retrieved with a little violence. only saw the short struggle, also the
We
and we only heard the indignant advice to the robbers that they should use their caps and sleeves like the plebeians.
Ippolito
demanded of me whether,
judgment, such advice was suitable for
in
my
young
responded saying that it was indecorous, and that the adviser ought to be
boys.
I
dismissed.
done.
I
forget
whether
this
last
was
DON TARQUINIO While
who
black,
wan
the
the
flesh
my swim of
ministrations
But
a muse.
in
hand, was
left
glowed with the stinging Tiber and the subsequent
my
pages.
looked
I
in
on the viands and on
office
my
wine,
cold of
venom-taster
nervous
stood at Ippolito's
performing his
53
at
Ippolito was face
my
in
in
my
there.
and saw happiness trying to shine I stretched I smoothed mine hair.
my
and arms.
mirror
;
legs
I felt
My
strong.
But what
yearned to do some violent deed.
deed
And
Ah,
?
I
the
to
I
instantly slid
depth
know what deed
did not
bowels
to do.
from the height of
of misery.
bliss
I
indeed was
the chaplains had
finished in-
Oh,
properly unhappy.
As soon toning
the
as
prayers,
I
drank
broth from a silver bowl.
me.
I ate
beef-and-barley did not comfort
the beef from which the broth had
been made.
It
brigands of the
was fibrous and dry.
Campagna who,
days, used to steal half City,
It
all
in
The
those old
imports sent to the
must have been employed elsewhere that
DON TARQUINIO
54
day
and venison appeared on the ate of both, being ravenously-
for roast pig
:
carving table.
I
hungry and unwilling
to waste time in
at the table
that
of the men of
man who had
a
an
talking
who was
Ippolito about a stranger
to
letters.
sitting
But
I
said
olive-coloured skin
ought not to wear a pink and green gown and I have forgotten all else about the said ;
The
stranger.
and
fat
full
venison suited
of blood
Nor
platterful.
did
and
;
I
goose-breasts in batter,
with
figs.
I
in
paste balls,
cockscombs on
The
cockscombs were the
being
signed for a third
livers
leeks parboiled and fried in farced
taste,
neglect the fried things,
minced chicken
videlicet
I
my
oil,
lettuce,
a dish of quails
goose-breasts and the
best.
Every time when
paused to wash mine hands,
I
seemed to be
sinking deeper in the mire of my melancholy. I
salad
was :
plunging,
for I
sighing,
remembered
efficacious for
into
a
gigantic
that green-meat
is
as
whitening the skin as are blood-
meats for rendering supple the sinews. But we heard the sudden ringing of horse-hooves
DON TARQUINIO in the
the
human
bitts,
and
Then indeed
the
and the champing of
court,
of an
noise
55
tide
at
arrival.
end of the
the
hall
swept
Tiber surges when cloven by a sideways, A pursuivant and two vergalley's prow. as
chamberlains, each with
milion
lighted torches snatched
from anywhere, pre-
cipitated themselves at the dais,
"
The
of
a handful
announcing
:
Exalted Potency of Prince Gioffredo
Borgia of Squillace." This prince, o Prospero, was then of mine
own
age
:
but
he already
dccxl free-lances in
the
had commanded
and he already
war,
was xj months a benedick while I, who could do nothing but fight and swim and run :
and speak Greek and write it and look much more like the David of Messer Verrocchio Baldonero
than
Drudodimare,
I,
doing anything.
But
Fioravanti I
say,
And
or
than
Rufo
had no opportunity of I was most miserable.
for he welcoming the guest and I admired seemed to be a merry lad I
smiled,
:
;
the
hardy
contours
ot
his
form, precocious.
DON TARQUINIO
56
voluptuous.
Sulphur -coloured
silk
The
bands
each line of him.
and
and wrists
throat
silver
hips
were
defined at
with
set
emeralds no greener than his
great cabochon
His
eyes which flashed between long lashes. curly hair was as black
as night.
had
of
the
clearness
rosy
His
with
veritable son
dignity
lively
flesh
His
carnation.
He
laughing mouth was as red as beef. himself
his
used
became
as
of our Lord the Paparch
the
and
;
he came to greet us with a certain gesture.
He
said
:
" Salute the father of a lovely
month ago
at
Naples,
girl,
born a
whom Our Most Holy
Father yesterday hath
baptized by the
name
Antonia."
The Nemi,
cellarers
that
security 1
a
rich
full-bodied, well-sunned.
manded them order
served
to
the
against
Paparch's
Moss-agate breaks
wine of
Ippolito
com-
moss-agate cups:
bring
venom.
red
1
son
might
in
have
While we drank,
when touched by
poison.
DON TARQUINIO those
ij
57
began to chatter of matters unknown
to me.
threw a cupful of wine in the face of
I
the
page with
him
as
my as
unhappy
furious that
I
might make looked so meekly
basin, that
He
I.
as I
laughed
I
washed
my
fingers
But anon,
before tasting the sweetmeats.
re-
membering that the said page was noble and that I had hurt his honour, I sent him to
my
fetch
slipped
two
into
best
the
swords.
state
And,
having
withdrawing-room,
I
made him proud and happy by disarming him back of
twice, scratching the
He
was a bold boy,
fearful
the grape, not of his own. to the cheese,
right hand.
his
of the blood of
But
more unhappy than
I
returned
before.
Chaplains intoned the long action of graces, >|
Memoria'
lingered
fecit
mirabiliu'
suoru'
over a conserve of quinces,
etc.
I
which,
fumes and preventeth and I chatted vapours from striking upwards in Greek with Messer Pierettore Arrivabene
said Ippolito, disperseth
;
below the
dais, while
Ippolito and the Borgia
DON TARQUINIO
58
prince eagerly whispered.
When
the familiars
gone out by the lower door, we iij and went to take our washed our hands were
;
ease
in
the
secret
chamber.
Singing
boys
our progress, mingling voices with archluths, quiet, clear, and low, music delightful followed
to hear.
VI
THAT
was
secret chamber, o Prospero,
circular
and very large. The walls and the vaulted roof were covered with a veneer of ivory iij barleycorns in thickness, smoothly gleaming.
Ivory
images of fauns and nymphs as large as xj of the one, x of the other, stood
life,
on
ivory pedestals round the walls supporting the cornice.
The
said cornice
also
was of ivory
carved with a dance of satyrs in basso
Wax
torches burned on
tall
rilievo.
gold candlesticks
placed on the floor between the images, except
by the ivory door and The last was furnished with a
in the spaces occupied
the window.
balcony over Tiber the
was
City
in
;
and shewed
from Byzantion. Having washed
very thick
our 59
fingers
view of
The
darkening twilight.
covered by a
a
black
at
the
floor
carpet
gold
DON TARQUINIO
60
by the door, we composed ourselves on massive black velvet cushions, which were
lavabo
and
here
heaped up
table
a
sweetmeats
offered
upon the
low ivory to us from
drew up
Ippolito
there
a
for the
night
and
;
gold box,
cursing meanwhile by cause that the
napkins
floor.
was lacking.
of
pile
In
the
midst of his objurgations, a servitor hurried
an
with
in
the
armful,
lavabo.
same by his normal
the
depositing
Ippolito
resumed
grave smile.
The men of improving our histories
letters
swaggered
The
minds.
in,
first
bent on read
the
of Solon and Publius Valerius Popli-
cola with Parallel,
from the
|3ioi
7ra/oaXX?/Xoi
of
Messer Ploytarchos the second read a page of Messer Cicero's Oration for Caecina the :
:
third declaimed the eighteenth canto of Messer Alighieri's
lection
Paradiso
:
the
fourth
intoned
a
from the Evangel of Saint John the
Divine (whose Greek, o Prospero, is purer than that of the other Apostles, especially Saint Paul), and he used the second
volume of
that
DON TARQUINIO which
Bible
fine
mccclxxv sequins.
61
Duke Borso
cost
d'Este
1
Prince Gioffredo became uneasy in his body
:
had not expected this kind of entertainWherefore Ippolito conversed with him ment. for he
apart, while I
became obedient
to the
mages who
my masters for the nonce it being times my will, as it should be thine, were
:
mercurial son, to give acquisition
of
mental
acquisition of physical.
Tuscan
a folio of the
much
as
superiority I
at all
o
my
care
to
the
as
to
the
translated aloud into
Phaidon of Plato, that
absolute work, and a breve of Messer Plinius
from the new edition which Messer Pomponius Laetus had given to Ippolito. 2 Anon I meekly tolerated an adverse
judgment of
my
weekly
thesis, the absurd subject of which was
Irreducible
Surd
:
nor did
I
Messer Pierettore denounced Childish, for 1
About
2
No
now
I
even wince when it
by the epithet
was beyond concern for
7,500, or $37,500.
doubt
this
The
was the
edition issued in 1491.
DON TARQUINIO
62
these lesser matters, pondering the unmitigable
calamity in which
Anon
I
stood.
was Ippolito's turn to do his lessons ; and mine to amuse the guest. That one, by no means satisfied with the grave conversation it
of the cardinal, looked upon
more
suitable
companion
me
and
;
as
being a
he instantly
proposed that we should ride through the City to see the sights of the night. I was by no
means loath
to oblige
him
indeed the peril of
:
such an adventure recommended a
means of escape from
While
my
I
chose
as
melancholy.
decurion and the
being collected,
my
prince's were
mail-shirt
from a
Ippolito had obtained a few minutes'
trayful.
interval in
he
my
me
itself to
which to speed our departure
my
praised
caution
Prince
to
;
and
Gioffredo,
saying that foolhardiness was not courage, and that
vanity (however just) should
The
rashness. glittering
in
buckling-on I
was
as
the
my
comely
son
Paparch's pliant
steel,
sword-belt
;
not breed
watched while
and he
I
me was
said that
in the mail falling in escallops
DON TARQUINIO round mine haunches
Thus he
spoke
as I
and,
;
was in
63 silk or velvet.
on
finding
the
tray
another mail-shirt so fine that his two hands
plump, juicy with heat, completely covered it, he let my pages do it on him. Certainly he
made
a gallant
show
;
and a mirror taught him
that veiling the splendour of the
body
such
(in
a gleaming web) enhances the splendour of the
limbs
:
We the
which gave him great content.
mounted
word
to our
yawned
before
With
pomp
a
in the
decurions.
ij
us
court
first
;
;
The
and gave great gate
and clanged behind
of xx torches,
we
us.
clattered over
Tiber by the double-bridge and the Island. The night was young. The City was still for :
the Keltic
army
Gate and
in the
rode quietly,
chiefly lay outside the
Flaminian
Region of Campo Marzo. We bidding our guards to follow us
for so the light
:
of their torches made clear the
way, and our eyes were not dazzled with the glare.
The
Prince
of Squillace said that he was
going to amuse himself.
I,
desperate with the
DON TARQUINIO
64
oppression of
my
misery, declared that
I
also
would amuse myself, Great Ban or no Great Ban, safely or unsafely.
men
x
my
I
had
my
with their lieutenant
;
something for the sake of a
risk
sword and
and
I
little
would amuse-
ment. Gioffredo said that to be
compared
Rome
was a dull
city,
not
for gaiety with little cities like
Naples or Ferrara, seeing that Colonna and Orsini had eaten all the baronage save Cesarini, which last house alone remained leal to our
Lord arts,
and
the
One might
Paparch.
quoth he
:
or plague the rebellious barons
their Keltic friends
Palace nents.
cultivate the
:
or
sit
in the Apostolic
making and unmaking kings and contiBut these were dismal sports, quoth
he.
might go and throw stones on Campo Vaccino, 1 in defiance of the CardinalLittle vulgar boys
Vicar's edict, quoth
I.
Degenerates, quoth he, might go and gamble 1
The
waste land which occupied the side of the then unexcavated Forum.
DON TARQUINIO who
with the white-faced cardinal, the pink of fashion, but infernally
We
good
agreed
for
65 certainly
was
whose luck was too sons.
younger
that princes
were much to be
commiserated.
Formerly, quoth Gioffredo, much diversion had been gained by hunting Jews or Bargelli, 1 slicing off their noses, or other
them
:
but
now
the Paparch
exercitations,
using
the
race
accursed
ways
afflicting
prohibited these
Himself very kindly which so
feloniously
to
had
Redeemer, and being
slaughtered our Divine
determined to keep order in the City by means of the said Bargelli. Wherefore, quoth he, these
things
being
so,
and
Sanctity being not only so
the
Paparch's
good but
also so
loving and so dear that no one but a devil wil-
would offend Him, it behoved respectable princes to be at some pains in obeying Him.
fully
I
loved the boy for those words, o Prospero
for they his
showed
that a
:
good heart accompanied
handsome person and
his
Alexander the Sixth's
lightly
police.
merry
DON TARQUINIO
66
found no word to say ; and mine unhappiness overwhelmed me. We both
But
temper.
were
silent.
I
Anon we
halted on the Square of
Santangelo.
Gioffredo leaned across to me, slyly saying that I
we ought
took
fire
seek legitimate adventures. his words ; and we rode on,
to
at
through and through the Street of the Bear, peeping in the inns where foreigners lay but :
we savoured no resorts.
At
spice of adventure in the public
Saint John's of the Florentines,
agreed to prowl separately decurion,
we
and, taking each our
;
chose different roads.
went by Banchi Vecchi.
we
Gioffredo
tried Giulia Street.
I
All the shops of the archers and armourers
were shut on
Campo
de' Fiore
the houses twinkled with
the Square of Catinari
:
see the razed palace of
no
for
I
;
and the eyes of
light.
I
avoided
could not bear to
our house there
;
and
I
halted under the Capitol at the foot of Toasted
Beans Lane.
was drowning in the cold waters of unhappiness. I also was molested by I
the pangs of hunger
:
for study
doth augment
DON TARQUINIO
67
the carnal appetite most wonderfully, and, at
was necessary also that I continually should heap fuel on the furnace of the prime of mine adolescence. I diverged at a right angle, that time,
it
proceeding through a series of narrow
and by the black bulk of Rotondo of Pigna,
Region Eustace
where
:
being
chambers and see for myself,
for
it
me
to
Square dismounted at
I
famous
already
which had
the
in
the
of
Saint
the
new
Ippolito had spoken of this place,
Falcon Inn. as
to
streets,
1
its
for
antic viands
and to
gratified
taste
mine
;
its
and
grotesque I
wished to
food similar to that
illustrious forefathers
:
seemed that such a diversion would enable
overcome the malignance of my stars. The chamber, which I chose, was shaped like
an isoskelene triangle couped at the apex by a circular alcove about iij braccie 2 in diameter. The
door was walls
in
the
base
and roof and
colour.
The
last
of the triangle.
The
were porphyrystrewn with lemon
tiled floor
was
verbena, a most delicious odour, invigorating, 1
The
Pantheon.
2
7 feet 8 inches.
52
DON TARQUINIO
68
The
passion-inspiring.
cushions. their
The
shuttered
coloured curtains.
A
porphyry-
rush-seated settle waited
table in the
vij wicks smiled
windows concealed
white and
behind
blindness
by a bronze
alcove was a couch of
middle
and
lamp of While I de-
;
from overhead.
manded supper of the innkeeper,
I
a
dismissed
cap and cloak into the alcove, giving
my
my
sword
by the bench, washing mine hands and combing mine hair as though there was no such thing as wretchedness on this orb of earth. leave to rest
He
named
foetida, a
a
boiled owl farced with assa-
roasted wild-boar with sweet
sauce
and pine-kernels, a bear's hams, and a baked I chose the boar and the porpenporpentine. tine for my proper repast, with a measure of the black wine of Marino
hams and
xj
black 1
sturdy
I
sent the bear's
measures of wine to
paying two double giulj
A
and
;
Roman
1
my
decurion,
for the entertainment.
hob, in snowy linen with
hosen and leathern bellyband, brought
The
double giulio was worth (say) a florin, but had about four times the latter's purchasing value.
DON TARQUINIO
69
He
napery and the apparatus of the table.
came again with
rush
loose
wine-flask's
on each hand, and the
a dish
cover
This time,
strong white teeth.
his
gripped in
a clean-limbed
youngster accompanied him, precociously and grandly formed, having a wonderful freshness
of complexion, short curly brown
hair,
and an
expression of disgust in his frank eyes.
The
Prospero, and
mirror
the
is
eye
it
is
of
of
kinds,
ij
the
soul,
o
videlicet the
The open eye open eye and the shut eye. denoteth a soul which is ready, willing, able, to enter
peer
:
into
unreserved
not
abnegating
communion its
with
its
but
proper rights,
sharing the same, according to the precepts of nobility. veil
is
true
those
The
shut eye
is
drawn continually, or
image of the
soul.
unfortunate
persons
poorness of
spirit or
from
that eye wherein a at will, before the It
appertaineth
ceal their souls in selfish solitude.
o Prospero. of all White
My
from
who, either
vileness,
to
wish to con-
Note
this,
proper preference (like that
Men)
is
for the
open eye
;
and,
DON TARQUINIO
70
having seen this youngster, I knew that some benignant star had deigned to send me one with
whom
was
I
in
sympathy
;
and
addressed
I
myself to wait for further manifestations. The boy appeared to be clothed on his arms
and he
and the outsides of
his sides
really
his legs
:
but
was covered from throat to wrist and
foot with a single garment
of knitted wool,
resembling a skin, myrtle-green
with a wide
He
central stripe of flesh-colour, very ingenious.
did table-service inaccurately and disdainfully.
was plain that he never had served, and that he was accustomed to be served. Not a word It
was
When I
I
had
performed
the
last lavation,
on the bench, stretching out my length and I formed a totally erroneous
lay back
legs at
idea I
mine hunger.
said while I satiated
;
of
the
avocation
did not speak
:
furiously blushed
The set
of
mine
attendant.
He
but only looked at him. ;
and
his eyes flamed.
.
.
.
events of the next quarter-hour will be
forth in
another history,
Prospero, wilt read to the age of
xv
when thou
years.
.
.
.
which thou, o shalt
have come
DON TARQUINIO Anon, having summoned declared //
my
will to
him.
I
my
71 I
lieutenant,
would rescue these
children, taking the lad behind
but he would take the girl behind
decurion was to close our rear
;
saddle
my
The
his.
and
all
:
was to
be swiftly done.
So
it
There were
was done.
and
protests
outcries at the door, a fine affray, hard blows
stung more than one with
and
I
But,
when we were
sword.
my
free of the crowd,
I
;
changed
pursuers into scramblers, by scattering the contents of I
my
burse on the cobble-stones
escaped with
my
We galloped
;
and so
spoils.
through the Square of Navona
1 Region of Parione j and, by the tortuous lanes of the Region of Ponte to Saint John's of
in the
the Florentines. Straightly behind
me
balanced, hands
haunches, the lad rode. spell 1
on
his
Strange was that fierce
of riding through the darkness of night.
The
fourteen
Regions."
districts
of
Rome were
called
VII
THE
of Tiber City was quiet on the other side
and where we halted the
:
but,
on our right hand,
camp, now blazing with torches, like a swarm of wasps. My guards
Keltic
hummed
lighted their
own
torches
from the lanthorn
which hung before the image of Saint John
at
the street corner.
We
went onward slowly, through Banchi Vecchi and by the Cenci Palace, in search of Gioffredo Pierleone,
:
1
whom we much
found near the
fort
of
disordered in his habits, his
hosen being full of dried peas of which his Their laughter decurion was relieving him. prevented
words
my
giving favour to 1
I
suppose
Marcellus
this
which
eleventh century.
for a
my to
the It is
time.
tongue, be
the
Pierleone
now 72
I
Wherefore,
consigned the
ruined
Theatre of
fortified
in
the Palazzo Savelli.
the
DON TARQUINIO Keltic lad to one of
my
73
proper guards
when anon Gioffredo had remounted, we on side by side. He was very adventures in
a
loquacious Jew's
and,
;
ij
concerning
rode
his
house, which used to
stand by St. George's of the Golden Sail and the arch of Janus, where certain Jewesses had
been
him.
entertaining
But,
their
father
having returned unexpectedly from some nocturnal orgy, they had hidden Gioffredo in the pea-bin
from which uncomfortable abode he
:
at length
emerged, deeming the moment con-
venient for
But the
said
Jew, having found a strange sword, was on the watch and Gioffredo had only furiously withstood him. flight.
;
a poignard and a mail-shirt, the latter in his
hand instead of on
his
body
:
but, nevertheless,
he had bidden old Abraham to bethink himself, seeing that the said poignard had been used for
carving pork. self the
more
;
But the Jew had enraged himand Gioffredo, having all his
points untrussed and his hosen about his feet,
was unable to run.
Wherefore, taking the
DON TARQUINIO
74
by the sleeves, he swinged at his opponent such a blow that he fell prone, over mail-shirt
whom
incontinently rolling, the Paparch's son
He
contrived to get into the street. his
sword and
his
garments: but his
and
had
lost
and he had spoiled speech was so comical,
his boots
;
(when the movement
his occasional jerks
of his horse caused him to
sit
upon
a forgotten
by degrees dismissed the severity with which I at first was inclined to treat him. And pea)
also
so
was no
I
we came
saint myself.
So
I
And
said.
in silence to the Fabrician Bridge.
Gioffredo affectionately inquired the cause of
my grow
silence,
saying
that
thinking
made one
old.
To whom
I
responded, saying that
I
was
unhappy, and that all these games appeared to be only vain and rather silly, seeing that there
were
many
other
worthier
princes of our quality.
occupations
for
But, remembering that
Gioffredo was a guest, anon
changed my mood, whether he wend to Vatican. would lightly asking
He
would not
;
I
but he demanded half of
bed for the night, commanding
my
his decurion to
DON TARQUINIO
75
from Traspontina, 1 for him to don on the morrow. And so we bring a valise of
new
habits
entered the palace.
Some malignant star caused a misfortune at our entrance. The soldier, who had my Keltic on
lad
his horse's
crupper, dismounted; and
Near by, ij began to unbuckle the girth. pages had been fighting ; and one was bewailing and
letting drip a bleeding nose.
of the blood enraged the
The odour
stallion,
on whose
bare back the Keltic lad was sitting sideways,
waiting for orders. his leg over bridle.
;
That one promptly flung
and, leaning forward, seized the
Insued sudden dispersal of the crowd,
wild galloping through the courtyards, sidelong
sweepings and rushings, heavenward tossings, frantic plungings ; but the rider sat erect, tense as
young Bellerophon before Chimaira, gripped
to his steed
was 1
a very
The
by thighs and knees.
grand
Indeed,
it
spectacle.
palace of the Cardinal of Saint Mary's across
the Bridge, by the Vatican.
Borgia princes.
It
was rented
for the
DON TARQUINIO
76
While we Ippolito
:
all
were gazing, the noise disturbed
who came bounding down
arch beneath the hall.
stair,
through the low
beast dashed
as the furious
the
That
cardinal instantly
cast his cardinalature to the iiij winds, leaping
and
at
tearing
the
muffling
strength,
bitt
the
with
the
gigantic
head in
his
grooms ran
up
stallion's
vermilion mantle, while
his
and hobbled the dire hooves.
Anon before
the Keltic lad dismounted; and stood us,
blushing,
trembling,
bright-eyed,
brave, a slender supple figure, with articulations
His glance strayed She stood still where she had
of most delicate distinction.
toward the
girl.
been placed at
first.
that I myself
was miserable.
Gioffredo's eyes
began to goggle. Ippolito looked from the
stranger to me.
In admiring him,
Having whispered what was necessary I
announced to the other
Most
Illustrious
of Ferrara.
The
I
forgot
to the one,
Ippolito's condition of
Lord Cardinal-A. and Prince Keltic lad kneeled; and did
obeisance to the sapphire.
DON TARQUINIO Ippolito
resumed
asking the lad to
his
name
77
cardinalature,
stiffly
himself.
That one responded, saying that he was the Vicomte Rene XVIIII Raoul Alain Gabriel Marie de
Sainctrose,
Vidame de
Sainctrose,
and now, o Prospero, thou knowest how thy father, and thy god1 first became father, and Renato's, acquainted Sieur de Chastelmondesir
;
each with other.
We
all
much
were
demanded more news.
astonished.
