v..

UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA

SAN DIEGO

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNf(>*
SAN DIEGO

CATHERINE SFORZA

CATHERINE SFORZA.

AT THE AGE Or 18 l + Sl.

From a Painting anributed to Marco Palmeggiani
(rorli Gallery.)

I I e IT

•> " I \ I \ 1

CATHERINE SFORZA

COUNT PIER DESIDERIO R^SOLINI

AUTHORIZED EDITION, TRANSLATED AND PREPARED
WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE AUTHOR

PAUL SYLVESTER

ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS REPRODUCTIONS FROM
ORIGINAL PICTURES AND DOCUMENTS

LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN

1898

2)c£)(catcD

BY PERMISSION

THE QUEEN OF ITALY

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

The translator is too keenly alive to the charm of the original
work not to realize that some of its elements must evaporate
in the process of translation. Among these he accounts the
contrast afforded by the modern colloquialisms of the Italian
narrative to the archaic diction of the quotations by which it
is enriched. By this perhaps unconscious artifice the voices
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are made to speak in
the ear of the nineteenth, so bridging over the gap, that the
author may well claim to have made tangible the great dim
phantom of that wonder of her age, of whom a modern critic
has happily said — de son vivant die devint mythe.

The numbers of the documents quoted in the course of this
volume refer to an appendix, which, besides letters and other
documents, includes Gli Experiuienti (some five hundred
household and other recipes) of the Lady of Forli. — Caterina
Sforza, Vol. III., di Pier Desiderio Pasoliui, Roma, Loescher.

PREFACE

A SHORT life of Catherine Sforza was written by Fabio Oliva
towards the middle of the sixteenth century, and another, in
three volumes 4to, less than a century ago by the Spanish
Abbe Burriel, who, with others of his order and nationality,
spent many years of exile in Forli.

To Burriel must be ascribed the merit of examining con-
temporary chronicles. But from lack of critical acumen, he
failed to interpret and sometimes even to utilize them ; in
Catherine Sforza he was bent upon recognizing a second
Countess Mathilda.

It has been my good fortune to read more than five
hundred of Catherine's letters ; Burriel never saw but one ;
all the correspondence which elucidates her history remained
unknown to him, and he published few documents. Extensive
research in various archives, Italian and foreign, has yielded
a large collection of documents, enabling me to gradually
complete and rectify the narrative of many episodes of the
life of Catherine, and to relate others, hitherto unknown, of
her early youth and her later years. The figure presented to
us by the biographers is so intangible that we cannot grasp
it, the one created by tradition melts under the test of docu-
ments. The legends have some, but not all of the elements
of truth, and even this truth is vitiated, the exception standing
for the rule, and fantastic stories for history.

xii PREFACE

The aim of the present book, which reproduces many of
Catherine's letters, is to bring her nearer to us than has been
done by any preceding work. The reader, to whom is
revealed not only the life of the militant sovereign, but that
of the private woman, will be the better able to judge of the
moral significance of this historic figure, so famous and so
little known.

Pier Desiderio Pasolini.

ERRATA

page 9, last line but one, read Lucia da Torsana, an excellent helpmate

39, descriptive names, No. 2, after Lungara read now Palazzo Corsini

56, heading of Chap. VI, for August 1881 read 1481

59, line 2 1, yi^r twentieth ;-6W(/ nineteenth

59, line 25, for Leoni read Leone

63, line ii,y£7;' setters r^ar/ Segusian hounds
239, line 5, for Fortunato read Fortunati
275, line i,yi^r Imola rcao'at Imola ; y^;- whose poor lord doth at commend

7-ead doth commend
334, line 9, yt>;- latter read former
341, line 27, for Borsi read Bossi

CONTENTS

BOOK I
ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA

CHAP.

I. Catherine's Ancestrv .....

BOOK II
CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD

II. Childhood — Marriage . . . ,

III. The Assassination of Galeazzo .

IV. From Milan to Rome . . . .

21
26
32

BOOK III

CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

V. Who were the Riario? 45

VI. Catherine in the Romagna and Venice . . 56

VII. Catherine, the Riario, Orsini and Colonna . 6g

VIII. Catherine in the Castle of St. Angelo . . 75

IX. Catherine leaves Rome — The New Pope . . 82

X. The Taxes of Forli 89

XI. Catherine and Innocenzo Codronchi . . 98

xii. The Conspiracy of the Roffi . . 103
xiii. The Assassination of (^irolamo Riario . .107

CONTENTS

CHAl'.

XIV.

XV.

XVI.

XVII.

XVIII.

BOOK IV

CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

Catherine and the Assassin
The Legend of the Fort
The Flight of the Orsi
The Restoration .
Catherine's Vengeance

I'AGE
128

148
161

BOOK V

A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE

XIX. The Castellane of Ravaldino .

XX. Charles VIII. in Italy

XXI. The Assassination of Giacomo Feo .

XXII. Catherine and Ludovico il Moro

171
179

188
200

BOOK VI

THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

xxiii. Giovanni Popolano

XXIV. The Florentine Alliance .

XXV. Assassins in Romagna .

XXVI. The Legation of Machiavelli

211

228
239

BOOK VII

CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

XXVII. The Defences of Forli

xxviii. Valentino takes Imola

XXIX. Forli before the Siege

XXX. Valentino at Forli

XXXI. The Fall of Ravaldino

XXXII. C^SAR Victorious.

XXXIII. The Prisoner of War .
xxxiv. The Pope's Impeachment

XXXV. The Deliverance .
xxxvi. The Last Troubles and the End

265
284
289
300
310
322

339

348
357
372

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Catherine Sforza ..... Frontispiece

House of the Attendolo-Sforza Family, Cotignola
House of the Attendolo-Sforza Family, Cotignola
Autograph Letter of Girolamo Riario .
Panorama of Rome in the Time of Catherine Sforza
Panorama of Rome (part ii.) .....

The Librarian Platinus before Sixtus IV.

Coins Struck by the Riario .....

Palace Built by the Riario-Sforza, 1484
Autograph Letter of Catherine Sforza to the Signory
of Sienna ........

Castle of St. Angelo in the Fifteenth Century .

Castle of St. Angelo before the Demolitions of 189

Bianca Maria Sforza.

Palace of the Podesta

The Church of St. Mercurial

The Miracle of the Fowls

Giovanni de' Medici delle Bande Nere

CosiMO de' Medici, Son of Giovanni

Octaviano Riario. Medal Coined by Nicolo Fiorentino

Letter of Catherine Sforza, dated September 14, 1498

Arms of Pope Alexander VI

Arms of C^sar Borgia

I'^ORT of Imola .........

Woman's Armour, probably made for Catherine Sforza

Woman's Armour {back)

Fort of Ravaldino : Present Day

CiESAR Borgia .........

Castle of Malatesta, or Murata

39
48
60
61

71
78
79
95
119

153
176
218
219
224
230
248
265
287
312

323

325
335

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Castle of Malatesta, or Murata {anot]ier view)

Arms of C^sar Borgia

Castle of St. Angelo in the Fifteenth Century .

Castle of St. Angelo

Passage from the Vatican to the Castle of St. Angelo
Window in the Castle of St. Angelo
Cannon's Mouth, Castle of St. Angelo .
Window, Castle of St. Angelo ....
Autograph Letter of Catherine Sforza
Castello, a Villa of the Medici near Florence .

Maria Salviati de' MediCi

Medici Castle, Florence

PAGE

337
343
345
349
353
355
357
367
381
390
392

BOOK I

ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA

CHAPTER I
CATHERINE'S ANCESTRY

At the latter end of the fourteenth century bands of foreign
mercenaries roamed at will over the bloodstained lands of
down-trodden Italy, fighting now for one prince, now for
another. Indifferent to the rights or wrongs of those who
paid them, they remained constant only in their desire to
amass wealth; an ambition which in the case of their leaders,
or condotticri, was sometimes supplemented and gratified by
the acquisition of a State and the foundation of a princely
dynasty.

The Italians, in course of time, followed their example.
Alberigo da Barbiano, a young gentleman of Romagna,
raised a banner with the motto: Liber Ital. ab. exter., and
by the union of rival factions opened a new field to the
prowess and hopes of all. Little was heard, henceforward,
of old feuds in the villages and castles of Romagna, where
all were banded together in new aims. The movement
spread rapidly ; the boldest youths escaped from home,
joined the nearest camp, and Italian companies, eager and in
unison, prevailed against alien ones. Not only was the honour
of Italian arms saved, but foreign hirelings were supplanted by
Italian condotticri.

The most brilliant example of a movement that was
individual rather than collective, military than national, is
f)und in the family of the Attendolo-Sforza of Cotignola.
Its members surpassed the most famous condotticri in war
and statecraft, and in their history it is easier to follow the
steps that led them to a principality than in that of any other
Italian family.

a'nesiJ^ma 4,

HOUSE OP' THE ATTENDOLO-SFORZA FAMILY, COTIGNOLA.

CATHERINE'S ANCESTRY 5

" Sforza (Muzzo from Giacomo or Giacomuzzo)^ was born
at Cotignola, an old community of the Romagna, close to the
Via Emilia in the county of Faenza," writes Zazzera in his
Nobilta d' Italia. " His father was Giovanni of the Attendoli,
a family of greater influence than nobility: of great wealth.

HOUSE OF TIH-; ATTENDOLO-SFORZA FAMILY, COTIGNOLA.

however, and flourishing by reason of a numerous progeny
given to the service of arms. His (Muzzo's) mother was

^ This same account of his name and origin was given by "Muzio" Sforza to
Robert of Bavaria, when the latter wished to grant him a new coat of arms,
which would have connected him by descent with a city and a royal liouse of
Dacia. Muzzo became afterwards corrupted into "Muzio" by adulators of the
Sforza princes who affected to trace the descent of the great condottiere from
Mutius Sccevola.

6 ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA

Elisa, a woman of virile mind, of the clannish House of the
Petrascini. . . . She gave birth to twenty-one children, whom
she so educated that they set no store by ornate garments,
delicate viands, nor soft beds ; and all, being of a certain
vigorous valour of mind, upheld the reputation of the family
by frequently resorting to arms.^ . . . At that time the halls
and chambers in the houses of the Attendoli were not hung
with tapestries, but with shields and armour ; the beds were
wide and without coverings. Therein slept troops of armed
kinsmen, and all were so alert and hardy that, without either
choice or order, they partook in common of the frugal viands
that were served up to them by serving-boys and muleteers."
The education received by the Attendoli from their mother
tempered and adapted them to those new times in which
simple soldiers of fortune, from a little Romagnole village,
could attain to the dominion of one of the foremost of
European States. In the few generations in which the
marvellous career of this family was developed, the ancestral
type of Elisa was never lost : wives and sisters fought side
by side with husbands and brothers, or in their stead, and
by the renown of their valour and beauty upheld their State
and lent security and honour to their lives. Their glory
culminated in the heroic deeds of a warlike princess, the
great-granddaughter of Muzzo or Muzio Attendolo, and the
last, but perhaps the most perfect type of the knightly
heroine of the middle ages.

One evening of the year 1382, Giacomo (Giacomuzzo)
Attendolo, afterwards surnamed Sforza, was quietly digging
the paternal land when he heard the sound of pipes and
drums. Some soldiers of the company of Boldrino of
Panicale had been sent into that country to recruit. Behind

^ " For," continues Zazzera, "they bad a mortal enmity to the Pasolini wlio
were their equals ; Martino Pasolino, head of that House, having forcibly detained
a noble maiden with a great inheritance for her dower, who was affianced to
Bartolo, brother of Sforza (Muzzo). For this reason tliey were wont to fall on
each other as in veritable battle, and many were slain. In the end Martino,
having lost his son and all his friends, was driven from the Commune." Zazzera,
Delia Nobilta d' Italia [della Fainiglia Sforza).

CATHERINE'S ANCESTRY 7

them he perceived some of his own companions who had
been already enrolled. " O Muzzo ! " (Giacomuzzo) cried the
latter, " cast away your spade, and come with us to seek
your fortune ! " Muzzo threw his spade into an oak, meaning,
if the spade fell, to take it up again for ever ; if it stayed
there, to be a soldier. The spade did not fall, and when
night came, Muzzo fled from Cotignola, on one of his father's
horses, and joined the camp.

Two years later Muzio^ returned to visit his parents, but
as his heart was ever with arms and armaments, his father
said, " Be then a man of arms ! go back to the camp and
make thy fortune!" And he pledged a strip of land to
buy him four horses and his arms. Muzio returned to the
camp followed by a troop of his kinsmen, eager to acquire
power and riches ; his violence earned him the nickname
of Sforza ; bold and turbulent, he could scarcely endure
to hear of the adventures of more fortunate condottieri.
Broglio of Chieri was Lord of Assisi, Biordo of his native
Perugia ; Acuto (John Hawkswood), an Englishman, of
Cotignola. Their success kept Sforza sullen by day and
wakeful by night. "Am I not as good as these.''" he asked
himself. " May I not beat these strangers, who plunder our
richest soil and capture our fairest cities ? " For the cup
was brimming over, and the foreign orgy was nearing its
end. The butchery at Faenza (March 29, 1376), and the
more horrible slaughter, by the Bretons and English, of
Acuto, by command of Robert, Cardinal of Geneva, had
stirred the whole peninsula. Romagna arose from that bath
of blood with a sense of revolt against the foreign hordes,
and of envy of the luck of their leaders. " But among all,"
says Giovio, " Alberigo Balbiano, illustrious by the splendour
of his arms, inflamed him (Sforza) to follow the wars." Sforza
and his Romagnole band went to swell the ranks of the
company of St. George, composed exclusively of Italians
who had sworn never to turn their backs upon the enemy.
After these had, in more than one place, vanquished the
Iketons, killed the French, beaten the Germans, broken the

' I'ide note on Muzio (corruption of Muzzo) on page 5.

8 ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA

Spaniards, and routed the Savoyards and the English, they
sufficiently proved that the Italians had still some claim to
a reputation for valour. Thus the fortunes of the House
of Sforza grew with the renascent glory of Italian arms.

Sforza was the greatest and most fortunate of coudotticri —
he fought for four popes and four kings. After the death of
King Ladislaus of Naples he attached himself to Joan, his
sister and successor, who " lived shamelessly, surrounded by
a varied and ever-changing circle of lovers. . . . Sforza, a
most gallant soldier, took his place among these." ^ Sforza
was not without a certain rustic cunning, but " inexpert in
intrigues and in the ways of Courts, he fell an easy prey to
treason." - Pandolfo Alopo, his rival in the Queen's love,
thrust him into prison, then appealed to him to help him to
oppose Giacomo della Marca, whom Joan had chosen for her
husband despite his age, " the better to manage and circum-
vent him." But the latter, who cared more for his crown
than for his queen, deprived the unhappy princess of her
power and tormented her ; Alopo lost his head on the
scaffold, and Sforza, in chains in a dungeon, awaited torture.
The Virgin appeared to him and promised him that he
should not suffer. Invoking her name, he resisted his tor-
mentors, and the new King failed to extort from him the
pass-words of the fortresses : he joined in prison, but faith
upheld him.

The King sent to Tricarico to take possession of the city.
Margaret, Sforza's sister, who was its ruler, met the King's
envoys, sword in hand, and cast them into prison, vowing to
hang them all by the neck unless her brother were set at
liberty. Sforza was immediately liberated.

Sforza now strove to acquire riches as a means to power,
but ever fearful of their influence, turned away his eyes from
coin, lest the sight of heaps of gold should weaken him. He
balanced his expenditure with the revenues of castles and
stipends ; he did not understand figures, yet never made a
mistake in paying. He never failed his creditors, for he held
that credit consisted rather in a loyal reputation than in ready

^ V. Simonetta, Vita dl Francesco Sforza. - Giovio.

CATHERINE'S ANCESTRY 9

money. When in need, no one was ever so rich as he " because
of the singular esteem in which the bankers held him."^ He
never hesitated to shed blood, even by treacherous means,
and his discipline with his soldiers was iron. He who stole
forage was dragged by a horse's tail ; traitors were hung to
the roadside trees and their bones left to be picked by the
birds; strokes were administered for a spot, or even a little
rust on arms ; they whose helmets were unadorned by a fine
plume were hissed. His reviews were splendid and sumptu-
ous. The horses' harness was gilt or enamelled in the
Persian fashion, the trappings heavy with gold and silver
embroidery. He tolerated neither gambling nor swearing in
camp. On days of leisure, he practised gymnastics with the
soldiers and proved his superiority in suppleness of limb and
muscular strength. At night the legends of the paladins of
France were read to the soldiers ; he made generous offers to
men of letters to translate for him the Greek and Latin
historians, apologizing for his ignorance " in that he had not
learnt to hold book and sword in the same hand." He wrote
few letters and these in hasty and unformed characters, signed
with a simple cipher that he had learned in the prison of
Castel deir Ovo. His table was hospitable, in his house he
neither tolerated unbelievers, madmen, nor jesters. He
attended mass every day and partook of the Communion
once a year. He received and employed the old enemies of
his family, but advised them not to return to Cotignola ; for
although he forgave them freely, there were those among his
kinsmen who would neither forget nor forgive.''

Matrimony was, to this fighting peasant, who had castaway
his spade in the hope of a sceptre, the most rapid way to riches
and power. To this end, he did not hesitate to sacrifice the
celebrated Lucia da Torsana, an excellent wife, who had
already borne him Francesco and six other sons. When he

^ Giovio.

- Among these was Martino I'asolino (head of a House witli whom that of Sforza
was at enmity), who, finding himself ruined and hunted from every refuge, cast him-
self in despair at the feet of Muzio, who immediately forgave and employed him.
Doc. I, 2, 3 : Documents relating to "Experiments" of Catherine .Sforza —
Pier Desiderio Pasolini — Rome, Loesclier.

lo ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA

became rich and famous, he no longer looked upon her as his
equal, and wishing to be free to contract a princely alliance,
he looked about him, until at fifty he succeeded in wedding
the widow of Louis of Anjou, King of Naples. For the rest,
his morals are in no way to be commended. When Francesco,
his son, set out to make his fortune, he gave him the following
advice : " Do not look at the wife of a friend ; do not beat
anyone, or if you have beaten him, make your peace with him
and send him far away ; ride no horse that hath a hard mouth
or a tender heel : " for these three things had endangered
his own life.

On Januar}- 4, 1424, Sforza, then in his fifty-sixth year,
gave battle to the Bracceschi at the mouth of the river Pescara.
To complete his victory, there remained but to pursue the
enemy. But a sudden wind blew from the north ; the sea
howled, the river swelled and some squadrons of horse, that were
still on the other side of the river, hesitated to cross. Sforza,
who had already crossed, signed to the soldiers and called to
them by name ; then, seeing that none of them ventured to
move, dashed once more into the river as an example to those
who were afraid. In mid-current he perceived that a beloved
page who had followed him, bearing his helmet, had lost his
saddle and was on the point of drowning. " Poor boy! " cried
Sforza, " will no one help you ? " Approaching him, he threw
himself completely on one side, and by extending his arm
succeeded in gripping the page by the hair. In doing this he
unwittingly tightened his horse's rein. He rode a fine
charger, of so delicate a mouth that it reared at the slightest
touch of the bit ; its hind-legs caught in the river mud and
the rider was thrown. Unburdened of his weight, the horse
swam to land. But Sforza, dragged down by the weight of
his armour, disappeared where the lUshing river lost itself in
the waves and the roar of the sea.

Twice his mailed gloves were seen to rise out of the water
and join. None dared to breast the current. His corpse
was never found.

The Bracceschi had been already driven back within the

CATHERINE'S ANCESTRY ii

city of Pescara, when a runner arrived with the news of Sforza's
death. From every side came cries of sorrow and discourage-
ment. But Francesco, impassable, continued to give battle
and held the command until the victory was complete.

Some hours later, when the wind was down and the water
low, Francesco, the victor of the day, drew rein at the river-
side. He consigned his horse to a squire, lest he should
trample on the body of his father, sprang into a small ruinous
boat, which he rowed with a branch he had cut from a tree
with his sword, and kneeling, bareheaded, regardless of the
enemy's arrows, crossed the river which had become his father's
grave. He was immediately surrounded by Sforza's weeping
soldiers. " Be faithful to me," he said, " as you were to my
father ; with God's help I will yet lead you to glory and
fortune."

In that same January of 1424, Francesco, with a following
of forty men-at-arms, offered his services as his father's
successor to Queen Joan of Naples. The unhappy Queen, on
seeing him, cried, weeping bitterly : " O Sforza, Sforza ! ^
your name at least shall live. Francesco Sforza, be Sforza
the surname of your sons and brothers."

In Francesco was no trace of his father's rustic bearing;
he had already won twenty-two battles, his achievements
were as famous as those of his father before him, and no
ambition was disproportionate to his merit. His constant
aim was as his father's, a crown, and he pursued it by like means
and with the same capacity. Matrimony was to complete
what had been begun with valour and the fortune of arms.
Bianca Maria, daughter of Philip, last of the Visconti, by his
mistress, Agnese del Maino, conferred on him the rights and
privileges of an old and princely name. At the time of the
death of Duke Phih'p, Francesco and his wife were at Cotignola.
He hastened with four thousand horse and two thousand foot
soldiers to Cremona, a city that Bianca had brought him
in dowr}-.

Maria of Savoy, widow of Duke Philip, who had subjected

^ Sforza, a nickname acriuired by Muzio Attendolo on account of liis extreme
violence and impetuosity.

12 ork;ix of the house of sforza

her to many humiliations, was venerated by his subjects. She
persuaded them to ally themselves with her brother, Ludovic,
Duke of Savoy, an alliance which was to be frustrated by
Bianca Maria, the daughter of her rival, who was determined
not to lose the paternal heritage.

Francesco Sforza declared he would turn the Dukes of Savoy
out of Italy and enrich his followers with the Piedmontese
territory. He put to death soldiers and subjects of the Duke
of Savoy, scoffed at the Duchess Dowager of Milan, and sent
to advise the magistrates of that city to put no faith in the
promises and fables of the House of Savoy. As Captain-
general of the ^Milanese Republic, he had beaten the Venetians
at Caravaggio. He then allied himself with them, turned
upon the Republic and besieged Milan, which opened her
gates to him after thirty months of anarchic liberty. On
February 26, 1450, Francesco made his state entry. He
ordered his soldiers to give up their bread to the starving
populace, and refusing to enter the chariot, with its baldaquin
of cloth of gold, which the Milanese had prepared for him,
was almost carried into the Dome on horseback by the enthu-
siastic crowd which surrounded him too closely to permit of
his dismounting.

The appearance of this typical warrior and prince of the
fifteenth century is thus described in a letter of Pope Pius H.
" Of tall and imposing stature and serious expression, ever
calm and affable in speech ; in truth, a princely bearing,"
None left him dissatisfied, nor were ever disappointed in him.
He honoured men of virtue and merit ; was benevolent and for-
bearing to the weak, of quick temper, but prompt to atone by
acts of spontaneous kindness for offence given, deaf to mali-
cious insinuations, careful of religious observance, just and
unrevengeful. In the licence and cruelty of his times, Fran-
cesco Sforza, despite his ten natural children and more than
one act of violence, was accounted humane, moral, and true
to his given word.

At that time, diversity of faith and country divided the
human family, but when the Duke had erected the chief hospital,
he decreed that despite diversity of faith and country the sick

CATHERINE'S ANCESTRY 13

and maimed of all nations and creeds should be receiv^ed there.
The citizens often met him, walking with his children or riding
to inspect the new buildings in progress. Like his father, he
loved to dine in good company, but the ducal table was
frugal. Besides his guests, any one might approach him at
meal-times, when he would listen, with infinite courtesy and
patience, to long stories of misfortune and continual appeals
for help. He was a loving husband to Bianca Maria, of whom
he was wont to say that, "of all the good things for which
he thanked God, that for which he was most grateful w^as
that he had been found worthy of such a woman, who had
not her equal upon earth." Whence it will be seen, that in
the family of these fortunate adventurers, although the end
was often used to justify the means, and legitimacy of birth
was regarded as a negligible quantity, many simple, domestic
virtues went hand in hand with military fame and the pomp
of power.

Bianca INIaria Visconti was eight years old when she was
affianced to Francesco Sforza. Later, her father betrothed
her, for political reasons, to two other princes, but Bianca
w^ould wed none other than Francesco, so that on October
25, 1441, when he was forty and the bride seventeen, they
were married. A year later, Francesco entrusted her with
the government of the Marca d'Ancona. She was happiest
in the midst of her soldiers, but to avoid slander did not
appear in camp except when councils were held, or in moments
of extreme danger. Hearing, while her husband was away
fighting in Bresciana, that the castle of Monza had fallen into
rebel hands, she started on foot, calling to her guard : " Let
those who love me follow," and appearing suddenly, with her
escort, in the rebel midst, obtained the immediate restitution
of the castle. On another occasion, fearing that Francesco,
wearied by continuous rain, would raise a siege, she joined
him, and finding that he had placed seven cannons in position,
persuaded him to add to them two others and to bombard
day and night. The fortress fell, and Francesco declared that
he trusted even more in his wafe than in his aimy.

In 144S Francesco was at war with Venice. The battle

14 ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA

raged under the walls of Cremona. Bianca, who was then
twenty-three, mounted her horse, called the citizens to arms,
and placing herself at their head, led them to the camp.
"Mark, St. Mark!" cried a Venetian soldier, from a tower.
Bianca threw her lance at him and he fell dead. The
burghers of Cremona, led by the voice of their liege lady,
fought until night, wherever the danger was hottest, and
having beaten the Venetians, led her back in triumph to the
city.

It was Bianca who, after the death of her father, advised
her husband's alliance with the Venetians, and when the latter
recalled their men and Francesco began to fear that their
plan had fallen through, exhorted him "to fear naught, for
the daughter of Duke Philip was capable of raising the
spirits of the Milanese." When, during the siege of Milan,
grain was selling at sixty ducats per measure, Bianca, by
means of secret agents and letters, sent word to the people
that they would be " blessed " if they summoned her and
her "husband within their walls! Your Duke will be a father
and brother to you ! "

Francesco was summoned ; Bianca recaptured the paternal
State, and giving it to her husband, became the foundation
pillar of Lombard statecraft under this new regimen, and
beloved by her people, ev^er ruled them with justice.
Many she freed from death, imprisonment and exile, and
lavishly rewarded old servants and soldiers of her father.^
" When reproached with being too munificent and generous,"
says Sabadino, " she replied, raising her beautiful white
hands, laden with jewelled rings, that she could never do
enough to satisfy her soul." -

Her greatest pleasure was to make peace where there had
been discord. She gave money where she gave advice, and
thus put an end to enmity with other miseries, provided
dowers and arranged the marriages for the daughters of
impoverished but deserving nobles, and albeit "was habited
with such pomp and magnificence, that the like was never
seen,"^ fasted like a nun and visited the shrines, in and out-

' Sabadino de li Arienti, Gyncvera de la dare donne. - Ibid. •* Ibid.

CATHERINE'S ANXESTRY 15

side Milan, clothed like a penitent, barefoot, privately and in
inclement weather.

A careful education, in the seclusion of the castle of
Abbiategrosso, enabled the Duchess to direct the education of
her children. "We must remember," she said to one of
their learned teachers, " that we have to train princes, not
literatiy One of the themes she propounded to them was :
" Of the manner, rules and artifices whereby the contracts
between princes are made." The matter was to be treated
in Latin by children from thirteen to sixteen, Ludovico il
Moro was then nine. In a childish letter, written some years
later from the country, Ludovic assures his mother, to whom
he sends seventy quails, two partridges and a pheasant, that
his love of sport {caccici) does not cause him to neglect his
studies, "which will one day be very useful to him."
Bianca divided her children's days into hours of study, hours
for gymnastic and hours for military exercise. Some ladies
of the Court were deputed to teach them good manners.
They sometimes went on foot to pay visits to citizens of
importance in their houses : they were expected to entertain
the lords and gentlemen who came to Court from other cities,
and to dance with their ladies.

When the life of Francesco was despaired of, Bianca,
remembering that the Sforza sovereignty lacked the imperial
sanction, recalled her eldest son Galeazzo from the war in
Dauphine : " It is our will," she wrote, "that immediately on
receipt of this our letter you mount your horse and come
away, flying, without any intermission of time." The Duke
died on March 8, 1466. In the same night Bianca summoned
the chief personages of Milan, took measures to frustrate any
attempt to incite the people to rebellion, and wrote to the
Italian Powers. She shed no tears, but her aspect compelled
the pity of every witness. When her duties were fulfilled she
went to pray by the corpse of her husband, where she watched
for two days and nights and whence she had to be torn by
force by the friends and doctors who surrounded her. Then
only she lost her fortitude, and raining passionate tears and
kisses on the dead face, u[)braided herself for having some-

i6 ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA

times opposed her lord, praying God to receive his soul in
peace.

Bianca had saved the State for her son and shared its
government with him so wisely that "all Italy spoke of her
with reverence." But she soon became irksome to the new
Duke, whose pride had been inflated by his marriage with
Bona of Savoy, an alliance which made him brother-in-
law to the King of France and son-in-law to that Duke
Ludovic whom his father had threatened to turn out of
Piedmont. His mother sought refuge from her humiliation in
her own city of Cremona, where upon arrival she suddenly
fell ill, and soon her life was despaired of. None ventured to
tell the pious Duchess of her danger, until Michael Carcano
(afterwards beatified), learning from the physicians that she
could not outlive the following day, took heart of grace and
said : " Gracious Lady, your hour is near." She calmly
asked for the Sacrament, made her will and to Duke Galeazzo,
who had hastened to her bedside, recommended her
" Milanese and all our other subjects. But the Cremonese,"
she added, "who came to me as my paternal dower, I give
and bequeath to thee." And having prayed him to so requite
her household that none might say they had in vain spent
time and service on her, and having blessed the Duke and
her other children, " presently fell asleep."

The decadence of the race of Sforza began with Galeazzo,
son of Francesco and Bianca, who inherited the paternal
energy without its power of organization. To the vicissitudes
of Romagna, Muzio owed his mental vigour ; to the pursuit
of war and the thirst of power, Francesco owed his firmness
and the temperament that is born of a high ideal. Galeazzo,
who ascended the throne at twenty-two, had never measured
his strength with an enemy, an equal, nor a rival ; unac-
customed to restraint, he was foolhardy, sensual and cruel.
His violent nature was leavened by two weaknesses, in-
constancy and vainglory, owing to which, the astute could
bend his will to their own ends. His best adviser was Cicco
Simonetta, who had been secretary to Duke Francesco.
Popularity being the chief aim of Galeazzo, his first care was

CATHERINE'S ANCESTRY 17

to ensure the cheapness of victuals, and knowing that the
people, next to abundance, cared most for public festivities,
he determined that the Milanese should be proud of the
splendour of his Court. He patronized and affected letters,
and sought the praise of every kind of artist ; he spent
treasure on musicians, singers, sculptors and painters. But
even as a Maecenas he was mad and tyrannous ; he ordered
a room in the Castle of Porta Giovia (built, but not decorated
by his father) to be decorated, in one night, with the portraits
of the ducal family, their courtiers and pages.

Yet it was in the nature of things that, caring so much for
praise, he should sometimes achieve that which was praise-
worthy. Corruption existed no longer in the administration ;
there was discipline in the army and liberty in commerce.
The prince's word was considered as good as his bond. But
his life was a continual contradiction, because his acts did
not spring from an innate sense of good. He offered his
people abundance, feasts and cavalcades, yet wrote to his
treasurer : " Have a care not to emancipate our subjects,
like those of Savoy."

A contemporary defined him as "a monster compounded
of virtues and vices ; " the Diario of Ferrara is more explicit :
" He was a man who committed acts of madness and things
that cannot be written." Milanese licence was so unbridled
that Galeazzo could abandon himself to any sort of profligacy
without fear of endangering his popularity ; his example not
only corrupted manners, but principles; modesty was re-
garded as barbarism, husbands were honoured by the prince's
irregularities, his favourites were the leading ladies of the
capital ; he did not hesitate to torture, mutilate, and bury
alive any supposed rival in their fickle affections. A terrible
suspicion cast its shadow over him ; he was reputed to have
poisoned Dorothea Gonzaga, his affianced bride, that he might
be free to woo Bona of Savoy. The sudden and mysterious
death of Duchess Bianca was ascribed to the same cause by
the populace, and when they saw him hasten to her deathbed
at the Castle of Melegnano, they recoiled from what they
believed to be hypocrisy. The callousness with which

i8 ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF SFORZA

Galeazzo received official condolence confirmed this rumour,
which is not justified by history, while proofs are not wanting
that his mother died of a broken heart. "Mental anguish"
wrote Hianca's physician to the reigning Duke, " is most
conducive to bodily suffering."

Galeazzo had married Bona of Savoy in 1468. She is
described by contemporaries (among whom was the Duke's
brother, Tristan Sforza, his proxy at the wedding at the
Castle of Amboise) as beautiful, gracious, gentle and in every
way worthy of her name. By dint of tact and patience she
obtained great influence over her erratic husband, and, shocked
by his excesses, interceded between him and his victims.
In 1474 the Sforza prisons and dungeons were crowded ;
in many places gallows were erected, and everywhere terror
and indignation prevailed, when the Duke, " touched by the
entreaties of the Duchess" (writes Campi), "caused a general
pardon to be proclaimed ; " a (ew were kept in chains, but no
blood was shed. Bona, henceforward known as " the first
Madonna of Italy," bore her husband five children : Giovan-
Galeazzo, Alexander, Hermes, Bianca-Maria and Anna.
His illegitimate offspring were Carlo, Octavian, Chiara,
Galeazzo and one who must ever live in history as Catherine
Sforza, not for having initiated a new era, but because she
stands out from it, like a great figure from an older time.

BOOK II

CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD

CHAPTER II

CHILDHOOD. MARRIAGE

The name of Catherine Sforza is first mentioned in a
letter written by Duke Galeazzo (then in camp with the
Florentine and Neapolitan armies in Bolognese territory)
to his mother. Catherine, who was in her sixth year, had
been left in the guardianship of her paternal grandmother ;
she was ill, and as there was no improvement in her condition,
two couriers had left Milan on the same day to convey
news of the child. There was no mention of her mother.
Duchess Bianca was then forty-one, still beautiful, although
she had little more than a year to liv^e, and an affectionate
grandmother to the child of her son's first love, an error
which had been quickly condoned by her, and had not
scandalized any one else.

Catherine was born about the year 1463, in Milan or
Pavia, where the ducal family spent part of the year. Her
mother, Lucretia Landriani, was remarkably beautiful, but
there is nothing to prove her possession of the intellectual
gifts with which she is accredited by some historians. She
plays no part either in the education or the history of
Catherine, who was, however, constant in her love for her.
She had several children : Bianca and Pietro were legitimate,
not so Stella, who yet was no daughter to Galeazzo.

Galeazzo legitimized Catherine. On the death of her heroic
grandmother she was adopted by Bona, his wife, who loved
her as if she had really been her daughter, and educated
her with maternal solicitude. Meanwhile her father, who
intended her to serve his political aims, affianced her at the
age of seven to Onorato, son of Count Marcantonio Torelli.

22 CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD

Onorato's early death paved the way to Catherine's higher
fortune. Catherine's education was most elaborate : the
Duke, her father, prided himself on his literary acquirements.
His Court was thronged by scholars and humanists ; the
best masters were at hand, and the pupil was apt and of
remarkable memory.

The princesses of the fifteenth and si.xtecnth centuries were
generally educated with their brothers, the field of learning
being limited to the study of the classics. Italian and Latin
verse, written by the women of the period, is virile in
character, and in no wise distinguishable from that of the
men. The study of music, in which it does not appear that
Catherine was proficient, was generally confined to the lute.

In the Italian Courts of the fifteenth century woman held
a position equal to that of man — she was in every way his
peer. Marriage, instead of blending two beings in one, united
two equals, while enthusiasm for antique ideals and the
conviction that classic culture was the principal ornament
of life, made it essential to maidens who were destined to
govern like men.

The first important event which can have been retained
by Catherine's memory was her visit to Lorenzo Medici.

Galeazzo, conscious that the annexation of the county of
Imola was obnoxious to the Medici, and desirous of averting
a war with Florence, left, under the pretext of a pilgrimage
to the Annunziata, for that city in March 1471 with his
wife Bona and daughters Anna and Catherine. It would
appear, from the sumptuousness of his travelling and hunting
equipage and the splendour of the liveries and trappings of
their numerous following, that Galeazzo challenged com-
parison with the magnificent Florentine, who received the
ducal family in his own house, while the Court were lodged
in the city at the expense of the Commune. Galeazzo was
spellbound by the combination of magnificence and the
highest art in Casa Medici. And the humour of the
Florentines was so unconstrained in its gaiety that " if the
said Duke found the town steeped in effeminate delicacy

CHILDHOOD. MARRIAGE 23

and in customs opposed to those of every well-ordered city,
he left it worse than he found it," says Machiavelli.

Genoa was not less splendid in her reception of the Duke
and Duchess, but despite the warmth of the official reception,
and the value and variety of the official presents, the t}-rant
betrayed his terror lest he should be assassinated, and after
ordering the fortifications to be strengthened so that Genoa
might continue to be held in subjection, Galeazzo, who had
left Milan like a satrap, returned to it in fear and trembling,
almost as a fugitive.

Thus Florence and the Mcdicean Court were the first
spectacle witnessed by Catherine, destined to become a
member of a family who were mortal enemies of the Medici,
and to be a witness of her husband's conspiracy against, and
punishment by. the Medici, without lessening the irresistible
sympathy which attracted her to the Florentines. One of
her sons took service under the Republic ; she entertained
Nicolo Machiavelli, a Medici was her last love, and as his
widow she found her last resting-place in Florence, where
a long line of her descendants became famous rulers in peace
and war.

Pope Sixtus IV. resorted to princely alliances as a means
of aggrandizem.ent for his nephews. For Leonardo he had
secured a daughter of the King cf Naples, for Girolamo he
sought an alliance with the reigning House of Milan and
a State in Northern Italy. In December 1472, Girolamo
Riario arrived in Milan from Bologna for the solemnization
of his betrothal to Constance, daughter of Conrad Fogliani
(half-brother of Francesco Sfcrza). The preliminaries were
satisfactory to all parties until Gabriella Gonzaga, mother
of the bride, demurred to some of the exactions of Girolamo,
who was therein supported by the Duke of Milan. Galeazzo
stormed, menaced and coerced in vain. Gabriella (on whom
he afterwards revenged himself by a law-suit) remained
unshaken and Catherine Sforza, in lieu of her cousin, was
offered in marriage to Riario, who, placated b>' the promise
of so much beauty and the prospect of a marriage in a

24 CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD

political sense more advantageous, concluded a hasty be-
trothal with Catherine at the Castle of Pavia on February 23,
1473. Three days later the bridegroom's gifts to the bride
were consigned to Duchess Bona, in the presence of four
Court officials, among whom was Pietro Landriani, Master
of the Household and husband of the fair Lucrctia.

The legal act of donation shows ^ that the gifts comprised
two dresses, one of gold brocade and the other of green
velvet, embroidered with 1538 large and as many small
pearls, three rows of large pearls, two thimbles, set with
diamonds, emeralds and sapphires, a jewel " in the form of a
peasant," the head being formed by a large pearl, a jewelled
clasp with a pear-shaped pearl for a pendant, two crosses
set with diamonds, pearls and rubies, a purse of gold, seven
girdles set in silver, and two pairs of sleeves of silver brocade.

In September of the same year Cardinal Pietro Riario,
preceded by the fame of absolute power and regal magnifi-
cence, arrived in Milan as the Pope's legate, and was received
with a pomp which could not have been exceeded had he
been Pope. This young Cardinal had been instrumental at
the conclave in the election of his uncle to the papacy. He
had quickly risen to such power that he ruled the Pope
and squandered an income of 60,000 gold florins in the
most shameless profligacy.

No sooner had he arrived than he asked to see Catherine,
by whose precocious beauty and talent (she was then eleven)
he was so impressed that he lavished upon her caresses and
presents. He confirmed the marriage contract that had been
entered into the preceding year, stipulated that the bride's
dowry of io,ooo ducats should be augmented by the
Forest of Alexandria and that the town, lands and castle
of Imola which the Duke had obtained from the Manfredi
of Faenza, in defiance of the Medici, should become the
property of the Church. To this Galeazzo agreed on the
understanding that Imola should be the appanage of Girolamo
Riario, as the Pope's vicar, and his heirs. The price of the

^ Doc. 60, State Archives of Milan.

CHILDHOOD. MARRIAGE 25

cession of this little State to the Church was 40,000 ducats.
The Pope declared that the price was excessive and that
the gift of Imola, which by right belonged to the Church,
to Girolamo, went somewhat against his conscience, but he
granted it because " it was not meet that the daughter of
so great a prince should live like a simple gentlewoman."
Thus Galeazzo secured the Pope's favour, the Pope had the
satisfaction of regaining an ancient fief for the Church, of
founding a State for Girolamo and of spiting Lorenzo Medici.
On the 7th of the following November, Girolamo was invested
with the County of Imola, paying a yearly tribute of two
hundred instead of the five hundred ducats which the Church
had levied from the Manfredi.

The Cardinal, contrary to the Duke's advice, left Milan
for Venice, where he was again received with great honours.
But his politics aroused suspicion, and the profligacy of his
conduct, offence and scandal. He therefore fled to Rome in
the disguise of a simple priest, after a five days' ride through
Bolognese territory. He died in January 1474, at the age
of twenty-eight, a victim to his own vices, or, as some people
averred, to poison administered to him by an agent of the
Signory of Venice. His death was hailed by many as a
deliverance from a moral pest that had exceeded the licence
and degradation of pagan Rome, but the populace, to whom
his lavish expenditure had endeared him, mourned him, and
the Pope, crying " Aly son and my hope ! " wept so bitterly at
his grave that a contemporary describes his grief as "undue."

So great was the instinct of family aggrandizement in
Cardinal Pietro, that his last care had been for the future
of his brother Girolamo, and on him the Pope concentrated
henceforward all his affection. Catherine's affianced husband
inherited all the riches of his brother, to whose diplomacy
he alrea'dy owed the dominion of Imola. In his hands was
soon vested all military and ecclesiastic power, and he became
the centre of the intrigues and political crimes of his day.

His primary need was a faction ; he therefore assured
himself of the Orsini and soon rose to such pre-eminence
that he was known as the " Arch-Pope."

CHAPTER III

THE ASSASSINATION OF GALEAZZO

The tacit hate and bitter satire of the scholars and
rhetoricians who at that time controlled public opinion, was
aroused by the arrogance of Galeazzo, then in the full tide
of his success. Among the most intolerant of the Duke's
critics was Cola Montana, who had established a school of
rhetoric in Milan in the year 1466. This man, without
any common sense or even a conception of the logical
sequence and inexorable law that govern events, felt himself
called upon to reorganize society. He had been the tutor of
Galeazzo and had later been found guilty of one of those
offences which he most disapproved in the Duke. The latter,
delighted in an opportunity of requiting the punishments
inflicted on him by Cola, had him whipped in public. This
increased his hatred of Galeazzo, which, owing to the vogue
of classic literature and the examples of ancient Greece and
Rome, passed for hatred of tyranny.

Cola never ceased in his attacks upon the Duke ; he
inflamed the }-outh of Milan against his excesses and declared
only those to be happy who lived under a republican govern-
ment ; Catiline was his greatest hero, Sallust his favourite
author, tyrannicide the supreme achievement of a life.
Giovan-Andrea Lampugnani, reduced to a poverty which was
insufferable to his pride, had been condemned to death by
Francesco and pardoned by Galeazzo. Carlo Visconti could
neither forget that the Sfcrza had usurped the honours of his
family nor that the Duke had seduced his sister. Girolamo

THE ASSASSINATION OF GALEAZZO 27

Olgiati, a beardless youth, had no motive of personal hatred,
but he saw with the eyes and heard with the ears of Cola,
who, maddened by his dream of glory, promised these favourite
disciples the fame of Brutus, Cassius and Catilinus. After
discarding many plans for the suppression of the tryant, the
conspirators agreed to await the occasion of a public festivity,
whetting their thirst for vengeance, meanwhile, on a magnifi-
cently attired lay-figure of the Duke, on which, while heaping
threats and insults, they made savage attacks,^ so keeping
their hands and nerves in readiness for the deed.

In December 1476, Duke Galeazzo had, in defence of
Philibert of Savoy, partially repressed the invasion of
Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgund}-, and sent his troops to
their winter quarters to avoid the intense cold of the Pied-
montese plains. He himself returned to Vigevano, with the
intention of resuming hostilities in the spring. Christmas was
at hand ; it was the custom of the House of Sforza to
celebrate it at home, a custom to which Duke Francesco, who,
though dead ten years, yet lived in the loving remembrance
of his people, had alwa}'s adhered. Galeazzo, knowing that
his acts would be compared with those of his father, felt that
the maintenance and progression of the State was due to the
initial impulse of its founder. He was thus driven, uncon-
sciously, to imitate him even in unimportant details. He
had been absent from Milan for some time and was flattered
by the thought of returning to his capital as a conqueror.

Yet the mind of the young Duke was not attuned to these
happy circumstances. A Milanese astrologer, a priest whom
he had consulted, had foretold that he would not complete
the eleventh year of his reign. The Duke had thrust him,
with a loaf, a glass of wine and the wing of a capon, into a
dungeon, where the wretched man had starved for twelve
days. He died of hunger, but his prophecy survived him and
the Duke could not be rid of it ; the victory of his army left
him as gloomy as before. There might be a refuge, he
thought, in home and religion, and that was wh)- he was

' AUcgrcltc) AllcgrcUi, Diarii Saiiesi.

28 CATHERINE'S (nRLIIOOD

returning, according to the custom of his father, to spend
Christmas with his family and his people.

On mounting his horse, he perceived a ccnnet and trembled ;
then he learnt that his chamber had caught fire at Milan: a
secret impulse, says Corio, warned him to proceed no farther.
Still, he put spurs to his horse, and no sooner had he started
than three crows flew over his head. He called for a cross-bow
and shot two arrows at the ill-omened birds, but missed them.
Assailed by an inexplicable discouragement, he hesitatingly
proceeded, reaching Milan on December 20. He crossed the
drawbridge with bent head, his gloom diffusing itself among
his slow and silent following, and as the last of the long line of
men-at-arms and caparisoned horses disappeared behind the
iron gates of the Castle of Porta Giovia, the bridge was again
drawn up. The Duke's first order, on dismounting, was that
the singers should be dressed in mourning for mass on the
following da}-, and be forbidden to sing any but the most
solemn chants.

On the morning after Christmas-day, an icy frost hung
over Milan. It was St. Stephen's day, and Duchess Bona had
had an evil dream ; she saw the body of a murdered man in
the church of St. Stephen. She arose hastily and besought
the Duke not to attend mass in that church, nor to show
himself in the streets of Milan, The Court chaplain had
already gone to St. Stephen's with the sacred vessels, but
the Bishop of Como, invited to celebrate the mass in the
castle chapel, sent to say that he was ill. The Duchess again
tried to dissuade her husband from leaving the castle, and
entreated the principal members of his suite to prevent his
so doing. The Duke put on a coat of mail, but took it off
again " because it made him too stout." He was afraid and
yet anxious to go to church, because he " was awaited there
by some of his mistresses and others who from decorum I
refrain from writing of," writes his faithful valet. The Duke
halted at the top of the stairs as if he had forgotten some-
thing. He sent for his children, whom he wished to see again,
and to Corio, who saw him, with a child on either side, at a

THE ASSASSINATION OF GALEAZZO 29

window, it appeared "that he could hardly tear himself away
from them." At last, he left the castle on foot, but finding
the ground frozen, decided on mounting his horse. All the
courtiers sprang into the saddle, only the valet, Bernardino
Corio, chief narrator of this episode, remained on foot and,
taking a short cut, reached the church of St. Stephen in time
to see the arrival of the cavalcade.

At midday, the cavalcade entered the most populous
quarter of the city, and was soon surrounded by a motley
crowd of nobles, doctors, lawyers, ecclesiastics and the popu-
lace, the men huddled in their dark cloaks and the women
gay with their brightest colours. Here was the ducal guard,
here were the equerries, here at last was the Duke himself,
riding between the orators of Ferrara and Mantua. The
people pressed closer to their prince, and noting his hard-set
face, and the gloom in his eyes, muttered, " UJi I come sta
duro !'' ("How grim he looks.") Corio met Giovanni Lampug-
nani, arm-in-arm with Girolamo Olgiati, at the church door.
"They wore coats and stockings of mail and short coats of
crimson satin." Corio, knowing them to be members of the
Court, wondered to see them there, instead of with the Duke's
escort. Lampugnani and Olgiati, with whom were three
ruffians of the lowest class, placed themselves on the right-
hand side of the door ; Carlo Visconti, who did not
wish to be seen, on the left, behind a group of unknown
persons. The sound of voices, the tramp of horses mingled
with the clink of arms, and the towering plumes of the Sforza
cavalry came in sight : then they heard the quick step of the
Duke's horse, who stopped suddenly, when Galeazzo Maria, in
the beauty and strength of his thirty-two years, drew rein,
and giving his horse to a Moor, entered the church to the
strains of Sic transit gloria viiindi} What had happened .''
The two silent groups on each side of the door pressed for-
ward, almost barring the Duke's way. Lampugnani came
forward, as if to drive them off, crying, " Make way, make
way ! " Arriving within touch of the Duke, he lifted his
velvet beret with his left hand, and bending one knee as if to

' Aiinalcs PtiUciitini.

30 CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD

present a petition, thrust his dagger through the Duke's body
and into his throat as he fell. Then came Olgiati, with
another dagger, and Visconti with a third, while a certain
Francione dealt him the most deadly blow of all, in the back.

The Duke lay on the ground, in the midst of assassins,
under a shower of blows : he expired with a faint cry, " O !
Our Lady ! " " Dead, dead ! " cried the crowd. The second
to fall w^as Francesco da Ripa, a colossal equerry, who had
drawn his sword on the assassins. The faithful Moor
dispatched Lampugnani, who had taken refuge among the
frightened women, and having caught his foot in one of their
trains before he could join his horse, was speared by the slave
and dragged by the feet through the streets by the crowd
until he was torn to shreds. Jewels were snatched from the
hair, the necks and arms of the gaily-attired ladies. A scene
of indescribable violence ensued until the pikes and halberds
of the ducal guard parted the crowed and secured the mur-
derers, with the exception of Olgiati and Visconti, who had
succeeded in making their escape. Soon eleven corpses were
to be seen hanging from the ramparts of the castle, while
others were quartered alive within the city, so that the people
might hear the last desperate cries of the prisoners. At night
the Duke was quietly laid to rest in the Dome, habited in a
garment of cloth of gold which he had given to his wife to
keep for his shroud, in case of sudden death.

A iew days later Carlo Visconti was taken, tortured and
quartered alive. Girolamo Olgiati, accursed by his father and
abandoned by his friends, fell into the hands of the ducal
executioners, and amid torments which dislocated his bones
and tore his flesh, was commanded by his judges to reveal
the plan of the conspiracy in writing to Duchess Bona. In
the course of his confession he said : " We did to the Duke
that which we had prepared. Now, owing to his cruelties and
lasciviousness, he lies there dead, a proof to tyrants that
justice still exists . . . and now to Thee, Holy Mother of
God, and to thee, Duchess Bona (however guilty I may
appear in thine eyes), I bend the knee, I implore of your
clemency and benignity to be pleased to remember that I too

THE ASSASSINATION OF GALEAZZO 31

have a soul, that you may leave to these miserable members
enough of strength for me to make fitting confession of my
sins."

Duchess Bona sent a priest to him, to persuade him to
save his soul by one word of penitence. But in broken and
almost inarticulate accents, he said : " I know that by my
sins I have deserved even greater torments, could my body
but bear them . . . but I trust that the holy deed for which
I die will obtain mercy for me at the hands of the Supreme
Judge. And were I to be reborn ten times and ten times to
perish in these torments, I would give my blood and all my
strength for this sacred end." Mangled, under the knife of
the executioner, a loud cry escaped the unfortunate young
man. " Be of good cheer, Girolamo ! " he cried to himself,
" Mors acerba, faina perpctiia. Stabit veins menioria facti I "
A portion of his body was hung to each gate of the city,
and his head exposed on the tower of Broletto Nuovo.

Duchess Bona appealed to the Pope for the posthumous
absolution of the man whom, despite the multitude and
enormity of his crimes, she, " next to God, had loved above
all else in the world," promising to make reparation, either by
giving all she could to the subsidy demanded of princes by
the Church, or by the erection of monasteries, donations to
the hospital, or in dowries to marriageable maidens and other
pious works within the State of Milan. "This she would
prefer; being of opinion that reparation is most due, and
good should follow evil, on the spot where it has been com-
mitted," adding that she was willing in her own person to
endure such fast, penance, or torment as could avail the soul
of her husband.

" The peace of Italy is at an end !" exclaimed Pope Sixtus
IV. on hearing of the murder of Galcazzo, whose death,
although he had neither been a saint nor a great politician,
was indeed the prelude to fresh bloodshed, civil war and
foreign invasion.

CHAPTER IV

FROM MILAN TO ROME

Catherine, who at the time of these events was fourteen,
wept for her father and herself Who now would ensure the
happiness to which she had looked forward ? The coming of
Cardinal Riario, with his splendid following, had appealed to
her imagination ; this splendour had seemed to her to eclipse
the magnificence of the Milanese Court and }-et it was but a
spark of a much more glorious flame. There was a more
splendid Court than that of her father, there was a greater
and more powerful sovereign than the Duke of Milan : he
who held, besides the sceptre, the keys of Paradise. That
Court should have been her home : she had been destined to
be the most holy niece of the sovereign pontiff, at whose feet
she would have seen emperors and kings kneel. She had
felt that all the princesses of Italy must envy her ! Now, the
daggers of a handful of wretched madmen had imperilled all.

But it was not so. For the death of Galeazzo inspired the
Pope and Girolamo Riario with a momentary hope of obtain-
ing possession of Milan, and in February 1477, the papal
legate, Cardinal Mellini, arrived with instructions to hasten the
marriage. Duchess Bona, who had always loved Catherine,
most amply fulfilled her husband's promises : early in April,
in her presence, that of the Cardinal and the assembled Court,
Catherine's marriage was celebrated, by proxy and without
any public rejoicing, on account of the recent death of the
Duke.

The first of Catherine's letters which exists reached Duchess
Bona towards the end of that month. It ran as follows :

from milan to rome ^^

" Most Illustrious and Most Excellent Madonna !

" Be it known to Your Grace that by the grace of God,
to-day I arrived at Parma well, and withal afflicted at being far
from Your Grace and to be incapable of narrating and express-
ing, with other benefits I owe to Your Grace, the great honours
and goodly companies that have followed me from place to
place, adeo, it would be a great thing to write them, and
especially in this Your city of Parma, to whom (sic) on
bended knee I do commend myself
"Ex. Parma die XXVII. Aprilis 1477.

" Vestra servitrix et fillia
" Caterina Vicecomes."

On the same day, after describing to her sister Chiara the
great feasts that everywhere had been given in her honour,
she adds that she was well el sc/ionso/afa and sends affectionate
greetings to her nurses and " in general to all my women."
On the 28th she was at Reggio, on the following day at
Modena, where there was a solemn reception and many visits;
her gentlemen in waiting had advised her how to receive
them, which had been " little trouble because of her great
intelligence and discretion." At Bologna she was entertained
by Giovanni Bentivoglio. On May i, before sunset, she made
her state entry into Imola.

The people had come out in masses to meet her, the
Ancients of the city presented her with the keys, all along the
streets from the gates to the palace the arms of the Pope,
the Sforza, and the Riario were garlanded with flowers ;
allegorical groups were formed and children sang verses and
sonnets. A great pavilion, ingeniously decorated with man}'-
coloured draperies, banners and arms, had been erected in
front of the palace ; under this pavilion Catherine and her
suite dismounted, when the crowd rushed in, disputing " with
cries, blows and much tearing of hair " the honour of seizing
the lady's horse, according to the custom of the time. The
confusion which resulted from so much popular enthusiasm
"was not displeasing" to Catherine. Under the pavilion,

34 CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD

Violantina Riario-Ricci, wife of the governor of Imola, sur-
rounded by many ladies, received her sister-in-law, and led
her within the palace, which was furnished with beautiful
tapestries and hangings embroidered in gold and silver and
hung with crimson velvets and satin and white damask silks.
But what most attracted the admiration of the Milanese was
a credenza, or cupboard, of great height and beauty, laden
with artistically wrought silver, a costly gift of the Pope to
Count Girolamo. Imola in its outward aspect was pro-
nounced small and badly built, while the fortress, a recent
construction of the Duke of Milan, was admired; the citizens,
and especially the women, were well dressed and the dancers
in the streets " with their many curtseys, bows, exchanges
and shuffling of the feet " were singularly quaint.

Catherine was permitted to rest in her chamber,^ the roof
and walls of which were hung with white silk, brocaded with
gold, while her suite were conducted over the other magnifi-
cent apartments, which seemed to be endless, returning to
conduct Catherine to a collation, after which Catherine shook
hands with some of the ladies who had received her and
dismissed them, inviting others to sup with her. After
supper, as Catherine, although in good health and spirits, was
" somewhat weary," the guests were permitted to retire, the
foreigners being escorted, with many torches, to their
apartments or to the lodgings allotted to them in the
town. On May 2 Catherine attended mass and enter-
tained some citizens and ladies to dinner; on the 3rd,
which was market-day, the town was full of country people
who had brought presents of comestibles to their new lady
and succeeded, through the mediation of a jester named
Piasentino, in being admitted to her presence. She gave her
hand to each of the peasants, who shared the enthusiasm of
the populace and citizens for the youthful Countess.

"They never cease from feasting me," wrote Catherine to
her sister, " even the stones rejoice because of my coming,"
She hoped to leave for Rome on the following Tuesday, and

^ Narrative of some gentlemen of Catherine's suite. Librairic Nationale, Paris,
Doc. 91.

FROM MILAN TO ROME 35

begged her sister to send her a certain cap which had been
given to her by "the wife of Don Ciccho" (Simonetta) Mean-
while because of the insanitary condition of Rome at that

6^^

t Uf*\-xi

f^ s^^

AUTOGRAPH LETTKR OF GIROI.AMO RIARIO.

season, and because the recent death of Duke Galeazzo would
cast a gloom over the projected festivities, the Pope had

36 CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD

decided to send Count Girolamo on a short visit to his
subjects, to console his bride for the postponement of her
triumphal entry. This plan fell through by reason of a con-
spiracy of the Venetian patriarch and the cardinal of San
Pietro in Vincoli (later Pope Julius II.) against the life of
the bridegroom. It appears from the letters of the Orator of
Milan to his Government and from one of Girolamo Riario to
the Duchess of Milan, that Rome was in a state of ferment,
malaria, hunger and sedition ; the populace were capable of
the utmost violence; it would not do for the bride to arrive at
so inauspicious a time. But these injunctions did not reach
Imola until after the departure of Catherine and her suite,
on May 13, who riding onwards through the provinces of
Romagna and La Marca, acclaimed and feasted at every
resting-place, reached Castel Novo, belonging to Stephen
Colonna, on the 24th and there halted for the night. She
was within fourteen miles of Rome. Departing thence after
dinner on the following day, at the eighteenth hour, they rode
for seven miles and were then met by Count Girolamo,
escorted by a goodly following of his friends and servants,
all habited alike in sable velvet and satin. The bride and
bridegroom " dismounted, and taking each other by the hand,
tenderly kissed and embraced." They all rested in a wood,
and after an interchange of elaborate courtesies, remounted
their horses and once more turned towards Rome.

The first to join the united cavalcade was the Pope's nephew,
Antonio Riario ; at every succeeding quarter of a mile,
they were joined by prelates and members of the households
of cardinals. Within three miles of the city the Prefect of
Rome, the ugly and wicked Leonardo, elder nephew of Sixtus,
brought a great company to pay homage to the bride. At
Ponte Molle, on the Tiber, they were met by the papal Court
and, turning to the west, by the ambassadors of Naples and
Spain, who, joining the cavalcade, escorted the bride to the
palace of the Cardinal of Urbino at Monte Mario. Here the
bride and bridegroom dismounted and supped (before sunset),
the escort and the horses returning to the city. After supper,
the Count, who was recalled to Rome by the Pope, presented

FROM MILAN TO ROME 37

his wife, on leaving, with a necklace of pearls "with a pendant
jewel of the value of 5000 ducats."

" Next day, being Pentecost " the horses were again led up
to the door and Catherine, surrounded by her Milanese and
escorted by the ambassadors and cavaliers as on the preceding
day, by Gianfrancesco Gonzaga and several members of the
Orsini and Colonna families, mounted hers. She wore "a
cloak of black damask, brocaded with gold, a skirt of crimson
satin and sleeves of black brocade and was splendidly
adorned with jewels." The road to St. Peter's (a distance of
two miles) was lined with spectators on horseback. Passing
through the Porta Angelica and dismounting at the ancient
Basilica (soon to be pulled down and rebuilt by Julius II.),
Catherine was led to where Sixtus IV., in pontifical vestments,
sat surrounded by the whole of the Sacred College. The
mass lasted three hours. Then a young cardinal of thirty-four,
Julian della Rovere (Cardinal of San Pietro in Vincoli, after-
wards Pope Julius II. and the same who was suspected of
connivance with the Venetian patriarch against his cousin's
life), approached the bride who, attended by her suite. Count
Girolamo and the orators of the Duke of Milan, was led by
the Cardinal to the Pope : a rugged, ill-built, monkish figure
surmounted by an austere, expressive face, with a hooked
nose and piercing eyes. The tall, slim figure of Catherine
emerged from her surrounding escort and kneeling before the
awkward figure that seemed so ill at ease in the heavy
pontifical garments, kissed the foot of Sixtus IV. " When
she had arisen, Bossi, Orator of the Duke of Milan, read the
Pope a lengthy Latin address on the virtues of the youthful
Countess," upon which, contrary to all precedent, he was
complimented by the Holy Father, who commanded him to
take Catherine by the hand, spoke the sacramental words and
allowed Girolamo to place the ring on her finger. Catherine
again kissed the Pope's hand and foot. The Pope, among
other affectionate courtesies, said to her that "he would marry
her over again, and causing her to remove the chain of pearls
given to her by my Lord the Count, put in its place another,
all set with most precious jewels, valued at 4000 gold ducats,

FROM MILAN TO ROME

with so many caresses that it appears to us that Her Lady-
ship is so well beloved by His Holiness, that he makes
no difference between her and my Lord the Count" — who
seemed to the narrator ^ cold in comparison. Catherine,
instructed by Bossi, then kissed the hand of each cardinal.

PANORAMA OF ROME (I'ART II.

1. Palazzo Orsini at Campo di Fiore.

2. Villa Riario at the Lungara (no Palazzo

Coesini).

3. Monte Aventino.
16. Ponte Sisto.

41. Circo Flaminio.

82. Casa Farnese.

83. Casa Capoferri.

86. Casa Mattel.

87. Orchards of the Riario.

88. Villa of Agostino Chigi (later Farnesina).
P. Porta Settimiaiia.

who one and all declared themselves her servants, the Pope
blessed and dismissed the escort, who then escorted the bride
and bridegroom to the palace of Cardinal Orsini, in Campo

1 Doc. 105, Lib. Nat. Paris.

40 CATHERINE'S GIRLHOOD

di Fiore, which had been prepared for Catherine pending
the completion of the improvements begun at the Riario
palace, in view of the postponement of Catherine's entry.
The streets that led to Campo a Fiore were decked with
" woollen draperies " and the arms of the Pope, the Riario and
the Duke of IMilan in leaves and flowers ; perfumes were burnt
and the air was redolent of sweet odours ; the spacious court
of the palace, hung with rich stuffs, led to apartments
sumptuously furnished, and sumptuous were the dresses of the
eighty Roman ladies who received Catherine. Even the
chambers prepared for the Milanese suite were of princely
magnificence. At the seventeenth hour, a child, habited as an
angel, announced in verse that dinner was ready ; Catherine
entered the dining-room, water for the hands was handed to
each guest, and to the table of the bride and bridegroom were
bidden Antonio Riario, " the despot of Morea," the Bishop of
Parma, who was one of the Milanese orators, the French
Ambassador, Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, the wife of Giovanmaria
Visconti, the wife of Fioramonte and the wife of the nephew
of the Cardinal of Milan. At the other tables were prelates,
ambassadors, lords and ladies, in all about two hundred
persons. There were twenty-two courses, besides the sweets,
and between every five courses a child recited verses from a
triumphal car that was led in by several persons, while others
represented classical subjects, such as the adventures of
Medusa, Hercules and Theseus, dancers performed a ballet, a
"moresca" and a Florentine dance, and six children, dressed
as hunters, brought Catherine a quantity of cooked animals,
" all served in their natural forms." The banquet lasted five
hours, the guests were only kept awake by the novelty and
variety of the entertainments. The presentation of gifts by
the guests began as soon as the table-cloths were removed,
and Catherine's presents were valued at 12,000 ducats. The
effect produced by this welcome is reflected in a letter, written
from Milan by Duchess Bona to her adopted daughter :

" DOMIN.E CaTHERIN/E :

" Magtiifica filia nostra dilectissiuia. We cannot say

FROM MILAN TO ROME 41

with what great pleasure We have learnt of the honours and
of the gracious reception accorded to thee by His Kohness
and the whole Court of Rome. We hold all this as if it had
been done to Ourselves, by reason of the singular love we bear
thee. And although We suffer from the privation of thy sweet
company, none the less, whenever We are reminded of the
happiness of thy estate We experience an incredible consola-
tion, to which nothing is wanting but the sight of thee. And
We are assured that thou hast the same desire to see Us,
which at this present cannot be. Therefore We exhort thee
to be of good cheer and brave heart, assuring thee that this
is the greatest pleasure thou canst procure to Us. We send
thee three of the girdles thou didst order when here : and will
send thee anything else from here, at thy pleasure."

In another letter the Duchess assures Catherine that "When
we hear thee well spoken of, We experience the happiness
which Cometh to every good mother in the happiness of a dear
daughter, such as thou art to Us." This correspondence bears
the stamp of a pure and simple domestic life and proves that
Catherine, whose virile qualities were destined to astound her
contemporaries, was, in her early youth, a gentle and affec-
tionate maiden. Of her appearance on the occasion of her
official entry into the capital of Christianity, Fabio Oliva
writes as follows : " That which was most remarkable in the
diversity and multiplicity of spectacles was the rare and
incomparable beauty of Catherine and her almost miraculous
grace "

BOOK III

CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

CHAPTER V

WHO WERE THE RIARIO?

The Riario were the favourite nephews of a new pope, who
was the daring and ill-starred initiator of a new era. On the
death of Paul II., Duke Galeazzo Maria had sent a list of
cardinals, friendly to him, to his orator in Rome, requesting
him to do everything in his power to secure the appointment
of one of them to the papacy. Among these was the Car-
dinal Francesco della Rovere, a learned Franciscan, a native of
Savona, a city subject to the Duke. At the same time the
Duke sent an envoy to Rome, with instructions that were too
secret to be written, and so much influence was brought to
bear on the Conclave that Della Rovere assumed the tiara
with the name of Sixtus IV. on August 9, 1479. During the
ceremony of taking possession of the Lateran, the populace,
revolted and attacked the litter of the new pope with stones.

Sixtus, who combined a common exterior with an un-
common egotism and a strong mind, was unscrupulous,
intolerant of contradiction, and imbued with unbounded
ambition for himself and his family. He was the son of a
poor Ligurian fisherman and was, at the time of his exaltation,
in his fifty-eighth year. He immediately provided his fifteen
nephews with honours and riches. Julian (afterwards Julius
II.), a sinister and dissolute man, generally considered insignifi-
cant, was made cardinal and Bishop of Carpentras. But the
Pope, having but little regard for him, advanced another
nephew, Pietro, to the titles and benefices of Cardinal of San
Sisto, Patriarch of Constantinople, Archbishop of Florence,
Seville and Mendcs and Bishop of Treviso. His premature
end has been chronicled in these pages.

46 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

The blind afifection of the Pope for this young man might
have been explained by the services he was known to have
rendered in the Conclave, but public rumour accounted for it
by other reasons of a scandalous nature. Both he and his
brother Girolamo, known to be the sons of the Pope, were the
reputed or adopted children of Bianca, the Pope's sister and
Paolo Riario, a middle-class citizen of Savona. Girolamo,
Catherine's husband, who was perhaps the worst member of
his clan, had been a clerk in the custom-house of Savona, until
Sixtus summoned him to Rome. His rugged and savage nature
recoiled from things ecclesiastic, yet he was keenly alive
to the advantages pertaining to cope and mitre. Although
violent and uncultured, his arrogant, impetuous temperament
appeared to Sixtus to be adapted for power. Not venturing
to begin by making a prince of him he made him Captain-
general of the papal forces and Governor of the fort of Sant
Angelo. Girolamo, as pivot of the Church's temporal power,
drew large revenues and availed himself of every opportunity
of acquiring riches, influence and power.

The avarice of Paul II. had scandalized Christendom ; he
had accumulated treasure without spending any part of it and
had been heard to declare, more than once, that his treasure
chests contained fabulous sums. Sixtus only acknowledged
to have found 5000 florins in the treasury, but his nephews,
who astounded Italy and the whole of Europe by a luxury
so sudden and unbridled, made it patent to all that their
uncle had permitted them to rifle the hoards of the Church.

This was the beginning of that deplorable epoch in the
annals of the papacy which included the whole of our heroine's
political career, in the course of which we meet with three
popes, all of them famous in the sinister light of the Church's
history. Although Catherine was the idol of one pope and
the victim of another, her robust piety never permitted her to
doubt the divineness of their mission, while she ascribed to
human frailty the manner in which they exercised it.

The papal bulls, and other documents which have been
handed down to us, prove that even the worst popes, judged
from their conduct as men and princes, were dogmatically

WHO WERE THE RIARIO ? 47

irreproachable with regard to their guardianship of the
Church's traditions. It is for this reason that ecclesiastical
corruption could not undermine the Christian conscience : the
evil times of Sixtus IV., Innocence VIII. and Alexander VI.
passed like a summer storm which every one knows to be
circumscribed within our terrestrial sphere, while overhead
remains the peace and the eternal light of heaven.

In the reign of Sixtus, there appeared with the secularization
of the papacy a new phenomenon, a new disease : Nepotism ;
the outcome of an alliance between celibacy and that family
instinct which prompted the popes to found a nepotistic
dynasty. The popes, being debarred from conquest or coloniz-
ation, could only establish a family State by plundering the
Church, and therefore elected to alienate from her possessions
the province of Romagna, which long misrule and ferment
had fitted more or less for new methods of government.

Sixtus IV. was the first of a line of popes in whom the
princely prevailed over the sacerdotal character. " This
pontiff," says Machiavelli, " was the first who revealed the full
extent of pontifical power, and how many things, which
hitherto have been regarded as errors, may be hidden under
its authority."' During the reign of Sixtus, the papacy fell
into great discredit. The number of pilgrims had dwindled
in the jubilee of 1475, and the few who came found the curia
given up to usury, simony and traffic in office. A garment of
paganism at once profaned and adorned the Holy City.

At the time of the election of Francesco Rovere, Italy
civilized, or at least vivified, by classical reminiscence, had
feared that she might be thrust back into the barbarism of
the past by the monkish austerity of this poor Franciscan :
a false alarm ! for the new Pope was too ambitious not to be
imbued with the spirit of his time. He built the bridge of
San Sisto, the churches of Santa Maria della Pace and Santa
Maria del Popolo ; the Hospital and Tower of Santo
Spirito ; the Sixtine Chapel ; restored the equestrian statue
of Marcus Aurelius, and for the decoration of the new edifices
summoned to Rome Mantegna, Perugino, Botticelli, Ghirlan-
daio, Melozzo of Forli, Filippo Lippi, Luca Signorelli and

48 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

Others, uniting them in the confraternity of St. Luke. He
founded the Hbrary of the Vatican, patronized letters and
furthered the triumph of humanism.

MM MliRARIAN PLATI.NUS IlEFORE SIXTUS IV.
The figure behind the kneeling Platinus, 7vith hands hidden, !s Girolamo Riario.

In 1495, King Ferdinand of Naples advised the Pope to
widen the streets and pull down the towers, loggias, balconies
and other projections likely to facilitate disturbances. "You

WHO WERE THE RIARIO ? 49

will never," he said, " be master of Rome while the women,
by throwing down stones, can put to flight your best soldiers ; "
and the Pope decided to follow this advice, if only to abolish
the cause of much pestilence. But Sixtus IV. did not attempt
this great undertaking until five years later, when he created
a magistracy of public works, with power to purchase and
pull down houses wherever it might be necessary to enlarge
the streets, some of which were too narrow for two horsemen
to ride abreast. When Catherine entered Rome, it was dark
and uninhabitable. During her sojourn, it became gradually
transformed into the splendid and artistic capital of Christen-
dom. The pontificate of Sixtus IV. was glorious in the annals
of art. With a change in politics came a change in the social
life of Rome : banquets, sumptuous hunts, and nightly revels
which, under the predecessors of Sixtus, would have been the
cause of scandal, became the habitual recreations of high
ecclesiastics and an acceptable spectacle to the populace.
Sixtus was wont to say that the hand, ink and paper of the
Pope sufficed to procure any given sum of money, and was
so forgetful of his sacerdotal character as to be called the first
pope-king.

For many years there had been no princess on the steps
of the papal throne, and the Riario were too unpolished, the
curia too corrupt to be influenced by the charm of a daring,
honest and beautiful woman. Catherine's influence was very
limited during the lifetime of Sixtus IV., whatever later
historians may say to the contrary. The harsh and
discourteous Pope cannot have inspired her with any
sympathy, nor could the descendant of famous condottieri
delight in Girolamo, her husband, who, cowardly as he was
violent, was always surrounded by ruffians, being too much
hated to trust himself in the streets of Rome alone. A certain
proud conception of her personal dignity saved her from
being corrupted, and the dreams of an ever-soaring ambition
enabled her to endure the moral filth which surrounded her.
Her ambition bound her to her husband : she would have
preferred him valorous and popular, yet found consolation for
his baseness in his power and the fear it inspired.

50 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

One of the most important factors in tlie life of Girolamo
Riario was the conspiracy of the Pazzi, which ended in the
tragedy of Santa Reparata. This conspiracy which was, in
a measure, an imitation and consequence of the one in which
Galeazzo Maria had perished, was headed by Sixtus IV. in
alHance with the King of Naples, at the instigation of
Girolamo Riario, and formed in opposition to the Lega. This
league included the powers of Milan, Venice and Florence,
where the Medici were no less hostile to the Pope's transform-
ation of the States of the Church into an absolute monarchy.
Girolamo Riario who had acquired the State of Imola
without the sanction of Lorenzo Medici could not feel secure
in its possession so long as the latter lived. The thread of
the conspiracy was spun in the Vatican, the plan of the
assassination being probably withheld from the Pope, who
would naturally refrain from inquiring into matters that
could not obtain sacerdotal sanction, while he was ready to
absolve his nephew of the consequences of the means he
might employ. In this conspiracy, which like the one against
Galeazzo ended in a church, Giuliano Medici was murdered
and Lorenzo wounded.

The youthful Cardinal Raphael Riario, nephew to Girolamo,
and the Pope's legate in Florence, was suspected of the murder.
Imprisoned in the palace, he was not set at liberty until
June 5. Andrea Bernardi, a contemporary, ascribes the
unnatural pallor which ever after distinguished this young
prelate as an effect of the fear of death by torture during
his imprisonment. The fact remains that the Pazzi were
the emissaries chosen by Girolamo Riario. The effects
of this conspiracy were the humiliation of its originators, the
exaltation of the family it aimed at exterminating, and a
two years' war between the Florentines and their allies, on
the one hand, and the Pope and the King of Naples, on the
other.

Undaunted by this result, and more than ever determined
to wrest Florence from the Medici, so that the Pope might
bestow it on himself, Girolamo resorted to a curious fiction.
By agreement with a priest of Imola, he sent the latter to

WHO WERE THE RIARIO ? 51

Florence, with instructions to affect great hatred of him
(Girolamo), and to offer to poison him on condition that
Lorenzo should provide the poison. Once in possession of
the poison, Girolamo would have produced it before the Pope
and the Consistory as a proof that Lorenzo sought his death.
For this service the priest had been promised the custody of
one of the gates of Imola. But the priest was taken and
put to torture on his arrival in Florence, so that Girolamo
was again baulked of his hopes.

Later, Riario planned with certain Florentine exiles, who
were enemies of the Medici, to remove Lorenzo by any
means in their powder. The day appointed for his assassina-
tion Avas May 30. It was postponed for repairs to some
armour. Meanwhile, on June i one of the accomplices was
taken, and having named the others all were hanged from
the windows of the Bargello.

It is scarcely credible that, in her sixteenth year, Catherine
can have had any part in these conspiracies. Perhaps an
echo of the terrors and bloody consequences of the great
design may have reached her after the birth of Bianca, her
eldest child, in 1478, when she was absorbed, not by political
cares, but by the first maternal ones.

In 1479, in the midst of the turmoil of the rumours of war,
and of the furious excommunication of the Florentines,
Sixtus feasted the birth of the eldest son of his favourite
nephew, to whom Catherine gave birth September i. He
w^as christened Octavian, and was held to the font by Rodrigo
Borgia, a Spanish cardinal. Yet a few years and this
cardinal w^ould occupy the chair of St. Peter and rob
Catherine of throne and State.

Meanwhile Duchess Bona, who ruled Lombardy for her
little son, Gian Galeazzo, had weakly reposed all her con-
fidence in a certain Antonio Tassino, a Ferrarese of humble
origin, but elegant and attractive appearance. To him the
Duchess referred all the deliberations of the council and
every act and word of Cicco Simonetta, the experienced
and trustworthy Secretary of State, who, conscious of having

52 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

saved the State for Bona, refused to bend the knee to the
new favourite. Tassino, in hatred of and opposition to
Simonetta, brought about a reconciliation between Ludovico
il Moro, the young Duke's ambitious uncle, and the Duchess.
This sudden and unauthorized return of Ludovic and his
gracious reception at the Castle of Milan surprised and offended
Cicco. Nor was he disarmed by the deference with which
Ludovic affected to treat so valued and trustworthy a servant
of the House of Sforza. No sooner was he alone with the
Duchess than he expressed his strong disapproval of what
had happened, concluding with : " Most illustrious Duchess,
I shall lose my head and you will lose your State."

Three days later Ludovic coerced the Duchess into granting
a decree for the incarceration of Cicco at Pavia. Two letters
of Catherine, dated September i8, one to Battista Calco
and the other to Duchess Bona, express the writer's satisfac-
tion in the occurrence. She assures her stepmother that :
" Next to the consolation of seeing her father resuscitated
she could have none greater than knowing all the fire
(discord) in Italy was ended by the imprisonment of that
villainous Cicco . . . the homicide of our House and of his
own flesh . . ." ^ " God be praised ! now she could venture
on visiting her mother at Milan."- A letter of Sixtus IV. of
the same date ^ not only expresses his approval but his regret
that his advice on this matter had not been acted on sooner.
Catherine, who had been informed by letters from Milan,
and by her Roman advisers, that Cicco was a traitor, was
too young to suspect the deception practised on her. She
could neither refuse to write as she was bidden by the Pope
nor divine the tragic end of the unfortunate minister, who
after torture that drove his wife (a Visconti) to despair and
madness, was decapitated at the Castle of Pavia on October
30, 1480.

The omnipotence of Tassino dates from the death of Cicco.

The Duchess's favour made him so arrogant that he often

kept Ludovic Sforza and other personages waiting in his

anteroom while his hair was dressed. But he overreached

1 Doc. 137. -' Doc. 138. " Doc. 139.

WHO WERE THE RIARIO ? 53

himself when he tried to give his father the command of
Porta Giovia, and was exiled from Lombardy, whence he
departed with a great quantity of money and pearls. Ludovic
took this opportunity of investing the Duke, who was then
twelve years old, with the government, requesting the Duchess
'■' to occupy herself henceforward with her devotions." " Bona
was so enraged," writes Corio, " that forgetful of her honour
and dignity, she determined also to cross the mountains ;
nor could she be dissuaded from this unwise plan, but regard-
less of her children's love, abandoned them to the guardianship
of Ludovic Sforza."