To whom
Ippolito
the Vicomte
de Sainctrose was pleased to say that his father
had
had
Estienne
two
brothers,
who was
father
the
videlicet
to
Sieur
Damoiselle
the
Estelle there present and cousin of the speaker,
and the Sieur Guichart who was father
Damoiseau Armand then absent but
1
the
and mother long had lived
This would be
that
in
journal.
so
olympian
magnanimous Renato, son of
Marcantonio here mentioned, of
Gheraldo Pinarj
also cousin
Further he said that his own
of the speaker. father
to the
deliciously
has
whom Dom
written
in
his
DON TARQUINIO
78
mansions
l :
that his uncle Estienne had
the same road at Michaelmas
by
:
Guichart, being then his warden and the
and wishing to have
own
his
son, kept
his
gone
that his uncle girl's,
demesne and hers
them both
for
hardly, fearing by
cause that they loved one another.
Wherefore,
on the day of the dead, 2 those to
their
parents
with
the
ij had prayed gods, and anon
escaped into the forest belonging to the said
Vicomte de Sainctrose, intending to love and to But a company of Egyptians had die there. captured
them; and had brought them, with
other stolen children, by long roads to the City, selling
them
as slaves.
Ippolito interrupted, saying something about
an
evil trade.
The Vicomte
indignantly gainsaid
him
:
as-
severating that he himself and his cousin had
been but a night and a day in the City; and that, as he was not alone, it behoved him to use 1
A
pretty
way
of saying that they were gone to
heaven. 2
All Souls' Day, the second of November.
DON TARQUINIO
79
He
subtilty for the sake of his said cousin.
denied
that
he had followed
having a knife, to
evil
trade,
which either would cause force
would open Paradise
or
flee,
an
him then speaking. Ippolito still demurred
and
for the girl
for
saying
:
but Rene persisted,
:
" The Giorgio
Most
Prince
Illustrious
Drakontoletes
Tarquinio di
Poplicola
Hagio-
words and kindlike, the
stayros used princely
from strangers during many months for which cause We wished to let him know that a first
:
Keltic noble could be as generous as a
Roman
patrician."
And
he added, in the Greek tongue, that he venerated me as his Deliverer. 1
As thou
well knowst, o Prospero, the road to
my love lieth through that last
Hellas
;
and,
word of the Vicomte de
bowels yearned because of him.
2
Don
2
Tarquinio was a great one
the evidence of his senses.
The
when
I
heard
Sainctrose, I
said
my
:
for judging by brave and pitiful little
DON TARQUINIO
8o
" Tell us thine age, o Damoiseau."
He
responded to me, saying that the nones of April would mark the opening of his fifteenth year.
When
I
understood that he had been born
Ram
under the
and Mars, the cause of
extraordinary courage
manner
his
and of the astounding
which he had governed his affairs, at once became clear to me. Desiring to be assoin
vicomte had told an amazing
tale
;
and there was not
If this had happened
a shred of corroborative detail.
in the nineteenth century, they of course
interned the couple in
more or
until they had obtained a
which any
the fifteenth century, believed
Own
in
delicacy
;
and,
But
it
when men
Who
God,
Image
criminal seclusion,
pack of identificatory papers
can forge.
fool
less
would have
had
luckily
men
(being
made
them
they
consequently,
happened
felt
in
of sense) in His
no
false
about assuming for themselves some of the
truth
when
example, the power of recognizPrince they saw and heard it.
Tarquinio
heard
the
divine attributes
ing
for
Vicomte
de
Sainctrose
:
he
looked into his open eyes ; and decided that the thing was true saving himself (and everyone else) an infinity of trouble
by
rris
sensibility.
DON TARQUINIO elated
with
an
such
deliberations with these
We
He
I
one,
words
me
my
completed :
offer to take thee into
responded to
81
Our
service."
again, saying that
he
desired nothing better than to learn the duties
of
his estate, in order that
he might oust the
But
usurper of his feoffs at an opportune time. his eyes I
wandered to the
girl.
said that the comptroller should
him, and that the mistress of the
regarding
women
have
should
damoiselle
for,
:
And
order
regarding
so
I
I
was
in a
quandary
at the
turned away, with Ippolito
and the Borgia boy. As we went, I was Ippolito more of what had happened Falcon Inn.
the
being no more than a guest in
the Estense palace,
moment.
have order
telling
at
the
Gioffredo continually ejaculated
concerning the good fortune of certain people but Ippolito's brow became as black as night. :
Anon
he interrupted me; and took command of the whole matter, saying that he would not
know of any
of anything needing amendment in his palace. And he began to act. sin or
6
DON TARQUINIO
82
The page Giovempedocle
(he was very finely
made, o Prospero, but his right eye was brown while his left eye was blue) evanesced with an order for the mistress of the women to conduct the
Damoiselle
Estelle
de Sainctrose
to
the
cedar cabinet with a vicecomitial escort.
The page
Giacinto
was
quite young, but his hair was as white as hoar-frost and
(he
very luxuriant indeed) evanesced with an order for an
name
abbate (whose
I
have forgotten)
to attend in the chapel.
But we returned de
and joined the Vicomte to our company. Rene was
Sainctrose
be described. followed
emotions
with
palpitating
I
took
Ippolito
choice was
went along,
;
made of a
full
necessary
hand
his
the
to
not
;
treasury,
certain matters. state
to
and we where a
As we
of gentlemen
and
chamberlains with the double-cross collected
;
and attended us to the cedar cabinet. There,
we withdrew
the window, where
we
the
ij
Keltic nobles to
could speak in secret
and Ippolito examined them
as
;
to their real
DON TARQUINIO each
sentiments
for
frank eyes became saying
that
to them,
amg
grave
they were
Their wonderful
as
they responded,
one.
He
scrolls inscribed 3(C 0tif ICl
and jfil5
Oti
jFille.
hands, he led them to the chapel. blessed the rings. planted.
gave rings
each ring a flight of golden cupids
bound with D'
other.
83
CU ifU
Taking
The
their
presbyter
They were exchanged and
Benediction hallowed nuptials, legiti-
mate, indissoluble.
Thus was one of the many grand deeds done by thy father, o my son done on that fortunate day.
Prospero, well
62
VIII
WE
conducted the bridegroom and his bride
to an apartment
door
was
lessons
:
on the second
shut.
but
Ippolito
stair
and the
returned
took Gioffredo to
I
;
my
to
his
proper
lodging.
Having seen those children happy, mine own unhappiness surging again breast.
By
Thus
I
felt
in
my
the grace of the gods, the Borgia like a pie all the time,
boy chattered with his
I
own
garrulity,
was able to
We
range freely.
enraptured
needing no
let
my
attention.
proper thoughts
rested in arm-chairs, while
the pages doffed our garments, wrapping us in
white woollen frocks. It
was not to be denied that
noble deed a
in
rescuing those
den of infamy.
filled
looked
I
I
had done a
children at
the
from sheets,
with fragrant herbs, which hung by their 84
DON TARQUINIO
85
corners from the ceiling of the bathing-chamber,
though I expected a message of approval from the Divine Ones who live in that as
We
direction.
were
placed
on rush-seated
sheet
and pages
;
on large sponges
sitting
upon the
stools
floor-
sponges under our
laid other
feet.
remember noting
I
were
my
his longest toes toes,
longest 1
;
:
but
second toes are
my
to the
according
canon of
Otherwise his form was without
Lysippos.
blemish
that Gioffredo's big toes
and
if,
as Ippolito alleged, I in
mine
adolescence resembled the marble copy of the lithe
thalerose
image
David by Messer
of
Verrocchio, certainly the Borgia boy at that time 1
This would be the Athlete with the
Strigil,
the
supreme model of human form, which is so unaccountably and yet so assiduously " " and physiculturists of neglected by all strong men
Apoxyomenos, the
the present day.
be
It
is
strange that this statue should
named by Don Tarquinio
covered
discovered
which
A.D.
till
Don
in
1849,
Trastevere,
Tarquinio was
for
:
though the
was not
it
it
certainly
district
in A.D.
1495.
of
Rome
dis-
was in
DON TARQUINIO
86
resembled the sleek plump image of David by
Messer Donatello, which images copied
in tinted
marble the white-faced cardinal then possessed.
So
I
judged
and
;
ticular to Ippolito
I
resolved to mention this par-
not that
:
I
actually believed
myself to resemble the beautiful Rufo Drudodimare,
admirable,
resemble
the
admirable,
or Gioffredo
pathetic,
to
Baldonero Fioravanti,
splendid
treacherous,
more
in
particulars
but
than a
few and those very superficial
those
adolescents had been mistaken for the
ij
very images themselves above-named
we
;
ever, the thing in
and so
also possessed a certain similitude to the
ij
same, but only to the casual spectator.
it
:
my
Anon
was strange
;
and
I
How-
pondered
mind.
began to wonder what colour of body his stars had deigned to Rene. That his form was as exquisite and as vigorous as his mind,
my that
I
I
already
knew from
sense of sight a fine
are marred
:
form and
but fine
I
the
often
evidence of
have
noted
features sometimes
by some imperfect tincture of the
DON TARQUINIO skin in parts
and
;
to the morrow,
tunity
of
I
when
assuring
87
eagerly looked forward I
might take an oppor-
myself as
to
of one whose individuality seemed
the
person be so
to
sympathetic.
After these rather absurd meditations,
on
to consider the likely effects of
my
I
went
deed of
the night.
The
had placed beneath our stools bowls containing the steaming stew
pages
great silver
of hollyhock, mallow, pellitory, sweet fennel, wall-wort, Johns wort, centaury, rib-grass,
camo-
mile, heyhove, heyriff, herbbenet, daisy, wild-
water-parsley,
water-speedwell,
bane, withy-leaves, green oats,
pulp in
distilled water.
scabious, all
hen-
boiled to a
Note the composition
of this bath, o Prospero. It was invented by one of his mages for the cardinal and as ;
to physical health,
it
hath no equal.
conducing I heard the senior page reciting the names of the herbs, as I had heard him on the vij previous nights, while the others wrapped us
and our stools closely
in thick
woollen cloths
88
DON TARQUINIO
of enormous
size.
While thus we
sat
sweating
in the odoriferous steam, Gioffredo incessantly
gabbled
but
:
I
things in
many
cogitated
my
mind. appeared to
It
from
noble
Keltic
me
that
had delivered a
I
had enabled him
slavery,
to provide himself with legitimate heirs of his
body in contempt of his wicked uncle, and that I was going to enable him sooner or later to achieve
natural
his
plain words,
seemed had
laid I
Secondly,
gratitude.
immense
had
I
affection for
to
and
rights
him under had
In
a debt of
conceived
an
him, which he in turn In
reciprocate.
acquired another
dignities.
plain
words,
I
who might be
friend
valuable.
At
this
point of the argument, the cloths
were removed
;
and our
flesh
was seen to be
as scarlet as the flesh of tunny-fish.
sponged us with tepid rose-water
;
The
bucketfuls of cold, poured over our heads
we
stood up, caused
ruddiness.
pallor
pages
and several
when
anon to conquer
So we stood on dry sheets by the
DON TARQUINIO
89
glow of the fire, spitting into gold basins while cleaning our teeth with linen, moistened in a
made of
liquid leaves
all
mastic, rosemary, sage, bramble-
macerate in Greek wine, and dipped
powder of barley-bread burned with
in a
salt.
This was the recipe which our mage of Deira gave to me ; and I gave it to Ippolito.
The
pages dried our bodies, chafing our limbs
with their hands
;
was persuading myself the Vicomte de Sainctrose
but
that such a friend as
I
me
might be very useful to that Ippolito should
fail
anon, supposing
to induce our
Paparch to treat me fairly for, the Great Ban were to continue :
me
here,
I
Lord the
deliberated, if
in force against
should be compelled to seek an
I
opportunity for expending mine energies else-
And
where.
I
tremendous natural
upon
my
anger
at the
down
stretched myself, looking capabilities
thought that they were
with
totally use-
most earnestly desired to sting someone. I believe that Gioffredo went on chattering.
less.
I
he had not found
me
a
good
listener
:
for
he
was addressing himself to the pages who were
go
DON TARQUINIO
rubbing his
ribs.
chamber
the drying and
hair.
for
Long
slept
We
went into the
bed-
combing of our
before this was finished, Gioffredo
where he
sat in his chair.
The
service
was a poor one for the son of our Lord the Paparch, accustomed to luxuries as he was but :
he himself had chosen his
lot,
and
his
breeding
prohibited complaint.
But
I,
on
knitting in
complained of evil the hosen which I had doffed, re-
my
part, bitterly
ducing my comptroller to terror, very comical, he should be degraded from his situation ;
lest
for
mine anger
at the
made me angry with was the
xv years
malignance of
and
all
use, I reflected,
on
me
stars
What
singular.
of a Keltic friend, not
old, dispossessed
actually dependent
my
of his demesnes, and
for a livelihood
?
And
thought bitterly of Rene blissfully mounted and riding to fortune, and of myself writhing under the oppression of the Great Ban. I
Our caps,
our nightnothing now remained but that we should hair having been tucked into
betake ourselves to bed.
But, while the pages
DON TARQUINIO
91
were spreading the footcloths, and covering the rush-lights with shades, and opening the windows, Gioffredo suddenly awakened and would have been merry. I myself was in no mood for sleep
nor could
:
suggested that
A
we of
couple
I //
But
join in his mirth.
I
should go to find Ippolito.
my
1
best
were
nightgowns
brought ; and the Borgia boy chose the one of vair of nut-brown squirrels, with slippers
of the same
but
:
I
indued the other of ermine
reversed with ermines, with slippers of minever.
remember
by cause that both these nightgowns were of great value, and after this night 2 I never saw either of them again. I
1
this,
He means
"
dressing-gowns,"
I
surmise
gentlemen of the fifteenth century slept as them. 2
cast
It's
extremely
off in
a
They
likely.
great
hurry a
:
for
God made
appear to have been
little
later,
in
a place
many miscellaneous persons. Patricians, who fling away fur nightgowns among people not respon-
accessible to
ought not to be surprized Valuable fur nightgowns are
sible for their preservation,
when
they lose them.
saleable
;
and
strange, but absolutely true, to say
DON TARQUINIO
92
Thus we proceeded cardinal writing, in
engaged with his
Rome was full
;
the
and secret
we found
the
chamber,
still
tasks.
of Jews
who had
and the Spanish Inquisition
fled
from Torquemada
to the generous protection
of Pope Alexander the Sixth.
vim WHILE we washed
our fingers on entering,
Ippolito threw aside his writing,
making room
on the big black heap of cushions. was too grand a prince to be a bad host.
for us
As soon noise little
were gone, Gioffredo
as the servitors
began again to
recite his
and gesture. apart,
in
I
much
adventures with
him
let
silence,
talk
thinking
thoughts, wishing for the time
A
consult Ippolito thereon.
not always very amusing
He
:
;
and
my
when
sat a
proper I
might
twice-told tale
is
but the Borgia boy
gabbled so insistently and so incessantly that I I will not set at last was compelled to listen.
down
were of no importance whatever, but merely as bright and as his
words
:
for they
sharp and as pleasant and also as ephemeral as the
foam of the
sea.
He
particular of his exploits. 93
omitted no singular
Had
the matter been
DON TARQUINIO
94
an Easter
shrift,
He
explicit.
it
could not have been more
was exquisitely
droll,
frankly
shameless. Ippolito species
into
lapsed
gradually
of distaste affected
him.
gloom But I,
a
:
for
want of something better, began to be amused. The thing was infectious. And anon, when I the same strain, the
began to speak in
also
cardinal revolted against us both, crying
u
woman
Is
war
:
there naught else in
Is
Christendom to serve you
Total
time?
all ?
:
in
passing
Thou, o Prince of Squillace, hast tried men name thee fearless. It can be seen
that thou hast sinews.
lively wits
as
well
Canst thou not use these for
Sancia thy wife, or for thy
as
robust
Madonna
Most Holy Father
in
His need, leaving vulgar adventures to pages or apprentices
?
And
hyperexcellent parts. adolescent
thou, o
We
more godlike
Sideynes, hast
never have seen an
in white
splendour of
body and mind, though thou knowest that
We
keep xl merchants travelling over the orb of the earth solely to seek and to purchase for Us
DON TARQUINIO There
such monstrosities. not
is
Th'
a
sovereign,
:
to
With
art healthy, strong.
hast not a peer
not a man, there
is
equal
also,
95
thee
in
birth.
the sword thou
Messeri Claudio and
Pierettore Arrivabene both say that thy written
Greek might be the Greek of an archangel.
And
they should know, having been the friends
of the Divine Poliziano, on is
true that
We
Domeniddio
so
could
:
consideration,
might have put into Our head.
calamities
It
putting into these
limbs that which, after mature
He
be peace.
thee with one hand.
kill
made Us
whom
Different
oppress different persons.
vantages also each hath his
own
:
Of
1
to Us,
ad-
Our
and Our strength of body to the Prince of Squillace, lusty sinews and a daring mind and an opportunity to thee, o Sideynes, purple
:
:
splendid wits, adolescence aspect
full
of grace, and the
of one nourished on the marrow and
1
crv/jL(f)opa
erepovs erepa iriefet (Eyripides).
These
conversations are interesting, as showing the taste of
the times for displaying acquaintance with the Greek writers, if
on no other account.
DON TARQUINIO
96
of
nerves
And
lions.
ye
are content
ij
to
squander these gifts on women." Thus he spoke ; and the speech was a very
memorable one.
The sudden
pungent force of
it
with
my
fists
set
me
outburst and the
striding to
clenched and
my
and
fro,
brows drawn
furrow above dilated straight to the upright
And now my mind
eyes, sea-blue, glittering.
was
in a whirl
for I
:
knew
that this
chance for speaking un winged should
lie
where
I
boons.
words,
my
which
and germinate and bear fruit there I could not ask for flung them.
I
could not propose plans.
certain furious selected speeches, I close the intimate root
my
was
But, with dis-
might
of mine unhappiness, of
despair.
But GiofFredo saying
instantly
:
"Where
is
Purpled Person
Our
Give
?
Us
But,
;
and
when
We
there
will lead is
o
prudent Our Sancia ; and
opportunity,
she shall swoon with joy. lances
had taken him up,
Give
Us Our
them
against devils.
neither wife nor
war
free-
for
Us,
DON TARQUINIO when
Sancia
army
is
about
Holy Father Castle,
I
can
else
adventures as
But
to take
We
We
and solemn
in the
do but accept such
find ?"
stopped in
inveighed, saying " Hear Us
and our Most
flight,
sitteth silent
what
and the Keltic
yet in the straw,
is
97
my
fierce
striding;
and
:
o Hebe, Us, thy Sideynes, descended from Zeys not only on the spade also,
but
on the
also
knowst how
We
distaff
side.
1
Thou
well
Our house being under the Great Ban, Our palace razed, Our princes bandits, Madonno Marcantonio a meek student in exile,
price
Madonno
upon
:
Francesco in exile with a
his head,
hunted for
Why
are
should
his
life
We
Madonno Giorgio since
he
slew
in exile
Colonna.
not amuse Ourself with the
Prince of Squillace, seeing that no better lieth
open
to
such pleasures, 1
CLTTO
Us
?
when
OV fAOVOV 7T/509 Ato9 76701/0769
Why thine
TTaT/909
dost
own
O\\a
thou
way
decry
hero Herakles
K(tl
7T/909
(Isokrates).
7
DON TARQUINIO
98
women Know that Our
married the most
that ever one
did? 1
adolescence
like a furnace vij times heated.
It
we vent
it?
Where
vent.
tolerated in
protection
What
can
this
and of is
advantage
of a career have Ippolito
place only
o
Make
dear
must have
We
are
insignificance.
What
chance
We ?"
threw up his
grand
Where
Sideynes. 3
head
and
;
:
a career with that
be a way.
will
burneth
by cause of thy
Our Own 2 life to Us?
sturdily injuncted, saying
"
man
thine
the
intellect,
will
is,
there
In spite of thy words, thou
knowst that the pleasures of sense are inferior to the pleasures of the intellect. Let thy mind be
ruler
thy
Lionardo wouldst 1
4
saith,
and
governour.
Make
make any
7r\etcrTa9 dwrjp
thine
other
ei$
own
work of
As
Messer
life
art
:
as
thou
the
life
'H/sa/eX?;? eyrj/jie Sij (Sopho-
kles). 2
TI
fjioi %rjt,v
KV&IOV (Eyripides).
3
Qapo-ei Trapea-Tcu firj^avr/ Spao-rrjpios (Aischylos). 4
This
is
Lionardo da Vinci.
DON TARQUINIO of
intellect
should be of
must
intellect
in
trust
thy
1
not
splendid
swerve.
stars
martyrologium.
:
nalis
divine
no
take
not in any
is
She hath, indeed, no Divine
where prudence
heaven. 3 ?
Why
By
mark me
well
invincible,
it
is
dost thou pause to
cause thine
known
for
is,
we, we,
thee a goddess and place thee in
work out
it
Further,
and
;
for
who make fool
that
own and
thou
not free
art
salvation
play the
Now
So.
?
to
Be
o Sideynes.
closely,
to thee that Alexander, magnificent,
loveth
1
Habere non
2
The Roman
loveth
beauty,
wit
and
;
haberi.
Martyrology
the
is
official
roll
of
sanctity. 8
:
any man may make her at his of whom Messer Decimus Junius Juvehath written, Thou, o Fortune, art not
Creator, will
design
the rule from
is
count of Fortune, whose name 2
own
intellect's
o have but not to be had,
which
gg
Nullum numen
habes,
si sit
prudentia
nos facimus, Fortuna, deam
;
:
nos
te,
cceloque locamus.
(Satura X.)
72
DON TARQUINIO
ioo
those twain in one person need not lack
favour
for
Great
Ban.
a
such
disability,
paltry
Him
Wilt thou serve
as
His the
with thy
With the last, thou body, with thy mind? 1 wilt have a chance of shewing thy goodness.
Know
also
Vatican,
account. to
that
where
We
shall
This done,
demand
We
on the morrow
a boon.
render
will be
it
Thou
ride to certain
a
Our
privilege
wilt go with Us,
o Sideynes ?" Gioffredo
wagged
a long leg,
brown
tion-coloured, out of his
and yelped, saying "
No, no, go But
We
not,
He
will
o Tarquinio
starveth
and thou
Our
for
Our
will ride to Vatican
;
we
ij
will
cross
palace of Traspontina, where food
7TiSeij;ai
phon).
:
Himself and His
render his said account: but to
;
and there part peaceproceed by Lo Andare to
with the lord cardinal fully.
fur nightgown
:
Most Holy Father guests.
plump, carna-
xprjcrTO?
ewat
is,
(Xeno-
DON TARQUINIO
101
and wine, and many maids-of-honour to be tickled."
Ippolito angrily ejaculated
Women To whom
" But
!"
again
the pert prince responded, saying for
only
which
pleasantly,
:
the
passing
the point of
is
:
afternoon
Our
argu-
ment."
The
noble strong young cardinal gravely said:
"Thy Venus
We
disregard.
point of the whole argument
Our
of
The
1
totally
well-beloved
is
friend,
the salvation
Tar-
Prince
quinio."
Thus he spoke kneeled saying <
to
him,
and
;
was enough.
it
his
kissing
sapphire,
I
and
:
We
Ferrara
accede 2 :
for thou, o
Lord
the
to
Hebe,
Cardinal
art not only
of
grand
Se (Eyripides). 2
This
a witty misuse of the formula employed in the Conclave, when cardinals elect the Paparch by the
way
is
of accession after the
way
of scrutiny has
failed.
DON TARQUINIO
102
We
Nevertheless but also good. dine with our Lord the Paparch
and food
in
bulk,
Our
wits wither and
We
will
We
for
:
must have
food,
Our
lest
Neither
sinews shrivel.
consent to ask a favour, nor to accept
thy mediation
:
but
We
that
will
Alexander,
Us
should see magnificent, invincible, shall
shew Ourself
hear
Us
as
it
Him, and
to
If not, let
of serving
so that
Him,
to deal fairly
We
He
that
should
Us
have a chance
may compel Him
If neither of these things
by Us.
Now
can be done now, bear them in mind. that thou to wait
We
as
If that can be
were by accident.
contrived, well.
of
not
will
knowst Our
desire,
We
are content
some benignant affection and We no more will meddle
patiently for
Our
stars
;
with base matters."
Thus
I
spoke:
for
the
genuine I
at
that
that
save
moment, anything in happier my mind and, being ;
desirous of turning the conversation myself,
I
continued, saying
loving-
knew
kindness of Ippolito cheered me.
at
I
not,
was
length
away from
DON TARQUINIO "But
Us, o Hebe,
tell
amused thyself ourselves
we
as
ij
Sometimes
?
Ippolito instantly
"What
103
thou never
hast
been amusing
have
We have
demanded
thought."
:
hast thou thought?"
responded to him, saying " That thou at some time hast been like the
I
:
rest
of
lost
her,
us,
woman
a
loving
:
that thou
hast
and cherish but the wreck of thy
love."
He
smiled
and
;
his
whole being seemed to
open, blossoming like a rose. breath, said
"
We
lover
We
Oh,
oh,
Lucrezia love
?
Our
oh
Yes
Nay.
We
have had no
:
And whom
!
so
it
lady
is
:
must be
?
:
Madonna for
all
men
:
Our
both stammered
-Of
We
sister."
Ippolito said
"
but
:
very greatly love."
Gioffredo gabbled
"
full
:
have loved
and
;
He, with
Gaul?"
of Gaul, not of Spain. :
'
DON TARQUINIO
io 4
We
our teeth
gritted
saying was
for the
:
a terrible one, akin to treachery.
with tremendous Ippolito proclaimed, nificent unfolding
" She
is
mag-
:
the unique illumination which hath
and through all ages still shall that land from the throne where she
lighted Gaul, light sitteth
We
beyond the waited
stars."
moment was one of
for the
:
revelation.
His great black eyes became
He
grave.
" to
deliberate and
continued, saying:
Our Lord Alexander Himself made Us
know
Him
saw
her
Us
ij
The
years ago.
to
Holiness of
be lusty and froward, un-
worthy of the purple which Our father Duke Ercole sent Us to have of Him. Wherefore
He
questioned
finding strife
that
had
gently, as
Us
concerning
insatiate
desire
failed to cheer,
we walked
Borgia Tower, o my Prospero,
He
Our
and
;
and,
strenuous
told Us,
in the court
oh but
under the
was speaking, court where the
(the cardinal
of the
loves
DON TARQUINIO
105
Paparch Julius placed the image of that mediocre anisopod which He called the Apollo He told Us of a maid of the Belvedere 1 ) so
Our
put
grown,
heart
in
She
chains.
was
He
Her
said.
by more than
a
century
well-
age of
strong-limbed, young, of the
xvij years,
Her
mere name of her
the
that
sympathetic
land was distracted
of
Came
sovereign was a slave.
of war.
years
to her for
came god Michael Archangel to her for wisdom and for maiden charm, the goddesses Katharine and Margaret, all in strength, the
:
of
an orchard
apple-bloom.
These
divine
ones brought word that she must go to save her fatherland and to crown her king. times they came.
news 1
"
" The
that
she
And
she went.
"
name
for
that
;
and
in the original holograph.
Unequal-legged one," or
exquisite
She gave
was of divine sending
Anisopode mediocre
Many
silly,
"The
Limper,"
stupid,
utterly
is
an
vulgar
caricature of Phoibos Apoll5n, the Bright, the Pure,
which the nineteenth century regarded of
art.
as a
work
DON TARQUINIO
io6
That
shewed tokens. armies,
strove
with
In
years,
little
sword,
commanded
girl
took blows
and
brought to her country that deliverance which men had failed to compass in an hundred. Her crowned gave.
ij
she
had given him the But anon she was captured treacher-
king ennobled her means.
she
:
ously by the flying foe
they traded her to
:
own country who of envy sought The chief of these last, and he was
foes of her
her
life.
a bishop, bought
her
Heretic,
urged
by
cause
that
her
fraudulently adjudged
:
Heretic by cause that she
heavenly she
voices,
an
stated
on
Vicegerent here
earth,
was by
fraudulently
appeal
thus
to
God's
soaring
far
above merely episcopal jurisdiction. But that foul prelate had might. The girl had only And he was promised an archright. bishopric for her appeal.
He
death.
laid the
most miserably died
He
suppressed her
Great Ban on her.
for a
She
most glorious deed
l :
*
air
phokles).
epywv
ev/cXeeararcov
(jtdtvei
(So-
DON TARQUINIO he
for
107
her with natural death by
afflicted
fire.
Her king who owed her a crown, countrymen who owed her their liberty,
Wait. her
were craven cowards having the bowels and
from Barbary. They minced and gibbered and grimaced ; and they let her burn. They were Keltic dogs. What could
brains of apes
King
1
But, after xx years, that Christian
?
ye expect
found that he held
whom Holy Church
girl
satanic
heretic
and for
;
Rome
let
Our Lord conized
by that bandit and
as
crown he trembled most after those
Wherefore,
exceedingly.
he
his
xx years,
have that holy maid's appeal.
the Paparch
new
all
incontinently pre-
judges, who, having examined
the whole case, pronounced her to be
would
they
'videlicet
sador
mansions. 1
"
The
desire
holy,
of
a
(ill-served
had burned
bishop)
crown from
his
own
their
favourite
maiden,
Divine Ones
sisters
and
all
to
that be,
ambas-
inhabiting
olympian
This their decree was
confirmed
Christian
Kings of France.
"
King
is
the
official
style of the
DON TARQUINIO
io8
That
form.
in
adorable
sweet
palatine,
Madame
child,
foully killed
that
miracle,
most
that
courageous Lys by her
de
Jehane
king's creation, called
dom, so
that
marvel,
The Maid by Christenand slain, was named by
God's Vicegerent as one of the blessed carrying lilies in paradise, wearing an immortal diadem.
She
worship.
As
is
the
ivy
We
cling to her
have
said.
lady of
clingeth
Our
to
love
and
so
will
oak,
memory. It was the Lord Alexander who made us to know her, as We
He Himself had her history when, Own youth, He entered the Sacred
His
in
College with stance,
the
Lord
Susanna,
it
of Con-
Bishop
Archpresbyter of the Vatican
de
Richart
Cardinal-presbyter
the
self-same
that
of
Longvevil
the
Maid.
was the
Moreover, ye said
Olivier,
of
Title
who had been one of
basilica,
Santa
the judges of
shall
Lord Alexander's
know
that
Own
uncle
and creator, the Paparch Calixtus the Third, Who decreed her rehabilitation."
Thus
Ippolito
spoke
:
but
we
bestowed
DON TARQUINIO
109
favour on our tongues, revolving the whole matter in our minds.
on
erect
Sitting
murmured
Arcques,
pour toulz
black
priez
he
cushions,
these words in an undertone
" Saincte Vierge d'
the
:
Martyre, dicte Jehane
et
toulzjours
moy
pour
et
tes serviteurs."
Gioffredo eyed him, decorously waiting for
bare arms in
was hugging mine own and the sleeves of my nightgown
my
was directed to the toes of
licence
to speak.
glance
slippers
I
;
which
were
stretched
out
my
straight
together in front of me.
But
my mind was
live love,
wandering
yearning for her
over there in the dark.
far
away
who was
to a
sleeping
BUT
our meditations were interrupted by an instant scratching on the outside of the ivory
door
;
and a wave of secret chamberlains flowed
in with torches,
"
The Most
announcing
:
Worship
Respectable
1
of the
Lord Cardinal of Valencia." Ippolito arose, grave, self-dominant.
I
and
Gioffredo also arose, wrapping our furs more closely
round
us, surprized,
very greatly won-
dering. I
will tell
thee,
Cesare appeared to
o Prospero,
me on
how
that night
Cardinal :
so that
Cesare (whom the nineteenth century was apt to " hence call Borgia ") ranked as a pontifical nephew " Osservantissimo " and his were proper epithets 1
:
" Colendissimo." trissimo."
The
The other cardinals were "Illusstyle "Most Eminent" and "Emi-
nency" was not invented
in
no
1495.
DON TARQUINIO
in
thou mayst have ever before thine eyes a vivid image of the prodigious personality who, as
Messer Niccolo Machiavelli
saith,
might have
done Anything. He was of the age of xx years, tall and splendid of form. Tawny hair and
The
beardlet shaded his swarthy features.
was rolled venient
in
for
a golden
travelling.
hair
bag of network conHis eyes were like
Under
glowing iron in the furnace of his face.
the cardinalitial great-cloak, he wore a secular habit of vermilion velvet. glittered
A
on the
first
thick gold chain
The huge
1
sapphire
finger of his right hand.
surrounded
his neck,
dis-
appearing in the lace of the smock which peeped
out of the breast of his doublet.
hem of
lower
the
last,
the escalloped edge of a
All this
mail-shirt appeared.
Beneath the
he was washing his fingers
at
I
noted, while
the door.
His pages caught the great-cloak flung to them left the double-cross leaning against one :
1
The
ring, as
bishop's.
sapphire
is
the proper stone for a cardinal's
the amethyst
is
for
a bishop's or an arch-
DON TARQUINIO
H2
of the ivory images
was
He
shut.
of Ferrara
and
;
but he was winking at Giofrredo
:
me no more
whereat
I
and the door
;
advanced towards the Cardinal
with haggard brilliant
noted
retired
As
eyes.
me, he
for
than the said ivory images
fumed with
myself from using
my
:
rage,
only restraining
sting
by cause that
more of this splendid creature. accorded to him the kiss of peace
I
desired to see Ippolito to
whom he spoke, saying " In virtue of his obedience to our
:
:
Paparch,
We
demand
are to
Lord the
secret conference
with the Cardinal of Ferrara/* It
was evident from the form of
that very great matters
were
afoot.
this I
instantly
shot such a glance at Ippolito as taught
vehement
desire to be
Such was the force of
was understood
as
him
mixed up with the
my
speech
my
affair.
will that the thing
readily
as
though
I
had
spoken. Ippolito
went to the door
;
and issued com-
mandments to the chamberlains chamber.
in
the
ante-
DON TARQUINIO
113
Cardinal Cesare was pinching the
plump
legs
of Gioffredo in a merry manner, running round the room.
Anon
a guard of viiij gigantic Numidians,
with jaguar-skins, white and tawny, armed with terrible clubs, produced ebony-coloured, girt
and were ranged outside, in a wedge whose base was the ivory portal. But Numidians in the outer antexviij other themselves
;
chamber kept the way against And so the door again was shut. Ippolito beckoned
me
with
charge.
of
my
me
back against kept silence but
my I
him
to
:
comers.
all
;
and placed
making
it,
my
it
gratitude.
Gioffredo escaped from his tormentor
taking
my
looks told him
the
ruffled hair,
comb from
his
and resumed
Ippolito and
;
and
pouch, tidied his
his nightcap.
the Cardinal
of Valencia dis-
posed themselves on the black cushions.
The
former drew up the low ivory tables of wine and sweetmeats, beginning to chew fresh sageleaves
from a vase
:
but
the
latter
degusted 8
DON TARQUINIO
ii 4
Anon
spoonfuls of a confection of prickly pear.
Gioffredo joined
munched
special
I
But
them.
to
I
coriander-seeds steeped in marjoram-
and crusted
vinegar
chance
himself
had
my
in
with
sugar,
comfit-box.
which
by
bring a
They
commodity to the memory, o Prospero.
how much he
Cesare abruptly asked Ippolito
knew of affairs. Ippolito
responded,
he very
that
saying
assiduously had been playing at great-ball since his
return
much that
to
the
City,
attention to affairs.
Alexander,
and
had
He knew,
magnificent,
not
invincible,
interned Himself in the castle
;
paid
of course,
had
and that the
was occupying part of the City on the other side of Tiber. Also he knew, from
Keltic king
rumour, that the said king's nose resembled a raw ham, that a pink birth -flare surrounded his left eye, that his twelve-toed
more form than women's
shanks had no
spindles, that
he had
brought into the City a new disease which he who was speaking called Morbus Gallicus, but Prince Tarquinio here present called
it
Morbus
DON TARQUINIO Kelticus,
115
and the Cardinal of Valencia might
decide between us.
resuming his gravity, Ippolito named the rumour which said that the Finally,
our Lord the Paparch to be quite impregnable, was forced to conclude some sort of peace.
said Keltic king, finding
Cesare silently produced
which was attached to
the pectoral cross
his neck-chain.
It
was
with great table-rubies. Unfastening its clasp, he disengaged a ring, huge, massive, which hung by its side. 1 never had seen set
enormous
so
a
gilded bronze, viiij Its
oblong bezel was
crystal,
then.
ring
It
was made of in
barleycorns set
diameter.
with a cabochon rock-
One
highly projecting.
shoulder was
carved with the Borgia armorials, videlicet Sol a Bull
passant
Mars on
proper within a bordure
mels
Sol. 1
were carved 1
The
The on
Triple the
Sol
Venus
flory
Mars semee of flam-
Crown and
other
tinctures are given
the arms of princes.
a closet
by
the
shoulder.
Don
Tarquinio
Keys
The as in
= or, Mars = gules, Venus =
vert.
82
DON TARQUINIO
n6 legend
This
ftlflC
pftpft
was carved on the hoop.
tit
thou knowst, o Prospero,
ring, as
most precious thing
in
my
the time of writing
for
which cause
to describe I
write
I
it,
:
is
the
proper treasury at I
am
able
although at the time of which
was not able to see more than
its
tremendous magnitude and its reddish colour. While he was disentangling this ponderous jewel,
Cesare was
manner of
simple saying "
That be
a
Roman
real
wave
at
of
Worship
to
compelled
ingot, a sordid
my
of Rome,
carry
Respectability so
lump only intended
vulgar
an
for couriers
post-houses in passing by, a blasted
gyve which even fail
a
:
should
to
cursing in the urbane and
a blind postmaster could not
to see 1"
With which words he
presented the said ring
to the Cardinal of Ferrara.
Ippolito kneeled, applying his ear to
it
with
1
surprise 1
and reverence, ejaculating
This would appear
answering an
to be the
official citation
:
Roman method
as old as
of
Horace, anyhow.
DON TARQUINIO
117
"Credentials?" Cesare assented
:
" Credentials on the part of our Most Holy Father." Ippolito maliciously inquired
:
"Father?"
jumped up and put himself to about the room. At first he shouted Cesare
;
stride :
anon his voice sank into the tone of
communion
and
but self-
resuming his seat, he returned to an ordinary mode of speech.
He
said
;
:
"Father?
Thine
finally,
well
as
as
Pater
father.
Yes,
Oh
Ours.
We
patrum. catch
the
sneer of thy meaning, o Cardinal of Ferrara.
But
We
mean Father
after the flesh
for one.
He
also,
after the spirit.
who knoweth
generous to fatherlike to Us. Nor do no,
We
is
do not
His.
But she was the
And
We
believe.
Yet
mysteries, incongruities. her.
Us
:
?
but
Whether
Not We,
He
is
Ourself believe
There be
We
secret
dare not ask
other's before she
the time of
Our
not
was
birth coincideth.
DON TARQUINIO
n8 Did
We
of the
ever
thee, o Cardinal of Ferrara,
tell
woman who
screamed
Us
at
out of the
We
took Gioffredo to Naples when See the Dellarovere, she cried, his marriage?
crowd
at
wagging
Thou
a stark
at
finger
But enough.
Us.
Our
takest cognizance of this
creden-
tials?"
Remember, o Prospero,
that thy father heard
those pregnant words, while his eyes saw that splendid creature
laying
bare
mind.
his
So
thou shalt know truly who was the actual father of Cesare whom men called Borgia.
He
put the great ring on his right middle
finger.
Ippolito again offered his ear to be touched
and responded, saying recognize ; and We are
by the ring " We
;
:
ready
to
obey." Cesare
began to deliver
his
message, say-
ing:
" Then
listen
:
for
knowest nothing of treat thee honestly.
time affairs.
Always
is
short.
Well,
We
Thou
We
will
save Ourself
DON TARQUINIO pains
so.
First,
Christian
King,
thou
on
shalt
119
know
pretence
of
that
a
the
crusade
Grand Turk, obtained leave from our Lord the Paparch to march his troops through
against the
On
Italy.
the way, he conceived a claim to the
crowns of Aragon, Naples, Both Sicilies, and At Fiorenza, he intrigued with Hierusalem. the maniac Fra Girolamo, 1 whose proper place
should be Santo
his
anon the
said
City, finding him-
army at his back, he dared to our said Lord the Paparch to confirm an
with
require
When
King reached the
Christian self
2
Spirito.
claim,
nition) he can wear
and the
no crown.
invincible,
magnificent,
grievance
that (without such recog-
knowing
having
But Alexander, no
against King Don Alonzo rest, who already is in
particular
of Naples possession,
refused to depose that sovereign in favour of
the
Christian
monkey,
King.
Wherefore that Keltic
in revenge, conspired with the traitor
Cardinal-bishop Giuliano Dellarovere, and with 1
This would be Savonarola.
2
The Roman
Bedlam."
DON TARQUINIO
120
friends the traitor barons Colonna, Orsini,
his
Sanseverini,
Savelli,
won
hath
the
with
Visconti
the
those
nipped
Lunati.
Alexander?
iij
them
in
the
appealed
What
cared the
laid
hands on
Having
treacherous
Sforza-
Sanseverini
Then he
of war.
even
he
Cardinal-vicechancellor
arbitrement
invincible
and
;
Cardinal-presbyter
and Cardinal-A. to
Cajetani
purpled
He
persons,
dungeons of the
castle.
Taking the Sultan Jam along with Him, He Himself also retired into the castle, snapping a 1
thumb and Ippolito
finger at the Christian King."
interrupted,
for the sequestration
demanding the reason
of the
said Sultan
Jam.
To whom Cesare responded, saying: "The Sultan Jam is of inestimable
value
Lord the Paparch, by cause that he is the brother and rival of the Grand Turk. The to our
by name the Sultan Bajazet, preferreth not to be dethroned by the Sultan said
1
potentate,
This Oriental personage appears a Man-in-the-Iron-Mask
somewhat of Era.
to
have been
in the
Borgian
DON TARQUINIO
Wherefore he agreed to pay xlm ducats
Jam.
yearly to the
He
121
Supreme
Pontiff, so long as that
keep the said brother and rival from Byzantion. Lately no ducats have been paid ; shall
Turk now
and the Grand
demandeth
person of the Sultan Jam.
of the Paparch knoweth the
Sultan
But the Sanctity First, that
things.
ij
Bajazet hath a
the
mind
and
to kill
and the magnificent Alexander not become a proximate occasion of fratri-
slay his brother; will
Secondly, that so long as that Christian
cide.
hands the
retain
Muslim
Christendom,
postponing set
lest
Vienna,
private
quarrels,
up the Sultan Jam
in
having obtained warranties of good
behaviour. Sultan
and
Hungary
should combine to his despite,
Jam, so long will refrain from advancing
Infidel
on
nefariously
Sultan
the
Jam
Wherefore, actually
is
although
our
the
pensioner,
said
our
Lord the Paparch generously permitteth him to keep his
own
court here with
Him
security of the Castle of Santangelo."
Ippolito ejaculated
:
in the
DON TARQUINIO
122
"Good, good
1
Either the Paparch's Blessed-
I
Worship's Respectability, We know not which, is as expert and as artificial with ness or
Thy
the wits of the head as
We
are with the sinews
Our body."
of
Cesare continued, saying: " These been things having
art
know
to
show of
understood, thou
that the Christian
down
siege, sitting
King made
a
before the Castle
of Santangelo with a gaggle of the common queans of the City and the stinking strumpets of the stews. But, after this diversion, he seeth that the paparchal fortress
As the
nut to crack.
deposition
beyond saith,
his
2
eVye,
And
evye"
Paparch
hath found out that he so the said Christian
wholly glad to
"
Commines
go away,
if
yu,u
is
King
he can save
in the original holograph.
1
'apTt,
is
As Messer Demosthenes
power.
eating pitch.
1
de
our Lord the
of
The mouse
will be
too hard a
Us, he hath become aware that
confessed to
the
Sieur
is
DON TARQUINIO Our Lord
his face.
123
the Paparch, on the other
hand, doth not enjoy sitting in the castle like a cat
cherry-bay-tree, even though that
in a
dog of
a Kelt can
him.
But
the
ignorant of
this.
do no more than yelp Christian
He
King is totally knoweth no more than
that he hath failed to capture Santangelo, that the invincible Alexander
doth
at
and
most mercifully
deign to give him these
terms.
First,
the Christian
parting in
King may raise the siege, depeace from the inviolable City and
from Peter's Patrimony: the Paparch saith not
His Sanctity Christian
of
the
our Lord
Gaul, Crusade, Naples,
specifieth not
King must
timidation
whither,
whither
:
but
His attempted
go.
Roman
blamable: but he will be
the in-
Paparch was very permitted to retire
Secondly, our Lord the Paparch
unmolested.
maketh no engagement concerning the crowns but the Christian of Naples and the rest :
King must go. deigneth the
said
to
Thirdly, our Lord the Paparch
give hostages
Christian
for
vj
months
to
King, sop to uncurbable
DON TARQUINIO
124 conceit,
Whom
as hostages
hath
given
Ourself."
in
will
He
give, dost thou ask,
such a grave case?
Sultan
Jam
;
and
First,
the
He
second's
XI
WE
o Prosper o, fetched our breath faster and our eyes dilated, but, speaking no word,
we
///,
;
listened.
Cesare continued, saying " Now these terms are not what the Keltic :
monkey wanted
:
but they are the best which
he can get.
Being a fool, never constant to a single idea, he hath determined to hasten southward, and to conquer Naples on his
own if
initiative:
having persuaded himself
that,
he could return some day with the crowns
of Naples and the rest in his hand, the Father of princes and kings would not refuse to put them on his head. So the treaty hath been signed.
And, touching the matter of Sultan
Jam,
Our
that,
since
pay,
he
is
fellow-hostage, thou the
shalt suppose
Grand Turk hath ceased
to
but a burthen on our Lord the 125
DON TARQUINIO
126
thou
Also
Paparch.
mattereth
suppose that it not a jot in whose ward he is, so shalt
Wherefore
long as that warden be Christian.
the magnificent Alexander most sagaciously will
him on
shift
to the shoulders of the Christian
King, whence he can be reclaimed
by
a threat of the Dirae.
at
So much
1
any time
for Sultan
Jam."
The
speaker thrust out the protruded middle
finger of his ringed right
saying
hand
and continued,
;
:
But
We
an hostage
also are
We
mass of dawn,
;
and, after the
the train of the
ride
in
to
beat
Christian King."
My
bowels began
hammers. bare.
I
whistling
My lips
retired,
:
but
yet
I
cause of mine emotions.
had heard were were afoot: 1
yet
terrible. it
Excommunication,
forth.
and
left
drew breath through the as
did
armourers'
like
my
last,
knew not
teeth softly
the
true
The words which
affairs
Very great not
seem
that
Interdict, Deposition,
I
they
and so
DON TARQUINIO concerned me.
I
127
was only an unnoted prince,
profoundly but inexplicably agitated, with back against an ivory door. Gioffredo with
snort
a
disgust
my
left
the cardinals on the cushions,
of
or
or
despair,
his
arm around
incredulity,
and came and threw
;
my
neck, nestling against me.
But saying u
:
They
give
Valencia continued,
1 speeches are better than short ones.
Long
action
of
Cardinal
the
understanding, without which
no
of great import can be accomplished.
Dost thou admit the o Cardinal of Ferrara
validity of
my
credentials,
?"
Ippolito again offered his ear to be touched
the
by
gigantic
asseverated
" the
We
ring
;
and,
standing,
he
:
are the son
The Most Respectable speaking to Us in His name.
Paparch, and
Worship of thee
and servant of our Lord
of
In the words of Plato, immortal, beaming on 1
ra
/jia/cpa TCOV o-jMtcpcov \oyci)V
(Eyripides).
em
irpoaBev
DON TARQUINIO
128 all
vice."
Our money
All
things,
at
is
thy
ser-
1
But now Cesare seemed
to
fall
into a muse,
yawning, playing with our impatience as the tawny tiger at our castle of Deira used to play with goats and deer. Gioffredo
me
left
on the black
;
carpet,
and went nearer, lying supporting his chin on
his hands, widely stretching his legs.
Ippolito
sat
intent,
erect,
on the
black
that
queer
cushions. I
stood
transfixed,
staring
fateful Cardinal of Valencia,
to
play
hostage
when
iiij
it
is
who
could afford
hours would see him an
and a prisoner
Very strange
at
in
an enemy's camp.
to say, but I will
tell
thee,
o Prospero, that, though there were iiij ablebodied lusty adolescents at that moment in that secret chamber, nevertheless the
minds of
of them were in complete abeyance ; and only the mind of the fourth predominated. iij
1
aoi 8e virapxei
/j,ev
TO e^a ^ptjfjLara (Platon).