Ratti, after minute research, affirms the innocence of Bona's
relations with Tassino. Her whole life is a protest against
this calumny, invented to serve the designs of Ludovic, who
seized the unhappy Duchess on her way to take refuge in
Piedmont, and confined her for the rest of her life in the
fortress of Abbiategrosso, where some historians say she died
from poison administered by him in 1494. It would, how-
ever, appear from a letter in the archives of ]\Iantua that
Bona was alive in France about the year 1500. ^Meanwhile
the fortunes of the Riario grew day by day. The Pope's
chief care was to give them a State, and the papal army
fought only on their behalf.

The chronicles of Forli narrate how, on the death of Pino
degli Ordelaffi on February 11, 1480, the dominion of the
city, amid the clash of factions and rumours of intrigue,
amours, and poison, was lost by the Ordelaffi, who had reigned
over it for a hundred and fifcy years, and had been from the
earliest times the most valiant and heroic family of Romagna.
A quarrel between the two lines of the ancient house of
Ordelaffi was a pretext for Sixtus to seize their dominion in
the name of the Church, and give it to his favourite nephew.
Sinibaldo, the infant heir, was dead of poison ; the fortress
had surrendered to the representatives of the Pope, who,
delighted to have won the game so easily, invested Girolamo
Riario, his wife Catherine and their heirs, until the line should
be extinguished, with the possession of P^orli, from which
Antonio and Francesco Maria Ordelaffi were deposed, " for

54 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

having used violence, killed and wounded the soldiers of the
Church, and attacked the fortress with bombs and cannon."
In Count Girolamo, as vicar of the Church, were vested all
the civic rights of the city, subject to a yearly tribute of
looo florins.

The acquisition of h'orli, combined with that of Imola,
became of political importance. These two cities, sufficiently
fortified, might, under given circumstances, conduce to the
maintenance of the balance of power between the northern
and meridional powers of Italy. For there were only two
roads from the States of Milan and Venice to the States of
the Church and the kingdom of Naples, and one of these was
the Tuscan and the other that of the Romagna, which passed
through Imola and Forli. This position, despite its danger,
entailed the support of one of the greatest of the powers, so
that the first step of Girolamo Riario was to commission
Maestro Giorgio Fiorentino to strengthen the fortress of
Ravaldino, and add to it a citadel, where the whole Court
could take refuge in case of rebellion or invasion. The first
stone was laid June i, 148 1. Festivities followed one upon
the other, and on the day after the dispatch of the brief of
investiture the new Lady of Forli gave birth to a second son.

The citizens of Forli were happy and full of confidence.
Since it was written that the city must have a master, that it
should have fallen to the lot of the Pope's favourite nephew
seemed a guarantee of many advantages in the future. Four
orators left for Rome to tender thanks to the pontiff and
homage to the new lord, who annulled the odious tax on flour
and those hitherto levied on the division of property, dowries
and provisions. He summoned to Rome many citizens of
Forli, who each, according to their desires and capabilities,
were provided with lucrative office. He added that he wished
to visit his subjects, but how could he abandon His Holiness
in the midst of such terrible anxieties ?

The moment was one of great danger. The Pope was on
the worst of terms with the Duke of Milan and the King of
Naples, who had sent his son Alfonso to invade the States
of the Church. News had arrived of the occupation of

WHO WERE THE RIARIO ? 55

Otranto by 15,000 Turks, Where would these barbarous
heretics stop ? Italy was entirely open to their attacks.
There were those who advised the Pope to take refuge in
France, while others opined that the expedition against the
Turks should proceed from the Holy See, not only in defence
of its own States, but of the whole of Christendom. These
terrors hung over Italy until May 3, 148 1, when the Sultan
died, and, as if by enchantment, the Turkish fleet disappeared
from the shores of Italy. Then only did Girolamo and
Catherine obtain the papal sanction to visit their subjects in
Romasfna.

CHAPTER VI

CATHERINE IN THE ROMAGNA AND VENICE (JULY-
AUGUST 1881)

ROMAGNA had been for two centuries the most unhappy
of the many disturbed and unhappy provinces of Italy, In
the place of their old nominal suzerainty, the popes had
succeeded in establishing a real dominion which they had
sought to render ever more direct and immediate. This
policy, and the action and rebellion it evoked, had been
accompanied by intrigue, fraud, treason and bloody wars ;
the character of the Romagnole population, and especially of
the papal Court, had fallen into extreme discredit. The
perennial instability of the papacy in which, as in all elective
monarchies, everything was subject to change with the person
of the prince, increased the evil. The distance moreover
which separated the Romagna from Rome, to which it was
bound by political and traditional, but not by natural, ties,
necessitated a separation of the administrative government
from the sovereign rule ; each individual pope had made it
over for an annual tribute to one of the more influential
fam.ilies in each city, or had even sold it outright. The
Ghibelline and Guelph factions and personal and dynastic
ambitions brought about civil war, internal broils and fratri-
cide among these papal vicars who were, more or less, the
autonomous tyrants of every Romagnole city. The populace
was a minor factor, for civic liberty, at first suppressed by
individual tyrants and later by the centralizing action of
papal rule, had never obtained in Romagna.

After their flight to Avignon, the popes determined at any
cost to possess a State in Italy, their craving for temporal,

CATHERINE IX THE ROMAGNA AND VENICE 57

having increased with their loss of spiritual, power. They
spent untold treasure in the attempt to reconquer Romagna,
to the scandal of Christendom. More than once they flooded
this most rebellious of provinces with blood, and abandoned
it to the fire and sword of ferocious mercenaries, led by
avaricious and inhuman prelates. More often than any other
province, Romagna had been laid waste by bands of French,
Germans, Gascons and Bretons, whose excesses, instead of
subduing her, had aroused the spirit of military honour and
jealous love for the glory of Italian arms, which, combined
with cupidity and ambition, had given to Italy the first of her
great condottieri. The Romagna, at the time with which we
are concerned, was already the brawling province of forty
years later, that has been described by Guicciardini. Corrup-
tion and party violence were the rule in all her cities, and this
lamentable condition lasted till 1590, when the first century
of the new era had nearly come to an end.

The approaching solemn entry of Girolamo and Catherine
was announced at Forli and Imola. Such changes, not
unfrequent in those unhappy communities, always awakened
new hopes and were marked by great festivities. During
eight days, long lines of mules, whose burdens bound with
silken cords were covered with cloths on which the Serpent
of the Visconti, quartered with the rose of the Riario, were
broidered in gold and silver, and carts laden with chests and
trunks that contained costly household utensils, were seen to
enter the town. Then came the long file of members of the
household and servants and, at last, Catherine's little children.
The Count and Countess did not arrive until eight days later,
on July 15. Triumphal arches were erected and tapestries
hung in the streets, where the first to receive them were a
company of white-clad youths, bearing palm-branches. The
Riario descended from their litter, thanked them for the
peaceful augury, and continued on their way, the Count on
foot, the Countess riding a white palfrey whose trappings
were of cloth-of-silver embroidered with pearls. The young
nobles in white and gold received them under a stately

58 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

canopy, which they had carried for a mile from the town.
The clergy were headed by the Bishop Alexander Numai,
with whom, after an exchange of compliments, the Riario
proceeded to the Porta Cotogni, Here they were received
by the magistracy, whose chief presented the keys of the city
on a silver shield. The sounds of music, the ringing of bells,
the neighing of horses and clamorous cries of the people
made it impossible for any one of those present to hear a
word of the magniloquent discourse, but it was remarked that
the manner in which the Signori replied to the magistrate
left no room for doubt that they had appreciated every word
of it. They continued on their way, accompanied by Giordano
and Paolo Orsini, Girolamo Colonna, Gabriello Cesarini, and
many other Roman noblemen, and followed by all who had
already met them. The ever-increasing crowd was presently
parted by a triumphal car full of prettily-adorned children
representing the Graces, who declaimed verses, while a genius
saluted the new rulers. Riario, who had by this time mounted
a powerful bay charger covered entirely with cloth-of-gold, was
surrounded by twenty-four guards habited in green silk, with
stockings broidered with his "device" and bearing halberds
and Castilian blades. Women and maidens pressed close to
the horses, holding out their hands to Girolamo and Catherine,
who smilingly gave theirs in return. Then followed other
amenities, after which the pageant reached the piazza, where
an artificial " giraffe, ugly but very cleverly constructed,
performed many wonders," says an anonymous chronicler.
On arriving at Santa Croce, the Count was carried from his
horse by men dressed in white and deposited on the high
altar. Priests intoned the Te Deiiin. On approaching the
palace, he passed under an arch where three women, who
represented Justice, Moderation and Power, raised their voices
in song. At the entrance to the palace, Girolamo, turning to
the men who were waiting to lift him from his saddle, said :
"To your arms I commend myself, save my horse for me
and I will do my duty." It was the custom for the populace
to take possession of the prince's horse, for whose recover}- he
paid a ransom.

CATHERINE IN THE ROMAGXA AND VENICE 59

When Catherine was preparing to dismount, she was
suddenly seized by some young men who carried her up the
palace staircase. Others fought and even wounded each
other in the piazza for the possession of her horse, whose gold
harness was broken and divided in a thousand pieces.
Catherine ransomed her palfrey by giving in exchange her
cloak of cloth-of-silver.

Meanwhile the nobles and their ladies awaited the Count
and Countess in the palace, where, after an exchange of
courtesies, they took their places on a sort of throne under a
canopy and listened to an eulogy delivered in their honour by
Dr. Guido Pepi, a scholar learned in the vulgar tongue, in
Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The reply of Riario was prompt
and happy. Impatient to prove his good-will, he confirmed
the exemptions he had granted from Rome, to which he
added other immunities, assuring them that in future he would
do still more for the public weal.

After the speeches, refreshments were served, and a pro-
digious quantity of sweetmeats and pastry thrown out of the
windows to the populace. At the ball on the same evening,
Catherine — then in her twentieth year, wearing her most
precious jewels and a turban whence depended a long veil
wrought with the device Diversoruui openuii, and a rising sun
piercing the clouds in silver and pearls — was more beautiful
than ever. Leoni Cobelli, painter, musician, dancing-master
and chronicler, was among the musicians ; words fail him to
describe her grace and the beauty of the whole scene. After
the ball, envoys from the various castles of the little State
made their obeisance to Girolamo, presenting him with " fowls,
calves, wax, sweets, forage, and other household necessaries." ^
On the following day, the moneys coined for this occasion
were thrown to the people from the balcony of the palace.
There was a tournament in which the Orsini, Colonna,
Tolcntino and other gentlemen took part, and a wooden
castle which had been erected at the Crocctta was taken by
assault. This castle, which was an allusion to the burning
topic of the day, represented Otranto besieged by the Turks

' Maixliesi.

CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

in the preceding year. It was painted in red and white, the
ancient colours of the town. The tower wa.s adorned by a
prodigious rose encircled by a serpent with the motto :
Servabit odorcm.

The Riario immediately began to adorn the interior of the
palace. The chronicles describe great cupboards, ten feet
high, filled with precious plate and china, that were placed in
the great hall. The citizens, courteously admitted to view

COINS STRLXK 1;Y THE RI.VRIO.

this unusual magnificence, estimated its value at not less
than 1 00,000 ducats. Catherine often appeared in public,
her garments and those of her maids of honour were
more splendid every day; she displayed daily a new dress
during her stay in Forli. By these and other apparently
futile means, the Riario succeeded in convincing the people
of Forli that the wealth of the new rulers was boundless ; and

CATHERINE IN THE ROMAGNA AND VENICE 6i

that there was no fear of their demanding money — on the
contrary, they had come to enrich them.

Despite the warmth of his reception, Girolamo, who felt

rAi.Aci; ];i-ii 1 i;\- iiri. uiaiu' i-^i ' ik/a, I4.>4.

that the people hated him, shut himself up in his own house.
This reserve was looked upon with suspicion. " Since his

62 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

arrival, he has hardly ever left his room, so that the men of
Forli are beginning to murmur," wrote the Milanese orator.

On August 12, the Riario, with an escort chosen from the
inhabitants of Forli, rode to Imola, which had then been in
their possession for several years. The Sassatelli and Vaini
rode to meet them with so many friends and retainers that
they might have been taken for a well-ordered army. The
nobles awaited them at the river Santerno and accompanied
them under a canopy to the gates, where they were received
by the clergy and the magistracy, who presented the keys of
the city. Imola had been greatly rebuilt and adorned by
Riario, who had spent large sums in pulling down old hovels
built of mortar and replacing them by better buildings, in
paving the muddy streets, mending the walls, adding towers
and bastions to the gates, and completing the fortress which
had been built by Catherine's father. In the opinion of
Philip of Bergamo, Riario's munificence had converted *' the
dregs of Romagna into one of its most beautiful cities."

Yet Girolamo was not loved in any part of his dominions,
and it was commonly said that he might be obliged to cede
Forli to the Venetians. He employed a hundred workmen,
with master-builders and carpenters, in the erection of his
new palace at Imola, yet the Milanese envoy found the whole
country ready to turn against him.

There is ample proof that Girolamo, who was hated as a
prince throughout Romagna, was harsh in his relations to his
wife, and that Catherine was afraid of him. " Madama sent
her chancellor to me," wrote the Milanese envoy (Appiani)
from Forli in July i48i,"to inform me that Her Ladyship
had tried to obtain permission to go to Milan, but that My
Lord the Count, her Consort, had refused it, not without
some anger. Therefore if, as she suspected, I had come with
the purpose of obtaining this permission for Her Ladyship,
she begged me not to ask it ; for this would make a breach
between herself and her Lord, who would believe that she
had been the cause of my coming." .... To the urgent appeal
of Appiani, the Count had opposed excellent reasons for
refusing the invitation. " Then I suggested that he should

CATHERINE IN THE ROMAGNA AND VENICE 63

send his Illustrious Consort, with her august children. He
replied that he could not live without her .... The aforesaid
Madama Contessa has two children and is five months
pregnant. She is beautiful, splendid in her apparel, and
well-adorned with jewels." He adds, in conclusion, that he
had given a gold ducat "to two drummers in the apartment
of the Countess, who play while Her Ladyship is at table."
About this time Catherine wrote to the Duchess of Ferrara
for some greyhounds, "good runners for hunting the fleet
mountain goats in the Roman Campagna, a couple of good
setters and a couple of falcons."

On September 2 Girolamo and Catherine left for Venice.
The official pretext for the journey was to bring about an
alliance between the Signoria and the Pope against the
infidels. The Turks still held Otranto, and all over Italy
fear prevailed that they might suddenly invade the peninsula.
This danger had always been a favourite pretext of the popes
for levying soldiers, hiring mercenaries, demanding money
and imploring the help of the Powers.

There was no Italian capital where this was believed to be
the true, or at least the only reason for the journey. The
Turk's name was ever on the Pope's lips, but in his heart was
the aggrandizement of the Riario. And besides all the rest,
Riario was really sent to Venice to perorate /;'<? domo sua.

In the war between the Pope and the Florentines, con-
sequent on the conspiracy of the Pazzi, Duke Hercules of
Ferrara, although a vassal of the Church, had been one of the
condotticri of the Florentine army. He was excommunicated
and declared to be deposed. But the rebel had laughed at
his deposal and his excommunication, and vowed that by
virtue of his sword he would continue to be Duke of
Ferrara.

The Venetians were violently opposed to him, especially
since his marriage with Eieonora, daughter of King Ferdinand
of Naples, their chief enemy, who might avail himself of his
son-in-law's fortresses to carry the war into the heart of their
possessions on the mainland. Venice, having established her

64 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

confines as far as the duchy of Milan, would fain have
extended her territory as far as the Florentine State. To do
this, it was needful to find a pretext for invading the duchy of
Ferrara.

The Pope, who hoped to dispose of the House of Este as he
had done with the Ordelaffi, seized this opportunity of allying
himself with the \'enetians against the Duke of Ferrara and
invading the States of this excommunicated rebel ; and as
these States were in part tributaries of the Church and partly
of the Empire, it had been agreed between the Pope and the
Venetians that Venice should take the imperial cities, Modena
and Reggio, while Ferrara should return to the Church, to be
given by the Pope to Girolamo Riario.

It was to confirm this agreement and revive the zeal and
friendship of his new allies that the Pope had sent Girolamo
and Catherine to Venice. Besides Dr. Ludovico Orsi, who
accompanied them in the capacity of assessor, and others,
the Riario chose a certain Matteo Menghi, Archdeacon of
Forli, who, unknown to them, was a spy of Lorenzo Medici.
All along the road, from Ravenna to Chioggia, they were
met by Venetian noblemen, and received by forty of the
leading citizens on their arrival at Malamccco. At the island
of San Clemente, the Doge, Giovanni Mocenigo, accompanied
by " 115 noble ladies, for attendance on Madonna Contessa,"
came to meet them on the Bucentaur. Among them shone
the youthful daughter-in-law of the Doge "habited all in
gold." ^ " They entered the city amid the joyous acclamations
of the people, and the Doge, with all his following of
gentlemen and ladies, accompanied the Riario to their house.
When, on the following morning, the Count visited the Doge,
the latter met him at the foot of the palace stair." Another
day " he took him to visit the arsenal." " They have made
him," writes Menghi to Lorenzo Medici, " a patrician of
Venice, and, to show him how their Council was organized,
they summoned the Supreme Council in his presence. Certain
electors having to be chosen from among them by lot, the
Count, to do him greater honour, was chosen by acclamation,

^ Sanuto, Crotmca I'eiicta.

CATHERINE IN THE ROMAGNA AND VENICE 65

and when he had designated Messer Bernardo Bembo as
Fodesta of Ravenna (which had to be confirmed by the
Council) it was immediately agreed upon. In fact, if he had
been the Emperor, I do not think they could have done him
greater honour."

Some of the Venetian festivities on this occasion are
described by Giacomo da Volterra, who says that on Sunday,
September 9, in the great hall of the Doge's palace, one
hundred and thirty-two noble maidens, radiant in gold, gems,
and pearls, presented a spectacle as magnificent as it was
delightful. The crowd of nobles and citizens was so great
that Giacomo avers he had never seen so great a concourse,
except in Rome at the time of the jubilee.

The Doge, wearing his mantle of cloth-of-gold, took his
seat between Girolamo and Catherine, then the others accord-
ing to their rank. The dances were rather confused, because
of the great multitude. At sunset a banquet was served to
the princes, the magistracy, and the people ; " wax candles
made the night lighter than day . . . and the dress of the
women represented a value of 300,000 gold coins {vionete
doro)r

But the political triumph of the Riario was far from
complete. Girolamo could not but recall the experience of
his brother, the splendid cardinal, who had been overwhelmed
with honours, but to whom a deaf ear had been turned, or
worse. The Venetians flattered, fascinated, and dazzled their
guests with feasting and homage, without yielding an inch
to them, and sent them away deluded in the principal object
of their coming. Menghi, the Archdeacon of Forli, ends his
letter to Lorenzo Medici with the assurance that after all he
need not feel aggrieved by the honours of which Girolamo
had been the recipient : " inasmuch, when all is said and
done, this his journey has not produced aught that can be
displeasing to Your Magnificence and to our other friends.
Therefore I do not regret it, for it has given His Lordship
theopportunity of seeing more things displeasing than pleasing
to him." According to Burriel, the Venetian Signori, con-
sidering that the Pope was held to be the weakest prince in

66 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

Italy ; that his States lay in the midst and were open to the
attacks of so many others, and that the re-acquisition of
Ferrara would be his ruin and that of his allies, informed
Girolamo that their republic would neither sanction nor
co-operate in it.

At last the Riario, having tendered the Si^iiori their
thanks for the reception that had been accorded to them,
left Venice discontented and disillusioned, and travelling
again by the Comacchio road, to avoid ^Ferrara, arrived at
Ravenna on September 22. Immediately after their depart-
ure, news reached Venice that the Duke of Calabria had
taken Otranto, and the Pope, unwilling to continue the war
against the Turks, although the civil wars among them
rendered the moment opportune, had recalled his vessels.
He preferred to keep his influence for the internal affairs of
Italy ; he wanted to give the whole of Romagna to Girolamo.
War was declared against the Duke of Ferrara in the follow-
ing year, but the Pope deserted and excommunicated the
Venetians, the alliance w^as broken and the Riario never
obtained possession of Ferrara.

From Ravenna, the Riario, wnth part of their escort, went
to Imola, where fresh trouble was brewing during their
absence. Two conspiracies had been suppressed between
the time of their investiture in the preceding year and their
recent state entry, and had ended in the execution of some
of the culprits, and the hanging of their bodies from the
palace windows. The Riario had believed these dangers to
have been surmounted, and were ingenuously awaiting the
expression of their subjects' gratitude for the exemptions
granted to them, when they w^ere informed of the existence
of a conspiracy among the lower orders to reinstate the
Ordelaffi, and to put the Count and Countess to death on
their arrival at Forli. " What think you of our subjects at
Forli .'' " queried Girolamo of the governor of that city. Count
Gian Francesco Mauruzzi, surnamed Tolentino, whom he
had summoned in haste to Imola. " Is this my reward for
the immunities I have given them ? But for the love of God,.

CATHERINE IN THE ROMAGNA AND VENICE 67

hold thy peace, and tell no one of this thing until after my
departure." ^

Hemmed in by men-at-arms, Girolamo and Catherine rode
into Forli, and, on the following day, attended mass at St.
Mercurial, surrounded by three hundred armed retainers.
There was no feasting nor public rejoicing on this occasion.
The Signori were rarely seen, and never unless protected by
their men-at-arms. On the 14th they left for Rome, impatient
to escape from danger, and to leave the governor free to
deal with the culprits.

Girolamo took with him some Imolese and many more
citizens of Forli, ostensibly to provide them with office in
Rome, but in reality as hostages. Catherine went to Imola,
where, before joining her husband, she deposited her children
and all her valuables. They were met within two miles of
Rome by the Milanese orators, who wrote their duke that
" His Lordship's Illustrious Consort had journeyed in two
baskets, on a mule, because of her advanced pregnancy.''
At Forli no punishment was inflicted until ten days after
the departure of the Riario ; on November 15 five bodies
were seen to hang from the palace, while some persons were
fined or exiled. But soon the Count ordered their return,
and assigned the sums accumulated by the fines to the
completion of the Dome. Girolamo had risen to power by
the help of the nobles, but the Ordelaffi were deeply rooted
in the heart and traditions of the people, who were easily
induced to conspire on their behalf. And because the
Ordelaffi sought to undermine the power of the Riario where
it was weakest, the conspiracies of Forli were always hatched
among the populace and peasantry.

It was remarked that Catherine, who showed neither fear
nor resentment at what had occurred, did not open her lips
on the subject. It was surmised that this reserve, unusual
in a character untempered by age and experience, was im-
posed upon her by her husband, who looked upon silence and
dissimulation as his only safeguards. But Catherine could
find no peace, knowing as she did the part taken by Lorenzo

1 Cobelli.

68 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

Medici in this conspiracy and her husband's part in the cause
of his enmity. Nor was she reassured by a letter written by
Lorenzo in reply to Girolamo's inquiry, in which the former
deprecated recent occurrences without absolutely denying his
share in them. Both the Riario had trembled on receiving
this letter, but Girolamo, preoccupied with the condition of
Rome and the affairs of Italy in general, soon forgot it.
Catherine, by reason of that political acumen and strength
of purpose with which she was endowed even at the age of
nineteen, realized the necessity of initiating a personal policy
by which, without ceasing to aid and defend her husband with
all her power, she might win for herself and her children the
indispensable friendship of Lorenzo. In the event of Girolamo's
perishing in the struggle with the untiring vengeance of the
astute Florentine, the latter would be bound by the ties of
the old friendship which had subsisted between himself and
her father, Galeazzo, and her uncle Ludovic ; and so com-
pelled to defend and protect the rights of the daughter and
niece of his allies, and withheld from wresting the States of
Imola and Forli from the children of Girolamo Riario.

CHAPTER VII

CATHERINE, THE RIARIO, ORSINI AND COLONNA

On their return to Rome the Riario found the Pontiff aged
and irritated. The King of Naples had demanded right of
way through the papal States, for the troops he was sending
to the Duke of Ferrara to fight the Venetians, The Pope
refusing, the King sent the Duke of Calabria to attack the
States of the Church. On June 6 Girolamo advanced with
the standard of the Church on Grottaferrata, where the Duke
was, and halted at San Giovanni in Laterano.

Here he passed the day casting dice on the altars with
Virginio Orsini and his captains, or astride on the shrines
that held the sacred relics. The faithful turned and fled
with horror from the threshold of the Basilica. Such was the
respect in which the Pope's nephew, the Defender of the
Church, held holy things and places ! He gambled away
the money confided to him by the Pope and the Venetian
Republic, until he had none left wherewith to pay his men,
who plundered the houses and stole the grain in the Cam-
pagna while the peasants appealed to the Pope, who promised
to indemnify them. Meanwhile they ground their corn in the
city. But in this they were thwarted by Count Girolamo,
who ordered his soldiers to seize and sell it, and retain the
proceeds in lieu of pay.

The Pope lost confidence in his nephew, and asked the
Venetian Republic to contribute a contingent under Robert
Malatesta of Rimini, son of the famous Sigismund, who was
in their service. The Venetian senate sent him at once, and
Malatesta, with a company of foot, immediately attacked the
Duke, on which the latter retreated. While in the Latcran

70 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

Girolamo spent his time in drinking-, swearing, and losing the
money of the faithful, and while his soldiers were maltreating
and contaminating the population of Rione Monti, a young
and beautiful woman, followed by the loving reverence and
the blessings of the people, haunted the churches and sanctu-
aries of Rome. In the garb of a penitent, she knelt for hours
at the tombs of the apostles and gave alms to the poor,
while her pallor and emaciation told of nights spent in prison,
of fasting, and of penance. This woman was Catherine
Sforza, wife of the Captain-general, who awaited the issue of
the impending battle with a harrowing anxiety. It transpires
from several documents that Catherine knew her husband to
be wanting in courage. She trembled lest he should be held
up to the contempt and derision of the camp. The instinct
which causes every woman to despise a coward and glory in
a hero was strongest in Catherine Sforza, and by means of
ministrations to the poor and afflicted, nightly vigils and the
torments of corporeal penance, Catherine strove to become
the creditor of heaven, demanding as her reward the triumph
of Girolamo Riario.

On August 21, the Duke of Calabria was at last forced into
an encounter in a desolate spot which to this day is known
as Campo Morto, where he sustained a crushing defeat.
Providence would appear to have taken pity on Catherine,
for although her husband did not appear on the field, he
succeeded in monopolizing the honours of victory, the news
of which was dispatched to the Pope by a mounted courier.
That same night Catherine, in the ecstasy of her joy, wrote
as follows to the Signory of Sienna —

" Magnifici Viri tanqiiam patres Jionorandi. At this sixth
hour of the night, the Illustrious Lord my consort informs
His Holiness by one of his equerries that at the sixteenth
hour he gave battle to the Duke of Calabria. The battle
lasted until the twenty-third hour, when, to our utmost
honour and glory, the enemy was annihilated. I write only
this to Your Magnificences because I have no other news.
I felt it incumbent on me to eive Your Magnificences this

CATHERINE, THE RIARIO, ORSINI AND COLONNA 71

information for your consolation and as a proof of niy
good-will.

"Rome die XXL Augusti MCCCCLXXXIJ, at the sixth
hour of the night. E.M.V.
"Catherina Vicecomes de Riario Forlivij ac Imole, etc."^

But the real hero of the day was Malatesta, who at the
head of his infantry had led the assault on the enemy's
trenches and had put them to flight, while Girolamo had
been seen to retire to the tents in the rear. By thus exposing
his colleague's life he had hoped to revenge himself on him

C .v**<^ ^^>*yi-«/p- P wvo /li^ ^A3y4^a -m^v^w^ ;. /Ur«M^*r*»-

,sr

*u^

"*^'^-'*^'^ -"^^ ^^' ^ jr) -^ La <^/tnr M.9- if f^-^/ij L^-i^^^

'U L. l^ ^U^nn- ^y^^'^f' i^jSelU- f^^y-r,^ JU^ c^y{l '^-^^
AUTOGRAni LETTER OF CATHERINE SFORZA TO THE KIGNORY OF SIENNA.

for having favoured a conspiracy to reinstate the Ordelaffi
in 1480 ; he had never ventured to attack Malatesta openly,
but in the event of his death had determined to seize Meldola
and the whole State of Rimini.

The Pope had won a great victory, but his nephew had
been defeated. Malatesta had returned unharmed from the
battle and his hopes were at an end. Moreover, the truth
leaked out, and the Pope commanded that Malatesta should
make a triumphal entry into Rome, with a cardinal to hold
his horse's bridle. Then on the 29th Malatesta suddenly fell

' Archives of Siena, Atti cLi Coihisloro.

72 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

ill of dysentery and expired on September lo, in the house of
his kinsman, Cardinal Nardini. Thither hastened Sixtus IV.
to administer the Sacrament, but to his apparent profound
grief he found him already dead, according to popular rumour
of poison, at the instigation of Girolamo Riario, and to official
report, of fever contracted in the pestilential plains of Campo
Morto. After ordering solemn obsequies for the dead hero
and a monument in St. Peter's, the Pope dispatched Girolamo
Riario to Rimini to seize the heritage of the infant heir of
Malatesta, in which he was thwarted by the Florentines, who
protected the widow and child of Malatesta.

In Rome Girolamo Riario and his nephew the Cardinal
could do anything with impunity; "the Pope has given up
the government, both temporal and spiritual, and moneys
and everything else to the Count and San Giorgio (Cardinal
Raphael), and there are not wanting judges who give sentences
according to their pleasure," wrote Lanti, the Siennese Orator
to the Signory. Girolamo, who was now feared as much as
he was hated, invaded, in conjunction with the Orsini, the
possessions of the Colonna, and cast the Cardinals Colonna
and Savelli, whose wealth he appropriated, into prison in
chains.

One of the most piteous episodes of Girolamo's reign of
terror is the capture, torture, and execution of the Protonotary,
Lorenzo Colonna. The Pope's mercenaries sacked all the
churches in the neighbourhood of the Quirinal, and the whole
quarter in which stood the houses of the Colonna. The
council of the people sent deputies to make peace between
Sixtus and the Colonna, but Count Girolamo, tyrant of the
Pope and people, would not consent to it. Dismayed by
the excesses of which they knew Girolamo to be capable,
the Colonnesi promised the Pope Marino, Rocca di Papa
and Ardea, leaving to his mercy the life of the unhappy
Protonotary.

But Girolamo put to death the ambassador who carried
this message, and replied that he would not be content with
a few of the Colonna castles, he would have them all, and he

CATHERINE, THE RIARIO, ORSIXI AND COLONNA Ti

would take them by force, with cannon and bombs. He
insisted on the execution of Lorenzo Colonna, whose trial
was relegated by the Pope to a special tribunal. On June 30,
1484, at daybreak, Lorenzo, who had surrendered to Virginio
Orsini, was dragged into a courtyard of the Castle of Sant
Angelo, He heard his sentence with calmness and resigna-
tion, and retracting the confessions that had been torn from
him by torture, protested his innocence. After a reverent
and resigned salutation of the Pontiff who had condemned
him to death, he placed his head on the block, calling three
times on the name of Jesus. " At the third time his head
was severed from his shoulders." ^

His body was deposited in Santa Maria Transpontina,
whence none of his friends and partisans ventured to remove
it, until some priests and monks, sent by the mother of the
murdered man, carried it to the church of the Santi Apostoli.
The unhappy lady caused the coffin to be opened, and gazing
upon the body, crushed by torture to a single wound, held
the severed head by the hair so that the people might see it,
crying — "This is the head of my son! This the faith of
Pope Sixtus, who promised that if we gave up Marino to
him, he would have given me back my son ! " A week later
the unhappy mother died of grief

The blind obstinacy with which Sixtus insisted on the
annihilation of the Colonna had no other motive than to
enrich his nephew Girolamo with that of which they were
despoiled. " No one has moved in the matter," wrote Lanti
to the Signori of Sienna on June 30. " The populace boils
over a little at first, and then is silent. ... I know not what
will happen next. Marino is in the power of the Pope. The
plague is ravaging Rome."

At the Court of Rome, the luxury, which surpassed even
that of Milan, so deadened and cloaked everything else that
it would have sapped the moral energy of Catherine had this
not been sustained by her ambition. In the aspiration, the
determination to rise to higher power, Catherine, imbued with
^ Infessura, R.I.S.I*. , c. 1173-75.

74 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

the idea common to the politicians of her time — which was
that a strong will combined with astuteness might vanquish
any obstacle in the attainment of a given end — was at one
with her husband. Yet she did not abandon herself to the
current of folly and crime which subsequently led to the ruin
of both Sixtus and Girolamo. Despite the cares of her
household, her children, the Court and State, she appears to
have found time for much reading, chiefly of historical and
devotional books, and without affecting the erudition which
had become the fashion among the ladies of her time, to have
delighted in the society of the cultured and learned. It may
be read between the lines of contemporary history how a
feeling of disgust and loathing stirred her strong soul against
her husband's baseness, and that sometimes she reproached
him for the vileness of his acts : to which Girolamo retorted
by such brutal and personal violence that Catherine confided
later to a Milanese envoy she " had often envied those who
died," because of the treatment she endured at her husband's
hands. Either frightened by the corruption of the papal
Court, or to show that she had no share in her husband's
atrocities, or to escape from his violence, she seized the
opportunity of his absence on July 7, 1484, and, accompanied
by a strong escort, fled to Frascati.

It cannot have been long before these clouds were dis-
persed, for soon Catherine was back in Rome under her
husband's roof ^ at the Lungara, where, without participating
in his crimes, she again co-operated in his ambitious schemes.

^ Now Palazzo Corsini.

CHAPTER VIII

CATHERINE IN THE CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO

Meanwhile the affairs of Italy assumed a new aspect.
The Pope, in his terror of the Venetians, under pretext of
preventing them from acquiring Ferrara, declared a " Most
Holy" league with the other Italian powers on January 6,
1483, and on May 25 excommunicated the Venetian senate.
This act reversed the state of the various parties. The King
of Naples was now the Pope's ally, the Duke of Calabria came
to Rome to kiss his foot and showed great friendliness to
Girolamo Riario, his late conqueror. Towards the end of
February, a congress was held at Cremona to decide the plan
of war and nominate the captains-general. Among these was
Girolamo Riario.

On June 16 Catherine arrived with Count Girolamo at
Forli, from Rome. The Count went to Imola to assume the
command of the troops encamped in that district, and having
placed the fortress on a war footing, went on to Bertinoro for
the same purpose, returning to Forli in August, where he was
present with his wife during the great earthquake of Santa
Chiara. Houses were destroyed and bells tolled lugubriously
for a month. Catherine and Girolamo inhabited a tent
pitched within the precincts of the fortress. The cloister of
St. Francis, which was being built at their expense, being
partly destroyed, they restored and enlarged it. Catherine
gave the example of public prayer and penance and, to
appease the Divine wrath, the Riario made a vow to visit the
shrine of St. Clara every year, with the chapter of the dome
and the magistracy, on the name-day of that saint, to pray

76 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

for her intercession with the Almighty, so that a like calamity
might henceforward be averted from the city.

Meanwhile Sixtus wrote to his nephew and niece, informing
them that he did not feel safe in Rome in the confusion caused
by the war between the Orsini and Colonna, and that he
needed soldiers, money and friends. He needed the support
of their presence. They therefore returned to Rome at the
end of August, a weightier reason having conduced to hasten
their departure. Letters from the Ordelaffi to certain monks
had been intercepted, revealing a widespread conspiracy to
assassinate Girolamo and Catherine, who, alarmed by the
discovery of so much treachery, and convinced of the necessity
of secrecy, were glad to escape the risk of becoming the
victims of the plot or of being hated for retaliating on their
assailants. They therefore left for Rome, after enjoining on
the governor not to shed more blood than was necessary.
Yet when the trial was ended, the bodies of two women (one
of whom was a nurse of the Ordelaffi), a man, and all the
monks were seen hanging from the windows of the palace
throughout November 2, 1483. The year 1484 began with
a repulsive spectacle for the people of Forli. The body of
one Landi, a man of low condition, whose crime had never
been divulged, was exhibited hanging from one of the palace
windows. It was rumoured that despite recent warnings, he
too had been found guilty of conspiring with the Ordelaffi.

In the course of the year, the Pope's chronic gout became
acute. He was embittered by the failure of his policy ; for
Ludovic Sforza had left the league and gone over to the
Venetians, whose alliance he needed in his designs on the
throne of Milan. The Pope felt his loss of prestige and that
he was no longer master of Rome : many more soldiers and
much more money were needful for his security, and more
than once he had thought of leaving it. In the midst of these
terrible anxieties he learned that despite earlier successes, a
disadvantageous peace had been concluded at Bagnolo. This
fell as a thunderbolt on the Pope, whose gout flew to the
chest. On the evening of August 12 he received the envoys,
who read to him the conditions of the treaty. " This," he

CATHERINE IN THE CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO -n

exclaimed, " is an ignominious peace! My sons, I can neither
give it sanction nor blessing." The envoys, perceiving that
the agitated old man was losing strength, and that his speech
was becoming inarticulate, replied that they hoped to find His
Holiness calmer on a future occasion, meanwhile they prayed
him to give his blessing to a peace that could not be revoked.
Then the Pope, withdrawing a gouty hand from its enveloping
bandage, raised it in a gesture that was interpreted by some
as a contemptuous refusal, by others as a blessing on the
envoys and the peace. He never spoke again, and expired
in the night.

"On the following morning," wrote Infessura, "the body of
Pope Sixtus, wrapped in a ragged chasuble, was carried with
only twenty torches and but a small following to St. Peter's.
His corpse was black and disfigured . . . nor was there
any one who blessed his memory, save only a certain monk of
St. Francis, who watched alone by the body and endured its
fearful exhalations."

Like many another, who, abandoned and deceived by the
world in his declining years, concentrates his affection on a
few, Pope Sixtus, disillusioned and tired with every one,
centred in the Riario his whole life and ambition. It was
natural that he should take pleasure in the society of
Catherine, who day by day developed fresh beauties of mind
and person. So marked an admiration for the fair Milanese
seemed unbecoming to the age and dignity of the old Francis-
can pope, and was the cause of wonder, and perhaps some
scandal. But the Pope, to whom this was indifferent, put less
restraint as time wore on in the cordiality of his relations to
his niece, or rather his daughter-in-law. A picture by a
young Roman painter represented the siege of Cavi by the
papal forces, with Count Girolamo, as chief of the expedition,
in the foreground. The Pope, who wished to see this faithful
presentment of the siege, discovered therein the figures of a
Franciscan and a woman. In the Franciscan he recognized
himself, in the woman he divined an allusion to Catherine.
Both the allusion and the satire were terrible. The artist was
thrown into prison, beaten and tortured, and his house sacked.

CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

He was condemned to be hanged, and only escaped with his
life on being declared insane. Twenty days later the Pope
was no more.

This incident proves that Catherine's reputation was un-
justly contaminated by her relations with the Pope, although
they were imposed upon her by duty and necessity. None

castle of st. angelo in the itfteenth century, ai'ter the picture

i;y carpaccio.

could be reputed innocent who stood near to the shameless
old man.

News of the Pope's death reached the Captain-general at
Paliano, where he was encamped with the Orsini, and Cather-
ine, who with her three children shared with her husband
the rigours of camp life. Girolamo was at the same time

CATHERINE IX THE CASTLE OF ST. AXGELO

ordered by the Sacred College to return to Rome with the
troops and to station himself on the other side of Ponte Molle.
Each chose the most congenial part ; Girolamo obeyed the
mandate of the Sacred College, and, accompanied by Virginio
Orsini, brought his troops to Ponte Molle on the evening of
the 14th, while Catherine, accompanied by Paolo Orsini,
resolutely pursued her way and entered the Fort of St.

,-.';-~ ■-T-rV-'*.

CAsll.K UV ST. .A.NGEI.0 BKFORE THE DEMOLITIONS OK 1S92.

Angelo. The Romans, who had never been permitted by
Catherine to forget that she was a Sforza, revered in her the
personification of the power and influence of the duchy of
Milan. They crowded the narrow streets in expectation of
the coming conclave, crying, "■ Diica ! Duca I Viva il Duca ! " on
her passage. On her arrival at the castle, some doubted her
right to enter, others were of opinion that they must await

8o CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

the orders of the Sacred College, but everything yielded to
the imperious presence of Catherine, who, entering as the
barred gates were opened, declared that she would hold the
fortress for Count Girolamo, and ordered the entrance of the
staircase which connected it with the Vatican to be strongly
barricaded. The garrison trembled at a sign from her ! Soon
the cardinals, knowing her within, must tremble.

Innocenzo Cordrochi of Imola was vice-governor of the
fortress. Catherine suspected him and sent him away, with
other Imolese. Cardinal Riario sent an envoy to inform the
Countess that he wished to see her, but Catherine, who had at
that moment little confidence in cardinals, even when they
were near relations, replied that he could not enter the Castle
of St. Angelo at his pleasure, but that if he came with an
escort, she would receive him in the presence of a witness.
She was told that the envoy raged and stormed. " Ah ! " she
exclaimed, " this man would match his wnts with mine !
Does he not know that I have the brain of Duke Galeazzo,
and am as headstrong as he .-' "

These are the first indications of that militant and wilful
humour, that, displayed in supreme moments, was later to
make Catherine so famous throughout Italy. And it is in the
Castle of St. Angelo that she first appears to us as she is
described by Cerretani : " Wise, brave, great, with a full,
beautiful face ; speaking little. She wore a tan satin gown
with two ells of train, a large black velvet hat in the French
mode, a man's belt whence hung a bag of gold ducats and a
curved sword ; and among the soldiers, both horse and foot,
she was much feared, for that armed lady was fierce and
cruel."

Meanwhile, Rome was a prey to extreme disorder. The
anarchy that always followed upon the death of a pope was a
festival for the populace, for murderers, thieves, and assassins
of every degree, while quiet, decent people bent before the
storm, and those in high places either sallied forth to attack
their rivals or entrenched themselves within their towers to
resist them. Rome rang with the cries of victims, uncounted
and uncared for. But the worst was reserved for the favour-

CATHERINE IX THE CASTLE OF ST. AXGELO 8i

ites and nephews of the late Pope, so that popular fury first
vented itself on the house of the Riario on the Lungara^ close
to what is still known as the Vicolo de Riario, This palace or
villa had been furnished by Catherine with great magnificence,
according to the fashion of her time, in which the most
important article of furniture was a a-edenza or high cupboard
that contained vases, glass, majolica and silver reserved for
the use and adornment of banquets. In the house of the
princes and nobles there were many chests and cupboards,
the largest of which stood in the entrance hall and contained
the household linen. Along the walls stood heavy tables and
wooden chairs, generally covered with leather with clamps of
bright metal ; if without leather, the wood was covered with
movable cushions ; the great wide beds were surmounted by
a canopy. The flooring was of cold, bare tiles ; in princely
houses the woodwork was carved, gilt and painted with the
arms of the family. In the houses of private persons, even of
the rich, the walls were simply whitewashed ; in the palaces
of great personages they were covered, on solemn occasions,
with figured tapestry. A reliquary and the image of a saint,
especially of the Madonna, before which a lamp was ever
burning, completed the internal decoration of a fifteenth-
century house.

The riotous populace, possibly led by an enemy of the
Riario, sacked and ruined the contents of their house, even to
the wooden galleries where carved arms of the Sforza and the
Riario were emblazoned and painted. Windows were broken,
doors torn from their hinges, even the stables were so com-
pletely ruined that no horses could stand in them. In the
garden the trees were cut down, and fire would have been set
to everything, to the cries of " Colonna ! Colonna!" if the
conservators and other officials had not arrived on the spot.

Yet, after all, the enraged populace did not succeed in

destroying every trace of the Riario, for two hundred and

fifty-four years later, when the nephews of Pope Clement XII.

rebuilt the palace in its present form, they discovered human

bones in the subterranean passages.

^ Now Palazzo Corsini.

CHAPTER IX

CATHERINE LEAVES ROME. THE NEW POPE

In a letter of Guidantonio Vespucci to Lorenzo Medici,
dated August i8, the Florentine Orator writes that he had
visited Girolamo Riario, who had told him that on "no account "
would he tolerate the election of Cardinals San IMarco, Savelli,
nor Molfetta (Cibo who, after all, was elected under the name
of Innocent VIII.) to the papacy. "He should keep on his
guard, for if it happened that one of these were elected, he
would have recourse to arms, and give a turn that suited
him to the affair." The Florentine Orator adds that he had
tendered the offices of Lorenzo to Girolamo, in the protection
of the latter's State in such wise " as to bring tears to the
eyes of the Count." ^

It is difficult to believe in the sincerity either of Lorenzo's
offer or of Girolamo's gratitude. They had been deadly
enemies for years. The means employed by Catherine, who
had appealed to ]\Iilan, were, as usual, more efficacious. " I
know from a good source," wrote the Siennese Orator, " that
the State of Milan is protecting the States of the Count, and
has furnished him with soldiers for his safety. Whether or
no it has intervened in the affairs of Rome, I do not under-
stand. Every one's procedure is underhanded and silent. If
treason, dissimulation and treachery were lost arts, they
might be re-discovered here in these days." " God grant us
a good change ! " wrote Lanti in another letter on the pre-
liminary intrigues of the election ; " we cannot do worse than
heretofore."

The obsequies of Pope Sixtus, on the 17th, had been

^ Archivio Jllediceo avaiiti il Principato Filza, 39.
82

CATHERINE LEAVES ROME 83

attended by only eleven cardinals. The Cardinals Cibo, Savelli,
Delia Rovere (related to Girolamo), and Ascanio Sforza
(related to Catherine) had refused to attend them, rather than
pass under the F'ortress of St. Angelo while Catherine held it.
They said that unless the Sacred College found means to
seize the castle from that woman, and to deprive the partisans
of the Orsini from the guardianship of the Vatican, they
should refuse to attend the conclave. Then began the trea-
ties to obtain a short truce and the opening of the conclave.
The Orsini promised to retire to Viterbo for a month, the
Colonna to Lazio, while to induce Girolamo to give up St.
Angelo, and retire to his States, the Sacred College promised
him 8000 ducats, with a continuation of all the stipends
granted him by the late Pope, and the title of Captain-
general of the Church, and also that the new Pope should
confirm him in the possession of Imola and Forli, and pay
him an indemnity for the destruction of his house.

The cardinals, on the security of the silver and other pro-
perty of Sixtus, contributed a loan of 7000 ducats, which
was handed to Girolamo for the pay of his men-at-arms
on the 22nd. Girolamo, accompanied by two prelates, was
to leave on the 24th. "The monies were paid on Monday,"
wrote Lanti ; "the Countess is still in the castle." How could
they get her out of it .'' The Count had, as usual, yielded to
threats and money, but there was no means of corrupting nor
frightening her, whose evident intention was to hold the
castle until the election of the new Pope, and then only yield
to him when her claims had been satisfied. According to the
agreement with Girolamo, the castle should have been sur-
rendered on the morning of the 24th, but the sun went down
and she had not moved. " The Countess is reported to be
ill," wrote Lanti, " and therefore her departure has been post-
poned." Her advanced pregnancy lent probability to this
rumour, but in any case the indisposition was very oppor-
tune, and if she were ill Catherine cannot be said to have
been inactive. In the night, between August 24 and 25,
Catherine, having previously revictualled the castle, secretly
admitted a hundred and fifty of her husband's soldiers, whom

84 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

she and the garrison received with great demonstrations of
joy. But this time she had gone too far. The Sacred Col-
lege, suddenly acquiring a courage born of fear, affected a
clamorous indignation at the violation of the contract, and
threatened to repudiate its obligations with regard to the
Count's revenue and safe-conduct unless the castle were imme-
diately surrendered. When Catherine saw the game was lost,
that she was betrayed by her husband, who had taken the
money, and was herself, perhaps, really suffering from her
condition and the pestilential air of Rome at that hot season,
she was obliged to yield. On the evening of the 25th, eight
cardinals presented themselves at the castle in the name of
the Sacred College ; the Countess, hearing that among them
was her uncle, Ascanio Sforza, ordered them to be admitted.

The cardinals courteously assured Catherine of their pro-
tection of herself and family, but determined to rid them-
selves, once and for all, of so dangerous a woman, were
unanimous in insisting on her immediate departure. Lanti,
the Siennese Orator, rode to the castle and witnessed the
departure of Catherine, who, mounted on her palfrey, sur-
rounded by the pikes and halberds of her men-at-arms, and
followed by her household, looked pale and weary. Her
husband, in allowing himself to be bought, had prevented her
from holding the Castle of St. Angelo to the last, but fortune
held in store for her another opportunity of showing the world
how to defend a fortress, and how not to leave it by any other
way than a breach in its walls.

Before leaving Rome, Count Girolamo made a clear state-
ment of his accounts to the Apostolic Chamber, with a result
that left enormous sums to the credit of the Captain-general
of the Church. This wise and provident step proved, after
his death, of great service to Catherine and his children.

On the road to Forli, news reached the Riario of the elec-
tion of Cardinal Cibo (Molfetta) to the papacy, under the
name of Innocent VIII. The news was unwelcome, for Cibo
had been an opponent of Riario, who was well aware that no
new pope had any tenderness for the nephews of his prede-

CATHERINE LEAVES ROME 85

cesser; and the chief author of this election had been his
cousin Giuliano Rovere. The characteristics of this handsome
pope — amiable, gentle to irresolution, dissolute in his private,
and not blameless in his political life — are indicated by Ves-
pucci in his letter of the 29th to Lorenzo Medici, "When he
was a cardinal his nature was humane and benevolent. He
has not much statecraft, nor literature, yet is not wholly
ignorant. He has always been devoted to S. Pier in Vincula
(Giuliano Rovere). He is very tall, and full in the face, about
fifty-five years old, has one brother, at least one bastard son,
and several daughters married here. When he was cardinal,
he did not agree with the Count. S. Pier in Vincula ^ may
now be looked upon as Pope, and he will maintain his
influence better than under Sixtus."

The Riario entered Forli on September 4. On the 7th
they received the much-coveted papal sanction of the investi-
ture of Imola, Forli, and their other fiefs, the confirmation of
Girolamo's title of Captain-general of the Church, and thirdly,
the permission, despite this office, to live in the Romagna
instead of Rome, which last ironical concession seemed almost
to annul the first. All had been the work of their cousin
Giuliano Rovere, who led the inexpert and volatile Innocent
according to his will. Though with minds ill at ease, the
Riario affected the utmost satisfaction, which they celebrated
in Forli and Imola by bell-ringing, fireworks and other public
rejoicing for three days.

There were, indeed, in Rome and Florence, those who had
been long awaiting the election of a new pope to suppress
the malefactor who, under the cloak of Sixtus, had, with
impunity, committed so many atrocious crimes, who had been
the tyrant of Rome, had originated the Conspiracy of the
Pazzi and persecuted the Colonna and Savelli. It had even
been determined to whom the States of Imola and Forli
should be given after the removal of Girolamo Riario. Lorenzo
Medici, secure in the unbounded confidence of the new Pope,
most of all fanned this flame. " Lorenzo shall learn," said
Innocent VIII. to Pandolfini, the Plorentine legate, "that
' Cardinal dclla Rovcie, later Pope Julius II.

86 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

never was a pontiff who loved him and his house as I do.
And having learnt, by experience, the extent of his faith,
integrity and prudence, I shall be governed by his memory
and opinion."^

And Lorenzo, who remembered how narrowly he had
escaped the daggers of Girolamo's emissaries, was terrible in
counsel. There were besides Cardinal Savelli, whom Girolamo
had offended, and whose election to the papacy he had there-
fore opposed, and the Manfredi, lords of Faenza, who knew
that the Riario coveted their State, and who hated them
accordingly. All these intrigues to remove Riario by giving
full scope to individual revenge, were conducted by the Pope
with great prudence and mystery, for he was fearful lest
Catherine should bring down upon himself and Lorenzo the
reprisals of the Duke of Milan.

The Riario had returned to their dominions, hampered with
the occult and insidious enmity of Innocent VIII. and Lorenzo
Medici.

Encompassed by so many dangers, the Riario realized the
necessity of striking deeper root in their Romagnole pro-
vinces, by conciliating the affection of the people.

There had been a bad harvest, and corn was dear. The
Count imported it by sea, and on learning that his ships had
been wrecked sent for others, whereby he was able to sell it
at four lire per measure, while the landowners of Forli sold
theirs at seven. The league had ravaged the territory they
occupied ; the most able-bodied labourers had been recruited,
and the peasantry were in desperate case. The Count re-
mitted the meat tax for the whole of the following year.
On October 30, in the midst of the rejoicing for these remis-
sions, Catherine gave birth to a son, who, in honour of Forli,
was christened Giovanni Livio.'- The Fortress of Ravaldino
was completed, and close to it arose a princely palace for
the Riario and their Court ; barracks for the accommoda-
tion of 2000 men were built, store-houses for provisions and
ammunition, and the fortress was surrounded by a moat so

^ Letter of Pandolfini to Lorenzo Medici, Sept. 4, 1484. - He died in 1496.

CATHERINE LEAVES ROME 87

deep and wide as to render it impregnable. The churches,
began both at Forh and Imola, were completed, and the
convents enlarged ; nothing was denied to monks and nuns.
Thus Riario strove to win the favour of the people, save him-
self from his enemies and win God's pardon for the sacri-
legious spoliation of Rome.

Instead of this, the effects of the designs of his enemies
became apparent. The Zampeschi — whose castles of San
Mauro, Giovedio, and Talamello had been seized by Sixtus
in favour of Girolamo — encouraged by Lorenzo, the new
Pope and others, attacked and took San Mauro, slaying the
governor, and also recaptured Giovedio and Talamello.

Girolamo was for dispatching Tolentino to recapture the
castles immediately, but Catherine said: "Hector Zampeschi
is in the pay of the Church; herein I see the finger of the
Pope; no Roman tribunal will decide in our favour. Besides,
the Zampeschi, in the execution of their design, must needs
have passed through Florence, therefore with the sanction or
knowledge of Lorenzo Medici. Let us not move in the dark,
but rather fortify ourselves at home. In that we can never
be mistaken." According to Catherine's advice the fortress
was provisioned and ammunitioned as for a siege ; the city
was surrounded by troops, and the palace so filled with them
that it was proof against any attack.

The advice was good, for they were tired of waiting in
Rome, and had decided to kill the Count before the fortress
could be ready for his habitation, or, should he enter it, the
Pope had promised the funds for a siege. But the rumour of
these armaments discouraged them from an attempt that
might fail. Enemies of Riario at Forli warned Lorenzo
Medici and Savclli that it would be useless, for the Riario
were hemmed in by soldiers. Lorenzo, far from desisting,
then encouraged Taddeo Manfredi to seize Imola. The latter,
with a few men-at-arms, crossed the States of Lorenzo, and
arriving at I'aenza, planned the assassination of the Vice-
Governor of Imola, who discovered the plot in time to catch
the spies and scouts of Taddeo, who then took to flight.

Of the thirteen spies, who were all Imolcsc, two were ex-
posed hung by the neck, one by the feet, and two were tied

88 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

to a horse's tail and dragged round the city. The Riario
were consoled by the knowledge that all the conspirators had
been of the humblest class, unaided by any of the nobles. A
year later, on December i8, 1485, a year of apparent peace
and festivity, but of real and insidious danger, Catherine
gave birth to another child, who was christened with stately
ceremonial at St. Mercurial on January 18, i486, by the
name of Galeazzo. The presence of the representative of
Lorenzo Medici among those of the other Italian princes,
which created some surprise, was a result of that personal
policy initiated by Catherine without detriment to her co-
operation with that of her husband, against the consequences
of whose excesses guards and coats-of-mail might not always
prevail. Were lie to succumb in the struggle with Lorenzo,
Catherine, who had constrained the latter to an exchange of
courtesies, chose that in a possible future Lorenzo should
rather regard herself as the sister of his ally than as the
widow of Girolamo. Lorenzo might well have combined with
his hatred of Girolamo a sentiment of affection and admira-
tion for the fair and sagacious lady of Forli, and sent a
representative to the christening of her son.

Catherine had, meanwhile, perceived that the policy of the
Pope and the Florentine was not solely dictated by venge-
ance. The downfall of Girolamo Riario would spring from
the principle to which he owed his fortune. Among the sons
whom Pope Innocent did not trouble to represent as nephews
was the evil, stunted Franceschetto, to whom the Pope des-
tined those States which Sixtus had not been able to bestow
on Girolamo. In furtherance of this design, the nuptials of
Franceschetto with Maddalena, daughter of Lorenzo Medici,
were celebrated in the Vatican on January 20, 1488. This
connection rendered indissoluble the alliance between Riario's
worst enemies ; the daggers for his heart were sharpened, but
how to drive them home .'' He lived in an impregnable
fortress, or travelled surrounded by armed men. Every at-
tempt at sedition had miscarried, and every intrigue patiently
prepared in Florence and Rome, Patience to his enemies !
Led by an unlucky star, he himself would pave the way for
their vengeance.

CHAPTER X

THE TAXES OF FORLI

Splendour and careless gaiety continued to prevail at
the Court of Forli. But Count Girolamo, although he had
achieved his ideal, which was to be regarded as a generous,
magnificent and renowned prince, became every day more
grim and silent. Priests, monks and nuns saw their churches
rebuilt, and their convents enlarged. The pay of the soldiers
was (by an exception rare among the little principalities of
the time) not only paid punctually, but increased ; the pre-
lates and great warriors, who had been received with almost
regal hospitality, had divulged that few of the Courts of Italy
could vie with the splendour of the Riario. But despite the
smiles of fortune, Girolamo became more grim from day to
day. The fact was, that he was short of money, and did not
know where to turn for the expenses attendant on his dignity.
He no longer held the keys of the treasure of the Church, and
all the money that he had brought from Rome was gone.

Catherine, the secret spring of counsel to her husband, is
credited with causing a renewal of the old taxes, and thereby
causing a bloody catastrophe. Cobelli relates how the people
of Forli — with the exception of certain citizens accustomed
to live on public stipends — had triumphed in their immunities,
of which one effect had been to abolish public offices, with the
exception of the charge of castellane or governor, to which
the Count appointed his relations, personal friends, and
servants. There were a few others in the guards and the
customs on merchandise and those payable by foreigners.
Some clamoured for office, and others for arrears of pay.
"What is to be done.'" said the Count. "I have no revenue from

90 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

Forli." And they had gone back dissatisfied and menacing,
leaving the Count agitated and confused. At this stage the
narrative of CobelH assumes the form of dialogue, gaining in
verisimihtude by his frequent quotation of namcs.^ Nicolo
Panzechi proposed the re-estabHshment of those taxes that
had been aboHshed at the suggestion of Sixtus. "And what
of my vow ? " queried Girolamo. " What will be said of me,
who am cavalier and count ? " '' Leave it to me," replied
Panzechi. " It will suffice to put the matter before the council."
In the evening Panzechi returned, and the Count ended by
accepting his advice. Yet in the morning he summoned the
chief magistrate, Dr. Andrea Chelini, and explained the
difficulties of his position. Chelini dissuaded him, with some
warmth, from tampering with the liberties of the people. As
for himself, he would never give his bean- against their
interests. The Count turned his back on him, Chelini went
away ill and soon after died, it was thought, although none
dared to say it, from the poison of Girolamo. Then, perhaps
goaded to it by his daring wife, the Count disclosed his intention
to his favourite, Ludovic Orsi.

" Abstain," cried Ludovic, " for the love of God ! Why did
you swear (to these remissions) ? The people are poor and, I
fear me, capable of some rash act!" The Count turned
away from him, and again summoned Panzechi, to whom he
confided the obstinate opposition of Orsi.

" Oh, you are afraid ! " replied Panzechi. " You are afraid
of these people of Forli — the vilest rabble of Romagna ! The
Lord Pino (Ordelaffi) would not have been foiled by them.
They are as cowardly as cur-pups."

"We have honour, and could not endure blame."

" Summon the council and leave the rest to me," replied
Panzechi.

"Of whom are you afraid.-^" said Catherine.^ "Are the
people of Forli to be the only ones in the world who do not
pay taxes ? Shall we govern and defend them and, alone

1 Cobelli, p. 285.

- The vote of the council was cast with white and black Ijeans.

•* Bernardi, baste 448.

THE TAXES OF FORLI 91

among princes, give our own substance to our subjects, who
give us nothing ? Who can reproach you with your vow, if
they for whose good you made it absolve you of it ? The
poor citizens clamour for office, because they are in want ; the
officers claim their arrears of pay, and you have nothing to
give them. Is every one to die of hunger because of your
vow ? " And Catherine was to her husband as a sword that
drove him to hasten his decision.

The council met on December 27. " Now I," writes
Cobelli, who on that day enjoyed the privileges that now
belong to representatives of the Press, " desiring to hear and
record the truth, entered, in spite of great difficulty, which
was only permitted to me by the ministers of him (the Count),
who, knowing that I wrote chronicles, were content, and so I
entered and heard everything."

On entering the hall, he saw the Count seated in the midst
of the doctors and knights who formed the Magistracy of the
Ancients (Upper House), in all forty councillors. Nicolo
Panzechi spoke first, in the name of the Count, described his
position, and recalled the tribulations of the people under
Pino Ordelaffi, "who ate our hearts and tore our entrails from
our bodies; and persecuted us like dogs." "But now," he
continued, "we have here our lord the Count Girolamo, who
is an angel sent by God : a benign and clement lord, and a
lamb without flaw. From him we have had many exemptions,
and, but that the revenue of Forli is insufficient for his office
and the State, he w^ould fain confirm us in them. It has never
sufficed ; that which he has, he brought with him from Rome,
and he will not spend it in our stead. Yet must he live as our
lord. Therefore, let us restore the ancient taxes to the
Count, here present." At these words Girolamo rose to his
feet and said with other things that " if the prince owed help
to his subjects, justice willed that the subjects should help the
prince in his need," concluding by reminding them that when
they "had no better entertainment his house had at all hours
been free and open to welcome them, nor had his purse been
ever closed in avarice." More generous than provident, he was

92 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

now reduced to the absolute necessity of providing a remedy
for his embarrassment, and after much thought could find none
better, howsoever painful to him, than the modification, in
times that had so sadly changed, of those concessions made
in a time of opulence and boundless prosperity.

He said : and sadly turned to leave the hall. But his
words, none of which had been lost, had seemed so sincere,
and his bearing so dignified, that a sense of compassion per-
meated the council, so that when he would have left, the
councillors, with gentle violence, detained him. Others spoke
who queried : " Why should they deny to the Riario that
which had always been given to the Calboli, Orgogliosi and
Ordelaffi ? If the council renounced its privileges, the
Count could no longer be bound by his vow." "Then,"
continues Cobelli, " Ser Nicolo Panzechi did cry Hor sii !
Gentlemen, say yes or no : who wills that it shall be, and who
wills it not. Hoy su, o/tr." The council appeared to be
stupefied and all those present : and Ser Nicolo again asked,
saying " Su ! with one accord. To your feet ! " Then
all rose to their feet, and somewhat unwillingly made their
renunciation in favour of the Count. Panzechi at once
requested the notary, who stood by his side, to obtain the
signatures of the assembly, after each member had been sworn.
" Oh, reader, for certain, many did sign with tears and sighs.
God alone knows how willingly they renounced ! " adds
Cobelli. The Count then thanked each orator respectively,
and having thanked the council collectively, left the hall.

On January i, i486, the tribute became due. The eldest
son of Nicolo Panzechi was appointed notary to the com-
mune, the }'ounger writer to the customs, and later head
factor. And every man who went to the toll said: "Accursed
be thy soul, oh Nicolo Panzechi!" And they who carried
the wood cried, when they entered the gate, " Oh, Ser Nicolo
Panzechi, may your end be evil ! " " Oh, Ser Nicolo Panzechi,"
said others, " you have three offices this year, and the enmity
of all these people ! " And all wondered at his impudence.
At first the general hatred vented itself on Panzechi, without
reaching the Count and Catherine, on whom, indeed, the

THE TAXES OF FORLI 93

benefits of the revenue from the taxes had not yet rained like
manna from heaven. A way was yet to be found to levy
them with certainty and the least possible vexation. At last
the taxes were farmed out for a year, during which the factors
would have nothing to pay ; but at the end of the year they
were bound to deposit the whole sum in the Count's treasury.
These transactions neither entailed danger nor mystery, for
an innate sense of justice and gratitude led the citizens to
pity and excuse the difficulties of the Riario, who could not
be said to have fattened on their subjects, or to have given
cause for complaint to any class among them.

The first difficulty came from the peasants, once more sub-
jected to the tax known as balia. As in other parts of
Romagna, the county of Forli was divided into villc : each
villa being taxed according to its size and produce by
persons who rode from villa to villa, and were appointed by
the peasantr}' to levy their tithes, and pay them into the
treasury. As it would have been difficult to collect the taxes
in years of dearth, the peasantry had created a deposit that
sufficed for the dues of the treasury, without subjecting them-
selves to any annoyance. The prince in return pledged
himself to protect the land and all the harvests. This pro-
tection and surveillance were carried out by a corps of mounted
yeomen, who went about from one place to another obliging
those \\\\o caused any damage to indemnify the losers. In
doubtful cases, they laid the matter before the balia (a sort
of tribunal composed of a few nobles), whose judgments were
enforced by a commissioner.

When the peasants heard that the Riario were impoverished
and about to impose the old tribute on them, they, fearing
that it would be worse for them than before, and that they
would suffer more than the citizens, began to murmur and
threaten. The Count wished to pacify them, and at last it
was settled that they should be exempt from the tax and the
expense attendant on the charges of the county, of which
they would henceforward be themselves in charge on payment
to him of 1200 lire. This freed the Count from the obligation
of maintaining the yeomanry, and the auditor and the balia

94 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

from a number of appeals and intricate and wearisome law-
suits. On the other hand the peasants preferred to defend
themselves, rather than be defended by venal swashbucklers,
who had fallen upon them when and how they pleased, eaten
and drunk their substance, and in return for tyranny had
exacted bribes and presents.

It was Good Friday, and the Count looked down into the
square from a window of the palace ; with him was a citizen,
who, pointing with his finger, said :

" Do you see that man who is carrying a lamb on his
shoulders ? He is Antonio Butrighelli of Forlimpopoli, and
your enemy, a bad and dangerous man— seize him at once,"

Butrighelli was taken, and on him was found a letter from
Antonio Ordelaffi to his partisans. He confessed that on
that day Ordelaffi was to have entered Forli with six hundred
men, kill the guard at the Gate of San Pietro and the
Riario, and take possession of the city. Butrighelli was
hanged at the Gate of St. Peter on the 3rd, but none of the
accomplices he had named, or those to whom the letter was
addressed, were molested.

In September i486, Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Calabria,
arrived at Forli, with the flower of the Neapolitan army, in
pursuit of Robert Sanseverino, who had been sent by the
Venetians to fight for the Pope. In the peace which had
been concluded between the King of Naples and the Pope, on
August 15, the former had pledged himself not to attack
Sanseverino within the papal States. The Duke was there-
fore waiting to throw himself upon him as soon as he passed
the border ; but Sanseverino crossed the Ronco, and retired
on Ravenna. The Duke had followed him as far as Imola,
returning, after three days, to Forli. His arrival enlivened the
people, and the Riario, courteously inclined to the loser of the
glorious day of Campo Morto, pressed their hospitality upon
him. But he had fallen upon evil times ; plague and famine,
despite the succour of Catherine, had left sad traces behind
them, and the Count, whose pecuniary embarrassments had
been common talk, was ill in bed. The Duke thanked them;

]iI.\N(A MAKIA SI'OK/.A.
Front the painting by Leonardo da I'inct.

96 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

he preferred to put up at a hostelry close to the Bologna
Gate, with his suite, but chivalry impelled him to accept the
invitation of the Countess to supper on the 13th. He was
accompanied by Virginio Orsini, Giangiacomo Trivulzio,
Antonio della Mirandola and the Florentine commissioner.
The Count left his bed to receive his illustrious guests. A
frugal supper, without music or decoration, awaited them in
the Hall of the Nymphs (so called from the paintings on its
walls). It would seem as if the Riario, who with lavish
magnificence had catered for popularity, had become almost
ostentatiously penurious to excuse the recent taxation. No
invitations had been issued, for the Duke, desirous of avoiding
trouble to his hosts, had informed them that he would take
his leave soon after supper, so that he might depart at dawn,
with the troops.

Catherine loved to recall the modest feast that had been
graced by such distinguished guests, and the pleasure she had
in receiving the great warrior who had suffered defeat on the
day when her husband usurped the name of conqueror. Nor
could the Duke and his companions forget Catherine, whose
interest in military matters bore witness to her enjoyment of
their society. She was simply dressed and wore no jewels,
but to those present appeared more beautiful than ever.^ On
returning to his hostelry, the Duke was surrounded by a
friendly multitude bearing so many torches, that with the
many illuminated windows, they made " night brighter than
day."

In the following November the Milanese Orator, Francesco
Visconti, brought Catherine an invitation to the marriage of
her sister, Bianca Maria, who was then betrothed to the
son of the King of Hungary, but who eventually married
Maximilian, Emperor of Germany. Riario was penniless,
and he and his wife shed tears in the presence of the Orator.
Visconti writes further, that the Countess had gone secretly
to his room,- and there said to him : " You cannot imagine

^ She had refused to appear at the Court of Milan without her jewels, whicli
were in pawn.

- State Archives of Milan (Foreign Powers).

THE TAXES OF FORLI 97

the life I lead with my husband. It has often caused me to
envy those who die."

In January 1487, the nuptials of Hannibal Bentivoglio with
a daughter of the Duke of Ferrara were celebrated. The
Riario, lords of a neighbouring State, could not absent them-
selves from a ceremony at which the importance of the re-
spective powers was gauged by the strength of their men and
horses, the number and sumptuousness of the suite. They
were represented by a commissioner, with seventy horses and
eighty " mouths." No other State, except those of Milan and
Florence, sent so many. The Riario relied on the taxes for
this unexpected and extraordinary expenditure. But there
were serious disturbances at Forli, where some honest folk
paid their dues without murmuring, while others not only
refused to pay, but spread calumny and disaffection among
the populace. Girolamo alternately feared the evil that might
accrue from indulgence and impunity, and the bitterness that
would be caused by repression. As usual, he fled from the
centre of sedition, leaving the governor to administer justice,
and bear the brunt of reprisals. Before the tumult had caused
any bloodshed, Girolamo left for Imola with Catherine.
Domenico Ricci, his brother-in-law, was sent to Forli, where
his prudence and honesty enabled him to levy the taxes, and
to obtain a sort of truce. Riario, when he found he could
no longer maintain his favourite character of a liberal and
splendid prince, out-stepped the bounds of decency. He
raised the tax on flour from six to ten qiiattrini per hundred-
weight, at Imola, and, what w'as worse, he mulcted each
citizen of twenty bolognini for the maintenance of four
hundred horse, whereas he only kept a hundred, so that the
Imolese were fain to perceive that by means of this deception
their lord extorted from them about 1000 ducats. He
coveted some mills that belonged to one Astorgio Bonmercati,
forced him to sell them to him for a nominal price, and com-
mitted other acts of violence by means of decrees, threats,
confiscations and condemnations ; so that many lips formu-
lated the words tyrant and death: words that arc apt to follow
each other in formidable succession.

CHAPTER XI

CATHERINE AND INNOCENZO CODRONCHI

Lorenzo dei Medici exulted in the ever-increasing dan-
gers that encompassed Girolamo : at last he was certain of the
ruin of the Riario ; the course of events did but second his
vengeful design. Catherine convinced herself that, despite
the amicable nature of their relations, she could no longer
hope that Lorenzo would renounce his vengeance in deference
to her. A more potent factor was needful to attain that end,
such counsel as might, should he turn a deaf ear to it, be
converted into menace. She therefore went to Milan to
obtain the co-operation of her brother, Duke Gian Galeazzo,
and of her powerful uncle, Ludovico il Moro, giving as an
ostensible reason for her departure her desire to revisit her
family and her birthplace, in which there had been so many-
changes since she left it, as a maiden of fifteen, ten years ago,
and also to see her mother Lucrezia Landriani, and her sister
Stella. She added that she hoped to bring them back to live
with her in Romagna, so that she might have some of her
own people about her. In the beginning of April she arrived
at Milan, with a numerous escort. In May she heard that
Girolamo had fallen ill at Imola. Catherine did not hesitate
a moment in leaving Milan and the dear delights of the
Court Neither the persuasions of her relations, nor the
weakness inherent on her condition, could dissuade her from
hurriedly riding back to Imola. She was at her husband's
bedside on May 31.

The Count had been given up by the doctors. " But," says

Bernardi, " no sooner had her ladyship arrived, (although) it

appeared that nothing had been left undone, (than) she sent

CATHERINE AND INNOCENZO CODRONCHI 99

all over Italy for the best physicians, who came from Bologna,
Milan and P^errara."

The castellane of the Fortress of Rivaldino at Forli was
one Melchior Zocchejo of Savona, an old ex-pirate and perse-
cutor of poor Christians, whom the Count, his countryman
and creditor, had placed there because he had no other means
of repaying him. This castellane was an incubus to Girolamo,
who therefore resorted to the daring of his wife to rid himself
of him. One night, when the Count was still ill, Catherine
mounted her horse, rode to Forli and approaching the fortress,
called the castellane.

The castellane came to the battlements and cried, " Oh,
Madonna, what is your will ? "

Madonna replied, saying, " Misser Marchonne," [the spell-
ing is Cobelli's] " I come on behalf of my lord, that you
may surrender the fortress to me. Here is the countersign.
I would enter."

Replied the castellane : " And what of the Count ? I have
heard that he is dead."

Said Madonna: '' Jllo (sic), that is not true. I left him of
good courage."

Replied the castellane : " Report hath it that he is dead.
If he be dead, I will hold the fort for his sons ; if alive, I will
give it up to him ; if he would turn me out to put another in
my place, I would that he should give me my money that I
lent unto him, and then I will give up the fort according to
my will and pleasure." Without another word he turned and
left the battlements, and Catherine "rode sadly back to
Imola."

In those days there abode in Forli that same Innocenzo
Codronchi who, in the reign of Sixtus, had been constable of
St. Angelo, whence he had been dismissed by Catherine.
The Count had restored him to favour, appointed him Captain
of his guard and Castellane of Ravaldino until the threats and
importunities of Melchior Zocchejo induced (iirolamo to re-
place him by the ex-pirate. By order of the Count, Codronchi
still came and went within the fort, never losing sight of the

loo CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

castellane, Avith whom he often dined, supped and threw dice.
The castellane, unconscious of this surveillance, had the
utmost confidence in Innocenzo, one of whose relations lived
with him in the fort. On August lo, Codronchi, according
to his wont, dined with the castellane, and threw dice for
the dinner of the following day, Codronchi being purposely
the loser. Next morning he sent quails, partridges and
capon to the fort by a soldier named Moscardino, to whom he
also gave certain secret instructions. When the castellane
saw Moscardino coming, he caused the doors of the fortress
to be opened to him, and while the game was being plucked
Moscardino " did as he had been bidden."

At the appointed hour Codronchi entered the fort and dined
with the castellane. After dinner the castellane rose to his
feet. Codronchi,^ springing up suddenly, clutched him by his
middle. A slave (probably a Turk captured by Zocchejo on
the high seas) stabbed him two or three times, while Moscar-
dino aimed at his head. Then Codronchi left hold of him
and finished him with a blow from a scimitar. Then with his
kinsman, the slave and Moscardino (who told the story to
Cobelli), Codronchi took possession of the watch-tower, and
raising the draw-bridges, remained isolated therein. Calling on
the soldiers and household of the murdered castellane, who
were in the court below, he cried — " Away with you ! away !
or, by my troth, we shall cut you in pieces." When they had
all fled before a sudden shower of stones and other missiles,
Codronchi carefully closed the fort, and with the help of his
accomplices threw the body down a well, within a dungeon by
the draw-bridge.

Meanwhile the terrified guards and servitors ran to the
governor, and in a moment the city rang with the news,
which reached the Riario just as Girolamo was convalescent
and Catherine near to child-bed. " On that same day," says
Cobelli, "Madonna mounted her horse, and by dint of spur
and bit, was at Forli by midnight, and rode through the city,
to the foot of the fortress, and called Nocente. . . . Then
Nocente came to the battlements and saw ]\Iadonna, and said,

1 Cobelli.

CATHERINE AND INNOCENZO CODRONCHI loi

" O Madonna, whom do you seek ? " Said Madonna, " O
Nocente, for whom do you hold this fort ? " RepHed Nocente,
" For the Lord Octavian." Said Misser Domenico Riccio/
" Then is Octavian lord and not the Count ? " " Dead or alive,
I hold this fort for the Count and his sons." Then, according
to Bernardi, Catherine asked why he had killed the castellane.
" Madonna, the fort should be confided to a man of brains,
and not to drunkards." He here repeated what he had said
to the governor. Then Catherine implored him to surrender
the fort. Codronchi, full of pity for her condition, replied,
gently, " Dear Madonna, for the present I can give you no
other reply. . . . O Madonna, go and take your rest and fear
nothing. There was no need for Your Ladyship to come
hither on this errand. I pray you to dine here with us
to-morrow." Then Catherine returned to the city, and
having ordered a guard to watch the fort, entered her palace.
Simulating prudence, for fear of poison, she ordered a dinner
to be carried to the fort for her on the morrow and went to
bed at dawn. " They that were with her do aver that
Madonna did not sleep that night," says Cobelli. Next day
Codronchi intimated that the Countess could only be attended
by one maid of honour. Catherine, showing no sign of fear
and followed by the maid of honour carrying her food, entered
the fort. Codronchi is said to have told every detail of the
story at table, where together they concerted a mock surrender
and Catherine left the fort, whither she returned after three
days, with Tommaso Feo of Savona. To him Codronchi
surrendered the fort, and Catherine leaving Feo within, passed
out, followed by Codronchi. The courtyard was crowded with
an impatient populace. At last Catherine appeared. "The
fort," she said, " was lost to me and you, in the hands of
this man, from whom I have taken it, leaving in his stead a
castellane of my own choosing." The citizens would willingly
have learnt more, but that was not vouchsafed to them. The
Countess rode away with Codronchi at her side, and behind
her a long line of horsemen.

This cruel and ingenious comedy faitlifully reflects the
' Domenico (jentilc Ricci, husband of Violantina Kiario and Governor of Forli.

I02 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

spirit of the policy of a time that has been defined by
Machiavelli in the words : " A statesman must know how to
play the fox and the lion." Catherine, one of the hardest-
headed politicians of her day, would not be deterred by any
scruple from the suppression of her castellane, if he displeased
her, nor from having him treacherously assassinated if that
means assured the end. As for the consummate strategy of
this betrayal, we must remember that the end and aim of
human action was enjoyment by means of beauty. The
sense of beauty had become the sole factor and criterion of
the Italian conscience, whether manifested in art, pleasure,
resistance, government, or rascaldom. The people of that
day did not understand that a crime can never be beautiful.
The ferocity of Ferdinand of Naples, in the conspiracy of his
barons, seemed to them horribly beautiful ; the perfidy of
Caesar Borgia at Sennigallia, is represented as a masterpiece
by Machiavelli, and as tin bellissivw inganno by Monsignor
Paolo Giovio.

There is no mention anywhere, after this event, of Innocenzo
Codronchi. Did he meet his death by the hand of an enemy
or of Riario, whose secret would thus be buried with him .''
Even that was then possible.

On the morning after her return to Imola, the sun having
risen on August 17, Catherine, who on the previous day
had ridden ten miles (and more, if, as was her wont, she
avoided Faenza and took the long, rugged mountain road),
gave birth to a boy, who was named Francesco Sforza and
afterwards surnamed Sforzino.