DON TARQUINIO Wherefore we listen
129
had naught to do but to to the mind of the Cardinal of Valencia iij
who
at length resumed his discourse, saying " This is one of a score, which have ring :
been journeying round
Christendom,
on the
of paparchal ablegates, to the ElectEmperor Maximilian Always August, to the Catholic King 1 and Queen Don Hernando and
hands
Dona
Isabella,
to
the
Sacred King 2
Henry
of the Anglicans, to the Majesties and Tranquillities and Valvasours and Supernities and Celsitudes and Magnificencies and Sublimities
and Highnesses and Mightinesses and Splendours and Potencies of the Empire and Portugal and Poland and Hungary and Naples and Milan and Ferrara and Sabaudia and
Genoa and Venice and Fiorenza and Mantua and Parma and Padua and Piacenza."
am
I
1
2
The
unable to
tell
thee,
o Prospero,
why
of the Kings of Spain. This would appear to be the official style of the official style
Kings of England. It would be it became disused.
interesting to
when
9
know
DON TARQUINIO
130 I
that
this
tale
in
most
feline
him
satisfied,
Our Lord
tell
his
none other.
It
us,
But
watching anon,
the
being
:
the
1
Once
by no means and let no man
is
Paparch
end of His resources
think the contrary.
;
let
Him
Himself from the Christian King,
Him
perceived
he struck with the swift talons of
his stratagem, saying
at the
with
to dally
of our emotions.
surging
"
in
I
would
cardinal
own way and
his
pleased
But
from roaring.
refrained
rid Peter's
deliver
once
let
Patrimony of that pestiferous
monkey, and the Holy Roman Empire,
Spain,
kingdoms and duchies and republics, Christendom, will league with Alexander against the Italian
Gaul.
In which galley
To
the rudder.
We
Ourself are to hold
get the Christian
King away from the City, the Sultan Jam was conducted to his camp an hour ago. When We leave this palace,
We
exposing Our
also will join the Keltic
life to
the chances of fate."
army, 2
T(oi So^rjt 7ra\t,v (Aischylos). 2
yjrvxyv 7rpoj3a\\c0v ev icvftoicri 8at/xoi>os(Eyripides).
DON TARQUINIO Gioffredo
burst
an
with
in
131
and
oath
an
offer.
him
Cesare silenced ing "
and continued, say-
;
:
No, GiofFredo
We
:
will
Us
now, o Cardinal of Ferrara, lend After the dawn-mass,
ears.
We
But
alone.
go
both thine
ride from the
southward by the Appian Way toward the kingdom of Naples. So Our spies have City,
Three hours
brought news.
the
later,
frontier
Velletri,
beyond
Christian
King intendeth himself
We
reach
where
the
to dine
and
:
sleep."
Ippolito
rose,
storming, saying
"Hear Us
mightily
The Most
now.
Worship of thee
is
the
hand.
torvidly
chopping Wherefore,
Respectable
the most valuable of
The
the Paparch's lieges. like
towering,
:
off if
it
loss
of thee
will
here
ccc
barbarians
thou
We
have
to serve thee,
and
thy going be but a
armed
be
of Alexander's right be really and truly
necessary for thee to leave the City as sayst, let
all
feint.
92
DON TARQUINIO
i32
the trained
of Ferrara at
forces
Ourself are as strong as any a mace, a mace of tempered
Arabian even
steel,
be at Velletri for
will
;
and, with
and Our
between these thighs.
stallion
We,
man
We
call.
We,
Thy Worship's
rescue."
Gioffredo ing: " Let
We
jumped up
Us go
a
troop
Is
?
Are
thy stead, o Valencia.
in
not Alexander's son
mand
and chattered, say-
;
Do We
?
not
Our
not com-
wife a princess
If there be question of Aragon of Naples ? not worth as much as of ransom, are
We
thou?"
But alert,
I still
maintained phrenetic silence, keen,
strenuously desiring to do something, not
knowing what to Cesare waved saying
do. his
hand
in
have
valorously
a furry manner,
:
"We rescues.
conniving
will
not
None
in the City
at
Our
escape
:
the Christian King's return.
violent
may be known that
as
would insure
This
is
an
affair
PON TARQUINIO the
for
head,
not
for
massive
133
A
limbs.
cunning sage is here more precious than a And as for palatine, o heraklean Ippolito.
know that there is no time in The action change Our plans. The obligation is made begun.
thee, Gioffredo,
which
to
already
is
;
and cannot be evaded. If
to be
is
it
But
it
annulled, that
may
be annulled.
must be done
in
such a way that the Christian King will not be able to prove complicity on the part of any
Our Lord
Roman.
the
Paparch must not
be found out participating in conspiracy. We, His servants, must combine the columbine
manner of doves with the serpentine actions of snakes. Wherefore, what is to be done must be done by others, beyond
and It
(to all
was
listen,
Roman
territory,
seeming) quite spontaneously."
clear that
not to advise.
we were
We
expected only to
were not a council
:
but merely pupils, in the presence of a master,
who was dried.
schemes already cut and composed our bodies ; and our
unfolding
We
minds attended.
Cesare continued, saying
:
DON TARQUINIO
I 34
" That
ape
blear-eyed
must be
of Gaul
pinned in the kingdom of Naples as vermin
His teeth and
pinned in a trap. must be drawn there.
is
His army never again It must be annihilated
must return to Gaul. in Italy.
Wherefore, to lead the said Christian
King
into this trap,
bait.
We
frontier.
will
At
We
will
Velletri,
escape
;
promptly assuming against Gaul."
Ourself will be the
go with him beyond the Roman
We
during the heat of the day.
We
talons
and
will halt
with him,
And, from
return
direction
to
Velletri,
the
of the
City,
league
XII IPPOLITO said " We admire the plan, but know not how an escape can be effected under such conditions." :
To whom Cesare responded, " Know that the Borgia of little
as
saying: Velletri,
insignificant people, are of the
the
Roman
established
longer.
in
Borgia
hath a son, by
also that the
name
they have been
but
many
Italy
Know
:
though same origin
gliding
lustrums
Regent of
Velletri
Pietro Gregorio Borgia,
an adolescent of parts, very anxious for a career, very friendly to Ourself, and of equal age with
A messenger and similar appearance to Us. instantly must be sent to the said Pietrogorio :
who knoweth by caring
that he can
for Ours.
make
his
own
fortune
Wherefore, o Cardinal of
Ferrara, seeing that the fame of thy collection
of barbaric athletes hath come to the ears of our
DON TARQUINIO
I36
Lord the Paparch, thou
art
commanded, by
thine obedience to the bearer of this ring thou art
commanded,
to produce a swift runner here
and now." I
think that
moment, by so
Ippolito was dazzled, distinct
a
recognition
exquisite connoisseurship of physique sat there smiling
and blinking
:
at
the
of his for he
his eyes while
one
might say a paternoster. Cesare closely regarded him, until his counte-
nance resumed the intellect
normal gravity, shewing that within was operating and then he its
;
turned away, drawing Gioffredo on to his knees, feeding him with comfits from the table.
But Ippolito approached me where I stood and would have consulted rigid by the door ;
me, naming
his
runners one by one, Liparo,
Hygropyrrho, Bueselvatico, Fantedifiume, Teres,
Lo
Skytho,
Lo
Skoto,
the
sleek
one,
the
supple redhead, the wild bull, the servant of the sea, the smooth-fleshed one, the Skythian, the Skot,
But
I
demanding
my judgment
of each.
could not think of anything saving the
DON TARQUINIO great
good fortune of Pietrogorio, as possible
place.
tasm of
;
my
and
I
wished to occupy his
There came before mine eyes
a phan-
maid, as she stood before
my
stars
envied and hated him as
I
being malignant.
much
137
me
at
Vatican, with her dear brows so finely lifted
and her sweet pitying
me
stone-still,
lips
so
rapturously trembling,
Yet, here
and urging me.
unable to move, for
I
knew
I
was,
neither
whither nor how.
me
with
vacantly returned his gaze.
And
Ippolito
looked
at
inquiry.
I
anon, having
me aside, he opened the door. The wedge of Numidians, basaltine,
led
gigantic,
A
turned to face him, making a path for him. vermilion page advanced, impertinently bending to the ground.
That one had the form of
young Hyakinthos, and the face of a beautiful white fiend framed in a web of buttercupa
coloured hair.
Ippolito
commanded him
summon the chief chamberlain. The page's parthenean voice the outer antechambers.
shrilled
to
through
DON TARQUINIO
138
The
chief chamberlain
To whom
bustling and genuflecting. delivered a mandate, saying
" Lo Skoto,
The
toward
trotted
us,
Ippolito
:
in secret/'
chief chamberlain
In flying, he
fled.
swept before him all the pages and gentlemen until the door of the private stairs was passed, driving them out of sight and hearing, leaving those
only guard.
mute eunuchs of
the
Numidian
Anon, he returned accompanied by
a
half-savage runner, a lanky, stone-deaf youth
of the age of xviiij years bought out of the horrible and ultimate Britains. This animal
was pushed into the secret chamber door again was shut. shall
I
Prospero,
describe
this
who was
of
singular
;
and the
barbarian,
astonishing
o
leanness,
and very archaic He was clad in an oblong brown and green and yellow.
stepping like a prancing horse, as to his aspect.
chequered in lower quarter of the said cloth was belted
cloth,
The in
folds
round
his
waist.
The upper
three-
quarters were folded together lengthways, and
DON TARQUINIO passed upward, behind his back,
139
over his
left
shoulder and breast; and the end was tucked into the front of the right side of his belt. 1
goat-skin pouch
of the said
2
belt.
A
depended from the fore-part All the rest of him was un-
His arms were very long and very His breast was enormous. His long
covered. thin.
were very
legs also
His
feet
lean,
but round and sinewy.
His heavy head was the cheeks and the brow, white
were horny.
pear-shaped
:
:
nose and pointed jaw, thickly freckled a nasty light mud-coloured
:
the hair,
brown knot on the
crown; and the steel-coloured eyes awkwardly
wavered behind small
slits,
unlashed,
sly.
His
stench was abominable.
The
Cardinal
perfumed amber his left wrist
;
points in the
ball
2
at
which was chained
way which one satisfied.
Lo
the to
Skoto's
useth for horses,
So he came to us
" seems This " oblong cloth " in one garment. kilt and plaid 1
sniffed
and, having examined
he appeared to be
"
of Valencia
to
be the original
" sporran." Obviously a fifteenth century
DON TARQUINIO
140 sitting
on
cushions
the
Ippolito that a
and demanded of
;
mage should be summoned, who
could cause the runner to sleep instantly and heavily during a half-hour without impeding his
speed thereafter.
went into the antechamber, commanding the service of Messer Nerone DiotiIppolito
mage who
salvi, the
tolerated natural death
strangling after the conclave
Piccolhuomini. 1
by which elected the
But, to occupy the time which
preceded the arrival of this one, Cesare took writing materials
"
'To
Our
;
and wrote
well-beloved
Don
this letter
:
Pietro Gregorio
Borgia of Velletri. " These with speed, speed, speed? " as
Our Lord hostage
1
the
with
Paparch suddenly sendeth Us the
Christian
King, leaving
Alexander the Sixth's successor, Pius the Third
(Francesco de' Piccolhuomini). trips Diotisalvi
only know.
engaged
Anyhow, he
long before he got 2 " Cito Cito :
What
particular can-
in at that conclave, the
richly deserved a
gods
hanging
it.
:
Cito
:" in the original
holograph.
DON TARQUINIO Us
no opportunity
afairs.
of attending
Wherefore thou art to
bearer of these
letters
is
remained here) should than one hour of Our private as
arms and
to
affection
for
trusty
Us, thy
thee
to
aforesaid, piety,
our
treat
with
that
he
Our
distended
divers
to
apt
which thou dost nourish
said other
We
slave
Our
lay
it
upon as
conveniently
known
order
have
may
naughty ways before
pillory,
well-beloved Pietro-
o
kinsman,
all
not more
on the flesh of his bare
cause,
gorio, by the
the
tolerate
with
enough,
actions
For which
back.
proper
know that
not stringently enough
legs,
harm, but stringently
and commodious
Our
to
an unruly slave, who
We
(if
141
amended
his
And
return.
to
thy
said
so earn
gratitude.
" C. CAR. AL DE VALENCIA."
When we
were permitted screed, Gioffredo denounced
to it
Ippolito uttered the opinion that it
did not say.
But
angry, gave favour to
I,
my
peruse as
it
nonsense.
meant what
being perplexed tongue.
the
and
DON TARQUINIO
142
Cesare, having guffawed at our stolidity, said
'Be use
is
known unto
it
to
keep,
adolescent on
in
city,
whom We may
Such an one in Velletri for
Our
these princes that
every
is
at
:
least
one
in need.
depend
Pietrogorio, prepared
any emergency, prompt to serve and he know what ought to be done. Further;
will
more,
if the
Kelts, or Colonna, or Orsini, or
Savelli, or Dellarovere, or Cajetani, or
any other catch the runner of such a mes-
bandits, shall
sage as this, having read
it,
they not rather
will
most hilariously hasten him on to
We
iij
his
whipping ?"
laughed, conceding the point.
Messer Nerone presently entered, indulging himself in
a
phrenetic
spasm of
chirruping like a slow tomtit.
He
humpty-backed. tone,
using
a
high
obeisances,
He was
antique,
monospoke always shrill scream with most in
exasperating deliberation.
At whom
Ippolito rushed, explaining
was to be done.
We
what
others stuffed our ker-
chieves in our nostrils, standing laughing near
Lo
Skoto, anxious to see the doing.
DON TARQUINIO
143
But the physician forthwith crossed the room to the table where the wine was and the water, of the
prattling
virtues
of
belladonna
and
There, standing with his back to
stramonium.
Lo
Skoto and having taken ij little silver pots from his burse, he put a pinch from each into a
This cup he put on a salver with another similar cup which he filled with pure water and so he brought them both to the
cup of wine.
;
runner.
As
was being done, the ij cardinals and but Gioffredo held a parley on the cushions this
:
I
moved
watched
toward
all,
the
whence
window,
unseen, breathing cleaner
Messer Nerone offered the water
Lo
runner.
longingly
Skoto
leering
at
wine.
air.
to
sipped
reluctantly
the
I
the it,
The mage,
having pretended to assure himself that no one was observing, simulated a sudden access of liberality
;
and offered the wine
instead.
It
was done most admirably, .with absolute art. Lo Skoto gulched down the infected potion, stroking himself, vacuously grinning.
DON TARQUINIO
144
The mage
replaced the salver with the cups
on the ivory took the ij
The
Cardinal of Valencia
silver
pots from him, and
table. little
pouched them giving him the jewel with its slight chains from the back of his own hand, :
and putting him outside the ivory door in the antechamber among the Numidians with a
word of
dismissal.
As he went, for
it
touched his
I
seemed that
fortune
had in
malignant. voice dying
We
needed
I
heard the
away
as
all
my
store,
for luck
hump
stars
shrill
;
the aids which
being
most
whining of
his
he was escorted beyond
the antechambers.
The door having been
we continued
shut,
to
entertain ourselves, paying no attention to the
drugged runner, except with the corners of our eyes.
But of
the
I
was
staring at the innumerable lights
waxen
torches,
reflected
vistas in the polished ivory
and the dome of the dazzled by the sheen.
in
endless
of the circular walls
roof, until
And
I
mine eyes were
chafed
:
being in
DON TARQUINIO
145
agony of bewilderment when the whole world seems to whirl round, near, very near, but just out of reach. For nothing is more
that
exasperating
when
alone,
than
to
oneself
find
else
everything
still
in
is
and
myriads
violently moving, eluding one's grasp.
Anon, the runner suddenly started as though a phantom had touched him unawares. He round him
cast suspicious glances
:
but
we
iiij
were in the middle of the chamber, while he
was alone by the door.
We
stood up, openly
looking at him as though we were astounded at his audacity: for, in starting, he had knocked
down
the double-cross, golden,
which leaned
of the ivory faun near him, against the pedestal
nor did he attempt to replace
it.
Indeed, his
eyes began to glare like those of one who unadvisedly had looked upon a cluster of hob-
His knees
began to bend like those of one pressed downward by an incubus, Anon he became prone on gently, irresistibly.
goblins.
also
the black carpet.
Having approached him, Cesare opened one 10
DON TARQUINIO
146
thumb
with
and
of his
eyes
Naught
but white was seen.
together flesh
the
index-finger.
Having pinched
barleycorns* length of the freckled
iij
of the neck, the said cardinal transfixed
same with
hand-case.
a
needle-point from
But the sleeper soundly
Ippolito's slept.
Cesare returned to the black cushions seated himself by side of Ippolito, saying
" Let
Us
have the skin of
;
and
:
this barbarian's
back."
Gioffredo assisted me.
We
left
the runner
He
in possession of nothing but himself.
very heavy and inert
was
and we pulled him about
;
Anon, having dragged him to of the cardinals, we laid him out on
rather roughly.
the feet
black
the
carpet,
limp
as
a
freshly- made
cadaver, a lean long form, huge of loin, the breast
deeply
shoulder and
arched,
arm.
legs faded at the
to
the
ribs
The
narrow
tan of the
middle of the thighs
on the right
shoulder on the whiteness.
puny and
left
Having
side,
side
sinuous :
thence,
and to the
there was
inspected
of
dazzling
him, we turned
DON TARQUINIO him downward
and
;
left
147
him, eagerly fixing
our gaze on the Cardinal of Valencia.
That burse
purpled
a
tiny
crystal
from
produced
person vial
a
containing
his
flesh-
coloured liquid, viscous and opaque as cream,
with a
little
brush of very
Having unstopped the Ippolito's ready
We
became
hand
;
conscious
fine hogs'
vial,
bristles.
he gave
it
into
and dipped the brush. of a
certain
foetor,
mysterious, mephitic.
Cesare said
"
Know
:
that ye are savouring a solution in
We
of the juice of an Indian fig, 1 which took from Messer Leone Abrabanel of Naples.
spirit
We habitually bereave mages of drugs when We have seen the method of
Know also their
that
using and the effect of the same
for a prince
:
very often hath need of such matters."
Mark
well,
o
Prospero,
those
words of
wisdom.
Thus he spoke 1
I
am
:
but we signified assent with
inclined to think that this
is
what we
indiarubber.
10
2
call
DON TARQUINIO
148
our eyebrows very intently watching his actions. He began to write with the brush upon the runner's back.
But
a terrific catastrophe instantly happened.
For, at the
the top of the
nance of his fit
to
move
touch of the said brush on
first
shoulder-blade, the malig-
left
stars
caused the sleeper to think
his head,
Immense confusion
and to attempt to
rise.
instantly invaded the secret
chamber. Cesare sprang up, vociferating maledictions.
and pouched it, preparing himself to rebut accusations of treachery. Giofrredo danced up and down like a cat who Ippolito stopped the vial
;
inopportunely hath stepped on an oven.
Lo Skoto phrenetic with babbling in an
whom
I
with a bound was on his
feet,
fear, capering hither and thither,
unknown
Upon savage jargon. launched myself like a flash of white
thunder. But, before
I
could touch and crush his flesh
with mine, Cesare whipped a raging poignard a clever Roman thrust into him, and out :
DON TARQUINIO
149
upward through the heart from the stomach.
The runner wriggled and blood
and
;
He
fell.
times very quickly straight.
The
;
choked, spouting red
kicked the carpet
and writhed
iiij
and died
;
never have seen so short an agony.
I
Cardinal of Valencia at once recovered
equanimity ; and dried his poignard in the knot of dead hair, saying to Ippolito
his
:
"
Pardon, o Cardinal of Ferrara, on account
puddle on thy carpet. It is not caused by malice but by necessity. But now, before we consider new plans, let us be rid of this of
this
carrion, secretly."
Ippolito continued to gaze at the carcase.
But, by favour of some benignant
star,
my
coming back to me. I began to know, one by one in order, the things which wits seemed to be
I
ought to do. Wherefore,
the ankles pits;
and
I
but
:
beckoned to Gioffredo to take I
terribly
we flung the dead slave from but, after we had heard the splash
In this manner the balcony
:
myself took the hollow armthe head waggled between.
DON TARQUINIO
150
of
his
new
in
fall
Tiber,
we
returned,
expecting
events.
was the gaze of Ippolito fixed on the mess on the carpet. Cesare walked like a tiger Still
to and clear
;
fro
my
in a fume. stars
perplexity blind
Now my
vision was
being very benignant
me any more
to
my
:
nor did
chance.
XIII
HAVING
collected the vesture of the runner,
placed myself in the
whom
Valencia,
I
I
the Cardinal of
way of
addressed, saying
:
a Tiber beareth that dead barbarian to the sea
and
;
I,
o Lord Cardinal, will be
Respectable Worship's angel."
With which words
I
flung
Thy Most
l
down my
night-
gown of ermine. Cesare instantly stopped, inquiring whether I
could run.
response
:
for
To whom my mouth gave no my form and membrature testi-
His glances impinged upon me, and bringing the hot blood from mine heart
fied the thing.
;
I
looking down,
saw
my
though stricken with the
breast reddening as
flat
of the hand.
Ippolito suddenly interrupted, saying
"Can he run "
"
0776X05
indeed?
:
But he can run, an
(messenger) in the original holograph.
DON TARQUINIO
152
he
superhuman swiftness and of Wing-footed Hermes, or of
with
will,
endurance
who
Asahel
the
ran like a wild roe in the Sacred
Scriptures."
Thus was Cesare " Be then
run for
Our
Us and
He
satisfied.
said
:
angel, o white prince
;
and
for thyself."
In this manner
I
became the
first
of the
iiij
adolescents there present.
At my commandment, pages brought certain matters from the wardrobe, depositing them at
my
feet
and, retiring,
:
us alone to
left
make
preparations for the running. belted
I
the
runner's
cloth
my
folded feet
;
ij
back was bare.
my
loins,
hang down behind, so
letting the larger portion
that
on
Ippolito very carefully
squares of tanned buckskin round
my
and firmly bandaged them with thongs of
the same.
Thus garbed,
I
turned
the ivory door, exposing the flesh
my of my
face to
back as
the Cardinal of Valencia willed.
Thereon he began brush.
The
viscous
to write cyphers with the liquid,
which he used,
DON TARQUINIO
153
seemed somewhat to sting and bite me but I clenched my teeth and fists, and remained im:
movable; and anon the
He
covered
my
pangs evanesced. back with writing from shoulder little
to shoulder and below to in
all.
While he was
thing, saying
my
writing, he explained the
:
" These characters, which glossy,
become
will
dried, being of the
on which
middle, vij lines
We
now
invisible
same colour Such
write.
is
are wet
and
when they
are
as the substance
the nature of this
magic, that neither sweat nor water will affect it.
Ye have
in ink blind.
the
seen the letters, which
upon the paper,
The
pouch
message
for
:
We
himself seen
it
back.
mere
real
read
may
message on his
and no Roman ever hath seen
;
evanisheth as
own
and anyone
;
But he beareth the
proper body that
to be naught but a
wrote
prince will carry those letters in
goatskin
them.
We
:
ye
write for
it.
see
that
each
Nor hath
this
letter
angel
no adolescent can see
But Pietrogorio alone
will see
his it
:
for he will rub this fine white flesh with soot
D O N TARQUINIO
154
adhering to
which,
them
visible
when
the
render
cyphers, will
the back which beareth
them
have been cleansed with washing." Thus he spoke but I was thinking of
shall
:
a reward
reward, though I
knew
was not named
that great rewards
for
would be due
for
and furthermore the cardinal
such a service
;
had
was about to run
said that
I
my
:
well as for him.
Moreover
I
for
myself as
knew from
his
way of handling me, very gentle, very urbane, what all the world knoweth now, videlicet^ that,
from the moment when he
first
saw how
had made me, the splendid Cardinal of Valencia loved and honoured me.
my
stars
And, when the matter was completed, I demanded a poignard for mine equipment, lest the
said
Pietrogorio,
or
any
other
person
instigated by the devil, being strange to me,
should try to
which
I
fulfil
the mandate of the letters
carried in the goatskin
pouch
:
for
it
was not meet that a prince of my quality, nameless, nearly naked, and without credentials as
I
was, should submit to pillory and stripes.
DON TARQUINIO And
so,
having folded the upper part of the
cloth together lengthways,
right
155
arm and
across
my
I
passed
breast
it
under
and over
my my
shoulder, fixing the end in the belt, so that
left
the wind of
my
movement should not
swift
impede me.
cause
it
mine
hair as tightly as possible in
to
And, having composed
my
nightcap,
length was ready to run.
I at
Sumpter-mules, valises,
were
which
my
cardinal's
court.
first
riding-habits of
was being prepared Covered with a cloak, I was placed
white doeskin, while a
me.
Two
therein.
for
the
the
in
waiting
Gioffredo donned one of
for
bore
secrecy
litter
decurions attended
and
fidelity.
We
us,
chosen
crossed
Tiber
by the
Island, riding
Nereys
and Achilleys to the Gate of Saint
very quietly
by Saints
Sebastian.
During the journey able
to
recollect
ever plain to this
at
me
adventure.
taking
the
in the silent litter,
myself.
It
I
was
was more than
was the chief prince in Wherefore I did not hesitate that I
government
into
mine
own
DON TARQUINIO
156
even
hands,
to
the
command-
of
issuing
ments to the cardinals and to the Prince of Squillace.
On
mine
hearted,
was
as
with
emergence, bare-limbed, lightCesare that his errand
assured
I
as
good
Ippolito
swore
but
:
done
and dismissed
;
the
to
Keltic
smiled
they
him
camp. They and ; they
me
at
went.
But
I
bade Gioffredo to return to the Estense
Palace, there to rest in
my
he might be able to which I would need
render
my
running.
to
upper road,
fore
my 1
I
1
that
I
bade
litter
was
to
him the
the
assistance
morning
intending
if
possible,
after
myself
by
the
might not encounter the
swarming along I
the
in
a-horseback
return,
Kelts
For
bed, in order that
to
the
lower.
bring
his
Lateran
Gate
The New Appian Way which
Old Appian Way, avoiding
the
Wheretroop
and
the
first
at
diverged from the fortified
tomb of
Cecilia Metella, generally a nest of brigands in the pay
of bandit barons.
DON TARQUINIO 1
hour of the
there
day,
to
league outside the gate until
He
agreed
good luck
me
;
in
longer, and
my
about
my
going.
6 a.m.
me
Nothing delayed
took to the road. 1
a
coming.
embracing me, gave
and,
I
attend
157
XIIII
THE
dark
very
horned moon gave
little
me
let
was
night
before
on
tombs
ruined
no
and
me,
more.
both
blacknesses
shapeless
blackness.
much The
light
nothing
lines
were
sides
silhouetted
cared
I
A
cold.
as
riband of road stretched out
the
see
as
and
on
then
of only
blacker for
the
pleasures of sight.
The
my
cool fresh breath of
and caressed
nostrils,
The hum of behind.
I
Lady Night greeted
my
flesh as I ran.
the City very soon was left
heard naught save the sighs of the
sleeping earth and the quick delicate patter of
my
well-shod footsteps.
The the
aromatic flavour of herbs growing by
roadside
to time
my
was on
my
lips
protruded tongue
sweetness. 158
:
from
time
tasted the cool
DON TARQUINIO All
tingled with the pleasure of
my body movement.
swift I
159
thought of nothing
forces
collect
at
all
:
onward with long
my
letting
and develop only
in I
light striding.
pressing
knew
that
Lord the Paparch depended was alone and unprotected
the triumph of our
on me, that but
I
that
I
I
myself to be so terribly strong could have shouted for very gladness.
my
than
breath this
running, o mine I
myself I
:
felt
saved
More
I
I
;
and continued running.
cannot
own
thee
tell
mercurial Prospero
l :
my :
for
know nothing more.
went with extreme caution by
Tower
of
Cajetani's
but the darkness of midnight and the
malignance of that baron's stars favoured me, so that the watch did not perceive my passing.
That was the only
real piece
Having escaped
enterprize.
myself to the fulness of
Anon 1
the
The tomb
as a fortress
of danger in mine
my
it,
I
stretched
speed.
straight white
way
lost
itself
of Cecilia Metella, apparently then used
by the bandit baron Cajetani.
DON TARQUINIO
160
beneath a carpet of grass. 1
I
my
guided
course
between the gaunt ruins of the tombs on each I could not pass Solfatara 2 without hand. myself; and,
refreshing
having denuded
my
plunged into the pool again and again until all my flesh was benumbed. I will tell thee, o Prospero, that
body reeking with
violent
water
thousand times by the cold heart I
in
knew
breast
my
that
Wherefore
I
was
mood
in a
for
strength was multiplied a
My
feats.
I
moment was
at that
thy father
sweat,
way
but
greatly,
rejoiced
in a
:
to break
my
the
because fetters.
out again at augmented speed, also desiring to accomplish mine errand, but to leave behind me the disgusting stench of the I
set
pool.
Hereafter, in
maid
in
my
the City,
thought of my knew not what great
running,
who
I
deeds her loving lover was doing in order that
The Old Appian Way was disused between Near the latter place the Palombaro and Bovillae. 1
juncture with the 2
An
New
Appian
antique sulphur spring.
Way
occurs.
DON TARQUINIO But
he might win her. near to impede I
my
postponed them
161
went
these thoughts
progress
which cause
more opportune
a
until
for
:
occasion.
The a
for
night became
very long
more obscure
time
my
ran
I
in
physical force
on
running.
Anon
moon
the
set
but dim starlight.
It
cautelously
at
for,
:
fortified, rebellious.
to
my
and
my mind
keeping all
abeyance, concentrating
;
my
and there was no
;
Albano
that
my
was
maid,
they would bring I
would
Savelli,
way by the lake
me
who
beseeching to
the her-
be, I ascended the hill,
passing that city on the right
The
go very
proper divinities as well as to those
borough where
I
to
Wherefore, having prayed
were the protectors of
them
me
behoved
light
;
and made
my
into Aricia.
was running by faith and not by sight. road was much more difficult by cause of
many ups and downs. But I did not slacken speed for I knew that my stars were
the
:
as benignant as possible. 1 1
DON TARQUINIO
162
Cinthyanum its
through
was
street,
indeed
journey
human
1
my
anywhere
not
for
I
fled
In
all
my
no
encountered
I
;
I
the
in
feared
I
of
one
of
continued
how
knowing
my my mind
very
in
run
to
would
I
should
limbs
my
fulfilling
But
dark.
lest
and there was
sole desire
fore
vacant.
silent,
as
shewing that the gods I course. might have rested
safely
stiffen
asleep
origin, clearly
approved
:
still
only the
Where-
mission. faster is
grateful
and
faster,
rest
after
activity very strenuous, very prolonged.
Anon to
a
the darkness of the night gave
timid
certain
enabled to
follow
greyness,
whereby
I
the windings of the
way was road
But by cause that dawn I was was near, I put forth all my vigour. conscious only that my legs were swinging with
less
caution.
to and fro with no effort, lightly-flying, space-
devouring.
by cause that
by cause that
was happy, by cause of them,
I
glowed in the cold was alive and doing.
my I 1
flesh
Genzano
di
Roma.
air,
DON TARQUINIO Naught at
the
Velletri,
else
end of
gave
my
through
me
here,
happiness,
journey. the
163
So
I
entered
with
gate,
dawn.
ii
the
XV
MY
shouts for the palace of the Regent, and
the fierceness of
my
mien, brought
me
instantly
to Pietrogorio.
Had
I
not
known
that
the
Cardinal
of
Valencia had remained in the City, and that
none had passed
me on
the road,
I
should
have suspected magic of the particular kind called bilocation, by means of which the golden-thighed Pythagoras was seen and heard to lecture, at the same day and hour, in the
two widely
Metapontion and the aspect of this adolescent
distant cities of
Tayromenion was precisely
:
for
similar to that of the other
had sent me.
But
my
stars
told
me
who that
for which they must be two and not one cause I did not hesitate to present the written :
letters
from the goatskin pouch.
Pietrogorio permitted himself to laugh while 164
DON TARQUINIO
165
he was reading in which diversion I did not omit to join, although, fearing lest he might :
stray
unduly into
Anon
handy.
I
error,
took the
him with
acquainting
I
my
kept first
the
poignard
opportunity of
quality
mine
of
and he instantly withdrew me from the court, where he had been about to exercise estate
;
some
horses, conducting
ment
allotted
to
him
me
to a secret apart-
by the
Regent,
his
father.
He
said
" If, it
as
will be
:
We
believe, the truth
known unto
is
being told,
this prince
what other
matters must be done before the whole message can
come
to
To whom "Let
a
Our knowledge." I
instantly responded, saying
shovelful of soot be brought, and
several bucketfuls of water for washing
anon
this
:
noble will not be prevented
;
and from
completing the said message for himself.'*
The empty
things
having
been
part of the stables,
brought into an near by the boxes
where the horses were, but separate therefrom
DON TARQUINIO
166
wooden
a
by
cloth
long
wall,
and
;
my
poignard in
divested myself of the
I
stood
hands, alert
Pietrogorio understood that
by
So
understood.
I
step in turn
keeping to unsheathe it. still,
;
far
and he
also
my
knew
we had gone
step
and now he was to advance
;
to the last stage.
Taking the soot of
flesh
very
back therewith.
my
calves of
I
my
felt
I
it
drop-
loins
my
and
was standing over
looking
my
Campagna
Moor
as dully black as a
having so degraded
across
rubbed the
saw that the shining whiteness of
me was becoming but,
legs: for
Sometimes,
stiffly.
shoulders,
I
odious softness, on
ping, with
on the
in handfuls, he
myself
in a barbaric
to
as
slave's
:
run
garb,
I
placed no demurrer against this last abomination.
But
ablutions, after
my
I
promised myself many very long
moment
elaborate, exquisite, in the
return to the City.
Indeed,
I
was
not in a condition to place remonstrances of
any kind
at
that
message pleased
time
:
for,
whether
him or irked him,
I
my
was
at
DON TARQUINIO mercy
Pietrogorio's
and
refreshment
So
return.
I
making me last
well
submitted in
blacked
Having
accommodation
for present
as
as
me
greatly
when
refreshed
back, carried
first
iiij
but
:
me
I
grieved
over
away the superfluous
soot,
every
part
me
of I
save
But the
flesh
dirtiness
;
my
held upward.
bucketful ran off in inky streams
and the
;
and
;
bucketfuls
were greyer and fourth was almost
second and third
greyer
and
in flowing
and mine arms which
breast
The
me
saw that vthe water,
I
trickling over
the
first
time, he fetched a horse-block near
It
of
thoroughly,
a piebald prince for the
and, standing thereon, he poured of water over me.
my
means
for
silence.
of
half
167
of
me
I
stood
:
still
clear.
remained of a terrible still,
sodden, unclean,
beginning to shiver, very strenuously expecting
an end.
dismounted
from
and inspected the
visible
Pietrogorio
block
my
;
back.
the
horse-
cyphers on
Incontinent he uttered the greatest
DON TARQUINIO
168
shout which
ever have heard from the throat
I
of one adolescent.
It
was so
of delight, of urgency, that
I
of surprize,
full
turned upon him,
eagerly inquiring.
But emotion
The
intense
me
transfixed
expression
him of
for the his
moment.
countenance
was collecting his energies some tremendous effort, that he was in
taught for
that he
some huge idea. and the tension plan was born Not forgetful of good manners,
the throes of labour with
Anon, his was relaxed. even
;
such
at
a
moment, he thus addressed
me: " Order shall be given for the comfort and the entertainment due to
But
Thy Most
Illustrious
We
Ourself beg to be excused have in hand from attendance, seeing that Potency.
We
the
vital
account to
Us
welfare of
We
Our
patron,
are willing to die
that another
Cinthyanum on the
To whom I " Give Us
:
for
on whose it
messenger must
seemeth
go to
instant."
promptly responded, saying the means of riding, and
:
We
DON TARQUINIO
169
We
Ourself will be that messenger for desire nothing better than to emulate Thy Nobility in serving the Cardinal of Valencia to the :
uttermost; and
it
is
clear that
Ourself at the same time,
We
shall serve
seeing
that
Cin-
thyanum lieth on the high road to the City." Thus I spoke, letting the fire of mine eyes add force to the words that the thing
thou
must be
;
and Pietrogorio saw
so.
He
himself
is,
as
o Prospero, more a man of of words ; and, thereafter, we
knowest,
deeds
spoke
than little
but did
much
in a
few moments of
time.
While
I
girded on the runner's garb again,
he saddled an horse for me, shouting meanwhile for his people to bring the juice of a live
goose pressed to death for
and to rub
my
me
stiffening legs with
Which was done. Anon I leaped into
to drink,
mugwort
in
oil.
me through the gave me the little
the saddle; and he led
There, he gateway alone. gold ring with the carbuncle
(which thy mother, o Prospero, weareth on her
DON TARQUINIO
170
neck-chain), signing for the use of
Having bent " Present Cinthyanum,
to him, he whispered this
ring
to
the
as a sign that
that city are
all
mine
ear.
:
postmaster
of
the horses in
bought up by the Cardinal of
Valencia."
Thus having spoken, he
sent
me
flying
at a gallop, mightily striking the stallion
rump
with his
fist.
away
on the
XVI I
HAD no more than
what was doing now. But the City and that sufficed ;
Little
vulgar
boys gibed
I
for at
my my
satisfaction.
disgraceful
At rode through the streets. time I would have cut out their
as
aspect
knowledge of was returning to
a superficial
another
I
tongues: but, then, I did not even stop to Little simpering girls, going frown at them. to mass with the nuns of their convent, pre-
tended to shudder
but not
at the dirty, detestable,
but I unshapely legs so shamelessly exposed did not even kiss my fingers. Every moment :
now brought me
nearer to
my
proper maid.
I
thought of nothing else as I flew along the road but I grieved a little by cause that I had :
and the whip (which I had snatched Moreparting) was but a slight one.
no
spurs,
up
at
over,
I
had
left
my
poignard in the 171
stable.
DON TARQUINIO
172
But,
my
when
beast's
footgear
I
drummed
barrel,
emitted
the
with mine heels on leather of
sodden
certain
squelching to
amusing to the rider, terrific for he
augmented
his speed in a
my
noises,
the ridden
:
very agreeable
manner, not needing any other incitement.
So
I
came
to
Cinthyanum; and, having done
my business with the postmaster, I pursued my course without drawing rein. When I reached the summit of the hill by the ruins, 1
saw
I
(in the ravine before
approaching troop.
by
my
eyes were so blinded
sweat and the dust of
that (though
on
Mine
loricate
I
my
furious riding,
perceived the glint of the sun
and on cross-bows) I whether these were worn
mail-coats
could not see clearly
and borne by friends or foes. But I knew that it was 1
me) an
I don't quite
know what
easier
to
ride
these ruins are, unless
they are the remnants of the Villa of Vitellius
Monte
Gentile
:
but, if this be the
quinio was off the main road. ravines
between Genzano and Aricia,
the viaducts of Pius the Ninth.
case,
There
on
Don Tar-
are plenty of
now
spanned by
DON TARQUINIO
173
through a squadron from an high place, than for an ascending squadron to obstruct precipitate attack. Wherefore I goaded mine horse to extra speed with terrific shoutings as well as
with the thuds of mine heels
and
;
it
seemed
was going very quickly. But the beast, having run away four times
that
I
for his
own
pleasure and being
now
constrained
was becoming exhausted; and myself was becoming sore and rather feeble from the stress of my night's adventure
to run for mine, I
:
was famishing with hunger. For which causes we came down the steep hill with moreover,
I
had designed and nothing would have been done at the bottom in the
less
impetus than
I
way of smashing
a
;
passage through
the
ad-
wait
for
vancing troop.
The
said
troop, indeed,
the onslaught: but, to
ranged
itself
by the
did
not
my immense
surprise,
sides of the road laughing
very loudly indeed.
But erected
I,
indignant
myself on
at
my
gratuitous saddle,
contumely,
straight
and
DON TARQUINIO
174 filthy
(for
along
the
had come down the
I
horse's
back
the
estate
whom
And, while and
avoid
swift
passage)
;
indignantly looked about for one of mine
I
own
lying
to
better
wounds during the proposed and
hill
fell
I
dead
:
I
call
might
was looking, but I made
my shift
of him, in order to meet mine
and death
But
I
in a princely
had
to
account.
rocked
beast
to leap clear
own
torture
manner.
fallen into
no worse hands than
That one chubby Gioffredo. to whose inquiries instantly began to chatter I would not respond, until he had dismounted those
of
the
:
one of his own kataphractors 1 in order to give me a new horse; and then I insisted that we should hasten toward the City.
So we galloped together like Kastor and Polydeykes: but the dismounted kataphractor rode a-pillion with one of his comrades.
we went,
as 1
I
gave a
little
news of
my
And,
deeds to
Mail-clad cavalry with cross-bows. Pietrogorio's at Velletri names him as the lieutenant of
tombstone
Caesar Borgia's kataphractors.
DON TARQUINIO Gioffredo
remnant
until
quickly as possible
When
with his
me
The
;
for
I
was very anxious to
end. I
lapsed into silence, Gioffredo began
What
to be garrulous.
portant.
me.
failed
kept for the business of riding as
I
make an
breath
my
175
he said was not im-
He
had spent an hour of the night wife at Traspontina. But it pleased
to hear that impatience and a kind heart
had constrained him to leave long before the time, and had sent him so great a distance along
And
road to mine assistance.
the
d esired to reach the Lateran Gate (so he said)
I :
eagerly
for there
the litter was waiting, wherein
I
longed to seclude myself, by cause of the sordid condition of my body, which shame forbade
me
to
that
exhibit
was
fatigue
the
in
and
City,
affecting
me
by cause
very gravely
indeed.
Anon we been
lifted
reached
on
place
and,
;
having
to the soft cushions, the curtains
were drawn about me. for
the
Instantly
which cause, o Prospero,
I
I fell
am
asleep
:
unable to
DON TARQUINIO
176 write
the
Lateran
Gate
there
awoke,
I
of
history
jerk in the
to
first
as
my
the
the
progress
Estense
from the
But
Palace.
mules halted with a
court
peeped between the curtains and I saw the double-cross and the torches of the cardinal's I
;
up the steps of the audiencefrom which portent I augured that
estate disappearing
chamber it
:
would be
useless to try to approach Ippolito
until such time
when he should have
finished
the morn's business of dispensing justice to his family.
But, that I
possible,
might come
I
at
advised GiofFredo
decurions, and himself to
him to
as
soon as
dismiss
me
accompany
the as I
was, mixing unnoted with the motley of clients, parasites, flatterers,
men-at-arms, chamberlains,
pages, chaplains, athletes, poets, painters, merchants,
who
officials,
were
secretaries,
thronging
servitors,
into
the
women,
audience-
chamber.
So we enter,
did.
But, though
we were
we could not penetrate
able
to the front
to
of
DON TARQUINIO the
having come in behind all the myself was too drowsy and too
crowd,
others. stiff to
I
care whether
My
time.
177
only
I
spoke then or at another
idea
was
to
from
refrain
interrupting the natural order of events, and to wait
an
opportunity:
for
saw that
I
had become malignant. Wherefore restrained Gioffredo from certain violent
my I
for
stars
demonstrations which together
we found
he was preparing
;
a corner quieter than
and the
others.
Here, by the marble settle
of the
wall,
we
sat
on the
of marble, out of the stink and confusion
mob
at the front.
12
XVII IN order to prevent myself from falling again into slumber, I carefully noted the white walls and the cornice of shields, spade-shaped, richly
which
blazoned, and
depended
the
Byzantine tapestries
therefrom.
Nor
did
the
grandeur of Ippolito on his vermilion throne, the listening to the chaplains who intoned Office
of None,
same manner day's
business
I
escape
my
assiduously attended
was begun.
In
notice.
At
the
when the
first
was
it
uninteresting.
While the auditors whispered advice in the cardinal's ears, and while the secretaries recorded events in huge tomes or wrote at his dictation,
put myself to count the gilded coffers of the This casting upward of mine oaken roof.
I
made me more drowsy than ever but knew that, if once I permitted myself to :
eyes I
178
DON TARQUINIO sleep,
my
sleep
would be
a stupor
even an earthquake would
Wherefore
179
from which
awaken me.
not
constrained myself to note all was going on lest I should lose a chance of declaring mine achievement. For it must I
that
:
be clear to thee, o Prospero, that, when I ran as the Cardinal of Valencia's angel, I ran as the
Cardinal
last
it
soon
of Ferrara's familiar,
behoved as
me
to
which
render an account as
well
as
possible,
to
for
him
relieving
from
his obligation to the credentials sent
our
Lord
the
deliverance,
first,
Paparch from the
as
for
filth
own
mine
of
my
by
body,
secondly, from the rigour which was paralyzing my limbs, thirdly, from the Great Ban which so direly was afflicting me.
doubt but that the
my running. To pass the
For
I
did
not
last
would be the reward of
I
entertained myself with
time,
thoughts of my maid, as soon as I had convinced Gioffredo of my determination to remain silent.
He, being more than nap,
after
cursing
me
a little fatigued, took a for
a sulky prince.
12
2
I
DON TARQUINIO
i8o
promised myself an abundance of felicity in the contemplation of Hersilia, when she should have heard of
my viiij
leagues'
the lonely night: for
it
journey through
very pleasant to be
is
and admired by one's lover when one I has striven strenuously and successfully. pitied
to
tried
be deaf to the hubbub in front of
me, while I indulged my mind as aforesaid: but it was merely another insidious way to Wherefore, having rejected it, I dismissed my proper affairs, and alertly attended
sleep.
to the others.
The the
They were
as follows.
master of pages exhibited, to the cardinal,
monthly sheaf of the boys' specimens of
handwriting.
same,
dictated
having inspected
Ippolito
to
a
neatly on a bad one
secretary
" :
to
be
the
written
Gianlucido, write thus
or better here and now."
The master of but
pages retired, to see
Ippolito signed
sundry
some
them.
household
expenditures for
notary executed them
billets
;
it
done
:
authorizing stuff.
The
and the datary sealed
DON TARQUINIO
181
The
steward brought a plebeian page, who had been caught in the act of spitting idly into the rainwater tank of the cardinal's bathing-
The
chamber.
rascal
was condemned to be
stripped in the courtyard,
and to be spat upon
by x of his companions
during half-an-hour.
Order was issued
for covering
the said tank
with stout canvas.
The
of the
mistress
women
shrilly
com-
plained that one Fulgencia, a laundry-maid, was refusing to be married by the barber's son, to
whom
she had been betrothed one year.
Inter-
rogated whether she could shew cause for so culpable
a
defection,
sponded, saying
The whip
:
said
Fulgencia re-
And sucked her thumb. women was impowered to
No.
mistress of the her,
the
in the presence of
iij
maids, every
Friday at the ninth hour of the day, until the
The marriage should have been consummate. said Fulgencia, having bellowed for instant was conveyed to the chapel with the barber's son, iiij witnesses, and one chap-
nuptials, said
lain, to
be married forthwith.
DON TARQUINIO
i8a
The
oil -merchant
who was
steward,
the
bear
loss
appealed
the
against
him
intending to cause
to
of a consignment of his mer-
chandize which had been stolen, on the Ostian brigands in the pay of the bandit Giuliano Dellarovere desirous of
Way, by Cardinal building
cathedral. 1
new
a
The
said appeal
was admitted.
The
vegetable-merchant very brazenly came
But the
forward, producing a similar appeal.
steward fraud.
lege
His appeal was
was cancelled
mandment
to
;
Indian
rejected,
and
his privi-
in
future
rival.
slave-merchant offered for sale acrobats,
his
and the steward had com-
purchase vegetables
from the deceiver's
The
him with proofs of
confronted
saying
ij
young
that Cardinal Rafaele
They performed Riarj wished to have them. divers tricks of agility, which Ippolito ap1
He
did build
it
two
years later (A.D. 1497).
This
example of the fifteenth century method of raising cathedral-building-funds may be compared with that of the twentieth.
DON TARQUINIO plauded
;
physician
and he
order
on the
that,
them to be healthy and
certifying
bodies
their
gave
183
without
the
blemish,
treasurer
should pay the price. They were extremely slim of figure ; and their flesh was as yellow
dew-kissed pumpkins gleaming in the sun-
as
light.
The
chief equerry had order to water the
horses daily in Tiber, beyond the Portuensian
Gate, seeing
that
the Keltic
army was gone
away.