CHAPTER XII

THE CONSPIRACY OF THE ROFFI

Ix the following September, Count Girolamo, who was of
a heavy, lymphatic temperament, and had not completely
recovered from his illness, had again taken to his bed, when
a messenger arrived from the Governor of Forli. Ordelafifi
had struck another blow, by means of certain Rofifi, sturdy
peasants of Rubano, who had great influence and many
adherents among its rural population. They had taken the
Cotogni Gate, which had been retaken : five rebels had been
hanged and others lay in chains in the fortress. Catherine,
who was recovering from childbirth, could not be held back
from hurrying to the spot ; she sprang into her saddle, threw
the rein on her horse's neck and reached Forli in an incredibly
short time. Domenico Ricci, ex-governor of Forli, a man
of mature age, but a bold and skilful rider, could scarcely
keep up with the Countess. Giuliano Feo, the new governor,
who rode to meet her " neither dead nor alive from fear," ^
accompanied her to the palace and gave an account of what
had happened. The Countess said that she should without
delay proceed to further inquiry, but not on that day, as it
was Sunday. Early next morning she entered the fort
and cross-examined the rebels. They confessed everything.
" Why," said Catherine, " did you cry ' San Marco, Church
and Ordelaffi ' ? " " Because," they replied, " we thought that
part of the people would have risen to that cry." Nino, one
of the Roffi, related that on a certain day he had met another

^ Cobelli, wlio with Bernardi was an eye-witness of the events narrated in this
chapter.

103

I04 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

peasant, named Passi, to whom he had divulged the plot, and
that the same Passi had entered into it. Catherine remanded
the accused and ordered Passi to be brou<^ht into the fort.
On the following day the poor wretch was caught, bound and
brought into Forli, In the presence of Catherine, Nino
recognized him and repeated the accusation. " Now do you
lie in your throat," said Passi, "ribald glutton that thou art.
I have not set eyes on you for eight months. And this I am
wilhng to prove by the test of the rope." The Countess at
once ordered Nino to be hung. Nino gave himself up for
lost, and not daring to address the Countess, retracted to
the podesta his statement, adding, " Madonna, for the sake
of the relations (of Passi, who were many and influential), will
pardon him and me, who have accused him. . . . The
drowning man catches at a straw." At these words the
Countess rose from her seat, and with smiles and some
emotion approached Passi, whom she led by the hand out
of the fort, saying to him, in the presence of the assembled
people, " Go, return in peace to your wife and children.
And," adds Bernardi, "she gave him her blessing for a true
and faithful servant." Catherine sent a written account of
the second trial to her husband, whose answer was delayed
for three days ; at last he wrote, saying that as he had sent
her in the interests of true justice she might do as it seemed
best to her. That was enough for this woman of twenty-
five, convinced as she was of her duty in the dispensation of
divine justice, which had been pressed, so to speak, into the
service of her political needs. Part of this duty was the
punishment of those who attacked the rights of the House
of Riario, "And then in the name of God," said Bernardi,
" the Countess had the heads of six malefactors struck off
in the square, and their bodies quartered." Much against
his will, and to his infinite mortification, the corporal who
had lost the Cotogni Gate to the rebels was made their
executioner. The mutilated corpses were left on the ground
until evening, when three of the heads were raised on lances
and the bodies hung from the Cotogni Gate, and three
others from the Gates of San Pietro and Ravaldino. When

THE CONSPIRACY OF THE ROFFI 105

this came to the ears of the Countess, she ordered that the
horrid sight be at once removed from the eyes of the
populace and showed herself as lenient in her treatment of
the lesser culprits as she had been inexorable to the ringleaders.
Many were set free, but the kinsmen of the Roffi were for-
bidden the city.

Count Girolamo did not recover until the beginning of
November. He was so weak physically, and so weighed
down mentally, that for many months none but Catherine
entered his room. The report of his death, which was
supposed to be kept secret for political reasons, gained such
credence that as soon as he could sit his horse, he rode all
over Imola, to show himself, and for this purpose went to
Forli on November 3. There he soon perceived that his
presence inflamed the general dissatisfaction with the taxes.
Since he had no longer the means to be generous, he made
another bid for popular favour by solicitude for the public
weal, and this gave rise to a singular episode.

On the evening of November 18, a young hermit, blond
and haggard, holding in his hand an iron cross, arrived at
Forli. He was from Sienna, and was called Giovanni
Novello. He halted in the burying-ground of St. Mercurial
and began to preach, recommending the building of a
Monte di Pieta, a house where the poor might pledge their
things for money. He was soon surrounded by a crowd.
While he preached. Count Girolamo stood at a window of
the palace with the Milanese Orator. At another, Catherine,
with her children, her eye fixed on the preacher, listened
attentively. By order of the Riario, all the shops had been
closed ; silence reigned and the voice of the hermit filled the
vast square. The Count ordered the hermit to preach a
second time at the church of San Francesco and, through him,
announced that he would contribute three hundred gold
ducats towards the erection of the Monte di Pietd. He also
sent him to the council to renew the offer, and his auditor
to speak in praise of it. But the council received these
overtures as an attempt to coerce them, and the proposal was

io6 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

not accepted. The Count was more embittered by this
repulse than he would have been by a rebellion, while
Catherine recognized in it a discourteous manifestation of
civic independence, intended to teach the Count that they
were not to be won over by his liberality.

CHAPTER XIII

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIROLAMO RIARIO

In January 1488, the peasantry, instigated by the emissaries
of Lorenzo Medici, came in troops to Forh and demanded of
the Count that they should be reHeved from the taxes requir-
ing that each znlla, or parish, should furnish a certain number
of cartloads of wood, barley, forage and straw for the use of
the lord and the soldiers of his guard. When he heard that
they had sold their lands to the citizens,^ and that they neither
owed nor owned the wherewithal to pay, he said — " This is a
just demand ; you cannot pay for what you do not own ; I
will do the best I can to set the matter right." And he cast
about for advice, but the councillors and the city were divided
among themselves.

" He who persuades you to listen to the peasants is
prompted by the devil to lead you to break your neck and
ours and bring about a revolution. Give no heed to him.
Your lordship has it all your way ; what do you want more .-'
The populace is quiet, asking no more than its daily bread,
and to be your friends and partisans. Do not mind the
peasants, for so long as the citizens and artisans agree, the
others will dree their weird. Let those pay who are accus-
tomed to pay, give them good words, and take no further
heed. . . ."

" O, Messer Ludovico," replied the Count, " there never was
a wash but that you soiled it ; God help us ! I believe that
you grudge me my life." And having said this, he turned
upon his heel and went into his chamber. Ludovico Orsi

^ The citizens were divided into two classes, nobles and artisans, there being no
middle-class.

107

io8 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

hastened home, where (in the presence of CobelH, who was
giving a dancing lesson to the youthful daughter-in-law of
Checco) he repeated this conversation to his brother. In Lent
Girolamo summoned Checco Orsi and asked him for the two
hundred gold ducats due from him on the meat tax of the pre-
ceding year. Orsi replied that he had lost by it, and after a
violent altercation, went home in a rage, which he communicated
to his brother Ludovic, who was still smarting under his own
grievance. " The flea was already in their ears," says Cobelli,
who here interpolates a series of serio-comic anecdotes on the
growing disquietude of the Orsi, to whom the agents of Medici
interpreted every word that fell from the Count's lips as por-
tending their death. One day, Checco Orsi ventured out of
doors and whom should he meet in the square but the Count,
who was returning from mass.

" Don't you think it is time .-*" said the latter, alluding to
the debt.

" I'm expecting the money from clay to day," replied
Checco.

Then the Count flew into a violent passion, and crying,
" Checco, Checco, you will drive me to commit an act of folly,"
angrily turned into the palace.

Soon after, Giacomo Ronchi, captain of a squadron, pre-
sented himself, and begged for, at least, a part of his pay,
adding that his family was dying of hunger. The Count, who
had not yet recovered from the recent meeting in the square,
replied — " Get out of my sight, or I will have thee hanged."

" My Lord," retorted the soldier, " thieves and traitors are
hanged, of which I am neither. I deserve to die sword in
hand, like the valiant man-at-arms that I am."

Some time passed, when a certain Ludovico Panzechi, a
captain of infantry, who had been employed by Girolamo in
the conspiracy of the Pazzi, came, in ignorance of the storm in
the air, and also asked the Count for some arrears of his pay.
"Ah! you want to levy blackmail," said the Count, thinking
that they had agreed among themselves to coerce him.
Panzechi did not reply, but went away biting his lips.

The narrow social margin of the little city soon brought

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIROLAMO RIARIO 109

about a meeting between the two ofificers and the Orsi.
And the devil in hell rejoiced to see his design marching
to its end, says the " eye-w^itness." ^ Each told his tale to
the others and caught fire from one another ; individual
fear and tremors melted into the common terror. "That
man will hang us," said the two soldiers, who regretted,
Panzechi to have left the Florentine, and Ronchi the Calab-
rian service, for that of Riario, who threatened them wath the
gallows when they asked for their pay. Checco Orsi had even
more cause for complaint. " He had served Riario, with horse
and foot, without pay ; he had leased that cursed meat tax
to right himself, was ruined by it . . . and the Count wanted
money into the bargain."

" O Checco," said Panzechi, with a significant gesture,
" shall we give him the money that he needs .'' " And so, with
few w'ords, they agreed to kill him, and the three, arm-in-arm,
went to seek Ludovico Orsi, who had not dared to leave his
house. Ludovic, who at first was like one dazed with horror,
at last ejaculated — " And if we fail .' "

" Better to die sword in hand than by hanging, " replied the
other three. " It is better to do so to him than that he should
do it to us."

" Onward then ! " said Ludovic, " and success attend us ! "

" I am sure of the result," said Ronchi. ..." The people
hate the Count because of the taxes. . . . Arm your friends
in secret. Watch and wait. We will hasten the matter.
When all is ready, we will come out with your following to
the cry of ' Liberty ! Liberty ! ' We will sack the palace and
you will take the square. At that cry all will join us, and we
shall have won the day."

The four conspirators were anxious to strike the blow
before their adherents had time to cool down, or the secret to
leak out, and to that end kept an eye on the Count from the
following morning (Sunday in albis, April 13), but without
success. On April 14, at dinner-time, Ronchi parted from his
friends and went to see his nephew, Gasparino, a youth in the

^ Leone Cobelli.

no CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

household of the Count. " Gasparino," he said, " you know
how often wc have wanted to talk to the Count about our own
affairs and how we have always been withheld by the presence
of one or the other. At what hour could I speak to him
without witnesses to talk over our grievances ? " " To-night,"
replied Gasparino, " after supper the Count will be alone, the
household and the equerries will be at supper ; I shall be on
guard at the door of his chamber. So you can come to-night
to talk over matters with the Count." " Good. But how shall
I know when ? " "I will signal to you when the time comes;
be ready in the square."

Ronchi informed the others of his appointment. Towards
sunset armed partisans made their way one by one to the
square. Checco Orsi, captain of the guard, stationed them as
he pleased, without fear of opposition, and sent his cousin,
Deddo, to occupy the staircase that led to the tower com-
municating with the apartments of Catherine. Doctor
Ludovico Orsi was stationed at the foot of the grand stair-
case. The fatal hour had struck. The Count was still at
supper with his wife ; the three assassins (Checco Orsi,
Panzechi and Ronchi), armed to the teeth, paced forwards and
backwards in the square without showing themselves to those
in the palace window, yet keeping an eye on it. At last
Gasparino, waving his beret, signed to Ronchi to come. The
three companions moved resolutely towards the palace door,
climbed the stairs and stood at the door of the Hall of the
Nymphs ; the Count was within. The Orsi, foremost among
the citizens and intimates of the Count, had a right to enter
unannounced, they held, according to the phrase of the day,
the gilded key. Checco, leaving his two companions to listen
outside, boldly opened the door. The Count, with his back to
the open window, his elbow resting on the sill that looked
towards Ravenna, was enjoying the cool of the evening, with
his kinsman, Corradino Feo, of Savona, his chancellor,
Girolamo of Casale, and Nicolo of Cremona, who was in
waiting. The Count was chatting with his friends and was
unarmed, his countenance merry and jovial. ... It would
have been the right moment to ask a favour of him, so well

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIROLAMO RIARIO iii

disposed did he seem to listen and to grant it. Indeed, as
soon as he perceived that Checco had entered the room, he
stretched out his right hand to him, saying with cordiahty —
" How goes it, my Checco ? " " I have a letter that I would
show you," replied Checco; "we shall soon have the money
. . . and I shall be able to pay Your Lordship. . . ." While
he was speaking, Orsi grasped the dagger that he had hidden
about his person, and the Count felt his blade in the left
breast, which, in offering his hand, he had exposed to the
blow.

" Ha, traitor ! " cried the wounded man, who would have
sought refuge by dragging himself to Catherine's chamber, but
that the two listeners behind the door, hearing his cry, broke
into the room and seizing the victim by the hair, dragged him
back to the spot where the first blow had been struck. The
wound was not mortal, but in his horror and dismay, Checco
was incapable of striking another. The two soldiers who
knew their business better, and that in these affairs it is not
well to stop midway, crushed him to the ground between door
and window and barbarously finished him with murderous
blows on his head and every vital part. Not a word could
escape the lips of the wretched man, who struggled for
escape for a fevv seconds, until his dying eyes were fixed upon
the assassins; while, more ferocious and savage than Ronchi,
Ludovico Panzechi still steeped his blade in the blood of the
victim. Ten years earlier, in that same month of April,
Girolamo Riario, who was hatching the famous conspiracy of
the Pazzi, had paid money, and made promises to Ludovico
Panzechi to plunge that same dagger into the heart of Lorenzo
Medici. This was the end, at the age of forty-five, of Girolamo
Riario, who in the lifetime of Sixtus, while he was yet the
omnipotent nephew of the Pope and master of the armies and
treasure of the Church, had been a villain, yet whose rule
in Romagna must, on the whole, be considered a mild and
beneficent one. Danger had taught him prudence; prudence
had taught him humanity. Yet all his greatness was the
devil's harvest ; he had sown too much evil to reap anything
but thorns and tribulations. All his efforts were tardy and

112 CATHERINE AND THE RIARIO

unavailing ; the agents of the new Pope — who, hke Sixtus, had
a nephew of whom he would have made a prince — represented
him to the people, whose fidelity Riario had wooed by his
benevolence, in the most odious colours. Besides, the Medici
still coveted Imola ; above all they would have wrested it
from Riario who had sought to compass their annihilation
when he coveted Florence for himself. His State had teemed
with Florentine spies and emissaries, sent to prepare the
vengeance of Lorenzo Medici. Generosity, which was then
considered necessary to the art of government, had brought
about the financial ruin of Girolamo, of which the question
of the taxes was the inevitable consequence, as well as
the opportunity awaited by his enemies. Even as the Pazzi,
in 1478, had been the emissaries of Riario in the plot
against the Medici, so on the evening of April 14, 1488, the
Orsi, with Panzechi and Ronchi, became the emissaries of the
Medici in the assassination of Girolamo Riario.

BOOK IV

CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

CHAPTER XIV

CATHERINE AND THE ASSASSINS

The murder was committed in a few seconds. The
suspicions of the chancellor and of Nicolo of Cremona were
not awakened by the entrance of Orsi, but when the two
others broke into the room they realized what was happening
and took to flight. Nicolo ran to the apartment of Catherine
and in a choking voice told her that Orsi, Panzechi, and
Ronchi had murdered the Count. There was no time to lose
in tears. There was no doubt that they meant to exterminate
the whole family . . . they must save themselves.

Catherine sprang to her feet, succeeded in blocking the
door with chests, arm-chairs, and cabinets of prodigious
weight, and ordered all the servants to arm themselves and
pursue the assassins, so that none of them might escape with
his life. And, counting on help from the people, she placed
the women, children, and defenceless people at the windows,
to cry : " Help ! Help ! They have murdered the Count !
They are trying to murder Madonna ! Help ! Help !"

While the widow of the murdered man gave such evidence
of promptness and foresight, the murderers, dazed and con-
fused, had not left the body. Corradino Feo, son and
lieutenant of the castellane of Ravaldino, heard the Count's
cry from the room next to the Hall of the Nymphs and
returned to it, but lost his voice when his eyes fell upon the
dreadful sight. As soon as he recovered, he placed himself
at the head of four servants of the Countess, and calling to
arms, prepared to attack the assassins. The palace was full

IIS

Ii6 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

of rushing sounds, cries and the clank and clash of arms.
Gasparino, who, in his ignorance, had given the fatal sign,
first realized its meaning when he saw his uncle, fully armed,
place himself outside the Count's door. At the same moment
he heard the cry of the victim, and Ronchi, before he entered,
told him to inform Ludovico Orsi, who was waiting at the
foot of the stairs, that the Count had been dispatched. In
blind obedience, Gasparino had descended the stair and with
terror and amazement said to Ludovico : " They are killing
him ! .... he must be dead already ! " Then came the
cries of Catherine. The blow had been struck, it behoved
Ludovic to save his friends, and he went out to summon in
their defence those who waited in the square.

Meanwhile Agamemnon degli Orsi, son of Checco, im-
patient with standing in passive custody of the grand staircase,
hastened to the protection of his father, meeting, as he
mounted the stair, the affianced husband of Stella Landriani,
Andrea Ricci, whose rooms were at the top of the staircase.
Hearing cries of " Help ! Help ! " he had seized his arms
and was on his way down-stairs before he knew what had
happened. But he instantly realized it and did not hesitate
to strike Agamemnon, who died from his wound twelve
days later. Ricci, although wounded, succeeded in joining
Corradino and the four servants, and with them entered the
Hall of the Nymphs and surrounded the three assassins who
stood over the body of their victim. They would have been
cut to pieces in a moment, but for the arrival of Ludovico
Orsi and his followers, who broke into the Hall, to the cry of
" Liberty ! Liberty ! Long live the Orsi ! " Corradino Feo
and Andrea, who were both wounded, had to retire before
overwhelming numbers. The new cry, different to the one
that had issued from the windows of Catherine, announced to
the whole city that the conspirators were masters of the
palace and that the fortunes of the Riario were fallen.

As the news spread, men armed with pikes and clubs and
the usual herd of the curious, who never fail to put in an
appearance on occasions of terror or rejoicing, poured into the
square, from every corner of it. Among the latter was the

CATHERINE AND THE ASSASSINS 117

chronicler, Leone Cobelli,\vho in his eagerness to see, "so tliat
he might write," had pushed his way through the crowd until
he found himself standing under the great doorway of the
palace, where stood Checco Orsi, wearing a coat of mail and
holding a partisan. He was soon joined by Ludovic, and all,
as they arrived, kissed them on the face and congratulated
them, saying : " Fear nothing, we, all of us, will defend you ;
we have determined, for your sakes, to meet death and
destruction ! " And they cried, " Liberty for ever ! Long live
the Orsi, true Fathers of our Country ! " The crowd whence
came these cries was entirely composed of artisans. None of
the nobles had appeared in the square. They awaited the
end of the tumult behind closed doors, in fear and trembling
of the Orsi.

Cobelli pushed his way into the courtyard and there he saw
" Madonna, la Contessa, weeping and crying at her window,
with her women. All her servants were in flight. And," he
continues, " I soon found myself at the corner of the loggia
where the well is at the foot of the grand staircase, and
suddenly I beheld Messer Antonio de Montechio, the bargello
(lieutenant of police), flying before a murderous gang of
artisans. He had but mounted three stairs, when he was laid
low by a hundred blows from partisans, pikes, spears and
swords." Cobelli heard a cry from the window, and raising
his eyes saw Catherine desperately calling : '■' Forbear, for-
bear ! do not kill him ! " But none gave heed to her cry.
Instead, they stripped the body to its shift, and dragging it,
before it was yet cold, to the well, set fire to the beautiful
hair of which the poor bargello had been so proud. Then
some peasants came upon the scene, who, although they saw
that he was dead, tore the flesh from his body. " Then,"
continues Cobelli, " I saw Checco de I'Urso with the whole
gang and Matio de Galasso mount those stairs and enter the
chamber of Madonna." Catherine was alone, with her mother,
sister, children and two nurses. The dcor was barricaded, but
the conspirators burst it open and seized Catherine and her
children. It is recorded that before she moved, she kissed each
of her children and then went on in front, between Checco Orsi

Ii8 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

and Galasso. The crowd, awed by the majesty of that dehcate
and beautiful face, made way in silence for the Countess.

Neither insult nor violence was offered to her or hers.
Only one of the ruffians in the suite of Checco Orsi thrust his
hand in the bosom of Stella's gown in the search for hidden
jewels. The young girl pushed him back with all the strength
of her left hand, dealing him with her right so vigorous a blow
that she nearly knocked the wretch's teeth out.

Thus, on foot, at dead of night, Catherine was conducted to
the house of the Orsi, which stood on the site of what is now
the Monte di Pieta, and Checco Orsi was lord of the city.
After the horrid murder of the bargello, the soldiers of the
guard and other members of the household had withdrawn to
the fortress, whither went also Corradino Feo, Andrea Ricci,
Francesco Paolucci, and in haste and secrecy a certain
Ludovico Ercolani, with the mission of enjoining on Tommaso
Feo, the castellane, to write informing Bentivoglio of Bologna
and the Duke of Milan of the murder of the Count, entreating
them in the name of the Countess to send sufficient troops to
quell the revolution and reinstate her.

No sooner had Catherine left the palace than the plunder
began ; one seized a chest, another a casket, every one some-
thing. The treasury of the customs and taxes was plundered,
even to the chains and ropes of the clock on the tower. Gold,
silver, and linen, " with the exception of the body-linen of
Madonna and her children," all disappeared, and the horses
and mules were taken from the stables. While Cobelli was
looking at the sacking of the palace he perceived a strange
and terrible sound. The body of Count Girolamo had been
thrown into the square. Three of his (the Count's) favourite
men-at-arms, Ciccolini, Carlo of Imola, and Scossacarri, had
entered the Hall of the Nymphs and thrown the corpse to the
people, crying : " This is that traitor who so persecuted us ! "
Hardly had they done so when a certain Pagliarino, nephew
to Ronchi, dragged the body on the ground to where, despite
a cry of horror from those present, it was stripped and
mutilated, as had been that of the bargello. Some monks of
the order of the Black Flagellants placed the two corpses on

CATHERINE AND THE ASSASSINS

119

the same bier and carried it to the sacristy of their church
which, says Burriel, "is the same that is now known as the
Church of the Nuns of Corpus Domini." It was night, and
none barred the way to the bier.

This sinister spectacle caused a short interruption in the
sacking of the palace, which soon began again with renewed
clamour and rapacity. Doors and windows were wrenched
from their hinges, every one robbed and destroyed all that he
could lay hands upon ; the Orsi, abetted by their retainers,

I'AI.ACE OF THE !'< IDKS TA.

robbed more than any one else. When the intoxicated crowd
happened to light upon money, plaudits and hurrahs for the
Orsi, Fathers of the People, rent the air.

Later, the Orsi summoned the council : Chccco, in a
pompous harangue, boasted of having put to death a ferocious
tyrant, and declared that the city should be given to none but
the I'opc, and only to him in nominal suzeraint)-. lie offered
the people of Forli autonoiny and self-government.

I20 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

The chief magistrate, Nicolo Tornielli, repHed with spirit
and wisdom that the Duke of Milan was capable of becoming
the avenger of his sister's wrongs ; that in Rome there were
many cardinals who were related and allied to the Riario,
and that the Pope himself appeared well disposed towards
them. Autonomy and liberty may have flourished in the
city in by-gone times ; but the liberty so eulogized by the
Orsi had begun in bloodshed, would not last eight days, and
would make Forli and its magistracy the laughing-stock of
the proletariat of every other Italian city. Whatever be the
resolution they came to, it had best be " one that would not
further irritate nor wound the Countess. That would not only
be barbarous and inhuman, but would draw down fatal con-
sequences upon the city, she being of subtle mind and of that
high courage that was known to all, indomitable of spirit and
inexorable in vengeance." He added that the only course
open to them lay in submission to the Pope, as their direct
and immediate sovereign, without grimace of popular liberty.
The city should, with all due and legal formality, be consigned
to Monsignor Savelli, protonotary and papal governor of
Cesena. The council unanimously applauded and accepted
the suggestion of Tornielli, to the indignation of the populace
and the Orsi, who were still blinded and intoxicated by their
victory. The act of allegiance was immediately drawn up
and sent to Cesena. It surprised and perplexed Savelli who,
however, recognizing the seal of the city and the signatures
of the councillors, sent his auditor to Forli on the 15th. The
latter, in the presence of the assembled council, took posses-
sion of the city in the name of the Governor of Cesena, by the
ancient rite of walking several times round the square, and
returned to that place.

Savelli, on hearing the account of the auditor, determined
to conclude that which had been begun, and arriving at Forli
before nightfall, proceeded at once to Casa Orsi, to pay his
respects to the Countess, both because of her great misfortune
and because, as the Pope's representative, it behoved him to
recognize the sovereign rights of the Riario as vicars of the
Church. He expressed to the Countess, whom he had known

CATHERINE AND THE ASSASSINS 121

in Rome, his horror and sorrow at the appalHng event, and
excused himself for the haste of his coming in that as the
Pope's legate, he could not appear to neglect the unsought
gift which the city had made of itself to the Holy See. On
the other hand, although he had been constrained to accept
this gift from the people of Forli to the Pope, there was
nothing to prevent His Holiness from confirming the children
of the Count in the investiture of their father's dominions
.... and next to his obedience to the Pontiff, there was
nothing nearer to his (Savelli's) heart than his desire to render
aid, service, and all that was possible of solace and comfort to
the Countess.

The sincere ring of these words of pity and respect so
far mitigated her bitterness that Catherine,^ with modest
integrity and directness, made such reply as her circumstances
demanded, in words few and serious, and in no wise offensive.
The sight of the young mother, to whom clung six terrified
orphans whom she strove to comfort and console, — for in the
house of her husband's murderers they were surrounded on
all sides by guards armed with pikes and halberds, — so moved
the worthy prelate that no sooner had he left them than he
could not restrain himself from declaring to those concerned
that "the Orsi were wild beasts in human form, than whom
no Turks could have worse entreated Madonna." And having
mounted his horse and ridden once round the square to
confirm the possession taken of the city by his auditor, he
passed onward to the Gate of St. Peter. There he relieved
the guard by another composed of twelve artisans commanded
by three noblemen who were held in high esteem in the city,
and at the same time personally devoted to the Countess.
Bartolomeo Capoferri, Bartolomeo Serughi and Francesco
Dehti were soon to prove themselves worthy of his confidence.
Savelli further enjoined on the Orsi to hold Catherine no
longer a prisoner under their own roof, but to immediately
conduct her to the Fort of St. Peter and there confide her
to the honourable custody of the three gentlemen by him
instructed to treat her with the respect due to her rank and

' Ijiirricl.

122 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

her misfortunes. These considerations had not withheld
another priest, a partisan of the Orsi, from forcing his way
into Catherine's room during Savelli's short absence, and
seeking by intimidation to obtain the surrender of the Fortress
of Ravaldino. " Count Girolamo's sins had found him out,"
said this priest to the widow ; " therefore, my sister, make
up your mind to yield up this stronghold to us ; for you
will neither cat nor drink until you have caused it to be
surrendered to us, and we shall let you die of hunger."

Catherine, in her anguish, could find no voice to answer
him, but at last, regaining her power of speech, was able to
cry : " O Misser Ludovico, I pray you, for the love of God,
deliver me from this priest ! " Catherine, who in happier
times recounted this episode to her friends and retainers, was
wont to say that the words of this priest had hurt her almost
more than the m.urder of her husband.

Catherine was then led by Ludovico and Checco Orsi,
Panzechi, and Ronchi, before the papal governor (Monsignor
Savelli) to be publicly interrogated, and as she was now
awaiting the succour she had demanded from Milan and
Bologna, was able, in calm expectation of the result of her
foresight, to make such promises and replies as were imposed
upon her under penalty of death. She was next conducted
to the Fortress of Ravaldino, which she had secretly in-
structed Tommaso Feo to hold at any cost. When, there-
fore, the latter appeared at the battlements the Countess
cried :

" Surrender the fortress to these people, to save my life
and the lives of my children ! "

"They can take me from here in pieces!" replied the
castellane. " I will not yield an inch."

" They will murder me ! "

" Whom will they murder .-' They have too much reason
to fear the Duke of Milan."

At these words he disappeared from the battlements, but
the late captain of Catherine's guard, who knew her as well
as did the castellane, fixed his eyes upon her face and the
point of his partisan on her breast.

CATHERINE AND THE ASSASSINS 123

"O Madonna Caten'na," he cried, "if you chose he would
give it to us, but 'tis you who will not let him surrender ; I
have a mind to bore thee through and through with this
partisan, and to make thee fall down dead."

The Countess replied, without sign of anger or alarm —

" O Jacomo da Ronco, do not frighten me ; deeds canst
do unto me, but canst not frighten, for I am daughter to
one who knew no fear. You have killed my lord, you may
as well kill me, who am a woman."

Finding that they could do nothing with her, the con-
spirators reconducted her to their house. Meanwhile Mon-
signor Sav^elli superintended the works for the capture of
Ravaldino, which were continued throughout the night. On
the following morning, April 16, the same scene was re-enacted
under the walls of the Fort of Schiavonia.

" Castellane, give up the fort to these people," cried Catherine
to Bianchino and his brother, who held it, " and I shall be
content."

"O Madonna, Your Ladyship will forgive us, you never
gave us this fortress, nor will we give it to you, nor to any
one. Retire, or we shall shoot. O Messer Ludovico, retire ! "

At that moment the great parish bell rang to assemble the
council, to which Monsignor Savelli, as papal governor, was
also bidden. As no succour had as yet arrived from the
Pope, it was decided to send some citizens to Rome to invoke
it. Soon after, according to the orders of Savelli, Catherine
and her family were conducted to the Fortress of St. Peter,
where they were received with reverent pity by the three
gentlemen to whom they had been confided by Savelli.
Catherine, her six children (the two youngest in the arms of
their nurses), her mother, her half-sister Stella and Scipio (a
natural son of Count Girolamo), were all confined in a small
room, built in the thickness of the wall of a tower which rose
above the gate. The terrors of the night had dried uj) the
nurses' milk, the children sobbed and cried, and there was no
change of linen, nor bedding for Sforzino, the youngest babe.
In her despair the haughty Countess implored the compassion
and help of her neighbours, and a cradle was immediately

124 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

brought her from the house of a certain Achille Bighi. Even
the guards were touched with pity. " Who could be so hard
of heart," says Bernardi, " but that he would not have felt
some compassion for the said poor Madonna ! " At last
Catherine was able to quiet her babies, but the elder children
still clung in terror to their mother, while her mother and
sister started at every sound, dreading the entrance of armed
men and the nearness of death.

But Catherine, delivered from the clutches of the Orsi,
spoke brave words to her children, her sister, and her mother.
And she was heard to comfort them, saying, that they "should
fear no more, for they were no longer in the hands of traitors,
but in the care of men of honour, whom she knew. Danger
was over ; they nmst neither have nor show fear, which was
worse. . . . Muzio Attendolo and Duke Francesco, their
forebears, had never been known to lose their fortitude ; they
had not known the meaning of fear . . , and that is why they
had always been proof against steel, fire and treason, and in
their day had been great princes and great condottieri. . . .
Their uncle, the Duke, would send hundreds and hundreds of
armed men, with cannon and guns and famous captains to
their rescue. Her father, like theirs, had also been assassinated
in her childhood. Yet she had not lost courage . . . neither
should they!"

When Catherine had somewhat comforted her people, she
began to think how she could turn the change in her cir-
cumstances to her advantage. She was now guarded by
honourable citizens, faithful to their charge, yet kindly and
reverently minded to her. She realized that Savelli and the
Orsi coveted the possession of the fortresses, and that, through
her, they would again attempt to persuade the castellanes to
surrender. Could she but find a pretext to enter the fortress
of Ravaldino ! That and the arrival of help from Milan
would be fatal to the plans of her enemies. Absorbed in this
thought, she confided in a loyal servitor, who fortunately
happened to be near her at the time, says the historian
Bernardi, in a manner which permits us to infer that he was

CATHERINE AND THE ASSASSINS 125

himself this loyal servant. Him she dispatched to the
castellane, to warn him that she would certainly be again led
in front of the fortress, which, if she could but enter, would
save the situation. She therefore enjoined on him to concert
with Francesco Ercolani, who was with him at Ravaldino, as
to her possible mode of entrance. They agreed that upon
the following day, Ercolani would see the governor, and inform
him that the Castellane of Ravaldino, considering the great
danger to which the Countess was exposed, and the impossi-
bility of holding the fort against the impending army of the
Pope, was ready to surrender, but as he came of a stock in
which there had been no traitor, he would neither be nor
appear one. He would therefore do the bidding of the
Countess, and give up the fortress, but before doing so he
demanded an interview with Madonna to settle his affairs,
receive his salary, and receive from Madonna a written
certificate of his honourable service, so that he might show
himself in any company and none would dare to call him
traitor.

Having thus agreed, Ercolani hastened to communicate the
agreement to Catherine, who approved it, and to the Governor,
who promised not only that Catherine should enter the fort,
but that he would induce the Orsi to take her there on that
same morning. Ercolani, on leaving Savelli, proceeded to
the Orsi, who, knowing Catherine too well to trust her within
the fort, absolutely refused her any private colloquy with the
castellane. They would take her outside, where she could
speak with him, as before, in public. Ercolani then appeared
before Tornielli and the magistracy to acquaint them with
the proposals of the castellane. " Now our blockheads believed
his words to be the truth," says Cobelli, and promised that
they would do all that was necessary, " and more," to carry
out this plan. " Then," adds Cobelli, " I went away to dinner,
for it was late."

Meanwhile two confidential persons, Luca d'Este and a
certain Luigi, came and went at will, to inform Catherine of
everything that happened, a proof that the severity of her
custody was somewhat rela.xed, and that her jailers closed

126 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

one eye. Even Savclli, who went forwards and backwards on
the ramparts, directing the work of the batteries, perceived
this coming and going without preventing it.

At about eleven in the forenoon the Orsi, accompanied by
Ercolani and their usual escort of conspirators, went to
conduct Catherine by the road outside the walls to the fortress.
The castellane appeared at the battlements. Catherine, almost
weeping, entreated him to surrender the fort to Monsignor
the Governor, the Pope's representative.

The castellane repeated that he would do nothing of the
kind. "Ah!" said Catherine, "if I might but enter the
fortress and speak to you without witnesses, I would explain
to you how things stand, and persuade you to surrender!"
"In that case," said the castellane, " I know not what I might
do, but in any case I should be guided by the conditions you
might propose to me. Besides, I have already declared to
the Governor and every one that, to make an end of it, I am
willing for you to enter the fortress, on condition that you
come alone."

When the Orsi heard this they loudly opposed those who
advocated sending the Countess within. They knew her too
well . . . they feared her too much. Once within her fortress,
would she come out of it again ? But, says Bernardi, they
took heart of grace, remembering that she would leave her
children in their hands, and yet could not make up their
minds. " What are you afraid of? " queried Ercolani. " Have
you not all her children in your hands? Do you think she
would abandon them ? Give her three hours with the
castellane. If, when that time has elapsed, the Countess does
not return, do what you will to her children, her mother and
sister. Do not these hostages suffice .-' I offer you my
children as well. If the Countess is not here at the appointed
time you can butcher them all together."

"Where is the need that you should offer your children to
us?" replied the Orsi. "Are you not, as well as your children,
in our hands ? " This discussion, which took place in the
presence of Catherine, so grew in length and violence that at
the sound of the contending voices Monsignor Savelli, who

CATHERINE AND THE ASSASSINS 127

never left the neighbourhood of the fortress, appeared upon
the scene. His authority decided the question, and gave
Catherine the right of entry to the fort. He announced that
he ]iad observed certain persons going to and fro from the
fort to Catherine, and he was aware that the castellan e had
already agreed to surrender. And it behoved them, above all,
to deprive the Duke of Milan of the slightest pretext for dis-
pleasure, such as might arise from the prolonged imprisonment
of his sister, or a refusal to permit her to treat for the surrender
with the castellane.

The Orsi could not, dared not, withstand this order, but
they swore, cursed, and were consumed with anger. Three
hours and no more were granted to Catherine in which to
settle everything with her castellane.

In a second Catherine's countenance underwent a complete
change. Rising to her full height, she resolutely approached
and crossed the draw-bridge ; then turning to hurl a gesture
of insult at the assassins, proudly entered the castle, followed
by a single attendant, her faithful Luca d'Este.^

^ Cobelli had "gone to dinner, because it was late. But one way, or another,
Madonna entered the fort . . . and according to Ludovico Hercolano, no sooner
had the Countess mounted the bridge than siie turned and .... When I bad
dined, I picked up my lance and returned to the fort, where Misser Ludovico and
Checco, Jacomo da Ronco, and Ludovico Fansecco waited for Madonna to come
out. They had a good waiting. " — p. 322.

CHAPTER XV

THE LEGEND OF THE FORT

TOMMASO Feo and Corradino, his son, who awaited
Catherine within the fortress, were her husband's kinsmen
and her personal friends. An atmosphere of safety and
loyalty revived her spirits, while her presence inspired the
whole garrison with renewed courage. Her first thought was
to so dispose the artillery (cannon, bombs and mortars) as to
command the city. Savelli had confided the custody of her
dear ones to three loyal citizens, but in the event of their
being overpowered by the conspirators, she would show that
she was ready for terrible reprisals, and able to bombard the
whole town. For a time, the Countess and the castellane
occupied themselves with the transport and disposal of guns
and ammunition. At last, when the churches and principal
houses of the town were at her mercy, she sat down to dinner
with Thomas and Conrad Feo, and was soon joined by
Ercolani, who had succeeded in escaping from the Orsi and
their braves, and to whose congratulations Catherine replied
with thanks for the timely service he had rendered her.
After dinner, the castellane persuaded her to take some repose
in an isolated room at the top of the vmschio, or central
tower, where no sounds from outside could reach her.
Catherine undressed, and youth and fatigue triumphing over
her anxieties, was soon asleep in the bed she had found
prepared for her. When the three hours had expired, the
Orsi began to ask why she did not return, and to call her
clamorously. Corradino replied from the ramparts that if

128

THE LEGEND OF THE FORT 129

they sent Luffo Numai and Lorenzo Orselli as hostages for
Catherine and her children, the castellane would send the
Countess to them, otherwise he would keep her in the
fortress. The rage of the Orsi at this suggestion was un-
bounded ; Numai and Orselli were among the principal
citizens ; the demand for them seemed an additional insolence.
At last Savelli, the Orsi and their myrmidons, irritated at
having been made fools of by Catherine, returned to the city,
and there was once more silence outside the fort.

Ercolani having left its precincts and imprudently shown
himself in the square, would have been put to death by the
knives and partisans of the conspirators, but that he was
rescued and conducted to his house by his brother-in-law,
Matteo Galasso and the latter's followers.

The legend runs otherwise. In the Hove di rccreatione ^ of
Messer Ludovico Guicciardini, we learn that " the Lady
having entered the fortress . . . appeared at the battlements
and with exceeding bitter words, reproached the conspirators
with the death of her husband, threatening them with every
kind of torture. . . . Then they (the Orsi) having taken her
children by the hand, did with a knife make pretence of
slaying them in her presence if she broke her word with
them. But the dauntless Countess, with unchanged counten-
ance, gazed at them defiantly, and lifting her skirt said to
them : ' E non vi pare egli, stolti, cJiio abbia le forvie da fame
degP altri P' "

This is the reply repeated by almost every historian.
Turn we, therefore, to the records of Cobelli and Bernard i who
were present during the stormy episodes of that day.

The only means which Savelli, in concert with the Orsi,
could devise to compass the surrender of the fort by
Catherine, was to threaten to murder her children, mother
and sister, under her eyes. Checco Orsi, followed by many
others, went to San Bietro, and in the names of the governor
and the council, demanded the mother and sister of Catherine,
her two eldest children and a nurse who was particularly
dear {<> the Countess. They were led to weep and cry in the

' Consiglio Ji;mi)iiiio csscr lalhora di ^raiivalorc, p. 20S.

I30 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

moat of Ravaldino. First the nurse, then Stella, and finally
Octavian were employed to entreat Madonna to " surrender
the fort to Monsignore and for the love of God to save their
lives." Instead of Catherine, who was asleep in the remote
recesses of the castle, the castcllane replied by threat to threat,
not to the poor women, whose cries could not waken their
lady, but to those who dictated their appeal. But the shrill
screams of Octavian made his hair stand on end. What if
a mother's love were to sharpen her ears ; she would sur-
render, and all would be over ! A subterfuge dawned upon
him by which he might deaden all sounds from without,
and he ordered all his available soldiers to cry : " Away
with you ! away I or we shall kill you all," ^ at the same
time sending others to make a loud noise under the windows
of the tower where Catherine slept.

Neither the conspirators nor the crowd who followed them
moved an inch. The castellane, in despair, fired a few shots -
which dispersed them in terror, when the conspirators turned
back and reconducted Catherine's family, unharmed, to the
Gate of St. Peter.

These cries had awakened the Countess, who from the
seclusion of the maschio thought she could hear her name.
. . . She listened, the better to distinguish the sounds, but
instead of her name, heard from the draw-bridge a deafening
noise and the sound of blows ; this was surely the beginning
of a battle. . . . She suddenly sprang from her bed and out
of the room. In the scanty clothing in which she had slept,
with unbound hair and bare feet, she quickly descended the
spiral stair that is still to be seen in the chief tower, stopped
for a moment at the bottom, and hearing shots ... in her
impatience to know, see, and meet the emergency, crossed the
court}'ard that was crowded with soldiers, like lightning, and
flew to the small tower where the castellane stood by the big
cannon.

The castellane perceived her, guessed what had happened,
and went to meet her. " What did she fear ? . . . wh\- leave

' Bernardi, p. 148.

- Vecchiazzani, Storia di Foiiimpopoli,-^. 168.

THE LEGEND OF THE FORT 131

her room ? Enemies ! Attacks ! A handful of drunken
soldiers had had a scrimmage among themselves, and he had
been obliged to fire a few shots. . . . Yes, the Orsi had come
to fetch her, but had gone away peacefully . . . very
frightened at the Duke of Milan ! " Reassured by the pious
lie of the castellane, she was soon seen to retire to her apart-
ments. Her face was calm, she passed serenely in front of
the soldiers and soon disappeared.

It would appear that the Countess on reaching the battle-
ments of the tower by the gate was observed by those who
stood outside the fortress. In any case, many soldiers of the
garrison had seen her in her scant attire. Catherine's admir-
able defence of the Castle of Forli soon became a sort of
epopee, adorned by popular fancy and enriched by the
boastful additions of those who had taken any part in it.

It was this version that reached Machiavelli, who was only
to make Catherine's personal acquaintance eleven years later :
he believed it, and delighted in handing it down to history in
its most cynical form. But the narrative of Machiavelli cannot
stand against the absolute silence of such contemporaries as
Cobelli and Bernardi. The person who appeared and who
spoke to the crowd was the castellane ; Catherine was not on
the battlements, but in bed, and when she did appear, wore,
not armour, but her shift, which she was probably the last to
perceive. At that moment the dauntless Countess was not
alarming, but alarmed.

Cobelli relates that when evening came, Ludovico Orsi
called his brother and their associates away from the fort,
saying : " Let us go to supper." Savelli remained to direct
the work of the barricades, but Cobelli followed the others
home, where the supper-tables were laid. Andrea Orsi, the
octogenarian father of Ludovico and Checco, arrived from his
country house at Casa Murata and seeing his sons with
Panzcchi and Ronchi washing their hands before they went
to table began by saying : " O my sons, what have you
done.!"' " We have done well," replied Ronchi," for did not
the preacher say : 'Who will be that mouse that will bell the

132 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

cat ?' We have belled the cat and freed the poor mice. We
have freed this earth from the hand of Pharaoh!" . . . "O
my Father ! " added Ludovico, " we have but done to him as he
would have done to us/' And he told him how the Count
had been put to death, and of all the events that had happened
up to that moment.

Old Orsi, although he had just recovered from a severe
illness and looked as if he were in his dotage, replied, with
much wisdom : " My sons, to my mind you have neither done
well nor done bravely, but have rather done ill, twice over.
First, since you had killed the Count, you should have
finished the others or have penned the whole family alive and
kept them prisoners. Then you have let Madonna into the
fort, to wage deadly war with you, and have banished the
Marcobelli and Orzioli, who will return with fire and sword.
God help you ! I would not have been drawn into it ! You
have behaved like drivelling infants and will repent and suffer
for it ; would that others need not suffer, nor I, who am old
and ill ! I foresee where you will end ! " " O Orsi ! " cried
his hearers, " doubt not but that we know what we have to
do ! " " No ! you know not yet," insisted the old man.
" Since you have killed the Count you should have finished
them all." These words of Andrea Orsi, repeated to Catherine,
enraged her more than ever, confirming her in her belief that
all her troubles were due to the bloodthirsty old man, who
had encouraged his sons to dye their hands in the blood of
the Riario.

On April 17, Catherine, trembling for her children's
safety, and knowing of no other means to insure it but the
display of her power to avenge them, fired on the town from
time to time, by day and night. Several private houses,
among which was that of Giovanni Battista Oliva, the great-
grandfather of Fabio, Catherine's future biographer, were
injured. It w^as hastily decided to raise barricades and bat-
teries for the protection of the town, and to send to Cesena
for battering-rams and a cannon. Monsignor Savelli sum-
moned all the papal soldiers from Cesena and within his
jurisdiction. On the following day, these troops arrived

THE LEGEND OF THE FORT 133

under the command of Count Guido di Bagno, Count Carlo
Pian di Meleto and Hector Zampeschi. Since the night of
April 15, Savelli had invested eight citizens with full
authority, who were to reside day and night in the palace.
This was the Council of Eight, of which Mdso Maldenti was
president. Some of the members were bold and truculent,
others silent and at heart uncertain of the issue, with a fore-
boding that the Pope would turn a deaf ear, and the sense
that the sword of Milan hung over their heads.

Catherine, stronger and more wily than all of them, had
seized the fort, whence she could bombard the whole city.
All hope of frightening or touching her was at an end.

CHAPTER XVI

THE FLIGHT OF THE ORSI

Giovanni Bentivoglio, Lord of Bologna and Catherine's
ally, was anxious to avoid displeasing Lorenzo Medici, whom
he knew to be the instigator of her husband's death : he also
knew that the Florentine was personally favourable to her,
and therefore wTote him as follows :

" The death of the quondam (sic) Count Hieronymus having
occurred in the mode and form of which I know Your Magni-
ficence to be aware, on the said death I will for the present
express no opinion, either in praise or blame, preferring to be
guided by the wisdom of Your Magnificence. . . ." The
ducal orator, resident in Bologna, had begged him to do his
utmost to sav^e the States for the c.iildren of the Count : he
had therefore ridden to Castel San Pietro, five miles from
Lnola, with Light Horse and infantry, and would "fain know
what (under the circumstances) would seem meet to Your
Magnificence, and what you consider should be done in the
matter. . , ."

Lorenzo did not reply, and Bentivoglio wrote him again on
the 19th, from Castel Bolognese, "repeating his prayer, that
he might be pleased to communicate to him (Bentivoglio) an
inkling of his wise decision and opinion. . . ." These letters
prove that Lorenzo was the soul and centre of these intrigues.
Why therefore did he not trouble to reply to Bentivoglio .-'
The conditions were altered : the conspiracy of the Pazzi,
origin of these feuds, had occurred ten years earlier, and
vengeance had fallen when perhaps it was least desired.

134

THE FLIGHT OF THE ORSI 135

Besides, even if he had willed and worked the death of
Girolamo, he now desired to avoid the odium of the assassin-
ation.

Meanwhile the news of it continued to reach him from
other sources. Stefano of Castrocaro wrote him on the 19th,
from Faenza, relating a conversation in which Galeotto
Manfredi had asserted " that all had happened with the
knowledge of Lorenzo." This he, Stefano, had defied him to
prove. He added Galeotto's account of the assassination, and
ended by stating that the body had been interred in "uncon-
secrated ground." Galeotto had already, in a letter of the
17th, informed Lorenzo that Bentivoglio had shamefacedly
asked his assent to the passage of forces he was sending to
the defence of Catherine, but that, " to avoid responsibility,"
he had replied that he was too busy to see him, and had
refused him a right of way through Faenza. He had learned
that Bentivoglio would be followed by the Milanese forces :
he would write Lorenzo everything that occurred, and would
establish a service of couriers by the Marradi road, to carry
letters backwards and forwards. He added that Catherine
Sforza had entered the fort, and had given out that she
would die there ; she was regardless of her children's danger,
and had opened fire on the city.^

On the following day, he wrote again saying that " pending
the ebullition," he begged Lorenzo to send a confidential
person to him with whom he might confer in any circum-
stance whatever. He referred to the endurance with which
Catherine held the fort.

Lorenzo had already received similar information, regarding
Catherine, from Migliore Cresci, captain of Castrocaro, con-
firmed by three letters of Corbizzi,- who wrote that the
assassins of the Count looked to him, Lorenzo, for protection.
The most important letters arc, however, those from Ludovico
and Checco Orsi. The assassins did not spare the memory
of their "iniquitous and accursed" victim, "whom we will not
call Lord, for of that he was unworthy." They openly
alluded to the pait played by Girolamo in the conspiracy of
' Doc. 258. -' Docs. 260, 261, 267.

136 CATHERINE'S WIDOWI lOOlJ

the Pazzi, as a pretext for the assassination. God had in-
spired them ; in spite of all risks success had so attended them
that they were constrained to recognize divine intervention.
Not a drop of blood except that of the accursed one and a
bargello of like nature had been spilled. " We announce
these things to Your Magnificence, because having been
sorely offended, Your Lordship will surely rejoice thereat."
They had had good reasons of their own for putting Girolamo
to death, but foremost had been their love for Lorenzo, whose
help and counsel they now entreated. The accursed brood of
the Riario would soon be stamped out : they hoped to take
one of the two fortresses on that day, and to soon oblige the
other to surrender. Thanks to their patriotism, love and
peace now prevailed at Forli. . . .

To this letter Lorenzo vouchsafed no response, merely
telling the envoy who delivered it that he wished to live in
peace for the short span that was yet allotted to him, and that
no consideration in the world would induce him to dabble in
such matters. Yet he still held the thread of the skein, and
sent Stephen of Castrocaro to explore the humours of the
assassins. Stefano, having, " according to orders received,
spoken separately with each" (Ludovico and Checco Orsi),
wrote that he could not describe the cordiality of his re-
ception. " I therefore told them that Your Magnificence
having sent me to the Lord of Faenza had requested me to
confer with them also, and to assure them that Your Lordship
was naturally disposed to do all that lies in your power in
their favour and for their benefit." They prayed Lorenzo to
induce the Pope to come to the help of the people of Forli,
who were still horrified by the memory of the Count, and
determined to no longer tolerate the rule of tyrants. Here
follows the assassin's account of the assassination. The Orsi
declared that at the sacking of the palace they had found
no money, but jewels and plate to the value of 60,000
ducats ; everything had passed through their hands, but they
had kept nothing for themselves.

Checco's gravest assertion was that he had done the deed
co7iscio poiitifice. The cry of all was Chicsa I neither would

THE FLIGHT OF THE ORSI 137

they hear of the Ordelaffi, " nor any other private Lord. . . .
Come Milan, or any other potentate," they had continued,
"we will be drawn and quartered, one by one, sooner than
submit to a tyrant, for we have faith in the support of the
Pope:" a transparent protest against the possibility of Forli
being given to Franceschetto Cibo.^ Stephen added that the
Fort of Ravaldino, one of the finest he had seen, was ammuni-
tioned for ten years. Having asked the Orsi what would be
done with the Count's children, they replied that they were in
a place where they would never be seen again, whence he
concluded that they had killed them. The Orsi professed
themselves well pleased that Madonna was in the fort, soon
to fall into their hands.

Thus the Orsi, by suppressing facts and their real feelings,
contrived to present a brave front to the envoy of Lorenzo
Medici. Checco Orsi had concluded by saying that he "and
all his house were the slaves of the Magnificent Lorenzo, and
had I done nought else, should be content to have avenged
that innocent blood of his brother ;"^ he had no other desire
than " the certainty of Lorenzo's favour ; " a few words in his
writing would suffice him. In short he wanted a few strokes
in black and white as well as words. But Stephen knew his
master's humour too well to promise anything of the kind.
" I replied, that without any other testimony, he could believe
and I certify , . . ." He here remarked, in the current
of his letter, that if possession were taken by the Church,
Lorenzo would no longer be able to dispose of Forli as if it
were his own, having previously assured the Orsi that
"they need not fear that his master, who desired but to
end his days in peace, would attempt to impose upon them
the Lord Francesco Cibo as ruler."

And the Pope? Innocent VIII., ambitious but irresolute,
had married his s(jn to the daughter of Girolamo's deadliest
enemy, and the envoys of the city, lately freed from the
tyrant, had been graciously received at the Vatican. Yet,
the Pope's lack of confidence in the appeal would tend to

^ Son of Innocinl VIII. .iin! son-in-law to Lorenzo ]\rc(lici.
^ (liuliano Mcilici, kilk-il in liic consiiiiai-y fif the I'a/.zi.

13S CATHKRINprS WIDUWIIUOD

prove that he had no hand in the assassination, and was
besides most probably deterred by fear from coming to any
decision, since Catherine had so promptly called the Lords of
Bologna and Milan to her aid.

Wc learn from two letters of Giovanni Lanfredini, Florentine
Orator in Rome, addressed to the Otto di Pratica} that the
Pope had written to Forli that Catherine and her children
were to be protected and taken to the Fortress of Cesena, and
that having assembled all the orators of the league he had
caused a letter from the Gov^ernor of Cesena and one from
the Commune of Forli to be read, which set forth that the
citizens would no longer tolerate tyrants, that Pope Sixtus
had deceived them, that the Count's rule had been detestable,
and that they craved the protection of the Church. The
Milanese Orator had enjoined on the Pope the protection of
the widow and children, and the punishment of the assassins.

The Pope's instructions to his envoy at Milan betray
the fears and indecision that consumed him. He sought to
dissuade the Duke from sending forces for the defence of his
sister, he wondered that the Duke could not entrust her
defence to him, although he could not have done otherwise
than accept the dominion offered by Forli to the Church. . . .
What was nearest his heart was the peace of Italy, menaced
as it was by the Turk,-

After this protest, seeing that matters did not shape them-
selves to his intentions, the Pope was deaf and blind to the
affairs of Forli, which may have been due to the all-powerful
influence of Cardinal Julian della Rovere.'^ The Cibo family
were of too lymphatic a temperament to bend the Cardinal
to their will or to enforce their authority on the whole Curia:
they limited themselves to the accumulation of treasure,
especially by usury. Unlike the Riario before, and the
Borgia after them, they knew not how to extract profit for
themselves from the political relation of the papacy with the
affairs of the world in general.

' State Archives of Florence, Doc>. 274, 275.

- Secret Archives of the Vatican, Instr. IV. Vol. 55, Doc. 2S3.

^ A near relation of the Riario.

THE FLIGHT OF THE ORSI 139

On April 18, a herald of Bentiv^oglio arrived at Forli,
requiring, of the Council of Eight, the reinstatement of the
Riario. He warned them to do no harm to the children of
Catherine under penalty of reprisals from the Duke of
Milan.

Savelli replied that there was nothing to fear for the
children, especially if Catherine surrendered the fort : it
would be impossible to reinstate her, because the city had
offered itself spontaneously to the Pope, and had already
dispatched orators to Rome. If the Countess surrendered,
she might retire to her city of Imola. On returning to the
square, the herald was met by Checco Orsi with words of
insult for Bentivoglio and Bologna. These incidents caused
some excitement in the city : Savelli, surrounded by his
guard, appeared in the square, some voices cried CJiiesa !
Chiesa ! but these demonstrations were due to bribery, and
soon ceased. On the following day Savelli banished many
suspects from Forli, sent for some partisans of the Orsi from
Imola, and, to rid himself of the incumbrance of Catherine's
mother and sister, summoned them to his presence, married
Stella to her betrothed, Andrea Ricci, and sent them under
honourable escort to Cesena.

Checco Orsi, hearing that many artisans had been admitted
to the fort to share in Catherine's defence, went in fury to
their houses, dragged forth their wives, and led them to the
fort where he forced them to call on their husbands, saying,
that unless they came out the Orsi would kill their children.
One of these women imitated the device of the Countess.
" Could I but speak alone to my dear husband, Bernardino,"
she said, " I am sure I could persuade him to return with me."
No sooner had she entered the fort than she declared she
would never leave it. At the same time, the men cried from
within, that they had sworn allegiance to their lady, and that
neither promises nor threats would induce them to abandon
her.

On the morning of the 20th a courier from Bentivoglio
arrived with a letter for Savelli from the Duke of Milan ;
towards evening another brought one for the council, l^oth

I40 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

condemned the presence of the papal governor, and demanded
the reinstatement of the Riario. The reph'es were kept secret.
There was no sign of lielp from the Pope, and the most
influential citizens were heard to say that His Holiness was
not even cognizant of what had happened. To avoid a panic
Savelli had recourse to the publication of two forged bulls
purporting to have come from Rome, by which the Pope's
thanks were conveyed to the people of Forli for having given
themselves to him, promising them support.

On the 2 1st, the Duke of Milan's first envoy, accompanied
by a trumpeter of Bentivoglio, entered Forli. They were on
horseback, and when they arrived at the bridge known as
Del Pane, close to the square, they were met by Checco Orsi
and his followers, to whom their guide, instead of leading
them to Savelli and the council, presented them. There, in
the presence of the crowd, the envoy said, in a loud voice,
that he had been sent by the Duke of Milan to request Orsi
to bring to his presence the children of Girolamo. He must
see them with his eyes. He added that Bentivoglio was at
Castel Bolognese with his forces, and would soon be joined by
those of the Duke.

" We have already put them to death," replied Checco ;
" we neither will nor can show them to you, and I tell you to
begone quickly, lest we hang you by the throat. We neither
fear Bentivoglio, nor the Duke of Milan. Within three days,
the Pope will send us sufficient forces to send them back
whence they came." The envoy replied that the rank of the
prince he served sufficed to protect him against their insults,
but Orsi, ordering his myrmidons to take the horses by the
bridle, confined both horses and riders in a neighbouring inn.
Towards evening, two men were captured who brought letters
to Catherine from Bentivoglio and the leaders of the Milanese
forces. The Orsi would have put them to death, but Savelli
saved them.

On the following day an orator arrived from the Duke of
Milan protesting against the detention of his envoy and the
violation of the liberty of the people. The council apologized.

THE FLIGHT OF THE ORSl 141

laid the blame on Orsi, and immediately liberated the
envoy and his companion. Other things the orator said, but
they were kept secret, and secret were the words that Ludovico
Orsi had whispered in his ear.

Savelli, in the absence of news from head-quarters, con-
tinued to contribute forged bulls for the encouragement of the
citizens : the Eight, who relied more on their artillery than on
the Pope, dragged ?i passavolante^ from the Fort of Schiavonia
to a watchman's box that commanded the Valverde road
and placed bombs in a house that stood near it, and on the
24th an edict of Savelli ordered both citizens and foreigners
to bring in a bundle of wood for the barricades : the peasants
brought two each, but none were willing to work at the
barricades nor to guard the cannon. As a bait to the
populace, the Orsi prevailed upon the council to provide
each workman at the barricade with a ticket, in return for
which they could demand a pawned article from any of the
Jews. But the Orsi reserved to themselves the promulgation
of this edict. On the 26th, the artillery of the Orsi opened
fire on the Fort of Ravaldino, which suffered little and replied
vigorously, damaging the palace tower in several places, but
neither touching that of St. Mercurial nor of the Dome.
There were only two victims, the Countess being minded
rather to frighten than to injure the city.

On the 27th, one Battista of Savona, a relative of the late
Count, and castellane of Forlimpopoli, actuated less by avarice
than the conviction that Catherine's fortunes were fallen,
gave up that fortress to Savelli for 4000 ducats : with his
son and son-in-law as hostages while awaiting the payment
of this sum.

On April 29, the ducal army which had joined the forces
of Bentivoglio (about 12,000 strong without counting the
adventurers and camp-followers) encamped at Cosina, five
miles from Forli. It was led by Galeazzo Sanseverino, Count
of Caiazzo, the future son-in-law to Ludovico il Moro and the

' Passavolantc — an old Italian ])iccc (jf artillery used, before the invention of
[gunpowder, to hurl stones and other minute projectiles.

142 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

Lords of Bergamo, Mantua and Bologna, who had determined
in council to send Giovanni Landriani, an officer of mark,
to treat with the citizens of Forli. He arrived there at the
twenty-first hour and was received by the Council of Eight, of
which Savelli was president. He eloquently denounced the
murder of Count Girolamo, and pointed out the political
illegality of the act whereby the city had given itself to the
Pope, since Sixtus IV. had given the lordship thereof to
Girolamo Riario and his heirs forever, until the extinction of
his line. His widow and children were the representatives of
his rights, which would be enforced by the 12,000 men, led
by the Lord of Bologna and the generals of the Duke
of Milan, brother of the Countess. Savelli had no right
to accept the city on behalf of the Church and the league of
the powers of Milan, Naples, Ferrara, Mantua and Bologna
demanded the restoration of the Riario.

Savelli replied firmly that the Riario had forfeited their
rights by non-payment of the dues of the Church, wherefore
the city had been justified in giving itself to the Church, and
the Eight, to whom he appealed, were unanimous in support
of his argument, declaring with one voice that it was impos-
sible to undo that which had been done. Ludovico Orsi
imprudently added that Count Girolamo had but had his
deserts and that he congratulated himself even more on having
freed the city from such a tyrant than on having given it to
the Church. . . . Within six days Ludovico Orsini, Count of
Pitigliano with Ser Domenico Orio and the papal army,
strengthened by the forces of Malatesta of Rimini, would
disperse the troops of the Duke of Milan, and the people of
Forli would be left at peace in their city.

" The dues of the Church, forsooth ! The late Count was a
creditor of the apostolic treasury for enormous sums," replied
Landriani, after he had patiently listened to all that had been
said. " If you hold to your decision," continued Landriani,
" the Duke, my lord, proposes that the government of Forli
be confided pro tein. to two commissioners, one on his own
behalf, one for Holy Church, with the Pope as arbitrator. If
he decides in favour of Forli I pledge my word as Ambassador

THE FLIGHT OF THE ORSI 143

that the Captains and soldiers of Milan and Bologna will
return whence they came, and not another word will be said
of the Duke's demands, the murder of the Count, the imprison-
ment of the Countess and the rights of their children."

Savelli contemptuously refused, the councillors applauded.
His reply and their applause were too much for the patience
of Landriani, who cried that they would bitterly repent and
that the Duke of Milan would hasten in person to avenge the
wrongs of his nephews, sparing neither the possessions nor the
lives of the people of Forli. He bowed and left the hall. He
was met in the square by cries of " Chiesa ! Long live the
Church ! " for a certain Guriolo (brother-in-law to Ludovico
Orsi) had ridden in by the Cotogni Gate, crying, " Good news,
good news ! succour is at hand ! " and the news that the Count
of Pitigliano had arrived at Ronco so strengthened the
determination of the Eight that the orator was recalled to
hear once more that they would stand and fall by the Church.

The cries in the square may have been derisive, for, " I
was in the square," says Cobelli, " when all the populace
laughed, saying : ' This is really a hoax like the Ordelaffi
used to treat us to ! ' ' O poor people of Forli,' cried a bag-
gage-varlet, who was also in the square, ' the lords in the
Milanese camp know better than that. No one cares to move
a hand for us ! ' The truth was that everything was known
in the Milanese camp. Many inhabitants of Forli, either
fearing that their property at the Cosina was endangered, or
in spite to their rivals, reported everything that occurred at
Forli, at the camp at Cosina. Landriani, aware of the
measures taken by the league to intercept help for Forli,
could not believe that Pitigliano was at its gates.

"At last, from afar, a troop of horse became visible in a cloud
of dust. ... At the Cotogni Gate, instead of entering, they
turned to the left and entered the fort. They were fifty
horsemen sent by a cardinal who was related to Catherine,
in her defence."

The leaders of the army hastened to communicate Savelli's
reply to Catherine, proposing at the same time, with her

144 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

consent, to advance and sack the city. But Catherine, who
was ah'eady in possession of the facts, ordered those captains
to do nothing for the present but to approach the fortress by
the hills in the neighbourhood of San Martino and Busecchio.
It was impossible to move the whole army to the city on that
day, but every company had marching orders and the whole
camp was in movement, folding tents, packing luggage and
burnishing arms.

Spies, of whom many hovered about the camp, ran to Forli
with the news that the army was on the march to put the city
to fire and blood during the night. A sudden, irresistible
terror possessed the citizens : there was neither time nor in-
tention, nor possibility of warding off the terrible blow ; they
could only weep and curse. The distracted populace paced
the streets, calling those traitors and assassins of their country
whom they had erstwhile exalted as liberators and by whom
they had sworn to stand till death. Ludovico Orsi, Ronchi
and Panzechi were wild with rage when they found them-
selves abandoned by the people and their partisans. Ludovico,
less audacious than his brother, was seen by his familiars
to weep. " Oh ! had we but listened to the voice of the people,
at first, and called ' Ordelaffi and St. Mark' [i.e. the Venetians
who at that time colonized Ravenna) as they sent to tell us,
we should not now find ourselves in this labyrinth. . . . We
would have nought but Church and Pope, and a pretty Pope
we have got ! . . . I can remember the army of the Pope
encamped outside Forli and yet unable to take it ; and now
that he could have had it without breaking a lance, he would
have none of it. We have been gulled ! " He was joined by
Panzechi, with a few followers, and later by Ronchi ; all were
pale and bewildered. None dared to approach Checco Orsi ;
the enraged populace cast threatening looks at him, he kept
silent and apart. " I saw how things were going," says Cobelli,
"and said to certain friends : 'they are in bad case, they have
neither tail nor wings left and cannot fly ! ' . . . I looked on
for a while and then went to supper." A new and secret
terror added to the discomfort of the Orsi. Catherine, who
had means of learning whatever happened in the city, had, on

THE FLIGHT OF THE ORSI 145

hearing the drift of their replies to Landriani, fired certain
spiked bombs into the streets, on whose spikes were threaded
placards that bore the following inscription : — " People of
Forli ! My people ! Punish ; put to death all my enemies !
I promise to hold you ever after as my good brothers. Strike
quickly and fear nothing. The Milanese army is at our gates ;
soon you will reap the reward and they the chastisement that
are deserved." These projectiles carried the placards to every
quarter of the town, where they were eagerly read by the
populace ; the assassins felt that their hour was come. Night
was at hand, the army would enter with the dusk and surprise
the city, they would be among the first to be taken. .
What was to be done ? Throw themselves at the feet of the
captains, imploring pity ? Too proud were the words they
had spoken to their orator ; there was no hope of pardon.
Either they would be treacherously done to death by the
citizens or beheaded in the square on the following morning
as an example to the people.

It was not possible to save either the city, their property or
their families : the utmost they could attempt was to save
their lives. Unanimous on this subject they ceased from
quarrelling and once more became friends, willing to forget all
else if they might but escape.

Savelli did not fall so low : conscious of his rank, and
mindful of his dignity, he refused to talk of flight.

While they were considering the course still open to them,
one of them remembered that they still had control of the
children of the Countess. "With those children in our hands,
her 12,000 defenders may become useless to her ... all is
not yet lost ! "

But they would be caught if they attempted to escape with
six children and two nurses. Therefore, since they were
constrained to fly the persecutions of the populace and the
Duke's army, leaving behind them their families and property,
they determined to adequately avenge themselves on Catherine,
cause and origin of their ruin and despair, by slaying her
children. If they could not complete the butchery at once,

146 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

they would drag them with them to be put to death at their
leisure, or keep them as hostages for Catherine's submission
to their threats. This is additional proof that the mother had
not made light of the value of her children's lives b\^ the reply
attributed to her in the legend.

That night, at the second hour. Doctor Ludovico Orsi
wended his way to the little fortress at the Gate of St. Peter.
He was followed at a respectful distance by fifty armed men,
lead by Giacomo Ronchi. Silently and cautiously they trod
in the darkness and were soon hidden in the vicinity of the
fort. Orsi called through the grating that he must see those
in comm»and at once. Capoferri, Serughi and Denti, accom-
panied by two soldiers, answered the summons and led Orsi
into a room on the ground floor, close to the grating.
" Brothers," said Orsi, " I come on behalf of Monsignore to
demand of you the children of Madonna. To these children
we must look for the salvation of our city, our lives and even
the life of Monsignore. He will send them under proper
escort to Cesena."

" Gaffer," replied Capoferri, " we are not going to give them
up to you. I and my brother have travelled the world over
long enough to see through your device. You have to fly
and, like mad dogs, would fain set your teeth here and there.
You shall not have the children to kill." His words were
echoed by Denti and Serughi and all put their hands to their
swords. Meanwhile Giacomo Ronchi had approached the
grating, whence he saw and heard everything. He hastily
summoned a handful of his men-at-arms and waited, intending
to profit by the moment that the grating would open to give
egress to Ludovic. Then he would enter with a rush,
exterminate the guard and carry away the children.

He had thought it out fairly well, but did not succeed in
sufficiently muffling his steps and those of his followers, which,
despite the noise inside, were audible to the sentinel in the
tower, who immediately apprised Capoferri of the guet-apcns.
Capoferri ordered Ronchi to depart at once, unless he and his
people preferred to be put to death where they stood. Ronchi
cried out that Catherine's children had been taken there by

THE FLIGHT OF THE ORSI 147

Savelli and the Orsi, that Capoferri could not detain them
against their will and that he would shatter the gate with a
beam and seize the children. Tiles and stones then began to
rain on Ronchi's men, and one of his servants was mortally
wounded.

" I will ring the alarm-bell," replied Capoferri ; " the people
will come and tear you to pieces ! " At this threat, Ronchi
took to flight : the conspirators no longer dared to face the
people. Ludovico Orsi was allowed to pass out, joined Savelli
at the Fort of Schiavonia, and with him entered the square,
where silence reigned and the terrified citizens awaited the
plundering of the city, according to the orders of the Duke of
Milan to his captains. This sacking (with Catherine's assent)
was to the soldiers the aim and essence of victory, and they
looked forward to it with avidity.

The Orsi went home and prepared for flight. They carried
with them jewels, plate and gold snatched from the Jews and
all they had been able to accumulate elsewhere ; for knowing
who had seized the most valuable of the Riario property, they
had sent to demand it of the spoilers. Short had been their
reign of terror, but while it lasted, none had withstood their
demands. Ludovico and Checco, with two married sons, two
cousins and a brother-in-law, gained the Cotogni Gate, where
they were met by Ronchi and Panzechi and the kinsmen and
partisans of the latter at two o'clock, after midnight. The
fugitives were seventeen in number, and wishing to keep in
touch with Forli, halted at Cervia, then held by Venice. But
the Venetian podesta and captain, at Ravenna, refused to
tolerate the presence of the murderers of Girolamo Riario, a
senator and patrician of Venice.

The conspirators, on being ejected from Cervia, dispersed,
In the deserted house at Forli, the old father and the unhappy
wives ot the Orsi were abandoned to their fate.

CHAPTER XVII

THE RESTORATION

After the flight of the conspirators, " our town, which had
been bh'nd, was illuminated," says Bernardi. " None of the
inhabitants had slept, the Milanese forces might have entered
at any hour, people kept behind their well-closed doors."
Among these was Leone Cobelli. But after the departure of
the conspirators, Antonello, a follower of Panzechi, came to
call him and told him of the flight of the Orsi, and that
several citizens had gone to Ravaldino to tell the Countess
that they were ready to assemble the people and give back
the State to her and to Octavian by acclamation. A counter-
revolution was at hand. Devoured by curiosity, Cobelli
" hurried to the square," which was empty, then to the
Custom House, where he found only the chief ofificer, Gian
Griffone of Bologna, with two or three of his men. Then on
to the Ponte de Cavalieri and the Canto dei Numai, where he
saw many people of threatening aspect. . . . Alarmed, he
joined his cousin, Guasparra de' Numai, and stood waiting,
when there appeared Tommaso Palmeggiani and Ludovico
Ercolani, followed by a troop, and upon their heels Tommaso
degli Orcioli, returning from the fort.

At this sight Gian Griffone sprang into his saddle, and
meeting the approaching company sternly queried of its
leader, Thomas Palmeggiani, " Who are these people ? "
Palmeggiani, turning to the others, said, " Shall we kill this
poltroon .'' " and then in reply, " We are the ill that God
sends you." When he heard these words, Gian Griffone put

148

THE RESTORATION 149

spurs to his horse and fled to the Ponte del Pane. And while
he fled and his men dispersed, the crowd began to cry, Ditca !
Djica ! Octavian ! Octaviim ! and in a moment there was a
revolution in favour of Catherine. All this happened in the
night. Orcioli, accompanied by the others, returned to the
house, where he wrote the terms of the transfer of the city
and dispatched them to the camp at Cosina. From Casa
Orcioli the revolutionists returned to the square, crying Octa-
vian ! Octavian ! louder than ever. At every window lights
appeared, and the great bell of the commune summoned the
populace ; a festive population invaded the square from every
direction, and cheers and applause rent the air until they
resounded in the fort, where Catherine, no longer a prisoner,
was sovereign lady.

The exulting cries of the people were heard as far as
Cosina, in the Milanese camp, but it is doubtful whether they
were appreciated by the army, to whom orders had been
issued for the sacking of the town in case opposition were
offered to the restoration of the Riario. They were, however,
forbidden to strike a blow without the consent of the Countess.
Cobelli relates that Francesco Numai, Orcioli and other
citizens had that night found the Countess so irritated with
the populace that she was half inclined to allow the city to
be sacked, yet feared that this course would increase the
difficulty of recovering the property which the populace had
pillaged from the palace, and being also, says Cobelli, " in-
spired to leniency by our blessed Saint Mercurial, and above
all, mindful of the honour of women and maidens," decided
that there should be no sacking. This, with the attendant
horrors of fire and armed violence, had been looked upon as
inevitable, when suddenly the rumour spread that " Madonna
would have none of it," although the Milanese army was near
enough to strike the first blow at dawn.

Catherine's decision, continues Cobelli, "saddened and
astonished" some of the Milanese captains, causing others to
curse and swear most horribly, for on the faith of being
permitted to sack Forli, they had come away without a penny
in their purses, and had kept their men together by dint of

ISO CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

" good words and fine promises." Troops were massed under
the walls of Ravaldino, while the bulk of the infantry
camped outside the Schiavonia, Cotogni and San Pietro
Gates ; but Catherine only permitted two companies to enter
the city, so that Brambilla had no chance of playing the
game of the Duke of Milan, which, it appears, would have
been to seize Forli for himself. ..." But he could not," says
Cobelli, " for Madonna was too wise to admit many men-at-
arms. O reader, observe ! U)ia nc pcnsa il gJiiotto e laltra il
tavernaroy ^ Here the glutton would stand for the Duke and
the innkeeper for Catherine. Catherine fully deserves the
praise of Cobelli for defending her city against her defenders.
Yet his satisfaction is a curious trait in one who had supped
with the Orsi two nights earlier, and who on that very night
had gone the round of the town with one of the assassins, to
see its sights.

At dawn, when the first cries for Catherine were heard, one
hastened to the house of the Orsi with the news that the
people were crying, Djica I Duca ! "Fly!" he said, "your
sons have already fled." Poor old Orso, with his daughters-
in-law and the daughters-in-law of his sons, taking with him
what little he could, sought refuge in San Domenico. The
monks declared that the old man hid himself in an empty
grave, weeping, and crying, " Accursed children, whither have
you brought me ? " Among the seven unhappy women whom
the Orsi had abandoned, was the widow of Agamemnon, who
died of wounds received on the night of the Count's murder.
She was left with two infants, one of whom was but six
months old, whom she hid in the basket of a servant sent to
Cesena, thus saving his life.

At sunrise on April 30, 1488, the Signori of the council
(not the Eight appointed by the Orsi) and the magistracy
waited on Catherine at Ravaldino to tender their allegiance.
They were introduced into a hall in the fort, where she
immediately appeared, dressed in deep mourning. " Her
Ladyship," says Bernardi, " as ever, forgetful of evil and only
^ The glutton is of one mind and the innkeeper of another.

THE RESTORATION 151

mindful of good, gave hearty thanks to all," and permission
to fetch Octavian from the Fort of St. Peter. But although
he was to be carried in triumph, the captains of his guard
would not consent to his going unless accompanied by
Serughi and other men-at-arms. In this order, the magis-
tracy led him three times round the square to the cheers of
the populace, which continued along the road to Ravaldino.
Catherine, who had set aside her garb of woe and was
magnificently attired for the solemn reception of her first-
born, clasped him to her breast, hiding her face and her
emotion in this embrace, while the child, delivered from past
terror, sobbed aloud in her arms. His mother comforted and
pacified him. Feo and all who were present encouraged him
until the boy dried his tears, again and again embracing his
mother, spoke to them with childlike affection, and showed
his joy at sight of the friendly face of Tommasino Feo ;
while, according to contemporary writers, tears were shed by
those who witnessed the scene. Says Bernardi, " Discreet
reader, I leave you to judge of the joy of that moment."
The magistracy, with Catherine's consent, returned to St.
Peter's for the other children, and an hour later there appeared
five children with two nurses, so surrounded by the guards of
Capoferri that the}' might have been taken for prisoners.
The Countess, after warmly thanking him and the Signori,
ordered bread and provisions in the largest possible quantities
to be taken to the Church of the Pianta for the Milanese
soldiers.

When Catherine was alone with her children, Capoferri and
Serughi (who, while compelled to assume acquiescence with
the Orsi, had been all along devoted to her cause) told
her how, after the hostages had been brought back to them
from under the walls of Ravaldino, they had sworn never to
lose sight of them again until they could restore them un-
harmed to their mother ; of the final attempt of the Orsi to
snatch them from them, and of their own anxieties while
they repulsed the conspirators with shot and stones. Each
of them had a wife and children in the city, who might have
been murdered by the baffled assassins. Yet had they been

153 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

faithful to their trust, for which, says Vecchiazzani, " Catherine
thanked them effusively, as if she had been mad for joy."
She afterwards continued to load these tried friends with
favours, which often consisted in the pardon of others, and
nothini^ that she could do for them seemed to her enough.

On that day began the reign of Catiierine Sforza, and in
the state apparel in which she had welcomed her Octavian,
seated in her massive arm-chair, she dictated her first com-
mands to her secretary. She sent a courier to the Count of
Caiazzo ordering him to immediately place his troops under
the fort on the mountain side. She ordered Monsignor
Savelli, papal governor, and the Counts Guido di Bagno and
Pian di Meleto, papal generals, to be seized and imprisoned in
the fort, and put a heavy ransom on the head of Zampeschi,
who had jumped off the walls and fled. Savelli could not
believe his ears at the sound of the people's cries, until some
men-at-arms, with the words " Monsignore, you are a prisoner
of Madonna the Countess," explained to him the untoward
fact.

Catherine ordered Captain Rubino, who had been sent to
her aid by a friendly cardinal, with fifty horse, to lead them to
Forlimpopoli, of which she had already appointed him castel-
lane, and of which he was to obtain possession by force or
strategy. The former castellane, who had sold his trust for a
bribe, was to be brought with his officers under strong escort to
Forli. The houses of Andrea Orsi and Graziolo, his brother,
were to be ruined and pillaged by the populace, and old Andrea
and all the conspirators, whether male or female, wheresoever
they might be found, taken and imprisoned in the fort. The
families of Ronchi and Panzechi were to be imprisoned, and
their houses, with those of Galasso, demolished. Catherine
further ordered that the three who had thrown the corpse of
Girolamo from the window be taken, as well as Pagliarino,
who had brutally dragged it on the ground. Finally she
ordered Gian Giffone, head of Savelli's guard, Pietro Alba-
nese, Antonio da Modigliana, and many others of humble
origin who had taken part in the assassination or revolution,
to be taken and cast into prison.

THE RESTORATION

153

Patrols were seen to leave Ravaldino, disperse within the
city, and led by officers and spies, hunt for the culprits,
invading the houses of those assassins who had escaped to
drag their unhappy families in chains to the fort.