Order was issued for the burial of cenaries,
who had been found murdered
ij
mer-
outside
the barbacan at dawn, having gone out at night
without their mail-shirts. ij
Order was issued
for
masses to be intoned for their souls' repose.
Order was issued for the
name',
for
iij
masses to be intoned
repose of the soul of one without a
who had
died improvisedly and suddenly.
The absurd Messer Nerone required
Diotisalvi
was
on pain of the minor torments to
apply himself more assiduously to his studies in
the magic
arts.
For
it
will
be
clear
to
DON TARQUINIO
184 thee,
that
o
Prospero, that, had
mage's ignorance
of
it
his
not been
for
craft,
proper
homicide would not have been necessary. Permission was granted to the firelighter to
become served by
ij
extra boys, if the weather
should continue to be cold.
The new purchase.
goldsmith offered a crucifix for
Ippolito, having inspected the piece,
gave order that the wretch should be buffeted by all and singular, from the audience-chamber to the gate of the barbacan,
by cause
that
he
contumeliously had used carelessness in making the Image of the Divine Heros.
A
strange poet, in a dark-green wig resem-
bling sea-weeds, declaimed a sonnet in praise of a bee's nipples
A
;
and he was derided.
very young painter, shy, rather rosy-faced,
exhibited a panel whereon he had depicted the
Divine Herakles and the gruesome Hydra. To whom the treasurer had order to pay xx gold sequins.
Ippolito complained that the tallow-scraper
had neglected to scrape tallow from
iiij
stairs,
DON TARQUINIO
185
of a certain
chamberlain
whereby the
attire
name
(whose
have
I
forgotten)
had
been
rendered indecorous, and the cardinalitial shins themselves liable to divers incommodious abra-
The
sions.
said
misdemeanant was produced
;
and charged with his crime. He blubbered. Order was issued that he should tolerate vij
The
He
honour of the Apostles.
stripes in
master of
the
pages
amended specimen of handwriting. having denominated
it
still
very
yelled.
exhibited
the
Ippolito,
evil,
dictated
to a secretary to be written very neatly there-
upon
" :
before
to
Gianlucido, -
thus
write
or
better
morrow, or bid farewell to thine
hide."
The Turkish
captain of the arbalister
mercenaries accused a
of having murdered a bap-
tized Dacian slinger treacherously, in a brawl,
hour of the night also, of having out the said Dacian's heart, eating the same, hot, in contempt of our most holy
at the sixth
:
torn
faith.
Order was issued that the
having
been
conveniently
said
tormented,
Turk, should
DON TARQUINIO
i86
by strangulation within
tolerate natural death
the hour place
hang in the avemmaria, and then
be
at
:
that his carcase should
of exposition till thrown into Tiber
below the
a mile
Portuensian Gate.
Two
tormentors
introduced
tallow -scraper before
the
miscreant
the dais, loudly bawling.
He
was a sturdy Trasteverino of about the age of xiij years, dark-coloured and big-eyed, and
tough and sinewy placed
as a
wolf.
his wrists
him, they tied
with the end of a
young
Having behind him
of rope, deftly tossing the other end over a beam in the roof, and pulling
it
taut
coil
and so they waited.
;
Ippolito was smelling to an orange infected
with rose-attar
mob
He
in the
:
indeed the foetor of the
for
audience-chamber was most putid-
threw the
fruit to a favourite
page
;
and
I
augured from the expression on his physiognomy that he was about to manifest abnormal sagacity.
He
busipretended that he understood not the
ness which was afoot
;
for these preparations.
and demanded the reason
DON TARQUINIO The
187
tallow-scraper ceased his clamour, con-
centrating his gaze on the cardinal.
The first tormentor responded, saying " The Most Illustrious Purpled Person :
choose to hear the
rogue's
will
confession of his
crime." Ippolito said
"
We
The
have heard." first
saying
:
tormentor volubly expostulated,
:
" But not under The Question, o Most Illustrious for none can believe a creature who is :
neither clerk nor noble, unless he
(first)
shall
have been hauled upward by the drawn-back wrists and (secondly) shall have been dropped It suddenly to within a span from the floor. the torture of hanging from dislocated is
shoulders
which alone
insureth
a true
con-
fession."
Thus having spoken, he rope of
;
instantly pulled the
and the boy ascended high over the heads
all.
But that
rascal,
being very sinewy and very
DON TARQUINIO
i88
quick-witted, did not wait for the dislocation of his shoulders. his
clenching instantly
on
For, drawing teeth
pressed his
as
he
left
and
his legs
up
the
he
floor,
bound hands downward
his buttocks, with admirable force, twisting
round and round
like an athlete.
The boy's Applause began to be heard. throat curved stiffly backward ; and his breasts and shoulders resembled tan-coloured knots
as
he hung up there. He bended his legs further and further back ; and, by degrees, he contrived to grasp his
own
his
and hanging face-downward
sinews,
semicircle like a strung
delicate
by
its
ankles, relaxing the strain
string.
mentor, saying very quickly " What thou hast said is
proclaim the crime.
to look that is
Our
purely
The
silly.
Let him come down.
The
Our Our
boy's office
floors lack tallow.
needed, with
tor-
:
chamberlain's split hosen, and the tallow on
fession
a
bow hanging
But Ippolito went on speaking to the
stairs,
in
on
No
is
con-
Question or without.
Give him
his whipping.
DON TARQUINIO And
let
him go
to the
treasurer
189 a rose-
for
reward of dexterity. And then let him go to the master of the athletes, who And let hath order to take him in charge. 1
as the
giulio
the comptroller provide another tallow-scraper,
who
will
When
do well not to waste Our tallow." the boy came down, the
disappointedly untied his wrists
first
;
tormentor
and, seizing
them, hoisted him in the usual manner
:
while
the other, having turned his garment over his
head, scored xij criss-cross weals on his plunging
hams with
Anon
a cane.
being released, the freshly
athlete stifled his yells
on
his
head with his
sprouted
and he instantly stood arms and legs spread as ;
widely apart as possible.
Everybody burst out laughing. There was commotion at the door of the audience-chamber. Gioffredo precipitate 1
:
About a
value.
woke up and would have been for chamberlains were
shilling,
with four times
announcing its
:
purchasing
DON TARQUINIO
igo
"The
Exalted Tranquillity of the Tyrant
Lucrezia Borgia-Sforza of Pesaro." Beating as quickly as possible then was the heart in
of
its
my bosom, instantly sensing mate in my maid's.
the coming
XVIII
ALL
women
the
audience-chamber were
in the
But
plebeian, ugly, stinking.
of fragrant herbs I
most beauti-
brought in the odours of a garden
ful princess
ing her,
this
saw
;
my
among
and,
the bevy attend-
maid.
Her eyelashes were lowered but, every now and then, she flashed a glance on this side :
and on
I
thing.
But
though she were seeking someknew what she was seeking.
that, as
I
shrank
down
in
my
the impetuous Gioffredo with
corner, pulling
me
not conscious that the opportune arrived,
stool
was
Ippolito. her.
for
I
was
moment had
even now.
The crowd opened
A
:
set for
pathway for the tyrant. her under the canopy near a
Her maids-of-honour
stood behind
All their hair was dyed yellow with
of honey in imitation of their mistress 191
:
oil
but
DON TARQUINIO
I 92
my
maid's hair was as black as a sapphire in a
night without light.
The
chamberlains
of
front
in
the
emptied a great space back the dais, pressing
crowd.
But
and Gioffredo thrust ourselves through, not to the front rank but to the second for I
:
I
did not wish to be seen, and
I
did wish to
hear.
The saying
tyrant
thus
the
addressed
"We
are
come,
Our mother.
visiting
rejoiceth by cause
departed
:
o
lord
is
of her
Madonna Giovannozza 1
that the Keltic soldiers are
for she hath been in terror lest they
her heart's treasure
late
;
1
sworn
husband's bequest
to
ask
orchard, the
and the revenues
the pay of an armed guard. are
from
cardinal,
should rob the blossoms of her
which
cardinal,
:
Our Most
suffice
not for
Wherefore, Blessed
We
Father
This was her nickname (Big Jenny), which she
commonly custom
:
bore
in
but her real
accordance
with
name was Giovanna
the
Roman
de' Catanei.
DON TARQUINIO
193
1 immunity of her inn against taxation and against the excise-duty on wines, so that
for the
she
may
a
reap
little
hard
these
in
profit
times."
She spoke rapidly, as her young brother did, but in a voice which was very sweet and soft
But
to hear.
was
it
clear
to
me
that
she
had other more important things to say by side of this gossip. Ippolito also perceived it
he
for
:
in
smiling
The
head,
goest
at
noon
to
:
dine
Blessed Father, o Cardinal
The Lion Inn
deceased husband. patricians,
his
silence.
His Blessedness 1
nodded
tyrant continued, saying
"Thou Most
sagaciously
no one
is
in
very Bear
lonely,
with
Our
of Ferrara. very grave.
Street, a bequest
from her
Excepting perhaps the sixty Roman in those days thought a whit the
worse of a lady for getting her living banaysically than Madonna de' Catanei was neither a people do now. barmaid nor a female boniface.
She was the proprietor
of the most celebrated hostelry in Rome ; and lived privately on her income in a villa near San Pietro ad Vincula.
DON TARQUINIO
194
He
taketh
chancellor,
He
the
hardly
whom He
hath
of
loved
horrid
these
in
those Keltic invaders,
not
haps during
but that there
saith
for
:
As
quarrels.
for
end
that the
that there will be war, per-
:
months, but not
iij
much
though they go now, anon
yet: that,
they will return
He
Vice-
the
must stand
cannot see that Sforza needs
by Sforza
is
defect
will
first
in the City:
be happenings which
astound the Christian King." Ippolito appended grave nods and impene-
will
trable smiles.
Madonna
Lucrezia again tried to approach
the matter which she had in mind, saying c<
After
intention
to
La Magliana Giulia 1
A
2
1
o
lord
cardinal,
dine
daily
in
to the
sound of luths.
Lent,
hath brought
iiij
the
luthists
it
is
:
Our
gardens
of
Madonna
from Venice
;
the
Campagna, ten miles S.E. of Rome, founded by Xystus the Fourth and enlarged paparchal
villa in
by Innocent the Eighth, the predecessor of Alexander the Sixth. 2
Giulia (Farnese) Orsini, a lady of the court.
DON TARQUINIO and one
is
an
195
We
improvisatore.
therefore
beg that thou wilt be Our beadsman, giving Us the benefit of thine holy prayers for fair weather after Eastertide."
conceded
Ippolito
What was
the
a
assent.
use of a cardinal-deacon, ex-
cepting to pray for
fair
who were minded
to
seemed to
aspect
of
gesture
say.
weather for dine
in
fair ladies
gardens,
Having obtained
his
so
small a boon, the tyrant (womanlike) instantly
demanded "
And
a great one, saying
:
now, o Cardinal of Ferrara,
We
desire
to hear thy news."
To whom
he responded, saying " Since yesterday, divers strange things have One of Our athletes, by race a happened. Dacian, derer
:
hath been murdered
even now
is
;
and
mur-
his
tolerating torment
before
strangulation."
Madonna Lucrezia "
The news which
interrupted, saying
We
desire are not of that
nasty species." Ippolito added
:
:
132
DON TARQUINIO
196
" There are not any news of affairs known to Us, save those of Our family and those which Thine Exalted Tranquillity hath named."
Madonna Lucrezia looked him up and down. She would try the continued, saying
"Our Most Castle
of a
effect
taunt
and
;
:
Blessed
of Santangelo,
Father
sitteth
the
in
dumb, but smiling
at
His thoughts. Of what pleasant thing is He There is not anyone in the City thinking?
who
will
others,
to
respond
Our
cannot
perchance,
:
The
inquiries.
thou
but
canst
and wilt not, o Cardinal of Ferrara."
was
She
A
woman
dark
self
becoming
but
indignant,
sorry.
never ought to inflame
her-
with anger, by cause that the black or
the brown of her hair and the red of her rage are the colours of our old enemy, the devil
but
fury
woman
augmenteth
the
beauty
to the highest degree, for
it
the clear blue of her eyes, while colour the
of her face
straw-colour
of
is
of
hair.
fair
brighteneth the poppy-
exquisitely allied
her
a
:
with
At such
a
DON TARQUINIO
197
moment, she resembleth a joyful field ready for reaping and happy is the youth who ;
is
bold enough to reap. Ippolito was a
little
confused
;
but he used
himself serenely enough, saying that
(for
his
was willing but unable. tyrant no longer restrained her spleen.
part) he
The She
scornfully saying
" It
is
her
while
spoke,
well
cheeks
fair
flamed,
:
known
Us
to
that the Cardinal
of Ferrara doth profess himself to be the friend of the Cardinal of Valencia. Our mind telleth
Us
also that the said Cesare
dire peril,
Keltic
have
safety
day
the
that
some
friend.
Or
then, o Prospero,
of
vigorous familiars in
many
would be doing something
of his
We
Cardinal
are all these
and magnificent gentlemen merely but not for use ?"
And
in
Wherefore
king.
thought
Ferrara, having so his hand,
this
having gone away with that very
abominable should
is
my
burst out incontinent, saying
darling :
for the
mighty show
for
little
maid
DON TARQUINIO
ig8
"At
one
least
o Exalted Tranquillity/* Everybody shouted with
Her
effrontery. fire
of
front
at
laughter
such
burned her like a
blushes
:
other
stars,
girls
and her
;
blue -black,
eyes
brilliantly
almost believed that she actually
I
beaming.
me
the
like
glittered
saw
Cardinal's
but she maintained her situation bravely
:
in
Lord
and willing as well as mighty and very beautiful,
and
magnificent
the
useful
is
gentlemen
of
but
I
kept
my
face
behind the head
peeping between his hood and the twisted liripipe of the same.
of a
fool,
Madonna Lucrezia changed her posture, with the alacrity of one who findeth that her seat is
a
of
nest
mockingly
"What
scorpions,
demanding
shrilly,
:
doth a maid-of-honour
know about
a cardinal's beautiful gentlemen ?"
There was a noise lains entered
"The
at the
door
announcing Exalted Potency
;
and chamber-
:
of
the
Sancia d'Aragon Borgia of Squillace."
Princess
DON TARQUINIO I
as
199
instantly cuddled Gioffredo's head as tightly possible,
wide-open mouth despite
my
other hand
one wrist into
pressing
fast I
him
same
strength,
failing
seized
the
at
and,
;
his
with
in a certain grip
very time,
the
from
which no one may move an hair's breadth. Nor did I release him without a promise of silence,
asked in a whisper, granted by green
eyes bulging and glaring. staring at the
form of
Thus we
his wife.
ij
stood
XVIIII
SHE came
in
of-honour,
all
and
hands
with her in
own galaxy of maids-
black
habits,
head
her
swaying
her
waving
distractedly,
querulously blaming everybody.
She was a red-haired,
sembled nurse
fat
girl,
white- fleshed
those
stepped
together
proceeding at
and her
;
eyes
A
of a bereaved cow. closely behind
baby swaddled on This,
very long in the back,
a
with the
her,
re-
large
carrying a
board, terribly squealing. the
recriminations
now
throne, and the occasional
howls of the Princess of Squillace, and the shrieking laughter of the crowd, produced a tumult resembling that of Navona at Epiphany.
1
Another 1
stool
The Epiphany
having
been
set
on
the
Square of Navona, where everybody screeches and blows tin horns. Fair in the
200
DON TARQUINIO new comers arranged themselves
the
dais,
201 in
order.
Gioffredo's wife wept loudly until everyone
was
Then
silent.
she began to speak, saying
"Ah-hoo, o Lord Cardinal, for
For thou
know that Cesare hath and Our Fredo hath followed
;
him,
ah-hoo,
desire
know why.
to
to
know why.
we
all
will
ah-he-he-he-he.
We
We
desire
Ah-hoo.
Ah-he-he-he-he-hoo.
be compelled
Now we
all will
ah-hoo,
ah-hoo.
to
our jewels.
Why
hath ?
not
Lucrezia
Why
hath not
Purpled Person prevented Our Fredo from
following?
were
sell
Now
be compelled to be ransomed,
prevented Cesare from going this
come
shalt
gone to Naples ah-hoo,
are
ah-hoo, ah-he-he-he-
consolation, ah-hoo,
he.
We
:
Both those impetuous adolescents
in this
very palace during the past night for Fredo himself said so. And now he hath :
deserted Us, his most loving wife
;
and hath
ridden after Cesare with a mere handful of an escort,
and on swift horses, ah-hoo.
hours ago,
We
missed
him.
Four
Three hours
DON TARQUINIO
202
We
and who knoweth how much more, have
been a widow, and Our baby but a month
Lord
old, a-hoo, a-hoo.
Our husband.
We
Cardinal,
Ah-he-he-he-he-hoo.
desire
Hoo."
She tottered toward the large nurse
moo
over her baby, mumbling I wished with her lips from time to time. herself to
set it
and
;
for
the
for
I
death
feared
restrain
of
the
that
I
Ippolito's
comfort of
"
its
mother:
not
be
able
to
That prince
longer.
showed the extreme
dis-
mind.
The Tyrant Lucrezia saying
and
like a clean dolphin.
visage
his
should
much
Gioffredo
was wriggling
brat
spat
out a sentence,
:
We
are unable to treat such people with
Women
patience.
every time
when
their
husbands run after the
Our Own husband gone cousin, Duke Lodovico Sforza-
soldiers.
Hath
to
his
assist
do not become widows
not
Visconti of Milan, and the Kelts, 1
some months
ago, before these wars began?
And
The
Sforza were siding with Gaul.
is
there
DON TARQUINIO Roman
any
203
temerarious enough, or suburban
enough, to denominate Alexander's daughter Widow on that count ?"
The
Princess Sancia bewailed herself, saying
wanted her Fredo.
that she
But now indeed Gioffredo began to jump about, disturbing the people whose bodies had concealed us
him.
;
and
was
I
unable to hold
totally
For, having broken away from me, he
bounded towards
his wife, very agitated,
ing like Stentor.
And,
catching
Ippolito,
a
same moment,
at the
glimpse
roar-
of me, emitted
tremendous shouts of welcome,
calling
me by
name.
But mine eyes were directed maid.
Now
toward
that this long (and, as
I
rather silly) period of concealment at
my
think,
length
had no thoughts in my breast save of her who, unknowingly, had nerved me was concluded,
to
my
I
great exploit.
no longer any cause
Wherefore, there being
for secrecy, I
attempted to
rush to her.
But
it
became
clear that I could
do no more
DON TARQUINIO
204
than limp, slowly, painfully, very ungracefully and,
when
vij paces
had extricated
me from
;
the
crowd, placing me alone in the empty space in the middle of the audience-chamber, where I
myself to be the target for the arrows of more than dccc eyes, then I sudinstantly felt
denly remembered that my yellow-silver hair was knotted in an abominable night-cap, that the flesh of deal
my
body and limbs was
more than half-naked,
indelicately,
that
I
that
I
a great
stank most
was besmirched and be-
grimed from head to foot with sweat and mire and every kind of uncleanness.
Such
a terrific piece
to utter yells,
of knowledge caused
and to bolt
me
(like a rabbit into his
burrow) through the tapestried door at the Tumults of side of the audience-chamber. laughter pursued flight.
me
;
and
lent
wings to
my
XX HAVING made threshold of
my ;
my
far
as
my
the
limbs
sank to the ground. the palace was long and
I
All the family was in the audience-
devious.
chamber
as
get
proper antechamber,
me there and The way through
failed
to
shift
;
and
I
encountered no assistant on
painful passage.
was so utterly exhausted that I ceased to care for anything at all and the mind in my I
;
breast advised
when it
my
being
palace,
I
me
to lie
servitors should
known
that
I
still,
until such
come
to me.
time For,
had returned to the
did not doubt but that search would
be made for me.
That antechamber, o Prospero, was a very long room panelled with slabs of lapis-lazuli and malachite.
The
ceiling of
it
was painted
with the images of the Divine Hylas struggling 205
DON TARQUINIO
206
with the nymphs.
was
deliberated that
I
than any of these
fairer
what she might be doing
The
and
I
wondered
moment.
at that
sunlight streamed in through the
which
windows
of
;
maid
my
the
brightening
the other side
all
abutted
gilding
on
the
row
court,
On
of the cornice.
the outer doors of
my
divers
but I continued to lie chambers stood open where I was on the very threshold of the ;
antechamber,
go
drowsy, not
happy,
anxious to
further.
Anon, a posse of
up the
stairs
me
came running
familiars
behind me, moaning and shouting
commiseration for carried
my
my
condition
who, having
:
into the bathing-chamber, stripped
me, and began to perform their
now and tion
indeed I
my mind
devised
became most anxious of
my
normal
condemned them lazy oaves
;
and
for I
And
new schemes
;
for instant restora-
aspect.
a
office.
parcel
Wherefore,
I
of fools and
issued divers
peremptory
commandments. Pages galloped hither and thither to and
DON TARQUINIO
207
from the wardrobe, bringing towels, ewers of and all the apparatus of various waters, washing, with numerous ceremonial garments, trays
of jewels,
of the quintessence of
flasks
southernwood, and the paraphernalia of mine estate.
While selected
my a
was
flesh
certain
very
being
scrubbed,
new
singular
which, by the benignance of
caused to be made, when
I
my
appeared
likely
had
entered the
first
For now
be.
habit,
stars, I
City, for just such an occasion as the
to
I
present
my mind
was persuaded that but one more turn of Divine Fortune's wheel would bring me to the top. But here my meditations were interrupted. Ippolito
GiofFredo
with
with
the the
mine own maid with
Tyrant Princess
Lucrezia, Sancia,
and
and
company, came inquiring for me. all
the
bounding up the stair A gesture from the chamberlains
at
my
door kept them in the antechamber. The said door was not quite shut and, having put ;
DON TARQUINIO
208
my
wet hair away from mine eyes,
I
was able
(through the crevice) to see GiofFredo and his wife going to the embrasure of one of the
There they
windows. cooing
:
down,
billing
and
but the others, unseen by me, began
bombard me with
to
sat
questions.
Ippolito vociferated, saying
:
" GiofFredo saith that thou hast
which thou didst
set
done that
Tell us of the
out to do.
same, o Sideynes."
To whom
I
briefly
moment, the page on the
me "
(for, at
responded stool
the
was deluging
with hot water), saying Pietrogorio hath received both messages :
and he desireth nothing
better than to die for
the Cardinal of Valencia, o
But,
when
servitors
I
had
;
Hebe."
said this,
were
a
I
noted that
my
rather
wearing desperate nor more than durst they give depreaspect: and sad imploring glances to cating gestures
my
prompt
interrogations.
commanded them
to bring
myself between the same
Wherefore, having mirrors,
I
in order that I
placed
might
DON TARQUINIO examine of
my
What me to
person.
back caused
my
I
209
saw on the
flesh
utter certain very
fervent objurgations.
The
the
people in
antechamber with one
demanded the cause of mine
voice instantly anger.
To whom
I
indignantly responded, saying
that the cyphers evidently were indelible
:
for
vigorous scrubbing with hot water and lupin-
meal only rendered the
diagram
was a
A
terrific
itself
my
white flesh whiter, but
remained clearly grey.
It
predicament.
certain page suggested an application of
pumice
:
but
I
indignantly
being willing to have
denied
my smooth
flesh
him,
not
roughened
and ruined.
Those
friends of
mine
cackled with laughter at
antechamber
in the
my
discomfiture
;
and
Madonna Lucrezia implored me
to exhibit the
accursed inscription.
also
similar request
added
My
:
to
Ippolito
whose voice
all
placed a
the others
theirs.
pages having swathed
me
in
dry sheets
DON TARQUINIO
210
(covering
me from
head to foot like a shrouded
cadaver but exposing
my
few moments
in
for
a
Everybody giggled
;
back),
I
placed myself
the
open doorway. and came near. I heard
their snuffling gasps of exclamation
the
warm
gaze.
and
felt
breath of the heads which stooped to
No
These be
;
one was able to read the cyphers.
they, o Prospero.
wsm TIWTCUI I?