A second summons reached the army at Cosina before it
had time to obey the first. Soon after, the troops were on
the road to Forli, and
the Captains waited on
Catherine at the fort.
Here they were met
by Catherine, ready
for her State entry.
She desired two squad-
rons of Light Horse to
precede and await her
in the square in front
of the palace, four
companies of infantry
to follow her, and the
road between Raval-
dino and the Cotogni
Gate to be lined with
troops. She ordered
Bentivoglio and Ru-
dolph of Mantua to
surround the Parish
della Pianta. When the army had been thus disposed of, she
sprang into her saddle, with Sanseverino on her right and
Brambilla on her left, followed by Landriani and Carlo Gratti,
left the fort and rode in triumph towards the town.

The victorious lady was splendidly attired, the helmets of
the condotticri who rode at her side, the coats of mail of the
men-at-arms, glittered in the sun. Catherine, content and
at case, rode between the troops that like two walls of
steel lined the way, and who, forgetful that she had deprived
them of the pillage, gloried in defending the heroic woman
who had so well fou^jht her own battle.

THE CHURCH (,JK ST. MERCURIAL.

154 CATJIERINK'S WIDOWHOOD

At the Cotogni Gate the cries and rejoicings began. The
streets, windows and balconies were crowded with people,
entranced at sight of the intrepid widow who had freed
herself from the toils of her enemies and was more in-
domitable and formidable than ever. 'I o fear and admire
her was synonymous with the populace. The feast of St.
Mercurial, patron of the city, fell on that day. Every year it
had been the custom to celebrate it with public rejoicing, but
it had never been before, nor w^as it after, so great a feast.
The Milanese army was not only the strongest, but without
comparison the most imposing of all Italy. Its burnished
arms were famous, as were the gilded trappings of its power-
ful horses.

On the appearance of the Countess, the serried ranks of
pikemen in front of the palace presented arms and stood at
ease, and as Catherine passed through the thicket of lanceSj
the standards were lowered in homage, while the bells rang
out the signal for her to dismount and enter St. Mercurial.
Here she heard the thanksgiving service for her and her
children's deliverance. . . . Pnpilluni et siduam auscipict ;
and, on leaving the church, caused Octavian, with the usual
ceremonies, to be once more acclaimed Lord of Forli and the
other paternal States. She gave Sanseverino permission to
return to the camp, and requested the Provost Orcioli to
remain on guard at the palace with all the troops that then
stood there, so as not to permit a single soldier to move from
his place. Accompanied by Brambilla and other captains,
among whom were Landriani and Gratti, and escorted by two
companies of infantry, she proceeded on foot to the Fort of
Schiavonia, which had not yet surrendered. *' And on the
way," says Bernardi, " many of our women embraced her,
condoling with her affliction," for a woman whose first exer-
cise of power was for the protection of other women had not,
till then, been seen among them.

Catherine halted at the Parish of the Trinity, sent Gratti to
warn the castellane not to fire, and on his return continued her
way to a house close to the fortress, whence she dispatched

THE RESTORATION 155

Brambilla to demand surrender. The castellanc replied that
Monsignor Savelli had confided the fort to him, and that
without an order from him he would not giv^e it up.

" Monsignore is a prisoner of the Countess at Ravaldino."
" No matter ; without his order I will not surrender the
fort."

On being invited to send a person in whom he could con-
fide to Savelli, he replied that he had no one, that all his
property was situated at Cesena, a city of the Pope. If he
surrendered, his possessions would be confiscated, his family
impoverished, and himself branded as a traitor. He therefore
craved the compassion of the Countess. Catherine, who
wished to come to an arrangement that would not ruin the
poor man, sent Gratti and Landriani to treat with him, and per-
mitted them to visit Monsignor Savelli to save the castellane
from the effects of the papal wrath, Alberico Denti, son of
the castellane, left the fort, and on behalf of his father, offered
the stronghold, by request of the magistracy, to the Countess.
While Gratti, Landriani and Denti proceeded to Ravaldino to
confer with Savelli, Catherine chatted confidentially with
Brambilla, of whom she inquired why the army had not
moved at her first summons. Brambilla told her that at that
moment a great part of the cavalry had arrived from Castel
San Pietro, so exhausted, that it would have been impossible
for them to march, but that they would have come as soon as
possible without needing a second summons. " Our chief,"
he said, " had decided, with God's will, to plant a May-tree
(a palm) at the palace, on the site of the Count's murder on
the first of May." This reply pleased the Countess, to whom
a man-at-arms who had been in the service of the Count now
said — " Madonna, the poor have sacked the cellar of the Orsi ;
its contents have been emptied and dispersed, with the excep-
tion of the largest barrels, which I have succeeded in saving
for Your Ladyship ; the Orsi have caused the dispersion of
your whole cellar, and it is only fair that you should be some-
what compensated by theirs."

" I thank you for your thought and deed," said Catherine,
"but let the poor enjoy the whole of that wine, for I will have

156 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

nought that has belonged to those people, I trust in God,
that even if I leave the wine to the poor, He will not let me
nor mine want for aught. The only loss to which I am
sensible is that of my lord, who cannot be given back to
me, of which I know the poor, of whom you speak, to be
guiltless."

"Madonna!" exclaimed a knight, George of Tossignano,
" I could neither speak nor act as you do. I have taken two
loads of valuables from the wives of those assassins and
vivaddio ! I will restore nothing to them ! I could make
tunny-fish of them!"^

"That you will not do," replied the Countess, "for I wish
well to women. . . . Not they have murdered my lord, but
their traitorous husbands. And now that these women are
in my hands, they shall suffer no injustice."

" Madonna, you speak like the wise woman that you are,"
said Brambilla, who encouraged her in her merciful inten-
tions. " The murder of the Count," he added, " had been the
work of miscreants, but if he had ever overtaxed his subjects,
he (Brambilla) implored her to remove any pretext for
discontent and earn their love."

Catherine thanked him, and replied that her sole aim was
the welfare of the people, of which the placards sent into the
town from Ravaldino bore witness ; therein she had ordered
that the guilty be put to death, and promised peace and
security to the others. Catherine's words " much pleased
Brambilla and all of us who were present," writes Bernardi.
Provost Orcioli next approached the Countess to tell her
that Bentivoglio was at the Gate of St. Peter, whence for
excellent reasons he would not advance, yet having urgent
need of speech with her, he begged her of her grace to go to
meet him. Catherine mounted her horse and proceeded to
the fortress at the gate, where she talked at length with
Bentivoglio, who with Brambilla accompanied her on horse-
back to the house of Francesco Numai, where she was to
dine. Numai had been the first to present himself at Raval-
dino, the first to openly offer her allegiance after the nocturnal

^ Bernardi.

THE RESTORATION 157

flight of the Orsi ; it was he who had initiated the happy
change, and for this reason Catherine chose to enter his house
before she crossed any other threshold in ForH. BentivogHo
would not stay, and returned to his soldiers. Madonna went
to dinner, where she was joined by Gratti and Landriani, who
had returned from their interview with Savelli. Their con-
versation was interrupted by the arrival of a squadron leader
sent by Rubino from Forlimpopoli, who presented the castel-
lane Battista in chains, with thirteen of his accomplices, to
the Countess. The Countess ordered " each of them to be
covered with a mantle in sign of shame, and handed over to
Thomas Feo to be consigned to the dungeons." ^ Having
assured herself of the possession of Forhmpopoli, she resumed
her discussion of the surrender of Schiavonia, and concluded
by leaving the matter to the judgment of Bentivoglio. Gratti,
seeing that the populace, not content with pillaging the
house of the Orsi, intended to raze it to the ground, ventured
to insinuate that it was too great an ornament to the town
to meet with such a fate. "Your Ladyship," he said,
" might keep it for one of your sons, or for the reception of
great personages, when they come to visit you at Forli. . . ."
He was curtly interrupted by Brambilla, who declared that
" Her Ladyship could not, in this matter, set aside the com-
mands of the Duke of Milan, who on the moment of their
leaving for Forli had enjoined on them to raze the houses
of the traitors to the ground, in imperishable memory of his
vengeance." The Countess at this began to jest,- saying in
a very sweet voice to Gratti — " If it pleases you to stay at
Forli, despite the orders of the Duke, my brother, I will take
upon myself to avert the destruction of that house and will
keep it for you, and for you I will even re-adorn it. . . ."
Gratti, giving jest for jest, replied "that he would come
willingly, not for covetousness of the fair house, but that the
honour of living near Madonna would render a hovel accept-
able to him." These courtesies were interrupted by a half-
witted bricklayer, named Stradiotto, who was permitted to
address persons of every rank on equal terms.

^ licrnardi. '^ Ibid.

158 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

"Dear My Lad\'," he said boldly to Catherine," I want you
to entirely demolish that house, and not to listen to Messer
Gratti, for it is an accursed house, at which I and other poor
fellows have worked for a long time . . . and there are still
five gold ducats due to me, and I don't know how to turn
without them." In speaking he had seized the Countess by
the hand, squeezing it violently, while he proceeded — " Give,
O give me leave, Madonna, that I may put the first hand
to the ruin of that house ! " Madonna gave him leave ;
Stradiotto disappeared and ran until he reached the house
of the Orsi. But for all his haste he was not the first: the
whole house had been sacked, Stradiotto, not satisfied that
the great door had been torn down, hammered at the tiles
in which the hinges were set. . . . At last he succeeded in
knocking one out, falling backwards with the rebound of the
hammer, and his skull coming in contact with the opposite
wall, he died of the shock in two days. His case provoked
both hilarity and compassion. Francesco Sassatelli, with
many other Imolese, offered the homage of her city to their
lady in Casa Numai. She thanked them, "touched the hands
of each," and assured them of her " affectionate benevolence."
When dinner was over, Catherine, discussing the day's work
with Francesco Numai, told him that she had never hesitated
a moment to stop the sacking of the town, having always
abhorred to let loose a licentious soldiery on defenceless
citizens, and mounting her horse, she returned by the same
road and u'ith the same escort to Ravaldino. Here she
summoned her chancellors and dictated various edicts, fore-
most among them being the decree by which, in obedience
to her brother, the Duke of Milan, she appointed Brambilla
governor of the city and commander of the troops that were
stationed in the square, which she afterwards relegated to the
suburb of Ravaldino.

On the same evening, before sunset, an edict was read in
the square ordering those who, though banished by Count
Girolamo, were still in the city, to leave it within three hours
under penalty of the gallows. A second edict required all
the superiors of charitable institutions (priests, monks, nuns,

THE RESTORATION 159

chapels and confraternities) who had sheltered enemies,
traitors, or stolen property, to immediately give up persons
and chattels, under penalty of their Lady's displeasure.
When this was done, Catherine applied herself to "her last
and heaviest task." On learning that the battered corpse of
her unhappy husband had not even been received by the
canons of Santa Croce, and having been refused burial in
the Dome, had been laid in unconsecrated ground near to
a column in the outer portico ; remembering the many
benefits conferred by him on that church, where his arms
had been placed in sign of gratitude, that on the Feast
of St. Laurence, the day of his investiture, Girolamo had
always made a handsome donation and had promised to
remove the slaughter-houses and women of ill-repute from
that neighbourhood, and to enlarge the Dome, Catherine
was indignant " that the wicked men who are in the world "
were capable of such ingratitude. " I put my trust," she
said, " in the Courts of Heaven," where he (her husband)
would be rewarded for the good he had done "and enter into
blessedness."

She would not even be indebted to those canons for a
burial-place, but that night had the body carried to the Church
of St. Francis, where the coffin was deposited in the monks'
choir in a " casket covered with black velvet." On the
following morning, which was Monday, May i, after stately
obsequies, the body was buried in a large chapel of that
church, under a monument in terra-cotta, surmounted by a
fine baldaquin. But it only remained there three days, for
the Commune of Imola claimed the body, reminding the
Countess " that in case of future trouble, these people of Forli
were capable of insulting Her Ladyship by unearthing the
body and treating it as shamefully as before." So that on
May 4 the body of the Count was taken to the ancient Dome
at Imola and buried in the Riario chapel. This was destroyed
at the end of the last century, when the Cliurch of San
Cassiano was erected. The stone with its Latin inscription,
which had been placed there in 1558 by Giulio di Galeazzo
Riario, nephew to Girolamo, was then incrustcd over the

i6o CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

door of the sacristy. An error in the inscription places his
death in 1487. Catherine, during the twelve years of her
reign, never forgave those canons, who, in cowardly sub-
mission to the assassins, had repulsed the body of their
benefactor, nor did she ever again set foot in the Dome of
Forli.

CHAPTER XVIII

CATHERINE'S VENGEANCE

On May i, an edict was hung up in the square, by which
the Countess, under penalty of the gallows, demanded the
restitution of everything that had been plundered from the
palace. The citizens vied with each other in their zeal to be
among the first inscribed as having made restitution, so that
in a few hours Catherine had recovered everything except that
which the conspirators had taken with them. This was not
the most, but the best.

In the dungeons and damp vaults beneath the towers,

under the feet of the Countess, radiant in her beauty and

triumph, the guilty pined in chains, and, alas ! with them

their innocent families. Sometimes their cries could be heard

in the halls above, to the annoyance of Catherine, the incarnate

soul of mediaeval rule, sentient, or choosing to be sentient,

rather of power in the inexorable duty of retribution than

of pity for the vanquished, who, on their side, neither expected

mercy nor mitigation of their punishment. And, as torture

and other penalties of the law were a different science to

that of military slaughter, it became necessary to find a bargello,

or captain of myrmidons, accomplished in this special art.

A certain Matteo, surnamed Babone, arrived from Castel

Bolognese, and to him was confided the execution of justice.

" By Our Lady ! O reader ! " exclaims Cobelli, " to mc he did

not seem of Christian aspect, but a wild and horrible Turk."

The dungeons were full, yet they lacked one who could be

less dispensed with than any other: old Orsi, father of the

i6i M

i62 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

assassins. The new bargello soon learned that he was hidden
at San Domenico, where the monks neither dared, nor were
able, to save him. Orso, " poor weeping mortal," was, with
every species of insnlt, with a knotted rope round his neck,
spat upon in the face and beaten, dragged to the citadel and
finally imprisoned to await his execution. The next to be
seized by Babone were Marco Scossacarri, Pagliarino, nephew
of Ronchi, and Pietro Albanese. The others were sought for,
but had fled. Then as Madonna was to dine with Francesco
Numai, and the other traitors could not be captured, she said,
" Let justice take its course." She ordered the Milanese
troops to deploy in front of the palace of the podesta. The
inexorable justice of the Countess became hourly more
terrible to the populace. Babone brought the victims from
the secret dungeons of the fort and led them one by one to
the place of execution, where Cobelli was so much impressed
with the impending horror that " he felt like one lost," yet
has not spared posterity a single one of the sickening details
that made his blood run cold.^ " O reader," he says, finally,
" certes, they who named that square the Lake of Blood, told
no lie ! "

On the morrow at dawn of May 2, the populace, summoned
by an edict, crowded, bent on destruction, round Casa del Orso.
Old Andrea had been dragged from the dungeons and with a
" rope round his neck, unbuttoned, with only a red vest over
his shirt ; with one stocking on, and the other hanging in
rags, his hands tied behind his back, he was pushed forward
by the torturers, and repeatedly struck by Babone until he
came in sight of the ruins of his palace. I followed," says
Cobelli, " to see what they would do with him."

Four hundred of the rabble were pulling down the walls
of Casa del Orso with beams, hooks, and pikes — " the green
chamber, the beautiful dovecot, and the little garden room
facing the orchard," had been pierced with holes in which
bundles of wood were now set alight. They came down with

^ See pages 289-292 of tlie original, vol. i. Calcrina Sforza, di Pier D.'sideria
Pasolini. Roma, Loescher.

CATHERINE'S VENGEANCE 163

a great crash, and Babone turning to Andrea said — " O Orso,
do you see the arrangement of your palace ? " And Orso,
sighing deeply, cried — " O accursed children, to what have you
brought me ! " and then said no other word.

Twenty-six years later, in 15 14, the Motite di Pieta arose
on the site of those ruins, where it still stands. But to the
populace, that spot was always known as // Guasto degli Orsi.

The unhappy Andrea, who was eighty-five years old, of
small stature, with a fine head, and whose hands on that
morning trembled from agitation, was led to the window of the
palace of the podesta, whence according to ancient custom he
was made to admonish the populace to be wiser than he had
been if they would escape his fate, and ask them to "say a
pater-noster for his soul." But his voice was so weak and the
balcony so high that the people could not hear his words,
which were repeated by another. He was then led below,
where Babone tied him to a plank by the feet and the middle,
leaving his head hanging. The plank was tied to the tail of
a horse that was driven three times round the square by hired
ruffians. The horse was then caught, and the mangled and
bleeding body dragged under the window of the podesta,
where it underwent the same indignities as were practised on
the delinquents of the previous day. " One of those dogs of
soldiers tore the heart from the body, put his teeth to it,
and having bitten it like a dog, threw it into the square."
The fragments of the body were cast about the square and
only collected seven hours later by a pitying hand and secretly
buried in the cemetery of St. Mercurial. This execution left
a pall of gloom upon the terrified city.

Babone pulled down more than two hundred houses,
chiefly inhabited by artisans, in the suburb of Ravaldino, and
caught and imprisoned ten other victims, whom he hanged
from the battlements of the fort. It is not clear wliat were
the powers of Babone, nor how many of these executions
depended on the personal will of Catherine, but it is certain
that by her express command, the women of the House of Orsi
were treated with the utmost respect, and that the day of
their father's dreadful execution, unhappy but unharmed, they

i64 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

left the fort. The property of the Orsi was neither confiscated
nor given away. The Countess had declared that she would
have nothing that had belonged to them, and the populace
had been limited to the destruction of their palace.

On May 3, the four leaders of the army of deliverance
were invited to dine with the Countess in the citadel. The
banquet was held in the " fourth hall, beginning from the
door and going towards the fort." Ruined by time, and by
the pacific work of a transforming civilization, rather than by
wars, hidden by immemorial ivy, are the walls wherein Cath-
erine sat at table with Galeazzo d'Aragona Sanseverino,
Count of Caiazzo, Count Giovanni of Bergamo, surnamed
Brambilla, Rudolph Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, and
Giovanni Bentivoglio, Lord of Bologna, the flower of Italian
chivalry. After dinner, the four Captains-general passed
into another hall, and Catherine remained alone with her
notary, Francesco Paladini. In obedience to an edict which
bade all assemble at the eighteenth hour to receive the com-
mands of Madonna, great numbers had already arrived, who
were now called and presented in batches of twenty-fiv^e.

Catherine was seated in her great arm-chair, and before her
stood a desk, on which stood a great parchment missal. The
notary, as the citizens were called, informed them that they
had been summoned on behalf of the Duke of Milan, to make
oath of allegiance to Octavian their lord, and to Madonna
Catherine, his mother. Regent of the State. He explained,
in few words, the duties and advantages of good subjects, and
the dangers and misfortunes which beset the disloyal. Then
each passed before the Countess — ever silent and motionless
in her throne-like chair — and placing their hands upon the
missal, where the great initial painted in flowers and images
symbolized the principle of the Gospel, made their oath of
allegiance to her. Thus Madonna looked her subjects one
by one in the face, and one by one she looked at those right
hands that were to carry arms in her defence.

Then they were conducted slowly into the other hall, where
these simple folk were amazed to find themselves thanked and

CATHERINE'S \'ENGEAN'CE 165

praised in the name of the Duke of Milan by the Lords of
Caiazzo, ]\Iantua, Bologna, and their new governor ; great
princes and famous captains, who, with the exquisite courtesy
of their birth and time, deigned to assure them of Catherine's
love for her people, and of the peace and happiness assured
to them under her rule. In this direct and familiar form of
government, every citizen felt himself close to his sovereign,
who, although she might become formidable, yet by the
power of an individual fascination, bound them to her
person.

On the same day, a second edict decreed that all soldiers
whose names had not been entered in the lists, should lay
aside their uniforms, and leave the barracks, within three
hours. Madonna, with a love of order and discipline that
was inherited by her illustrious son, Giovanni delle Bande
Nere, the first re-organizer of Italian forces, refused to
recognize as soldiers any but those whose names had been
regularly inscribed and thus legally enlisted.

On the following, which was Sunday, Catherine ordered a
solemn procession from the Dome to the fort " in thanks-
giving to God, to whom alone she owed her victory." To-
wards evening the Countess, accompanied by the four
Captains-general, went to the square, where, in presence of
the assembled people, the ceremonial of taking possession
was repeated.

After this act Catherine wished that there should be peace
among her people. Arms might no longer be carried, under
penalty of ten lire and three strokes of the whip, nor might
they walk abroad in the city after the great bell had rung,
with or without light. She made public that, henceforward, no
more inquiries would be held, nor would she listen to spies, nor
did she care to know what this or the other may have said in
the terrible days that were past.

Yet the affairs of the recent disturbances were not all
settled. Monsignor Savelli and the papal generals were still
imprisoned in the fort, where they had learned the cruel
fate of Andrea Orsi, and trembled for their own. But

i66 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

Catherine was not forgetful that Savelli had confided her
children to those loyal gentlemen who had saved their lives.
By means of Bentivoglio, an exchange was arranged with
those prisoners who had been sent to Cesena from Forli, and
IMonsignore and his two companions left the fort, with all
their possessions, on the day of the return of the hostages.

Neither could she forget the assassins who had fled, for
each of whom, living or dead, she offered a prize of looo
gold ducats, the restitution of any loss sustained through the
death of the Count and the real and landed estate of the
criminal who might be consigned to her, with the promise of
office or pension for the rest of the captor's life.

Catherine deemed the departure of the Milanese army a
good opportunity for sending into exile the remaining guilty
or suspected persons. Of the eight who had governed the
city during her imprisonment, four, Simon Fiorini, Nicolo
Panzechi or Pansecco, Antonio Montese, and Guido Orselli
(the latter with a son), were condemned to perpetual confine-
ment in Milan, after they had been confronted with the
Countess, and listened to the expressions of her indignation,
in public audience, from her own lips. Their property was
sequestered, their houses turned into barracks, and themselves
sent under strong escort to Milan,

On May 7, the ducal army departed for Milan, and with it
Octavian, whose mother wished the young Lord of Imola to
enter that city under the auspices of the four famous captains.

Although the Countess had repeatedly said that she would
have no more to do with the spies, nor suspicion, nor condem-
nations, such things still obtained, possibly against her will.
Two other accomplices of Ronchi were sentenced by the
podesta, another heavily fined, and another imprisoned, while
a measure that concerned two eminent citizens occasioned
unfavourable comment. Catherine's gratitude to Capoferri,
Serughi and Denti, who had saved her children, and to
Ercolani, who had been instrumental in admitting her into
the fort, had been proved on every available occasion since
her accession. Those members of the Council of Eight who

CATHERINE'S VENGEANXE 167

had remained at Forli unmolested, when their colleagues were
banished, owed their liberty and other immunities, like many
other citizens, to the all-powerful intercession of Capoferri
and Serughi. But certain envious and malignant persons never
ceased from reminding the Countess that, after all, Serughi
was a son of a daughter of Andrea Orsi and that Ercolani
was brother-in-law to Matteo Galasso, for whose capture, alive
or dead, she had offered looo ducats ; also that " blood will
boil without fire." At last she was induced, under pretext
of providing Octavian with faithful counsellors, to banish
Serughi and Ercolani to Imola, where, accompanied by some
of their relations, they established themselves. Catherine had
later cause to bitterly regret a measure which deprived her
of these faithful friends.

Meanwhile, the allied cardinals who had already befriended
the Riario, sent the youngest representative of their order^
Cardinal Raphael, to congratulate his aunt, and to offer her
moral support. He arrived on May 21 at the Forlimpopoli,
where he was met by Catherine, accompanied by many nobles,
with whom he returned to Forli, On July 19 he was present
at the legal nomination of Catherine as guardian to her
children ; three days later he went to Imola, where he
abolished certain usages that were more obnoxious to the
people than useful to the prince, and lowered the scale of
rent and taxation. While his lavish expenditure, his frequent
appearance in public, his largesse and his cavalcades en-
deared the government of Octavian to the people of Imola,
the other cardinals related to Catherine obtained from
Innocent VIII. (who had been so adverse to her), the invest-
iture of the States for Octavian and his heirs, Catherine
celebrated the happy event " with the solemnities of bells and
fire," (illuminations) on July 13. She would willingly have
associated this investiture with an act of generosity, yet did
nothing at the time, lest it be ascribed to Cardinal Raphael,
who was already so popular. But no sooner had he departed
for Rome (October 19) than she summoned the council and
declared her desire to lighten the taxes of her subjects. An
edict was immediately " cried " which lessened them by one-

i68 CATHERINE'S WIDOWHOOD

third, and the council, not to be outdone, renounced part of
their ancient right to a share in the wheat-tax.

Early in June Brambilla, who had remained at Forli as
governor of the city, perished in a fray at Faenza, whither
Catherine sent him, with the flower of her troops, to the
relief of the widow and infant heir of Galeotto Manfredi,
its murdered lord.' In December of the same year she
lost another friend in Francesco Sassatelli, murdered on his
return to Imola after visiting Catherine at Forli, to confer
with her on her own affairs. Neither the perpetrators nor
the cause of this crime were ever discovered. Catherine, in
the time that intervened between these two deaths, had
been warned anonymously that, unless she beheaded or
banished every member of the families of Marino Orzioli
and Bartolomeo Marcobelli, there would be no peace for her
nor her subjects. But the Countess had seized that occasion
to make a final and official declaration that the time of
suspicion and punishment, of which she was so weary, was
over. She expressed her contempt for anonymous calumnies,
and added, that her only thought henceforward was to con-
sole her people and lighten their burdens. In which she was
more generous than prudent.

^ Francesca Manfredi had been, under strong provocation, an accomplice in the
murder of her husband, but she was a daughter of Bentivoglio, one of Catherine's
deliverers, and therefore entitled to her support.

BOOK V

A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE

CHAPTER XIX

THE CASTELLANE OF RAVALDINO

Towards the summer of 1488 a rumour gained credence
that Catherine was about to marry Antonio Maria degU
Ordelaffi, a young, brave, and handsome gentleman who hved
in obscurity at Ravenna, on a subsidy of three hundred ducats
that were paid to him by the Signory of Venice. This
marriage would have strengthened the position of the former
and present lords of Forli by uniting the two houses, without
injury to the little Riario. Had not Catherine Imola to
bestow on them ?

The hope of this alliance formed the staple of conversation in
all the inns and market-places of Forli. Heavy wagers were
staked, liveries and outfits ordered, and sticks were painted
with the combined arms of the Riario and Ordelaffi. Several
persons even went to Ravenna to offer congratulations to
Ordelaffi, who received them with enthusiasm. On the
22nd of the preceding April, Antonio Maria had already
written the Duke of Ferrara that he " had heard that the
Countess had a mind to choose him for her husband, so that
he might avenge her wrongs and his," and that he had
even written her two letters suggesting this course. He
had not entrusted these letters to messengers, but had tied
them to arrows that had been shot into the fort. He con-
cluded " with tears in his eyes " by entreating the Duke to
keep his secret.

These rumours exasperated Catherine, who caused the most

persistent of their disseminators to be imprisoned. One

171

172 A CLANDESTIXK MARRIACIK

offender was only released from the fort on payment of a
heavy fine, to another four strokes of the whip were
administered in the square. To the fort went also that Leone
Cobelli, whom we have chosen as our faithful guide, because,
as he has often told us, he went abroad on purpose to see
and write of all that happened at Forli. Cobelli, who, besides
being a musician and historian, was a teacher of dancing and
painting, had recently painted many sticks, escutcheons, arms
and other objects, the arms of the Riario being quartered
thereon with those of Ordelaffi. Catherine would have kept
him in the fort but for the intercession of Thomas Feo, to
whom, at length, he owed his liberty and the privilege of
returning to his old haunts. Cobelli, incensed by his im-
prisonment, would have burned his chronicles, and thus
consigned to ashes the praise he had lavished on his cruel
lady. From this he was prevented by friends, but the episode
turned her admiring historian into an adverse critic.

On the demand of Catherine, and on information of the
annoyance to which she had been subjected, the Venetian
Senate banished Ordelaffi to Friuli, where he lived for ten
years, until they sent him back to Ravenna, in 1498, to harass
the Countess and prevent her from sending help to the
Florentines in their u^ar with Pisa. She had, however, her-
self given rise to the rumours of which she so bitterly com-
plained. Ordelaffi had ever been the enemy of her house ; in
his name conspiracies had been hatched and blood had flown ;
with him had originated the conspiracy of the Roffi, which
had been punished by her earliest sentences. Yet Ordelaffi
had paid long visits to Catherine, and had even been her guest
at the Giardino, a villa she possessed near to Imola.

Thither went Catherine in October of that year to superin-
tend the building of her new sanctuary of the Piratello. She
was preceded by her children, who were received with the
honours due to their rank by Giovan Andrea of Savona,
castellane of the fortress. When, a few days later, the Countess
crossed the city and halted at the Rocca, the castellane
refused to admit her. Catherine threatened and insisted in
vain, the draw-bridge was not lowered nor the door opened.

THE CASTELLANE OF RAVALDINO 173

At last she was permitted to enter, but with only five or six of
her suite. Faithful to the memory of Count Girolamo, the
rumour of her intrigue with Ordelaffi had aroused the indig-
nation of this castellane who believed her to be capable of
handing over the fort to Ordelaffi,

Catherine, smarting under the humiliation she had endured
in the presence of the whole population of her own city, sent
a courier to summon her nephew. Cardinal Raphael, from
Rome. On his arrival, seven days later, the castellane sub-
mitted to Catherine, who established her right to the fortress.
Accompanied by the cardinal and her children she went in
state to the Piratello, but according to ancient popular
tradition she and her maids of honour were barefoot.

On February 1,1 490, the magistracy complained to Catherine
that, since the exile of the Jews, money was not obtainable
on any security ; immediate steps were therefore necessary.
Catherine praised their zeal and sympathized with their
embarrassment ; then with an air of virginal candour, repeated
to them, word for word, the objections they had raised when
she and Girolamo had suggested the erection of a Monte di
Pietd. The Countess, when she had sufficiently diverted her-
self with the confusion of the members of council, who, to
their mortification, recognized their own words in her discourse,
changed her tone and consented to the admission of eight
citizens to the council who were experienced in such matters.
In the name of the Countess and the council, a rich Jew of
Bologna was invited to Forli, where, the council having given
security for his capital, he accordingly established himself

Hearing that much blood had been shed at Imola, Catherine
sent eighty Light Horse to the governor, Guglielmo dal
Todesco, who enforced peace among the families of Tartagni,
Calderini and Vaini, and maintained it by the exile of one
Giulio Mcrcati, who had begun the feud by wounding a
Tartagni.

Thomas Feo had so ably defended Ravaldino that he began
to look upon the fort as his own, while Catherine "wished to

174 A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE

be free to nominate or dismiss her castellane." She had
never yet succeeded in ridding herself of any of them. In
the case of Thomas Feo, the difficulty was increased by his
relationship and personal merit. She therefore gave him her
half-sister Bianca to wife, with a dowry of 15,000 gold ducats,
in the hope that a young wife, bred in pleasure and luxury,
would induce him to leave of his own accord, sooner than
condemn her to a seclusion that was almost imprisonment.
For a castellane could never leave his post.

But Tommaso, obstinate as ever, stayed in the fort, and as
before, was lord and master therein. Evil tongues averred
that Catherine's efforts and the castellane's obstinacy might be
ascribed to a love-affair between the Countess and his younger
and handsomer brother Giacomo, whom she wished to install
in his place. It was added that she had already married him
in secret, lest she should lose the guardianship of her children
and the regency of the State. The relations of the castellane
to his Lady were apparently unchanged. One morning the
Countess, accompanied by Octavian and Giacomo, entered the
fort, and leading Tommaso away from the others, she invited
him to inspect with her the new gardens she was laying out
towards Bertinoro. They walked together for a long time, and
Catherine's words became ever kinder, while with sweet voice
and look she held the bewildered castellane spell-bound. It
was about the fourteenth hour, and the heat was intense. They
sought the shade of a fig-tree and ate some of its fruit. Tom-
maso's eyes were riveted to the face of his beautiful sister-in-law.

When Catherine felt assured that he would follow and obey
her, she graciously asked the castellane to lend her his arm to
her chamber, which at that time was situated outside the fort.
The castellane was taken by surprise, he became taciturn,
hesitated . . . and refused. But Catherine's entreaties were so
flattering, she moved forward, yet cast a glance behind her, that
Feo followed in her steps. They crossed the whole length of the
gardens, and then climbed a winding stair that led to Catherine's
apartment, she in front, and Feo following in her steps.

No sooner had his foot crossed the threshold of the ante-room
than two iron-srloved hands seized and held him. The voice

THE CASTELLANS OF RAVALDINO 175

of Giovanni Ghetti, captain of the great tower by the gate,
said — "You are the prisoner of Madonna the Countess ; fear
no harm." With these words he was deprived of his sword.
The desperate cries of Feo brought a servant, — who had
followed him, — and who afterwards narrated what he had
seen in the garden, to his rescue. When his master was
imprisoned, he ran to the fort, swam across the moat, where
a friend gave him a hand, and both climbed up to the loaded
cannon and pointed them towards Catherine's window, in the
belief that she was murdering Feo. A ball passed over her
head without even causing her to start. Tommaso was placed
under strict guard in the tower by the gate.

Catherine then summoned Giacomo, informed him of what
had happened (which he knew), and offered him his brother's
post. Giacomo was seen to blush (for which he had good
reason), and heard to refuse, but none of those present believed
in his sincerity. He enlarged on the loyalty with which his
father and uncle had served the Riario ; if a taint of treachery
were discovered in Tommaso, he could no longer look his Lady
in the face.

The Countess reassured him ; she meant no harm to Tom-
maso, but circumstances obliged her to change castellanes.
Giacomo at last consented, on condition that his brother should
depart unmolested and in honour, "so that none might speak
lightly of him, in the fort or in the town." Catherine pro-
vided him with a guard of honour of forty Horse as far as
Bologna, whence he and his young wife proceeded to Savona.
Catherine soon recalled them to Forli ; later she appointed
Thomas Feo Governor of Imola, where his gentle wife died
and was buried in 1496, mourned by the people to whom she
was known as the " Mother of Orphans." Catherine wrote her
own version of the dismissal of Tommaso to the Dukes of
Fcrrara and Milan ; the latter sent an envoy to Catherine with
congratulations and an order of knighthood for Giacomo Feo.

Catherine's joy in the honours and elevation of her favourite
confirmed the rumour that she was secretly married to him.
Cobclli relates that a son was born to them on whom

176

A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE

Catherine conferred knighthood. " There was murmuring in
the city " which reached the ears of Madonna, who sent for a
poor old man named Maestro Sante di Sole, and asked him
how he dared to spread the report " that this child of Messer
lacomo Feo is my child ? " This the poor man denied, but
Cobelli accuses Catherine of " finding a false witness," to
whose testimony Maestro Sante owed a whipping of which
he died. " And many were hanged for the same cause."
Cobelli, who was now Catherine's enemy, is more trustworthy
when he describes Giacomo Feo —

" Many and many a time have I seen this lacomo, brother

THE MIRACLE OF THE FOWLS.

Fresco in the Chttrch of San Girolamo at Forli. Among the figures arc represented
Catherine, her husband, her son Ottavio, and Giacomo Feo.

to Messer Tommasino, come to the palace of Count Girolamo ;
since the death of the count I have seen him in the fort
. . . soberly attired and wearing a black cloak and un-
attended he went about Forli. He was a j-outh of twenty
years or little more, fair, beautiful, and good to look upon.
Now when Fortune beckoned him, he followed, and Madonna
made a knight of him — Captain of all her men-at-arms, vice-
regent of Forli and Imola, so that he may make or mar as
if he were indeed lord. And now when he rides abroad, it
is with a goodly company a hundred strong, armed with

THE CASTELLANE OF RAVALDINO 177

partisans, lances and pikes. . . . Truly, Fortune has exalted
him into the heaven of Venus and Mars. , . . There be those
who say that Madonna has committed an enormity in taking
her poor servant for a husband. Now I reply for Madonna,"
adds the sly chronicler, " ' Nan a bcllo quelle die e hello, e bello
quello cJie place : '^ and I say that when Madonna saw Messer
lacomo Feo, young, handsome, virtuous, wise, honest, and apt
for her service, she loved him."

When the castellane of Imola heard what had befallen
Tomasso Feo, he resigned his post, lest he too should fall into
Catherine's nets, and left her States. Catherine replaced him
by Giampietro Landriani, the husband of her mother Lucretia,
and gave the place he had vacated at Forlimpopoli to Pietro
Landriani, his son, and her half-brother.

The power and favour of Giacomo Feo soon became a
source of envy and danger. He resigned his post at Ravaldino
to his uncle Cesar Feo, and on September 2 accompanied the
Countess as Commander-in-Chief of her forces and fortresses,
to Imola, and would have followed her to Tossignano but that
Catherine's coachman was killed in the night during a quarrel
with a groom, so that she did not go there.

The Tartagni and Vaini, with other citizens of Imola, had
meanwhile conspired at Tossignano to demand of Catherine
the surrender of that fortress. If the Countess refused to
surrender, she and Feo were to be put to death. The con-
spirators were taken and confessed that, having heard of
dissension between Catherine and Octavian, they had deter-
mined to imprison the Countess and put Feo to death lest
Octavian, their rightful lord, be deprived of his own. The
castellane of Tossignano and others were unanimous in
declaring that they had intended to protect the rights of
Octavian against the favourite of his mother.

The houses of the Vaini and Tartagni were razed to the
ground, and the conspirators imprisoned in the dungeons of
Ravaldino. Two sons of the Tartagni were sent to the same
fortress as hostages. The podesta of Imola was summoned
to Forli to repeat their indictment, which, after the procecd-

^ Tliat wliich is beautiful is less beautiful than that which pleases.

178 A CLANDESTINE ^lARRIAGE

ings had lasted ten days, resulted in sentence of death.
Catherine, however, who did not choose that the severity of
this punishment should be construed into fear and lend im-
portance to a petty conspiracy, commuted the sentence into
detainment at her pleasure in the fort. Enea Vaini had
succeeded in escaping- to Massa Lombarda, but Catherine never
rested until he was caught and confined with the others at
Ravaldino, whence all were liberated some three years later.
The moment seemed, to Antonio Ordelaffi, opportune for an
attempt to regain his ancestral dominions. But with his usual
want of forethought, he omitted to murder a certain castellane.
One of his agents named Salumbrini was hanged at the Fort
of Schiavonia and a man named Montanari was led out to
execution in the square and there set free.

The condition of the city and territory of Forli was not
prosperous. Although the land-tax due from the peasantry to
the council had been lowered, the peasants continued to sell or
make mock sales of their property to the citizens to avoid
paying it. Hence a diminution in the public funds and the
necessity of new taxes.

Catherine, who remembered that with the complaints of the
peasantry had begun the downfall of Count Girolamo, made
personal inquiries and summoned the council to her aid. On
December 28, 1491, she published an edict which rendered
illegal any sale of peasant property at the request of citizen
creditors, but should such sale be suggested to the manifest
advantage of the proprietor, her sanction would be needed to
legalize it. The burden of the tax would remain attached to
the property, and would pass from vendor to buyer. On
learning that several peasants had been obliged to sell their
possessions to defray their debt to the Treasury, and that
many artisans had sold their working utensils to escape from
judicial exaction, she published a second edict whereby all her
debtors, whether in the city or among the rural population,
were summoned to appear before her auditor. According to
the nature of the debt, and especially according to the con-
dition of the debtor, they were granted time, abatement, or
complete remission.

CHAPTER XX

CHARLES VIII. IN ITALY

Pope Innocent VI IL died on July 25, 1492, and the
elevation of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia to the Papal See, under
the name of Alexander VI., was announced in August. This
event was celebrated in Catherine's States by three days'
illuminations and thanksgiving services in all the churches.
Cardinal Borgia had been vice-chancellor to Sixtus IV., and
a frequent guest at her house in Rome ; he was, besides, god-
father to her eldest son. The new Pope graciously received
Catherine's envoys, assuring them that he would be a father
to Octavian, and that Catherine might rely on him as she
had done on her uncle Sixtus. He granted to the people of
Forli a three years' jubilee.

The handsome person, fine manners and personal fascin-
ation of Alexander VI. have been described by Gasparo da
Verona, Porzio, and others. The Milanese writer, Del Maino,
praises the " noble aspect, serene brow, regal expression, the
countenance in which were blended majesty and liberality,
the genial and heroic composure" of this Pontiff, who was in
reality both mean and prodigal, frugal and dissolute. Among
his four sons was the ambitious Caesar, soon to become his
master and master of the Church.

Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, brother to Ludovico il Moro, all-
powerful at the Court of Rome because of his co-operation
in the election of Alexander VI,, used his influence with
the latter to alienate him from King P^erdinand of Naples,
and, unknown to the P'lorentincs, to draw him into a league

179

i8o A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE

with the Duke of Milan and the Venetians. In May, small
detachments of Lombard troops passed through Romagna.
" They cannot do any harm," wrote the Florentine com-
missioner at Faenza to Piero de' Medici, " for between
Faenza and Cesena is the State of Forli, the Madonna
whereof keeps most vigilant guard . . . not permitting a
single man of them to enter P'^orli. Should such an one
enter, none may house him without forfeiting his head."
He added that Ravaldino was amply provisioned with
wheat, wine and wood, and rendered all but impregnable
by recent changes in its fortifications. It was common
talk that if Ludovico il Moro did not intend to occupy the
State he would find means to remove " that Messer lacopo
(Giacomo Feo) who governs it." . . . At Imola they
guarded the square by night, and fear prevailed everywhere,
" for none knew what support Madonna could count upon
. . . who, if she be not upheld by Florence, doth stand alone,
and is therefore in great danger."

Henceforward the history of Catherine becomes ever more
one with that of Italy, or rather with that of Europe. Every-
thing conspired to summon Charles VIII. to Italy, and
especially to Naples. His desire to supplant the House of
Aragon by that of Orleans, the exhortations of Alexander VI.,
transmitted to him by Cardinal Julian della Rovere, and,
above all, the prayers of Ludovico il Moro, who, despite the
threats of the Court of Naples, still persisted in governing for
his nephew, the Duke of Milan (who had wedded Isabel of
Aragon). He therefore resolved on an expedition by sea and
land. King Ferdinand prepared his defences, and sought the
alliance of the Powers of Italy ; he sent orators to Catherine
who refused to bind or compromise herself; the Pope and
the Florentines, less circumspect, did not hesitate to throw in
their lot with the King of Naples.

In June, the Duke of Milan (or rather Ludovico, who
governed for him) wrote requesting Catherine not to ally
herself with Naples, but with Charles VIII., who was about
to invade Italy with great forces by sea and land. Catherine

CHARLES VIII. IN ITALY i8i

replied that she did not deny an interchange of courtesies
with the King- of Naples ; " having been for months and
months without help in the world." This must be ascribed to
her isolation, "not to any desire to offend Your Excellency,
to whose advice I ever bow."

Both the French and Neapolitan generals had received
instructions not to advance until Catherine had declared her-
self for one side or another. Eernardi writes that all one day
" the ambassadors of the opposing Powers stayed with Her
Ladyship, praying her that she would ally herself with them."
But it had been impossible for either of them to extract from
her a promise, a word, or a sign.

Cardinal Raphael Riario, being sent by the Pope to pre-
pare quarters for the troops, arrived at Forlimpopoli. The
Countess went to meet him with Octavian, Giacomo Feo, and
a company of nobles. She refused to yield to his persuasions
to ally herself with Naples, declaring that, for the present,
she must remain neutral, but promising to inform him of any
change in her policy before acting upon it. With this reply
he was obliged to return to Rome, while an envoy returned
to Forli who had already been despatched by Catherine to
Florence to announce the state of affairs in Romagna, and to
keep her informed of the strength of the French and the
intentions of the Florentines, to whom she had also declared
her neutrality.

On the return of this envoy, the Countess displayed a
feverish energy. An edict commanded the rural population
to take steps to insure their own safety, as French and Nea-
politan troops might any day invade the country. The mer-
cenaries of France encamped at Bologna were chiefly Italians
under the command of the brothers Sanseverino. These left
Bologna for Cotignola. Catherine then fortified the castles of
Imola, Mordano and Bubano, sending thither her most ex-
perienced soldiers from Forli and Forlimpopoli, and recruited
as many others as she could. The ambassadors of Naples
and Milan again tried to win her favour for their respective
masters, but were courteously dismissed by Catherine, who
secretly summoned her councillors, and with them decided

i82 A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE

on continued neutrality so long as that should be possible.
If obliged to ally herself with any one, she would decide for
the King of Naples, who was unjustly attacked.

On September 4, the Neapolitan ambassador returned to
Forli, while the Count of Caiazzo(Sanseverino) sent his envoy
to persuade the Countess to side with the French. Catherine
resolutely maintained her neutrality, and " Misser Francesco
del Ouartieri," like his Neapolitan rival, " departed where God
listed, with his trumpets in his bag." . . . Small was the
State of Catherine, and meagre its resources, but the lustre
of her name was such that each party felt her alliance would
infuse new strength.

At last Giacomo Feo was empowered to inform the Nea-
politan ambassador that Catherine espoused his cause and
the Pope's. The ambassador had been instructed to accede
to any proposition of the Countess. He informed Feo that
on the following morning the Neapolitan army would occupy
Villafranca. Feo returned with the conditions signed ; the
Countess dismissed the French envoys, and sent Giacomo
Feo to complete the armaments of Imola, Tossignano and
Mordano. Rome, Naples and Florence agreed to contri-
bute 16,000 ducats towards these expenses. Pope Alexander
characteristically demurred to paying more than a quarter of
this sum, sa}ang that " if he had consented to pay a third it
had not been in spirit, but in words." ^

On September 18, Giacomo Feo, having completely forti-
fied the territory of Imola, returned to Forli, where he was
appointed Governor-general and Vice-regent of the State, re-
turning on the following day with Octavian, on horseback, to
Imola. On the 23rd, Dovizi, surnamed Bibbiena (author of
the Calandrd), wrote Piero de' Medici that " to-day occurred
the meeting of My Lord Duke (of Calabria) with the divine
Madonna of Forli, and I need not tell you that His Excel-
lency was point device and sumptuously habited in the Nea-
politan fashion. She came to meet him an arrow's throw

^ Letter of Puccio Pucci, dated Rome, August 23, 1494, to Piero Medici,
Arch. Med. a. Fr. Filza XMII.

CHARLES VIII. IN ITALY 183

from Bagnara, where they were to dine. They were together
two hours at Bagnara, but videntibus omnibus, for Pheo will
keep her for himself. His Excellency returned well pleased.
He does not care much for the face, . . . yet the rogue told
me there had been warm hand-clasps and much flashing of
eyes. . . ."

The Countess, accompanied by a single maid of honour,
had proceeded to Imola, whence she despatched Thomas Feo
as governor to Forli, pending more peaceful times. She then
came to an unexpected decision. The French had taken the
little Castle of Mordano, put its heroic garrison to the sword,
and ill-treated the villagers without regard to age or sex.
Catherine, nothing doubting, on hearing of their approach,
had sent word to the Duke of Calabria to hasten to the suc-
cour of the two hundred brave men who were fighting his
cause. But the Duke, who but a week earlier had valorously
attacked the French when they were in small numbers, and
had eluded him, was deaf to this appeal now that they were
14,000 strong, although the battle lasted fifteen hours, and
he was near at hand.

Catherine, betrayed and abandoned, cursed the hour when
she had joined hands with the enemies of the House of Sforza.
Three fine letters from her to Alfonso of Calabria, Piero dei
Medici, and the Marquis of Mantua announce her change
of policy and allies. She had done her duty, and more,
" but what had been her reward .'' " And over the smoking
and blood-stained ruins of Mordano she swore to leave the
treacherous and cowardly allies who had deserted her.

The Duke of Calabria left Faenza under a dripping rain,
and retired on Cesena. The Countess, on joining the French,
had stipulated that he should be allowed to pass through
Forli unmolested. But Alfonso, distrustful and chagrined by
Catherine's defection, went round by the hills, devastating
the country, where he only met with those rebellious peasants
who had disobeyed Catherine's edict. On the following day
he liberated his prisoners, and, still under a heavy downpour,
led his tired and drenched troops forward on their disastrous
march.

i84 A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE

While the troops of the Duke of Calabria had been distin-
guished for their discipHne and general good conduct, the
behaviour of the French army was deplorable. To avoid
bloodshed the Governor of Forli closed the gates of Forli to
them ; but the French reappeared at the gate of Schiavonia,
and threatened to scale the walls. The shopkeepers fled in
terror, losing their money and their goods, while one citizen was
wounded and another killed in the confusion. On the following
days the French ravaged the country round Forli and Ravenna,
burning, maiming, sacking the houses of the poor, whose
stolen bedclothes and furniture they sold in the city for the
price of rubbish. Catherine wrote to the Governor, requesting
him to forbid citizens to buy anything of the soldiers, and
commanded that persons who had suffered loss, or who knew
of these thefts, should appear before the Governor to denounce
them. The Governor read a letter^ to the Ancients, in which
the Countess deplored the persecutions " of these French, who,
albeit our friends, are bestial and lawless, having no respect
for their superiors. These I know disapprove of their conduct,
yet are powerless to hinder it. Wherefore continue to keep
vigil and guard, lest neglect entail greater public evil than
could be measured by any private loss of mine, who am ever
ready to risk all my possessions and privileges for your well-
being, as you will see, and as is meet and fitting. Therefore,
on your side, watch, labour, and doubt not ; for these troubles
cannot last many days." As the French still persisted in
attempting to scale the walls of Forli, every gate was closed
except that of Ravaldino, the approaches to which were
guarded by armed citizens, bands of whom enrolled them-
selves in each parish. Thomas Feo — whom Bernardi de-
scribes as "night and day on guard, in a coat of mail, with
a stout club in his hand, giving great blows to those French,
without respect to persons, for in truth they swarmed up the
walls like cats " — was foremost among the defenders of Forli.
Several leaders went to the fort to ask the Governor and
council for provisions, who replied that it was difficult to

1 See p. 347, vol. i. of Catcrina S/orza, di Pier Desidcr'u Pasolini. Roma,
Loescher.

CHARLES VIII. IN ITALY 185

supply the wants of an army that sacked the country and
paid no one. The French captains replied that their king
did not sanction such violence, and guaranteed the security of
the mills, provided the commune would purvey the army.
The Count de Ligny ordered all his soldiers to evacuate Forli
under penalty of the gallows.

On the 1 8th, Charles VIII. entered Florence, and instructed
D'Aubigny to cross the Apennines, and to join the other
French division which was concentrating in Tuscany. When
Catherine heard that the departure of the French was fixed
for the 23rd she returned to Forli to entertain the generals
(among whom were D'Aubigny, Ligny, the Lords of Carpi
and Mirandola, the Marquis of Mantua, and the two Sanse-
verino). They were amazed at the splendour of the banquet,
and declared that they had never seen nor imagined a woman
to be compared with Catherine. Catherine made use of this
admiration in favour of her beloved Giacomo Feo, on whom
King Charles, who was encamped at Siena, conferred the
rank of a Baron of France.

Catherine's existence now became complicated by anxiety
for her brother, whose days were numbered, and the necessit}^
of temporizing with her uncle, who continued to usurp his
power. When Charles VIII. had recovered from the small-
pox, which had detained him at Asti, he went to stay with
Giovanni Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, at his Castle of Pavia.
The beautiful and unfortunate Isabel of Aragon — to the
extermination of whose house King Charles had been sum-
moned to Italy — cast herself weeping at the feet of the King,
and Charles had left Pavia, touched by her tears, but unable
to console her by any promise. On arriving at Piacenza with
the Moro, on October 20, he learned that the Duke of Milan
was dead.

Documentary evidence is not wanting to contradict the
contemporary rumour that Ludovic poisoned his nephew, but
it cannot defend his action in supplanting his nephew's heir,
and in causing himself to be proclaimed Duke by the terror-

i86 A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE

ized citizens. The unhappy Isabel, with her four children,
was interned in the Castle of Pavia.

Ludovic, in announcing her brother's death to his niece
Catherine, added that the citizens "had entreated him to be
pleased to assume the burden of being their Lord."

Catherine could not venture on direct recrimination, but
many of her letters betray a repulsion that may not always
be attributed to political causes. Outwardly, she was con-
strained to mark the assumption of Ludovic with rejoicing
and the customary illuminations and ringing of bells at Imola
and Forli.

The coronation of Ludovic was fixed for May 20. Cather-
ine's envoy conv^eyed to him at the same time her congratula-
tions, and her entreaty that she might not be coerced in
co-operating in the war with France, which the Moro, now
in league with the Pope and Venetians, was contemplating.
Charles VIII. had seized Naples without laying hand to his
sword. " For no man had shown his face to him . . . they
all fled like vile effeminates ; and the King of Naples and his
son, the Duke of Calabria, took to flight without waiting to be
chased," writes Cobelli ; " and Ludovic having made himself
Duke of Milan, he feared that if the King of France assumed
the crown of Naples, he would become Lord and Emperor of
Italy. Then it was that the Lord Ludovic, Duke of Milan,
wrote to the Pope and the Signory (of Venice) that these
French were so puffed up with pride that they were capable
of supplanting all the princes of Italy, whom it therefore
behoved to provide . . . ct cetera . . ."^

It was in vain that Ludovic, by means of Francesco Quar-
tieri, persuaded Catherine to adhere to the side espoused by
Milan, rather than to Florence, which, in his opinion, was too
much divided against itself, owing to discord in the House
of Medici, to be of help to other States. Catherine's sym-
pathy with Florence, and her regret for the death of Lorenzo
the Magnificent, "the like of whom could not be reproduced
by Nature," were unceasing. The Moro would have preferred

■^ Cobelli, [). 36S.

CHARLES VIII. IN ITALY 187

to find in Catherine a docile and unquestioning ally, while
Catherine would neither renounce the support of the House
of Sforza, nor her personal policy. She was then buoyed up
by faith in the Pope. "The Pope," she said, "will do more
for me than I could ask of him : would that it were so with
those of my blood."

CHAPTER XXI

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIACOMO FEO

Catherine, in the midst of danger from within and
without, had succeeded in securing and pacifying her Httle
State, which seemed compact of order, civic concord, and
reverent love for the sovereign Lady. But the worm was at
the core. The secret correspondence of a Florentine commis-
sioner with Piero de' Medici gives some insight into the domestic
Hfe of Catherine under these precarious conditions. Bello da
Castrocaro, sent by Puccio Pucci from Faenza to ForH, to
question the Countess as to the passage of some Milanese
troops, was admitted to her presence. Her youthful lover, in
a scarlet satin coat with a short cloak of cloth-of-gold negli-
gently thrown across his shoulders, was seated on a window-
sill. Near to him sat Catherine on a " cathedra," or heavy
wooden chair, wearing a loose gown of white brocade with a
black scarf "In beauty, they were like two suns."

On that day, some soldiers, a page of Catherine's and one
of Messer Jacopo had tilted and fenced for their amusement.
Catherine's page had been victorious until the end, when the
other had overpowered him, and " Maestro Lazaro, Jiebreo, who
was prodigiously learned in surgery, had been summoned to
mend his head, arm, and leg." Bello was graciously received
by the Countess on another occasion, but always in the
presence " of Messer Jacopo, without whose presence she will
not speak; indeed what Madonna says is either confirmed, or
the reverse, by Messer Jacopo." In discussing the current
subjects of the hour they had both expressed an opinion that

1 88

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIACOMO FEO 189

all the soldiers who came from Lombardy to Romagna were
sent "to drive away Messer Jacopo." But both Catherine and
Giacomo were prepared to face extermination; "Madonna
would see her subjects, her children and her chattels buried,
and they will give their souls to the devil and the State to
the Turk, sooner than abandon each other."

And woe to Bello if he had betrayed this conversation to
another than the Florentine commissioner ! She would have
sought him to the world's end and had him cut to pieces.

In another letter to Piero Medici, Pucci writes that — "The
Fort is in the hands of Messer Jacopo, whose uncle is castellane
thereof, and Madonna may not enter the Fort unless she is
unattended ... all the money and revenues pass through
the hands of Messer Jacopo ; he pays the soldiers, rides
abroad with the pomp and circumstance of a reigning
sovereign, and all appeals are received and replied to by him.
This Jacopo is so hated at Rome and Milan, that, while
his power lasts, Catherine will be obliged to lean on the
Florentines and their allies, for there be none other whom she
can trust. A catastrophe is imminent, and one of these three
things cannot fail to happen : either Catherine will assassinate
her lover, the lov^er will assassinate Catherine and her children,
or Octavian, who appears to be a lad of spirit, will, on coming
of age, put his mother and her lover to death. . . . If therefore
Messer Jacopo has the wit with which he is credited, he will
provide his own salvation without waiting for Octavian to
reach man's estate."

This letter bears the date of May 25, 1493.

The fire smouldered under ashes for two years longer,
during which Giacomo Feo became more odious to many,
foremost among whom were the Marcobelli and Orcioli, who
had earned the Countess's gratitude by the part they had
played in her restoration, so that they became almost masters
of the State and of herself They cherished a mortal hatred
of her favourite. Feo, conscious of their envy, most scrupu-
lously avoided giving them offence, hoping to appease them
by dint of prudence and affability, but they had become as

I90 A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE

powerful as the Orsi under Count Girolamo, so that their
ill-fecHng could not long remain secret. At Forlimpopoli, in
the presence of Cardinal Raphael, the OrcioH had so
vehemently abused Feo that the Countess, who could not
feign ignorance, was obliged to imprison them in the Castle of
Brisighella. Her affection for them was so great that she
soon recalled them, and as a proof of renewed confidence,
sent one of them to Forlimpopoli to intercept the inroads of
the Neapolitan troops.

The Orcioli, who came out of prison with renewed hatred
of Feo and the determination to remove him, were soon in
league with the Marcobelli. A former servant of the Orcioli,
now in the service of Feo, kept them informed of his move-
ments, but their first attempt on his life at Santa Croce
miscarried.

The cloud thickened, the storm threatened, but Feo kept
guard on himself, and the bolt did not fall, though Catherine's
position became daily more painful and precarious. All her
pride and courage had not availed to save her from becoming
completely subject to the caprices of her lover in matters
public or domestic. She screened them as best she could, but
felt herself at fault and dared not murmur ; her children, no
less enslaved and victimized than their mother, were sore and
rebellious at heart. None could cross her threshold without
a thrill of abysmal horror. The astute Florentine had
divined the approaching crisis.

Octavian, now sixteen, was surrounded by zealous partisans
who fanned the flame by representing Feo as an arrogant
intruder whose undue influence had sullied and alienated his
mother; they reminded him he was the prince, the real head
of the State ; it was time to be up and doing. One day that
Feo had provoked him beyond the ordinary bounds, the boy
retorted with all the venom that embittered him, and Feo
struck him in the face. Catherine stood by and shuddered ;
her bosom heaved and her eyes shone with unshed tears, but
she dared not speak. How could she defend her son_[against
her lover ? She was conscious of her fault, degraded and
ill at ease.

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIACOMO FEO 191

Her other children and her guards were present: there was
angry silence ; the fatal spark had reached the mine.

Gian Antonio Ghetti,of Imola, an armour-bearer to Octavian,
presented himself in the name of Catherine's children to the
Orcioli and Marcobelli, to gain their support against Feo,
whom he had helped to supplant his brother at Ravaldino,
but who had refused to pay what he owed him. "You will
never succeed in touching him," he said to these implacable
enemies of the favourite. " I must make an end of it. If you
are willing, I will kill him for you. . . ."

He enlisted the services of a relative, Domenico Ghetti ; his
friends, the Mazzolani, lent him an active peasant who was
no novice in such matters, and he had a trusty servant who
was an expert in them. They were joined by Filippo
dalle Selle of Bologna and Don Domenico da Bagnacavallo
and Don Antonio, surnamed Pavagliotta, two priests of evil
fame, who were easily persuaded that their services would be
acceptable to Cardinal Raphael Riario and to Octavian in
delivering the unhappy Countess from the usurper.

It was August 27, 1495. The Countess, with her daughter
Bianca and some of her women, was returning in her chariot
from the chase, at the hours of vespers. She was followed by
her sons, Octavian and Cjesar, by Giacomo Feo, and a great
number of equerries and men-at-arms ; a joyous party laden
with spoil and singing merry songs. The traitors had secreted
themselves behind the Bogheri Bridge. Gian Antonio Ghetti
came forward to meet Giacomo Feo, who threw him a familiar
"How goes it, Gian Antonio, where do you come from.''"
" Well, well, my Lord." And while the traitor said these
words, his servant speared Feo through and through. Then
Gian Antonio fell upon him. " Alas ! I am a dead man 1 "
cried the poor knight. Don Domenico seized his horse by the
bridle and dragged it to the church of St. Bernard where the
two priests fell upon him until he dropped from the saddle.
"O Lord! O Madonna, I am murdered !" cried the victim,
while the assassins struck him across the face. They dragged
the unhappy Feo, mutilated beyond recognition, but still

192 A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE

living, and threw him into a pit, where, says Bcrnardi, '' the
poor captain, praying the Eternal to forgive him his sins, gave
up the ghost."

As soon as Catherine heard the noise, she turned, and, as if
she had divined the horrible occurrence, sprang from her
carriage, and leapt on to a soldier's horse. She fled, followed
by Csesar and Octavian, to the citadel. But her sons, feeling
they might be regarded as accomplices, did not dare to enter
it with their mother, and took refuge under the roof of Paolo
Denti. The men-at-arms, equerries and servants had vanished,
terrorized. Two only of the suite had turned and perceiving
what had happened, had bravely returned to the bridge. They
were Francesco Tomasoli of Forli and Bartolomeo Martin-
engho. Tomasoli struck a blow at Ghetti, who was unhurt,
because of his coat of mail. He turned calmly to his two
assailants saying, " That which we are doing is done by
command of Madonna and the Lord Octavian,"

Tomasoli and Martinengho, amazed by this repl}', were no
less surprised when they beheld the two priests dyed with the
blood of Feo, who confirmed what had been said. And when
the latter cried " Octavian .' Octavian ! " they, believing that
they were empowered to act and to cry, raised their voices in
unison with those of the assassins. Soon these voices were
blended with the cries of the populace; and a great crowd,
headed by the conspirators, poured into the square, to the
cries of " Caterina ! Caterina ! Ottaviano ! Ottaviano ! "

The news spread throughout the city, from every corner of
which citizens poured into the square. " People, people of
Forli!" roared the assassins; "come forth! we have already
killed that traitor who was Giacomo Feo ! Forth ! Come
forth ! " Catherine's auditor heard the cries from the palace.
He came out and was met by Ghetti, who boldly accosted
him, saying that in obedience to the Countess and Octavian,
he had been obliged to put Feo to death.

The auditor, who as inspector of police was well versed in
Court mysteries, asked himself whether Catherine had been
driven to this desperate step to free herself from a position
that was incompatible with her sovereign and maternal duties.

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIACOMO FEO 193

... In such a position as hers the dreadful fact was not
inadmissible. The auditor would neither sanction nor
punish without the Regent's instructions. . . He accordingly-
slipped through the crowd, and, beckoning to a son of the
notary Aspini, bid him fly to the citadel to acquaint the
Countess with the communication imparted to him by Ghetti
and the tenor of the people's cries.

The youth returned with the news that the Countess, in
despair at the murder of her lover and rage at the audacious
calumny of the murderers, demanded instant and condign
vengeance. Catherine's wishes could not have tallied more
completely with those of the auditor, who had never lost sight
of Ghetti. He sprang upon him and seized him, crying,
" Accursed traitor, what have you told me ? " and as Ghetti
struggled to free himself, he added, " Hold ! liar, hold !
Come to Madonna in the Fort!" Ghetti shook himself free.
" A hundred ducats in the name of Madonna to him who will
deliver to her or prove that he has killed Gian Antonio
Ghetti ! In the name of Madonna the Countess ! A hundred
ducats ! " cried the auditor, while Ghetti tried to disappear in
the crowd. Don Antonio, Filippo dalle Selle, and Bernardino
Ghetti gained the walls and leapt from them ; Don Domenico
hid himself in a chest in the house of his brother-in-law ; and
covered with wounds, Gian Antonio Ghetti, followed in his
desperate flight by the crowd, was struck dead by a blow that
cut his head in two, close to the loggia of the Dome, by
Bernardo Mangianti. " He had lost all human semblance,"
writes Cobelli, who, "being in the square, had run in haste to
see." A little later, he says that he entered the church of
the Black Flagellants, whither some pious persons, having
recovered the mangled body of the late Vice-regent from the
pit by the bridge, had conveyed it. " And there I saw Messer
lacomo Feo dead, on a bier. Oh! the pity and the cruelty of
it ! Oh, reader, certes I never saw the like of that face that
had been so beautiful. It looked like a pomegranate that had
been torn open and hacked. I could not refrain from weeping,
remembering him so fair and white and clean, who now lay
hideous in his clotted blood, wrapped in his bedraggled coat

194 A CLANDESTINE ^LARRIAGE

of cloth-of-gold. . . Never had man been feared as was this
man, at Forli. . ."

That night Catherine sent word to Thomas Feo, who had
resumed his post at Imola,that his brother had been murdered,
and requested that his sisters be sent from Imola and Bologna
to Forh . . . also "that the house of Antonio da Ghia (Gian
Antonio Ghetti) be destroyed and his wife (once a favourite
and favoured woman of the Bed-Chamber to Catherine), his
children, and any of his relations they could lay hands upon,
be put to death." According to Cobelli, who herein differs
from the Sassatelli and other Imolese, who had their own
reasons for blackening her memory, this order did not emanate
directly from Catherine. One relativ^e of Ghetti's was hanged
and afterwards quartered at Imola ; the unhappy wife of
Gian Antonio, the beautiful Rosaria, was dragged to the Fort
of Forli, and there, with her two little children, thrown down
a spiked well.

On the evening of the 28th, pending the arrival of the
invited mourners, the body of Giacomo Feo was quietly
transferred to the church of San Girolamo, where a temporary
monument was erected. In the square a great catafalque
supported a bier covered with cloth-of-gold and surrounded
by many torches. At the hour of vespers on the following
day, thirty crosses — followed by the religious of their various
orders, each bearing a torch — were carried into the square.
The magistrates, with their wives, proceeded to the fort to
attend the Countess's guests.

The first to leave the fort was Paolo dall' Aste, the
bishop's vicar, in whose suite were Scipio, natural son of
Count Girolamo and Bernardino, the son of Catherine and
Feo, five years old, who had been re-named Charles in grati-
tude to the King of France for making his father a baron.
Then came the auditor of the Countess, followed by the
magistracy, the gentlemen of Catherine's household, the rela-
tives of Giacomo, his sisters with the noble ladies of Forli,
the ladies and maids-of-honour of the Countess, twelve pages
clad in mourning and three others in gold and silver, on

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIACOMO FEO 195

superbly caparisoned horses, one of whom carried the sword
and gold spurs, another the helmet, and the third the cuirass
of the dead knight. In this order the cortege, with a great
number of men-at-arms in gorgeous liveries, entered the
church, where, after solemn obsequies, Fra Ludovico of Forli
pronounced an oration in praise of the deceased. On the
following day, Catherine notified to her subjects that Giacomo
Feo had been her legitimate consort.

The body of Gian Antonio Ghetti was hung to a pole
under an archway of the palace. Don Domenico da Bagna-
cavallo was taken from the shelter of his brother-in-law's,
house, and was tortured by fire until he revealed the names
of his accomplices and the motive of the conspiracy, into
which he had been inveigled by Ghetti's statement that the
Countess, the Lord Octavian, and the Cardinal Raphael
wished Feo to be put to death.

To this Catherine replied that the Riario had never been
traitors, neither had the Sforza been known to hire assassins,
when they wished to rid themselves of a man. The punish-
ment of the wretched priest would therefore be of a nature
to prove how the Riario loathed treachery. It is certain
that had Catherine chosen to rid herself of Feo he would
have disappeared in the fort and never more been heard
of, but would not have been assassinated in a street. If
Catherine's revenge passed all bounds, some of its excesses
may be ascribed to her determination to wipe out this
calumny. In avenging Girolamo, Catherine did not pass
the bounds of the justice of her day. Now she was
no longer a sovereign with the murder of her consort to
avenge, but a woman hardened by the habit of command,
of bloodshed and strife, a woman maddened to fury by the
assassination of her lover, turning like a tigress on his
murderers and their kin, revelling and exulting in their blood.
The names of the Marcobelli and Orcioli were conspicuous
in the long list of the priest's accomplices ; Catherine's
amazement at their ingratitude lent a new zest to her
revenge.

196 A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE

On the conclusion of the priest's trial by the podesta the
^vretched man was handed over to a brutal executioner named
Mongiardini, who stripped him and tied him by the feet to
-a horse's tail and thus dragged him to the bridge where Feo
had met his fate, and thence to the square, where the soldiers,
tired of chasing the horse, battered out what life remained
in him, while with his last breath he muttered words of
penitence and prayer. His body was strung up under the
.arch where hung that of Gian Antonio Ghetti. His house
and that of his brother-in-law were sacked, and Giacomo
dalle Selle, his two sons, and the sons of Filippo dalle Selle
(the latter had escaped) cast into the dungeons of Ravaldino.

Mongiardini and his myrmidons knocked at the door of
Bernardino Ghetti, brother of Gian Antonio, who had escaped,
took his wife and three children in his stead and thrust them
into the dungeons. Mongiardini then learnt that a child of
five, belonging to Gian Antonio, was still in charge of his
nurse ; he ferreted him out, dragged him to the fort and
there " immediately cut his neck." ^

On the same morning of the 28th an edict was proclaimed
ordering those who harboured conspirators or their property
to give them up to justice, under penalty of the gallows.
A few hours later, to the blare of trumpets, a second edict
promised a thousand gold ducats and the possessions of the
captive to him who brought one of the assassins, alive or
dead. The public crier had no sooner read their edict, when
a beautiful girl was dragged into the fort ; she was the
paramour of Don Pavagliotta with whom were three of the
profligate priest's children. " They were immediately put to
death," says Cobelli, " as also the children of Filippo dalle
Selle," and it was rumoured, "two children of the House of
Orso," who had been taken after the murder of Count
Girolamo, The executioners had forced the Regent's hand ;
the punishment outstepped the offence.

Pietro Bosi and Giovanno Caroli (the latter master of the
pantry to Catherine) were implicated and throw^n into chains,
and Don Pavagliotta was captured between Ravenna and

1 Cobelli.

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIACOMO FEO 197

Ferrara, subjected to torture until he denounced the innocent
with the guilty and then put to death with the same horrible
refinements of cruelty to which Don Domenico had been
subjected.

The Marcobelli had imprudently remained at Forli. Two'
of them perished in a scuffle with their jailers that nighty
and a third, named Agostino, was grievously wounded. The
Countess, who heard cries of " Ottaviano ! Ottaviano ! "
from her apartments, asked the meaning of these sounds
at that hour. She appeared distressed by the occurrence^
and ordered that every care be taken of Agostino. This
benevolence was not extended to other members of the
family, for soon afterwards his prison was shared by his
brother Francesco. The sumptuous houses, large properties
and lucrative warehouses of the Marcobelli and Orcioli were
stripped and sequestrated, and the proceeds, which amounted
to a considerable fortune, " given to whom Madonna chose."^
The women of these families were hunted from their empty
houses by the auditor.

Caglianello, castellane of Schiavonia, a former dependent
of Cardinal Raphael Riario, with whom he was known to
have been in correspondence, Pietro Bosi, and Fra Ilario,.
once tutor to Catherine's sons, were imprisoned. The latter
was liberated, but not before he had been so dislocated by
torture that he went on crutches ever after. Catherine does
not appear to have interfered with the liberty of public
opinion ; the only persons who suffered punishment for it
were a peasant who had said, in a shop, that the conspirators
were unwise in sparing Catherine when they killed Fco,
and another Avho, at an inn, had dilated on the grounds the
conspirators might have had for killing the Countess. They
were imprisoned for inciting their hearers to sedition ; one
survived his punishment and was ultimately liberated, the
other died of the damp and stench of the dungeon into which
he had literally been thrown.

Catherine had fought the murderers of Girolamo, for and
with her children, but in the death of Fco she must have
felt they had a hand. They had sought refuge, away from

198 A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE

her, under the roof of Paolo Denti, the populace had fawned
on them, paid homage to them, carried them to the palace
and there again acclaimed them rightful lords. Two days
passed before Catherine sent for them, and the people of
Forli seized this occasion for what would now be termed a
demonstration. Indignant with Catherine, they surrounded
her children — who were led trembling to the fort, as into
the lion's den — determined to protect them against their
mother, to show them to her and to lead them in safety to
the city. But the draw-bridge was let down, the great door
opened and vomited a body of foot soldiers, armed to the
teeth and covered with shining armour who charged the
howling and retreating populace. When the people stopped
the soldiers came up with them and cleared the way with
their pikes to where the young lords, surrounded by their
most zealous partisans, stood : they were hurried into the
fort like prisoners of war, while the populace from whom
they had been torn, continued to raise piercing cries. Then
the cannon roared and the frightened crowd rushed back to
the city. Soon, in every house and inn at Forli the Countess
was slandered as a woman and accursed as a ruler. When
night fell, the dungeons and secret places of the fort were
filled with poor wretches who had been captured by force
or strategy. Scipio, natural son of the late Count, raised his
voice in protest against these cruelties, for which he was
thrown into a dungeon, where he languished in chains for
eighteen months. Lamed and ruined in health, he left his
prison to take service with Catherine's enemies, the Venetians.
Catherine realizing that the blow struck at Octavian had cost
Feo his life, confined the former in the fort. He was her
eldest-born and the head of the State, but she chose to avenge
her lover without let or hindrance. All Romagna trembled,
neighbouring Powers shuddered with horror, the Milanese
Orator wrote from Bologna that he could not but grieve
"that so much infamy be attributed to the Countess of
Imola, seeing that she is of the House of Sforza." And
Pope Alexander, hitherto not prone to scruple, lost faith in
Catherine. " His Holiness," wrote Cardinal Ascanio Sforza,

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIACOMO FEO 199

" wonders and sorrows that she should venture to attack a
cardinal and chamberlain (Cardinal Raphael Riario, who had
helped to save the State for herself and her children) of the
Holy See, thinking perhaps thereby to justify the unheard-
of bloodshed committed within the last few days to satisfy a
passion which, had she rightly governed herself, she should
have buried." This hecatomb brought no peace to Catherine,
who could never forget that the blood of innocent children
had mingled with that of the guilty. From the blood of
the first victims a kind of vapour, that blinded the sight,
unhinged the brain of those who decreed, pronounced, and
executed sentence, would seem to have arisen. The subter-
raneans of Ravaldino were turned into abodes of lamentation
and death ; the hall where the podesta examined prisoners
rang with the clank of instruments of torture and the
desperate cries of the victims ; the air was polluted by the
stench of burned and scalded flesh.

Small wonder if the voices and phantoms of the victims
robbed Catherine of her sleep, and that in the watches of
the night she was heard to call upon the children of Orso !

CHAPTER XXII

CATHERINE AND LUDOVICO IL MORO

Towards the end of 1495 Catherine sent troops, under
Achille Tiberti of Cesena and Cicognano of Castrocaro,
against Guidoguerra, Count of Chiaggiolo, from whom they
took Castelnuovo, Tudoranno, MoHno Vecchio, Cosercoh", and
other castles which he had taken from the Archbishop of
Ravenna. The Venetians sent troops to recapture Castel-
nuovo, to the amazement of Catherine, who wrote the Milanese
Orator in Bologna that she marvelled "they should so doggedly
attack a petty castle, and for its sake utter such threats, that
were I of a fearsome nature, I should have died of them . . .
perchance to-day they give battle, but they need not think
to win it with a cry of their stradiottiy Catherine, having
made her protest, handed the useless castle over to the
pontifical president at Cesena, saying that it was more the
Pope's affair than hers to impede the progress of the Venetians
in Romagna, and that to the protector of her family and the
god-father of Octavian she made a free gift of Castelnuovo.
Of this the president took no notice, while the castellane,
possibly bribed by the Venetians, surrendered to them.

In that same year Catherine's troops, in conjunction with
those of Venice and Bologna, repulsed Octavian Manfredi,
who had been liberated by Charles VIII. after six years'
imprisonment at Pisa. With the help of Vincenzo Naldi and
the men of Valdilamone, Octavian Manfredi attempted to
depose his cousin Astorre, Lord of Faenza (a minor, then
betrothed to Catherine's daughter, Bianca). Naldi was pur-

CATHERINE AND LUDOVICO IL .MORO 201

sued as far as Brisighella, where his property was laid waste,
and Octavian, poor and friendless, retired to Florence.

In 1496 Bernardi, among other phenomena, records a rain
of stones, five of which he saw in the palace of the Lord of
Valdinoce, who sent a fragment of one, weighing a pound
and a half, as a present to Catherine. On these stones the
learned and the astrologers wrote many dissertations. The
year was otherwise memorable for floods that carried away
bridges, winds that unroofed towers, famine and pestilence
which the Countess alleviated as far as in her lay. She also
embellished the fort by a beautiful park and partly destroyed
the official palace, so that she need no longer look upon the
walls wherein her first husband had met his death and she
had been a prisoner of his assassins.

The chiefs among them died in exile within a few months
of each other : Checco Orsi as chief officer, and Ludovic as
Podesta of Camerino, it was rumoured of poison, with their
wives, children and remaining relatives. " It would have
been much better for them," remarks Bernardi, " had they
not taken the trouble to assassinate the aforenamed Count,
for then had they died in their beds. . . ."

Astorre Manfredi, the boy Lord of Faenza, had accepted
the Venetian Protectorate, in virtue of which the Signory
agreed to pay him 8000 ducats yearly and to defend his
State. The Countess wrote to Ludovic, Duke of Milan,
that the Venetian Resident was " so haughty, it seemed as if
there were no lord but he . . . he cared for nothing but to
capture the good-will of the populace." Fortunately the
castellane was of another mind. Although not afraid of the
enmity her words might provoke, she prayed the Duke not
to mention either herself or her letters to the Venetians. A
council summoned by the resident had determined on re-
moving Astorre and the seat of Government to the palace,
the official residence of the resident, "to which the Lord
Astorgio, albeit a child, would not consent." Yet the die
was cast, and the Venetian wife of the castellane would end
in persuading him to retire in favour of a Venetian patrician,
and the Signory would appoint one of their own captains at

202 A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE

Val da Lamone, In this manner the Venetians would absorb
the State (of Faenza). Catherine did not think the Floren-
tines had any designs on Faenza, but liad promised herself
to be vigilant on behalf of her future son-in-law, "w^ho stood
to her as a son."

Astorrc sent an account of his grievances to Venice, and
the Signory replied that despite their resident's urgent request,
he might remain in the fort — the matter of the castellane
was still under consideration. This question Catherine —
persuaded that an enemy of Astorre would be appointed —
held to be very grave, for his guardians had prohibited his
removal from the fort during his minority, and the young
lord had declared that nothing but force would induce him
to leave the fort.

Catherine wrote again that the Venetians were " ill-dis-
posed towards that castellane, and that the resident was lying
in wait to play him a trick against which there would be no
redress. And this castellane was the key to everything . . .
it avails not, in such danger as this, to send Astorre's envoy
to Venice. . . ." She could not sufficiently impress on the
Duke "that the Venetians hanker after what is ours." That
morning the Podesta of Ravenna had come to dine at a
sanctuary on her territory on his way to Castelnuovo, which
they had taken from her last winter. . . . Although it was
but a paltry place, the Venetians " had their arms painted on
it . . . and would hold and fortify it." At the same time
they were intriguing to obtain possession of the State that
had belonged to Guidoguerra ..." to extend their posses-
sions to these our hills. Now I submit to your judgment,"
the Countess added, "that if they be careful of these hovels,
how much more eagerly will they set their minds to things
of real importance ? "

Meanwhile the house of Giovanni Kentivoglio, Lord of
Bologna, had become a den of robbers in which Catherine's
enemies from Rome and elsewhere conspired against her.
Yet she wrote her uncle that she was comforted and of good
cheer, knowing that the ducal orator had expressed his

CATHERINE AND LUDOVICO IL MORO 203

master's displeasure to Bentivoglio. Though she confided in
the Duke's protection, she was constantly pre-occupied by the
inimical attitude of the Lord of Bologna. " I accept the
counsel, given me by Your Lordship, which is in every way
worthy of your wisdom and goodness, not to follow the
example of others in avenging my wrongs, but rather to
forgive them. Be therefore assured that had I not been more
than once provoked and harried beyond measure, I would
have tolerated this last occurrence as I have done before many
times ; sed furor fit sacpius laesa patientia, and the not resent-
ing so many injuries would encourage the wicked in evil
doing. . . . Still I will so far restrain myself as the conduct
of others may permit me to lean rather towards forgiveness
than vengeance. . . ."

She dared no longer write to the ducal orator at Bologna
on the subject of Faenza, for there were not wanting fresh
proofs of Bentivoglio's ill-will. A mere ne'er-do-weel, who
had run away for debt, had offered to reveal to her the names
of persons who betrayed her trust in them ; she thought this
a silly fact in itself, yet a proof of bad feeling. . . . She had
learned from Trachedini that Bentivoglio complained of her.
It might well be that months ago, under provocation from
Bentivoglio, she had said that she would give shelter to the
Malvezzi who had conspired against him. Worse things
might happen. Yet she had not done it. . . . " They com-
plain of words who would not have me complain of deeds."
She had not entertained any of his enemies, yet he had
received the Broccardi and Vaini, exiled by her, and those
who had conspired against her person ; " my words are sins
against the Holy Ghost, but their deeds are venial. . . ."

The letter of gravest import is dated March 27, 1496.
Bentivoglio had intimated to Duke Ludovic that the Countess
had sent persons who were in her confidence to murder
Giovanni Battista de Broccardi at Bologna. " I will not deny
the truth," replied Catherine to her uncle's queries. " If
Messcr Giovanni hath naught but hate for me, some people
there are who love me, and knowing that man to be con-
spiring against my life, under the roof of Messcr Giovanni,

204 A CLANDESTINE ^lARRIAGE

many of my trusty ones came to me offering to deliver
Broccardi . into my hand, alive or dead. I, having been
offended by him, and desiring to have him in my power, to
the confusion of my enemies, did not refuse either offer,
which I confess to have been ill done, as Your L^xcellency
says. . . . But this should be matter for small marvel to
Messer Giovanni, an he remember that I am composed of
the same elements as himself, who hath persecuted those who
offended him less grievously than did Broccardi me . . .
even in holy places. We all feel our own grievances, where-
fore he should cease to wonder if one day it be understood
that I am not dead."

On April 9 Catherine wrote the Duke that she "had done
her utmost to live on neighbourly terms with Messer Giovanni
Bentivoglio": "Your Excellency is aware how willingly I con-
sented to become related to him (Astorre Manfredi, betrothed
to Bianca Riario, was grandson to Bentivoglio). Why should
he conspire v/ith Cardinal San Giorgio (Raphael Riario) for
my ruin .'' Why lend himself to intrigues to depose me ? I
will have nothing more to do with him, either as a kinsman
or in any other capacity, and will henceforward show myself
to him as he is to me, doubting not that when his ears have
been sufficiently pulled by Your Excellency, he will no longer
interfere with me nor mine. And I, unless I be provoked,
will not interfere in the affairs of others."

But how could she avoid being entangled in the affairs of
others? Her neighbour's houses were on fire. In the pre-
ceding July, the Tiberti of Cesena had stirred up a tumult
in the town. "Yesterday," wrote the Countess to the Duke
of Milan, " they hanged the house-steward of the Archbishop
of Aries and helped Guidoguerra to capture the old fort, to
the cry of ' Chicsa, CJiicsa ! ' " Of this the Countess hastened
to inform the Pope (being, as she said, the better able to
gauge events that were happening so near to her), and as he
was in great danger of losing Cesena she added that it
behoved him to take immediate measures. She concluded :
" I have no other end in appealing to Your Holiness but

CATHERINE AND LUDOVICO IL MORO 205

the immense zeal and affection I bear to Holy Church, and
especially to the person and honour of Your Holiness, of
whom I have ever been, and shall remain to my life's end,
the devoted daughter and servant."

In August Pope Alexander sent the Archbishop of Aries
to restore order at Cesena, asking for the co-operation
of Catherine and her neighbours against Guidoguerra and
other disturbers of the peace. Catherine replied that, " hold-
ing as We do this Vicariat, I will do all that is possible,
promptly and willingly." She knew not what would happen
next ; Guidoguerra was then mining the Nev/ Fort. Mean-
while he had quarrelled with the Tiberti, " who hitherto had
been as one with him," and, suspecting them of designs on
his life, had slain a chief of their party, while his people had
killed seven others. The Tiberti had retired to the fort, and
their houses had been sacked.

One night the Martinelli of Cesena assailed a castle of
the Tiberti, took it, with the wife and children of Messer
Polidoro (Tiberti), and threatened to turn the whole brood
out of Cesena, " The Tiberti," wrote Catherine to Ludovic,
" have ever been devoted to me and my State." Seeing
that the quarrel between the two families was not com-
plicated by the intervention of "principalities and powers,"
Catherine had permitted some of her soldiers to side with
the Tiberti, who were joined by those sent by the Duke of
Urbino, and the castle was besieged. The besieged, failing
the succour they expected from the Lord of Rimini, sur-
rendered on condition that all aliens within the walls should
leave with a safe-conduct. Some of the Martinelli with their
braves threw themselves unconditionally on the mercy of the
Commune. "But no sooner had ^ my people and those of
Urbino retired," wrote the Countess, "than a Commissioner
sent by the Commune had them all hung up to the battle-
ments : a most horrible spectacle."

Meanwhile, Catherine's most bitter anxieties came to her
from Rome. "Were it not for my hope and faith in Your
Excellency," she wrote the Duke of Milan, " I should have

2o6 A CLANDESTINE .MARRIAC.E

to think of going to drown myself." Once the cardinals of
her blood had been her refuge, now everything was reversed.
Her nephew, Cardinal Raphael, had turned so violently
against her that Ludovic had confiscated his Lombard
revenues. Catherine thanked him, adding that "within three
or four days she would send full account of those who had
participated in the said machinations." She entreated him
to instruct his orator in Rome to see to it that a certain
conspirator be conscientiously examined, and to prove to the
Pope that she is as a daughter to the Duke, whom if she
be in error, none other may presume to correct. Cardinal
Ascanio, instead of defending her, was in league with Cardinal
Raphael . . . who even during the lifetime of Count Girolamo
had begun to repay his benefits with the money of ingratitude.
She added that for many reasons she would wish to have
gone to Milan, but " that daughter of mine (Bianca betrothed
to Astorre Manfrcdi) is growing up; neither would the times,
nor affairs of State permit my absence."

Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, menaced by Bentivoglio, sought to
ally himself with Catherine, whom he knew was exposed to
the same danger, by the marriage of his daughter to Octavian.
Catherine, without committing herself to refusal, replied that
"the prevailing turbulence and bad case of Italian affairs
obliged her to set aside every consideration but the preserva-
tion and weal of her State." The Gonzaga appealed to
Ludovic, Duke of Milan, to whom the Countess reiterated —
" Until I see the things of Italy take a better turn, I am
not minded to giv^e a wife to my son, in whose marriage I
cannot overlook my own advantage." When she had con-
sented to the betrothal of Bianca to the grandson of Benti-
voglio, Messer Giovanni " had attempted to govern us over
here . . . therefore I must adequately consider the matter
and then ask Your Excellency's advice." The times were
indeed troublous, and Catherine was torn between her desire
to hold to her alliance with her uncle's State and the sympathy
which drew her ever closer to the Florentine Republic — a
sympathy which, since the arrival of Giovanni Medici the
Florentine envoy, was strengthened by a new and personal

CATHERINE AND LUDOVICO IL MORO 207

element. Despite her impetuous but loyal nature, the
Countess found herself enmeshed in the most difficult of all
policies, that of dissimulation.

" I wonder," she wrote the Duke, " that Your Lordship
should write me that you hear that I am treating with
Florence for the levying of troops. . . . Had I thought of
such a thing, I should have written to Your Lordship for
advice. Am I then so wanting in good faith, love and
reverence that I could so deceive one to whom I would fain
be as a daughter ? And had I not been minded to accept
Your Lordship's advice, I would have frankly said so, as to a
father. ... I have no business in Florence, unless it be to
buy stuffs and to try and recover certain things I have there
in pawn. Forget not to provide my son Octavian with an
honourable opening, of which for every reason he is as
deserving as any other in Italy. For in idleness there is
neither use nor honour."

On this " opening for Octavian " she insists in a second
letter, in which she expresses her pleasure in the Duke's
approval of her neutrality and his refusal to give credence to
rumours anent her alliance with Florence. Her trust in him
was such that " had she one thought more than another, she
would have declared it to him."

But in November all traces of this confidence and filial
pliancy had vanished. "We have never ceased to remind
you to avoid giving offence to the Most Holy League," wrote
Duke Ludovic, " yet have you heedlessly persevered in doing
only that which seemed good to you." After reproaching
her for permitting an export of wheat from Forli to Florence,
the Duke proceeds—" We have not failed to entreat you as
we should a daughter or sister, therefore we pray Your Lady-
ship will hold us excused should aught occur which you wish
to avert, for We have not failed to admonish and advise you
for your good as if it had been Our own : for if Your Lady-
ship thinks that conceding to the Florentines that of which
the League seeks to deprive them, so that thereby they may
be obliged to join it, is a small matter, you are mistaken, for
it will offend the League. . . ." " Doubt not," he continued.

2o8 A CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE

on November I3, "that We will willingly do all We can for
you and yours. But we do not hide from you that in not
sending your orators to the King, and in permitting the
Florentines to draw forage from your land, We cannot think
you love Us as you should, which We regret the more for
your own sake,"

Now timid, now daring, Catherine strove to emancipate
herself from her uncle's tutelage and to cast in her lot Avith
Florence, centre of her hopes and aspirations. Giovanni
Medici, once her neighbour, was now her guest, her friend,
lover, counsellor, and the arbiter of her State. For him she
was ready to imperil that sovereign power she had both used
and abused. She was on the eve of another secret marriage.

BOOK VI

THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

CHAPTER XXIII

GIOVANNI POPOLANO

Giovanni di Pierfrancesco Medici, born in 1467, was
the handsomest and one of the most accomplished Florentines
of his short day. During the lifetime of Lorenzo il Magnifico,
Giovanni had presumed to love a lady beloved by his cousin
Piero, and a lawsuit, instigated by the hatred and jealousy of
the future head of the republic, had resulted in the confine-
ment of Giovanni and his brother Lorenzo to their respective
villas of Cafifaggiolo and Castello, under the pretext of
alleged secret negotiations with France.

To put an end to this ill-feeling, Lorenzo il Magnifico
purposed giving a daughter in marriage to one of his nephews,
but she had died, it was rumoured, of poison administered
by a brother, to frustrate the marriage project and the
reconciliation.

The nature and extent of the brothers' negotiations with
Charles VIII, were never fully elucidated : the Florentine
people were dissatisfied with their imprisonment and anxious
for their delivery ; a wish soon to be gratified by their flight.
Giovanni joined Charles VIII. at Vigevano, and succeeded in
persuading him that the Florentines were favourable to him
and would ally themselves with him if he found means to
rid them of his tyrannical cousin, Piero de Medici. The
king therefore advanced on Naples by the Tuscan road, the
Florentines dismissed Piero, and Giovanni, on recovering his
civic rights, changed his surname to that of Popolano, in
gratitude to the republican party.

212 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

In 1496 and 1497 he was appointed Ambassador to Imola
and Forli and Commissioner for all the Florentine possessions
in Romagna, where the political effects of his presence were
soon apparent in Catherine's rule. " In the year 1498," says an
ancient writer,^ "she contracted an alliance with the Florentines
by means of the Magnificent Giovanni de Medici, with whom
our lady the Countess was so infatuated that she would hear
of no other power." According to Cobelli, " every one
thought of him as a mere ambassador, and as such he has,
for many months, sojourned in the citadel : since then our
Illustrious Madonna has had a chamber nobly painted and
adorned near to her own apartment and there has lodged
the Magnificent Giovanni. . . ."

The Milanese Orator in Bologna, who had been instructed
to watch Catherine, had written the Duke on October 10, 1496,
that Giovanni Medici was staying with the Countess, by whom
he was treated with marked favour, and that competent
persons had told him that, in all probability, she had married
him. Giovanni Bentivoglio fanned the flame by telling the
ducal orator that Catherine had liberated prisoners at the
intercession of Giovanni Medici, whom she would marry " as
soon as she had built herself a safe nest." A few days later,
Count Nicolo Rangoni informed the orator that Catherine
had a secret understanding with the King of France relative
to her marriage. Alarmed at this news, Ludovic instructed
the orator to send a confidential person to his niece, informing
her of current rumours, which he (the orator) "did not dare
repeat to the Duke without her sanction."

" You do well," wrote Catherine to the orator, " not to give
credence to the gossip of Bologna . . . which, however, does
not surprise me, as these are not the first slanders that have
been fabricated in that place to do me an injury. . . . May
God give them enough to think of for themselves, so that
they may forget to gossip about others. According to them
I have already taken to myself many husbands : yet an I
chose to have one, I would that he be given me by my Lord
Duke, my uncle, who alone hath that right. But I am no

^ Storia di Komagna, MS.

GIOVANNI POPOLANO 213

longer of an age to be governed by such juvenile appetites,
and the government of my State occupies my whole thought.
Yet the wicked, who have never ceased from persecuting me
in my honour and person, will not stay their fabrications ;
perchance, one day their malignity will be recognized and
punished ... if not in this world, in the next. I have
neither married, nor sent Giovan Bettino to France, neither
have I trafficked nor treated with anyone: had I wished to
do so, it would not be without the consent of the afore-named
Lord Duke my uncle, whom I revere as a father as in duty
and propriety bound. . . . Forli, vij November 29. . . ."

The orator communicated the whole correspondence to the
Duke, adding that he had pretended to believe in Catherine's
assertions. He had sent his letter to Forli by his secretary,
Anton Bugado, " habited like a cavalier "... a wily man on
whom he had enjoined to deftly sift the matter, but he had
returned saying that it was not spoken of in public either at
Forli or Imola. Benedetto Aldrovandi, Podesta of Forli and
brother-in-law of the late Giacomo Feo, had neither affirmed
nor denied the fact, saying that within a few days he would
be in Bologna and would tell the orator " verbally of what
had happened." Before Bugado had left, the Podesta had
recalled him and said — "You will convey the reply of the
Countess to the ducal orator, but supposing it were true, what
would happen ? " " Were it true it would have to stand, but
Madonna's marriage with a merchant citizen would be
derogatory to her. . . . Oh, nobody would cavil at that, but
rather for some other reason," the Podesta had replied, with
a subtle smile.

It was the custom of Giovanni Medici, after hearing mass,
to go to the Countess in the fort, and after discussing with
her any letters that might have arrived, to return to dine
in his own apartment, which was the one which had been
occupied by Feo, and it was there that after dinner he
received the secretary and auditor of Catherine : all those
who desired audience of her sought it through Giovanni, who
settled every question, as if he had been her lieutenant. He
lived there with sixteen servants and twenty-five horses and

214 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

mules. Bugado had not been able to sec the Countess, who
had kept her room from an attack of fever.

Those Venetians who discussed matters with the Milanese
Orator, said that Catherine owed the stability of her State to
Milan and Venice and that she must look to these powers
for her future salvation, instead of those (the Florentines) to
whom must be ascribed her past adversities (the murder of
Girolamo). The Doge had said that " the nature of her sex,
which had often led her into error, must be her excuse, but
she must not be permitted by her uncle to persevere in her
present mistaken enterprise."

Meanwhile, Catherine wrote her uncle that she would never
cease to be, unto him, an obedient daughter, and would never
take any important decision without consulting him ; her
greatest sorrow was that the wicked had the power to make
him doubt her. But soon he w^ould realize her affection for
him and the malignity of her enemies, for the orator would
explain everything to him. . . .

Indeed, Trachedini had been requested to go in person to
Forli, and Catherine had sent Octavian to meet him two
miles outside the town, and that evening, accompanied by
her children, she received him in the apartment lately built
for Octavian, The orator on presenting his letters, said that
he had matters of importance to discuss wath the Countess.
The Countess then gave every one but himself permission to
retire and they were left alone. The orator said that although
the Duke his master did not believe the current rumour of her
alliance with France and P'lorence, he had charged him to
learn directly, from her own lips, whether she intended to
side wath France, or with the League, as it was her interest
and duty. . . . The Countess gently and graciously replied,
it pained her that the Duke should imagine things to be
possible that were absolutely the reverse . . . such as the
supposition that she thought of marriage for herself or her
children without first consulting him, who was to her as a
father . . . and ignoring her union with Feo, added that
" until now she had never thought of taking a husband since
she had been widowed of the Count her consort."

GIOVANNI POPOLANO 215

The Florentines had made advances to her, but she
distrusted them, and it seemed to her " a noble sport " to be
a spectator of passing events, with her State at peace under
the protection of the Duke her uncle. To be with whom was
to be with the League : she would neither ally herself, unless
obliged to do so, with France nor other powers : for her
children she wished that they might owe their career and
advancement to him, rather than to others. " And here took
God to witness that she laid bare to me the core and
innermost of her heart : if it be otherwise she is willing for
Your Excellency to deprive her of her State and even of life."
. . . The Countess then wished him good-evening, as if to
dismiss him, but the orator continued to convey to her the
Duke's expressions of good-will, and then, as if of his own
accord, entered " on rumours that were to her discredit "...
the prolonged stay of Giovanni Medici ... of which the
Orator spoke in a manner " opportune and consistent, from
the lips of a devoted servitor."

Catherine replied that Giovanni Medici was not there to
interfere in her government, but as a guest to whom she
owed courtesy for service rendered. He had lent and
procured for her about 10,000 ducats, to redeem jewels and
plate that from the time of Count Girolamo had been partly
at Modena and partly in the hands of Domenico Ricci of
Genoa. She had given Giovanni about 6000 sacks of wheat.
The Florentines had asked him for some of it for forage, but
as yet he had not given them any. At first she had welcomed
him for his evident devotion to the Duke of Milan, then he
had given her to understand that he wished to stay away from
Florence for some time to avoid the clash of party, perhaps
because he disapproved of the present democratic government.
True, he had a suite of sixteen persons and some horses, but
his great liberality repaid the expense of entertaining him.
To Bianca, he had given brocade that was worth more than
three hundred ducats, to her brothers velvets and silks of
even greater value. With Giovanni was his friend Filippo
Ridolfi and another Florentine named Corbizo, who was
useful to her in supervising the accounts of her factors.

2i6 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

Ridolfi had discovered that she had "been eaten" and preyed
upon and had obliged some of them to disgorge two or three
thousand ducats : others, to avoid exposure, had fled. The
Countess ended the audience by saying that Giovanni Medici
would have the honour of paying his respects to her uncle's
envoy.

" I," wrote the orator, " being in the citadel of Forli, where
sojourned also Giovanni de' Medici, on the morning of the
New Year (1497) he came to visit me at my lodging, first,
he said, to pay his respects to the representative of the Duke
of Milan, and to renew, in the person of the orator, that
friendship which had ever subsisted between the two houses.
Without waiting to be questioned, he at once proceeded to
justify his presence at Forli, repeating, ' but with less art and
grace,' Catherine's explanation, almost word for word. It
would not always be thus, the day would come when he and
his would be able to prove their affection for the House of
Sforza ; but this was not the moment, although he and his
house were as ever ready to stake their life and power for the
former, so intimately were the fortunes of the two families
bound together . . . showing that not a hair grew on him
that was inclined to PVance. . . . On departing, he declared
to me," continues Trachedini, " that he preferred meanwhile
to be the guest of Madonna than any one else's, feeling as he
did so much at hom.e under the roof of one of your blood :
Madonna to him represents Your Excellency, for whose sake
he helped her in the loan she needed, as well as for old
friendship's sake and to mark his appreciation of her gracious
hospitality."

He added that he never thought of going to France, there
was no foundation for the Florentine rumour. Trachedini
"thanked and praised him exceedingly." Giovanni inquired
if he had news of the return of Charles VHI. ... "I replied
cautiously, /^r verba genemlia,t\\dX I rather disbelieved than
believed in it, for had the King intended to come he would
not have waited for his kingdom to be lost and the number
of his friends lessened. . . . This argument appeared to him

GIOVANNI POPOLANO 217

unassailable and he said no more, save 'perdition seize the
King of France and those who love him.' ... I, however,
am not so credulous to take for granted these fair words of
Giovanni, whom I have known for years, as I also know the
Countess your niece to be too astute for me to pin my faith
to their assertions."

A few days later, Battista Sfondrati, ducal orator at Venice,
wrote the Duke that the reply of the Countess had pleased
the Doge, who yet had said that " Priests are not to be
trusted . . . neither should you pin your faith to women."

Yet another few days and Trachedini wrote Duke Ludovic
that Giovanni Bentivoglio had confided to him that he knew
from an intimate friend of Giovanni de' Medici that " for
certain the said Giovanni had married the illustrious Countess
of Imola, and for excellent reasons the alliance will be kept
secret for some time. ... I know not what to say . . . ntsi
maledictus homo qui co}ifidit in hoiiiine ct iiiaximc in vaihcre."

A month later Benedetto Aldrovandi wrote Catherine from
Bologna that the Milanese Orator had told him that her
marriage had again been spoken of as an accomplished fact.
She replied that there was no foundation for this calumny.

Catherine persisted in her denial, yet the report she denied
was either true, or on the eve of becoming true. " Giovanni
de' Medici," writes Vecchiazzani,^ "had long served Catherine
with the chivalry inherent to his illustrious birth. This
gratified her, inasmuch as it is of great good fortune to princes
to be served by nobles, and her gratitude was so vehement
that it became love." She wedded her beloved, and was
universally pitied for the enforced secrecy of this union,
necessitated, as it was, by State reasons. The child to whom
she gave birth, on April 6, 1498, was christened Ludovico,
in honour of the Duke of Milan, but he lives in history as
Giovanni delle Bande Nere, with the additional surname of
Italia, because of the glory his country owes him, through
whom the blood of Catherine was transmitted to the royal
houses of England, France, Spain and Portugal. But, as

' Storia di Forlimpopoli.

2i8 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

Cobelli wrote, "none dared speak" of this event, for Catherine
had taught her good people of ForH the danger of discussing
her affairs.

Her third marriage did not bring her the discredit that
had attended her union with Giacomo Feo, and she so ably-
demonstrated the political opportuneness of this alliance that
it was sanctioned by Duke Ludovic and her eldest son. The
Signory of Florence, on being acquainted with the marriage,
conferred the freedom of the city on the Countess and her

GIOVANNI DE' MEDICI DELI.li BANDE NEKE {after Titian).

children, born or unborn, without any mention of Giovanni,
lest the secret should transpire and supply Cardinal Raphael
Riario with a pretext for depriving her of the regency and
the guardianship of her children.

In 1497 Catherine built the Fort of Bubano, around which
soon rose many private houses. In November of that year
she, with the help of Maestro Bruchello, added other buildings
to these, and^ finally a church, which, with great solemnity,
she dedicated to the Virgin. The ancient fort was restored,
strengthened, and completed by a wall with towers and

GIOVANNI POPOLANO 219

bastions, which surrounded the village, henceforward to be
called Castello delta Contessa " under penalty of a ducat."
Catherine's idea, judged at the time to be a mere freak of
fancy, was wholly strategic, for in 1494 the garrison of Bubano,
thanks to its commanding position, had been able to stem
the French invasion, thus closing Imola and a great portion
of the territory to the invaders, who retired on Mordano.

This did not prevent the Sassatelli and others who wanted
to extort compensation for losses sustained in war, from
Catherine's children, by blackening their mother's memory

COSIMO DE' MEDICI, SON OF GIOVANNI.

from stating in a memorial that she had " erected the fort ^
... at the expense of the poor peasants who had been forced
to drag the cement and other material to the site, while the
master-carpenters and masons had to work gratis at the
construction of the fort ... as at Imola citizens had been
obliged to draw water from the fort for the use of the soldiers
(their defenders), to turn the grain belonging to Catherine
(forage) to save it from moth, and to render other services
it were shameless to write, so piteous was the servitude in
which they lived until they were freed by Alexander VI.,

^ Lawsuit between the Riario, the Commune, and some citizens of Imola.
Arckivio Sassatelli Imola.

220 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

the Vicar of Divine Justice, and Duke Valentino (Caesar
Borgia), its minister."

"... I am not minded for the present to give a wife to
the Lord Octavian, my son, and when I am so minded I
shall have to think of finding a person suitable for the main-
tenance and prosperity of the house . . ." wrote Catherine,
on January i8, to Duke Ludovic, who, "in reiterated letters,"
enjoined on her to give the daughter of the late Giovan
Francesco Gonzaga to wife to her eldest son, adding that she
united to other advantages that of being the grandchild of
the King of Naples. Catherine thanked him for the honour-
able alliance suggested by his paternal affection, but reminded
him that to himself, to Gasparre Sanseverino (better known
as Fracasso) and to twelve monks sent to her by the maiden's
mother, she had always declared that she would have none
of this marriage. She was convinced that the Duke's letters
were dictated by the importunities of others. She had said :
" now let him convey her decision to the family of the maid
once and for all."

In the following May the Bishop of Volterra arrived at
Forli to offer Catherine, on behalf of Alexander VI., the
greatest alliance that was then available in Italy. Would
she accept his daughter, Lucretia Borgia, as a wife for her son
Octavian ? . . . What was there that she might not ask of
the Pope? Cities, provinces, other States: the Riario would
once more command the treasures of the Church, as they did
under Sixtus IV. This proposal was made at the time that
the most horrible accusations were levelled at Lucretia and
especially at the Pope. In 1493 Lucretia had wedded Giovanni
Sforza, Lord of Pesaro. In 1497 the Pope wished to annul
this marriage, but to this his daughter's husband would
not consent. One evening Giacomino, page or servant to
Giovanni Sforza, was in the room of Madonna Lucretia ; he
heard the approaching steps of her brother Caesar, and
Giacomino, at her bidding, hid himself behind a portiere.
Caesar entered, and in the course of conversation told his
sister that he had eiven orders to kill her husband. When

GIOVANNI POPOLANO 221

Caesar left, Lucretia said to Giacomino, " Hast heard ? Go !
tell him." Giacomino obeyed, and Giovanni Sforza mounted
his Arab, which in twenty-four hours flew to Pesaro, where,
on arriving-, it fell dead. Thus Giovanni escaped the daggers
and poison of his brother-in-law. In the following June, the
body of the Duke of Gandia, elder brother of Caesar, was
found in the Tiber, and every one credited Caesar with the
assassination of his brother. In September Pope Alexander
assembled a commission, which included two cardinals, to
annul the marriage of Lucretia and Giovanni Sforza, and
sentence to that effect was passed on December 20 amid the
ridicule and scandal of all Italy.

The Bishop of Volterra, who was now the Pope's envoy to
Catherine, was intimate with Giovanni de' Medici, and through
him the Borgia hoped to gain their ends. He told every one
of the new, vast, and splendid States that were reserved for
the Riario, but did not venture to speak of them directly to
the Countess, who was too wise not to have seen through his
design. She heard of them through persons in whom the
Bishop had confided, in the hope of finding co-operators
among courtiers sufficiently ambitious to persuade Catherine
to fall in with his views. For the rest, he held that the
consequences of her acceptance were self-evident : she and
hers would once more be arbiters of Italian politics and
masters of the treasures of the Church. The consequences
of her refusal were the enmity of the Pope, the possible loss
of her States, and the probable dagger and poison of the
Borgia.

Catherine's very soul revolted at the suggestion. " I under-
stand," she wrote her trusty Christofero Ricerboli, " that their
plan is to remove me from here. I have replied that as my
son is about to travel to perfect himself in the art of war, I
do not intend to entangle him in this labyrinth at the outset
of his career, but intend him to be free to become a man.
Nor do I believe that the afore-named lords, my uncles,
would foist upon me the wife of another, who for three years
had shared the bed of one of our House. This could not be
unless I could believe ... in the shame and infamy of Their

222 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

Lordships, They know too well that all my past anguish
and dangers merit other remuneration, and I am capable of
enduring anything before I will submit to leave this, unless
of my own will.

" I am writing fully to the afore-named Lord Duke, my
uncle, so that when he is applied to he will know how to
answer. When I wish to give a wife to my son I shall not
choose a person prejudicial to my needs and peace. . . . His
Holiness will take offence at my refusal, but to that I give
little thought, being careful We should not be wanting in the
duty We owe to him of faithful vicars. . . ."

Catherine had saved the State for her son, and had guarded
it for him, but now Octavian was of an age to acquire experi-
ence, and to make a reputation for himself. His mother
realized that without this all her efforts and strategy would
be vain ; she grieved that he should grow up fat and lymphatic,
with the sluggish temperament of his father. She longed to
emancipate him, and an occasion presented itself where least
she had expected it. The Pisans, Avishing to retain the liberty
granted them by Charles VHL, had obtained help from the
Venetian Senate to resist the Florentines, who were attemptinsf
to subjugate them anew. The Venetians intended to establish
a protectorate over the Republic of Pisa, and thus obtain a
port in the Mediterranean, and they also intended replacing
Piero de' Medici, who for four years had lived in exile.
War had raged for some time, when in 1498 the Florentines,
who had hitherto been unfortunate, were signally defeated
at Santo Regolo. Florence, in dismay, sought aid from the
Baglioni of Perugia, the Vitelli of Citta di Castello, and the
Bentivoglio of Bologna. Catherine, known to have long
trafficked in arms and ammunition, to have levied and trained
foot and horse, was requested to place her son Octavian, with
a good company, in the service of the Republic. To this
Catherine agreed without hesitation, happy to combine her
son's interest with that of the husband to whom she could
refuse nothing, while Giovanni Medici was glad to help his
country and put an obstacle in the way of Piero, his cousin
and rival.

GIOVANNI POPOLANO 223

The diaries of Sanuto prove that no event in Italian poHtics
was long unknown at Venice. When the Venetians learnt
that the Countess was sending her son to the relief of their
enemies, they tried to terrorize her. They strengthened their
battalions at Ravenna, and spread the rumour that Antonio
Ordelaffi, the most dangerous enemy of the Riario, would be
sent against her and her future son-in-law, the young Lord of
Faenza. " But little - heed pay I to this gossip," wrote
Catherine, on June 6, to Ludovico il Moro. The Venetians
had already sent Naldi and Ordelaffi to hinder the departure
of Octavian. " But for all that," she wrote, " I do not desist
from sending the Lord Octavian, my son, on his journey,
both because I will not fail to my given word, and because I
think but little of the coming of the man Antonio. ... I do
not think myself so lightly bound to these States that I need
consider it much. Would to God I had more hope in other
places where they know the government to be weak and
have, perchance, laid deeper plans. ... If without prejudice
to her State she sent Octavian to learn soldiering with the
Florentines, that was no reason why the Venetians should
attack or insult her, and if even they so did, I have the
spirit wherewith to defend myself." A few days later, she
wrote that she had dispatched her son with her best soldiers
to the service of the Signori of Florence. " I have provisioned
the fortresses, and provided for the other needs of this State
in such wise that at the first shot fired we can count not only
upon the services of our own men, but on those of the
Florentines who are on this side of the Alps."

Stern guard was kept at Forli within, as without. A
wretched citizen was suspected of abetting Antonio Ordelaffi ;
he was promptly condemned to death by the Countess,
and was soon afterwards seen hanging to the battlements.
Catherine, sooner than break her word to the Florentines,
had not hesitated to irritate the Venetians, but if she was
daring, she was not foolhardy. Abandoned by Fracasso, her
chief stay, without the help promised by Ludovic, alone and
menaced on every side, she wrote her uncle : " War is not for
women and children, like my sons."

224

THE HOUSE OE MEDICI

Octavian, owing to his mother's passion for arms and
military pomp, entered Florence with a suite which seemed
worthy rather of a king than of a minor prince. He was
received with great rejoicing in Florence, accompanied in
state to San Giovanni, and twice reviewed his troops by
request of the SigJioj'i, so great was their admiration of the
pageant. Catherine continued from afar to direct these
soldiers she had trained and exercised, and minutely regulated
their administration. " Her Excellency Madonna desires
that the lists be kept in the accustomed order, and that man
and horse be catered for discreetly and moderately," runs a
letter to Christofero Ricerboli, dated June 24. Catherine

OCTAVIANO RIARIO.
Medal coined by Nicolo Fioroitino.

sent her husband and Giovanni Corradino, castellane of Forli,
to join Octavian in camp at Pisa, on whom, despite his poor
capacity, fortune smiled under the guidance of these experi-
enced warriors. Catherine, in the delight brought her by
tidings of her son's first victory, struck the equestrian medal
which represents him equipped as a captain-general.

But while Catherine triumphed as a sovereign and exulted
as a mother, Giovanni Medici fell ill and returned to Forli.
What would befall Octavian without him .-' One fear trod on
the heels of another, and Catherine's short-lived happiness
was drawing to its end. Her husband became rapidly worse,

GIOVANNI POPOLANO 225

and was sent by his physicians to San Piero in Bagno. After
writing his wife as to a commercial agreement with a certain
Maestro Ambrosio of Milan, he continues, " Your Ladyship
will send me one or two of my black barets (berets) to
change when I perspire, and also two other double pinkish
ones, large, hollow, and light, to wear the days I take my
bath, and sufficient cloth of Lucca for two skull-caps; a little
more of that wax for my head, and some of that hemp
wadding to wear under the baret. ... I have already bathed
two days in the women's bath, and, thank God, up to now
everything agrees with me ; I hope to completely recover
my wonted health. I commend myself to Your Ladyship
with the Piovano (Fortunati), who to-day is better. . . .
Written in my rooms at the Baths die 2 Sett., 1498." On the
eleventh he wrote again, instructing his wife how to write to
him, and begging her to be advised in all things by Simone
Ridolfi, without mention of his health. Suddenly he grew
worse. Catherine, summoned by a courier, hastened to his
side and found him dying, but still conscious. In the night
of September 14 he expired in her arms. Bernardi relates
that his brother Lorenzino conveyed the body to Florence,
and on the following, which was a Saturday, " his beautiful
wife, our Madonna, returned home." The deepest mourning
was observed in her household and court, to the wonder of
many of her subjects, to whom the marriage had remained a
secret. " To my mind," adds the historian, " the affairs of
the great are difficult to fathom."

Catherine's grief was profound. "The Florentines," says
Machiavelli in the Fragments, "sent Andrea dei Pazzi to the
Countess of Imola, partly to condole with her on the death
of her husband, Giovanni dei Medici, partly to keep her
well-disposed towards our republic. As they could not
levy soldiers here, they sent her 5000 ducats to enable her
to place 3000 foot in the company of Signor Fracassa,
officer of the Duke of Milan, who was here at the time
with a hundred men-at-arms and a hundred mounted
archers."

"Stunned by mortal grief," wrote Lorenzo Bossi (Fra

226 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

Lauro) to Duke Ludovic on September 17, " I entreat Your
Excellency to send some one immediately to the Madonna
of Forli, for she is in danger, without any one to sustain her
. . . and I know what I say." He had heard from the
Venetian orators that the Signory of Venice was determined
to profit by the grief which had overwhelmed Catherine, to
demand passage for the soldiers they were sending to Tuscany
through her dominions. The Venetians had reinforced their
garrison at Faenza to coerce her, and the advice of Bentivoglio
was to yield to their numbers and accede to their demands.
But the Venetian Proveditore asked in vain for the right
of way from Faenza to Florence ; Catherine, once again a
dauntless widow, decisively refused it to him.

In August of the following year, when the designs of

Alexander VI. on the whole of Romagna were no longer

secret, the Medici asked Catherine to provide for the safety

of their little cousin and nephew, Giovanni, by entrusting

him to their guardianship. Catherine replied that there was

nothing but her child that she could refuse to the House of

Medici. The Medici contended that she was not justified

in exposing an innocent child to the ruin which menaced her,

and that if she insisted on keeping him with her she must

find sureties for his safety. To this Catherine acceded, and

on August 14 the Medici arrived at Castrocaro, where they

were met by Catherine, accompanied by Octavian, Luffo

Numai, the notary Aspini, and several nobles of Forli. Ser

Giacomo Aldobrandini of Florence had already drawn up a

deed which conferred the guardianship of the infant Giovanni

and his property on Catherine, who in return gave them

personal securities ; Octavian, in solidiun with Lufifo Numai,

being sureties for 25,000 gold ducats. The Medici complained

that the marriage of Catherine to Giov^anni Popolano was

still kept secret, there being nought in this alliance but what

was honourable to her and the House of Medici. They

argued that secrecy was no longer of any use to Catherine's

policy, while it was prejudicial to the interests of the infant

Giov^anni. The Medici were becoming indignant at Catherine's

hesitancy, when, moved by the thought of her child, she

GIOVANNI POPOLANO 227

consented to deposit in the public archives a document by
which she declared herself the widow of Giovanni de' Medici.
As a memorial of their marriage she struck a medal on which
her portrait was surrounded by the inscription Cathariiia
Sfortia JMediccs.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE FLORENTINE ALLIANCE

Catherine, who despite her anxiety did not recall
Octavian from the camp at Pisa, occupied her early widow-
hood in repairing the wall of Forli towards Ravenna — for
which she lent the necessary funds to the commune — in
drilling her soldiers and providing new arms and copious
supply of ammunition. She levied 4000 troops for the Duke
of Milan. The Venetians, who were being reinforced at
Ravenna, threatened to deprive her of her State in favour
of Antonio Ordelafifi and intimated to her to cease levying
soldiers. Catherine, deaf to their threats, continued to levy
soldiers for Milan and Tuscany.

Her manner of raising a levy was singular. Two citizens
were deputed to make a census of able-bodied men and notify
them to present themselves at the fort Scarcely any one
appeared. Catherine, infuriated, ordered her deputies to go,
at the fifth hour of the night, to the houses of all those who
had not appeared and to order them to present themselves at
a stated hour at the fort, under penalty of the gallows. " Our
Madonna caused six bombs to be fired," says Bernardi, " so
that all our people might be informed." (October 4, 1498.)
These rigorous measures had the effect of putting to flight
the few who had already presented themselves — one alleged
that his ignorance of warfare would make him an incumbrance
to the army, another that he had a family and no mind to
abandon it for the "fine eyes" and political intrigues of the

228

THE FLORENTINE ALLIANCE 229

Countess, yet another that it was a great mistake for Forli to
pit herself against Venice, which fed her commerce. It was
therefore very difficult to find recruits, but at last they were
obtained from the neighbouring castles.

Some Venetian troops having entered the territory of Forli,
the Countess sent a protest to the Podesta of Ravenna, through
her son Caesar. True, the Riario were in the pay of Florence,
but this had nothing to say to the politics of either State.
Had Venice demanded their services in time, they w^ould
have given them on the same terms. The Podesta appeared
convinced and replied courteously, yet the inroads were
repeated. A sentinel was then posted on the tower of the
commune who rang a bell at the approach of the enemy, its
numbers being indicated by the strokes of the bell, w^hich
hung there from 1498 to 1788, when on its removal, the
following inscription was found on its inner rim,

Sfortiades laetor Catharinae tempore facta
Quae populum vigilem reddo, el arma voco.

On the outer rim was :

Opus Bernardini Gongonzolae MCCCCLXXXXVIII.

with the arms of the commune on one side and those of
Catherine on the other. On October 24, a priest whose curi-
osity had led him to climb the tower of the Dome, perceived
the enemy's troops, and tolled the bell. Armed citizens
rushed to the Gate of Schiavonia, \vhere they found Catherine,
vigilant and self-possessed, who posted them along the city
wall. The Venetians, seeing them so well defended, turned
back and were pursued but not overtaken by Fracassa.
Catherine then granted a safe-conduct to all exiles — except
those condemned for rebellion — with the restoration of their
confiscated property. They returned in great numbers and
the Christmas festivities were more than usually joyous.

Unprotected against daily and increasing insults and
menace ..." If I be more timorous than is needful," she
wrote the Duke of Milan, " Your Excellency must ascribe it
to my being a woman and therefore of a fearsome nature."

Dangers, indeed, multiplied on every side. The numbers

230 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

of the Venetian troops had so augmented, that soon they
would be all-powerful in Romagna. Not one horse had
arrived of all those promised by Ludovic. " The not having
sent two hundred men-at-arms in time, has caused us to lose
Faenza," she wrote him ; " may tardy provision against so

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LETTER OF CATHERINE SFORZA, DATED SEPTEMBER I4, I498.

great a need not give them so firm a hold that it cannot be
undone. My affection dictates the freedom of my speech."
Military cares engrossed her life, she rode the hills with
Fracassa and with him planned the manner and defences for
the war. " On our side, over here, we fail not to provide

THE FLORENTINE ALLIANCE 231

as well as in us lies, and to-morrow I go with Jo. Gaspare
(Fracassa) to Marradi, which is a step from the Florentines in
Valdilamone, to see the country and fortify the passes where
I may find it necessary, to encourage our men and to prove
to others that we do not sleep." She sent messages every-
where and hoped for victory, but all depended on prompti-
tude. "If," she wrote on the following day, "we do not
provide speedily and well . . . the enemy will have its way."

Two days later, she wrote again. Her fears were justified,
the Venetian army had poured down upon Romagna. " I
grieve that my words have been disbelieved, as coming from
a timorous woman." The Venetians had passed Valdi-
lamone and were yet reinforcing at Ravenna. Words were
of no avail. Troops must be sent at once.

At last Duke Ludovic awoke, stirred himself and dis-
patched the Count of Caiazzo, brother of Fracassa and almost
his equal in war. The Duke wrote his niece that he had sent
this captain to Imola, " and thus have appointed you and
the aforesaid Count our Captains-general in those territories,
trusting in the success which is (assured) by your courage
and wisdom." The Duke's courier was met by one from the
Countess on his way to summon Caiazzo, without further
delay. " One hour was worth thousands." Catherine thence-
forward shared the command and responsibilities of a war
against Venice with the two most famous captains-general
of her time.

Meantime the Orsini, who had entered the service of Venice,
sent a former man-at-arms of the Riario to inform the
Countess that the Venetians had determined to reinstate
Piero de' Medici : they (the Orsini) would do nothing that
could injure her and offered their mediation and negotia-
tion in the attainment of any wish of hers. The Countess,
ascribing their courtesy to gratitude for benefits received
from her first husband, thanked them " with many loving
words. She had nothing to say on the restoration of Piero :
her son was in the Florentine service as a soldier. As such
he did his duty, without interfering in other matters. If she
sided with the Duke of Milan, it was because she was his

232 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

niece. She was grateful, but there was nothing that she
wanted."

A letter from Catherine to Duke Ludovic, dated September
26, sheds some h"ght on her relation to Fracassa.^ In the
society of this rugged soldier the fair Countess cannot have
rejoiced. She had longed for his arrival and had received
him as the angel of deliverance, yet, one morning, he had
ridden away without saying why, unmoved by the tears and
soft words of the lady he had been sent to obey and
defend.

" Your Excellency knows how I sorrowed when he went
away the first time. I have striven to honour and please
him by doing, on my side, all that was possible . . , out of
respect to Your Excellency, and to prove how acceptable is
his presence to me here. Yet I have never succeeded in
doing enough to satisfy him. ..." If she spoke of helping
the Florentines, Fracassa had always met her with difficulties.
On the question of tactics, Catherine assures the Duke that
she had with the utmost delicacy always " deferred to him,
yet sometimes he had turned upon her as if she had presumed
to give him orders." On that day in the presence of every one,
he had " of his own accord opened a discussion as to whether
or no he should help the Florentines." Catherine had replied
that he must do as he thought best : he held his commission
from the Duke and she was not the one to tell him to go or
stay. She had then succeeded in changing the subject of
conversation to forage, lodging, and some complaints that
had arisen among the soldiers. The Countess expressed
surprise that they should now make complaints which she
had never heard when she had had soldiers from Milan in
much greater numbers. " When .'' when .-' In whose time .'' "
said Fracasso. The Countess replied : "In the time of Gian
Piero of Bergamo and Count Borello:" "Then," continued
Catherine, "he took the name of the Virgin Mary in vain and
cursed St. Peter as if I had compared him to drunkards and
cowards. I replied that I was not talking of himself, but
was only saying that at that time there was a greater number

^ Machiavelli and other historians write Fracassa. Catherine writes Fracasso.

THE FLORENTINE ALLIANCE 233

of soldiers. He left me in anger and displeasure as if to
make me understand that he was going away."

The Duke's reply is contained in his instructions to a
certain Battistone, who was returning to Forli on September 22.
" We regret the words and expressions used by the Signer
Messer Gaspar (Fracassa), but as we have already told Her
Ladyship, it is necessary to tolerate him, for his deeds are
better than his words, therefore, we pray her, if he is to stay
there, to bear with him . . . she will conquer him by
courtesy."

The Venetians attempted to occupy Marradi in Romagna,
but were thwarted in this design, by troops " sent there by
the Duke of Milan, and, at his request, by Catherine Sforza,
Lady of Forli," says Capponi in his History of the Floroitine
Republic. But now Fracassa, whose soldiers were deserting for
want of pay, declared that he would abandon Marradi, unless
the promised infantry were sent to him, and Catherine wrote
her brother-in-law, Lorenzo Medici, that in this Fracassa was
justified. She had written and rewritten to the Ten (di Balia)
for money, but " had not yet seen anything but words . . .
the enemy strengthens in these parts and ours diminish. And
it would not appear that the Venetians have begun this dance
to finish it so soon. ... I am the only one menaced, for it
appears that they consider themselves to have been greatly
injured by what I have done to further your interests, and
they add that I have robbed them of victory. . . . If the Ten
do not intend to send the money, I do not care to pass for a
fool with these people, whom I have kept together by good
words. . . ." The Duke of Milan proceeds most cautiously
against the Venetians, " but we have come to such a pass that
we shall have to raise our masks. . . ," When others are
so cautious, how much more does it behove her, who is so
much weaker than they, to be circumspect ! " But the last
thing I will do is to forfeit these States, seeing that there
be none who will give me others or any like them. ... I
know that you love your own Republic and believe that you
do not hate mc." Catherine concludes by appealing to him

234 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

to provide against their coming need. Fracassa was about
to leave Modigliana : what would happen, if he did ?

The Countess sat up at night going through the accounts,
so that she might provide for the payment of his soldiers; she
sent to beg him to remain, to accept this preliminary payment
for the infantry until the Florentines decided whether or no
they will contribute additional funds. " If he stays, provision,
other than by words, will have to be made. An hour," she
repeated, "is worth thousands." On the evening of the i8th
{Jiora XI. iioctis) she again wrote Lorenzo that " now the enemy
was upon them, she trusted that there would be no further
indecision, :. . . Fracassa will persevere in his intention . , .
he is not one to alter his mind." Count Ranuccio Farnese
had arrived but had been unable to get word or deed from
Fracassa. ..." Had he been left alone, perhaps he would
have behaved better." If possible, it would be well to keep
him ; his brother, Caiazzo, might have influenced him, but
that he was in bed with a great fever : she now feared
that Fracassa had some understanding with the Venetians
at Ravenna ; was anxiously awaiting money, which when it
came she would not squander, but the arrears of pay were
heavy. She had lent money to Octavian Manfredi, who was
poor,^ and whom she would like to reinstate at Faenza, to have
some near on whom she could depend.. She could no longer
count on Astorre Manfredi, the poor boy who was to have
been her son-in-law, now caught in the toils of the Venetians.
" I do not feel obliged to give my daughter to that child, for
his tender years and relationship to Bentivoglio would prevent
his being of any comfort to me. . . . The Count of Caiazzo
has asked for the hand (of Bianca) in marriage . . . there is
the question of (the difference in) age, otherwise the reputation
he has throughout Italy would make him acceptable to
me. . . ." To the Duke, Catherine wrote asking him to
consider this proposal and inform her of his opinion : "she
would not do anything without his advice, and if the Count
returned to the subject she must give him a decisive answer."

1 Whom in 1495, Catlierine and the Venetians had repulsed and pursued in
defence of the rights of Astorre Manfredi.

THE FLORENTINE ALLIANCE 235

At last, on October 20, 1498, 2000 ducats arrived
from Florence, the more necessary " in that some persons
I have detained here, on my word and faith, for which I
would rather die than fail them," wrote Catherine to her
uncle. " Pressing need to sweep the enemy from our house
has necessitated more ample provision than you realize. . . .
If you will lay aside your mask and tread less cautiously,
making the requisite provision, be sure that victory will be
yours." Bentivoglio had attempted to corrupt the captain of
her archers, but the latter had proved himself a good soldier
and loyal servitor. Was she, or not, justified in her distrust
of him .'' The Ten (Dieci di Balia) had learnt that the enemy
were about to pour down 3000 German and Swiss mer-
cenaries on Romagna. " They," continued Catherine, on
the 2 1st, "do everything promptly, and do not hesitate over
much. Woe unto us if they are the victors. They will not
be so gingerly as we. We must have more troops at once
... it is time to have done with words, and with painted
horses." To Lorenzo Medici, who had written encouraging
her " to be of good courage, as she had ever been, and devise
some high deed which would save them all," she replied that
she "was more likely to feel the blow before the fear." ^ But
at that moment the enemy had entered Bibbiena. How many
times had she written to avert this calamity. . . .

W'hile Catherine devoted herself to defending the Floren-
tines, she was herself exposed to the greatest danger ; the
Venetians brought their camp to Villafranca, within two miles
of her, and summoned Antonio Ordelaffi from Ravenna, thus
threatening her both with open warfare and civic sedition.
They stole cattle, some of which they consented to return on
payment of ransom. " This is cowardly," wrote Catherine.
" I would that our people had no more consideration for them
than they show us. Why this consideration .-' I have had
less in riskii)g all that is mine." She had ever advised the
people of Faenza " not to follow in the steps of others lest
they draw down upon themselves both friends and enemies."

Her experience with Fracassa and others caused her to

' Siini prima per scntire Ic hottc chc haverc paiira.

236 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

write the Florentines that if they intended sending soldiers
to her for winter quarters she would prefer " the small change "
of men-at-arms, not condotticri nor captains-general.

On October 30, Catherine wrote Lorenzo — " After dis-
missing the cavalcade, I remained with Signor Fracassa and
your commissioner. We went to the quarters of the Count
of Caiazzo to discuss these expensive and burdensome
winter quarters. I spoke my mind to them, telling them
that while in words they affected to carry out my orders
according to the commission they hold, in deed they are
averse to any useful action. I was obliged to remind them
that they have no muddle-head to deal with. I had suggested
an attack on Brisighella, which would have been a certain
victory — I know it — but they would have none of it. When
the enemy had left IMarradi and encamped on my territory, I
advised them to come to Castrocaro, and harry the territory
of Faenza : they did not choose to. I advised them to make
some raids at Faenza and proved to them they could do so
with impunity : they would not make them. Had we done
any of these things, the enemy were not now either on my
land or at Bibbiena, but would be employed in guarding
their own. They would wish me to acknowledge that they
are in the right, but that would neither be consistent with my
nature nor with the importance of your States and mine.
But if one differs from them in opinion or desire, they turn
upon one in fury.

" I have become a laughing-stock here, and were it not for
my interest in your glorious Republic, pray believe that I
would not endure this conduct patiently. Picture to yourself
the state of my mind, and if at times my letters betray
despair, wonder not at it. Provision might have been made
against the attacks of the enemy, which were all foreseen :
they were not made ; we might have lived in security : it
has not been permitted to us ; we might have prevented the
enemy from injuring either you or ourselves : but despite our
reminders, nothing has been done. . . . Enough to make the
hardest head despair, much less me, who am but a woman."

"I have written my Lord Duke to send hither a confidential

THE FLORENTINE ALLIANCE 237

person to investigate the truth, so that His Excellency may-
realize what is happening, for others whom I know to be only-
writing him what they please might gain more credence than I.
... I will not have any Horse, and even if they wished it I
would not lodge any of his nor theirs, for at home and abroad
I am robbed by their men, and they will not listen to any
complaint. See that when my son is sent to winter quarters
he be sent to me here : he will at least have more affection
and care for my subjects and yours. ... I think from what
has passed between us that they will give up the idea of
making this their winter head-quarters and will, instead, all go
to Castrocaro ; for yesterday evening, we settled with Signor
Fracasso and Andrea de' Pazzi that it should be so. I know
not if they will change their minds ; if they do we shall be
guided by circumstances. The affairs of Casentino have not
miscarried through me, neither will I cease to do all that is
possible ; but you too must stir yourselves ... if you make
a gallant effort, our side will win an early victory, but if you
dally, you will sow a fever in your bowels that it will be hard
to cure. Have a care to whom you entrust State matters,
it is not enough for such men to be trusty. . . . You see how
much inclined are these lords to free me of my enemies . . .
they do not obey the Duke's commands to let the enemy
understand . . . that any injury done to me is as an injury
done to His Excellency. ... If they shirk their duty in a
question of words how can I expect deeds of them .-'...

" To all of which I call the attention of Your Magnificence,
quae bene valeat, Foi'li, vii 30 Oct., 1498, hora XIII."

Catherine, who suffering for her zeal on behalf of the
Florentines by menace and invasion from Venice, prayed and
cried in vain ; the Florentines, unmoved, did not come to her
help, but no sooner had the enemy set foot on Tuscan soil
than they awoke and turned to Catherine, of whom they
asked " as many Foot and Light Horse as she could send to
Casentino. . . ."

The Countess, indignant at the ingratitude and impudence
of the Florentines, wrote the Duke complaining of their
treeitment, yet was too loyal an ally not to rob herself of

238 THE HOUSP: of MEDICI

soldiers for them. " I send these our archers that the Signori
may know us to be incapable of neglecting to do all we can
for their comfort and satisfaction." . . . Yet she had written
in another letter, " being without other soldiers, it would fare
ill with us in case of sudden need." Her loyalty and high
spirit made her a terrible enemy, whom the Venetians already
regretted to have irritated and provoked. " Times were
indeed bad," wrote Sanuto, " and the Madonna of Forli was
sending 8000 mercenaries against us."

She still continued to regulate the expenses and discipline
of her son's company at Pisa : to her were submitted all
accounts and information and from her instructions were
awaited. The new soldiers "have been levied by us and not
by the Count Albertino (the commandant) ; We are their
chief and others are but our ministers." After entering into
the minutest details of daily expenditure, and promising the
soldiers better remuneration in better times, she continues —
" You will have everything looked into that comes from the
camp, so that everything be forthcoming that had been
confided to individuals ; give orders for all the mules to be
sent here as well as the credenza and linen for the use of the
Lord my son." This iron discipline was a thorn in the
side of her servants. " The accounts," wrote a certain
Lionardo to the Piovano Fortunati, a canon of San Lorenzo,
Catherine's agent and later her confessor, " the accounts will
be, indeed are forthcoming; but they are all in a sheaf.
Figure to yourself a field that hath been sown with wheat,
barley, hay, beans, peas, lentils, etcetera . . . and in which
everything has grown in a tangle : how can you keep each
product separate .'' " He then discusses horses sent for by the
Countess from Flanders and mentions a grey horse that was
to be sent back to Forli.

CHAPTER XXV

ASSASSINS IN ROMAGNA

Catherine had always openly protected the Tiberti of
Cesena in their quarrels with rival factionists. Of this family
were Achille, a doughty captain of men-at-arms, and Polidoro,
a loyal, intelligent man of agreeable manners, who, like Messer
Giovanni da Casale, the worthy priest Fortunato, and many
others, owing to the enthusiasm with which they served their
Lady, were reputed to be her lovers. Lovers they were,
devout but unrequited, whom Catherine alternately defended
with all her might, entangled in the vicissitudes of her state-
craft, or sacrificed to the cruel necessities of her wars.

In November 1498, the mission of asking the Pope and
Cardinal Riario for a bishopric or rich benefice for Caesar
Riario, fell to the lot of Polidoro Tiberti. Catherine would
have preferred to have moulded her second son on the pattern
of his maternal ancestors ; failing in this endeavour, she
destined him for " the army of the Church," and sent her
trusty Polidoro as a scout, to explore the Roman field. The
Pope had had time to forget and forgive her refusal of
Lucretia Borgia, who now as the wife of Alfonso of Aragon
should feel a certain gratitude to those who had denied to her
Octavian Riario. Tiberti wrote from Rome —

" Immediately on my arrival, I was received in audience by
the Pope — with whom I stayed until the fourth hour of the
night — with a warmth of cordiality that is beyond me to

describe His Holiness questioned me at length about

Your Ladyship : if you were as beautiful as ever, if you were

239

240 THE HOUSE OF AIEDICI

happy, how you governed your State, if the Castle of Forli
was strong and well-provisioned, what money Your Excellency
had, how many children ; to all of which I replied properly,
much to the satisfaction of His Holiness, who praised Your
EN-cellency's great understanding, giving me to understand
how much he appreciated it. When I came to the subject of
the Lord Cresar, I said : ' Holy Father, Madonna places her
hope in Your Holiness (for she has determined that the Lord
Caesar, because of his virtue and modesty, shall become a
priest), believing that of Your clemency You will promote
him to some ecclesiastical dignity, . . . although she
doubts not the gratitude of Cardinal San Giorgio (Raphael
Riario) for benefits received.' The Pope replied, turning
to the Cardinal of Perugia : ' Therein is she justified,' . . .
and altogether, I found His Holiness very well disposed
towards Your Excellency and Your children, as I will verbally
and more minutely relate to Your Excellency on my return,
which I hope will be soon. . . ."

On leaving the Pope, Tiberti presented himself before
Cardinal Riario, of whose courtesy and good intentions he
assures the Countess, as well as of the writer's devotion " in
life or death." Within the month Catherine was informed
that her nephew, Cardinal Raphael Riario, renounced his
rights in the archbishopric of Pisa in favour of Caesar, so that
she found herself, still young and in the prime of her classical
and famous beauty, mother to a youthful archbishop. She
sent him to Milan on a farewell visit to her uncle Ludovic,
and in the month of May to Rome. On receiving the
papal bull, Catherine, in public acknowledgment of her joy,
opened the doors of their prison to six captives in the
citadel.

Meanwhile Caesar Riario, by command of his mother, who
still regulated every step of the adolescent prelate, proceeded
to his See at Pisa. On the door of his palace he quartered
the arms of the Emperor of Germany with those of the Duke
of Milan, those of Riario with the arms of the Sforza, while a
third shield bore the arms of Cardinal Raphael, and a fourth
those of Giovanni Medici.

ASSASSINS IN ROMAGNA 241

The correspondence continued between Lorenzo Medici
and Catherine, who was, however, losing patience with the
Florentines. Her sentiments are revealed in a confidential

letter to her agent, the Piovano Fortunati "I am at

last so sick of them that I will have no more to do with
them ; for I see that they have no respect for one who
has given of her own for the benefit of that city, and who,
having no obligation, yet has not hesitated to impoverish and
endanger her State. They have given us an assignment of
Alfonzo Strozzi for the loan, but nothing has come of it.
This seems to me so simple a mode of dismissal, that I will
wait for none other, neither shall it be thought (of me) that I
am content to further wait and serve. . . ."

. . . . " Make my excuses to the Magnifico Lorenzo in that
I can no longer endure this dishonourable treatment . . ."
For him, personally, she expressed herself ever ready to run
the same risks, but she could no longer expose herself to ruin
for the sake of Florence. " All our soldiers have been paid
their weight in gold and to the last carat," yet they (the
Florentines) denied any obligation to her. " Let them find
those who will do better for them than we . . . and we will
live at peace and without loss ; for it is much better for us to
be mere spectators than spend our substance in vain and
endanger our State. And pray believe that these are no idle
words, for it is not in my nature to use many, but you will see
their effects." He is instructed to speak clearly to Lorenzo,
her brother-in-law, so that he may never complain that he has
not been warned, and to leave immediately ; she has need
of him, and longs for his arrival ; " neither will I that you
remain there longer, for it would be an indignity to Us. . . ."
The news of this dissension reached Venice, where it was
hoped that Catherine might be won over to an alliance.

On the 9th of the following February Virginio Orsini
arrived at Ravenna in command of the Venetian troops, the
same Orsini who had been the friend, defender and companion
of her youth. Fearing that, being on the other side, he would
be obliged to attack her, she wrote, entreating Duke Ludovic
to come to her assistance, otherwise she would be obliged to

242 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

save herself by throwing herself into the arms of the Venetians.
She levied troops to meet Orsini, condemning the standard-
bearers entrusted with the levy to a fine of ten ducats for
every conscript they allowed to escape them. The peasants
were to be armed and in readiness to enter the city in case
of need ; several who failed to appear nearly died of their
whippings. Simone Ridolfi, the friend of Giovanni Medici
and husband of a sister of Giacomo Feo, was then appointed
Governor of Imola. He levied and exercised conscripts with
so much zeal that artisans and peasants, tired to death of
drilling, reviewing and standing in the sun, were loud in
recrimination against Ridolfi and Catherine. That did not
move her, the times demanded many soldiers, and they must
be had at any price ; lances and coats of mail were given to
those who had none, and their price taken off the pay. Eight
hundred breast-plates and looo cuirasses arrived from Milan
. . . every movement being watched from Ravenna and
reported to Venice.

While the Florentines exasperated Catherine, at heart she
was still devoted to Florence and Casa Medici. She declared
that she could no longer endure them and was obliged to turn
her back upon them, yet was the first to resent any injury
done to them, to burn with the desire of avenging it, and to
devise means and opportunity. Who touched the honour of
the Republic, touched hers. They had lost Bibbiena to
Venetians to whom Ramberto of Sogliano (of a younger
branch of the Malatesta) had given right of way. Things
had gone so well till then. Paolo Vitelli, under whom the
Florentines had taken Librafratta, and the besieged Pisans
were almost at his mercy, for the Apennines were closed to
the army of their allies, the Venetians. The Duke of Milan
would not suffer them to pass through Genoa, nor the
Republic of Lucca through Ferrara and Modena, nor
Bentivoglio through the mountainous passages of Bologna,
while the fortresses and archers of Catherine Sforza blocked
the Apennines of Romagna and confined the Venetians to
the Valley of the Po. Then it was that Ramberto Sogliano
had opened to them the gates of his castle on the confines of

ASSASSINS IN ROMAGNA 243

Urbino and Casentino, and the Venetians, under Bartolomo
d'Alviano, had pushed on to CamaldoH in a single night.
The monks, who were singing matins, thought they recognized
in the Venetian leader St. Romuald, their founder, and the
convent was soon taken by the enemy. Thence, d'Alviano
sent an order to the Florentine garrison at Bibbiena, purport-
ing to come from the Ten, to prepare lodging for fifty of
Vitelli's Horse, and in the guise of a Florentine captain, rode
into Bibbiena with a hundred men-at-arms, followed by the
bulk of the Venetian army.

The Florentines were in despair, but they did nothing.
Catherine, who alone persisted in her intent to punish
Ramberto for opening the gates of Tuscany to the Venetians,
wrote :

" It would please me mightily if we could besiege this
Count of Sogliano, to convince him of the mistake he has
made ... it would be a small enterprise to deprive him of
one of his castles ... for indeed the enemy's troops are all
on the other side of the Alps." This was on December 2,
1498. . . . On January 15, 1499, she wrote again to Lorenzo
de' Medici — "Although little heed has or will be paid to words
of mine, either because they have no weight, or because of
internal dissension in your city, I will not cease from caring
for what is born of my love to your Republic and the similarity
of our positions. If there be no result, neither will there be
remorse on my side for having failed in what I hold to be my
duty. I make much difference in that which I do, according
for whom it is done. ... I intimated some days past that
the Count of Sogliano, having behaved to you as he has, it
would be well to bring him to his senses. . . . Had the
said Count his deserts, he would have already lost three or
four castles. . . . Remember that delay means danger and
many ills. . . ."

They had intended that Andrea de' Pazzi should take the
offender by surprise, but the Florentine commissioner had
been detained by a slight indisposition, and the plan had leaked
out. Sanuto mentions that Sogliano had written Nicolo
Venicr that the Countess was trying to "get him in her hands,

244 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

to avenge her niece," ^ and entreated the Venetians to send
him four hundred Foot for his protection. He was thus
enabled to keep at bay the troops sent against him by
Catherine, under Naldi, Tiberti and Octavian Manfredi, as
Catherine had foretold, and he shortly afterwards fled to
Ravenna, where he sheltered himself from her displeasure in
the shadow of St. Mark. Meanwhile, Octavian Riario had
gone to his uncle at Milan.

In the following February Corbizzo Corbizi, a citizen of
Castrocaro, of ancient Florentine lineage, was returning from
Forli, whither he had been summoned by Catherine, to Castro-
caro, when he was set upon and brutally murdered by four
assassins. The true motive of this assassination was never
divulged, but it was rumoured that Corbizi had had a hand in
the death of the father of one of his assailants. The Venetian
Sanuto accuses Catherine of this murder. " Misier Corbize
{sic) had held Castrocaro for Zuam di Medici, who was
husband to that Madonna, and had lent money to the said
Madonna. Now she would fain have held Castrocaro, but
to this he, who now is dead at the hand of the archers of
Madonna, would not consent, but kept it for the Florentines.
It is thought that the Florentines will avenge him."

But the truth was that in Corbizi, whose influence was
predominant at Castrocaro, Catherine lost and lamented a
friend and trusty counsellor, and grieved the more because he
had met his death on a journey undertaken in her service.
She published two edicts, one of which forbade the use of
arms for purposes of private vengeance, and referred those
who held themselves aggrieved to public justice, which would
punish the guilty and compensate the injured. Another was
against the arbitrary decisions of public officials, who were
forbidden henceforward to be partial in their judgments.
Favour and privilege were to be things of the past.

The suspicions of ]\Iachiavelli, who passed through Castro-
caro in the following July, fell upon Dionisio Naldi of
Brisighella, captain of Catherine's archers. In the first of a
1 Catherine's resentment appears to have been complicated by a private grievance.

ASSASSINS IN ROMAGNA 245

series of letters written during his legation to Catherine
Sforza, he informs the Signori that he thinks a feud is
imminent between the followers of Naldi and those of the
late Corbizo. " Some envy," he writes, " is at work, for every-
one would like to inherit his (Corbizo's) reputation, and unless
this humour be inflamed by those who might use it for their
own ends, its effects will not be bad. But great suspicion
prevails that this Naldi may commit some outrage, with the
sanction of Madonna." In another letter he writes — " To-
morrow I shall return to Castrocaro to see if I can do
something for the protection of those of Corbizo against
Dionisio Naldi and his partisans, in which Madonna cordially
offers to co-operate." Catherine's archers were implicated,
but as she was an ally of the Florentines, the men of Castro-
caro could neither quarrel with her nor trust her. It is possible
that Naldi or his party employed some of these archers to
murder Corbizo. Catherine employed Naldi to uphold her
influence in those parts, whence the Venetian story that she
was the instigator of the assassination.

The murder of Corbizo was followed by that of Octavian
Manfredi, a young man of conspicuous beauty, who had spent
that winter at Forli as the inseparable companion of Octavian
Riario, with whom he had served in the Florentine army.
Catherine had openly declared her interest in him ; wearied
of the childish Astorre, who was now completely under the
thumb of the Venetians, she had proposed to the Floren-
tines to depose him in favour of his cousin, Octavian. When
he was ordered to winter quarters at Faenza, Catherine had
been offended and displeased. " Why remove him } " she had
written. " Is it to annoy me, because I am fond of him ? If
his soldiers must go, there is no reason why his person and
his archers should not stay here." She had written Lorenzo
Medici that nothing could be more agreeable to her. Octavian
was poor, but so delicately high-minded, that although he
accepted from the Riario the hospitality of the citadel, he
refused to burden his hosts with his maintenance and that of

246 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

his suite. As he had nothing but his pay, he decided on
going to Florence to obtain payment of money due to him,
and on returning to live with his friends in easier circum-
stances. From this project the Countess and the captain of
her archers, that same Dionisio Naldi, of whom mention has
been made, sought to dissuade him by every means in their
power. Manfrcdi was not to be dissuaded, and still conceal-
ing the real reason of his departure (which was that he was
penniless), borrowed sixty ducats of Luffo Numai, and having,
from motives of economy, refused the escort which Catherine
had pressed on him, on April 13 rode towards Florence,
followed by only six men. At Castrocaro he refused renewed
offers of adequate escort, and rode on through the Apennines
until, when night had set in, he dismounted at an inn that
had once formed part of a convent of the Benedictines. At
dawn he resumed his journey, and within two miles of the inn
was fallen upon by some thirty men led by a certain Galeotto
de' Bosi, \vho had walked all the night by the light of their
lanterns to lie in wait for their victim. He fell, bleeding from
thirteen mortal wounds. The worthy Canon Fortunati received
his last sigh, and by the time his other travelling companions
had arrived, he was a corpse, which was borne by enemies and
friends to the church of San Benedetto.

This cruel death was universally lamented. Catherine
demanded his body of the Abbot of San Benedetto, and four
Black Flagellants, followed by an ample escort, conveyed
it to Castrocaro, where they were met by the whole of
the confraternity who bore it in procession to Forli. On
April 18 Catherine caused obsequies to be celebrated in
the church of the monks of Valverde, and on the following
morning the body was brought to the citadel and thence, with
solemn pomp, to the church of San Girolamo, where it was
buried under the sepulchre of Barbara Manfredi, his aunt and
the unhappy wife of Piero Ordelaffi, erstwhile Lord of Forli.
The people of Forli were moved to pity and sorrow, and on
the following day Catherine ordered a hundred masses for the
repose of the soul of Octavian.

ASSASSINS IN ROMAGNA 2^7

But it was not in her nature to limit itself to prayers and
tears ; her strong soul was bent on vengeance. She soon
discovered that a certain Galeotto de Bosi of Faenza, who
dreaded the advent of Octavian Manfredi, had determined to
surprise and remove him. Masked, disguised, hidden in the
woods, and lying in wait in inns, Catherine's myrmidons
and archers were soon on the trail of Galeotto. Whether they
killed or spared him does not transpire ; we only read that
the homicide's right hand was presented to Catherine as a
trophy.

Catherine, who did not recoil from tyranny when she found
it expedient, had, on becoming suspicious of the power and
popularity of the Sassatelli of Imola, sought to alienate and
weaken them. But Pensiero Sassatelli had behaved with such
remarkable prudence that she had neither succeeded in exiling
him nor lessening his popularity. At last she determined to
bestow on him a guide who would rule and watch over him as
she Avished, and to this end offered him in marriage, through
Giovanni of Castrocaro, a gentlewoman " in whom she had
every confidence."

Sassatelli, in alarm, saved himself by the pretext that he
intended to become a priest, but Catherine, to whom words
did not suffice, exacted from him a document which still
exists, in which, after thanking the Countess for the bride she
had destined for him, he declared that he would wed no woman
because he was determined to become a priest, and gave a
security on all his property that not only would he never marry
but that he would not even ask permission from the Countess
to do so. Pensiero ultimately married, a few months before
Catherine's death, a certain Leona Sacchi, of Ravenna, by
whom he had no issue.

Related to the Sassatelli and their equals in rank and
power were the Vaini of Imola. The imprisonment of L2nea
Vaini had given rise to correspondence between Catherine
and the Duke of Ferrara, in the heat of which she remarked
that "all Italy" would approve of what P2nca had driven her

248

THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

to do in self-defence. " I learn," wrote Francesco Trachedini
to the Duke of Milan in 1492, "that Bendetto Aldrovandi . . .
induced Enea to present himself to the Illustrious Countess
by means of a safe-conduct which stipulated that if he gave
security he should be at liberty. . , . Enea agreed to this,
and offered it in Imola and elsewhere. But it appears that
the Countess would have it in Venice in a sum of three or
four thousand ducats. But as Enea cannot find any one who
will lend him so much, he finds himself in honourable custody
in a room in the Citadel of Forli." He escaped with his
brother Domenico, and in 1499 they came to Massa Lombarda,
which was then occupied by the Venetians.

According to Cerchiari^ "Catherine nourished such bitter-
ness and suspicion of those
two fugitives who were now
on territory occupied by her
enemies that she recalled them,
under safe-conduct, to establish
their innocence, and throwing
aside her mask on their return,
had them seized and beheaded
in the fort. . . ."

A certain Antonio Baldrac-
cani was that year secretary
to the Countess. He had been
often sent on missions to the
Duke at Milan, but as, on re-
turning from his last journey,
he was attacked by some
assassins of Faenza, Catherine,
who would not expose him to
further danger, wrote the Duke
to send Messer Giovanni da Casale " secretly " to Forli, whom
on many occasions she had found most faithful to the Duke
and devoted to herself. This was the same Giovanni of
Casale who played such an important part in all Catherine's

1 Storia dUjiiola, p. 55.

ARMS OF POPE ALEXANDER VI.

ASSASSINS IN ROAIAGNA 249

affairs and of whom it was said that he was her lover, and
later that he had betrayed her and the fort to Valentino.
But these rumours were founded on deceptive and con-
tradictory appearances. The fact was that Catherine needed
a man in whom she had the utmost confidence, whom she
could send to inform the Duke of Milan of all she had done
for Florence and how she had been requited.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE LEGATION OF MACHIAVELLP

" Recall to the Signori," wrote the Countess to her faithful
Fortunati, " that Our faith and service deserved better re-
quital. , . ." All Italy was witness that for their sakes she
has staked her all. . . . Although she owed them nothing,
no allied prince, nor condottiere had done for them what
she had done, and she had been met with indifference and
despicable, cruel ingratitude. Possibly the Signori were not
to blame so much as , . . vile, malevolent insinuations, yet
this was how matters stood. She had been taught by this
experience to attend to her own business . . . and times
might come when the Florentines would need her more than
they had done. " It is not our wont to call attention to
benefits We have conferred, but in this case, Our sorrow lends
freedom to our speech." Thus wrote Catherine on June 28,
1499,- and soon afterwards came signs of the coming storm.

Caesar Borgia, Duke of Valentino, was gradually attaining
to higher power ; he ruled the Pope, and disposed of the
treasures of the Church. He had determined to build his
kingdom in Romagna, which, as usual, lent itself easily to
every change. The life of Ludovico il Moro, Catherine's
uncle, was held to be a precarious one, and his throne was

^ The surname of Machiavelli is derived from Mains clavelhis, and is written
with one c.

^ The Florentine year began on March 25, ab iiicaniatione. For instance, the
days from January 10 to Marcli 24, 1498, all belong to 1499, new style. This
computation was reformed in 1750, wlien the new year counted from the first of
January.

250

THE LEGATION OF AIACHIAVELLI 251

endangered by the King of France. Catherine, fearing to
find herself isolated and defenceless against Borgia and the
King of France, felt that at any cost she must resume her
alliance with Florence, the only State that was then allied to
France. It appeared to her that, under these circumstances,
Borgia would not attempt to attack her, neither would the
French king suffer injury to the friend of his allies.

But she was on the worst possible terms with Florence.
The contract with Octavian had been for one year, with the
option of extending it to two,^ with four months' notice. And
the Florentines had, at the prescribed time, invited Octavian
to remain. But he, imprudent, inconsiderate, and ignorant of
the politics of Italy, had refused, by a legal act, and on
December 30, 1498, had declared to the Ten that he would
no longer serve the Republic, because the terms of the
contract had not been adhered to.

His refusal was confirmed by his mother, and how grievous
had been the complaints and recriminations that had reached
her from Florence ! How could she now approach them ?
But her need was pressing, supreme . . . the phantom of
Caesar Borgia, the Pope's master, in search of a State, left her
no peace. The wily Catherine even then found means to
offer her armed and friendly hand to the Republic. The
pretext was a natural one : she wrote the Signori that her
uncle, the Duke of Milan, had inquired whether, in case of
need, she would send him fifty men-at-arms and as many
archers, to help him to resist the French invasion. But
determined as she was not to shirk the obligations of her
contract with Florence, she had not been able to reply to
him. It was for the Florentines to decide whether services
rendered by her to their State entitled Octavian to stay with
them for the optional year and to reply to her inquiry without
delay, that she, in turn, might reply to the Duke. She could
not think that the Republic would ignore the devotion with
which she had served it. The same courier carried two other
letters written with no less warmth, one for Lorenzo de' Medici,
the other for Fortunati,beggingfor"an early and decisive reply."

^ This option was called heueplacito.

252 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

The Florentines understood the game, in which the first
move had been made with so much tact that they might
accept her terms without loss of dignity. Florence was the
friend of France, by whom the Duke of Milan was menaced.
The Countess, allied to Florence, and niece to the Duke, asked
in whose defence she should co-operate ; if allowed to side
with the Duke she would be opposed to Florence. For now
the partners had changed hands, and the Duke who had been
their ally against the Venetians was now an enemy. It
became vital to them to detach from him the Lady of Forli,
and to conciliate her by the expression of due gratitude for
the preference she had shown them. A letter from Fortunati,
dated July ii, announces that Nicolo Machiavelli would be
sent to treat with her.

"I have been with the Signori," wrote Fortunati, "to learn
whom they would send, and when. They tell me that
Nicolo Machiavelli, a learned young Florentine noble, secretary
to my Lords the Ten, is to leave with me at once ; to which I
replied, that to that I could not agree, holding as I do. Your
Excellency's commission not to leave this, without Your
Ladyship's permission. They raised the devil over it, so that
I replied — ' so tardy had they been in deliberating that I
knew not how to appear before Your Excellency.' They
replied that, if their terms do not prove acceptable, they will
satisfy Your Ladyship at any cost, and that they are deter-
mined that this friendship shall never wane, and therefore, he
must go, in any case. I replied that I would write as their
Lordships wished, and that is what I am doing. I think that
he (Machiavelli) will leave on Monday and stay with Your
Excellency for ten days, or indeed until you have come to an
understanding. . . . There is no doubt that the Signori
intend to give satisfaction to Your Ladyship . . . and they
are now preoccupied by what can best serve and comfort
You ; none can say otherwise, even if then they do their
worst in deed or word. True it is that the funds of this city
are in a parlous state, having been incurred for so many
years that they overtax its strength ; which is the reason why
they try to reduce their expenses with Your Excellency.

THE LEGATION OF MACHIAVELLI 253

And no sooner have they taken Pisa than they will free
thenaselves of many of their co)idotticri, retaining (they say)
the services of Your Excellency, and requiting You for
services rendered and injuries endured. . . . Be therefore
not surprised if Machiavelli begins by offering Your Lady-
ship ten thousand ducats ; he being intrusted to do all he
can to win You over for a small sum : not that they
would take advantage of You, but the better to be able
to recognize and cumulate benefits received from Your
Ladyship, Ask for what you will, and be sure that it will
be granted."

The Instructions received by IMachiavelli, July 11, 1499,
and included in his published works, beginning, "■ Atidrai ad
Furli, dove intendessi trovarsi quella illustrissima Madonna^*
tally with the contents of Fortunati's letter. He was to
submit to Catherine that the Florentines were under no
obligation to confirm the re-engagement of Octavian, inasmuch
as the latter had refused his consent to it : besides, Catherine
herself had replied to the Duke of Milan, who advised her to
leave her son in the Florentine service, that " On no account
would she give her consent, she had been too ill repaid . . .
Therefore if Her Excellency had other views, the Republic
must be content to abide by her convenience. . . ." And
having pointed out that neither Octavian nor the Countess
had chosen to remain in the Florentine service, " immediately
wilt add," continued the Instructions, " that despite all that
has passed, seeing her desire, and because of our obligations
to her, and to satisfy her so far as the times permit, and to
prove our gratitude for the good deeds done to this city
by her, we have resolved to accord this re-engagement
to Their Excellencies." The pay of 15,000 ducats was
reduced to 10,000, but the Florentines conceded all they
could ..." in the hope of better things, when the city
should be restored to its normal state. . ." He was further
instructed to leave Catherine "no cause of complaint . . ; " if,
burdened by so many expenses, their payments were some-
times deferred, he was to tender such excuses as would be
" appreciated and accepted by Her Excellency."

254 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

On July 1 6, Catherine gave her first audience to Machiavelh",
" there being present," wrote the envoy to the Florentine
Signori, " only Messer Giovanni da Casale, agent for the
Duke of Milan, because the Lord Octavian, her son, was
absent at Forlimpopoli. ... I exposed the object of the
Commission I hold from Your Lordships, using such ex-
pressions as best express the desire of Your Lordships that
the times would permit You to adequately prove the esteem
with which you regard those who, in Your need, have loyally
served You without respect of risk to themselves, as had Her
Excellency. . . although there had been some dispute with
her agents as to Your obligation in relation to the beneplacito
. . . praying her to add to past favours that of believing that
she had not served an ungrateful Government. . ."