IT!, :
mi
Wll U-
TO \l 1T-
mm
DON TARQUINIO The Tyrant Lucrezia was
211
instantly averred that
a lovely device for
embroidering in gold on the front of a bodice, and that such a work would drive the plain Marchioness of this
Mantua mad with envy. Ippolito, having traced the grey lines slowly
with the tip of a loving finger (for so to
it
an
stated
be),
the kabbalistic
opinion
character
that
invented
I
felt
was
this
by Messer
Honorios, formerly of Thebes, which Cesare
was known to have taken from that erudite Gothic boy
called
Enrico
von Nettesheim, who now the
said,
save Cesare only and his proper
As
familiars.
he
it
it
is
Agrippa a councillor of
In this case, he said, no one
Emperor.
could read
Cornelio
for the defilement of
no
my
doubt
would wear
rejoiced
very greatly
flesh,
off
in
time.
And
then
heard saying "
the
I
dear
little
voice
of
my
:
for
I
maid,
:
We
will
offer
most fervent prayers that
142
DON TARQUINIO
212 the
lord
cardinal's
may
prediction
not
lack
fulfilment."
At which words Madonna Lucrezia suddenly turned to examine the
becoming
agog
for
last
speaker, instantly
In
match-making.
her
opinion, so she said, so beautiful a gentleman
was
fit
to be anybody's husband.
Ippolito
put in a salient word about the
Great Ban. she
That, to
run
as
I
said,
in
longer
could
despite of
had shown myself to
cause,
she
gentleman
said,
in the
the
doorway
I
howled with delight
forward
into
manded
the
my
secret
;
all
an
one
For which
and blameless
instantly
company, in order to tell Lord the Paparch Himself.
permitted
such
be.
beautiful
the Castle of Santangelo
to
be
not
must hasten
with the present the tale to our
and, having leaped I
com-
with
mine
chambers,
pages to indue
me
habits using extreme celerity.
Ippolito cried out, inquiring whether Pietro-
gorio
had read the
cypher message
to
me,
DON TARQUINIO demanding
what the
also
213
said noble
was going
to do.
To whom
I
responded,
that
saying
His
Nobility had read the inscription as signifying " Statim adveniunt Gallicani, cum iis ego, obses :
retentus
The their
:
auxilium praestes
fac ut exquiras, et
Gallicans are
hostage
find
;
upon thee, with me me, and lend succour
as " :
and the autograph, " C. Car al de Valencia." Also I said that I was ignorant of Pietrogorio's plans,
me
to
knowing only that he had
buy up
all
the
horses
the
at
sent post-
house of Cinthyanum in Cesare's name. added that the said adolescent, in
And
my
I
judgment,
was
not
a
only
Odyssey s
very
for deep-scheming, but also a gentleman with
whom
it
would be
safe to play
odd-and-even in
the dark.
Having
pondered these have an inkling
began to So he plan. leagues
which
said.
between last
city
For
Velletri
words,
of there
and
doth belong to
Ippolito
Pietrogorio's are
but
ij
Cinthyanum,
Rome
;
and,
DON TARQUINIO
214 if
Cesare
master of
no
could all
difficulty
But those
means of
himself
he would have
a
effecting
Such was Ippolito's sentence.
affair.
The Tyrant another a
transit,
find
speedy return. leagues were the crux of the
in
ij
and
there
get
Lucrezia
a
irresistible
fine
herself of
She said that Cesare was
opinion.
beast,
delivered
beast,
an admirable
and just now
beast,
a
beast,
an
necessary
And she was (nay) an indispensable beast. contrive to cover quite certain that he would those
ij
leagues.
But, at the I
escaped
moment of
from
my
princely, in a habit
of
speaking, at length
pages, state.
radiant,
delicate,
XXI I
CAME out
into the antechamber, very vivid,
very vigorous, for fatigue seemed to have
my
limbs,
very
and
pale
myself again, very
clean, -
grand
eyed,
pleasant things were waiting
upon them.
smooth
My
for
silk,
silver
The on
set
lovely to look
glittering
My
garb was adorned with
pearls,
cabochon
with great
me
was
moonstones.
armorials of mine house were emblazoned
my
breast,
of white videlicet
cross
Luna. 1
white as
I
for
was
hair
like a cocoon, sunlit, delicate.
shining
for
left
not
our ordinary tinctures
in
and red but
in
white and
Luna and Saturn party per
potent
party
per
pale
black, pale,
Saturn
a
and
1
Really, this
arrogance.
is
just
like
Don
Tarquinio's naive
Instead of being content with the ordinary
nomenclature of
his
tinctures
215
(Argent and
Sable),
DON TARQUINIO
216
Everybody made
haste to inspect me.
Ippolito said that he never had seen these habits before.
To whom
I
responded, saying that
I
had had
them prepared secretly for the day when I should come face to face with our Lord the and that they bore a certain signifiI in fact had cation. made myself as it were a book which His Sanctity might read. Paparch
He He
;
would
youth and strength and ability would see the candid whiteness of inno-
cence
:
He
see
:
would
see the blazon
of mine house
blackened by the Great Ban, whitening with the dawn of hope. But, having said these things, I
a
became conscious of the eyes of few
paces
adoration
:
at
away,
whom
gazing I
my upon me
instantly
maid,
with
precipitated
myself, forgetting the others.
even the form used by peers (Pearl and Diamond), he needs must use the terms which are disdaining
employed sovereign
world.
only !
But
in
the
blazoning
armorials
no equal There
Certainly his lineage has !
Well
!
of
a
in this !
DON TARQUINIO Madonna Lucrezia put
217
in a sentence,
say-
ing " All these things are very poetic and pretty ; and the beautiful and blameless gentleman :
most urbane
certainly is in
Ourself by
done on
this
We take pride We are purely
but
that
Furthermore,
practical. is
cause
:
all
the damage, which
orb of earth,
is
done
either
by saying the right things to the wrong person, or the wrong things to the right person. These admirable words ought not to
Us, but to fore,
the
Our Most present
Blessed Father.
company
instantly
to the Castle of Santangelo.
At
be uttered to
Boy
!
Wheremust go Litters
!
the Vatican, a division shall be made, not to
embarrass
show of
Our Most
force.
The
Blessed
Father with
a
Cardinal of Ferrara hath
the right of demanding a boon, by cause that
he provided the swift runner. The beautiful and blameless gentleman hath an equal right, by cause that he ran swiftly. Let those ij
demand well.
their said boons.
In
any
case,
after
If they win them,
dinner,
when Our
DON TARQUINIO
2i8
Most
Blessed Father
good humour and
in a
is
concede anything for the sake of being left to His afternoon Ourself and nap, then will
We
Our
well-beloved brother,
enter
The
He
Gioffredo, will
But
Presence prepared to intercede.
Lord Alexander
the
Don
be
will
is
and gentle
just
Litters
propitious.
;
and
Boy
!
!
Litters!"
Half
Her
with
one
to
any more: be said.
collect
fingers
;
and anon we
down
there
for
Our
themselves,
fled
the stair
No
commandments.
Tranquillity's
said
more to
a score of pages
was
nothing
several families began
while left
we washed our
the antechamber in
due order. In the courtyard, the tyrant and the princess
and their maids ascended the
we
others
we
set
not
took horse in
forth,
unusual
thenean
a very in
those
full
grand old
Prospero, when
litters
state
;
:
and so
procession,
days,
o
but
my
but par-
a pageant of princes
going to pay respects to the Pontifex was common enough.
Maximus
DON TARQUINIO
We
went by Lungara. We both were Ippolito.
219
by side of
rode
I
silent,
pondering the
matter in hand.
As we passed
the great Riarj Palace on the
where the white-faced cardinal was enter-
left,
taining
"
The
They
Beloved,
1
that
say
I
said
one
knoweth more Greek than was
It
sulky or
No
I
do."
word, uttered only
did not wish to seem either
afraid.
soberly saying
"
We
who
there
liveth
a silly irrelevant
by cause that
:
Ippolito
shook
his
head,
:
one knoweth more Greek than thou,
o Sideynes." Thereafter
knew
that
I
we rode without was
sparrow, jipping
as
nervous
and
flirting,
twitter entirely automatically. 1
This would be
Rotterdam
speaking. as
a
and
February liable
to
For which cause
that very wonderful
called Gerard,
I
person
of
who (having no legal surname)
name (which means Latin and Greek equivalents, Desiderius 'Epa0-/cuo9, by which combination indeed we know him now as Desiderius Erasmus. translated his Flemish Christian
"
The
Beloved ") into
its
DON TARQUINIO
220 I set I
myself to consider
I
was, and what
had done, and how extremely notable mine
aspect was.
my
body,
desires.
I
I
contemplated myself,
my
qualities,
also
benignance of all
who
very good.
called
my
stars.
my
capabilities,
to
mind,
exploits,
remembrance
And
behold
it
the
was
So we came to Vatican.
Nothing disturbed me. Nothing ever again would disturb me. Was I not riding in triumph, to the Giver of Bays
?
XXII
HAVING
parted
dismissed
our
the
along
of
corridor
ascended
were
several
through numerous
at
length
castle,
spiral,
emerging
gallery,
Below
gloomy.
companions and and Ippolito walked
our I
trains,
high
on the vast
We
from
the
passing
stairs,
antechambers
porphyry-coloured arras.
depths.
labyrinthine little
hung with
The odour
of
the
place was sepulchral.
A
ruffled
black, with
in
flunkey
a
Spanish
habit
of
and sword, drew aside a
cloak
and we porphyry-coloured curtain ; passed out of darkness into the blazing sun-
thick
light of
We
The were
Presence.
on
summit of the ments,
we
Rome and
a
fortress.
could the
secluded
terrace
Beyond the
on the battle-
panorama of all Campagna with the Alban see
221
the
DON TARQUINIO
222
Mount on
the distant horizon.
Tiber seemed
to be a chain of chrysoliths meandering
mounds of
among
So lofty a situation was Him, Whose authority was
emeralds.
convenient
for
world-wide.
Some
orange-trees in tubs formed a screen
shadow of
in the
a turret.
A
porphyry-coloured, was spread
A
ment.
throne-like
chair,
square carpet,
on the paveraised on one
step, with a foot-stool and cushions and other stools, all
Here
of the same colour, stood upon
sat the
it.
Ruler of the world, the Father
of princes and
kings,
the
earthly
Vicar
of
Paparch Alexander, magnificent, invincible, alone and read-
Jesus Christ our
Saviour,
the
ing in His breviary. I
will
tell
incomparable
me.
He
thee,
prince
o
Prospero,
how
that
and pontiff appeared to
was habited in the white cassock,
and hosen, the porphyry-coloured shoes embroidered with gold crosses, the cape and
sash,
cap
with
of
porphyry-coloured
ermine,
the
golden
velvet,
reversed
paparchal
stole.
DON TARQUINIO The
of
pallium
woven,
universal
snow-like,
was
223 well-
jurisdiction,
on His
fixed,
breast
and shoulders, by diamond pins of the form of crosses potent elongate. A gold chain surrounded His neck
and
pendent cross decorously was hidden in the folds of His 1 The grand gold signet of the paparchy cape.
on the
glittered
first
;
finger,
its
and an enormous
amethyst on the third of His right hand. He was in the sixty-fifth year of His age,
of a robust habit of body majesty distinguished
;
and genial generous
the
splendour
of
His
Spanish features.
The
and pages in porphyrywho stood about the turret-
chamberlains
coloured
liveries,
performed their genuflections retired backward. doorway,
Ippolito
vermilion
him
;
his great-cloak
let fall
and led
to
me
trail
This seems
prelatic method.
and
of ermine and
voluminously behind
forward by the hand.
denly became conscious that 1
;
I
I
sud-
was very young
to be less ostentatious than the
modern
DON TARQUINIO
224
and very slim I
grandeur.
of
side
by
felt as
all
new
a
this
sumptuous
when
taper feeleth
stuck suddenly on high upon a pricket, rather but on its head light pleased with the that a mere flip of the finger can :
knowing
and consign it to But yet, rememthe darkness of oblivion. break
its
body
how
bering
twain
in
were mine aspect and myself a
We
my
gait,
vivid
comforted
I
little.
kneeled the
kissed
and
white
diaphanously
at
the
foot-stool.
paparchal hand
:
I,
Ippolito
the
cross
on
the shoe.
The
Archiereys
closed
His
prayer-book,
looking with inquiry from me to Ippolito, I and back again to me. perceived admiration in
me I
His glance which swept and enveloped
and
;
was
I
that
my
were benignant.
stars
glad.
Ippolito
my
knew
knees.
sented estate.
stood
He
me by
up
:
but
I
remained
took mine hand
name,
reciting
my
;
on
and prestyle and
DON TARQUINIO Our Lord
the Paparch did not
me
glance from
225
nor
:
remove
mine from Him.
I,
mine
Ippolito continued his discourse, stating
abominable
a
bandit,
he briefly
naming
condition,
well
as
abilities
the
as
his
my
disabilities
natural
which, as
was compelled to tolerate ; and narrated the deed which 1 had done, I
And
meriting favour.
length he
at
made an
end.
Our Lord
and took
;
shadow
my
I
saying nothing.
rise,
feet
the Paparch gave
ij
a sign to
alertly sprang to
my
paces backward, from the
into the full glare of the sun, stiffening
strong knees, standing well-poised and very
from mine
mine
So, having shaken
rigidly erect indeed.
hair
me
eyes,
I
looked
squarely
and
superbly in the face of His Sanctity.
He
intently
Then
moments. " Let
Us
me
regarded
He
said
during
ij
or
iij
:
hear thy voice, that
We
may know
thee." I
drew
breast,
in
raising
a
very long breath, inflating
my
head and shoulders
;
my and
DON TARQUINIO
226 to
began I
knew myself
be in the presence of the
to
Whose
Ruler of the world, could
saying that
speak, gravely, slowly,
mine
reinstate
Great Ban
contradicting, or could
same utterly by means of the
the
eradicate
of Poplicola di
house
no one
Hagiostayros,
plenitude of power
I
power,
said,
of making or of
marring.
Then
hesitated
I
conviction
rushed into
of
mine
my
mind.
helpless
What
rent of words.
sudden overwhelming
for
:
insignificance
poured out a torwas I, I said, in the I
sight of the Father of princes and kings, but
worm.
a negligible
And
impotent fury,
on the Paparch's me.
My
this
One's
will
at
my
total
dependence and pleasure, inflamed
with angry blood, at the thought that anyone should be my superior, at the knowledge that I knew myself to be
same. effort,
tinued
face
But I
tingled
inferior instantly,
and
had
with
a
confessed
very vehement
mastered mine emotions speaking,
deliberately,
the
;
even
and confrigidly,
DON TARQUINIO bowels
the
while
terrifically
I said body. " But I will not sue.
my
227
throbbed
within
:
on
my
no crimes
are
soul which are matter for pardon.
ask
not
will
There
for
live another hour,
Ban which
favour.
rather
But,
than
blameless under the Great
have not merited,
I
I
I
will
dive
headlong from these near battlements, that the candour of mine innocence may shatter the blood-stained stones of
Rome."
Thus having spoken, to
the
whence
with most
for
fierce determination, alert
on
and ready
Ippolito could lay his mighty
to leap before
hands
mine eyes
flashed
an instant, noting the place would spring. Then I looked back
side I
I
me,
standing
intense,
expecting
paparchal fulminations.
Our Lord
the
Paparch
me up and
eyed
down, comprehending each plane and contour of
the
incarnate
independence,
uncomely
in
defiance,
for
as
a
right
gently said
grace.
pallid,
not
which refused to ask
And anon He
:
152
very
DON TARQUINIO
228
" Dear lovely child, think not so unkindly
of thy Father."
At
those
words,
sublime,
throat was constricted and
benignant,
my
my
knees trembled
Mine
eyes glared upon very exceedingly. the Paparch and the cardinal in turn, without seeing
either
of those personages.
Then
I
empyrean where the for surely it was a god's voice gods live which I had heard and I noted a little sky-
looked upward
the
to
:
;
lark soaring above me, singing like an angel.
Nothing
else
was
visible
to
me
at
that
mo-
body was simply tottering by cause of the sudden violent evanescence of
My
ment.
my I
fury.
sank on
my
knees, very meekly kissing
the extended hand of
The
my
Father.
of the City began It was the hour clanging in the new manner. bells in all the turrets
of noon.
Our Lord of
Ferrara
the
Paparch
kneeled
and
the
Cardinal
where they were
;
and
DON TARQUINIO said
the
prayers,
Angelus
229
Domini and the
rest. I also
was kneeling, thankful enough
interval granted while ness, recollecting myself.
I
conquered
for the
my
weak-
XXIII
A
COMPANY of
paparchal
entered.
familiars
Some brought
a table sustaining the apparatus
for
Others
dining.
covered with a
another
brought
fair linen
the cook placed a covered dish
the
last,
the butler,
:
of raisins and a basket of bread
a dish
:
the
a glass flask of wine and another of
cellarer,
water.
On
cloth.
table
I
never have seen a service so extremely-
plain.
Being now fulness,
fulfilled
longed to do something dynamic.
I
Wherefore,
I
violently
robbing them of the the
towel
service,
with vigour and thank-
;
and,
while
on
our
hustled
three
pages,
basin and the ewer and
my
knees,
Lord
the
I
did
Paparch
boy's first
washed His hands.
He (in
smiled
at
mine ardour
His enormous wisdom) 230
:
that
but knowing I
was excited
DON TARQUINIO He
beyond measure,
231
addressed His words to
Ippolito, saying:
" Most
of
thy
and the orators
abstain from for
sufficeth
We
our
for
for
What
is
and what
//,
Let
iij.
cardinal
so far
Consequently,
hand,
they
one
enough stools
be
this
time,
a
it
is
become Our
for
then
and for
for
when
patrician,
should
enough is
dinner
at
Roman
and a
that
natural
guests.
table.
Our
cardinal -prince
but
We
carnal lusts in that a single dish
in
find
;
and the barons are unwilling
Us, by cause that
with
dine
to
1
of
prison or in rebellion
in
are either
Ferrara,
o Cardinal
colleagues,
is
is
/)*
enough for
set
white flame
enough the
of adoles-
cence."
So this Sanctity deigned to give order. The table, being an high one, was wheeled to our
Lord
the Paparch where
elevated chair. 1
The
epoch,
But our
stools
ambassadors of the
did
He
sat
on His
were heightened
Powers, who, at this most of their ambassadorial business in
flowery rhetoric.
DON TARQUINIO
232
by cushions.
was
ceremonial
Very strange
observed at this meal.
A kins,
the
presented a bundle of nap-
chamberlain
from which we each selected
first,
we scrupulously rubbed our
and knives and forks and
platters
moss-agate cups,
With
before using the same.
With
ij.
the second,
we
protected our garments from slops, or wiped
our mouths before drinking. strange to
me,
I
All
this
being
carefully imitated the example
of Ippolito, perceiving him to be acquainted But I wondered greatly with the practice.
what might
be
the significance of such ela-
And
borate functions.
me
anon
it
was given to
to understand.
For the cook, having uncovered the and presented beef and genuflected ;
to
Our Lord
deigned
to
putting the
Who Himself Paparch off a mouthful at random,
the
cut
:
same on
similarly selected
dish,
olives
;
a
fork
with
an
olive
and watched the said cook
This having been done, His Sanctity took His portion of the viands ;
eating both morsels.
DON TARQUINIO
233
and the dish was brought to us In
turn.
like
the bread-basket
the
manner, ;
others
butler
in
proffered
and ate crust and crumb of
the Paparch's choosing, before any bread was so
much
touched
as
by us
The same
iij.
ceremony having been kept with the raisins, the dish and the basket were established on the
table
under our
The
eyes.
cellarer
brought also the wine and water ; and, having drunk a cupful of both, which the Paparch deigned to pour for him, he the
placed
flasks
by
filled
of
side
for us,
the
dish
and of
raisins.
By
this
time,
I
had become conscious that
these practices merely were a substitute for the
customary venom-taster ; and, all incontinent, I said, by way of comment, that life would not be worth to take so
venom
my
many
while, if
I
were compelled
meticulous precautions against
every time
when
I
desired
to satiate
mine hunger.
Our Lord saying
:
the
Paparch retorted
on
me,
DON TARQUINIO
234
" The
life
of
Him who
is
God's Vicegerent
not worth any man's while."
is
And He soon
as the
the
strange to hear
Ippolito,
as
us alone, ques-
left
acutely concerning the events
and
night
to
speak
had
servitors
tioning him very
of
to
began
It
morning.
Him talking He by no
of Valencia: 1 for
was
very
of the Cardinal
means spoke of
that splendid purpled person, tawny, tiger-like, father speaketh of the son of his loins,
as a
He
nor did
of the said adolescent as
speak
a slave speaketh of his tyrant
speaketh those
of
who
his
very
persecutor,
vainly
have
or as a victim in
of
despite
alleged
that
Cesare dominated the indomitable Alexander
me
:
He
spoke of him rather as one would speak of a servant of hyperexcellent parts, whom one employeth for but
1
it
that
This piece of the holograph, although not exactly
germane it is
seemed to
to the thread of the story (except in so far as
the reflections of
Don
the paparchal dinner-table), history, especially to all
Tarquinio while a guest
at
extremely interesting as sorts of silly daws who would is
like to try to pretend to think otherwise.
DON TARQUINIO of another
sake
the
who
employment of such indeed
true
is
:
a
is
by such
served
And
servant.
this
now know
we
for
235
Madonna Giovannozza bore Cesareto
that
Giuliano 1
before she bore Juan Francisco 2 and Lucrezia
and GiofFredo to Rodrigo 3 and, that Alexander should have deigned to advance the ;
fortunes of Cesare, as well for that splendid
own
prince's
He
utility
as
the
for
bore for the mother of the same,
matter,
food
I
ij
I
me
being diverted from
most
being
hungry, and the attention
terrifically
other
only
I
decorum permitted,
as
is
was excogitating the But, did not omit to devour as much while
natural.
which
love
of the
during nearly
the time.
all
And 1
at
anon,
Cardinal
the
end,
Lord
our
Dellarovere
Julius the Second)
(who afterward was named Giuliano.
the
became
2
The young Duke
3
Cardinal Borja y Borja (who became Alexander named Rodrigo. And here we seem to
of Gandia
who was
murdered.
the Sixth) was
have gotten to the bottom of one of the mysteries
viz.,
(called) Borgia.
many
Borgia
the real parentage and status of Cesare
DON TARQUINIO
236
thus
Paparch
me
addressed
appellation as before
and
;
He
same
the
by
used the
Roman
tongue in a very archaic manner, saying " Dear lovely child, what wouldst thou have :
and what canst thou do?" before
But,
that
able
interrupted,
Ippolito
syllable,
was
I
to
utter
reciting
a
a cate-
gory of my numerous peculiar excellencies, which I will not include in this history, seeing that
they
known
are
to
every man.
But,
many words concerning my bravery, he ended with the assertion of Messer Pierettore after
that
I
could write
Greek and speak
it
like
Saint Gabriel Archangel.
This seemed to be intended as an advice
me
to
:
for
which
Paparch's grand eyes
cause, still
seeing
dwelled
that
on
me
the as
though expecting mine own response, I began to orate in the crisp and dulcet syllabification of Hellas, saying "
Wisdom,
:
as I suppose,
is
a different thing
from courage." 1 BTJTTOV aoi,a
evnv avbpias
(Platon).
DON TARQUINIO
237
But there our Lord the Paparch stopped me, saying again " Dear
:
lovely child, thou shalt
an old
man
worried
by
like
Who
Ourself,
recalcitrant
know
that
been
hath
and by other the Greek
kings
hath
forgotten naughty men, which He ever knew, save the wail of that scribe
who
wrote,
all
Would
that
We
could grow
1
young again." But the saying was bringing, love-inspiring I
a
pathetic
one,
and, at that
;
tear-
moment,
could not think of anything better to
than that
I
was
in
all
things obedient to
say
His
sovereign will.
He
was listening very intently
afforded
think
me
that
so
He
much
having
time for recollection,
me
expected
elaborate discourse.
for,
:
But
I,
to
make
I
an
being mindful of
His supremacy not less than of His generosity, preferred to show an equal generosity and confidence on mine
own
part
:
for
which cause,
\ap,/3avew (Eyripides).
DON TARQUINIO
238
He urged me then responded as aforesaid. to make a formal definite petition: but, being indeed very pleased with the form of words I
which all
I
had used,
continued to respond to
I
His urging, saying only "I am in all things
:
obedient
my
to
sovereign's will."