To this respectfully prepared discourse, Catherine replied
impulsively that, " in all times the words of Your Lordships
had satisfied her, while Your deeds, inadequate to her deserts,
had displeased her. . . . But in the hope expressed by Your
Lordships, she concurred without caring to discuss Your obli-
gation with regard to the beneplacito. She would, however,
take time to consider Your request, for it seemed to her
reasonable not to decide hastily on what Your Lordships,
with commendable prudence, had discussed and considered
for a considerable time. . . ."

" On the following day," wrote Machiavelh, " about the
sixteenth hour, Messer Antonio Baldraccani, Her Ladyship's
First Secretary, visited me," to inform him that the Duke of
Milan had that day invited Octavian to enter his service, and
that five or six days back he had asked the Countess for a
hundred soldiers. The secretary added that " Her Ladyship,
Madonna, was doubtful which side to espouse, not seeing
how she could prefer the Florentines to the Duke of Milan,
nor what excuse she could make for refusing conditions so
honourable and accepting Yours, which are less so : besides
being bound to that prince by ties of blood and innumerable
benefits : for these reasons she was unsettled, and could not
give a decided answer. . . ." " Baldraccani gave me to under-
stand that I had better inform Your Lordships that Madonna

THE LEGATION OF MACHIAVELLI 255

would not decide for some time, promising to repeat to Her
Excellency all that I had replied, adding that I should have
every opportunity of saying the same things to her personally.
. . . Yesterday I asked the Illustrious Madonna for bombs
and saltpetre, on behalf of Your Lordships : she replied that
she had none but a great dearth thereof, for her own use. . . .
On local affairs I cannot presume to write much, because of
the short time I have spent here ; yet I gather from persons
at Court and citizens of Your Lordships, that Her Ladyship
could not be more attached than she is to the Republic."

On the 1 8th, Machiavelli wrote — "Your Excellencies having
desired me to again apply to Madonna, for men and powder,
I immediately presented myself to Her Excellency and again
conveyed your wishes to her. She replied that she had no
saltpetre and was short of powder, but sooner than disoblige
you, she would permit Lionardo Strozzi to dispose of ten of
the twenty pounds of saltpetre which he had contracted for her
use at Pesaro to Your Lordships, and she ordered Risorboli to
write the said Lionardo to that effect. Although I did all in
my power to induce Her Excellency to accede to Your other
requests, I could not obtain more from her. . . . With regard
to Infantry, Her Excellency said she was willing to give her
men authority to take service under Your Lordships, but that
she had not the power to make them move without money. . . .
Therefore if Your Lordships require them and will send 500
ducats, at the rate of a ducat each, she will find means of
sending you picked men, well-armed and faithful, and she
believes that they might be at Pisa, fifteen days from to-day. . . .
This morning when I had communicated the contents of
Your Lordships' letter to the Illustrious Madonna, she, with-
out waiting for any comment from me, said : ' This is good
news, for this morning I see that your Signori have made up
their mind to action, since they are levying soldiers : for
which I commend them, and am as pleased as I was ill-pleased
by their former tardiness, when it seemed to me that they
were losing invaluable (irrecoverable) time.' I warmly thanked
Her Ladyship, demonstrating that such tardiness had been
generated by necessity : to which Her Excellency agreed,

256 THE HOUSE OP^ MEDICI

adding that she would her State were so situated that she
could enhst all her soldiers and subjects in Your service, for
then would she prove to the whole world that naught but the
affection and faith she bears Your Lordships had made her
Your partisan, but she would fain be better understood, with
due regard to her honour, which she holds higher than any
other thing. This she judged even of more importance to
Your Lordships than herself, inasmuch as it would serve as
an example to Your other adherents of Your gratitude for
service rendered." " I did not fail," continues Machiavelli,
" to reply as I should, yet was forced to the conclusion that
Words are not made to satisfy her, unless they be partly
corroborated by deeds. And I really believe that if Your
Lordships either pay something on account of past services
or concede a little more in the matter of the new contract,
that You will maintain her friendship. More affection for
our city she could not have, of which I see most evident
signs ....

" P.S. — There has come to me a secretary of Madonna, to
inform me, on behalf of Her Ladyship, that there be two ways
of levying soldiers in her dominions. Fifteen hundred of
them, ready armed, whom she keeps for her own needs, and
whom she would not send to Your Lordships without first
paying to them, herself, a month's pay, whether or no they
serve the whole month .... to each man eighteen lire, so if
Your Lordships would have any of these, You would have to
send 1 500 ducats for 500 men. . . . She has other infantry
accustomed to serve as mercenaries, but they are not bound
by contract to her. These you can levy pro aj'bitrw, their
terms being a matter of arrangement between You and
them. . . . "

On the 24th he wrote — ". . . I think that to content
Madonna, it were needful to guarantee her reimbursement
for past services, this being matter of grave anxiety to her,
and besides, increase the pay for this year to 1200 florins. In
my poor opinion. Her Excellency has throughout behaved
honourably, never having so much as hinted that she would
accept less than is offered her by the Duke of Milan ; there-

THE LEGATION OF MACHIAVELLI 257

fore it is difficult to gauge her mind as to whether she be
more afifected towards Milan or Your Republic.

"■Prvmnn, I see her Court full of Florentines, in whose
hands her State appears to be ; besides I find her naturally-
inclined towards this city, in which she would fain be popular.
Of this there are abundant signs, for she has a son by
Giovanni dei Medici, and hopes to have the use of his
revenues, being daily on the point of assuming his guardian-
ship. . . . Ulterius, and what is more important, she sees the
Duke of Milan assailed by the King, and knows not how far
she may be safe in joining issues with him in the present
condition of affairs, in which Her Ladyship is well versed : all
of which reasons strengthen my opinion that she is going to
accept our more frugal conditions.

" On the other hand, I see in attendance on Her Ladyship,
Messer Giovanni da Casale, agent here for the Duke of Milan,
held in great esteem and wielding great influence, which is of
great moment and might have great effect on a mind in doubt.
"And in truth, were it not for the intervention of this fear of
the King of France, I think that in the pass to which things
have come, she would have left you, especially as there would
have been no breach, you being on terms of friendship with
the Duke of Milan. I have ventured on this discussion in
the belief that Your Lordships can prevent this happening by
coming to a speedy decision ; and this Her Ladyship, who is
daily persecuted by the Duke, eagerly awaits. Yesterday,
there was a review of five hundred Foot, whom Madonna is
sending, under Dionigi Naldi, to the Duke of Milan : two
days ago fifty mounted archers were inspected prior to their
departure with one of the Duke's secretaries, who came here
for the purpose, and to pay them.

" I think Your Lordships must have altered your minds with
regard to the Foot soldiers you intended taking from
Madonna, which is the best thing You can do, if You can
do better elsewhere ; but if Your Lordships are in need of
them, these would be good, faithful men, well-trained and
promptly despatched, (that is to say) if you send one month's
pay."

258 THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

After receiving fresh instructions from Florence, Machia-
velH, on July 23, wrote as follows :

" I presented myself before Her Excellency, Madonna, and
in the choicest words that occurred to me I delivered myself
of Your Lordships' instructions as to offers from Milan, and
with regard to the alternative You offer her, giving Her
Excellency to understand that You would not have her
sacrifice aught that can redound to her well-being, honour
and convenience. . . . Her Excellency replied that she expected
no less from Your Lordships, adding that her only trouble in
this case came from the fear of incurring what seemed to her
disloyalty and failing in the respect she owed her uncle. Yet,
when she had arrived at an ultimate understanding with Your
Lordships, she would come to a resolution and find the
means of conquering every obstacle in her way. To which,
having made suitable reply and said a few words as to Your
Lordships' letter of the 19th on injuries done to Your
subjects, I left at once, praying Her Excellency to hasten
her decision."

The words "wz partii subito" would indicate an abrupt
termination of this interview, and, in fact, the Countess sent
Baldraccani to Machiavelli on the following day to convey
her excuses for having curtailed the audience and explain the
reason of her apparent curtness.

" To-day," wrote the Florentine envoy, " Baldraccani has
been with me, and having . . . explained to me that why
Madonna had not verbally opened her whole mind to me
(yesterday), was on account of Her Ladyship's indisposition
and great anxiety due to the illness of Ludovico,i her son by
Giovanni dei Medici ; he proceeded to assure me on behalf of
Her Excellency, how glad she was, )udlo Jiabitu respcctii, to be
once more on terms of cordial friendship with Your Lordships,
in whom henceforward she would put her trust, accepting the
beneplacito in time of peace on the terms lately offered by
You of twelve thousand ducats.

"But that she may be herein justified in the eyes of others,

' Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, then about a year old, christened Ludovico after
the Duke of Milan, but called Giovanni from the time of his father's death.

THE LEGATION OF MACHIAVELLI 259

and for the honour and reputation of her State, Her Excel-
lency desires that Your Lordships shall bind Yourselves to
the defence, protection and maintenance of her State. Albeit
Her Excellency does not doubt You would do so much
without any sort of agreement, tamen this agreement will be
to her an infinite cause of satisfaction and content, bringing
great honour to Her Excellency, without prejudice to Your
Lordships.

'■'Ulterius, Her Excellency witnessed an assignment, if not
for all, of part of the arrears of pay which she can use for
urgent present necessities . , . of the importance of which I
am charged to acquaint Your Lordships." Machiavelli replied
to Catherine's secretary " in the most loving words of which
he was master," that experience would but add to the good
opinion vouchsafed by the Countess to the Republic. With
regard to the agreement for defending her State, that was
superfluous ; it was, besides, outside the domain of his com-
mission ; would the Countess, therefore, accept the beneplacito
from him, and write her instructions on other matters, to her
agent in Florence ?

Baldraccani replied that Her Excellency preferred to settle
everything at the same time, and insisted on Machiavelli's
writing to Florence for instructions.

" Yesterday," continued Macchiavelli, " Her Excellency
deigned to make every excuse to me when I tendered, on
behalf of Your Lordships, a complaint of the outrage com-
mitted by her archers on Your subjects at Salutare ; informing
me that she had sent them to the harvest of a certain Carlo
de Buosi (Galeotto de Bosi), on property lying in her
dominions, the said Carlo having lately been put to death by
Dionisio Naldi in revenge for the Lord Octavian (Manfredi,
who had been waylaid and killed by Bosi on his way to
Florence j. These peasants had told them (the archers), that
if they gathered the harvest they would be cut to pieces, and
said other offensive words, so that they were goaded into re-
prisals. Thereat she was profoundly grieved, in proof of which
she commanded that the first of these archers who retaliated
be immediately deprived of his arms and discharged . . .

26o THE HOUSE OF MEDICI

" P.S. — To-morrow, fift}- mounted archers, hired by the
Duke, will leave for Milan."

The Florentines thought, b}' accepting Catherine's offers, to
rob the Duke of Milan, who was opposed to their friend, the
King of France, of an ally ; but pending an agreement with
them, Catherine continued to send reinforcements to Milan,
to prove her utility as a friend, and for the sake of obtaining
better terms from them. On the 23rd, Machiavelli, believing
that he had succeeded in his mission, wrote that " on the
morrow (he) hoped to obtain the signature of the Illustrious
Madonna to the bcneplacito, according to Your latest in-
structions, and besides ctiam arrange the affairs of Your
subjects with Her Excellency to Your Lordships' satisfaction.
I may not add more, for the courier is in a hurry to
leave."

On the 24th, he wrote — "After I had written to You and
despatched Ardingo, I received a visit from Messer Giovanni
da Casale (agent to the Duke of Milan), who informed me
that I need not have written, inasmuch as Her Excellency
was content to ask no bond of Your Lordships, being assured
You would not otherwise behave in her need than she had
done in Yours, and that to-day the beneplacito would be
signed. Therefore, as I believed that this was what would
happen, and the Piovano di Cascina (the Piovano or Cure
Fortunati) was writing to Lorenzo di Pier Francesco (brother-
in-law to Catherine), I wrote to that effect by the same
courier to Your Lordships, in the belief that everything was
settled. This morning, on finding myself with the said
Messer Giovanni, in the presence of Madonna, Her Excel-
lency told me that overnight it had occurred to her that it
would be more consistent with her honour if You declared
Yourselves bound to defend her State, according to her
wishes as expressed in the first instance by her chancellor
(First Secretary Baldraccani), which she desired me to
communicate to You : if the tenor of the message I had
received through Messer Giovanni ran otherwise, I must not
wonder thereat, for the longer things are discussed, the clearer
is the understanding arrived at.

THE LEGATION OF ^lACHIAVELLI 261

" When I heard of this change I could not help showing
what I felt, nor could I restrain my words and gestures from
betraying my displeasure, and I added that Your Lordships
would be equally surprised, I having already written that
Her Excellency retracted every exception. . . ."

But the Countess was unmoved by the envoy's anger —
"And I, being unable to obtain any further concession from
Her Ladyship, am constrained to write You as above." The
Countess dismissed Machiavelli courteously, promising to do all
in her power for the welfare of Florentine subjects in Romagna,
and although the young envoy found more than his match in
the woman he had failed to circumvent, his mission had
resulted in a renewal of friendly relations without increasing
the expenses of the Government he served. A letter from
Biagio Bonaccorsi, Chancellor to the Ten, to his " Charissimo
Nicolo," testifies to his chief's warm approval of Machiavelli's
maiden effort in diplomacy. ..." To my mind, your execu-
tion of the Commission confided to you is greatly to your
honour, in which I have and continue to take the greatest
pleasure, so that all may know there be (at least) one other,
who albeit less experienced, is nowise inferior to Ser Antonio
. . . who thought so much of himself . . . Go on as you have
begun, for up to now, you have been a credit to us. I would,
above all things ... a portrait of Madonna ... if you can
send me one make it into a roll so that the creases may not
spoil it. And at present can think of nothing else than to
commend myself and offer my services to you. . . . Bene
valete. Ex. Palatio, die XVH 1 1. Jidi MCCCCLXXXVH H."

Servitor Blasius Bona : Cancel.
Tomasini, in his Life and Works of Nicolo MacJiiavelli in
Relation to Jllachiavellisjn, appeals to the reader's imagination
by a mental reconstruction of those long-vanished halls that
witnessed the interviews of Catherine Sforza and Nicolo
Machiavelli. ..." Catherine," he says, had " demolished that
portion of the citadel that had witnessed her temporary
humiliation at the hands of revolutionaries, so that she might
blot out the memory of its shame : and, on the highest point
of those bulwarks, which were held to be impregnable, had

262 TIIF TIOUSK OF MEDICI

built her new and superb dwelling. She had named it
' Paradise,' from the beauty and dainty architecture of its
lofty rooms, adorned by noble paintings and resplendent with
gilded and carved ceilings on which were emblazoned the
arms of Visconti and Riario. ... In those rooms, amid those
ravelins, where later the intrepid woman awaited the ambition
of Borgia and her own ruin, she then received Secretary
Nicolo, who took away with him a profound impression of
her beauty, her greatness of soul, and the powers of resistance
of her castle."

After the departure of Machiavelli, Catherine sent Giovanni
da Casale to Florence, with the following credentials —

'' Illiistrcs ct excclsi D. D. Priores observandissiini. — That I
be not wanting in what I said to Messer Nicolo Machiavelli,
Your Commissioner, I send to Your Excellencies the respect-
able Messer Joanni, my Auditor, who will express to you all
that I have commissioned him to say in my name. I pray
Your Excellencies to deign to receive him in good faith, as
You would do to me, if I personally presented myself to
Your Excellencies, to Whom, as ever, 1 commend myself
Forli, die August 3, 1499.'

BOOK VII

CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

ARMS OF CESAR BORGIA.

CHAPTER XXVH

THE DEFENCES OF FORLI

King Louis XII. of France, valiant in war and resolute in
council, had in the preceding year succeeded his cousin
Charles VIII. He assumed the title of Duke of Milan as
heir to his ancestress, Valentina Visconti, and that of King of
the Two Sicilies, as the House of Anjou had ceded that
kingdom to the Crown of France. Having resolved on an
invasion of Italy to take possession of these two States, he
had made peace with the kings of England and Spain, and
with Maximilian, King of the Romans (brother-in-law to
Catherine), and needing friends in the Peninsula, had allied
himself with the worst enemies of the House of Sforza, the
Venetians, promising to reward them by the cession of
Cremona and the Ghiaradadda.

Pope Alexander VI. being still the most powerful of Italian
princes, King Louis formed an offensive alliance with him, of
which Ludovico il Moro was to be the first victim. The Pope's
chief aim was the aggrandizement of his son Caesar, upon

265

266 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

whom Louis XII. had already showered honours, described by
MachiavelH, in a letter to the Ten, as excessive.^ When
Caesar discarded the cardinal's hat, the Pope had deputed
Ludovico il Moro to ask for the hand of a daughter of King
Frederic of Naples with a view to an alliance between Rome,
Naples and Milan. But King Frederic and his daughter were
revolted at a proposal of marriage with a priest and the son of
a priest, and Csesar had wedded Charlotte d'Albret, daughter
of the King of Navarre. That changed the aspect of affairs ;
the Pope and his son, who were now relations of the King
of France, became the enemies of the States of Milan and
Naples, and promised to further the conquests of King Louis
if he would aid Ccesar to conquer a State for himself by
dethroning the Lords of Romagna.

Peace between Florence and Pisa had been concluded by the
arbitration of Duke Hercules of Ferrara, on April 6, but war
had now broken out again. Fortune had at first favoured the
Florentines, whose army was however destroyed during the
summer by malaria, while Paolo Vitelli, suspected of treason,
was iniquitously decapitated in Florence on October i. King
Louis, whose latest ally was Philibert, Duke of Savoy, who
held the key of Italy, sent his vanguard to Asti under the
command of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, a mortal enemy of Ludo-
vico il Moro, by whom his estates had been confiscated.

Duke Ludovico summoned men to arms, and citizens in
council, but it was too late ; the people he had persecuted and
tortured hated him. Gian Galeazzo Sanseverino,- w^hom
he had loaded with gifts and honours, and who was the
husband of one of his daughters, was preparing to betray
him ; he himself hesitated and trembled.

The French took the castles of Arazzo and Annone, the
towns of Valenza, Tortona and Voghera ; Castelnuovo and
Cerone opened their gates to them ; the Venetians entered the
Ghiaradadda and seized Caravaggio. The French advanced

^ On October 12, Valenza (Csesar Borgia liad been Cardinal of Valencia in
Spain) landed at Marseilles. He was received l^y the King with excessive honours.
— Letter to the Ten (di Balia).

- The Count of Caizzo, once an aspirant to the hand of Catherine's daughter
Bianca.

THE DEFENCES OF FORLI 267

on Alessandria, held by a strong garrison under the two
brothers Sanseverino. One of them, under the pretence of
a summons from the Duke to attend him in Milan, ran away
from Alessandria, many following his example. Those who
remained \vere so demoralized that the French disarmed them
with impunity and sacked the town. Terrorized by this
example, Mortara and Pavia opened their gates to the
invaders.

The unhappy Ludovico felt that divine vengeance had
overtaken him and his House. He dared neither stay nor
resist, and prepared for flight to Germany, where he had sent
his children, his treasure of two hundred and forty gold scudi,
his gems and marvellous pearls. Since it was impossible to save
Milan, he thought that a garrison of 3000 Foot would suffice
to hold the castle, which was well provided with arms, ammu-
nition and victuals. He confided its defence to Bernardino
da Corte, and left on September 12, in the hope of being
reinstated by the King of Naples, the Emperor of Germany
and the Swiss.

No sooner had he left the castle than he was approached
by his son-in-law, the Count of Caizzo, who declared that
since he was leaving the State, the soldiers were absolved of
their allegiance ; raising the French standard he pursued
the fugitive Duke as far as Innspruck, with troops in the
latter's pay. Meanwhile the Milanese sent orators six miles
beyond the gates to offer the keys of the city to the French ;
Cremona, besieged by Venice, surrendered to France and
Genoa, where the Adorni and Gian Luigi Fieschi, vicing with
each other in devotion to France, had already surrendered
to her.

When the French had occupied Milan for twelve days,
Bernardino da Corte, in whom Ludovico had put his trust,
being tempted by a large bribe, surrendered the castle ;
but so withering was the contempt of his corrupters that he
died in a (e\v days of shame and grief. On October 6,
Louis Xn. made his state entry into Milan, where he was
welcomed as the liberator of a people wearied with the
tyranny of the Sforza, and met by the orators of other

268 CATHERINE AND THE BORC.IA

Italian States, The King received the Mantuan envoy with
courtesy, but refused to come to any agreement with those
of Ferrara and Bologna until they had disbursed considerable
sums. He received the Florentine envoys coldly, because his
captains were unanimous in their blame of the execution of
Paolo Vitelli, who at Naples had been their beloved and
revered companion-in-arms. Besides, the King admired the
heroic defence of the Pisans, ancient allies of the kings of
France, and offended at the recent alliance of the Florentines
with Ludovico il Moro, forgot their services in the past. At last
he grudgingly signed an agreement with them, binding him-
self to defend them in case of attack with 600 Lances and
4000 Foot. The Florentines guaranteed to King Louis the
services of 400 Lances and 3000 Foot, and promised, on re-
covering Pisa, to provide 500 Lances and 50,000 ducats
towards the Neapolitan expedition.

Francesco, the imprisoned heir of Catherine's brother, Gian
Galeazzo, whose throne had been usurped by Ludovico il
Moro, now eight years old, was restored to his mother, who,
in her terror of the usurper, imprudently confided the child to
Louis XII. Isabel of Aragon returned to Naples, where she
was soon to be a witness of the ultimate downfall of her
House. Francesco Sforza died in early youth of a fall from
his horse while hunting, as Abbot of Noirmoutier, where he
had been compelled to take vows.

Meanwhile, Bajazet, Sultan of the Turks, had fiercely
attacked the Venetians, not only in the Levant, but in Friuli,
where unspeakable cruelties were perpetrated. Whence had
descended this sudden and unlooked-for scourge on Italy .''
It must be traced to the instigation of Ludovico il Moro,
who, powerless to defend himself against the French with
Italian arms, avenged himself on their Venetian allies by
pouring down upon them a barbarian horde of rapacious
corsairs.

These were the facts which fed the thoughts and fears of
Catherine, from P'ebruary to November 1499. More than
ever she fixed her attention on Rome, which had become the

THE DEFENCES OF FORLI 269

very centre of corruption and of the most unbridled licence
and ambition. She learnt from the letters of the more far-
seeing of her friends that everything tended to injure her.
" In this alliance between the Emperor Maximilian and the
King of France," wrote Pegaso, " the Pope will find the means
of aggrandizement for his sons, the Duke (elder brother of
Caesar) and that Cjesar who was once Archbishop of Valenza,
and will no longer be a priest. He (the Pope) will seek to
establish them firmly in Italy, and I would have Your Excel-
lency believe that he has his eye on Romagna with some
forethought and judgment. We are all vigilant and alert ..."
The trusty Fortunati added —

" These be times that call for monej- and men ... it is
better to spend while there is yet time."

Day by day the Countess, on horseback, watched the drill
of her men-at-arms, her Infantry and Light Horse. She did
this in order that they might be hired, hoping thus to be
sought for and subsidized, and so finding friends, she trusted
that, among the many, one might realize the duty and advan-
tage of protecting her. " The Madonna di Forli writes that
she has sent five hundred men to Milan, under her son, the
Lord Octavian, and that she is sending four hundred others
to the Florentines . . . against Pisa," wrote Alvise Venier,
Captain and Podesta (military governor) at Ravenna, to his
Government. In the harassing uncertainty of Italian politics,
Catherine, according to an Italian proverb, " kept her feet in
both stirrups." When she had supplied a State with men,
arms and ammunition, she pacified the others by asserting
that this purely military matter did not involve an alliance.
She had already told the Venetians that " Octavian did his
duty as a soldier without interfering in politics, and without
prejudice to Our State."

Meanwhile this State was afflicted by a new scourge — the
plague. Catherine, who was not to be discouraged, closed
the gates of the city, as soon as she found that the real
plague was within them ; promptly provided doctors, medi-
cines, hospitals and gravediggers, and to this wise and
vigorous treatment the citizens soon ascribed the cessation

270 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

of a visitation that had threatened to decimate the country.
The courage and provident care of Catherine in times of
pestilence had ahvays been an important factor in her Hfe,
and was so still where her own cup was full to overflowing.
In the early days of her grief for the loss of a beloved
husband, she found herself hemmed in by French and Swiss
mercenaries, without hope of relief from Milan, surrounded
by a plague-stricken people, her State already assigned as a
prey to the frenzied cupidity of Caesar Borgia, herself and her
children given over by the Pope to ruin and death, as if
Providence were in league with human malice. For her
little Ludovic, the future leader of the Black Bands, who had
been ill during the stay of Machiavelli, grew worse from day
to day.

" Of our Ludovico, I know not how to write henceforward,"
wrote the unhappy mother to Lorenzo dei Medici. " This
time the fever has come upon him twelve hours sooner, and
has been more violent than the last paroxysm." She
prayed Lorenzo to pray God that he might " be left to them,
if it were for the best."

Her faith in God sustained her ; she appealed to Heaven
by spending liberally in alms. To the Miirate, very poor
nuns of Florence, she had sent help, and having received a
bo.x of flowers from them, wrote the Abbess — " We thank you
for them, but pray you not to burden yourselves with such
expense for Us, for that would be repaying Us for alms with
which We hope to supply you regularly. Pray with the other
sisters to Almighty God for Us and all Ours. . . ."

At last, she could write that " Ludovico had so improved
that if nothing else happens to him, we hope he may be
considered to be cured of this illness. . . . God be thanked
for all!" This passage occurs in a letter to Lorenzo de'
Medici, in which the Countess thanks him for his courtesy
in having visited her orator, Messer Giovanni da Casale, " at
his inn," where she had instructed him to dismount, from a
prudent regard to present conditions, and especially to those
of the city of Florence.

Meanwhile strange rumours concerninsr the Countess con-

THE DEFENCES OF FORLI 271

tinued to be transmitted to Venice. " She had caused the
castellane of Forii to be hung, and had placed her valuables
in the fortress of Imola for safety." Who was this castellane?
He is not mentioned elsewhere, and it is evident that the
Podesta of Ravenna was misled by a rumour contradicted by
future events. There is also mention in the Diary of Sanuto
of an attempt on the part of this same castellane to bring
about an alliance between Catherine and the Signory of
Venice. " September 9 . . . came that envoy from Zuam
da Casal ... he was given fair words and dismissed."

At this point, two great but sinister figures appear upon
the scene, the odium of whose fame is unsurpassed in the
whole history of Italy. The expedition against Catherine,
in which the Borgia compassed her downfall and proved to the
world the heroic grandeur of her character, originated in one
of the most appalling crimes that history has recorded.

On June 14, 1497, Caesar Borgia, Cardinal of Valencia,
caused his brother Piero, Duke of Candia, to be murdered
and thrown into the Tiber, on returning from a supper in the
house of Vannozza, his mother. The vilest rumours and a
terrible but unproven suspicion darkened the minds of the
people. The death of this son nearly cost the Pope his
reason ; so violent and of so strange a nature had been his
grief that it was whispered he had, under the influence of
Caesar, in some way connived at the assassination of Piero,
and that the father's sorrow was complicated by a monstrous
remorse.

Hence tears in open Consistory, repentance of past errors,
vain projects of reforming the corruption of the Court, repul-
sion to Caesar, who had brought upon him this despair; ending
in reconciliation, a new, blind, and unbalanced love for him,
and among other concessions to the fratricide, the promise to
abet his attack upon Catherine Sforza and other Romag-
nole princes ruling as Vicars of the Church. Their States
were not to return to the Church, but would be amalgamated
into an independent one, under Caesar, as really a step on the
road that led to the Crown of united Italy.

272 CATHERINE AND THE I50RGIA

On August 13, 1498, Cardinal Caesar cast aside his sacer-
dotal vestments and left for France, taking with him a much-
desired pontifical brief, which authorized the King to contract
a second marriage. The King assigned to Caesar a pension
of 20,000 livres, besides 20,000 livres pay as captain of a
company a hundred strong, and in the following May 1499,
gave him the hand of Charlotte d'Albret with the city of
Valence in the Dauphine as her dower. Henceforward Caesar,
ex-Cardinal Valentino of Valencia in Spain, was known as
Duke Valentino of France. King Louis offered Csesar, as a
marriage gift, a State in the Duchy of Milan, which he declined.
But the Pope promised the King a certain number of pontifical
troops for the Milanese expedition on condition that the
French army should help Caisar to depose the petty princes
whom he accused of usurping the rights of the Church in
Romagna.

In twenty days the King had conquered Milan, and on
October 16, Catherine received a letter from Nicolo Machi-
avelli, in which he announced that he had obeyed her com-
mands, and had informed the King of France, through the
Florentine orators at Milan, that she was an ally of the
Florentine Republic. But of what avail .'' Catherine had said
a hundred times that the Florentines were generous in words,
but nothing else.

Valentino obtained 15,000 French troops for his expedition
in Romagna. It was notified to the Republic of Florence and
the other States which had not joined the League between the
Pope, the King of France and the Venetians, that they
must abstain from helping any State attacked in the name of
the Pope, and the Florentines were specially warned that Pisa
would be given to Valentino if they helped the Lady of Forli.
This silenced the Florentines, although at heart they regretted
the Pope's designs on their ally, for whose protection they had
in vain attempted to form a League between Bologna, Ferrara,
Piombino and Sienna. A new Florentine Commissioner,^
Berto da Filicaja, was appointed in Romagna, who was in-

^ Machia\-elli, Scritti ined/ti riguardanti la Storia e la Milizia. — Florence,
Barb, 1857.

THE DEFENCES OF FORLI 273

striicted to " be vigilant that no Florentine soldier nor subject
did aught for or against the Madonna of Forli or her enemies,"
and every one, as Vincenzo Calmeta wrote, in sorrow, on
October 31, 1499, to the Countess, "has resigned himself to
the ruin and undoing of Your Ladyship."

Calmeta wrote that although he had spoken to Gian
Giacomo Trivulzio, and even to the King, he had only suc-
ceeded in retarding the inevitable fall of the bolt. The
French, who had no wish to go to war with the Countess, "had
tried to divert the Pope from this fantasy by saying that the
Milanese expedition had cost so much money that they had
none left for this. . . . The Pope (then) asked of the King's
Majesty the (bare) loan of men and artillery, the whole
expense of which he would defray himself. His Majesty
has lent him some cannons and a hundred lances to guard
them. Yesterday I complained to Messer Gian Giacomo
(Trivulzio) that this was contrary to what His Lordship had
led me to expect. . . . He replied in these very words —
' If you do harm to yourselves, how can I help you .'' ' "
These words had at first seemed enigmatical to Calmeta, who
ended by discovering "that all the harm came from Rome,"
where the Cardinals Riarioand Delia Rovere were doing their
worst. Calmeta further relates that yesterday's audience
gave him an opportunity "of submitting Your Ladyship's
needs to my Lord the King, . . . who, in French, replied
to me in these few words, 'We are not the Pope's judges,
that We cannot impede the exercise of his jurisdiction in his
own dominions,' adding that his captains could defend You
against any other power, but that it would not be lawful to
do so against the Pope, of whom You are a tributary." There
had been no sign of assuming the offensive until "this morn-
ing, when the Pope's son has begun to disburse pay to 2000
Foot, who in a few days will have marching orders ; he is
Captain-general of all the Forces. . . . The Florentines tolerate
this attack upon Your Ladyship so that they may escape scot-
free, for otherwi.se the Pope would have given Pisa to his son."
The Neapolitan expedition was postponed until the spring,

and nothing had been decided as to Forli " until this morning,

'I'

274 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

when everything has been settled." Catherine, on receiving
this letter, rode across the Apennines to make a personal
appeal to those Florentines for whom she had sacrificed and
endured so much, but they were deaf to her voice and un-
moved by her prayers. With incisive yet winning words
she told them how that the Pope, by whom they permitted
their hands to be bound, would not rest after she had been
despoiled. " To-day is my turn . . . to-morrow will be
yours." In vain ; for if they stirred in defence of Forli,
Caesar Borgia would seize Pisa.

"The Lady of Forli," says the Venetian Clironiele, "in
expectation of the army of Valentino, set herself zealously to
work, and cut down all the trees near the city. Having
burned down the suburbs, she fortified the land as best she
could, like the notable woman that she was. When she had
erected fortifications, she went in person to Florence to ask for
help, giving the Florentines to understand that her feast was
but the vigil (prelude) to theirs, and that when they and the
papal troops had taken Imola and Forli, they would not rest
until they had got to Florence.^ But the Florentine Signori,
for many reasons, would not interfere. . . . The Lady of
Forli let no grass grow under her feet, and returning from
Florence without having accomplished anything, (forthwith)
fortified Forli and sent her children, because of their tender age,
under safe guardianship to Florence. She had, besides, cut
off the water-supplies in the hills and flooded the territory
round the city, so that none might approach it, without heed
to the damage sustained by citizens, which she promised to
make good to them ; and then, with a high heart and spirit,
awaited her enemies. Certes, this woman, who was sister to
the Duke of Milan, and did not degenerate from the strain of
which she came, might well be called virago."^ . . ."
On November 5, Sanuto's diary contains the entry —
"... The Pope's son ^ with his army is about to encamp

^ Cronicon Venettun, Muratori R. I. Scr. XXIV., 128, 129.
'■^ Virago as employed by Ariosto, Tasso, and Boiardo in the sense of a woman of
virile mind.

3 El fiol del Tai a.

THE DEFENCES OF FORLI 275

Imola and Forli and take Pesaro, whose poor lord doth at
commend himself to the Signory (of Venice), saying that he
will turn monk, while the Madonna of Forli continues to
fortify herself and lay in great store of provisions."

For Catherine preferred the seclusion of a fortress to that
of a cloister, but the other lords of Romagna believed them-
selves to be lost before they were attacked. Giovanni Sforza^
had indeed offered Pesaro to the Venetians, in return for the
protection he craved of them. This offer the}^ were con-
strained to refuse, in deference to the King of France, and
that they might be the better able to hold Rimini for Pan-
dolfo Malatesta, and Faenza for Astorre Manfredi, despite
the remonstrances of the Pope. On the 15th, Machiavelli
wrote Antonio Canigiani, Florentine commissioner with the
army — " The latest news is that His Majesty the King has left
Milan for Vigevano on his way to Lyons, and on the same
day, which was the 9th, 300 French Lancers and 4000 Swiss
advanced on the Madonna of Imola; all subsidized by the
Pope, who would give that State, with Rimini, Faenza, Pesaro,
Cesena and Urbino, to him of Valentino (le Valentinois). It
is believed that unless the populace are disloyal to Madonna,
she will defend herself; if she cannot defend the land because
of the perfidy of the (rural) population, the fortresses will be
held: in any case it would appear that she is so minded."

Besides the French, 15,000 troops, under Ives d'Alegre
and the 4000 Swiss under the Bailli of Dijon, Caesar Borgia
personally commanded those papal forces which the Pope
had sent for the facile conquest of the Duchy of Milan.

By a circular addressed to the consuls and the Commune of
Bologna, King Louis, on November 5, apprised them that
he was sending an army under Caesar Borgia, Duke of
Valentino, to besiege and take the fortresses of Imola and
Forli on behalf of the Pope. Catherine was specially de-
nounced because it was averred that despite continual warning
and menace she had, during the last three years, refused to
pay tribute to the Apostolic treasury.

A Roman tribunal had already declared Imola and Forli

' Giovanni Sforza, lirst husband of Lucietia ]5orgia.

276 CATHERIXE AND THE J50RG1A

to be forfeited by Catherine and her children, and the papal
bull of March 9, 1499, signed by seventeen cardinals,
confirmed the deposition of this " Daughter of Iniquity," ^ and
invested Ca:isar Borgia with her States. The Lords of
Romagna, who ruled as Vicars of the Church, were accused
of regarding themselves as independent, and serving in the
armies of other princes without refusing to be led against
the Sovereign Pontiff. "These Lords," wrote Muratori, "held
their cities by right of pontifical bulls : it mattered not, they
had to yield to the ambitions of the House of Borgia : and
pretexts for despoiling the lawful owners were not wanting
to those who were waiting to build a majestic edifice over
their ruins."

The Countess, on hearing of what she was accused, had
immediately despatched Dr. Giovanni dalle Selle to Rome,
to disburse the 3000 gold florins said to be due from her,
and to present the account drawn up by the Apostolic
treasury on the death of Sixtus IV., with an additional
counter-claim for four years of pay due to Girolamo, as
Captain-general of the Church, during his absence in
Romagna.

Nothing had availed her. Despite his urgent prayers for
a personal audience, the envoy returned without having
been permitted to see Alexander VI. The Treasury dis-
claimed any cognizance of the rights and dues of the late
Count Girolamo.

" The Treasury," wrote Girolamo Sacrati to the Duke of
Ferrara, "will prosecute the Lord of Forli and Imola with
the utmost rigour." Cardinal Riario had put forward, in
favour of his nephews, the 60,000 ducats to which their
father's rights entitled them, " iis non obstantibiis , the Pope
has insisted on sentence, signed by his own hand, being given
against them . . ."

Imola and P"orli were the keys of Romagna, which, in its
turn, Catherine realized was the door to be opened by
Csesar Borgia on the dominion of all Italy. " The Pope,"

' Bull of Alexander VI. deposing the Riario and their mother from the
Vicariats of Imola and Forli.

THE DEFENXES OF FORLI 277

wrote Sanuto, "claims Bologna, Imola and Forli, but says
Messer Gian Giacomo (Trivulzio), ' he who hunts every hare
catches none.' " Catherine was none the less resolved to
defend her children's rights to the bitter end, and by up-
holding their rank as reigning princes, to vindicate the
honour and restore the fallen fortunes of the House of
Sforza.

Yet the undaunted opponent of the Borgia — who were
known to dispose of their enemies by poison, drowning,
flaying alive, or throat-cutting — was a woman who knew
that neither her armies nor her foresight could prevail against
the impending terrors. Despite a tranquillity assumed to
encourage her defenders, her clear mind read the future,
and she trembled and turned to Heaven for guidance and
support. The Abbess of the Miirate sent her fruit from her
Florentine orchard : to her thanks she added prayers that
she would " remember her in her orations, so that amid these
turmoils of the world, God may defend Us and show Us
the right way." In a letter to Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis
of Mantua, to whom she sent a present of a Spanish mare
and stallion, she writes — " The Pope, without a semblance
of justice, persecutes Us, so that he may give this State
to his son ; but We, knowing ourselves to be blameless, cannot
believe that God and man will withhold compassion from
Us. On Our side, we despair not, but shall defend Our
own as long as We can, so that perchance they may find
(the enterprise) less easy than they persuade themselves."

Catherine had passed the summer in collecting arms,
provisions and ammunition for the fortresses of Imola and
Forli. This, by the light of family tradition, had been easy
to her, who for many years had made of her State a factory
and market of arms and soldiers. She had assembled many
experts in war, whom she had chosen, so far as it had been
possible, from ancient and illustrious houses, that their names
might lend weight to her cause. She summoned Scipio, the
natural son of Girolamo, from his exile, and her three brothers,
Alexander Sforza, the Count of Melzo, and another whose
name does not appear, l^arly in November, she sent

278 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

Octavian to Imola to probe the mind of its citizens and to
prepare the city for defence. Octavian announced to the
council that his mother was preparing for defence against
the French and pontifical forces, and if they were of the
same mind, he was prepared to aid and second them in all
they could desire. He dilated on the justice of his cause, and
freed them, from that moment, of all custom-house duties.
The Imolese demanded the return of their exiles to aid in
the defence — which Catherine granted — and promised fealty
so long as it did not entail useless bloodshed.

Giovanni Pietro Landriani, Catherine's stepfather, old and
inexperienced in war, castellane of Imola, was replaced by
Dionisio Naldi of Brisighella, who owed his life to the
Countess, and whom the Florentines would have thrown into
the horrible prison of the StincJie when he was suspected of
the murder of Corbizzi but for her intercession. " Your
Magnificence is aware how much I love Dionisio di Naldi, for
his loyalty and devotion, albeit he hath a head of his own,"
she had written to Lorenzo Medici ; " fearing his enemies
might compass his death, and greatly desiring his deliver-
ance." This she had obtained by an exchange of prisoners,
and Naldi, in return, brought two hundred men to the defence
of the Fort of Imola, which he promised to hold with his life,
giving Catherine his wife and children as hostages.

The Imolese then closed all the city gates and refused to
be exempted from custom-house duties, in gratitude for
which Octavian suppressed the weight and meat taxes.
Naldi, the new castellane, strengthened the fortification of the
castle and the city wall, and summoned to his aid ten of his
bravest and most trusty kinsmen. The garrison consisted of
eighty experienced and faithful soldiers, the peasant battalions
were levied and drilled by Giovanni Sassatelli (the famous
Cagnazzo), and on the 13th Octavian returned to Forli.

Meanwhile Valentino advanced by the Ferrara road, and
as the garrisons of Dozza and Tossignano were without
wheat, the Governor of Imola ordered 4000 measures
to be divided between them. The Imolese refused to obey

THE DEFENCES OF FORLI 279

the governor's edict because it lacked the impress of " the
cornelian " (Catherine's seal). Catherine sent a decree to
which her seal was attached, but the citizens tore it into shreds
in the governor's face. Naldi then imprisoned Governor
Corradino in the fort, for not having either prevented or
punished the offence. A citizen attempted to set some hay-
stores on fire, lest they should fall into the hands of the
enemies, for which the Imolese would have skinned him and
his family alive, had he not escaped in time to Forli.

The defences of Forli were admirable. From every
quarter, ammunition, provisions, tried soldiers and brilliant
captains poured into the town ; walls, moats and towers were
kept in constant repair : every thought and act of the
Countess breathed courage and resistance. Octavian had, on
November i, summoned the members of council to the great
hall of the palace, and made them acquainted with the Pope's
pretensions regarding the tribute, and his repudiation of the
debt due to the Riario. This was confirmed by Dalle Selle,
who, "by command and in the name of Octavian, declared
that if the Pope, with the object of extorting payment twice
over, sent an army against Madonna Caterina, she without
hesitation or tremor had resolved to await it undismayed,
confiding in the justice of her cause, the valour of her soldiers
and the loyal aid of her people of Forli. With regard to the
intentions of the people of Forli, the Countess earnestly
desired to be fully and promptly acquainted with them. Let
them therefore give the matter consideration, take the
measure of their courage, and clearly formulate their desires. . .
If, for the love of life and property, and in the belief that any
defence was foolhardy, they preferred to receive the army of
Valentino, let them remember that it was composed of every
species of barbarians : Swiss, Gascons, Germans, French and
Spaniards, people to whom law and order were unknown ; who
seized, occupied, ruined, attacked and contaminated everything
with which they came in contact. He who opened the door
to the invaders," continued the auditor,^ " submitted to the

' Bernard i, p. 398.

28o CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

hardest of slaveries ; thus it had been in the time of King
Charles VIII. ; thus it was in Lombardy, at the present moment.
The Pope would wrest the State from the House of Riario, not
indeed for the Church, but for his son, who as usual would
become a nobody on the death of the Pontiff; a sad and
frequent occurrence in papal government. Madonna Caterina,
for the love she bore her subjects, had determined to die
Lady of Imola and Forli, and on her faith she vowed that as
she had ever known how to be a grateful friend to her friends,
so would she mete out inexorable justice to her enemies."
Dr. Giovanni dalle Selle further declared that he had, during
his mission to Rome, settled the debit and credit account of
the Riario with the Apostolic treasury with the minutest detail,
"so that if His Holiness sends a punitive army against us it
will be without a pretext." Every one cried, sooner death and
destruction than yield to a pope with such iniquitous pre-
tensions, and the council, having reiterated its protests of
loyalty to the Riario, separated to the cry of "Ottaviano!
Ottaviano ! "

On the following day, the council assembled again to con-
sider the preliminaries of confiding the defence of each
quarter of the city to four nobles under the supreme command
of the poet Marullo of Constantinople, who, with the auditor
and Octavian, was present in council. Marullo related how,
at Milan, he had spoken with the King of France, from whom
he had gathered that His Majesty cared not at all for these
petty conquests in Romagna, but that Duke Valentino was
eager, on personal and self-interested grounds, to come to a
collision with the Countess.

Catherine, who, abandoned by her natural allies, still sought
shelter for her children while she prepared to weather the
storm, did not hesitate to apply to her old foes, the Venetians.
To her inquiry of whether they would receive her children,
they replied promptly in the affirmative. The same request
was made by Cardinal Riario to the Venetian Orator
in Rome, who promised that they should be honourably
treated.

This friendly reply gave her hope that in extreme need she

THE DEFENCES OF FORLI 281

might turn for help to the Venetians, who, although like the
Florentines, they had been forced into the League with the
Pope and France, looked with disfavour on an expedition
destined to overthrow the Lords of Romagna and found a new
State for Caesar Borgia. Yet, after mature consideration, she
sent her children to Florence to a property of Giovanni de'
Medici, her late husband, situate in a remote and quiet part
of Tuscany, and thither she also sent her jewels and most
important documents.^

Catherine struck copper coins, of which there was a great
scarcity, and announced by public edict that she would be
beholden to any one who with spades, mattocks, or any other
instruments, helped to demolish the pleasure-house in her
park. She had built it at great expense, some years ago, but
now that it was necessary to level the outlook in front of the
fort, she did not hesitate to destroy it. So many people
desirous of proving their loyalty obeyed her summons, that
in one day all trace of it disappeared. Another edict pre-
scribed the destruction of every edifice within a radius of
a quarter of a mile of the city, and any one who possessed a
villa or farm within a mile of the walls was ordered to cut
down such trees or shrubs as might conceal it. To mitigate
the regrets of the owners, Catherine was the first to cut down
all the trees in her park. Peasants were enjoined at sound of
the third cannonade to abandon their homesteads and bestow
themselves and their belongings within the walls : it was
made incumbent on every household in the city to store four
months' provisions. Octavian's promised exemptions at
Imola gave rise to much discussion in council and abroad.
Catherine, offended at what appeared to her an abuse of her
bounty, caused a gallows and stocks to be erected in the
square, and as the disaffection continued, was constrained to
make public the announcement that her income from Forli
amounted to no more than 22,000 livres, and that she could
grant no further exemptions. This explanation sufficed, and
bonfires were lighted in the streets in sign of satisfaction

' Burriel asserts thai he examined these docimients among the Riario archives at
Bologna in 1795.

282 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

at the concessions already obtained. No sooner had
Octavian returned from Imola than he was made to join in
the -work of defence. He rose before daybreak, and was seen
to leave the fort, enter the shops, and persuade their owners
to leave them ; in a short time all the shops were closed and
the salesmen converted into workmen.

Octavian's dinner was carried to him at the gate of St.
Peter, so that it was not necessary for him to leave the centre
of action, and a few nobles were invited to share it with him.
He did not limit himself to directing and encouraging the
men, but with Bartolomeo Capofcrri and Paolo Dall' Aste,
who were of his own age and stature, helped to wheel the
barrows of earth. Spurred by his example, gentlemen of the
court, priests and monks mingled with the populace, and
worked with as good a will ; the work progressed as if by
enchantment, and the defences soon reached from the fort
to the gate of Schiavonia.

The bastion of the suburb of Sadurano was demolished,
lest it should serve as a shelter to the enemy : the castle
tower, which still exists, was uncovered on all sides, and
certain battlements removed that impeded the action of
artillery. Several notaries were charged to draw up a list of
all the arms that the city contained, and the Countess, finding
them inadequate for present needs, distributed a quantity of
those she had stored for some time past, and amply pro-
vided the people with cuirasses, casques and spears.

While this was happening, a certain Guidotto, a French
soldier of fortune, arrived at the gates of Forli with 400
Gascon and German foot-soldiers. He had fought with the
Pisans, and since the termination of their war, sought fresh
employment. On hearing of the preparations for the defence
of Forli, he hastened to offer his services to the Countess
who entered into an agreement with him, but there being
no room] for another soldier in the fort, Catherine quartered
the new contingent among the monks of St. Mercurial, St.
Domenic and St. Francis. These Ultramontanes proved to be
such utter fiends [that the wretched monks were, in self-
defence, obliged to call armed citizens to their aid. During a

THE DEFENCES OF FORLI 283

brawl between Gascons and Germans, the citizens discovered
three corpses and some wounded in the square, and a turmoil
ensued. Octavian, who arrived from the gate of St. Peter,
commanded that henceforward the barbarians be permitted
to settle their disputes among themselves, without interference
from the citizens, that the wounded be attended to, and
property restored to the rightful owners under penalty of the
gallows.

Several persons were imprisoned in the fort, for secretly
favouring Valentino ; among these was a son of the banker
Giuntino, married to a daughter of Achille Tiberti, once a
favoured captain of Catherine's, but now serving under
Valentino against her. Many refused to accept money
lately coined by Catherine, upon which the hard necessity of
the times had imposed an arbitrary value higher than its in-
trinsic value. A new edict made the passing of these coins
compulsory. Another edict compelled citizens to convey to a
banker designated by her all the gold and silver they kept in
their houses in return for their equivalents in the new coin :
each to be indemnified for any loss he might sustain, on the
cessation of hostilities. The Countess further decreed that
whoever wished to enter the service should appear in the
square before a high constable deputed to register the names
of aspiring soldiers, and, when the arrival of the enemy
seemed imminent, she again intimated to the rural
population to come into the city with all their property.
By day and night she mustered her soldiers, her artillery
and inspected her defences, outwardly calm, like the able sea-
man, who, having taken in sail and made everything secure,
intrepidly awaits the storm.

CHAPTER XXVIII

VALENTINO TAKES IMOLA

Valentino avoided Bologna, where Bentivoglio had fore-
stalled him by arming the populace, and marching on
Romagna by the Ferrara road, halted with the bulk of his
army at Cantalupo. Thence he despatched Achille Tiberti
with five hundred Horse to Imola. This deserter to Catherine's
cause arrived at the Spuviglio Gate, which was walled and well
defended, summoned the constable who guarded it, and in
the name of the Church, the King of France and the League
demanded the surrender of the city. The constable hastened
to inquire of the magistrates what was to be done. He
returned with Giovanni Sassatelli, who, in the name of the
magistracy, offered the city to Tiberti and Valentino uncon-
ditionally, and causing the gate to be cleared, received Tiberti
with his five hundred Horse. They were conducted to a
suburb, where they found provisions and forage for man and
horse awaiting them. Tiberti, on finding himself master of
the city, demanded the keys. The castellane Naldi was
enraged by the cowardly betrayal of the magistracy who owed
so much to Catherine and been so prodigal of promises of
faithful service. Why, indeed, had they w^alled up the gate if
on the first appearance of the enemy they had intended to
open it .'' But since he was master of the fort, he held that
all was not yet lost, and directed a cannonade against the
quarters of Tiberti to the damage of the city and the terror of
its inhabitants.

On November 25, the 15,000 men of Valentino came

284

VALENTINO TAKES IMOLA 285

down upon Imola and filled the little city to overflowing,
with the intention of bombarding the fort that alone, but
obstinately, held out. Tiberti, who hated Naldi for his loyalty
to Catherine, persuaded Valentino to place his batteries in the
western quarter of the town, and to open fire ; but, says
Oliva — " Vain was this thought, for the cannonade, with the
exception of breaking the mural crown, did little damage, so
strong and well-built was the wall on that side."

Valentino, who was anxious to leave for Rome, yet not
before he had taken the fort, was enraged. To make an end
of it, he sent a trumpeter to Naldi, demanding an immediate
surrender of the fort, with the alternative that when it was
taken — as would infallibly happen — the garrison would be
hacked to pieces, and he and his kinsmen hanged by the neck.
Naldi replied that he dreaded only the prospect of being
hanged for treason, but cared not what he suffered in the
cause of constant and honourable faith to his banner and his
Lady ; foreseeing the event announced to him, he had already
taken the Sacrament, so that he might die not only a good
soldier, but a good Christian.

The boldness of his reply pleased Valentino, who then
bethought himself of approaching Naldi by means of his
kinsfolk in Valdilamone.

Among these was Vitellozzo Vitelli, w^ho, with the others,
assured him that he had achieved prodigies of valour, and
that now that it was his duty to surrender . . . neither
Catherine, nor any other could blame him, . . . They en-
treated him "not to await the second battery, when all chance
of escape or pardon would be at an end ; neither was he
justified, for the sake of a vain ostentation of bravery, in
further endangering the lives and fortunes of his own blood,
and many another good man." But, continues Oliva, he
replied that " these offices were not for his peers .... he
persisted in defending himself, not for vanity of bravery, but
to keep his troth to one who had confided to him the defence
of the fort." The Duke would not find it so easy to take as
he imagined, "and he pra)-ed Vitelli to come into the fort
and Csee for himself whether, in arrogance or reason, he

286 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

answered as he did." The fort was capable of holding out
for a year, and he had promised Catherine to hold it for
that time. He felt within himself the power to keep his
word, as security for which he had given his wife and
children as hostages to Catherine. " Sooner than fail to
his honour and duty, he would be cut to pieces with the
garrison a hundred times over."

Valentino, again disappointed, succeeded in sending certain
persons inside the fort to inform him of its condition. He
learnt that it would be idle to persist in plying cannon
against a castle so admirably defended. Naldi continued to
bombard the town with greater energy than ever. Houses
fell, towers were ruined, the presence of Borgia and his army
was no defence against the projectiles discharged night and
day from the fort, and it was soon patent to every one that if
it were possible to subdue the fort, it would be at the
expense of incalculable time and bloodshed.

But guile prevailed where force had been unavailing. A
carpenter acquainted with the construction of the fort be-
trayed its vulnerability to the Duke, to whom he pointed out
that at a certain point the fort could not resist a vigorous
attack, recommending him to change the position of his
batteries. Valentino at once grasped the idea, but before
attacking, he determined to assure himself of the valour of his
soldiers by distributing double pay.

To this end he despatched Achille Tiberti (who certainl}-
did not take the Forli road), with a strong escort, to Cesena
to bring him a considerable sum of money which had been
sent by his cousin, Cardinal Borgia, as a contribution to the
expedition against Catherine. On the return of Tiberti, the
money was distributed, and then only did Valentino place
his batteries in the position that had been indicated by the
traitor.

At nightfall, Valentino opened fire on the ravelin at the
gate, and on the chief bridge of the fort, and by dawn had
opened a breach wide enough to admit of an assault which
enabled him to effect an entr\' into the outer courtyard,
where a furious onslaught by the garrison forced the invaders

VALENTINO TAKES IMOLA

287

to retire on the ravelin. But the strength of the army enabled
the Duke to renew the assault with fresh men and with over-
whelming numbers and with a continual exchange of combat-
ants, until, when twilight fell upon the exhausted garrison,
Naldi, who was wounded in the head, was obliged to own to
himself that the Duke's victory was assured, and that he was
capable of the butchery with which he had threatened them.

From the height of the tower came a trumpet-blast direct-
ing a cessation of hostilities. Naldi asked for a three days'

FORT OF IMOLA.

truce, wherein to inform the Countess of what had occurred
and to await reinforcements. The Duke, in recognition of his
valour, acceded to his request, writing on the following day
to the Duke of Ferrara that "the Fort of Imola, strong in
construction and the valour of its well-armed garrison," was
practically at his mercy, and failing intervention on the part
of Madonna Caterina,^ would be taken by him on the nth
(December).

Giovanni Landriani and a brother of Naldi went to inform
the Countess of her loss, but she could not afford to weaken

^ Doc. 1 107.

288 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

the garrison of Forli, and the three daj's having elapsed
without the arrival of succour, Naldi surrendered to the victor
on the following conditions—

1. That the whole garrison should pass out, unharmed and
unmolested.

2. That each^man should take his property with him, with-
out having to submit to examination.

3. That military honours be rendered to the garrison.

On these conditions Naldi agreed to surrender the fort with
its guns and ammunition. To these conditions the Duke
agreed, and Naldi, after an honourable capitulation, retired to
his property at Cotignola. The wound in his head prevented
his taking part in the Lombard war, but he later took service
with the Venetians, and died, in 1509, as Commander of their
Infantry.

After the fall of the Castle of Imola, the other little fort-
resses of the county opened their gates to Valentino, with the
exception of the Fort of Dozza, which refused to surrender,
and was taken by force. Its castellane, Gabriele del Pico
d'Oriolo, was denied the credit " of true valour," and punished
" for his purposeless temerity" by being dragged in chains to
the dungeons of Imola, while his kinsmen, in chains, v/ere
compelled to work in the entrenchments.

CHAPTER XXIX

FORLI BEFORE THE SIEGE

The surrender of Imola was a great shock to the people
of Forli, who, realizing that at any moment they might find
themselves in the same predicament, began to ask themselves,
whether, after all, the people of Imola had not done wisely in
opening their gates, and thus saving themselves from worse
ills. Some praised and held them worthy of imitation, others
persisted in the determination to resist.

When Catherine became aware that this new ferment was
rising from the populace, until it divided even the magistrates
in council, she sent Alexander Sforza to the chief magistrate
desiring him to find a way for the citizens to formulate their
wishes and ideas. " Was it the wish of the people and the
determination of the Magistracy to close the gates on Caesar
Borgia and defy his army .-' Or would they go the way of
the people of Imola .-* " Madonna desired to be acquainted
surely and promptly of their intentions, for in case the people
of Forli decided " to stand by her," she would supply them
with arms, cannon, and a number of experienced soldiers, led
by captains of acknowledged merit.

But if they preferred to open the gates to the invaders
rather than run the risks of defence, the Countess would
retain these forces for the defence of the fort. She was
persuaded that the courageous resistance of her people would
ensure her success, yet could neither explain nor exact heroic
virtues from a peace-loving population ; nor would she, in the
future, ever complain of being abandoned by the citizens in

289 u

290 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

this emergency. The chief magistrate replied that the city
was all for the Countess ; he would reply more fully when he
had summoned the council. The council decided on sending
the following reply by five influential citizens to Count
Alexander Sforza —

" What need had Madonna the Countess to weary her
brain with the question of the loyalty of Forli ? Has she
not had every assurance of it .'' Has she not tried and proved
it ? It were vain to report to her on the state of the city's
defences, for none knew them better than herself. Thus,
having well deliberated and considered, nothing remained for
them to add ; yet it were well to recall to the memory of
Madonna the examples of those personages who had recently
found themselves in a like position : that of the King of
Naples, when assailed by the forces of Charles VHI. which
so greatly outnumbered his own, and of the more recent case
of the Duke of Milan, her uncle. Of what avail had been all
his men to him, when they of France had fallen upon him ?
. . . The King and the Duke had both understood the neces-
sity of retiring in order to spare their subjects from the
purposeless ills of war, and if they had left their States, it
was with the hope of returning to them in better times. And
if, in their own case, the Countess yielded to present violence,
everything led them to believe that a new pope would re-
instate her and hers. None were ignorant that Pope Alex-
ander had invested his son Caesar with Romagna, abetted by a
few of his creatures of the Spanish faction, but without the
consent of the other cardinals. Meanwhile a new council
would be summoned, and he would lose no time in acquainting
the Countess with the result of its deliberations."

Upon receiving this message, Catherine immediately sent
Landriani to tell the members of council that they were
"Rabbits.". . . "Know ye not," continued Landriani, in
her name, " that a ruined State is better than a lost one !
Do as you will with your city, but as regards the fort, I have
a mind to prove to Borgia that even a woman is capable of
firing cannon."

On December 12, the chief magistrate, Tornielli, again dis-

FORLI BEFORE THE SIEGE 291

cussed the prospects of the city in council, repeating the
message of Catherine, who, if the citizens had decided on not
imitating the cowardly example of Imola, would give them a
guard of 2000 veterans, with more to follow, and would
bind herself not to come to any terms with the Duke
without the consent of the city. If, on the other hand, Forli
determined on resistance only up to a certain point, but,
later on, to accept terms from the enemy — according to
circumstances — that also would be acceptable to the
Countess, who resolved as she was to fight to the last, yet
if overpowered by the enemy, would fain leave her city
at peace with her good people of Forli . . . from whom she
now demanded a reply worthy of them and herself

So many were the opinions elicited by this speech that
night had come upon the council before they had come to
any decision. The county deputies left the matter in the
hands of the Ancients, praying the magistracy not to count on
a civic guard, drawn from the rural population, most of the
peasants having fled, with their herds, to avoid contact with
the invaders.

Catherine, seeing that she could no longer count on the
loyal support of the citizens, and possibly foreseeing that
Octavian might be torn from her and given as a hostage to
Borgia, sent him, with her auditor, to Tuscany. This act, in
which maternal solicitude swept away every other considera-
tion, seems, at first sight, inconsistent with her efforts to
train her son as a warrior-prince and with the share she had
caused him to take in the defences of the city. It may be
ascribed to a survival of the terror endured by Catherine on
behalf of her children during the revolution of the Orsi.
"After the loss of Imola," says Oliva, "she sent away
Octavian, to be free of every care save that of defending her
person, which, with her State, she had resolved to expose to
the utmost risk."

The departure of Octavian relieved Catherine of her only
fear ; and, with renewed energy, on that same day she rode to
Forlimpopoli and examined its walls, the fort, the cannon,

292 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

powder magazines, provisions, and ammunition, as if she had
been a veteran soldier. She destroyed the bridges leading to
the citadel and the fort, with the exception of one, which was
also destroyed on the arrival of Valentino. Meanwhile the
chief magistrate had not }et given a decisive answer to
Alexander Sforza, both the council-general of Four Hundred
and the council of Forty having failed to come to a decision.
They found it difficult to communicate with Count Alexander,
"who had returned to dwell in the fort, and as for the Countess,
she had not waited for an official reply to come to the con-
clusion that Forli did not feel called upon to follow her in a
desperate enterprise. Every act of Madonna proves that she
is not counting on us."

In those days Catherine indeed dispensed with the advice
and consent of council in doing and undoing as she thought
best. She ordered that all carts of wood and straw that
entered the city be taken to the fort and day-labourers were
all compelled to work in the entrenchments, which was easily
managed, since all the gates except that of Rav^aldino
were closed. Catherine continued to increase the number
of the inmates of the fort, and add to the stock of
its provisions, until it would not hold another man. The
more distinguished of her guests, who formed, as it were, her
staff, differed so essentially in race, temperament and habit
that in any other time and place they must have fallen out
with each other ; yet they all lived together in peace and
good-will, imbued wnth the same spirit as the heroic woman
whom it was their glory to serve.

It was otherwise with the multitude of soldiers, especially
among the Germans, Gascons, and labourers, who soon de-
generated into an uncontrollable rabble. Every one wondered
how the austere Countess could tolerate their turbulence,
while she, realizing the impossibility of reducing the crowd
to order within so confined a space, and considering the
urgency of the moment, perforce refused to see and hear.

While Catherine was beginning to fear that mutiny and
misrule within might complicate the danger from without,

FORLI BEFORE THE SIEGE 293

she learned that Luffo Numai, the loyal and generous
subject who, with Octavian, had given a security on his
property for the 25,000 gold florins demanded by the
Medici as a kind of bail for the child of Giovanni Popolano,
that same Luffo Numai was with other nobles plotting her
ruin.

Catherine determined to lay hands upon him at once, and
to sack his house. The rumour reached Numai, who abstained
from entering his house, but remained near to it under the
protection of the guard in the square, now dependent rather
on the magistracy than on Catherine. Still, as nothing had
happened either to the house or its owner, it was believed
that the disloyal intentions of Numai and the punitive ones
of Catherine were inventions of the Evil One to attract
Luffo, who had been hitherto neutral, to the cause of Valentino.
Luffo's absence from his house during the night had tended
to give credit to the rumour ; wherefore, at break of day,
Simone Ambruni, Guglielmo Lambertelli, Giovanni Marattini,
Giovanni dalle Selle, and other friends of Luffo went to the
guard-house to interrogate him. Luffo informed them that
he stayed there because he preferred shedding his blood in the
open square to hiding in his house until he was taken by
treachery " and fell into the hands of a furious and now
desperate woman."

" When the aforesaid gentlemen," says Bernardi, " heard
these words, they were very grieved, and forthwith agreed to
consent to whatever he might propose." The council had as
yet given no answer to Count Alexander, for they had not
yet been able to come to any decision. The case of Luffo
Numai, count, knight, head of an ancient, illustrious, wealthy
and influential family, provided an excellent opportunity for
sounding the temper of the people, and they begged him to
address the crowd, which had already surrounded the guard
in great numbers.

Luffo, assuming an elevated position, raised his voice and
pointed out to the populace, " that the people of Forli could
in all honour and conscience abandon Catherine. Nay, it
was their duty. Octavian was indeed their lawful sovereign

294 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

and they had all sworn fealty to Catherine, his mother and
guardian. But Catherine herself, in her wisdom and foresight,
had she not absolved them by her messages to the citizens
and magistrates ? And how often had she declared that the
will of the people would ever be her own and that she would
always rather abide by their decision than be deceived by
them.

" More than that, Octavian had personally declared in council
that a papal decree had deposed him and deprived him of his
rights, authority and dominion in the States of Forli and
Imola. Now, a city, in all public and legal matters, should
conform to public and legal decrees rather than to personal
and private opinions of individuals. If the sentence which
deposed the Riario were unjust, Pope Alexander must one day
answer for it to the Supreme Judge ; the citizens might not
dispute its justice, they could only submit to it. . . More
than that . . . the arrival of an army of 14,000 men, led by
famous captains, was imminent. Where were the forces
that could resist them .'' Was it really the duty of citizens
to give themselves and their families up to butchery, and
bury themselves under the ruins of their city .-' It should
suffice that those sons of Forli who were Catherine's soldiers
and were shut up with her in the fort, remained faithful to her;
they who had chosen that part had a right to suffer for it ;
but not so an entire inoffensive population. . . . For the rest,
the Pope's dominion was not only the most legitimate but the
most beneficial to the State. Under papal rule Forli had
been happiest ; then the German emperors had fallen upon
them, and Guelph and Ghibelline factions had divided them,
and tyrants had battened upon them as evil weeds, that grow
apace in a juniper thicket. . . . Hence the Calboli, the Orgo-
gliosi, the Ordelaffi, who had oppressed Forli and drenched
her with blood. Cardinal Albornoz had given them back to
the Pope, but his successors had ruled with too light a hand,
and the Ordelaffi had again come to the front. Then Pope
Sixtus had come upon the scene, and had invested his nephew
with the dominion of the city. After him, thanks to the
imbecility of his son, Catherine had governed and mastered

FORLI BEFORE THE SIEGE 295

thern and now, thanks to her, they found themselves on the
edge of the precipice.

'• And what had they witnessed under the government of this
woman ? Exile, outlawry, confiscations, tortures and blood
. . . and yet more blood ! Blessed be the government of
the popes, under which there was no possibility of a minority,
nor of falling into the hands of a woman. Tell me, tell me, I
beseech you," cried Numai, " is there a man among you who
has been able to marry his daughter to whom he chose ?
Between the government of Catherine and that of the Church
there is no room for choice. If Catherine," he continued,
" isolated and abandoned by every one, hopes for help from
Germany and persists in resistance, her temerity is excusable
because her fortress is strong and well-provisioned ; but is
that a reason why we, poor defenceless people, should give up
ourselves and our families to all the horrors and indignities of
war ? " After this discourse (says Bernardi), the city "did, with
one accord, determine to v/ithdraw the government of the
State from Madonna and her children, and the people cried
' Popolo ! Popolo ! ' at the top of their voices. The palace
bell was rung sturdily, and at its summons the crowd became
denser, and the new-comers joined with the others in plaudits
to the new^ Lord. The castellanes who held the gates on
behalf of Catherine were replaced by others, except those of
Schiavonia and Ravaldino, which, being under cover of the
cannon of those forts, could not be tampered with. A new
council, a new magistracy and twenty elders, five for each
quarter of the city, were elected, with full authority in matters
civil, military and political. The council met on matters of
supreme or common import, but local and minor matters
were settled by the Ancients of each quarter, under the
presidency of their leader ox gonfalonio'eT

Catherine was far from unprepared for this turn of events :
she could not expect a whole population to follow her in a
desperate cause ; she had foreseen their defection, and in a
measure sanctioned it ; for how could a city, open on almost
every side to the attacks of the invaders, defend itself against

296 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

an army like that of Valentino, without a leader who looked
upon it as his own ?

A courier at full speed was despatched by the Ancients to
the camp of Valentino, to announce the surrender of the city.
The Duke sent Achille Tiberti to Forli, who, although night
had fallen when he arrived, summoned the council, tendered
the Duke's thanks, and announced his speedy arrival. By
desire of the new council, the monks of St. Mercurial carried
the statue of the saint, in pontifical vestments, in solem.n
procession round the square, in token of thanksgiving for the
happy event. Meanwhile the Ancients promulgated an edict
which prohibited that anything belonging to Madonna be
appropriated, in whatever place it might be found or hidden,
under penalty of twenty-five gold ducats. Another edict
protected the Jews whom the Commune would have had to
indemnify in case of loss, and a third forbade damage to the
recently erected barricades. Nicolo Tornielli and Ludovico
Ercolani were sent to the fort to break the news as best they
could, and tell how the people of Forli had been forced to
open their gates to Borgia, by the cruel and unanswerable
necessity of saving themselves from extermination ; not by
the lack of love for their Sovereign Lady. They went to the
fort in the morning, and had been immediately received by
the Countess. At sunset they had not yet returned, and the
city thrilled with the fear that they would never be seen
again. It was told that on hearing of the surrender of Imola,
the Countess had beheaded the Imolese hostages. . . . Now,
in revenge for the desertion of Forli, had Madonna put these
poor men to death, or imprisoned them in the dungeons of
the fort ? While these horrible doubts perplexed the public
mind, Tornielli and Ercolani were seen to emerge from the
fort, whole and hearty, fired with enthusiasm for the Countess
and delighted with her courtesy. She had insisted on learning
every detail from them, had shown her pleasure in seeing
them again and in questioning them on all that had happened.
Impressed as they were by Catherine's indomitable courage,
they were the more grateful to her for having realized that
populations are not composed of heroes, and that she could not

FORLI BEFORE THE SIEGE 297

expect the people of Forli to expose themselves to absolute
ruin for her glory and advantage. They had found her not
to be shaken in her determination to resist Borgia to the end,
and convinced that, in default of numbers, her daring and
strength of purpose sufficed for the undertaking. Catherine
had stores of costly silken stuffs from Florence, wherewith to
reward the bravest of her soldiers. And before shutting
herself up in the fort, she had procured some cuirasses for her
own wear, being determined to throw herself into the thickest
of the fight. Soon after the return of Ercolani and Tornielli
the fort opened fire on the city, to the terror of the in-
habitants ; a cannon-ball had fallen near to a monk of St.
Francis, while he was \valking in his orchard. "There is
nothing to fear," said Ercolani and Tornielli : " this is not for
us, but to teach the enemy that the surrender of the city has
neither frightened Madonna, nor changed her purpose." A
few shot grazed the palace tower and then the firing
ceased.

On the following day the council drew up the conditions of
surrender to the Duke, and their tenor was discussed until
it reached the ears of the peasants. When the latter heard
that they would have to pay the same taxes to the new
government as to the old one, they armed themselves and
came down upon the city in thousands, crying " Popolo !
Popolo ! " and protesting furiously that they would never
surrender to the Duke on those terms. They declared they
would go to the Duke and tell him that the rich were claiming
to be exempted from taxes, so that they might enjoy a life of
idleness, without a care for the poor, except to suck their
blood and live on their labour, and that now the time had
come to free the land of all its burdens, vexations and taxes,
and, once for all, to equalize the rights of poor and rich.

They were persuaded that it would be easy to induce the
Duke to levy a head-tax and no more, as was the custom
among the peasantry in France. The crowd, the cries and
the confusion were beyond description ; the civic ^ard was
powerless, the Ancients without resource, the palace" bell tolled
ominously, and the city was in a tumult. An incessant but

298 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

indefinite sound ascended to the fort, where the Countess,
fearing that her unfaithful city had given itself up to all the
horrors of civil war, ordered some companies of soldiers to go
down and separate the contending parties and restore peace.
On arriving at the parish of Ravaldino they learned the true
state of affairs and turned back.

At last Bentivoglio (who had recently arrived at Forli),
Luffo Numai and Tiberti, after promising the peasants that
the conditions should be revised, and due consideration
given to their rights and needs, succeeded in pacifying them.
The conditions of surrender were therefore withheld until the
following day, and then conveyed to Imola by the bishop,
Monsignor dell' Aste and Dr. Giovanni dalle Selle, who had
no sooner left on this errand than a courier arrived at Forli
announcing the Duke's arrival for that evening. This
announcement was immediately conveyed to Catherine at the
fort.

At the twenty-second hour the Duke halted at the country
house of Ludovico Ercolani at Casalaparra, where he received
a deputation of nobles representing the Council of Forli, and,
continuing his way, had the pleasure of slipping his grey-
hounds after a hare.

He was met at the Gate of St. Peter by the Ancients and
Councillors, whom he informed that neither he nor the soldiers
would enter the city on that day, but that they would
proceed to San Martino. He halted to let his men pass
before him, fearing that in the usual lust of pillage they
might enter in despite of him. This was really attempted by
several companies that arrived later ; the populace flew to
arms with intent to repulse them, and Bentivoglio, Tiberti
and several French captains who had been left at Forli on
account of " weak health," had great difficult}- in inducing
them to pursue their way. The Duke had told the magistrates
that he would not stay, lest his unexpected arrival should
inconvenience the citizens, and this was the generally accepted
belief, but the fact was that as the capitulation had not yet
been signed, he did not care to run the personal risk of being

FORLI BEFORE THE SIEGE 299

confronted with an unknown populace. He was no hero, and
his care for his army was complicated by fear for his life. All
the hill-side houses and villas were filled with soldiers, to
whom the townspeople sent all manner of victuals, as a peace-
offering.

On the following day, the commissioners returned from
Imola, and presented the articles of capitulation to the Duke
at San Martino. He signed them and dismissed the com-
missioners with two edicts — one by which peasants were
required to bring in two long bundles of green wood, beams
and other timber to St. Mercurial, the bearers of which were
to be paid. Another prohibited the raising of the price of
provisions under pretext of the arrival of his army.

Meanwhile, the Countess, undismayed by the action of her
castellane at Schiavonia — who on the approach of Valentino
had lost heart and surrendered the fortress to the invalided
French captains — had reopened fire on the city. The shot
was aimed at the houses of those she wished to punish, and at
the palace tower, which for several centuries bore the traces
of these missiles.

CHAPTER XXX

VALENTINO AT FORLI

On December 19 the Ancients were informed by the
Duke's officers that he would make his entry after dinner.
They were therefore requested to prepare quarters for himself
and his followers.

Towards evening the whole army passed slowly through
the Gate of St. Peter. The last to enter was Caesar Borgia,
preceded by the standard of the Church. He rode a white
horse, his beret bore a long white plume, his silken coat
covered a complete suit of armour and he carried a long green
spear, point downwards. His personal beauty and elegance,
his dark and penetrating eye, reddish beard and sinister
expression, are sufficiently familiar. On his left rode the
French general, Monseigneur d'Alegre, on his right rode
none. The heavy rain prevented the magistracy and nobles
from assembling at the city gate to receive the Duke, who
took but half a turn in the square in sign of possession and
then, with Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Vendome, hastened to
his quarters in the house of Luffo Numai. The continuous
rain added to the confusion with which the army effected its
entry. Every soldier chose his lair according to his pleasure ;
if a door were open, soldiers entered and with threats and
violence laid hands on everything ; if closed they forced it
open or tore it down, and did worse when once they were
inside. " Our ills," says Bernardi, " were like unto the pains
of Hell."

A gang of 2000 caterers, cooks and butlers were guilty of

VALENTINO AT FORLI 301

more villainy and robbery than the soldiers. The shop-
keepers in the square could neither save their property
from the theft nor their -backs from the lashes of this
rabble. The official palace was turned upside down, the
Hall of the Ancients into a tavern and its benches burnt. The
custom and guard-houses were turned into slaughter-houses.
Householders and women were subjected to the most cruel
violence, convents were invaded ; one of the walls of the
Dominican convent was pulled down by means of iron imple-
ments. The terrified nuns screamed for help and tolled their
bell, and the Duke sent them a resolute captain who, with a
party of infantry, beat the wretches off.

The French general issued an edict prohibiting soldiers
from approaching the nuns' cloisters under penalty of the
gallows, and as violence still prevailed in other places, the
Duke sent to the houses where soldiers were quartered to
inquire into their misconduct, so that he might punish the
guilty. The complaints of the townspeople were unceasing.
One to whom no flour had been left was obliged to beg bread
of his family ; another had no bed, others had neither wine nor
shirts. And all and every one displayed backs, chests and
heads broken and wounded by the blows of the soldiery.
The Duke listened to the longest and most detailed accounts
without a sign of impatience or weariness. Then he ordered
the quarter-masters to reduce the number of soldiers where
they were too many, to set guards over and redistribute them.
Sometimes the remedy was worse than the evil, the successors
than their predecessors. Then the injured persons returned
with fresh complaints and grievance to the Duke, who with
infinite patience and courtesy exhorted them to bear with the
discomfort a little longer, in the certainty that if he continued
to govern Forli he would indemnify them for every loss. He
apologized for his inability to remedy the evil at once. This
courtesy of manner and feeling, extraordinary in a man of the
type of Cssar Borgia, was due to the political concept that
led him indifferently to do good or to commit a crime. His
great benignity inspired the beaten, the injured and the
robbed with resignation and confidence. Some brought their

302 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

grievances to him a third time and were Hstened to with the
same affabihty. The Duke's patience was always at their
service and none left him in doubt or enmity. But the greater
part of his solicitude was assumed.

On being taken to task by the quarter-masters, the soldiers
replied that " the Duke had given them that city to live in it
as they pleased. Do the people of Forli, with their fastidi-
ousness and whining, think that they can take from us that
which has been given ? " The Duke was informed of their in-
subordination but did not punish it ; he was satisfied to be able
to say that he had admonished the soldiers. On the very day
that an edict forbade sacrilege, a group of French soldiers
who had surrounded the crosslet in the square were regarding
the statue of St. Mercurial on its altar with great attention.
" What is the meaning of this poltroon of a bishop seated on
the grave of Frenchmen, our ancestors.''" they queried of each
other. " This people have done this in our despite ... to
immortalize the victory they affect to have gained over us ! "
Some of them jumped on the altar and succeeded in pushing
the statue into the mud, where it was rolled and battered
amid the foulest oaths and curses. It would have been
broken to bits but for the religious compunction of the
minority who cried shame upon the ringleaders and called
the monks to the rescue of their statue. Not one of the
townspeople had dared to raise his voice in protest against
the outrage on the image of their patron saint, the symbol of
the community. After this, an edict commanded all the
townspeople, including the Jews, to wear a white cross on the
breast. Those who were without it were mercilessly beaten
and insulted.

Artillery and ammunition continued to be passed into the
city by the Gate of St. Peter. On Christmas Eve Cardinal
Giovanni Borgia, legate at Bologna, entered Forli, passed the
festive week with his cousin and left with the best hopes of
Caesar's success, which he was impatient to communicate to
the Pope. On the following January ly (1500), he died of
poison in Milan. On Christmas Eve, while the Duke was

VALENTINO AT P^ORLI 303

feasting the Cardinal's arrival, a peasant of Massalombarda,
who had murdered two French slaughterers, was hanged in
the square.

On the following day, Catherine hoisted the Bolognese flag
on the tower of the fort (a lion on a red ground) instead of
her own. This innovation disturbed the French captains,
who mistook it for a Venetian flag. Caesar Borgia, the
Cardinal, Vendome and d'Alegre began to believe in the
rumour that the Venetian Republic w^as deserting the Holy-
League. The Duke's agitation was extreme. He had known
Catherine in Rome, and knew also how astute and daring she
was. What aim had she in vaew .'' And while he was
discussing his fears with his captains they were joined by
Meleagro Zampeschi, Venetian condottiere and Ambassador to
the League. " My Lords," said Zampeschi, " let the lady
wave every rag in her wardrobe at us, but be assured
that my Republic has never harboured a thought of deserting
the League. And I will tell you, furthermore, that Venice
would not protect her if that were possible, for every time
that our senate has opened its arms to her, she in her blind-
ness and disdain has turned away." "And I," adds Bernard!,
" was present when the said condottiere said these things."

While this matter was being discussed Catherine began to
ply her artillery by way of reminding the Duke that his
presence did not intimidate her. But at the offset an old
piece of Italian artillery, called a passavolaiite, cast in the
time of Pino Ordelaffi, burst and Catherine, thinking this
was a bad omen, repented that she had opened fire on that
day. " And considering," says Bernardi, " that three parts
of the said people were devoted to her, and that they who had
deserted her and gone over to the Duke had acted under
coercion," the Countess ordered the firing to be stopped : " for
she would not send Christmas greetings to her good people
of Forli by the cannon's mouth."

Catherine, who at this time never went unarmed, and who
was accompanied only by armed men, isolated in the
expectation rather of death and destruction than victory, yet

304 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

found time, amid her daily anxieties, to write the good canons
of faithless Imola — not that they should intercede for her with
heaven, but to express her amazement that they had been
unmindful of her desire for the appointment of a certain Don
Battista de' Gentilini as sacristan. " Wherefore I say to
you," she concluded, " that you are to admit and invest with
the said place and office, the afore-named Don Battista, with-
out further ado."

Meanwhile Forli was divided into two factions. One was
called Madama, and was all for Catherine: the other, Ordelaffi,
favoured the return of Anton Maria, who was conspiring at
Ravenna. Borgia was waiting for the bombs that should
make a breach in the fort, but, uncertain of success, sought a
means of compromise.

The Countess held her own, foreseeing, better than any one,
the inevitable end. She relied on her arms for honour's sake,
but, with all the force of her genius, she strove to save herself.
From a letter of the Mantuan Orator it transpires that towards
the end, she had applied to the Venetians, offering them her
State sooner than yield it to the Pope ; recalling the services
of her husband, who had deserved well at their hands and had
been a patrician of Venice. Repulsed by the Venetians she
had attempted to treat with the Pope, to whom she would
have ceded her States and rights in return for another State
in the gift of the Church, of an income of not less than 5000
ducats, and a sum of ready money to provide ammunition.
But the Pope, who had no mind to give a State to any one
but his son, would not treat with her, and in proportion as her
case became more desperate Catherine's resistance became
more dogged.

The Duke's irritation increased with every hour as Catherine,
defying the enem}-, harried the town with her cannon. Well-
nigh exasperated, he donned his black hat with the white
feather, mounted his white charger and followed by a
trumpeter and a few mounted men-at-arms, rode through the
town and examined the fort from every point of view, and at
last stood on the moat's edge.

VALENTINO AT FORLI 305

The trumpeter blew his trumpet: some men-at-arms
appeared on the tower ; the trumpeter cried that His Excel-
lency the Duke, there present, craved a parley with Madonna
the Countess, and in a few moments his fair enemy looked
down from the battlements. On the arrival of Catherine,
Caesar bared his head and lowered his hat, which he held for
some time with outstretched arm. Catherine saluted him
courteously, as a person she recognized. The ensuing dialogue,
reconstructed by latter-day historians, and imaginary in form,
probably fairly represents what was said on the occasion : ^

" Madonna ! You who are learned in history, know that
the fortune of States is subject to change : this is the
moment to put your genius and knowledge to the test. I
would fain prove to you the high esteem in which I hold you,
and convince you that not only am I incapable of doing you
an injury but that I am desirous to save you all possible
annoyance ; wherefore I entreat you, I beseech you, to
surrender this fort of your own free will to me. I promise
you the most advantageous conditions and will guarantee
that the Pope assigns States to you and revenues worthy of
yourself and your sons. You can take up your residence in
Rome if it so please you. Thus you will rescue yourself and
yours from a greater danger than you can be aware of; you
will avoid the horrible sight of bloodshed, you will gain the
reputation of a woman whose wisdom is equal to her courage,
and be spared the derision with which Italy would deride
one who persisted in pitting herself against overwhelming
numbers. Yield! yield! Madonna! Yield to my prayers 1 "

Catherine, erect and motionless, listened to him without a
trace of emotion on her features. When he had finished she
replied —

" My Lord Duke, Fortune favours the brave and abandons
the cowardly. 1 am daughter to one who knew no fear and
am determined to walk in his steps until death. Well do I
know how changeful is the fortune of States. History I have

^ Buniel. This writer's version of the dialogue is derived from a portion of
the Riario archives found by him at Bologna, but which we have been unable to
trace.

3o6 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

read, it is true, but it would be a vile thing if I, forgetting
who was my father, and who my forebears, consented to
exchange my estate for that of a subject .... I thank you
for the good opinion you say you have of me : but as for the
promises you make in the Pope's name, I must perforce reply
that as your father's pretexts for dethroning me and mine
have been judged false, iniquitous and despicable the world
over, so do I hold these promises of yours and the Pope's to
be false and lying. Italy knows the value of a Borgia's word !

" My troops suffice for my defence, and I do not believe that
yours are invincible. Would to God I still had the support
of my uncle the Duke of Milan, then indeed there would be
no doubt in the minds of men where to look for blind
obstinacy, or where for true valour. If, after having refused
every condition and scorned every weakness unworthy of the
name of Sforza, I am crushed by you, the world shall learn
that I and those whom, with me, these walls enclose, take
comfort in the thought that they who die at their post are
unforgotten and that often their cause survives them and
triumphs."

She said : bowed to the Duke and disappeared from the
battlements. Caesar found that he had counted in vain upon
the effect of his chivalrous courtesy. He knew Catherine well
enough to be assured that she would have replied with equal
courtesy, and hoped in this exchange of civilities to have
cajoled some concession from her, instead of which she had
told him to his face that she neither believed in the Pope nor
in himself. He returned her salutation, put spurs to his
horse and, enraged and bewildered, retired from the fort.

For many hours he pondered on his disappointment and
on the risks entailed by the siege of the fort, and on the
interruption of his plans. He hated to lose time and men
at the bidding of a woman. How could he bend her to his
will .'' The first attempt had failed : Catherine had been
courteous, but unmoved. ... If he tried again, with more
persuasive and fiery eloquence.-' "The other day," writes
Bernardi, "which fell on the 6th, my Lord Duke rode twice
to the moat of the fort and there had speech of Madonna."

VALENTINO AT FORLI 307

Once more the Duke rode to the fort and a second blast
of the trumpet apprised Catherine that he had another
word to say to her. He however but renewed the same
offers and entreaties, which Catherine as resolutely refused.
Caesar told her that as she would neither trust himself nor the
Pope, Monseigneur d'Alegre, the Bailli of Dijon, and the
Duke of Vendome, of the royal house of France, would be
his witnesses and attest his given word. Catherine dryly
replied that " where the capital was wanting the interest was
of small account ; if she lacked faith in himself and the Pope
how could he expect his satellites to inspire it ? " She turned
away from him and disappeared.

Enraged at his rebuff and smarting under its insult, Csesar
never drew rein until he arrived at the camp and summoned
his captains in council.

The same day Catherine also summoned hers, and when
her trusty ones had assembled, thus addressed them :

"Friends and Defenders! The moment has come! The
Duke has gone from here in a fury. He tried to win me by
flattery, and now, having failed, will seek a horrible revenge.
I have not betrayed the honour of my house, which has not
yet produced vile men nor cowards ... so that the world
may now judge how the Borgia of Valencia differ from the
Sforza of Milan. Fear not ! We have artillery, ammunition,
veteran captains and expert engineers, as well as they. We
are of one mind ; they are divided against themselves, and I
know for a certainty that the King of France has no interest
in this iniquitous conquest of Romagna.

" If, at the first assault, we succeed in repulsing the Duke's
forces the French will desert him, and he will be left with
the pontifical troops, who have no terrors for us. And the
people of Forli, who do not dare to breathe nor raise their
eyes from the ground, will rise like one man on that day and
come to our aid. The Empress, my sister, is praying her
husband to send help to us. What then will happen to the
Duke and his army ? Courage ! and yet more courage ! Shall
wc compromise with the enemy before we have measured
ourselves with him ? . . . The King of France cannot lend his

3o8 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

troops for ever, for he needs them against those my uncles
Ascanio and Ludovic Sforza arc collecting in Germany.
Our victory will be the more glorious, inasmuch as it has no
other motiv^e than justice, our homes and nationality, and
because if our numbers are inferior to the enemy, and I a
helpless woman, yet am I defended by a handful of heroes.
They may cut us in pieces, but our bones will cry to God for
vengeance, and perchance from them will arise one who with
fire and steel shall crush out this villainous brood of the
Borgia. . . ."

Catherine then showed Count Alexander Sforza how she
proposed placing her cannon, and her plan of defence was
generally approved of The Duke had meanwhile established
two batteries, one in the open country south of the fort, the
other near to the Church of St. John the Baptist, later of the
Capucins. To the latter battery were conveyed seven heavy
guns and ten falconets. On December 28 this artillery
opened fire on the Paradiso, Catherine's palace, that, guarded
by two ravelins, stood between the gate of the fort and the
maschio, or fort proper. Catherine had lodged her captains
in the Paj-adiso, and was herself living in the maschio until
she was advised to remove to one of the ravelins, since the
enemy's guns covered the fort. The shot aimed at the
uiascJiio passed over and in some cases through the upper
part of the ravelin, without endangering the massive construc-
tion of its base. Without relaxing the attack on the innscJiio,
some of the enemy's guns were now directed against a tower
that commanded the road of San Martino.

Catherine's engineer, a certain Bartolomeo of Bologna,
whom she had procured from her uncle Ludovic, replied with
such precision to the French fire, that having taken aim at
the French engineer he killed him at the first shot. Borgia
and his captains were dismayed by the loss of a man in whose
skill they had unbounded confidence. " If it were possible,"
said d'Alegre, "the King of France would give 10,000
crowns to restore him to life ! " The soldiers, who began to
fear reprisals on the part of the townspeople, induced the
Duke to issue an edict by which the latter were compelled to

VALENTINO AT FORLI

309

take all their arms to a place indicated : at the same time it
was prohibited to buy stolen property of the soldiers. As
the soldiery still went in fear of the townspeople a second
edict ordered those who had not yet given up their arms to
take them to the Gate of Schiavonia, under penalty of the
gallows. A few days later a certain Giorgio Folfi was im-
prisoned by order of the provost-general, tried and convicted
of having poisoned a French soldier who was quartered in his
house. The accused was nailed to a column on the spot
where the crime had been committed, and his right hand cut
off; he was then decapitated in the square, and his body was
hung to a chain at the custom-house and there burned.

A long line of peasants, each carrying five fascines, were
daily seen to pass through the town and lay their burdens at
the foot of the Fort of Ravaldino, on the hill-side, where the
Duke purposed to open the breach. On December 29^
a sudden cessation of firing on both sides gave rise to a
rumour that Catherine's brother-in-law, Lorenzo de' Medici,
had succeeded in arranging some sort of compromise with
Valentino. Parenti relates that Catherine " appealed to us
(the Florentines) for help and succour . . . but in vain : there
was even a plan to corrupt the French captains so that they
might delay operations, but the matter was itself delayed
until it was too late : Madonna strained every nerve, but
nothing turned to her advantage." ^

And seeing that the French bombardiers were once more
busied in setting up their batteries, the besieged realized that
all they had suffered and endured, up to that moment, was
but the beginning of the end.

' Storie Florentine MS. Magliabeehina, t. iii. p. 20S.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE FALL OF RAVALDINO

The Duke, with his French and Swiss mercenaries, was
eager for the assault ; Catherine alone, among the princes of
Europe, had attempted to stem his criminal ambition ;
neither prince nor power in Italy, not even her sister, the
Empress of Germany, on whom she had so much depended,
had come to her assistance. The prestige, bold statesmanship
and military strength of the Pope had struck terror into all of
them. Yet Catherine, in the hope that her sister would
succeed in persuading Maximilian to come to her aid, still
persisted in resisting to the last, determined either to await
the imperial army or die under arms, as the sovereign of Forli.

Till late at night she took counsel with her captains, engi-
neers and master gunners. At early morn she appeared among
the soldiers, inspected the artillery, inquired what noises had
been heard and visited the entire fort. From the height of the
chief tower, which she had climbed to look down on her city,
the enemy's camp, the ravaged and snow-clad plain, the fair
amazon saw the dawn of the new century and the sun rise on
January 1,1500.

It had become known that Catherine had provided herself
with chain armour to wear under her outer garments, that she
threw herself into the thickest of the fight with her soldiers,
and when attacked defended herself desperately, wounding
several of the enemy. The French and Swiss admired her
and regretted that they did not serve under her banner.
She offered 5000 ducats for the body of Caesar Borgia and

THE FALL OF RAVALDINO 311

10,000 for delivering him alive into her hands. The Duke
retorted by promising 100,000 for the formidable enemy
who arrested his designs, alive or dead. The Pope, who
pronounced the House of Sforza to be the devil's seed,
desired that Catherine should be put to death as soon as she
was taken. But her defenders were encouraged by the
promise of the possessions of those of her subjects who had
rebelled, and fired by the example of her indomitable valour
and the knowledge that she would sooner die than surrender.
" Never," wrote Grumello, " had been seen a woman of such
spirit."

The fort was as yet uninjured by the four hundred bombs
that had been thrown into it. Any damage to its outer
fortifications sustained during the day was repaired by night,
so that every morning found them intact ; a reinforcement
of four hundred Foot was expected, whence it was not known,
but it was supposed from the Florentines, who supported
their allies in secret when they could not do so publicly.
This increased the boldness and confidence of the garrison.
Sanuto, ever garrulous, relates that Catherine caused mocking
and indecorous inscriptions to be graven on the shot fired
into the enemy's camp, to prove to Borgia the contempt in
which she held him and his.

The townspeople were distracted from their anxieties by
the banquets given by the French captains, according to the
custom of their country, on the first and second of the year.
One given by D'Aubigny and Galvani to Monseigneur
d'Alegre and other leaders, and described by Burriel, will
serve as an example.

'' . . . Rich and abundant provision for two whole days
was ordered from the country, and taken from the peasants
by force or persuasion. . . . The loggie (terrace or verandah)
of this ^ and the adjacent houses were boarded in, and there
the tables were set. ... At the appointed hour the guests
arrived, followed by men of all sorts and conditions, and all
proceeded to partake of the banquet standing. When they

' The liouse of Giovanni Monsignani, where d'Auljigny was quartered.

312 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

had eaten their fill, at the time dictated by their custom

WOMAN S AKMOUK, PROBABLY MADK FOR CATHERINE SEORZA.

two of these men mounted on the tables, ran the whole
length of them, breaking plates and any other fragile things,

THE FALL OF RAVALDINO 313

and throwing them on the ground if they were empty of
food. . . . Then appeared a long procession of men and
women, conspicuous among whom was a man on horseback,
wearing a long coat and a cap shaped like a mitre. These

\vo.man"s ak.mimk [/•aik).

persons laughed, drank at the tables, and diverted themselves
to excess, and afterwards left, arm-in-arm, to roam the streets
with ribald song and jest, to the scandal of the inhabitants of
Forli. ..."

314 CATHERIXK AND THP: BORGIA

The due organization of both the attack and the defence
continued. The ducal troops erected barricades, dug trenches,
and provided cover for those who served the guns, while
thousands of casks were filled with sand for the defences of
the fort.

On the 5th the cannon again thundered on both sides, to
more purpose for Borgia than for Catherine. The fort artillery-
killed many of the French, but the Duke's destroyed the
highest defences of the chief tower and the entire upper
portion of its side towers, leaving them as they appear at the
present time.

On the eve of the Epiphan}-, although the French had
fought all day, they passed the night, according to their
custom, in eating and drinking, without sitting down ; the
Duke meanwhile was in council with his bombardiers, when
they were interrupted by sudden and fearsome news. It
was said that a man had escaped from the fort, and warned
the Duke that while the French were carousing, the towns-
people had risen under arms and were to be joined by a sortie
of the garrison, and all the French were to be butchered
to the last man.

Twice this fate had befallen French armies that had invaded
Italy ; the year 1282 had witnessed the Sicilian Vespers, and
the chapel of the Crocetta or Crosslet in the square at Forli
still bore witness to the almost contemporaneous extermin-
ation of French invaders at the hands of the people of Forli.
Such an occurrence would not therefore be either new or
improbable.

It was already past midnight when a body of French
soldiers and officers came to inquire of the Duke whether
there was foundation for the rumour. The Duke assured
them that there was none, but many, whom he had not
succeeded in reassuring, entered the houses of the towns-
people to ascertain that they were in their beds and harboured
no strangers. They need have had no fear, for the people of
Forli, unlike their ancestors, had neither the strength nor the
courage to assert themselves. The city was half empty ; all
had fled who could, including the priests and monks. Bernardi

THE FALL OF RAVALDINO 315

relates that the Abbot of St. Mercurial had disappeared with
all his monks, leaving only four to chant the Sunday vesper,
and that he often found himself quite alone in the church
with Andrea Numai. The only masses to be heard were
those of the chaplains of the French army, which, says
Bernard!, were reverently attended by the soldiers, who knelt,
with crossed arms, by the officers, and especially by the
captains of high rank. " There were," he adds, " many of
these personages who were very spiritual, and who visited
the churches every day." January 8 was a memorable
day. A lighted torch shone from the roof of one of the
principal houses in the town and another gleamed from the
fort. " Treason, treason !" cried the French, who seized their
arms and poured in serried ranks into the square, threatening
to tear the people of Forli to pieces unless they explained
the meaning of the two torches. The townspeople could give
no explanation of them, and the rage of the French increased.
At last a German was moved to confess that he had lighted
a torch on the top of a dovecot, with no other object than to
steal the doves.

The siege had already lasted twenty days, and it seemed
as if Catherine's fortitude kept pace with the increasing im-
patience of the Duke. The French and Swiss, who at first
were intoxicated with their easily won victories in Lombardy,
began to wear}^ and lose confidence in themselves. The
Duke reviewed them all and distributed higher pay. Mean-
while the ten guns that covered the fort had, after working
day and night, made two breaches in the curtain or outer
wall ; but the besieged (since the destruction of the crown
and battlements of the chief and two lateral towers) as-
sembled behind the wall that stood behind the two breaches,
and from there offered a desperate resistance. The ducal
bombardiers then directed their attack against the remaining
wall, and when they had destroyed it the whole fort, from
one bastion to another, was exposed and unprotected.

Catherine ordered defences to be raised to replace the
external wall, but her men were under the direct fire

3i6 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

of the Duke's falconets, so that nearly every shot was
fatal. The material of the ruined wall had partly fallen
into the inner courtyard of the fort, and partly into the
moat, which it half filled, thus facilitating the passage of
the besiegers. On the 12th an edict was "cried" that those
who loved the Duke should each carry a fascine to the
defences. Many were then carried and many had already
been collected. Two boats arrived opportunely on the same
day from Ravenna to serve as a bridge where the water
was still high, so that at midday the passage of the deep
wide moat was all but assured to the assailants.

At noon, the Duke dined. In sitting down to table, he
expressed his satisfaction with the people of Forli for having
brought so great a quantity of fascines, and then, turning
to the officers who were his guests, said — " To-day it is
Sunday ; you will see that on Tuesday Madonna Caterina
will be in my hands."

Some of the guests opined that the date was a little too
near, and as Borgia repeated that on Tuesday the beautiful
Countess would be his prisoner, and the others persisted in
their opinion, the matter was settled by a bet of three
hundred ducats on either side. The determination with
which the Duke maintained his prophecy inspired the foot
soldiers who were waiting on him to say —

" Your Lordship will win the wager, for the appointed time
suffices for our courage to take the fort ; " all of which
became known in the army and increased its ardour. The
Duke's infantry fearlessly rushed close up to the fort to
prevent the besieged from working at their defences, and
the fort was soon riddled through and through.

Catherine perceived that the fall of the Cotogni ravelin
was imminent, yet did not for a moment think of surrender ;
she placed a battery ^ in the courtyard of the fort and
protected it as best she could with beams and barrels filled
with sand. The miserable condition of the besieged pro-
voked the insults of the besiegers, who in derision dragged

^ Burriel describes seven iron and four bronze cannon that were found by some
convicts working in the courtyard of the castle of Ravaldino in 1795.

THE FALL OF RA\'ALDINO 317

benches, shovels, spades and mattocks to the edge of the
moat, crying — " Courage, cowards ; what are you doing in
hiding? Come out and show your faces!"

The sentinel of the niascJiio, seeing that a multitude of
the enemy thronged the edge of the moat, thought that the
assault had begun, and running towards the citadel, cried
in a loud voice — " Su ! Su ! Up ! Up ! Beloved ]\Iadonna,
with your great genius assemble the garrisons, for the enemy
have begun the assault!" at the same time crying to the
squadrons : " Su ! Su ! the enemy is upon us ! " At the
sentinel's alarm the garrison hastened to take up positions
where and how they could, on the ground between the moat
and the ravelin Delia Mo?itagna, where Catherine was.

The Duke, by inciting the men to persist in carrying beams
and fascines, had hourly made the moat more navigable.
Some braved the risk of drowning by clinging to floating
fascines ; one of them gained the ravelin, climbed the wall
and entered it without opposition. He was followed by
others, sixteen for every fascine, and climbing the ruined
wall mounted by the remains of the chief staircase that
connected the uiaschio with the curtain or outer wall ; then
with the help of ladders they swarmed the roofs and climbed
to the top of the great tower, above which hung Catherine's
flag. A Swiss, named Cupizer, tore it down, and waving
it towards the soldiers on the other side of the moat,
cried : " Come ! The victory is ours ! Behold the enemy's
flag!"

All this took place in sight of the battery that was in
the courtyard. Why did it not open fire on the invaders }
Where were the garrison .-*

Hence the suspicion that Giovanni da Casale, captain of
all the fortifications within the Paradiso, had betrayed
Catherine, which appears in so many contemporary histories.
An obscure passage in Bernardi hints at treachery without
defining it — "The fort was taken," he says, " 'twixt seeing
and not seeing."

In a "justification," legally drawn up and signed '' iManu-

3i8 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

propria," ^ Giovanni da Casale, first accused of being
Catherine's lover, and later her betrayer, refutes this
calumny and recalls the indecision of Alexander Sforza,
and the internal discord and the insubordination to which
he ascribes the taking of the fort. He was ready to con-
found those who, " lying in their throats," had called him
traitor ; there were indeed those whose interests and obliga-
tions in that undertaking were higher than his ; yet had
they shirked their duties and then become his calumniators.
The names of those persons he would not for the present
divulge, but later he would reveal them. His allegations
and the assertions he makes with regard to the supreme
command that had devolved on Alexander Sforza, as brother
of the Countess, bear the impress of truth. For the rest,
Machiavelli, a contemporary, cognizant of the place, has
explained better than any other how the fort was lost, and
why a fort does not suffice for the defence of a State.

The Fort of Forli, says Machiavelli, in his Art of War,
was badly constructed, and Casale, instead of defending
the first breach made by the Duke's cannon, incautiously
scattered his troops in too many separate places. The
enemy occupied the connecting bridges, thus cutting off
the besieged from one another, and in this wise nothing re-
mained of the high emprise of Catherine, save the admirable
example of her courage.

The flag taken by Cupizer had been seen by all the
enemy's men on the other side of the moat, and the inspiring
news soon reached the ears of the Duke, who immediately
ordered the passage to be made secure, the trumpets to
sound and all his forces called to the assault.

Catherine, desperate but undaunted, exasperated by the
vile lethargy of her men, ordered the powder magazine to be
fired, being prepared to be blown up with the walls of her
fort. But the leaders of the garrison had lost heart and
thought of little else than saving their own lives, fearing

1 Flo)-e?itme State Archives, Med. a. Pr. Cart. Priv. f. 99, 81 (Private Papers
of the Medici).

THE FALL OF RAVALDINO 319

less the enemy's onslaught than the extreme resolutions of
the Countess. Catherine was not obeyed in time, so that
when at last the ammunition exploded, it but helped to fill
up the moat with debris for the enemy's passage. Giovanni
da Casale, who had declared that he would be the last to
leave the defences that had been confided to him, crept
into a tower into which he let the enemy crowd in great
numbers. When he thought it would hold no more, he set
fire to the last of the ammunition and fled by a secret stair.

Friends and enemies perished in the flames. " The fire,"
says Bernardi, " reached the heavens, and many of our own,
with Germans, Swiss and French, were consumed, for they
had entered a place to which there was no exit."

This act naturally exasperated the enemy, who no longer
restrained themselves from slaughter and every possible
cruelty that they could perpetrate on the besieged.

When the smoke had cleared, the bulk of the enemy
passed over the debris in the moat and occupied the bridges
leading to the citadel ; the sounds of battle mingled with
the cries of the unhappy wretches who had been trapped
in the explosion of the tower. Cremona, castellane of the
fort, committed an act on his side more desperate than that
of Casale on the side of the Paradiso. The terrified, tardy,
and perhaps unfaithful executor of Catherine's daring order,
he set fire to the stores of saltpetre and charcoal in the
tower that faced Cesena, but let all his soldiery escape in
disorder and alarm, thus offering a free passage to the
enemy, who seeing the smoke and the flight of the besieged
began to cry: "Onward! onward! The enemy has evacuated
the fort ! this is the day of victory ! "

The soldiers of the garrison howled, wept and cursed, but
henceforward they neither fought nor resisted. Catherine
at that moment appeared from the uiascJiio, the heart and
highest point of the fort, a square tower with smooth walls,
inaccessible to the scalers, and her last refuge.

Who, near to her who had thrown herself heart and soul
into the mSl/e, would dare to have been a coward .-* Near to
her, courage once more woke to action, and terror changed to

320 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

the most desperate heroism : the garrison fell into position,
closed its ranks and fearlessly hurled itself against the
enemy that with ever-increasing numbers and daring, con-
tinued to pass the moat and crowd the citadel. There was
no longer time to meditate on the art of defence; the only
possible thought was to meet force with force, to withstand
the enem}- a little longer and fall with honour. The highest
chiefs, the poet Marullo, Angelo Laziosi, Testadora, Captain
of the Murata, mingled with the soldiery, fighting by their
side. Count Alexander and Catherine's two other brothers
swept in blind fury amid the enemy, while Catherine, armed
from head to foot, was ever in front of the battle, inspiring
her men with courage by word and deed. She was soon
recognized by the French and Swiss, who would have seized
her but for the fury with which they were always met by her
zealous defenders. " For many days past," wrote Cardinal
Sanseverino to the ex-Duke of Milan, '•' Count Alexander,
and sometimes the Countess, had made sorties, and both
had killed many French." But now they were so crowded
in a narrow space that no freedom of movement was possible
to them ; at their feet the dead were heaped up, they could
not have moved a step without treading on them.

The flood of assailants swelled unceasingly, and after an
hour's fighting the besieged knew that their tardy efforts
must be unavailing. Yet, excited by the voice and example
of Catherine, who continued to defend herself with the
courage of despair, they fought for another hour. Four
hundred and seventy-five corpses (the French chronicles
say seven hundredj and many more wounded, strewed the
ground. Catherine, seeing that it was no longer possible
to beat back the enemy with steel, ordered fire to be set
to the heaped-up fascines in the fort and citadel, hoping
to put them to flight ... to arrest them by a wall of
fire . . .

This time she was promptly obeyed ; the fascines smoked,
crackled and soon threw up the first line of fire. But
the wind turned, and with it the glare of the flames and
dense columns of smoke were beaten back on the defenders

THE FALL OF RAVALDINO 321

and stopped their fighting. When the smoke cleared,
Catherine, followed by a little band of heroes — who no
longer thought of defending the fort, but of saving only
her — pressed onward and succeeded in re-opening the com-
bat, when Giovanni da Casale, who till then had doggedly
defended the Paradiso, raised the white flag, inopportunely
and without Catherine's order.

At that sight there were cries, joy, indescribable excite-
ment among the men of Valentino, and among those of
Catherine such profound discouragement and surprise that
Alexander Sforza and the other leaders, finding that the
paralyzed soldiers no longer obeyed them, perforce surrendered
unconditionally to the enemy.

It was the hour of sunset.

The signal of surrender was repeated by tying a white
kerchief to the end of a lance, which was fastened to a mast
in the citadel, and the battle was at an end. But in their
savagery, the Germans, French and Swiss continued to kill
and mutilate^ soldiers and inhabitants. Many of the wounded
were barbarously killed, many succeeded in crawling to a
hiding-place, wdiere for lack of succour they miserably
perished. All through that night, the German, French and
Swiss mercenaries continued to pillage, kill and ruin. Among
other things they destroyed was the fine bronze monument,
recently erected by Catherine to the memory of Giacomo Feo.

The space was filled with smoke, blood, cries of menace,
cries of prayer, and the groans of the dying. " For," says
Bernardi, " it was the Devil's turn to reign in Paradise."

^ The besiegers ripped up the beUies of the wounded to search for gems or coin
among their intestines.

CHAPTER XXXII

C^SAR VICTORIOUS

It is written in the chronicles of Jean d'Autun, the monkish
biographer of Louis XII., " Coniinant dame Katherine Sforcefiit
price, coniine une preitse TJiauiaris {qui) vigoureusevient se
maintenait, et aux plus desvoyez ennuys de sa perverse fortune,
d-iine joyeuse chere couvrant le dueil de son infelicite, donnoit a
ses gens cueitr et Jiardenient par audacieux langage. . ." The
French, indeed, wondered that neither the luck nor the daring
of the enemy, nor the cowardice of her own people could
draw from her a sign of dismay or remorse, and the Italians
gloried in the amazement of aliens. " Madonna," writes
Parenti in his Italian Histories, "entrenched herself in the
Fort and right nobly defended herself: hence the popular
saying that when the French thought that they would be
confronted by men, they found a woman, and when they
thought to encounter a woman, they found a man."

The Italian chronicles narrate that after giving the word
for the assault, the Duke returned to the city by the Gate of
Ravaldino and kept himself under cover as long as the action
lasted. Hearing that Catherine had determined on making
a sortie with the whole garrison, and on fighting her way
through the besiegers, Borgia gave the order for all the
cavalry and several companies of Foot to draw up in line of
battle in front of the defence.

There was therefore no chance of escape for Catherine, who
could neither hold the fort nor leave it. The various stages
of the attacks in their order of occurrence, already assuring his

;22

C^SAR VICTORIOUS 333

triumph, were announced to the Duke. Casale had shown the
white flag-, nearly all the leaders and their men had laid down
their arms, but so long as Catherine had not surrendered
there was still danger. The ruinous walls, riddled by shot
and damaged by explosions, might fall alike on besiegers and
besieged, under them lay seven hundred corpses ; the garrison
was exhausted. But among those smoking ruins, Catherine
lived and moved, exercising an irresistible fascination on the
remains of her army. Now and again she inspired new
courage, developed a new scheme of resistance and with

FORT OF RAVALDINO: PRESENT DAY.

sudden, desperate resolve, struck terror into the hearts of
her assailants.

Though the fort had fallen, more blood would have to flow
ere the victors could take possession of it, unless the indomit-
able woman were subdued. It was manifest that, even if she
persisted in resistance, she could but lead her men to certain
death, without advantage to her cause or her honour. Caesar,
therefore, having ascertained that he might approach the
fort without danger, mounted his horse and stood under the
battlemented corridor that faced the Cotogni Gate, where he
knew he would find Catherine.

The sinister din of the onslaught was interrupted by a few
shrill and rapid trumpet calls, which summoned the Countess

324 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

to a parley. Catherine appeared at a little window of the
tower that ov^crlooked that part of the castle known as the
hifcinio, because it was here that justice, in the form of
torture, was done to offenders. The Duke, without dismount-
ing, courteously prayed her to surrender, so that he might
control his soldiers' greed and thirst of blood. Unless
she surrendered, there was no knowing where the slaughter
might stop. He entreated her to consider the garrison and
the poor people of Forli who were within the walls and, while
there was yet time, to prevent the needless butchery of her
defenders.

According to Oliva, Catherine, " saddened by the pass to
which she had come, could not reply as she would fain have
done," because in that moment she was taken prisoner. But
Bernardi, the barber historian (surnamed Novacula), who was
either present or not far from the spot, narrates that on
hearing from the lips of Borgia of the imminent holocaust of
her people, she was terrified, moved and softened, and in her
emotion replied to Borgia not with her usual acerbities, but
"with man}' soft words . . . saying: 'My Lord Duke, I am
with thee !'..." but gave no sign of surrender. This was
probably the moment in which Catherine appealed to the
besiegers not to sully their victory by useless bloodshed
in a speech recorded by Jean d'Autun beginning, " O vons,
belliqiiculx Franqoys . . . puisqiie Fortune incertaine iiia^ par
vostre poiivoir submise et dombtee. . . ." This address may be
founded on words really spoken by Catherine, and turned by
the chronicler in a form flattering to the self-love of his
compatriots. At this moment a German or Gascon, named
Bernhardt or Bertram (captain, constable or free-lance of
Antoine Bissey, Bailli of Dijon), one of the first to enter the
citadel, who had found himself, after the assault, close to the
bridge, arrived with twelve Gascons and eight Germans at the
ravelin that faced the Cotogni Gate which Catherine had
just entered. Near to her were her confessor, her secretary,
Evangelista Monsignani of Imola, and several brave and
faithful women.

The Countess, who leaned forward to speak with some one

CvtSAR VICTORIOUS

325

below (in the act of appealing to the humanity of the con-
querors), while the Duke gazed upwards as if he could not take

C.^^SAR BORGIA.

his eyes from her face, was immediately recognized by her
commanding figure and fine presence, and Captain Bertrand,

326 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

surprised to find her deserted b}- her guards, cried — " Madam,
you are the prisoner of my Lord the Bailli of Dijon." At
these words, which were accompanied by the pressure of a
heavy mailed hand on her shoulder, the Countess turned,
neither offering opposition nor reply, and was seen to incline
herself "with careless grace, in courteous salutation to the
Duke," as who should say : " It is finished ! "

Bonoli here differs from the narration of other historians,
" but," he says, " I am guided by contemporary manuscripts."
He adds that the astute Catherine, in the act of being taken,
remembered that the laws of France prohibited the holding of
women as prisoners of war, and with admirable presence of
mind declared to her captor, that she surrendered to the
Eailli of Dijon — to the French, but not to Csesar liorgia, who
stood below — confiding her person and her honour to the
honour of the King of France.

Then, without uttering another word, " she with sovereign
dignity^ allowed herself to be led by the German to a place
in the citadel known as the Tine/lo."

Neither Catherine in her retreat in the mascJiio, nor Borgia
who stood below, then knew that the bridge leading to the
strongest part of the fort had been already stormed. It was
only while she was being led to the Tinello that she realized
the completeness of her defeat. The enemy had turned her
cannon and culverins against her own men, who here and
there, worn out and stupefied, quietly surrendered to the
assailants, while others pointed to the white flag that Casale
had unfurled, and others, again, threw down their arms with
heartrending cries for mercy.

Among them were forty admirably armed men-at-arms,
who were recognized by the men of Valentino. They had
arrived at the Duke's camp habited as pilgrims on their way
to the Roman Jubilee. Now the Jubilee was a matter of
supreme importance to papal politics and finance, and for this
reason the Duke had received the pious company with words
of praise, and given it God-speed on its departure, in the hope
that its example would attract other pilgrims by the way.

^ Bunifl, iii. Soi.

C.CSAR VICTORIOUS 327

The pretended pilgrims had slowly departed to the sound of
their own psalmody ; on leaving the camp they were seen to
approach the fort, where a door had suddenly opened through
which they rushed in. Whether bombardiers or pikemen, they
had evidently been sent to Catherine's relief by the Duke of
Milan or the Florentines, They v/ere picked out from the
rest of the garrison and disposed of by the swords and partisans
of the men of Valentino,

According to the Italian chronicles, Borgia waited some
time before he ventured to set foot in the interior of the fort,
contenting himself with riding round it and demanding an
account of what had happened from those he met. At last,
when he was certain that neither surprise nor treachery
awaited him, when he saw his banners and those of France
flying over every tower, then only did he make up his mind
to enter, after securing the company and protection of the
Captain-general of the French forces^ by his side. He rode
through the breach on the south side, followed by a troop of
Lanzichenecchi 2 and other soldiers greedy for booty. The
French chronicles maintain, on the contrary, that he had
insisted on exposing himself in action with the other leaders,
but that when he set foot among the fascines and debris in
the moat, the water came up to his knees, ce qui Ic refroidid
moult.

It was night, and torches lighted the way of Borgia and
d'Alegre, until they found themselves in the presence of the
Countess, who rising when the Duke was announced, without
a sign " of pomp nor anger, but with loyal frankness," declared
herself his prisoner. With her were Antonio Baldraccani, her
chancellor, Giovan Giacomo and Giovanni da Carpi, her trusty
cup-bearers and some ladies, among whom was the wife of
Dionisio Naldi, the heroic defender of the Fort of Imola, with
her children.

This meeting of Caesar Borgia \\\\\\ Catherine has been

^ Monseigneur d'Alegre.

- The Lanzichenecchi (from the (lerman Lnnzkncc/it) play a conspicuous part in
all contemporary stories of Italian warfare.

328 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

described in many ways. According to some historians, the
officer of the Bailli of Dijon presented the Countess to the
Duke as his share of the spoil, receiving in return from him a
purse of two hundred gold ducats. According to Sanuto,
Captain Bernhardt or Bernard demanded the 20,000 ducats
that had been set on her head, but Caesar replied that
he would give 2000 and no more. Then the captain, " in a
white heat of anger, drew his sword, crying — ' So wilt break
thy word to me ? ' making as if he would cut off the poor
lady's head in the presence of the said Duke."

Malapiero, on the other hand, says that the captain " un-
sheathed his dagger to slay him (Borgia), but being held back
Don Ceesar escaped (with his life)." Sanuto avers that the
Duke put an end to the discussion by promising the captain
5000 ducats in ready money.

The Italian chronicles further relate that Borgia and d'Alegre
conversed with Catherine for an hour and it was two o' clock,
after midnight, when Borgia proposed to her to accompany
him to his lodging in the citadel. She had not the alternative
of refusal. With Valentino by her side, followed by two
trusty members of her household, a lady in waiting, named
Argentina, and seven or eight maids of honour, Catherine
crossed the inner courtyard of the fort. It was heaped up
with dead and she could not pass without treading upon them.
She had seen certain parties of infantry seek refuge there as
in a place of safety ; she had seen them throw down their
arms and beg for mercy, and before her lay the bodies of those
who had not succeeded in making their escape. Unmoved by
the sinister spectacle, "Madonna," says Machiavelli, "among
the dead, said that she regretted the living," thus justifying
the saying of Sanuto : " Fcviinc quasi virago criidelissiuia e
di gran auivio.'" Yet the exclamation was hardly uncalled
for, seeing the cowardly and inexplicable lethargy of some of
the men-at-arms and artillery, which had enabled the enemy
to effect an entrance and lower her flag without firing a
shot or making a movement to prevent it. Looking down
on those corpses, Catherine remembered the cowards who
had escaped.

C/ESAR VICTORIOUS 329

It is recorded that Count d' Aubigny — who six years before
had known Catherine in Romagna — kept apart and refused
to appear among the combatants, alleging that a special
respect restrained him from any offence to her. And d'Alegre,
fascinated by Catherine's beauty, courage and gentle manners,
became from that day one of her staunchest defenders.
After crossing the other courtyards, Catherine, leaning on the
arms of Borgia and d'Alegre, slid down through the breach
until by this rugged and ruinous way she arrived at the moat.
" Here," adds Bernardi, " our poor unhappy Lady was obliged
to wade through the water."

On January 12, 1500, Catherine, followed by her ladies,
entered the house of I.uffo Numai as the prisoner of Caesar
Borgia. This disappearance was the signal for the mad-
dened soldiery to abandon themselves to the vilest cruelty.
Two of them having found her confessor and her secretary,
Monsignani, called upon them to surrender. " We are at
your orders," replied Monsignani, whose politeness disarmed
the soldiers. They contented themselves with taking from
them the money found on their persons, and gave them their
liberty. They were then fallen upon by another rapacious
band, who demanded money of them : " Now I have nothing,
but in a few hours, as soon as I am set free, I will give you a
hundred ducats." " Peace, peace ! " added the friar. " He is a
rich youth, the son of wealthy merchants." This he kept
repeating to induce the soldiers to let them go. That was the
worst thing he could have done, for the mercenaries began to
fight over Monsignani, crying — " If I cannot get him you shall
not have him;" and suiting the action to the words stabbed
him until he died in the confessor's arms. The unhappy friar
was tied to a horse's tail.

The sacking of the fort had lasted for a day and two nights
(from Sunday to Tuesday) when the Duke, to make an end of
it, turned the soldiers out by force, destroyed the drawbridge
and threatened to hang any one ipso facto, who attempted
to re-enter. The dead were buried ; two hundred and eighty
were carried to a grave dug for them in the sacristy of the

330 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

Dome and all the others to the Church of the Servi. A few
months later, the Duke rebuilt the curtain or outer wall where
his cannon had made the first breach, and in the centre of the
new wall he set his armorial bearings, carven in stone, as they
remain to this day.

Catherine, imprisoned in the Duke's quarters in Casa Numai,
excited universal sympathy. The Castle of Forli had, by an
effort of her will, been the only one in Italy to resist the
Franco-papal expedition under Borgia. Catherine, deserted
by her subjects and allies, had succumbed, but it was patent
to all that had any one stirred on her behalf, hers would have
been the victory. The French captains who saw her in
Borgia's lodging wondered to find her always calm, patient
and dignified with her conquerors. She spoke little and
asked for nothing for herself. The fact that she did not
assume the character of a heroine proved her heroism and
accentuated its enduring quality, and the victors were
in turn vanquished by the strength of her imperturbable
serenity.

The courtesy at first displayed by Caesar to the prisoner,
who was destined to become his victim, suddenly changed to
the grossest cruelty and perfidy, and the Duke boasted openly
that the fortune of war had given not only the fort, but the
woman, into his power.

Although Machiavelli has chosen to create his type of
the Italian Regenerator on the model of Caesar Borgia,
the latter was in reality but a brigand, who carried to
their utmost limits the profanation of the sanctuary, bad
faith in politics and insensibility to any form of human
suffering.

Assassination was the favourite means of this villain, whose
ends were enormous crimes, masked and ennobled by the
glamour of the past, their very enormity and the illustrious
names with which they are concerned. In lieu of military
valour or a consistent political system there was an immeasur-
able, shameless thirst of power that worked its way in blood,
violence and treachery. Csesar Borgia assured himself of the

C/ESAR VICTORIOUS 331

stability of his conquests by the extermination of princes, and
the torture, poisoning and drowning of their offspring. It
was not enough for him to have taken the city and Castle of
Forli ; he must have Catherine in his power, and with her
he must have Octavian and the younger Riario children. The
plant must be torn up by the roots — he had the eagle, but had
yet to capture the eaglets, who might one day learn the use
of their clav/s.

The distance between one place and another, the difficulty

of communication, the few letters that were written in those

days, made it possible to do many things unknown to the

enemy. C?esar doubted not that Catherine had shut herself up

in the fort with all her children, and on its surrender sent his

myrmidons, like hounds after their prey, in search of the Riario

children. It had been useless for Catherine to aver that they

would not find her children there — so natural was it that she

should wish to hide them from the conqueror that she was

not believed — and only after an exhaustive search in the

fort, city and suburbs was the Duke informed that the children

of Madonna were really not to be found. This was a blow to

Csesar. The possession of Forli and its fort, without that of

its whole reigning family, seemed to him no better than an

empty purse, the chief scope of the expedition had failed,

leaving in its place a continuous danger and menace. Spite,

rage, humiliation, every low and cruel instinct possessed him

... he summoned and interrogated Catherine. Then it

was that the conquered princess met him as a victorious

mother, victrix over violence and every form of human

treachery. " Her children ? Had she not told him that

they were safe under the protection of the Florentine

Republic .' Should she have kept them as a target for

his cannon, or give them with her own hands as food for

wolves .'' . . ."

God or the Devil had helped this woman to defeat his ends,
and the Duke swore that she should suffer for it, in her fair
body and indomitable soul, and that he would make her an
object of contempt to the populace and soldiery who revered
and admired her. He irave out that Catherine had defended

332 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

her fort better than her virtue, but a document^ in the Vatican
mentions the " cruel tortures " inflicted on her, and Bernardi
narrates that " our poor unhappy Madonna, the said Catherine
Sforza, so beautiful in person, endured grievous bodily in-
justice." Sanuto tells - how in rage at having lost the fruit of
his victory, Caesar vented his spite on the mother who had
snatched her children from his clutches and, "after cruel
torments, dragged her with him, as a trophy of his victory and
in contempt of her noble lineage ... he was infuriated with
the result of the expedition."

^Meanwhile the Bailli of Dijon, Captain of the Swiss soldiery,
had gained no material advantage by the capture his officer
had effected, and he resolved to tear Catherine from the claws
of Borgia and exact the promised ransom. Although contem-
porary historians differ as to the sum stipulated, it was a matter
of some importance which had nearly cost the prisoner her
life and which could not long be ignored. On January 21,
" at the second hour," when all was in readiness for the advance
on Pesaro, the Bailli of Dijon, with three hundred men-at-arms,
awaited the Duke at a corner of the street he was about to
pass with Catherine, and curtly informed him that he had
come to take the Countess from him because " he held it to
be to his shame " that she who had confided in the laws of
France should, in their despite, be held a prisoner. Caesar was
daring in state-craft and in war, in the commands he issued to
others, but prudent with regard to his own person. He did
not therefore attempt to oppose the determined man who
surrounded by his doughty men-at-arms, now faced him and
whom Catherine, in the hope of a speedy release, promptly
followed to his quarters in Casa Paolucci.

The Duke, who was anxious to hand Catherine over to the
Pope, so that Alexander VI. might fulfil his latest intention

^ " II Valentino . . . imprigiono Caterina loro Madre, donna di rara bellezza
ed ottime qualita. . . . Taccio quello che oso di fare il Duca Valentino a questa
Donna Nobilissima. . . ." Vita di Kodrigo Borgia (.^lessandro VI.), e del Duca
Valentino suofigliuolo. — Roma. Bib). Casauatense. Cod. E. iv. 23 curt. sec. xvii.

- Sanuto, Vita di Papa Alfssandra Sesto, Bibliotccu Vaticana. Cod. Cuit. no.
1676, c. 113.

C.^iSAR VICTORIOUS 333

of prosecuting her, fearing that the Bailli might refuse to
give her up to him, sent a courier post haste to Monseigneur
d'Alegre at ForHmpopoH. Towards five o'clock Monseigneur
d'Alegre dismounted at the Duke's quarters. They passed
the night in discussion, but did not come to any decision
because the Duke, who was afraid that the BailH might lay
violent hands upon him, decided that they should all meet in
the square on the following day to come to some arrangement.

After dinner on the following day, the Duke, the Bailli,
Vendome and d'Alegre were seen to pace the square, dis-
cussing what was to be done with the Countess. The Bailli
was furious that Madonna had been given up to Valentino as
his prisoner, inasmuch as the laws of France prohibited the
imprisonment of women taken in war ; neither did they
permit them to be treated with violence or discourtesy. The
Countess had surrendered to the French, she had been cap-
tured by one of his officers ... on his honour, he could not
leave her to the mercy of the Duke. The Countess was tem-
porarily in his charge : this was his affair, but not that of
the Duke.

" Who then," queried Borgia, " is the supreme leader of this
war .^ In whose name have you fought .-^ This war has been
undertaken in my name, not in that of the King of France,
whose men are but my auxiliaries : and if mine be the fruits
of victory, mine the cities and the forts that have fallen, mine
also are the prisoners of war." Here the Bailli and the Duke
hurled offensive epithets at each other, and the Bailli sent an
officer to summon his Swiss to the square, who arriving fully
armed, raised aloft their spears and banners and drew up in
front of the palace. The townspeople, who had crowded to
the spot to see the end of the contest between the Duke and
the Bailli, ran back to shut themselves up in their houses, or
to let themselves down by the ramparts on the arrival of the
troops, fearing to be torn to pieces by them.

D'Alegre now offered his services as mediator on the
following terms : Madame Catherine Sforce would be no
man's prisoner, but would remain subject to the King of
France, who alone was arbiter of her fate. Meanwhile the

334 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

Bailli would restore the Countess to the Duke, who would
keep her " in deposit " in the Pope's name, and on this under-
standing would conduct her to Rome. The Countess was on
no account to be considered nor treated as a prisoner. The
Duke would pay the Bailli the "pay and a half" due to him
for his soldiers. D'Alegre to be surety for both parties.

The Bailli immediately dismissed his men from the square,
and returning to his quarters reconducted Catherine and her
ladies to those of the Duke. To this the latter assented
without a murmur, because she did not know what fate was
in store for her until she found herself in the anteroom of the
Duke's lodging, not realizing that her deliverer had been
bought by the payment of the Duke's debt to betray his
victim and drag her back to the apartment of Valentino.
Machiavelli thus summarizes the situation. " The possession
of Madonna was disputed by the Swiss and the Duke. She
was sold to Valentino." Bernardi describes Catherine's dress
on that occasion, which was of black satin made " a la tiwquel'
with a muslin veil to bind her hair. When she found herself
once more in the Duke's rooms, she offered a desperate re-
sistance, and a violent altercation ensued. The Bailli put
forward the inexorable necessity of circumstances as his
excuse, once more assuring the Countess that she had bettered
her condition, being now no longer CcXsar's prisoner, but
under his care and the protection of the King of France.

On the following morning a trumpeter paced the streets,
giving the signal of departure to all soldiers quartered in the
town. But these adventurers were so comfortably lodged in
the houses of the townspeople that the shrill blast of the
trumpet failed to call them from their beds, and as usual it
had to be supplemented by the threat of the gallows. At last
the men-at-arms filed through the Gate of St. Peter, but the
Swiss and Germans, who had halted in theTsquare, demanded
their money. These soldiers of Antoine de Bissey, Bailli of
Dijon, secretly instigated by their master, had mutinied. The
Duke indignantly declared that they should have no pay until
they arrived at Cesena, and as the tumult continued, threat-

C.^SAR VICTORIOUS 335

ened to toll the great bell and have them all cut to pieces by
the peasantry. On this menace they departed. The Duke,
attended by his captains, went to the mass of the Holy
Ghost at the Dome and received the oath of allegiance of
the four deputies, who were to renew it at the feet of the
Pontiff.

A Spaniard, named Gonzalo Mirafuentes, was appointed
Castellane of Ravaldino and the notorious Remiro de Lorqua,
Governor of Imola and Forli. The latter, on whom later it
suited Valentino to concentrate the odium of his own

CASTLE OF MALATESTA, OR MURATA.

enormities, was beheaded at Cesena in the square between
the citadel and the fort of that city. The body, covered with
insignia and decorations, stretched on a mat, and the head
stuck on a lance, were exhibited all day, both as a terror-
inspiring spectacle and an example of the Duke's justice and
love for his subjects. Caesar designated him as guilty of all
the violence, murder and rapine that had been perpetrated,
but chiefly of tampering with the sale of corn, whereby the
populace had been starved and himself mulcted of enormous
sums for its importation and distribution to the soldiery and
people.

On Thursday, January 23, Casar Borgia, with Catherine

336

CATHERINE AND THi: l!()R(;iA

riding between himself and d'Alcgrc, left Foiii, preceded by
his whole army. The square and the streets were crowded
by people who had come to gaze on their proud Lady in
the guise of a prisoner, who, says Bernardi, slowly advanced
on her white palfrc}-, followed by her two faithful servitors
and the two ladies who always accompanied her. Catherine's
eyes were wet and swollen, and gently she responded to
the salutations of her people ..." as if to take a last
farewell of them." And the crowd wept as they looked
upon her.

CASTLK OK MALATESTA, OR MURATA {another viei

The Duke halted at Forlimpopoli, where after visiting its
fort and walls he received the oaths of allegiance in the
Church of St. Peter, arriving towards evening at Cesena,
where with his prisoner and the whole of his artillery he
took up his quarters at the Murata. That night he added
to Catherine's misery by never leaving her out of his sight
and by encouraging every report that could increase her
humiliation. Time, however, avenged and refuted these
calumnies.

Monseigneur d'Alegre chivalrously dedicated himself to

C^SAR VICTORIOUS

\o7

Catherine's service, and temporarily saved her from further
insult by offering to be her custodian in the Ulitrata, when
Caesar left for the conquest of Pesaro, promising to give
her up to him when he was ready to leave Romagna for
Rome.

From Cesena, Caesar Borgia proceeded to Santarcangelo
and there he stayed to mature his plan for the conquest
of Pesaro, when two couriers from
Lombardy brought d'Alegre in-
structions to hasten to meet
Ludovico Sforza, who had arrived
at Como with a body of troops
collected with the help of Maxi-
milian, Emperor of Germany.

The arrival of the Moro, sup-
ported by German soldiery,
seemed a presage that the for-
tunes of the House of Sforza
would revive, as by enchant-
ment, and it was rumoured that
Octavian Riario had re-entered
Forli and dealt summarily with
the rebels. This news had no
effect on Catherine. A few days
earlier this imperial support, nay,
even the rumour of it, would
have sufficed to save her ; now
it was too late. And the worst

of it was that she would be deserted by d'Alegre, who was
obliged to march his soldiers against the Germans in Lom-
bardy without delay.

Bound by his compact and his given word, d'Alegre could
not do less than replace Catherine in the care of Borgia, and
having confided her to a French captain and some trusty
men-at-arms, it fell to his lot to tear the unhappy woman
from her last refuge and witness her disconsolate departure
for the camp of Caesar.

The departure of d'Alegre and the French troops cau.sed

ARMS OK C/E.SAR BOKGIA.

338 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

Cffisar to renounce the conquest of Pesaro for the moment,
and having despatched Hercules BentivogHo with five hundred
men-at-arms, and the Spaniard Cardona, with three hundred
lances, for the defence of the Fort of Forli, he turned his
horse's head towards Rome, dragging Catherine with him.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE PRISONER OF WAR

The Roman diaries that minutely describe the triumphal
entry of Duke Valentino make no mention of the presence
of Catherine, who yet, according to some of her biographers,
figured therein, bound in golden chains, thus renewing the
spectacle of Queen Zenobia in the days of the Emperor
Aurelian.

"Valentino entered Rome," says Bonoli, " leading Catherine
adorned with golden chains, in triumph, prouder of having
subdued this woman than of any of the most redoubt-
able warriors." Justolo in his panegyric of Borgia narrates
that the procession moved slowly on account of the great
crowd that filled the streets. He describes Caesar as a
beautiful blond hero, "admired of all the merry wives who
stood at their doors, and of all the marriageable maids
who looked down from the high windows."

The diary of Burckhardt says that Caesar was habited in a
black velvet coat that came to his knee, with " a rather simple
collar." In describing the entire procession, he makes no
mention of Catherine, whence we gather that she did not
appear in it.

In any case the mode of her entry must have differed
essentially from one she remembered twenty years ago, when
the population who had assembled to acclaim the bride of
the most powerful man in Rome, now saw in her but the
prisoner of a man yet more powerful and fear-inspiring. She
was in Rome, she was once more in those halls of the Vatican

339

340 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

where eager courtiers had striven for a smile, a look, from the
young and beautiful niece of the Pope, who now must needs
follow her conqueror to the feet of another pope.

The joy of Alexander VI. in the return of his victorious
son was so overwhelming that the reader of its details almost
feels the thrill of his emotion. Convulsed with agitation,
Alexander spoke to him in his native Spanish ; he received
no audience on that day ct lacrymavit et t'isit in one, says
Sanuto, who adds that " Madonna had been conducted to the
Belvedere Palace." Catherine, guarded by twenty men-at-
arms, was honourably lodged there. It stood within the
precincts of the Vatican in the Pope's vineyarxd. The Pope's
intention was to prosecute her for the expenses of the war,
wherein he would be guided by what should ultimately befall
the Sforza of Milan. He was considering how to force her to
accept an arrangement that would leave her enough to live
upon, " but she," wrote the Perrarese Orator, " has the pluck
of the devil {^sta indiavolata) and keeps her strong mind."

The Venetian Orator records on April 21 several conversa-
tions with the Pope, who had expressed great satisfaction
that the French had taken Cardinal Ascanio Sforza. His
Holiness had remarked that the Triple Alliance {la liga
trind) had given into his hands the Madonna of Forli, into
those of the King of France, Ludovic, Duke of Milan, and
into those of the Venetian Senate, Catherine's uncle the
Cardinal. On May 1 1 Octavian Riario wrote from Florence
to " Madonna, his beloved mother," that he and his brothers
were straining every nerve " to deliver her from bondage."
He ended, as usual, by praying that she " would contrive that
that hat (cardinal's hat) fall to me."

A letter of Alessandro Braccio to Octavian and Csesar
Riario, dated May 26, 1500, alludes to the mysteries of the
Vatican. Convinced that their efforts would soon be crowned
with success, Braccio wrote that " he was burning with
impatience to find himself with Her Excellency, Madonna,
to communicate everything to her, to raise her spirits by
giving her good hope of speedy deliverance ; judging that
your letter would be of great comfort to her. Scd nihil est

THE PRISONER OF WAR 341

tain dulce cut fortima invida aliquid fellis non iuimisceat.
Having therefore hied me to the Belvedere to see Her Lady-
ship and read her your letter, whereas before, when I went
to her, the door was freely opened to admit me ; I was
detained outside, in the meadow, where came Messer
Aloisio(?) with an unusual countenance as of one much
disturbed. He inquired what was my business, and I
having told him of it, he replied that she had not yet risen,
being indisposed. Therefore it would be idle for me to try
to see her, but that he would convey to her for her comfort
all that I had said. He advised me to confer with Messer
Adriano, Secretary of His Holiness, so that he might lay the
matter before the Pope. I was to send Baccino (a servant of
Catherine's) to him, and having told me that he would let
me know through him if I might speak with Madonna he
returned indoors in a bad mind."

Braccio waited on the papal secretary and asked for an
audience, but was told that this was unnecessary ; everything
would be said for him, the Riario should be satisfied, he
(Adriano) would favour them, for the love of Pope Sixtus
and Count Girolamo. He requested him to return next day
for the Pope's answer.

Braccio, according to the request of Messer Aloisio, sent
Baccino to him. Baccino, on hearing from Aloisio that it
would be impossible to speak with Catherine, went out and
met two members of the household of Messer Corverano, who
were sent to seek a certain Fra Lauro (Lorenzo Borsi,
Milanese Orator to Forli at the time of the death of Giovanni
Popolano), to tell him to fly, for during the night their master
and a certain Giovan Battista of Imola, belonging to the
household of Madonna, had been taken, and Fra Lauro was
also sought for, but it was too late, for in the search for Fra
Lauro, in which Baccino had joined, they learned that " he
too had been taken before dawn in a bed in the Governor's
quarters."

Baccino then returned to the Belvedere, where the door-
keeper told him to go away at once, " for there was the
devil and all in the affairs of Madonna and Corverano and

342 CATHKRIXK AND THE 15 ORG I A

Giovan Battista had been taken." " Baccino," continues
Braccio, " then returned to me, but after supper I sent him
back to try and find out the reason of this disturbance. He
spoke with Messer Aloisio, from whom he coukl not extract
any details except that there had been one and that
Madonna had done naught but weep and refuse to eat.
On his return he caught sight of His Excellency the Duke
(Caesar Borgia) in the vineyard and learnt that there had been
a parley between him and Madonna. On meeting with those
men of Corverano, Baccino learned that the origin of the
disturbance was a letter written by Fra Lauro to Madonna
(who had shown it to Corverano), which had somehow
fallen into the hands of the Duke." Braccio was ignorant of
the contents of this letter, nor could he learn them ; " since
I may not speak with Madonna. ... It must be some
delusion of Fra Lauro's that has brought Madonna and
Corverano to this pass . . . and made her feel that she is
a prisoner and deserted . . . this it is she is suffering from,
for which I am sore grieved." Braccio expressed curiosity,
as to how Corverano could have dropped the incriminating
letter and how it had come into the Duke's hands.

The Venetian Orator mentions on June 13 that a certain
Fra Lauro had bribed a ducal attendant to allow the
Madonna of Forli to escape, and adds that the man "was
found drowned in the Tiber."

Fra Lauro, or Lorenzo Bossi, who in 1493 had already
described himself as " a poor and decrepid old man " in a
political letter to Catherine, was one of her oldest and most
faithful friends. He had planned her escape to no purpose,
owing to the loss of his letter and the Duke's subsequent
discovery. Oliva narrates that when Catherine found that
the plan had been divulged, believing that nothing now
could save her, she " tried to subdue the guard " and take to
flight.

In the days when power was hers, she could promise,
terrorize, enchant and beguile. Now all that was left to
her was the last resource of the wretched, the art of inspiring
pity. This did not avail her with the guard, who let her have

THE PRISONER OF WAR

343

her say but barred the way. On this attempt ensued much
correspondence and intrigue. After a conversation with the
Duke, Catherine wept all day, and possibly in fear of poison
refused to eat.

The reason why Braccio was not received by Catherine
on May 26 at the Belvedere, was either that she was no
longer there or that she was to be removed in the night.
The two Borgia, disturbed by this attempt to escape, deter-

CASTLE OF ST. ANGEI.O IX THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

mined on a more economical mode of imprisonment, and
without further ado cast her into a dungeon of St. Angelo.

Catherine found herself once more within the castle she
had entered and held, at the head of her armed retainers,
on the death of Sixtus IV. at the beginning of her political
career. There is no record of the place she inhabited within
these gloomy walls, for the story of the sufferings they
witnessed has ever been a mysterious one. There was an
unhappy cardinal whom Pope Alexander caused to be let
down into a dark hole, dug in the thickness of the walls, and
who there, deprived of light, air and food and gnawed by

344 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

rats, miserably perished of stench and starvation. His was
no isolated case in days when Rome was full of horror. A
pilgrim of the year 1500 averred that he could never pass
the Bridge of St. Angelo without nausea, because of the
long string of corpses that were ever hanging to the battle-
ments. For three centuries the bones of victims continued
to moulder in the dungeons and vaults of St. Angelo, and
the position of the skeletons indicated the terrible tortures
to which the victims had succumbed. Until the end of the
last century no one cared to make them the subject of
historical research nor to investigate these results of the
political power of the papacy. But with the dawn of the
new era came a sense of the danger and menace that was
expressed by those dry bones, and they were removed.

On June 20 the Venetian Orator wrote that "the Pope
was in treaty with the Madonna of Forli to give up to the
Duke Valentino the dominions of Forli and Imola, which
in any case were lost to her and her sons, promising in
return an income of 3000 ducats and, within a given time,
another State ; also to confirm her son in the Archbishopric
of Pisa which his uncle, Cardinal San Giorgio, renounced in
his favour."

These negotiations, which had been initiated when the
Pope still hoped to extract money from the Sforza of Milan,
were conducted with such bad faith and procrastination that
they had degenerated into a treacherous plot. On one side
the. Pope aimed at draining the resources of the Riario, on
the other, the Riario, already enrolled in the " Army of
the Church," sought to wrest from the Pope honours and
emoluments. Catherine's children no longer gave much
thought to her liberty or well-being, but overwhelmed her,
whose bonds could not detract from her greatness, and whom
they still believed to be powerful, with demands for cardinals'
hats, benefices and bishoprics, and a husband and dower
for their sister Bianca. All this Catherine was to obtain
from her jailer, and in return they promised to offer the Pope
money to buy her freedom. In a shameful letter to their

THE PRISONER OF WAR

345

mother, dated May 1500, Octavian and Ceesar inform her
that they have made their last bid to the Pope. If this be
not accepted " we pray you to expect no more from us . . .

CASTLE OK SJ'. ANCKI.O.
{From a fresco in the Church of St. Cecilia, Boiogna.)

for we are nowise so devotedly attached to Your Ladyship
that we are disposed to endure absolute beggary; Your
Ladyship will therefore come to the best terms you can with

346 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

His Holiness." They added that as Pope Alexander was
most just and clement, he would see justice done to her . . .
" May this suffice for your comfort and stand as our final
decision." " I verily believe the Devil has deprived you of
sense and memory," wrote the Piovano Fortunati in righteous
indignation, to Octavian. ..." Poor creatures that you
are, who cannot see that the Devil is ruining you. . . . Come
to your senses in the name of God and remember that this
Lady is your mother and loves you all. ... May God
forgiv^c those who are responsible for such unparalleled
perfidy. . . ." ^ A second letter from Octavian and Caisar to
their mother proves that Catherine, schooled to a new heroism
by adversity, had not met her children's ingratitude with
anathema, but with such gentleness and generosity as to
touch the hardest-hearted of them.

" We have given one his libert}' without asking aught in
return : this has caused men to say that we are indeed mad,"
wrote Octavian and his brother. " We chose to do it that
we might thereby prove to Your Ladyship that indeed we
love you as our mother . . . and more, since we know that
you are patient to endure every kind of adversity, writing us
as you do not to impoverish ourselves by our consideration
for you." -

Meantime another trouble had assailed her. Giannino," her
youngest born, now two years old, was to be torn from
her maternal guardianship. "Madonna," declared certain
jurisconsults, " is no longer a free agent. The Pope detains
her, as a vanquished rebel and prisoner of war, in prison,
thereby subjecting her to the viaxinia capitis diminutio ; by
this she forfeits her civic and maternal rights and all authority
over her little son."

This was the result of the machinations of those to whom
the child was an obstacle, and who wished he had never been
born. "Into whose hands will he fall? What w^ill become

^ For the Piovano's whole letter, see the note to p. 256, Vol. ii.
- See p. 256, Vol. ii. Doc. 1195.

^ Giannino or Giovanni de' Medici, who had been christened Ludovic. Vide
Med. a. Pr. Filza 95. Protest of Catherine Sforza, 1500, 29 April.

THE PRISONER OF WAR 347

of him ? " thought the unhappy mother, until the Mantuan
Orator wrote his master — " Since the Pope has sent the
Countess — attended by only two women — to the Castle, the
Florentine Signoria has sent a man to hasten the agreement
between the Pope . . . who has played with her as a cat
with a mouse before it eats it . . . but it is not yet
signed. ..." A fortnight later he added : " The Madonna
of Forli is ill of a breaking heart ; there is no longer any
talk of exchange (of prisoners) or agreement and they let her
have any doctor she chooses. . . ." ^

There was no longer any need to put Catherine to death ;
fever and her broken heart were furthering the designs of
the Borgia.

^ 30 July, 1500, Gonzaga Archives. Mantua.

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE POPE'S IMPEACHMENT

Catherine's iron temperament withstood pain and sorrow.
Contrary to the hopes and expectations of the Borgia, this
prisoner, who was so difficult to guard, and who gave no further
sign of immediate dissolution, became a living danger to her
conquerors. Seeing that she could not be prevailed upon to
renounce her States, and that she had already attempted
flight, Alexander and his son determined to find a pretext
that would remove her from their path, or at least consign her
to the Castle of St. Angelo for the rest of her life.

The Borgia could not kill or cause this prisoner to disappear,
like their other mysterious victims. The House of Sforza
was fallen, but Catherine was still sister to Bianca Maria,
Empress of Germany and Queen of the Romans, a subject of
Louis XII., and a ward of the arms and honour of France. In
the day of her misfortune, her enemies had become her
defenders ; what if another French army were to invade Italy
to demand an account of her ?

But the Borgian policy was, for the time being, as astute as
it was treacherous ; the Pope, for reasons of his own, had
kept a bone to pick with Madonna Catherina ; this was
the moment to draw the threads of his net together, and to
assume the part of the injured and persecuted prelate.

Since November 1499, three inhabitants of Forli had been
imprisoned in the Castle of St. Angelo, who were reserved as
special instruments for the final undoing of Catherine, when
the opportune moment should present itself One of these

34^

•y^W-'Titf^ iiff-^BFa^y

I'ASSAGK I'ROM THE \'ATICAN TO THE CASTLE OF ST. AXGELO.

349

350 CATHERINE AND THE BORCHA

men, a certain Battista da Meldola, averred that in the previous
November, when Valentino was on the eve of besieging Forli,
the Countess had, with many precautions, sent for him, to
whom she consigned certain false letters in which she or the
Commune of Forli pretended to implore the Pope to com-
promise. The letters, steeped in a poisonous substance, were
enclosed in a hollow cane which was wrapped in a red cloth
so that the bearer might not be poisoned. Catherine had
despatched him to Rome, enjoining him to deliver these
papers into the hands of none other than the Pope.

He added that the Countess had, in confiding the execution
of her infernal design to him, informed him that the letters
would free her from Pope Alexander, who had been the cause
of her ruin. For this purpose, she had had them placed on
the chest of a victim of the mortal and contagious disease
that at that time raged in Forli. On opening them the Pope
would fall dead.

Battista da Meldola had, on arriving in Rome, met with a
certain Christopher Balatrone, who had once served Count
Girolamo and was still faithful to Octavian. After some dis-
agreement with Catherine and Giacomo Feo, he had estab-
lished himself in Rome. He wished to be reinstated in favour
of the Riario, and had to this end enlisted the services of
Battista.

Battista had promised to help him on condition that he
would help him in a secret affair of his own. Christopher
had been most willing, and Battista had then confided to him
that he had been sent to Rome by the Countess to poison the
Pope. For this purpose he asked him to obtain an audience
for him, so that he might present the letters so infected with
the plague that the Pope would die on opening them, leaving
Catherine in undisputed possession of her States.

Christopher, dazed and horror-struck, had replied — •" You
will never succeed, for His Holiness is a God upon Earth."
He had persuaded Battista to present himself with him to the
Pope and reveal the plot, so that at least he might be absolved
of a terrible crime. They then went to the Pope, but as it
was too late to see him, a young man of Forli named

THE POPE'S IMPEACHMENT 351

Tommaso, one of the Pope's valets, whom they found in the
anteroom, had told them to return on the following day.

During the night Balatrone had informed his brother, a
soldier in the Pope's guard, of the plot ; the latter had
repeated the story to his captain, who, after casting Battista
and Christopher Balatrone into prison, had repeated the story
to the Pope.

Pope Alexander, horror-struck and impatient to throw
more light on the mystery, had sent his valet Tommaso
to share the strict confinement of his fellow-citizens until the
Countess could be brought to Rome. On November 24,
there had been public thanksgiving in the Church of Santa
Maria della Pace qiiod Pontifex a veneno et insidiis inimiconun
liberatus esset. Then it was that the Pope had hastily de-
spatched a courier to Romagna with a letter bidding the
Duke not to put Catherine to death, but to bring her to Rome,
where the matter could be sifted. A papal brief had at the
same time informed the Signory of Florence of this alleged
act of " Catherine, Daughter of Perdition." In this Alexander
may have acted in good faith, and in the actual belief that
there had been an attempt on his life. If in those days poison
and assassination came to the minds of people, the fault lay
with the Borgia, who were naturally the first to fear them.
About this time the Ferrarese Orator wrote the Duke of
Ferrara that Cardinal San Giorgio (Raphael Riario) had
suddenly left Rome. The ostensible reason of his departure
was notorious : he could not endure Valentino's treatment of
his kinsmen. He had implored the Pope to abandon the
expedition against them, but in vain. Then he had offered to
be the Pope's mediator and to obtain possession of the Castle
of Forli for him without bloodshed ; but Catherine, in her
distrust of Alexander, had refused to accede to such proposals.
None could divine the end, and if anything happened to
Valentino what could have saved even an innocent man from
the Pope's revenge .''

The other and secret cause was that " on a Wednesday
night, at the .seventh hour, two serving-men, habited as
peasants, had been taken and imprisoned in the Castle of St.

352 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

Angelo ... on whom were found several kinds of poison
intended for the Pope." These " serving-men " were Battista
of IMeldola and Christofero Balatrone, natives of ForH.
Cardinal Raphael thought that as a kinsman of Catherine's
he might be suspected of connivance, and had therefore gone
a-hunting and never returned.

Unless the Pope had intended to keep back the charge
against Catherine as a last resource, it is curious, if he was
really eager to investigate the matter, that he should have
allowed four months to elapse, have received Catherine with
apparent courtesy, given her a palace for her residence, and
what purported to be a guard of honour, although it was
composed of Caesar's myrmidons.

If Catherine had been docile it would have been better to
come to an amicable understanding with her. But neither
the Pope nor his son had succeeded in extorting money, nor
the renunciation of her States from her ; they had but driven
her to exasperation and violent reprisals. She must have
been planning her escape when Giovanni Lucido wrote the
Marquis of Mantua, " Sta indiavolata e forte de aniino^' and
things had gone from bad to worse. There was no longer
room for hesitation ; wherefore Csesar, to whom Catherine
was a perpetual menace, had impelled the Pope to make an
end of it.

The lawsuit began, and by special desire of the Pope
Catherine was subjected to a searching examination. She
sturdily denied the imputation, and having listened to
evidence and confessions of the prisoners, cried — " Lies. . . .
Lies. . . . There is not a word of truth in them!" In any
other case, the prisoner would have been subjected to torture,
but even Pope Alexander did not venture to subject the body
of Catherine Sforza to such an experiment. He therefore
ordered all the accused to be brought before him and again
cross-examined in his presence.

" It is untrue ! . . . I did not do it. ... I did not send
them," cried the exasperated Catherine, from whose lips
came such prodigious countercharges that the two Borgia

THE POPE'S IMPEACHMENT

353

repented of having roused this woman. It seemed to them
as if they had raised the devil ; in failing to bring to light
the guilt of Catherine they had but exposed the infamy of
Caesar. Silence became the order of the day, and secrecy
enshrouded the subsequent
proceedings. The substance
of the interrogatories and
cross-examination was not
allowed to transpire, although
Bernardi appears to have
known it without daring to
write it. It was only fifty
years later that Oliva ven-
tured to be more explicit.

As a conviction was out
of the question, and a pro-
clamation of the prisoner's
innocence w^ould have been
both scandalous and danger-
ous, no sentence could be
delivered. This was doubt-
less a great disappointment
to the Pope, to whose feet
the very nature of the crime
would have brought the civil-
ized world.

The total absence of any
document bearing on this
celebrated lawsuit,^ and the
fact of the personal inter-
vention of the Pope, leads the writer to believe that being a
private affair of the Pontiff's, determined by special political
motives, it was personally and verbally conducted by Alex-
ander VI., and that he stopped it, without coming to any
decision, when he found that it could not conduce to the
attainment of his ends.

1 Vide Letter of tlie Chief Custodian of the Vatican Archives, Catcrina Sforza,
Pic?- Desiderio I'asolini, p. 290, Vol. ii.

A A

WINDOW IN THE CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO.

354 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

Was Catherine innocent? Had she saved herself by a
combination of daring and astuteness, or had she prevailed
b}' the force of truth ? We know that under much slighter
provocation she had not hesitated to steep her hands in
blood. If, in self-defence and in defence of her State and
her children's lives, she had had recourse to this extreme
measure, who, in her own time, would have thrown the first
stone at her ? Neither may it be thought that the sacredness
of the Pontiff's character would withhold any of his con-
temporaries from attempting to take his life ; that would be
modelling the ruthless soul of the sixteenth century to our own
image. To Catherine, daughter of a daggered father, widow
of two husbands slain in treachery, violent deaths were no
novelty. And it is possible that, both as the idol and the
victim of the papal court, she may have looked behind the
scenes and upon the popes of her day as persons not wholly
sacred.

Princes had so often recourse to political homicide as a
means of government, that when one died his death was
seldom ascribed to natural causes. It was known that when
the Borgia found it necessary to avoid suspicion they used a
powder, white as snow and of agreeable flavour, that, blending
with any kind of food, produced certain but gradual death.
Catherine had made so many experiments in veleni a
teriniiic'^ and other poisons — as is proved b\' her book of
" household recipes " — that it is difficult to believe this story
of poison for the Pope. The strongest proofs of her innocence
lie in the ineptitude of the means attributed to her, and to
the Pope's prolonged silence and inaction rather than in her
incapacity for committing the crime. Catherine was not a
woman to use the first comer as an emissary, nor would she
have employed a " serving-man," a simple soldier, or a person
as ignorant as was evidently Battista of Meldola. Yet the

^ Her household book contains recipes for cosmetics, disinfectants, poisons, and
prescriptions for every disease under the sun, among which, amid many tiiat raise
the modern smile, may be found some, notably anajsthetics, that forestall modern
discoveries. Vide Experimettti de la Exma. S}-a. Catcrina da Furli, capiat i dagli
aiitografi di lei dal Conte Ltuantonio Citppano, Ravenna, Arch. Pasolini, Cod.
cartaceo, Sec. xvi.

THE POPE^S IMPEACHMENT

355

criminals, when taken by surprise, averred that they had been
sent by Catherine. Terror-stricken at the prospect of torture,
with a horrible death staring them in the face, they seized the
most plausible pretext
for diverting the wrath
of the Borgia from them-
selves to their sovereign
Lady. Machiavelli ac-
cepted the popular ver-
sion without discussion.
" Madonna," he tersely
wrote to the Ten (di
Balia), " sent to poison
PopeAlexander." Burck-
hardt's diary ^ records
that the idea did not
originate with the Coun-
tess, but with a subject
of hers, who, being taken
red-handed, averred that
his only thought was
that the death of the Pope would deliver the Lady of Forli,
for whose sake he would give his life a thousand times, from
the advancing army of Valentino. Pomponio Leti, in his
life of Cjesar Borgia, confirms this account.

At Venice, that great mart of political gossip, people
jested on the "vanie" or simulated fears of "Papa Borgia"
of the poison of the Lady of Forli, which it was supposed
were intended to alienate from her the sympathy of the
Florentine Republic. Neither do Gregorovius- nor Moroni^
give any credence to this fable.

^ Novembris i8. — Die Jovis.

- Civilization of the Keiiascence, Vol. iii. p. 243.

•^ Dizionario Ecclesiastico, Vol. xxv. p. 272.

CANNON S MOUTH, CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO.

CHAPTER XXXV

THE DELIVERANCE

For another year the walls of St. Angelo hide Catherine
from our view. Little is known of that time save that Fra
Lauro shared her captivity, and possibly her plans for the
future. She still looked forward to escape, and to regaining
possession of her little Giannino ; while the Borgia, who
hoped she would die in confinement, had determined on
suppressing her as soon as they found that they could do so
with impunity.

Her end would probably have been like that of Astorre
IManfredi,^ whose body was found in the Tiber, after he had
been put to death in the Castle of St. Angelo, but in June
1 50 1, the same French army that had reft her of her State
once more invaded Italy, led by Yves dAlegre, to take
possession of the kingdom of Naples, which was claimed by
Louis XIL as heir of Charles VII L The King of France
had renewed his alliance with the Pope.

The sieges of Imola and Forli had been the only incidents
in the war of the preceding year on which the French prided
themselves. Catherine lived in their hearts, and in her
glorification they glorified themselv^es. Her resistance had
shed a new lustre on the French arms, without which, they
averred, neither Duke, nor Pope, nor Germans, nor Spaniards

^ Astorre Manfredi had been taken by Caesar Borgia while heroically defending
his city in his expedition in Romagna. The young Lord of F'aenza, once
affianced to Bianca Riario, was murdered in the Castle of St. Angelo, and his
body thrown into the Tiber.

356

THE DELIVERAN'CE

357

could have subdued the Comtesse Katherine Sforce, the for-
midable Madame de Forli. And none might harm a hair of
her head so long as France was France.

This homage of the French to Catherine's valour may-
be best gauged by an ap-
preciation of the enthusiasm
it evoked throughout the
length and width of the
peninsula. Machiavelli says
that many songs and epi-
grams in praise of her were
current in his day. The
only one which the writer
has succeeded in tracing is
the " Lament of Catherine
Sforza," by Marsilio Com-
pagnoni/ beginning —

" Ascolta questa sconsolata
Catherina da forlivo,"

throughout whose many
stanzas occur words and
expressions so characteristic
of the st}^le peculiar to
Catherine's familiar corre-
spondence that the poem
not only expresses Cathe-
rine's sentiments, but might
be made up in parts of
phrases that have actually fallen from her lips

' ' Anti morta o ch'abia andare
Via piangendo a capo incliino
vSon disposta a iiiinare
I fondamenti de Forlivo.

WINDOW, CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO.

Prima voglio veder el diavolo
A cavallo de la luna.