At
this
the paparchal pages returned, bring-
the rose water for our last hand-washing.
ing
This
ended,
psalm
been
having
duty
and the
performed
they removed
the
and
tables
retired.
stood
Ippolito
limbs and
up,
combing
his
hair:
sudden commandment skin
of parchment,
after
with
them
ink
the
all
the servitors were going away,
gigantic
our Lord
but
me
the Paparch was observing
As
his
stretching
He to
time.
shot a
bring a
and pens and
pounce.
This having been done, and we alone again,
my
stool
He
near
ordained that to
I
iij
being
should bring
Him, having thrown
the
cushions aside, and having placed the writing
DON TARQUINIO materials on
it
;
and
also that
I
239
should kneel
there, ready to write.
He
Thus,
Himself dictated
me
to
the
which thou, o Prospero, knowest to be the most precious document in thy father's petition,
archives.
But, although
same so often indelibly
that
its
history
videlicet
contents are impressed
on thy memory, nevertheless
not omit to transcribe this
thou hast seen the
may be
it
here, in
will
order that
and
perfect
I
complete,
:
The petition of Tarquinio
Giorgio
the
Roman
patrician
Drakontoletes
named
Poplicola
di
Hagiostayros is
Great Ban,
that he
may
be delivered from the
that he
may
be relieved from all disabilities
he
that
may
censures in his
',
be
absolved from
and excommunications,
own person,
and in the persons
of all of his house:
all
canonical
DON TARQUINIO
240 also
that he himself
use his
be
named among
the
Advo-
Sacred Consistory, where he
of the
cates
may
may
mind :
also
that he himself
may
be
named among Our knights
of Saint George for
the
Defence of Christen-
dom, where he
may use the foes of our Most Holy
Thus
He
but when
I
his
body
against
Faith.
spoke and thus conned it over,
I
as
had written I
:
threw the
golden pounce upon the wet ink, a kind of terror seized me ; and I began again to shake like
one
in
a palsy.
And
suddenly a new
diversion occurred.
Numerous
footsteps
the door of the turret, as
of
women and
love.
and voices approached wafting a delicate odour
XXIIII
MADONNA LUCREZIA of maids, terrace
who
entered with her galaxy
did obeisance
toward
the
and crossed the
;
There they
battlements.
admiring the view, moving a little among themselves like flowers in a breeze. But the tyrant came and sat on one of the stood,
cushions near the Paparch's footstool, between
me
and Ippolito, facing us both.
She
put
archieratic
a
knee
most ;
delicate
on
the
spoke,
say-
hand
and thus she
ing:
Dear and Most Holy Father,
Thou
I
hope that
hast been doing justice to this beautiful
and blameless gentleman." But, while she was speaking, yet more noises came from the door of the turret and Giof;
fredo
and
entered with their
several
his
wife
trains. 241
and
The
their
baby prince and 1
6
DON TARQUINIO
242
princess seated themselves on the other cushions
on the step of the throne: but drifted
their familiars
away to the other maids-of-honour who
were already by the battlements. I was kneeling still with the
portentous
parchment under mine hand. All my body was quaking terribly: for I was not quite able to believe in my good fortune, and rather
feared
that
I
was
being
played
with. Ippolito, having
my
side
front
in
drawn up of the
a
stool,
sat
Paparch and
by
His
children. I
cast
durst
move from my knees: but
not
a quick look
proper maid.
among
the
maids for
She instantly caught
it,
returning
comforted myself, knowing that most certainly were benignant.
my
I
Madonna Lucrezia and
my
Wherefore
a smile, very lovely, soul-inspiring.
But
I
her
stars
brother
began to make intercession on mine account ; and Ippolito joined himself to them from time to
time.
The
iij
voices
blended
very har-
DON TARQUINIO moniously, girl,
the
videlicet,
243
of
treble
clear
the
the counter-tenor of the boy as insistent
and mellow
of the young
a bell, the bass
as
cardinal, sonorous, profound. I
at first
very gratefully to
listened
melodious intonation
their
but anon, the things
:
which they said of me afflicted me with nausea. I have done many great and noble deeds, with as well as
my body I
am
with mine intellect
;
and
not ashamed of esteeming the same accord-
them
ing to their merits, or of hearing
But enough
in convenient terms. as a feast
;
and
at
this
moment
I
is
praised
as
good
had heard
enough and more than enough. Wherefore, with mine eyes I strove most earnestly, imploring Ippolito and Gioffredo to be favourable
to
their
All
tongues.
They continued
to speak
;
and
no purpose. perforce was
to I
compelled to kneel where I was, listening, blushing with augmenting fury. At length our Lord the Paparch signed for silence
"
;
We
and
He
said
:
have heard you, o lord cardinal and 1
6
2
DON TARQUINIO
244
o dearest daughter and o dearest son
thank you for your good
and
;
But
offices.
We
inter-
cessors are not necessary in this present matter: for
Our
dear lovely child here present hath an
exceedingly definite notion of what
Us
to
him
;
and he hath
most eloquently
due from
is
down
set
the
same
in writing."
And, having thus spoken, He took the and handed it to the parchment from me ;
others.
Ippolito
had
already
heard what
by commandment Lucrezia and Gioffredo put
written
I
had
but
Madonna
their
heads to-
:
gether, eagerly perusing the writing.
But the
fine features
of Alexander remained
as imperscrutable as those of the sphynx.
His daughter looked at Him, trying to read the intention of His mind: but, having failed, she said
:
"The
and
beautiful
blameless
hath merited these rewards at is
another reward
any case
known
shall have.
But
to
least
;
gentleman and there
me which
first
he in
deign a stroke
DON TARQUINIO of the
o
here,
pen
dear
245
and Most
Holy
Father."
Thus
she spoke
:
but we
all
suddenly began from the distance
to hear very joyful shouts far
below,
augmenting.
Crowds
cardinalitial,
paparchal,
The
Presence,
But, while
all
and
nearer
surging
of
nearer,
baronial,
familiars,
came
ever
tumbling into
phrenetically roaring.
we stood and kneeled
staring in
amazement, the splendid Cardinal of Valencia also strode on to the terrace, panting, sweating,
He triumph. wore an astonishing Neapolitan habit of green velvet, pinked and escalloped and purfled with mud-stained,
but
elate
with
the same which
I
myself in seen another had on another person already His on hosen were striped that city very day. orange-coloured
satin,
and orange-colour.
in green
of orange-coloured leather. green hat, long-peaked in
by
a
tall
orange-coloured
His boots were
His high conical front, was adorned feather
:
but
his
bulged behind in a net of green never have seen a cardinal in such an
tawny
hair
cord.
I
DON TARQUINIO
246
incommodious guise before or since. And he dragged with him by the hand that noble Pietrogorio, of
whom
who wore
vermilion
the
had worn when he
already have written,
I
left
which Cesare
habit
us during the night,
which habit now was very gravely disordered.
Had
not been for their different voices,
it
would have been
say which was the
difficult to
and which the noble
cardinal
it
:
but, as
it
was,
they only resembled twins in trouble, horribly dirty, tattered, dilapidated.
Gioffredo saying
that
made himself heard it
in a sentence,
would occupy the
servitors
of
gentlemen during iiij hours to correct the condition of their persons. these
They
fell
of Valencia
on their kness
;
and the Cardinal
began to bellow a narration of
his adventures.
But our Lord the Paparch with a gesture And anon He beckoned produced silence.
me
to hold
the pen. in
order
my
up
This
I
stool
and to give
did, holding
to avoid the
pricking
my
face
Him low
:
of the mul-
DON TARQUINIO titudinous
which were impinging upon
eyes
of
bare part
every
my
flesh.
and
taken the parchment,
on the
247
And, having
having placed
it
He
began to write in this way, saying each word aloud as He wrote it ; and stool,
He
thus
said
:
"It pleaseth impulse
We
And
my
command
Pontiff.''
Supreme
by Our Own Alexander the Sixth,
and
Us,
:
so
1
he gave the
signed
parchment into
tingling hands.
Having bent down to kiss the cross on His shoe, purely grateful, and having made obeisance
Madonna
to
and
Lucrezia
to
and
having embraced Ippolito, oblivious of manners I launched myself toward
Gioffredo,
maid by the battlements. The moment was opportune.
my
approaching The Presence
was
newest news
:
Placet
ander
;
mine
Could
important. 1
for
et ita,
VI P.M.
I
motu
Everybody to
hear the
were no longer have done aught else, affairs
Proprio,
Mandamus.
Alex-
DON TARQUINIO
248
o Prospero
We
?
the crowd.
and
my my
both
were alone,
offered to her the parchment,
I
body and soul with knees
as
one
some Divine One. most gentle to me.
a
I
who
kneeleth before
But she
movement,
kneeling on
it,
me
raised
conscious
:
of
but,
my
when
with
herself
giving
cannot remember what happened
suing minutes
back of
at the
all
in the in-
once more became
I
Cardinal
the
circumstances,
of Valencia, unchecked, was bellowing like the I will set down the few words Borgia bull.
which
much
I
heard him
observance
saying: not
to
for
him,
that
1
who,
paid
having
the desire of his heart in his heart and pressed
would
against
his
roaring
of other matters?
that
and
heart,
cardinal's
his eyes
delicate,
vociferations
by cause of
Yet,
(and
gleamed the while
another
to
listen
his
teeth
like a tiger's,
very triumphant in vigour),
I
could
not avoid seeing his gestures and hearing the noise which he was making.
"
Having
secluded
me
He as
said
:
aforesaid,
this
DON TARQUINIO Nobility changeth clothes with
with betaketh
himself
me
249
and
;
my room
in
forthto
the
But I neighbourhood of the Keltic monkey. made haste to ride back to Cinthyanum, where during iij hours I waited in the house of which some of ye pretend to know. Anon, this
Nobility cometh, laughing as though his
cheeks
were
on
King,
For the
another's. to
preparing
ride
Christian
from
Velletri,
quickly perceived that his hostage no longer
was the Cardinal of Valencia; and,
fume
falling in
myself should harass his rear, resolved to make a sudden dash for Naples,
a
lest
I
But he left camp. behind him the Cardinal of Amboise and the where he might de
Sieur
should fire
his
fortify his
Commines,
strangle
very
They
ordaining
worthy
that
Nobility
they
and
did
neither, admiring and as much as I do fidelity courage Pietrogorio, thou art Our locumtenens and city.
his
signifer
from to-day
near a
fresh
and looked
horse,
for
him
:
but,
having put him
they turned
their
backs
elsewhere, quietly evacu-
DON TARQUINIO
250
and
Velletri
ating
Wherefore
this
following
Nobility,
master.
their
his
that
seeing
was permitted, came to Cinthyanum, and thence with me hither with all speed."
escape
Thus he
But Madonna Lucrezia,
spoke.
not being overmuch entertained by his narra-
was letting her sweet eyes rove round
tion,
a
mischievous the
for, at lip.
And here she pointed at me and my maid
the company.
among
finger
:
moment, we by chance were
The crowd
divided,
lip to
us
exhibiting
in
that situation.
We terrific
became conscious of
instantly silence,
of
us.
stabbing
dicament, giggles
and
Having we drew a from
arising
glittering
of
innumerable
the
by innumerable and dismayed us.
apart.
crowd,
innumerable
teeth
further
smiles,
We
glances
our
recognised little
a very
preSlight
and
the
manifested disconcerted
ran forward hand in
hand, kneeling before our Lord the Paparch. I was hot with blushes but I contrived to :
stammer
a few words, saying
:
DON TARQUINIO " Immense
indecorum
in
we
Sanctity,
our
is
happiness
251
the Apostolic
excuse
Presence:
for
for,
o
love one another."
Alexander, magnificent, invincible, benignly smiled upon us; and saying
He
deigned a response,
:
" Love one another, o dear lovely children and We will consecrate your love." And He held out His hand for a ring. Seeing
how
I
was
in
;
the Paparch's favour,
everybody instantly proffered all their rings. might have been married with Ippolito's
We
cardinalitial
offered
ij
upon me
sapphire.
Madonna
Prince
handfuls.
Lucrezia
Gioffredo thrust
might have of rings. But I
his great table ruby.
I
had a peck-measure full myself was drawing off mine own jasper with the Scorpion and Ares, 1 being desirous of communicating the benignance of my stars with my maid, when the Cardinal of Valencia produced the 1
enormous This appears
gilt -bronze to
jasper intagliate with
have TT\_
been
and <.
ring, his
the
cre-
nativity-ring, a
DON TARQUINIO
252 dentials
which had procured for him the swift
And we
runner.
of
the
realized
all
suitability
that.
having brought the the holy water from
GiofFredo,
of
stoup
door
of
little
silver
inside
of
placed
himself as
acolyth at the right hand of his
Most Holy
the
the
turret,
Father.
The sky above our
heads had the beautiful
blue of spring-time, clear as the light in
my
We
were kneeling together in freshness, high over the City and the
maid's eyes. the
world.
Out of profound
the
silence,
strong voice
of the Archiereys came to me, demanding whether I willed to have Hersilia as my
wedded saying
"
I
To
Whom
I
responded,
:
so will have her."
He to
wife.
demanded of her whether she
me
have
Whom she "An
it
as
her
wedded
responded, saying
husband.
:
so please Thee, o Sanctity."
willed
To
DON TARQUINIO Everybody was smiling the
Paparch
joined
253
again.
our
Our Lord
hands.
Having
enormous ring and blessed it, He deigned it to me. I put it on the first, the second, and left it on the third left finger sprinkled the
of
my
maid,
accustomed words
saying the
which bound her indissolubly
Our Lord
the Paparch rose.
pany kneeled round
He
us.
me. All the com-
Lifting
His hand,
imparted Apostolic Benediction.
So the
to
He
withdrew to His afternoon nap, like
life-giving
sun,
who
golden, to his rest in the sea.
sinketh,
glorious,
XXV INSTANTLY, the
light of
The
Presence having
been extinguished, we were (so to speak)
all
in
the dark.
Great
confabulations
exuded important
but
insued. perfectly
Everybody preposterous
propositions.
The
of Valencia was for raising
Cardinal
armies wherewith to pursue the Keltic scamps
and put himself to speak Cardinal
of Este,
inquiring
seriously
to
;
the
how many mer-
But bought from Ferrara. Ippolito would not have anything to say to him and he went off, muttering, with his cenaries could be
;
new
lieutenant and standard-bearer.
But
all
the others came to converse with me.
From what was
said, certain
which gave food
for thought.
The
question of
my
matters appeared,
next act was discussed.
254
DON TARQUINIO It
255
seemed not to be decorous that with
live
my
Cardinal
of
wife
the
in
Ferrara.
It
should
I
of
palace
was
clearly
the
my
bounden
duty to send news, of the removal of the Great Ban, to my cousin and our baron
Marcantonio.
strenuously
to
once to
at
go
Deira by the southern the transit of City, where
Furthermore, only for
my
desired
my
there
sea,
very castle of
to arrange
and
my familiars to the intending to pass my life.
my goods was
I
also
I
was famishing with hunger, not maid but also for a meal, solid, I
interminable,
seeing that
since supper-time
:
for
had been
I
what
I
had eaten
fasting at the
Paparch's table was no more than a snack.
Wherefore, the Cardinal of Valencia having disappeared, while the tyrant and the princess and were chattering to my blushing wife (whose dear little hand I did not relinquish for a moment), I turned the other way and, at
their girls
;
length, contrived to
overcome the loud voices
of Ippolito and Gioffredo, proclaiming to them
my
necessities.
DON TARQUINIO
256 But,
though they demurred from nevertheless
parture,
spoke reasonably
confessed
they
and,
;
my that
after
finally,
deI
many
words, Gioffredo offered an immediate banquet with lodgings at Traspontina till the evening,
and Ippolito offered an escort of xl athletes and xl men-at-arms for our journey to Deira. And anon we went to Traspontina. There
we also
slept.
what we to
did, in those
iiij
For
was
specify.
delirium,
than
my
There we played. What we ate and
feasted.
of
no
having
sufficed wife,
I
for
hours, in
a
There we drank,
am
I
or
unable
species
of
more mind and body
these
ij
things,
videlicet
and mine insuing progress to the
comparison with which all other worldly matters seemed very rightly to be of no price. But at one hour before avemmaria, my cradle
my
race,
in
having been brought from the Estense Palace and my wife's from the Apostolic
valises
Palace of Vatican, viij decurions of Ippolito's
came with
my
proper
/'//,
being
a
company
DON TARQUINIO of cxxj persons in
we rode out from
so
length
to
and
;
the City, on the
road which
stage toward the eastern at
us
attend
to
all
257
the
in
Deira,
cool
first
leadeth
of
the
evening.
Thus, thy loving the
full
hours of his
fortunate
anything which
and which
he
saith,
his
that
history
Prospero,
of
history
my
hath
father
the day,
not
senses
this
the
is
to
be
concealing perceived
manner written,
o
son.
AND
SONS, LTD., PRINTERS,
;
in
FELICITER
BILLING
down
four-and-twenty
own
ought
set
OUILDFORD
BT THE SAME AUTHOR
HADRIAN THE SEVENTH A ROMANCE (LONDON
A
" "
:
CHATTO&WINDUS, in
striking book;'
Undeniably
" The plot and audacious "
ST. MARTIN'S LANE,
W.C.)
The King.
brilliant.
.
An
.
.
able satire."
The Queen.
a daring one, instinct with scholarly forethought Court Journal. originality." is
Brilliantly written, and quite justifies itself as a study of temperaments. The author has a great many incisive things to say both of the strategy and tactics of Roman ecclesiastics j and, by putting his criticisms in the mouth of a Pope, says them effectively. The romance, with There is no obscurity in his ideas. It is rare to its somewhat cynical enthusiasm, is really impressive. find such finished and vigorous work from an unknown hand." Saturday Review. "In spite of all the author's efforts, we like this book. Power of impressionist drawing lights up the romance. His genuine fund of ideas makes both the politics and the religion interesting. But the making of the book is in the characters. They are Not merely is the Pope allowed to display Himall vivid and real. self, but every one of His friends and the cardinals is rendered interThe author has a real sense of scenic effect esting and life-like. for the close of the book is dramatic without being theatrical. ' Hadrian the Seventh is a book to irritate, if not to anger, but at Athenceum. the same time to suggest and to delight." .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
:
'
"A
strange story Literary World.
.
.
not without considerable
.
merit."
"The
Publishers'' Circular. study is clear, even powerful." " Written with a Westminster Cathedral comes in purpose. The book also deals a trenchant for a tremendous criticism. blow at Socialism. Exquisite word-painting lightens the tragic end of the story." Book and News Trades' Gazette. .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
" Mr. Rolfe writes excellent English. the embodiment of some interesting ideas." .
"
Veritably a
new
and truly novel of Reviews.
really
novel that
is
.
unlike
in style, in matter,
.
Worth
reading
...
as
Bookman. all
and
other novels, and is in design." Re-~vie-w
HADRIAN THE SEVENTH
continued.
Critiques
" ' Hadrian the Seventh has a threefold interest as a characterstudy, as a political forecast, and as a revelation of the true inwardness of the Roman Catholic Church. . Definite in aim and Hadrian's relations with the German fascinating in interest. '
.
.
.
.
.
Emperor and King Victor Emmanuel
are convincingly given j and of the world as authoritatively drawn by Him, ' the Supreme Outlook. Arbitrator,' is worthy of the study of statesmen."
the
map
"
This remarkable novel. . Entirely new and fascinating. Full of captivating interest, wit, and learning." Vanity Fair. .
"
.
.
.
.
A
highly controversial, lively, and racy story, quite individual in To the novel-reader who yearns for a colouring and unique in plot. stimulating companion, we can strongly recommend Pope Hadrian. He is amazingly lively all the time." Illustrated London News.
" There
marked
is
"
No
ability in the book.
The
character of Rose
is
Ladies* Field.
finely conceived.''
Protestant could write anything more damaging."
Christian
World.
"
A
strange and, in some ways, a striking book ; fantastic, and It is the work rather of an incisive, only a romance. keenly observant pamphleteer than of a novelist, save for the fertile and minute realism or the style." Times. in that sense
"
Something
at once out of
and altogether beyond the ordinary."
Daily Telegraph.
" It sparkles with wit and gleams with satire, and displays a really remarkable knowledge we are almost induced to say an inside knowledge of Roman Catholic proceedings at the headquarters of the faith."
" There
Daily Graphic.
not a page of this book without some delightful whim." Daily Chronicle. " If ' anyone should object to the theatricality of Hadrian the Seventh,' one would remind him that that is just what the modern is
Englishman will like." Daily News. " The book is clever ... Fr. Rolfe can
write, but hath a devil."
Daily Mail.
"
Quaint, audacious, fantastic."
Scotsman.
A capital story." Sheffield Daily "A remarkably clever book. "
.
good.
...
It is
worth reading."
.
.
a splendid study Liverpool Post.
Telegraph.
The
story itself
finely portrayed.
is .
more than Well .
.
HADRIAN THE SEVENTH M
continued.
Critiques
Preposterous . sublimely perverse ingenuous to a It is possible to forget these faults because of the degree. intensity with which he urges a point of view and the determination with which he advocates unfamiliar ideals. . . The energy and .
.
.
.
.
...
.
candour of
criticism will appeal not unsuccessfully to intelligent minds j and, as it appears to be the work of a devout Roman Catholic, there may be a certain significance blended with its its
Pall Mall Gazette.
singularity."
"Remarkable.
.
All
.
.
through there
is
very marked
There is stuff in the book, originality and a sense of style. . . . and a fresh point of view." St. Jameses Gazette. "
An
extremely clever book. Not a great book, not a beautiful but as clever as filigree. It is the story of an Englishman with a vocation for the Catholic Church, unfairly prevented from entering it till middle age. By a strange but in no way impossible series of events, he is almost immediately made Pope. This one
book
:
is traced through the difficulties raised by private and public schemers, through the tumult of international Hated by many, He is respected by all. Among a host of politics. He can friends, He is as solitary as a pike among a shoal of perch. crush them : but cannot share with them. The study is profoundly
clever sensitive character
Nor is the style commonplace. The man who wrote interesting. this book must be a talker worth knowing, in these days when and conversationalists many. Also, he can write. books we know have ends as impressive as this last sentence, which closes the chronicle of Pope Hadrian the Seventh wounded to death by the assassin's bullet ' Pray for the repose of His soul. He talkers are few
Few
:
was
so tired}
" This
is
"
Weetis Survey.
a book for which
measure of success.
It
I
think
possesses
it
safe to predict a fairly large
two of the most powerful of
all
merely fortuitous recommendations to the public favour it is a Dazzlingly clever religious novel, and it is a 'roman a clef.' . in spots, and almost consistently admirable throughout. ... Hadrian becomes the great political force born literary artist of His day, labouring at the reconstruction of a disordered world shoulder to shoulder with Victor Emmanuel, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, Prime Minister of England. The Kaiser, posed amid the supposititious circumstances created by the fancy of so placed, it is verily so and no the writer, is admirably handled otherwise that he would speak and act. Fr. Rolfe is obviously a :
.
.
A
.
.
.
:
A
great deep and acute student or contemporary politics. ... situation, greatly treated, and places Fr. Rolfe among the best Book of the Week, artists in fiction now working in Europe." by HENRY MURRAY Sunday Sun.
CHRONICLES OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA A
" strange book, full of novel and unexpected attractions . . . a vigorous bit of word-painting in Carlyle's manner . . . like an icy shower-bath after the tepid ablutions of average historical research."
"
As
Daily Telegraph.
and
entertaining, painstaking, and illuminating, as research make it." Illustrated London Nenvs.
enthusiasm can
" The historic imagination, the big vision, the humour, the irony, the wit, the perverseness, the daring, and the tremendously felicitous It is like a magnificent series of tapestry and effective manner of it of In any land save England such a the fifteenth century. pictures !
book would make
its
author at once famous and rich.
It is
Great."
Mr. HENRY HARLAND.
ME
STORIES TOTO TOLD "
The most
hair-brained
of
amazing, fantastical, whimsical, bizarre, books.
... A
literary
artist
who
and
erratic,
plays with
words as a savage plays with coloured beads. He strings them, pours them out in cataracts and cascades, tosses them in the air, swallows them, regurgitates them.
.
.
.
Frantic nonsense
.
.
.
exquisitely
maddest frolic . fantasy . . . wildest whim . flashes of tender poetry . . . rollicking hilarious wistfulness. Very like literature." Mr. JAMES DOUGLAS in The Star.
delicate
.
Etc.
.
.
.
.
.
.