' Milan. Trivulziana, siuj. 48, 4.

3S8 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

lo vo' perder per bataglia

E morire con honore

Ma'l me dole ben d' Italia."

The "Lament" is above all things an appeal to Ludovico
il Moro to raise an army, re-conquer his State, and mend the
fortunes of the House of Sforza, Catherine exhorts the
Italians, intimidated by French successes, to follow her advice
and example. Milan is lost ! What of that ? Let them
read the historians ! The French (Ultramontanes) had once
even invaded Rome, but were hounded from it and undone.

"Ah I Italian! impauriti

se udite la mia istoria
v'armerete inanimiti
per quistar honor e gloria
tito Livio fa memoria
ne' gran facti de' Romani
guastar Roma i tramontani
poi sua gente fracassata.

Scolta questa sconsolata
catarina da forlivo.'"

These and other songs, giving popular expression to the
genius of Catherine, had been sung throughout Romagna
and in both camps ; for in the French ranks were many
Italian mercenaries. They were household words in castle
and city, and familiar ones by the enemy's camp-fire.

In those days news travelled so slowly from one country
to another that often they who left a country knew no more
about it until they returned to it again. Nothing more had
transpired outside Italy of Catherine's fortunes, and the
French believed her to be living in honourable ease and
liberty. It was only after they had crossed the Alps, on
their arrival in Lombardy, that they learnt that the Pope was
keeping her in durance, that he had persecuted her with
a vexatious lawsuit, that she languished on a bed of sickness
and that she would never leave the Castle of St. Angel o
alive.

The French cursed and menaced the thankless Borgia,
vile and traitorous defamers of the honour of France. This

THE DELI\'ERAXCE 359

news of treachery to Catherine and France was indeed the
first spark of that flame which kindled steadily to a fire.
From this time on, the relations between the Pope and the
French became so strained that they who had come in friend-
ship in 1 50 1, returned in anger in 1502 to put a limit to the
ambition of Ceesar, who had aggrandized himself at their
expense ; while the Pope at the same time, in order to expel
the French from Italy, had entered into a league with the
Emperor of Germany, the Venetians and the Spaniards.
Valentino, moreover, who called himself " Caesar Borgia of
France," had so harried and tyrannized Italy that the Italians
would have dared and endured an}-thing to turn him out of
it : every aspiration and all political enmity paled before the
hate of Caesar. Such cries of suffering had reached the ears
of good King Louis that one day he exclaimed that " a war
undertaken to punish the crimes of the Borgia would be so
holy and righteous that its merits could not be surpassed
by a crusade against the Turks." On the approach of the
King, Caesar threw all the blame of his political rapine on
his lieutenants. He had escaped punishment, yet this man,
to whose ambitions no crime, however monstrous, was an
obstacle, was invested with the highest dignities of the Court
of France ; King Louis paid him a large pension, and
addressed him as Mon tres ainic cousin ! He had married
his sister Lucretia, who was widowed of two husbands, to
Alfonso of Ferrara, and was the sworn ally and faithful
executor of the plots of Alexander VI., worthy father of a
despicable son. All this and more weighed on the conscience
of Louis XII., who besides was ill-pleased that the Pope
should incline his ear to the Emperor Maximilian, whose
ambition it was to be crowned in St. Peter's. On arriving in
Italy, he was deafened by the cries of the aggrieved — cries
for justice and for vengeance. The coalition against Caesar
Borgia included the Dukes of Urbino and Ferrara, the
Marquis of Mantua, Cardinal Orsini, and the Orators of
Florence, Bologna ^nd Venice. It would seem as if he could
no longer hesitate to make an end of the despoiler of Italy
and the dishonour of France. C\xsar was saved by the

36o CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

appearance upon the scene of a defender of humble aspect
but of some capacity. A certain Francis Troches, or Troccio,
his valet or chamberlain, known by the unhappy Italians as
the most daring and infamous of the Pope's confidants, pre-
sented himself before the King of France, and succeeded in
clearing the character of his master, despite the accusation of
the princes and people of Italy. So ably did he lie that the
Borgia were purified in the eyes of the King, whose con-
fidence in them was restored. This is not the only occasion
on which Troccio rendered them this service ; this special
incident, which occurred a year later (1502), is referred to
here because Troccio will soon again appear, and the reader
w^ill be the better prepared to recognize in him a suitable
agent between the papal and the French courts.

The knightly regard of the French army, " in the full pride
of its chivalry," for Catherine, was especially stimulating in
the case of Yves d'Alegre, who shared the chief command
with d'Aubigny. He had done all he could to protect
Catherine from the avarice of Antoine de Bissey, and from
the licentious ferocity of Caesar Borgia. He had pledged the
word of a French officer that none might call her prisoner,
but that the liberty of a subject of his King should be
respected, and he swore that he would rescue her from the
vile clutches of the Borgia as from the devil's claws. He
left the army encamped at Viterbo, and, attended by only
three horsemen, rode with such haste to Rome that he dis-
mounted at the gates of the Vatican on the 20th. He
instantly presented himself to the Pope, to whom with the
audacity of a Frenchman, and the assurance of a powerful
ally, he spoke as follows —

" Holy Father ! ]\Iadame Katherine Sforce is not, and
never can be your prisoner : she is the subject of the King of
France my Lord, whose military laws, as you are aware,
prohibit the imprisonment of women in war. She might
have been temporarily detained in Rome but left free to go
and come within the city as she pleased. This was the
compact agreed upon by my mediation between your Duke
of Valentino and the Bailli of Dijon, who had charge of

THE DELIVERANCE 361

Madame, and for it I gave my security. Therefore Your
Holiness will immediately liberate Madame, or I will advise
the King my Lord by courier, that compacts to which he had
lent his name have been violated : and with sorrow to Himself
and dishonour to Your Holiness he will enforce the deliver-
ance of Madame, unless our army which now lies at Viterbo,
but will be here within a few days, has not already wiped out
the dishonour of P'rance with tumult and scandal. . . ."

The Pope was intimidated, and lest he should lose the
alliance with France and Spain, and the fruits of the war
with Naples, he obeyed and declared that Catherine should
be set free. But the closing scene of this drama, simple and
speedy as it appeared, could not take place without the
intervention of the orators of alien States and others, among
whom were perhaps the Florentine Allessandro Bracci and
the orator of the republic, Francesco de' Pepi. One who
may not be overlooked on this occasion was certainly Troches
or Troccio, one of the Borgia's most trusted assassins, destined
to be the buffer between themselves and the righteous in-
dignation of the King of France.

Meanwhile Caesar Borgia, in virtue of his recent conquests
of Pesaro, Rimini and Faenza, had been created Duke of
Romagna. On the approach of the French army, he foresaw
that a movement in favour of Catherine would re-open a
dangerous matter, and since his return, on the evening of
the 17th, he had \d\\^ perdu in the Vatican to watch the tide
of events and regulate its course.

It is to be gathered from several documents that the Duke
of Romagna opposed the liberation of Catherine with all
his might. " She would be a living menace to his new
State. She would draw the Emperor to her side, move the
Florentines, cause a rising among the Bolognese, fill the
Venetians with suspicion, agitate the people of Genoa and
Savona, and turn Lombardy and Romagna upside down !
She had partisans, conspirators, intrigues and lovers all over
Italy: she would raise the devil, as she had ever done, to
regain her States and revenge herself." Thus the Duke
justified her imprisonment and opposed her deliverance.

362 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

without, however, making any impression on d'Alegre ; the
French army was at the gates of Rome, there was no time to
be lost, and the Duke had no choice but to yield. There was
therefore nothing more to do but to discuss the terms upon
which she should be set free. These were that she should
sign a formal renunciation of her States, and consent to super-
vision so long as she remained in Rome. The Frenchman
then left the Vatican and rode down to the fort by the Borgo.
In a few moments Catherine, languishing in prison, would
look upon the angel of deliverance.

The woman who rose to meet Monseigneur d'Alegre did
not resemble the one he had known a year ago. She had
passed a year in the dark, narrow cell into which the Borgia
had thrust her. They had expended as little as possible on
her, in continual expectation of her death. She was haggard
from suffering and scant food, worn by fever, and livid from
living in the dark.

O Lords of the Venetian Senate ■ come and gaze on your
formidable enemy, (/uc'//a tigre de la madona de Forli ! Do
you recognize her in the long, spare, nun-like figure, worn by
vigil, fast and penance, who has tried to still the torments of
the mind by those of the body .'' Every time that her scanty
food was brought her she had dreaded poison ; every night
she had dreaded the Tiber.

Yet her hard destiny had not surprised her : she believed
and felt that she had deserved it. Her letters prove that
in religion her ideas were simple and firmly rooted, and that
the influence of her grandmother Bianca, and her adopted
mother Bona, had never left her. She had no doubts on the
subject of free-will ; she was sure that in this world or the
next she would have to give an account of her public and
private shortcomings. In the triumph of the Borgia, she
perceived the punishment of the crimes of the Riario, and
was assured that God would not forget the Borgia when their
time came. In her own tortures she felt that her victims
were being avenged : those who had been thrown down
spiked wells or had died on her gallows. O poor Rosaria

THE DELIVERAN'CE 363

and innocent children of the Orsi ! O unhappy wretches
who had disappeared in the dungeons of Imola and Forli !
your blood has cried aloud to God for vengeance, and God
had punished her who slew and tortured.

She appears to have sought relief in correspondence with
her sons ; not by complaining of physical discomfort, which
she had assured them she was able and willing to bear, but
from the torments of her conscience ; and her sons, having
recovered their sense of justice and filial love, had offered
the Pope in exchange for her liberty the whole of their
ecclesiastical benefices in Romagna. The penitent they
would have rescued from "such hard servitude and misery"
suffered even more acutely from the terrors of that Gehenna
to which her conscience pointed than from those of the Tiber
and the poison of her jailers. She prayed them to remember
her in their prayers. They in return prayed her to bear
these torments, since God had willed them : " . , . hoping in
the unwearied love, mercy and justice of Our Redeemer
Jesus Christ ; in the certainty that he will not abandon Your
Ladyship . . . and that these afflictions are giv^en for the
salvation of Your soul, ... So that by unceasing appeal to
Him, he may grant Your desire, always remembering not to
be led by the Devil to despair, even if he should put before
Your eyes all Your errors. For one sole drop of the blood
of Christ suffices to ransom all the sins of hell, much less to
justify Your Excellency, Therefore fear nothing, Madonna,
Our beloved Mother ; be steadfast and let God work, for
We know that he will neither abandon You nor Us, and that
even if we succeed not with this contract (proposal for her
deliverance) it will be to Your honour and salvation. There-
fore take comfort and lean on God, for all other hope is
vain. . . . Neither will We cease to work in the alleviation
of Your anguish. ... It will be well for Your Ladyship to
tear up this letter at once, so that it may not fall into the
hands of the Pope. . . ." ^ Besides her terrors and remorse,

' A long letter addressed at this same time to Cardinal Medici l)y Octavian
and Cxsar Riario, proves that even in the effort to eftect their mother's
deliverance they were seeking their own advantage and clamouring for benefits

364 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

Catherine suftered agonies of anxiety on behalf of her little
son Giannino. For the love of this child she longed to
perform good deeds, so earning a right to live, to see her
child again, to rescue him. These had been the thoughts of
Catherine during those long days and nights she had lain in
the Castle of St. Angelo, clasping her crucifix to her breast.
She did not dream that the army which had dethroned her
had again invaded Italy, and was clamouring at the gates of
Rome for her freedom.

It had seemed almost impossible to the Borgia that even
d'Alegre could induce Catherine to renounce her sovereignty.
But Catherine was above all a practical statesman, and she
realized that her States were indeed lost to her. France had
guaranteed her personal liberty, yet King Louis neither could
nor would give a ducat nor a soldier to re-instate her. She
remembered that the " Most Christian king " had declared his
personal indifference to the question of Romagna, into which
he had been drawn by the Pope's importunity, and that he
also felt himself prohibited from intervention between the
Pope and his vicars.

Catherine, who did not wish to increase the difficulties of
her deliverers, immediately conceded to d'Alegre that which
she had so obstinately denied to the Borgia. In truth this
renunciation of her States, which she had agreed to sign as
soon as she left prison, did not mean much to her. The Pope
was stricken in years ; after him what would become of the
Duke of Romagna ? Would divine justice chastise the Riario,
yet overlook the treachery, the poison and other villainies of
Caesar Borgia .'' The College of Cardinals included a Sforza,
a Riario, and a Delia Rovere . . . the days of Sixtus IV.
might yet return for her and hers. Catherine witnessed a
singular spectacle during the last days of her imprisonment.
The Pope, albeit a Spaniard, and, to quote Jean d'Autun, " a
bad Frenchman," had received the French captains with con-
spicuous honour, and Rome was in holiday attire. " The
league between the Pope, France and Spain had been

for themselves. See Vol. ii. of the original Caterina Sforza, di Pier Desiderio
Pasolini.

THE DELIVERANCE 365

declared," writes Sanuto. " An edict requires every one to
rejoice and illuminate . . . there is nothing to be seen in Rome
but silks and brocade." The French army left the Eternal
City on June 28, 1501. The infantry, artillery and baggage-
wagons, which were the first to move, extended for the length
of a mile. Then came the mounted men-at-arms, helmet on
head and lance on hip, in fighting array. The city was so
deafened by the sound of trumpets, fifes and big Swiss drums,
that thunder would have passed unheard."

Opposite to the Castle of St. Angelo, seated on a low
battlemented terrace and surrounded by cardinals, bishops
and Roman barons, sat Pope Alexander, with the Duke of
Romagna by his side, extending his hand in apostolic bene-
diction over the heads of the Italian, French and Swiss
soldiers, as they passed before him.

On June 13, a few armed men, on horseback, issued from
the Castle of St. Angelo. A woman rode in their midst, and
with them crossed the bridge. It was Catherine, who, after
sixteen months' duresse, was led by Troccio, chamberlain of
the Pope, from the Castle of St. Angelo to the house of the
[Spanish] Cardinal of San Clemente, and there, wrote the
Piovano Fortunati to Octavian and Caesar Riario, " she re-
mained about three hours : and by the deed of the public
notary did renounce her States on her own behalf and as
guardian of her sons . . . and, besides, did agree, under penalty
of twenty-five ducats, not to depart from Rome without
permission from the Pope." This permission would be
accorded her as soon as she received 2000 ducats, which the
Countess acknowledged " to have spent on the occasion of
this her deliverance among various persons." The fact that
Catherine was led out of prison by Troccio ^ points to the

^ The end of Troclies, or Troccio, is too characteristic of tlie age to be omitted
here. The assassin claimed the Red Hat as a reward for his services, and one day
(in the year 1553) confided to the Pope his displeasure in not having been included
in the last batch of cardinals. "And His Holiness replying that ' My Lord Duke
had made the list,' Troccio inveighed against the Duke until the I'ope called him a
madman to let his tongue run away with him ; for if the Duke heard of it, ' he would
surely put him to death. . . ' " Troccio fled from Rome, and either to save his life, or

366 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

probability that he was a party to the negotiations with
d'Alegre, that he had dictated to Catherine the sum " incurred
in her expenses of Hberation," and that he had been employed
as a jailer-inspector by the Borgia, to report to them on the
progress of the malady that should have delivered them of
her. The Fiovano encloses some letters written to him by the
Countess, and the list of the persons among whom the 2000
ducats were to be distributed, sending the whole by a trusty
groom, so that " the Countess may escape from those incarnate
fiends and return to her children. . ." "And I think it best to
hasten matters so that she may avoid any new snare, for the
slightest hitch would reduce her to a worse servitude than
before. . . Therefore provide at once and hasten to be here.
. . ." In the same letter we learn that Fra Lauro was at large
and that Madonna had already appointed him her chaplain,
" an excellent choice, inasmuch as he is an influential person
and a worthy friar ; " although the Picvano seems to fear that
his (Fra Lauro's) want of tact may be prejudicial to them in
Florence.

Having signed the document of renunciation, Catherine's
first steps were directed to Monseigneur d'Alegre, with the
object of offering her thanks to her noble deliverer, " with
whom she remained for a long time in conversation on
present affairs and past events." 1

Catherine " went to dwell in her own house," wrote the
Piovano, " or rather in that of the Most Reverend Monsignor

in revenge, revealed to the French the secret intrigues of the Borgia with Spain.
Valentino enjoined on his allies to catch Troccio, who was spreading rumours
"injurious to the honour of France." He was accordingly seized on board a
vessel bound for Corsica, brought back to Rome, and imprisoned in a tower in
Trastevere. Here he was confronted by the Duke, who after saying a few words to
him retired to a place where, unseen, he could watch Troccio being strangled by
Michelotto. " They have sent him to do penance for his sins in another world,"
wrote Giustinian to the Venetian Senate on June 8 of that year. "Now," con-
tinues the Orator, "they are almost without servants to do their business. The
Duke has only Remolines and Michelotto left, who are expecting to come to the
same end, within a short time." — Vide Letter of Bertrande Costabeli to the Duke
of Ferrara, June ii, 1503. P. Villari {Machiavelli : Vol. i. p. 599), and the
Dispatches of Giustinian, No. 410, t. ii. pages 35-36.
^ Burriel.

THE DELIVERANCE 367

San Giorgio " (Cardinal Raphael Riario).^ Surrounded by
the partisans of Pope Sixtus, Catherine remained in Rome
until the middle of July, and every day a long line of the

r Lou v>0£»->-<re-^ ^vrc*. "^(c*- -yyioLt-i '^e-r-y^hif aU jo

Ka. oo-y-m ^■y^i-y^in. Woiy c^\it-9 j-}-<^ L^ytyO 3^'^'*
trrcC-yJto itrtt-^-r-mfyic^ tr-z p -h^tti Lc^-,no crt'PP**'

c^-no o^LclrZ et- ■^^ {irb^^y^e<,t^y^^'^

^if

■y\n%

AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF CATHERINE SFORZA.

richly-caparisoned mules and palfreys of the Roman car-
dinals and nobles stopped the way before her door. For
especially those of the Orsini faction came to oftcr their
homage and congratulations to this celebrated woman, and

1 Nephew of Girolamo and one of the defenders of the Castle of Forli.

368 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

cither from admiration or curiosity, all Rome followed in her
steps, until even the Florentine Orator began to think he
might venture to present himself " I, having cautiously
offered my excuses to the Madonna of Imola in that I have
not paid my respects to her," wrote Francesco de Pepi to the
Florentine Ten, " she informed me that she is about to leave,
and that not knowing where else to go, will come to Florence,
desiring me to recommend her to Your Lordships. Roma, die
X iulii, 1 50 1."

Three days later, the Pope, in the following letter, recom-
mended to the Signory of Florence the erstwhile " Daughter
of Perdition and Iniquity."

"Beloved Sons, Greeting and Apostolic Benediction.

" Our beloved Daughter in Christ, the noble Dame Cathe-
rine Sforza, whom, as you know, we have on certain reason-
able grounds caused to be here detained, is leaving for
Florence, we having graciously liberated her. And because
according to our habit and pastoral office — we have not only
dealt clemently with the said Catherine, but we desire, in so far
as it is consistent with the law of God, to provide for her
advantage — we are minded to write you, fervently recom-
mending to you the said Catherine by the love you bear us :
so that, confiding in your benevolence, she may find shelter
among you as in her own land, and that by virtue of our
recommendation, she may not be deceived in this her hope.
. . . Given in Rome . . . under the Apostolic Seal on the 13th
day of July, 1501, in the ninth year of our Pontificate."

As early as July i, Paul Riario^ had written Catherine that
all Rome exulted in her deliverance, and all Florence rejoiced
in her coming, adding that he hoped that she would be
accompanied to Florence by some of the French lords, lest
" she fall into danger."

To this same danger the Mantuan Orator alludes in writing
to Francesco Gonzaga — ' The Countess of Forli has left this

1 Nephew of Girolanio and one of tlie defenders of the Castle of Forli.

THE 1)ELI\"ERANCE 369

with the Pope's permission, and for fear of her enemies . . .
gave out that she was leaving by land, but went by sea. . .
Ro}iia, 20 udii, 1501." And Machiavelli says — "The Madonna
of Imola was Hberated by the Pope at the prayer of Mon-
seigneur d'Alegre. And no sooner was she free than she
fled to Leghorn by sea and came to Florence."

Catherine must have heard that Csesar Borgia, having been
forced to liberate her against his will, had posted certain
Romagnole assassins along the way she was to travel. She
preferred to risk the dangers of the sea, and fall into the
hands of Turks and corsairs, than those of the Borgia braves ;
she did not leave, but fled from Rome by the Tiber, in a
boat ; taking to the sea at Ostia or Fiumicino and landing,
after a few days' sail, at Leghorn. She must have entered
Florence by the Pisan road that wound through the fragrant
woods, passing by its fir and cypress crowned castles and
its populous villages, until she looked again upon the hospit-
able walls that girded the city of her choice.

On approaching Florence, Catherine w-as met by a little
cavalcade which, with indescribable emotion, she discovered
to consist of her five sons, Octavian, Cai^sar, Galeazzo and
Francesco Riario, and Bernardino Feo, who led her through
the quiet streets of her childish dreams ; through Por Santa
Maria, turning from Vacchereccia into the great square where
stood the palace of the Signoria and the house of the Gondi
to the palace of the Podesta ; then on again by the Via del
Proconsolo, through the Borgo degli Albizzi, under the
windows of the Pazzi, the Alessandri and the Filicaia, until
at last, passing under the Arch of San Piero, and entering
Borgo Pinti, they halted before the house of Giuliano Scali.

Here Catherine's daughter Bianca must have placed the
little Giannino, who had been confided to her special care, in
his mother's arms. Here, too, she was awaited by Lorenzo,
brother of her third husband, who conducted her to her own
house, "as mistress of all that had belonged to his late brother,"
says Burriel. Catherine at once took her place in a family
destined to found the reigning dynasty of Tuscany, to give
a queen to I-'rance and a splendid civilization to the world.

B B

370 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

Florentines of every faction and condition came to pay
their respects to the widow of Giovanni Popolano, and the
old and the new stories of the Madonna of Imola revived in
the minds of the Florentines. Had not Machiavclli told
them of her ? And the\' came in eager crowds to do her
honour.

The warmth of Catherine's reception caused displeasure at
the Vatican, and some anxiety to Valentino. " It is my duty
to inform Your Lordships," wrote Fortunati to Octavian and
Caesar Riario, " that the Duke has complained to the Bishop of
Volterra, that this city holds you in such favour, reputation
and esteem, and His Reverence having constrained him to
explain whether he referred to Madonna, your mother, he
replied that he set no store by women, especially by your
mother, whom, for his part, he would not have suffered to
leave the Castle of St. Angelo."

Yet this woman, who had been so bitter in denunciation
of her other enemies, the Bentivoglio and the cardinals, her
kinsmen, this woman who has been described as " quick of
speech," 1 when her anger was roused; who had been betrayed,
slandered, and starved by the Borgia, never henceforward
mentioned them in hatred or revenge. That which she had
suffered at their hands she could not speak of. Only once
she had spoken to her Dominican confessor these significant
words — " Could I write all, the world would turn to stone ! "

^ Bernaidi, '^ di lingua velocissitna."

CHAPTER XXXVI

THE LAST TROUBLES AND THE END

Catherine's biographers have been hitherto unanimous
in stating that after her arrival in Florence, forgetful of
worldly grandeur and political intrigue, she lived, absorbed
in pious thoughts and charitable works, in absolute retirement.

Yet the correspondence of that day, some of Catherine's
letters and many addressed to her by her sons and familiars,
show that the pious resignation of those years was not wholly
unleavened by worldly cares and sorrows, and even by
ambition.

Her friends gave her a mournful account of the effects of
Cssar's government in her former dominions : " Fire " and
" Rope " were the words of most frequent occurrence in
letters from Imola ; but in that fort where tortures were
enacted, they worked day and night and expended 6000
to 8000 gold ducats in the preparation for public amusement.
Caesar would keep his city in Hesse. Attached to his person
was a boisterous company of a hundred young men, many of
whom were to become famous in arms ; among them being
Dionisio of Brisighella, Taddco della Volpe (who later fought
under the Venetian flag), and the Spaniards Don Juan de
Cardona and Moncada (who later served Charles V.). Among
veterans in arms were Hercules Bentivoglio, ex-captain of
the Florentinas, C<esar Spadari of Modena, Vitcllozzo VitelH
and the Orsini. In carnival time this wild band was a worse
scourge to the quiet population of Imola than they had been
in time of war. Thus Catherine's trusty Tonelli, who con-

371

372 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

eludes by entreating her to send a courier to her sister, the
Empress of Germany, to hasten her coming with the Emperor ;
it being "now the highest time." On February 21, 1502,
ToneUi sends Catherine a list of her partisans at Imola, and
one "of the ribald traitors who have given Your Excellency's
State into the hands of that Marano (Valentino)." He adds
that every night the faithful meet at his house to recall their
Lad}', whom " may God and Our Lady send back soon to her
State. . . . One day seems to us as a thousand }'ears. . . ."
With wide-stretched arms they all await their sovereign Lady,
who if she come not soon to " drive those swinish traitors to
the House of the Devil, it were better for us to die. ... If
I sleep, I think I am with Your Lad}-ship, if I wake it is the
same ; if I eat I leave off eating to talk with Your Ladyship."
Throughout Bologna and Ferrara, there is no talk but of her
return, so that the "poltroon traitors" are beginning to feel
ill at ease. He concludes by allusion to the rapine of Valen-
tino, and of his creature " Messer Remiro," and to the passage
of Lucretia Borgia through Lnola.

There is a letter from Catherine (dated April 22, 1502,
to a certain Era Domenico^ enjoining on him to open the
eyes of the Emperor Maximilian to the " perfid}' and male-
volence of those, thanks to whom little credence has been
given to me hitherto, to the detriment and dishonour of His
Cesarean Majesty. . . . The affairs of Itah-, and especially
of these provinces, cannot be regulated by this standard. . . .
The populace has opened its eyes, caring naught for blows,
threats and terrorism. The Emperor must do exactly the
contrary to that which was done by the French Kings
Charles and Louis, and, by conferring favour and prosperity
on this people, will obtain from them more than he could
have asked. . . . And so it would be with the rest of Italy. . . .
I have warned His Cesarean Majesty that unless he be
prompt in action and loving treatment of the Italians, he
will lose every chance of achieving his ends. ..."

On August 18, 1503, Pope Alexander VI. died, and that the
Church did not expire in his arms is surely a sign that God
had taken her under His wine. With the extinction of the

THE LAST TROUBLES AND THE END 373

fount of corruption, the world breathed a purer air and
Catherine awakened. " I am ready to mount my horse," she
wrote to Antenore Giovanetti at Bologna, a month later,
" and am only waiting to put everything in order. . . . Write
me where it were best to dismount (Imola or Forli ?) and take
counsel with Messer Bonaparte. Be assured, all of you, that
these States must return to the Lord Octavian and to me,
his mother. ... I have arranged that everything must take
its (natural) course." But Catherine was entreated not to
move at that juncture ; her enemies were legion. " I realize,"
wrote Giovan Battista Ridolfi, Horentine Commissioner in
Romagna, "that if Madonna were dead the Lord Octavian
would not be unacceptable, except among the people of Forli
and its rural population. But during the lifetime of Madonna
they who might espouse his cause would do so unwillingly;
so much do they fear and hate her." This either represents
the opinion or the policy of Catherine's adversaries. Mean-
Avhile, from Imola they wTite her that "she is indeed not
hated," and reproach her for scruples and want of faith in
herself. On September 9 Tonelli had written her from
Rome : " All the princes have come to their own again,
because they have not had as many scruples as Your Lady-
ship." If she would send troops under Octavian, she w^ould
learn that the men of Imola are not so disaftected as has
been represented to her. If Guido Vaini^ were but back
among them ! " He has up to now endured such injuries at
the Duke's hands that there is no ill on earth he would not
do to him . . . and even without this, he would have done it."
The Florentines, impatient to snatch Forli from Valentino,
tried to corrupt his castellane, promising the latter the hand
of the still beautiful and influential Catherine, and the life-
governorship of Imola. Giovanni Dalamasa wTote her that
many citizens had discussed the matter with the said castellane,
telling him that " the best thing he could do was to give the
said fort to Your Ladyship and take you to wife." The
castellane replied that he would certainly not give the fort
to the Pope, whom " he hated for a traitor," and that he would

^ Head of the (;hil)ellines of Imola and a partisan of tlie Riario.

374 CATHERINE AND THE BORCilA

rather give it to Catherine than to any other. And many-
times he had said to his friends that Catherine was his wife
(/.^. the wife for him). Catherine had already been in com-
munication with him by means of a certain Ceriobola, a
strange woman with whom she was on most intimate terms,
and on whom she relied in matters that required secrecy.

The plan for the return to Forli was soon perfected and
drawn up. Catherine and Octavian sent Antenore Giovanetti
to Venice with a message to the effect that if the Senate
would co-operate in their reinstatement they would do any-
thing that Venice could require of them. Octavian, despite
his archbishopric, was willing to wed the daughter of a
Venetian patrician ; he no longer hankered after the Red
Hat. The Countess had received offers from the Florentines,
but albeit a citizen of Florence she wished to ally herself
with the Venetians. Meanwhile Anton Maria Ordelaffi had
been cutting the ground beneath their feet. With the help
of the Duke of Ferrara and the Bolognese, he had already
entered Forli. The Venetian magistrates asked Giovanetti
if he came on behalf of Cardinal Riario as well as on that of
the Count and Countess, and he having replied in the negative,
they gave him an evasive answer.

But Catherine was not to be discouraged. " It is matter
for general wonder that you should allow yourself to be led
(by the nose)," she wrote Octavian; ". . . . beware to be
subject to none, nor to be coerced by the letters you receive
. . . that which is being done is for your sake and for
none other ... if you are guided by the wrong persons you
•wiW ?ynd your cap pulled over your eyes . . . wherefore awake!"
She had information from Rome of the policy of the moment;
she begged him to remember that in her previous letter she
*' advised him " that he had come to man's estate, that he
wa; of an age to know the world and men ; to him and none
other she appealed that he might remember she "was his
mother, to whom he had given his word." In the affair of
Ordelafifi, " it pleases me that the iron be struck while it is
hot . . . lose no time, but remember that (popular) favour is
an important factor ; therefore hasten, I beseech you. . . ."

THE LAST TROUBLES AND THE END 375

" Si Jus violandiiui est, regnandi causa violandjun est,'' wrote
Fortunati to Octavian, "and I pray Your Lordship to remember
that you have ever known me for a faithful servant who (now
exhorts you) to continually hold your mother in your heart ;
for, before God, she is about to do things of fire for Your
Lordship. And since all cannot be said . . . read often the
notes given you by your mother for the time when your
State should be given back to you."

Octavian never recovered his State ; that he was incapable
of regaining it was the opinion of the Ancients of Imola,
who, on October 22, 1503, scarcely deigned to open a letter
he had written them, and, having opened it, threatened to
hang the horseman "by the neck" who had brought it. "If
Your Ladyship had headed the undertaking," wrote Tonelli,
" it would have yielded better fruit. . . . We are indeed worse
off than when Valentino was here, for then, at least, we had
undisturbed possession of our own. If Your Ladyship do not
help us we are in evil case. ..." Throughout Bologna,
where Tonelli then resided, Catherine's sons were spoken so
badl)'" of that he and her other partisans " were sore ashamed,
from love to Your Ladyship, whose sons they are ; every day
we go to pay ' our court to > Madonna Zianevera (Ginevra
Bentivoglio), and if it were not for the entertainment offered
us by Her Ladyship, we were already dead of sheer weariness."

On December 2, 1503, Alessandro Sarti wrote Catherine
from Rome that " they who would not have your name
mentioned, when I first arrived in Rome, are now well disposed
in your favour, and whereas at first I met with ugly faces
(opposition) for love of Your Ladyship, I now encounter
smiling ones, and whereas at first I was told in this house of
the chamberlain that I might not speak of Your Ladyship's
affairs, now I may say what I will."

Meanwhile Catherine had written him that she could
endure no longer, that she no longer could restrain herself
from condign punishment "of those ribald servants that have
been left in our house." To which Sarti replied: "For the
love of God, for the sake of the honour of the cause and our
services, do nothing! Since Your Lad)'ship has borne so

376 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

much, bear it yet a little while ! " All would end well,
Octavian would be an admirable and obedient son to her,
but the evil-minded had so terrified him that he was more
dead than alive ; his letters were full of tears and anguish.
Catherine's innocence would conquer their malignity-. A
certain Francesco of Parma, once servant to the late Count
Girolamo, had "died in want, like a dog." Sarti regretted this,
for the "sake of the honour" of Octavian. " Duke Valentino
is in the palace, under strong guard." This was in December.
In the following January, 1504, the Castellane of Forli
announced, to the accompaniment of cannon, that it was his
intention to level half the city to the ground, and to offer it
to Catherine Sforza. He was supposed to hold the fort for
Valentino, but the latter was "detained in the palace" until
he gave up the strongholds of his duchy of Romagna to the
new Pope. In the College of Cardinals, Ascanio Sforza was
in favour of and Raphael Riario averse to her restoration, to
which the new Pope seemed favourably inclined.

The Venetian Orator learned, in an interview with Cardinal
Riario, that the latter, despite his personal liking for Madonna,
could not further her designs, because the Pope intended to
keep those States for the Church. And although the Cardinal
believed that the Pope would eventually re-invest the Riario
with the vicariats of Imola and Forli, he had told the Orator
that " neither Pope nor people would consent to the return of
Madonna Caterina." The Pope sought the alliance of the
Venetians to obtain possession of the forts in which Valentino
was said to have hidden his treasure. In conclusion, the
Cardinal had confessed that he hoped to be the next pope
after this one. Sanuto repeats that the Imolese will not have
Madonna back again. On January 11 the Pope received the
Imolese envoys, to whom he said : " Since you have no other
instructions except to swear obedience to the Church, we
will hold the State ourselves." Meanwhile, let them consider
if they would prefer to have "a secular Lord as our vicar."
His Holiness would favour the Riario "if the whole land were
in accord." It was understood that he referred to Giovanni
Sassatelli, who had surrendered Imola to Valentino.

THE LAST TROUBLES AND THE END 377

The Pope's words led some persons to believe that the Riario
might return to Imola, but only through the interv^ention
of Cardinal Riario and without Catherine. " The Pope,^ in
reference to Your Ladyship, said that you had told the said
Johanne (Sassatelli) that not you but Cardinal San Giorgio
had caused his father to be assassinated. . . . They say of you
that in one day you undo the work of fifteen. For the love
of God do not thwart the ways of Providence." Catherine's
correspondent warns Octavian against going to Rome, should
he be summoned. He wished to go to state his grievances,
and to complain at being excluded from his State. But if
the Pope asked him to sign the renunciation of his rights, how
would he defend himself .-' This state of things could not
last for ever, " inasmuch that all our astrologers agree that
the Pope cannot outlive the whole of the coming month of
October." In which the astrologers were at fault, for Pope
Julian II. did not die until February 21, 15 13. "The
Bentivoglio complain bitterly of Octavian's obstinacy, and
wish they had never set eyes on him." And as Catherine
would not be withheld from going to Bologna, to keep in
touch with Romagnole politics, the trusty Tonelli entreats
her not to pass the frontier, but to write him word where to
meet her, "and immediatel}' I will conduct Your Ladyship to
my house, where my Madonna will make you safe and com-
fortable . . . and none shall learn of your arrival except
those whom you wish to be informed of it."

In February a difference between the Cardinals Riario and
Alidosi was arranged b}- an agreement by which Raphael
Riario gave a niece in marriage to Bertrando Alidosi and
Imola to Galeazzo, Catherine's third son, on the condition that
the Countess would not set foot in that State. The intended
wife of the new Lord of Imola was a daughter of Giovanna
of Montefeltro, Duchess of Sora. The State would not be
given to Octavian " because of his understanding with his
mother, for which reason the population would not hear of
him." In any case Giovanna of Montefeltro would not give
him her daughter " because he was fat beyond measure : his

' Doc. 1225.

378 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

uncle the cardinal would have him a priest and soon a
cardinal." ^

But on March 24 Tonelli informed Catherine that Octavian
was not to have the cardinal's hat after all ; that no new
cardinals would be elected for the next three years, and that
Pope Julian did not care for Galcazzo as a candidate. He
had said of Galeazzo that he had " little wool in his petticoat."
Poor Octavian had been disparaged by his own friends,
who had spread about Rome that " he was thick of blood
and brains."- "The Duke of Urbino likes him and wonders
how he can prefer the Red Hat to the recovery of his
States, adding that he was popular at Imola and Porii and
a man grown and of some wit. . . . They will have none
other lest they fall under the government of priests." But if
the Pope will have none of him, of what avail is his popularity.''
It was rumoured that Catherine was going to Rome. " God
send her," cried her partisans. "She would, indeed, teach
them reason, and tell the poor people who had been deceived
by rogues where to look for justice. Meanwhile Imola was
unsettled, and in June there was an armed rising of the
populace. None of the Riario had returned, and Octavian
declared that he would not give up his States unless they
made him a cardinal."

During the fluctuations of this intrigue the Bentivoglio, of
whom Catherine had long thought and wrote as her worst
enemies, became her devoted friends, and Bologna the head-
centre of her partisans. Antenore Giovanetti wrote Catherine,
that a certain person had ventured to express to Madonna
Ippolita Bentivoglio (a daughter of Carlo Sforza) his hope
Catherine would keep away from Bologna, where her presence
would be injurious to the prospects of her son Galeazzo. But
Ippolita "had so mocked him," saying that if Catherine came
to Bologna she would never leave her by day or night, and
that her arrival was desired by every member of the House
of Bentivoglio, that the misguided man had "remained like
a scalded dog, and never again ventured to appear before
her." They all sorrowed that her sons were so wanting in

^ Sanuto, Vol. v. col. 799, and 833, 34. - Doc. 1235.

THE LAST TROUBLES AND THE END 379

afifection for her. . . . The best and most devoted to her was
Galeazzo.

Sanuto relates that in December of that year, when Pope
JuHan conferred knighthood and a gold collar on Giovanni
SassateUi, leader of the Guelph faction, who were for the
papal government of Finola, and opposed to the Riario,
Octavian, who considered himself Lord of Imola, " went about
Rome like a madman " in his despair. The Venetian
Orator wrote that he " had become so fearsome that he never
went unarmed."

Hatred and distrust of Catherine clashed with the blind
faith and love she inspired. " I cannot write you," wrote one
of her partisans in July 1504, "so beset am I by a hundred
couples of devils, because of the love I bear Your Ladyship."
" W'e are all unhinged as dwellers in a deserted house," v.Tote
Gabriele Piccoli, warrior and poet, from the Fort of Casola
Valsenio, "like a v'essel at sea, without sail, mast, rudder, or
oars. . . . To hearten myself, I have recourse to Your Lady-
ship with the earnest prayer that you will straighten (our
differences), admonish, instruct, counsel and remember us.
. . . I do not believe there be a man in the w^orld who
loves you with a greater affection than I, wherefore, were I
to die a thousand times and be as often resuscitated, so often
would I return, my Goddess, to suffer death for your sake."
The veteran soldier writes, full of hope, that the troops of the
Emperor Maximilian had arrived at Bellinzona, ruined a castle
of the Trivulzio, and taken a son of Count Gian-Giacomo
prisoner. The Venetians, with their designs on Romagna, were
hiring condottieri, levying Light Horse, six hundred Foot,

etc The Count of Caiazzo, and others, had invited

Piccoli to join them with several hundred men, but he "would
not leave for anything the world fhas to offer), and I will die
in the faith in which I have lived. You are more adored
than ever ; every one hopes in Your Ladyship .... and I
for one will prove to you that I am not so worn out as to be
incapable of more than you expect ; for if I was anxious to
serve you, now it has become a necessity to me. Your
Ladyship criticizes the ruggcdness of my speech in terms

38o CATHERINE AM) THE BORGIA

so suave, gentle, cordial and delightful that they move me to
tears. I hold my ruggedness in affection in that it has
brought me such a letter from Your Ladyship. Nicolo dal
Sale longs for your coming ; he adores you, and so do
many others whom, in time, I will make known to you —
this is not the season. I have some sonnets and other
material ; these also I hope to show you. The courier wants
to start. Bene et feliciter valeat semper Doviinatio Vestj-a, o
Divi)iitas et spes inea. Ex Faventia X. Jiilii, 1507. Servolus
Gabriel Piccoliis!'

Catherine, on leaving Florence, retired to Castello, a posses-
sion of her late husband's ; but even there it was not given to
her to devote herself peacefully, either to the education of
Giannino or the rustic and domestic avocations that she
loved. For in the rest of this woman of action inactivity had
no part ; her housekeeping included the minutest details of
supervision ; she was a breeder and lover of animals ; her
book of Experiments (edited from her own handwriting by
Count Lucantonio Cuppano) and her letters prove that the
health and well-being of her dependents interested her no less
than the hygiene of a plague-stricken city. Her correspond-
ence ranged from high politics to exchanges with the Marquis
of Mantua of a recipe for making nineteen-carat gold for a
cosmetic; from letters to holy men (in 1497 Savonarola had
been among their numberj to the discussion of Spanish
genets; from sporting dogs with the Duchess of Ferrara to
the loan of that princess's tailor; from complaints to the
Duke her husband of the nefarious designs of the Pope, to
thanks for the gift of salted eels (which, despite their political
differences, she will " eat for love of him ") ; from discussion
of the growth and distribution of grain with her factor to a
letter, written within a few months of her death, to " Anna a
Hebrew," on the subject of tonics for the skin. With all
this, Catherine found time to be a notable needlewoman.
Battista Riario writes in 1502, from Blois, to acknowledge her
kindness in having made him seven shirts a la Francaisc :
" The Lord Octavian writes me that Your Ladyship has made
me seven beautiful shirts, of which I stand much in need.

THE LAST TROUBLES AND THE END

381

The Lord Octavian writes that he will give them to me with
his own hand, but I pray you to be pleased to send them to
Madonna Caterina at Pavia, who hath many an opportunity
of sending them to me, for I doubt whether we meet within
six months. . . ." And, above all, there was Giannino to make
a man of.

Pier Francesco de' Medici and Lorenzo, her brother-in-law,
disputed her possession of the Villa Castello, whence Catherine,
as if it had been another Forli, declared that " they should
only get her in pieces ;" but soon after, exasperated by dis-

CASTELI.(1 : A VILLA OK THE MEDICI NEAR I-LORENCE.

putes with her sons on money matters, she fled from it " for
a quiet place." " I send Your Lordship Maria, Giovanni,
Benedetto Battista, and Palarino with my cattle. . . . Keep
them yourselves with the cattle, and send the slave Maria to
the service of my mother in Milan, and have no care for me,
for the Lord is with me, and you know that He will not
abandon me. Have a care for your health, and say the same
to the Archbishop (Ca;sar), but take special care of yourself,
for you need it. Be not anxious for me, for things will soon
be settled and in the right way, Castello, die 21 Juiiii, 1502.
Caterina Sf. Manii pp. a."

382 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

This letter to Octavian was followed by one from Fortunati.
"The sincerity with which I serve you," wrote the worthy
canon, " constrains me to impress on Your Lordships that
Madonna )-our mother has decided on leaving you because of
the bad conduct of Alberto, who has been acting on your
behalf. . . . The pain you have caused her is scarcely
credible, and it inspires ever}' one with the greatest com-
passion for her. ... I can do nothing, for the offence is so
public that it can neither be endured nor repaired, and I am
sure that it will have disastrous result unless Your Lordships
do provide against it, which you could do well personalh'
or through the Cardinal (Riario) : otherwise I pray Your
Lordships to believe that this will be a greater loss and injury
to you than the loss of your dominions .... I have in-
structed Franceschino IMerenda to ask Madonna Bianca^ to
send table linen and sheets, and the six forks and spoons and
other necessaries, so that the displeasure (of the Countess)
ma}- be in part assuaged. But she has not stirred, so that
I cannot think he gave her my message: for Madonna Bianca
is not one to neglect so important a matter. When Scipio
arrived I sent Franceschino to ask Madonna Bianca to pro-
vide for his sleeping accommodation, which was immediately
done. This has increased Her Excellency's anger : not that
he should have been well treated, but that she should be the
only person to be excluded from all sort of comfort and well-
being. Now I have no more to sa}', except to appeal to the
wisdom of Your Lordships to put an end to this state of
things in the manner which seems to you best, and may God
grant you take it sanel}' and in good part. . . . 22}id July,
1501."

On the same day Catherine wrote to her sons as follows : —

" Ilhistris D. et filii benedict e,

" The Piovano's letter will have informed you of my
needs. First of all I wish Maria to be sent for and con-
ducted to my mother . . . and if you return here bring my

^ Catherine's daughter, afterwards Countess of San Secondo, then living in
temporary retirement in a convent, "in much comfort and ease," wrote a certain
Alberto, probably her brother's agent.

THE LAST TROUBLES AND THE END 383

mule and my other animals that are in the stables of Messer
Giovanni da Casale, and ask Melozzo for an account of what
he has spent in their maintenance, with that of my people;
for I will requite him to the utmost. Bring with you the
groom and stableman. I will not have Benedetto here again ;
if you have any use for him, take him and tell him that this
is my will. If, on the other hand, you are not returning
immediately, send my mule and the other beasts by Melozzo
with the groom and the stableman. Nicolo can come for
Maria, take her to my mother, and then return to you. Your
Lordships will be so good as to attend promptly to these
matters, without reproach to me if the cattle have been sent
to Messer Giovanni, to whom I did not send them. I sent
them to Your Lordships. You know (best) who has been the
cause of this, but since I hav^e not suffered dishonour except
in my own family and to my (personal) humiliation, I am
well pleased, for they (the cattle and their attendants) have
been maintained hitherto. But the shame, My Lords, is that
which is of }'our own making and (which you) have permitted
others to do to me. Let it rest with God, and even for this
I have found a remed)-. I find myself with twenty-three
mouths to feed : five horses and three mules, all of which
I have to maintain without a soldo to do it on. No one has
given me so much as a glass of water, and what is worse,
neither a table-cloth, napkin nor pair of sheets wherewith to
provide for the following of Messer Scipio. I will bear this
until I have your answer, and then I shall know what to do.
Since I was born I have ne'er been so hurt nor so uncom-
fortable . . . God help me . . . God forgive you . . ."

There is another letter from her hiding-place, in which
Catherine tells her son Caesar that "between this and Castello
I have to provide for twenty-nine mouths, five saddle-horses
and three mules, for which I have no mone}', neither do you
send me any. ... I will put all my affairs in order, but you,
as good sons, should have told me )'ourselv^es, in good time,
that you wished to free yourselves of mc instead of giving mc
this information through Alberto and in such a manner. . . ."
Well might Guasconi write Octavian : "You have but two

384 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

friends, your mother and the Piovano, and be assured that had
not your mother in person cried ' Help ! help ! ' to the Gon-
faloniere, absolutely Your Lordship would never have had a
copper. You treat Her Ladyship execrably . . , you never
write a word to her, and I fear that God will punish you, and
that she, in her despair, will let everj-thing go to ruin. Should
Her Ladyship lose patience, as I fear she must, it is plain that
)-ou will be a ruined man."

While these humiliating discussions were pending, legal
questions arose as to her right to the guardianship of Gian-
nino de' Medici, which were no sooner settled than Octavian
wrote asking her to refund moneys due to him. Her third
son, Galeazzo, never swerved in duty nor affection to her :
" Any little word of Your Excellency," he wrote, " would send
me from Rome to Jerusalem." A letter from the Piovano
Fortunati indicates a better state of things in September
1503, but in the following year Catherine w-as again in urgent
need of money. Giovanetti advised her not to try to sell her
jewels in Milan, Genoa, Paris, nor Lyons. In Milan there
was no market, at Genoa there was the plague, and in Paris
and Lyons marriages were not solemnized in the prevailing
heat.^ Yet she was obliged to sell, because her sons, she
averred, had stripped her of everything. Li a letter to an
unknown person, she wishes the Emperor to be informed
that peace is denied to her, even after she has lost her States.
"If," she adds, "our States should unfortunately pass into
my sons' hands by other than my means, in truth they would
have no more respect for me than for a servant." For this
reason she strives to regain the States herself for Octavian.
Meanwhile, failing to sell her jewels, she pledged them to
Pagolantonio Soderini for 2464 ducats.

On August 12, 1507, Octavian prays her to send him fifty
ducats, or at least a piece of crimson caniclot for a vestment
to wear on the occasion of the Pope's arrival, to send him the
corniola (the seal) and his song-book, but, above all, to pro-
cure for him the much-coveted Red Hat. He also begs her
to give him frequent news of Germany, "because our Most

^ Doc. 126^.

THE LAST TROUBLES AND THE END 385

Reverend Monsignor often asks me : Bene domine Episcope,
Madonna ve scrive niente de le cose de li Todeschi?^ and I
know not what to say and stand there like a fool." In March
1508, he had "a bestial creditor, who made of no yes, and
of yes no . . . and he prayed Madonna, his beloved mother,
to ease his shoulders of this burden," also to find him "a
trustworthy Vicar " (naming his conditions), and to send him
the great song- book in which are written all the things of
the Holy Week, that he may learn them in time. Above
all, he entreats her to remember him when the friend (the
Emperor) shall arrive in Italy ... to get for him (Octavian)
if possible " that Red Thing, which will be, whether you will
or no, more yours than mine : for if you will have none of
me, I have need of you, and will never fail in the duties of
a good son to you." He concludes by recommending to her
his natural daughter, Cornelia.

The lawsuit with the House of Medici ended in favour of
Catherine, with an " eulogy " pronounced by Girolamo da
Pagolo Bencivieni on the dissensions and respective rights
of Pierfrancesco di Lorenzo de' Medici, Madonna Caterina
Sforza and Giovanni di Giovanni de' Medici her son. Lorenzo
had, for reasons of his own, withheld from Catherine large
sums of money due to her as guardian of Giannino, and dis-
puted her right to this guardianship. The legal question
which arose was : Did Catherine forfeit her civil rights on
becoming a prisoner of the Pope .'' The reply was : No
because her imprisonment was illegal.

Catherine wrote to the Marquis of Mantua, asking for his
protection and that of Giovanni Gonzaga, his brother, who
was then in Germany, whom she prayed to " lay her affairs
before His Imperial Majesty and the Most Christian Queen."
A little later Luigi Ciocha, a partisan of Catherine's, wrote
to the Marquis of Mantua, praying him to " favour her in
her struggle with Lorenzino de' Medici, who withheld from
her many thousand ducats and the guardianship of her infant
son, son to the Magnifico Giovanni, so that Lorenzino may

' "Well, my Lord Bishop, does Madonna write you nauglit of tlie affairs of
Germany? "

C C

386 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

not keep from her that which is hers, and may cease to do
injur}' to her, as heretofore." These letters date from the
year 1503, one of Catherine's most unhappy years.

" Fear not but that God will help you," wrote the worthy
Fortunati, "and leav^e all to me, for this child moves me to
do more than I could have imagined, if only for the love of
the blessed dead, who loved you so well. And believe that
I am unconscious of any slight, either on Your Excellency's
part or on that of others . . . and that I am your devoted
servant." Meanwhile Lorenzo, either by force or treachery,
succeeded in taking the child from Catherine and so getting
him into his own hands. Catherine had again recourse to
law, whence it resulted that an uncle could not be at the
same time heir and guardian of his nephew, and the child was
restored to his mother.

But Catherine realized that even in her arms her child was
not safe from the nefarious designs of Lorenzo, who had
spent a great part of his brother's heritage, a breach of trust
which could not fail to be discovered if the boy were per-
mitted to come to full age. To avoid public scandal and
the reprisals of his nephew, Lorenzo would not hesitate to
again steal him from his mother, and Catherine, who knew
that his life was in danger, speedily conveyed him, with some
female attendants, to the educational convent of Annalena.
For eight months, the great captain of the sixteenth century,
like another Achilles in Scyros, wore girl's clothes and
remained in the care of these nuns, to whom when he came
to man's estate he substantially proved his gratitude. This
is the origin of the many favours granted to the nuns of
Annalena by future Grand-Dukcs and Duchesses of Tuscan}-.

From the day in which Lorenzo had lost his case and been
obliged to restore Giannino to his mother, he not only lost
the hope of enriching himself at the child's expense, but the
consideration of his fellow-citizens, to whom his nefarious
designs had become known. So great was his despair at
the loss of his fair fame that he fell ill of it and died. The
death of Lorenzo is the last dramatic incident in the life of
Catherine, who returned to Castcllo with Giannino and there

THE LAST TROUBLES AND THE END 387

devoted the peaceful close of her life "to training him
fGiannino, the future Giovanni dalle Bande Nere) in ever}-
virtue and surrounding him with masters who could accustom
him to all those exercises suitable to his rank." ^ In which
love's labour was partly lost; "for the sturdy boy cared
little for letters, but from his childhood upwards only for
riding, swimming and those exercises that best become a
man of war. . . ." The boy was indocile and passionate,
but of an affectionate and generous nature, and Catherine
exulted in him. Heaven had listened to her prayer : a new
Sforza had sprung from her womb. Catherine wrote to a
former officer of hers, a certain Baccino da Cremona, that at
last her child had been given back to her whole and hearty ;
would he (Baccino) " find a small and beautiful saddlehorse
(pony) for him who was all fire, arms and horses .'' " Baccino
replied : " So you have recovered your child ! I could not be
happier if my father were resuscitated, and it is the same
with all the condottieri who are in camp. The day that your
letter arrived the Commissioner did not eat for joy. . . . We
will look for the horse among the condottieri, and whoever
has (what we want) will be pleased to place it at our service." -

Catherine, who was determined that her son should be a
typical prince of the Renascence, knew that strength and
valour alone would not suffice to endow him, and from 1505
sought learned tutors for him, far and wide. Among many
letters on this subject there is a curious one from a butcher,
Maestro Vincenzo da Sassuolo, once in Catherine's service,
recommending her "a gentleman to instruct her little
child ... a man of about thirty-five, of a fine presence and
very well apparelled, so that on only looking on him it is easy
to divine that he comes of gentle blood and is more
accustomed to having dependants of his own than being de-
pendent himself.""'

This gentleman who for "certain misfortunes of his own "
sought a home far from his birthplace, "where the air did not

' Vita de Giovanni Medici, by Gian Girolamo Rossi, Bishop of I'avia and son
of Catherine's daughter Bianca, Countess of San Secondo.
- Doc. 1312. •' Doc. 1314.

388 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

agree with him," so highly recommended in September, either
did not go to Castello or stayed there but a short time ; for on
the 4th of the following December a certain Ser Bartolomeo
Massaconi wrote to the Piovano Fortunati, that he was ready
to go there but that he would not bind himself to always
live under the roof of the Countess. He would stay there
when it suited him, and therefore would have a room set aside
for his use. He promises to ride with the boy and in every
way adequately perform the duties of a tutor to him. But if he
is to be treated like his predecessors, " we will let the matter
drop, for I am accustomed to be treated like a pet sparrow, and
to suffer little inconvenience except what I bring upon
myself."^ Ser Bartolomeo had heard that former tutors had
eaten with the servants and endured much discomfort, even to
sleeping on mattresses and with the dependents of the villa.
Ser Bartolomeo cannot have stayed there long, because on
December 30, 1507, Serristori wrote Fortunati ^ from Rome
that he was looking for a tutor for Giannino, then in his
tenth year, but that it was difficult to find one worthy of the
trust. " You know," he wrote, " how plentiful are rogues, and
if this preceptor be not good beyond the average and in
every sense of the word, he cannot possibly be a member of
Madonna's household." In this Serristori differs from Ser
Bartolomeo. The hard necessity of war and politics had
brought Catherine in contact with men of diverse calibre, she
had met with cowards and traitors (such as Achilles Tiberti) ;
but all those who enjoyed her personal confidence were (like
the Piovano Fortunati) good and honourable men. Catherine,
mindful of her past sovereignty, determined to make of her
son a man capable of ruling States and leading armies.
During his childhood, the future Captain of the Black Bands
had never feared nor obeyed any one but her, " so that when
Catherine, his mother, was dead, there was no one who could
correct nor admonish him."^

^ Doc. 1312.

- Serristori adds that on the day he wrote the cannons of St. Angelo were
being fired in honour of a Portuguese victory in the island of Ceylon.
* Gian Girolamo Rossi. Vita di Giovajiiii Medici.

THE LAST TROUBLES AND THE END 389

That time was fast approaching, for Catherine's days were
numbered. In June 1508 her foot caused her suffering and
her robust constitution showed signs of beginning to give way.
In April 1509 she was very ill, and reported to be dying, but
recovered and believed herself to be cured.

Octavian Riario wrote from Viterbo to Fortunati complain-
ing that he had not been written to " when Madonna my
mother was at the point of death." Ludovico Albertini, a
chemist of Forli, wrote affectionately to the Countess, asking
her for news of her health. Bishop Sebastiano of Galeata
wrote to Fortunati that having heard that both he and the
Countess were dead, he had vowed to make a pilgrimage to
the Madonna of Loreto if the report were to prove unfounded.
He not only heard that Catherine was alive and well but that
she contemplated a pilgrimage to that shrine, in which he
offered to accompany her.^

But in May, to the dismay of her dependents, she was
again ill. Prayers were offered in the Church of Trebbio, and
Ludovico Vaini, her factor at Trebbio, wrote anxiously to
Fortunati for news of Madonna, for whose recovery he would
have masses said. Meanwhile the illness made rapid strides
until, ten days later, Catherine lay on her death-bed in her
house in Florence. The two physicians who attended her
had tortured her up to then by applications of boiling
plasters, according to the custom of their day. But Catherine
could not endure more pain, and feeling that although her
mind was perfectly clear she was losing strength, she expressed
a wi.sh to make her will. Ser Pietro del Serra, notary, was
brought to her bedside, and to him, in the presence of three
citizens, she dictated her last wishes.

Catherine Sforza recommended her soul to Almighty God,
to the Virgin and the Saints of Paradise, and her body to
the Convent of Santa Maria dellc Murate. Her funeral was
to be devoid of pomp and its expenses limited to mere
necessaries.

As a citizen of Florence she set aside a legacy towards the
building of Santa Maria del Fiore and the reconstruction of

1 Doc. 1349.

390 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

the walls. She charged Fortunati to have looo masses
said for the repose of her soul, in Florence, within two months
of her death, and founded a yearly and perpetual service of
thirt}' masses to be celebrated in the oratory of the Murate,
with alms for the nuns. She requested Giovanni de' Medici,
her son, to pay 2000 gold florins to her grandchild Cornelia,
natural daughter of Octavian, Bishop of Viterbo, on her mar-
riage, and meanwhile to maintain her at the Convent delle
IMurate. Should she become a nun her dower would only be of
three hundred florins. To pay 1000 gold florins to hergrand-

MARIA SALVIATI DE' MEDICI.

child Julia, legitimate daughter of her son Galeazzo, to main-
tain her till her marriage at the IMurate, and in the event of
her taking the veil to give her only three hundred florins.
To Cornelia and Julia were bequeathed the chests of linen
deposited for safe custody with the Sisters of the IMurate,
both the chests and their contents to be handed over to their
future husbands. Fortunati and Giacomo Salviati were
appointed the executors of this legacy. A dower was set
aside for her maid Giovanna, " daughter to the Signora
Cecilia," and for another surnamed the IMoretta, the sum to
be deposited in the Monte di Pieta of Florence. At this
point, almost with her last breath, the Countess signed to

THE LAST TROUBLES AND THE END

391

Giacomo Salviati to come nearer, and implored him to send
the girls to their homes and keep them there till the day of
their marriage. She also charged Salviati to give a remem-
brance of her to her trusty servant Baccino and to settle all
Fortunati's accounts, leaving to the latter her books, letters,
public and private documents, with power to do with them as
he thought best, " even to tearing them to bits." To Carlo
(Bernardino) her son by her second husband, now in his
twenty-first year, she left 2000 gold florins.

To Giovanni, son of Giovanni de' Medici, her third husband,

MEDICI CASTLE, ELORENCE.

2. House of Giovanni da Lutiano.

3. Ancient House of the Medici, where Catherine Sforza died.

she bequeathed all her real and landed estate, " and because
the testatrix earnestly desires her beloved son to grow in
modesty and gentleness, according to the manner of his
country," she confided him to Fortunati and Salviati and
willed that they watch over his education until he should
have attained his eighteenth year. She desired that he might
marry as early as possible.^ If, despite the counsel of
Fortunati and Salviati, Giovanni should not fulfil his mother's

' He married Maria, daughter of Giacomo Salviati, whose son was the first
Grand Duke of Tuscany ; see portrait, p. 35, ViA. ii.

392 CATHERINE AND THE BORGIA

wishes, or should die without offspring, the property left to
him would be vested in the Guild of Exchange and a convent
founded and endowed with the income of this property and
dowers provided therefrom for poor maidens. To Giovanni
Catherine also left her slave Mora Bona.

To Galeazzo Riario she bequeathed the Castle of Bosco,
given to her father, Duke Galeazzo, as part of her marriage-
portion. Should Galeazzo die without leaving an heir his
brother Sforza would inherit from him ; failing an heir to
Sforza, Castel del Bosco would go to his half-brother Giovanni.

To Octavian, Bishop of Viterbo, Caesar, Archbishop of Pisa,
Galeazzo Sforza Riario, Catherine bequeathed all other
property of which she died possessed outside the dominion
of Florence.

When this testament had been read to her and she had
declared it to be " in truth her last will and testament," the
tolling of the bell of San Lorenzo announced to the Floren-
tines that the agony of Madonna d'Imola had begun, and
many citizens, according to the pious custom of their day,
assembled their families within their houses, or in the various
churches, to pray that in that dark hour God would stand by
her who " had ever placed the poor by the side of the rich." ^

^ Bernard!, wlio, in describing the autopsy, indicates that the cause of death was
pleurisy complicated by peritonitis. "Her Excellency gave up her spirit to God on
May 28 (1509), being about forty-two years of age (she was forty-six), tall of
stature and very well proportioned, with a fair and fine complexion, great eyes
and white hair."

INDEX

AcuTO, slaughter of, 7

Adriano, Messer, 341

Albertini, Ludovico, 389

Albret, Charlotte d', of Navarre, 262,

272
Aldobrandini, Ser Giacomo, 226
Aldrovandi, Benedetto, 213, 217, 248
Alegre, Yves, 275, 307, 308, 311, 327,

328, 329, 333, 334, 336, 337, 356,

360, 362, 364, 366, 369
Alfonso of Aragon, 94. See Calabria,

Duke of
Alidosi, Bertrando, 377

Cardinal, 377

AIopo, Pandoifo, 8
Alviano, Bartolomo d', 243
Andrea, Giovan, of Savona, 172
Annalena, Nuns of, 386
Appiani, Milan envoy, 62
Aragon, House of, 180

Aries, Archbishop of, 204, 205
Armour, woman's, 312, 313
Assassination as viewed in sixteenth

century, 354
Aste, Paolo dall', 194, 282, 298
Attendolo-Sforza of Cotignola, 3
Attendolo, Giacomo. Sec Sforza

Giovanni, of the, 5

family, 6

d'Aubigny. See D'Aubigny
Autun, Jean d', 322, 324

Bahone, Matteo, 161, 163
Baccino, Messer, 341, 391
Bagnacavallo, Don Domenico da, 191,

I93> 195
Bagno, Count Guide di, 133
Bagnolo, Peace of, 76, 77
Balatrone, Christopher, 350
Baldraccani, Antonio, 248, 254, 258,

259, 260, 327
Barbiano (or Balbiano), Alberigo da, 3, 7
Bartolomeo, of Bologna, 308
Baltista, of Sav(;na, 141, 157
Battista, Giovan, of Imola, 341
Bembo, Bernardo, 65

Bentivoglio, the, 370, 377, 37S

Ginevra, 375

Giovanni, of Bologna, 118, 134,

135. 138, I39> 140, 141, I53> 156, 157,
164, 166, 168, 202, 203, 204, 206, 212,
217, 222, 235, 242, 284, 298

Hannibal, 97

• Hercules, 338, 371

Ippolita, 378

Bernardi, Andrea, 50, 98, 103, 104, 124,
126, 129, 148, 150, 151, 156, 181,
184, 192, 201, 225, 228, 279, 293,
.300, 303, 315, 319, 321, 336, 392

Bibbiena, Dovizi, 182

Biordo of Perugia, 7

Bissey, Antoine de, Bailli of Dijon, 307,

326, 328, 332, 333, 334, 360
Black Bands, the, 270
Bologna, 33, 142, 378

Bona of Savoy, Duchess of Milan, 17,
18, 21, 22, 24, 28, 31, 32, 40, 51, 52,
53. 362

Bonaccorsi, Biagio, 261

Bonoli, the historian, 326

Borgia, Ccesar (Duke of Valentino), 179,
220, 250, 251, 262, 265, 266, 269,
271, 272, 275, 276, 278, 284, 285,
286, 289, 290, 291, 297, 29S, 301,
302, 303, 304, 305, 308, 310, 323,

327, 328, 330, 337, 338, 339, 355,
359. 360, 364, 365, 369, 371, 376, 392

Charlotte, his wife. See d' Albret

Giovanni, Cardinal, 302, 303

Lucretia, 220, 221, 239, 275, ^59,

372

Piero, Duke of Candia, 271

Cardinal Rodrigo, 51, 179. See

also Pope Alexander VI.

the, 277, 354, 355, 360, 370

Bosi, Galeotto de, 246, 247, 259

Pietro, 197

Bossi, Lorenzo (Fra I.auro), Orator of
Milan, 36, 37, 39, 225, 341. 342, 356
Bracceschi, defeat of the, lO, II
Bracci (or Brnccio), Alessandro, 340,
341. 343. 3^Ji

393

394

INDEX

Brambilla, Count Gio, of Ikrganio, 153,

154, 155, 156, 157, 15^
Bioccardi, G. B. de, 203
Broglio of Chieri, 7
Biuchello, Maestro, 218
Bubano, Fort, 218, 219
Bugado, Anton, 213, 214
Burckhaidt's diary, 339, 355
Buniel, Abbe, xi, 281, 305, 311, 316,

326, 369
BiUrighelli, Antonio, 94

Caglianello of Seliiavonia, 197
Caiazzo, Count of. .S'<6' Sanseveiino
Calabria, Dukes of, 54, 69, 70, 75, 94,

96, 182, 183, 184, 186
Calco, Battista, 52
Calderini, the, 173
Calmeta, Vincenzo, 273
Campo Morto, 70, 94
Canigiani, Antonio, 275
Capoferri, Bart , 121, 146, 147, 151,

166, 167

the younger, 282

Carcano, Michael, 16
Carpi, Giovanni da, 327

Casale, Giovanni da, 239, 248-9, 254,

257, 260, 262, 270, 317, 318, 319, 321,

323, 326, 383
Castello, Villa, 381, 386
Castelnuovo, 200
Castle of St. Angelo, 73, 78, 79, 80, 83,

84, 343, 348, 356, 358, 364, 365, 370,

388
Castrocaro, Bello, 188
Castrocaro, 135, 226, 244
Cerretani, 80

Cesena, 138, 204, 205, 275, 334, 335
Charles VIII , 180, 185, 186, 200, 211,

216, 222, 280, 290, 372
Chelini, Dr. Andrea, 90
Cibo, Franceschetto, 137

Cardinal, 82, 83. Sec also Pope

Innocent VIII.

Cicognano of Castrocaro, 200

Ciocha, Luigi, 385

Cobelli, Leone, 59, 89, 91, 100, loi,
103, 108, 109, 117, 118, 125, 129,
143, 148, 149, 161, 162, 172, 186, 193,
212

Codronchi, Innocenzo, 99, 100,101, 102

Coin, Catherine Sforza'scopper, 281,283

Coins of the Riario, 60

Colonna, Lorenzo, 72, 73

Colonna, the, 58, 72, 73, 76, 81, 83, 85

Compagnoni, Marsilio, 357

Co7idottieri, 3, 7, 8, 57, 153

Contessa, Castello della, 219

Corbizi, Corbizzo, 215, 244, 245

Corbizzi, letters of, 135

Corio, Bernardino, 28, 29, 53
Corradino, Giovanni, 224

Governor, 279

Corte, Bernardino da, 267
Cotignola, 5, 9, 1 1
Cremona, 14, 75, 319

Dalamasa, Giovanni, 373
D'Aubigny, Count, 185, 329, 360
Del Maino, Milanese writer, 179
Denti, Alberico, 155

Francesco, 121, 146, 166

Paolo, 192, 198

Dijon, Bailli of. See. Bissey
Dozzi, Fort of, 288

Earthquake of Santa Chiara, 75
Ercolani, Francesco, 125, 126, 128

• Ludovico, 118, 148, 166, 296, 297,

298
Este, Luca d', 125, 127

House of, 64

Faenza, 87, 200, 202, 203, 230, 234,

235, 275, 361
Farnese, Count Ranuccio, 234
Feo, Bernardino, 369, 391

Caesar, 177

Corradino, no, 115, 116, 118, 128

Giacomo, 174, 175, 176-77, iSo,

181, 182, 185, 188, 189, 190, 191,
I93> 213, 214, 218, 321

Guiliano, 103

Tommaso. castellane at Forli,

loi, 118, 122, 123, 125, 128, 151,
157, 172, 173, 174, 175, 184, 194

Ferrara, 66, 142

Duke Hercules of, 63, 64, 66, 69,

266

Duke of, 171, 287, 359

Filicaja, Berto da, 272
Fiorentino, Giorgio, 54

Florence and the Florentines, 22, 23,
50, 51, 85, 180, 181, 186, 189, 207,
214, 215, 218, 222, 224, 231, 232,
234, 235, 237, 241, 242, 243, 249,
251, 253, 255, 257, 259, 266, 268,
269, 272, 278, 281, 309, 311, 327,
331. 35i> 355, 368, 370, 374

Forli, town and state of, 53, 57-62,
75, 76, 83, 85, 86, 87, loi, 103, 105,
120, 136, 138, 139, 144, 149, 172,
178, 179, 213, 218, 373, 374, 376, 378

its history, 294 ; surrenders to

Borgia, 295-99

Castle. See Ravaldino

Council of Eight, 133, .139, 141,

142, 166

Court of, 89

Dome of, 159-60

INDEX

395

Forli, taxes of, 89-97, ^°5> 107, 109,

167-S, 1 78, 297
Foilimpopoli fortress, 141, 157, 167,

177. 291, 336
Fortunati, Piovano, 238, 241, 246, 250,

251, 252, 260, 269, 346, 365, 370,

382, 386, 38S, 389, 390, 391
France, 214, 215, 216, 217, 251, 257,

273, 334, 359> 361
Franceschetto, 88
Francesco, Lorenzo di Pier, 260
Frascati, 74
French army, 184, 265, 278, 290, 327,

356-57, 362, 365
French captains' banquets, 311-13

Galasso, Matteo, 129, 167
Galasso's house, 152
Genoa, 23

Germany, Bianca-Maria, Empress of,
307, 310, 348, 372

See ]\Iaximilian

Ghetti, Domenico, 191

Gian Antonio, 175, 191, 193, 194,

195, 196

Rosaria, 194

Giacomo, Giovan, 327
Giovanetti, Antenore, 374, 378
Giovio, 8, 9

Gonzaga, Dorothea, 17

Francesco, Marquis of Mantua,

277, 368

Gabrielia, 23

Giovanni, 385

Gian Francesco, 206, 220

Rudolph, Marquis of Mantua,

164

archives, 347

Gratti, Carlo, 153, 154, 155, 157

Griffone, Gian, 149, 152

Grumello, 311

Guicciardini, Ludovico, 57 ; his Ifore

di recreationc, 129
Guidoguerra, Count of Chiaggiolo, 200,

202, 204, 205
Guidotto, 282
Guriolo, 143

Hawkswood, Sir John, 7
Hercolano, Ludovico, 127
Hercules, Duke. See Ferrara

liario, Fra, 197

Imola, county and town of, 24, 25, 'i,'}^,
SO, 54, 62, 66, 75, 83, 85, 87, 97,
98, 102, 105, 112, 158, 159, 166,
167, 172, 173, 177, 213, 219, 231,
242, 371, 372, 373, 375, 376, 377,
378

taxes of, 278, 281, 282

Isabel of Aragon, Duchess of Milan,
180, 185, 186, 268

Jews, the, 141, 147, 173, 296, 302
Joan, Queen. Sec Naples

Lampugnani, G. A., 26, 29, 30
Landriani, Giovanni, 142, 143, 145,

153, 154, 155

Giov. Pietro, 177, 27S, 287, 290

■ Lucretia, 21, 24, 98

Pietro, 177

Stella, 98, 116, 118, 123, 130, 139

Lanfredini, Giovanni, 138

Lanti, Siennese Orator, 72, 73, 82, 84

Lauro, P'ra. See Bossi, Lorenzo

Laziosi, Angelo, 320

League of the Pope, France, and Venice,
272

Lega, the, 50, 142, 207, 214

Ligny, Count de, 185

Lorqua, Remiro de, 335

Louis XIL of France, 265, 266, 267,
268, 272, 273, 275, 280, 307, 322,
326, 333, 348, 359, 364, 372

Lungara, house of the Riario, 74, 81

Machiavelli, Nicolo, 23, 47, 102, 131,
225, 244, 245, 252, 254, 258, 259,
260, 261, 262, 266, 272, 275, 328,

330, 355, 357, 369, 370

's Art of War, 318

Malatesta, Pandolfo, 275

Malatesta of Rimini, Robert, 69, 70,

71, 72, 142
Maldenti, Maso, 133
Manfredi, Astorre, Lord of Faenza, 24,

200, 201, 204, 223, 234, 245, 275.

356

Francesca, 168

Galeotto, 135, 168

Octavian, 200, 234. 244, 245, 246

• Taddeo, Lord of Faenza, 86, 87

Mangianti, Bernardo, 193

Mantua, Marquis of, 142, 380, 385 ; and

see Gonzaga
Marca, Giacomo della, 8
Marcobelli, Barth., 168

the, 132, 189, 191, 195, 197

Marino, 72, 73

Martinelli of Cesena, 205
Martinengho, Barth., 192
Marullo of Constantinople, 280, 320
Mauruzzi, Count Gian F. , 66
Maximilian, King of the Romans, 265,
269 ; Emperor of Germany, 310, 337,

359, 372, 379, 384
Mazzolani, the, 191
Medici, Cardinal (afterwards Leo X.),

3-^3

596

INDEX

Medici, Giovanni, 206, 20S, 211, 281,

293. See Popolano
Giovanni (son of above). See

Nere
■ Lorenzo the Magnificent, 22, 25,

50, 51, 64, 65, 67, 68, 82, 85, 87,

88, 98, 107, 108, III, 112, 134, 135,

136, 137, 186, 211

Lorenzo (nephew of above), 21 1,

225, 235, 236-37, 241, 245, 251, 270,
278, 309, 369- 38i> 385. 386

Maddalena, 88

Piero de', iSo, 182, 183, 188,

211, 222, 231

• the, 226

Meldola, Battista da, 350

Meleto, Count Carlo Piaii di, 133

Mellini, Cardinal, 32

Menghi, Matteo, Archdeacon of Forli,

64, 65
Milan, City and Duchy of, 12, 14, 15,

24, 26, 28, 50, 73, 79, 82, 97, 98,

133, 266, 267, 272, 275

Dukes of. See Moro, Sforza, and

Visconti ; also Bona Duchess

Milanese army, 149-50, 151, 154, 166
Mirandola, Antonio della, 96
Mocenigo, Doge G. , 64
Molfetta, Cardinal (Cibo), 82. See Pope

Innocent VI I L
Monsignani, Evangel ista, of Imola, 324,

329

Montana, Carlo, 26

Monte di Pieta, 163, 173

Moniefeltro, Giovanna of, 377

Mordano, Castle of, 182, 183

Moro, Ludovico il, 52, 98, 179, 180,
185, 201, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207,
214, 215, 218, 220, 225, 229, 230,
231, 232, 233, 234, 240, 241, 242,
250, 252, 254, 256, 257, 260, 265,
266, 267, 268, 290, 308, 320, 337,
340, 358

Mnrale, Abbess of the, 270, 277

Muratori, tlie writer, 276

Naldi, Dionisio (or Dionigi), 244, 246,
257, 259, 278, 284, 285, 286, 287,
288,327

Vincenzo, 200, 222, 244

Naples, 142, 180

• Kings of, 48, 50, 63, 69, 75, 102,

179, 180, 181, 182, 186

• King Frederic of, 266, 267, 290

■ King Ladislaus, 8

Louis of Anjou, King of, 10

Queen Joan of, 8, 1 1

Nardini, Canlinal, 72
Navarre, King of, 266
Nepotism of Rome, 47

Nere (Ludovico Medici), Giovanni delle
Bande, 165, 217, 226, 257, 258, 270,
346, 364, 369, 380, 381, 385, 386,
387, 390, 391

Nino of the Roffi, 103

Nobilta d' Italia, Zazzera's, 6

Novello, Giovanni, 105

Numai, Bishop Alex., 58

Andrea, 315

Francesco, 149, 156, 158, 162

• Luffo, 129, 226, 246, 293, 3CX),

329, 330

Ogliati, G., 27, 29, 30, 31

Oliva, Fabio, xi, 132, 285, 291, 324,

353

G. B., 132

Orcioli, Tommaso degli, 148, 149,

154, 156

the, 189, 190, 191, 195, 197

Ordelaffi, Antonio Maria degli, 94, 103,

171, 172, 173, 178, 223, 228, 235,

374

Pino, 91, 303

■ House of, 53, 66, 67, 76, 137,

144, 294
Oriolo, Gabriele del Pico d', 288
Orleans, House of, 180
Orselli, Lorenzo, 129
Orsi, Agamemnon, 116, 150

Andrea, 131, 132, 147, 150, 152,

162-63, 165

Checco, 108, 109, no, III, 117,

118, 127, 131, 135, 139, 140, 144,
147, 201

Ludovico, 64, 90, 107, 108, 109,

116, 117, 123, 127, 131, 133, 141,
144, 146, 147, 201

the, 109, 112, 117, 118, 119,

121, 125, 126, 128, 137, 139, 141,
144, 147, 155, 157, 291, 363

Orsini, Cardinal, 39, 359

Ludovico, Count of Pitigliano,i42

Paolo, 58, 79, 80

Virginio, 69, 73, 79, 96, 241, 242

the, 25, 58, 76, 83, 231, 367, 371

Orzioli, Marino, 168

the, 132

Otranto, 55, 63, 66

Palace of the Riario at Forli, 60, iiS,

Paladini, Francesco, 164
Palmeggiani, Tommaso, 148
Pandolfini, the Florentine Legate. 85
Panzechi, Ludovico, 108, 109, no, 131,
144, 147

Nicolo, 90, 92

Paolucci, Francesco, 118
Parenti's History, 309, 322

INDEX

397

Parma, Bishop of, 40

Pasolini, Martinn, 6, 9

Passi of the Roffi, 104

Pavagliotta, Don Antonio, 191, 193

Pazzi, Andrea dei, 225, 237, 243

conspiracy, 50, 63, 85, leg, III,

112, 134, 136

Pepi, Francesco de', 36 1, 368

Dr. Guido, 59

Perugia, Cardinal of, 240

Pesaro, state of, 220, 275, 332, 337,

Petrascini, Elisa, 6

Philip of Bergamo, 62

Piccoli, Gabriele, 379

Pisa, Republic of, 222, 224, 242, 253,
255, 266, 268, 272, 274

Pitigliano, Count of, 142, 143

Pope Alexander VI., 47, 180, 182,
187, 198, 200, 204-5. 219, 220, 221,
222, 239, 265, 271, 272, 273, 275,
276, 277, 290, 294, 303, 311, 332,
340, 343. 351, 353. 359, 360, 364,
365, 372

Innocent VIII., 47, 82, 84, 85,

120, 136, 137-38, 140, 144, 166,
178

Julius II., 36, 37, 376, 377, 378

Paul II., 45, 46

Sixtus IV., 23, 25, 31, 37, 45,

47-49, 50, 52, 53, 69, 72, Ti, 75, 77,

112, 178, 294, 367
Popes, the, and temporal power, 56-57
Popolana, Giovanni, 211-12, 213, 215,

216, 217, 218, 224, 225, 226, 257.