'«.t.SlNGAf>OREl 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 A list 
 
 of other titles in the Phoenix Library 
 
 will be found at the end 
 
 of this book
 
 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 A KATALEPTIC PHANTASiMATIC 
 ROMANCE 
 
 'By 
 FR. ROLFE 
 
 [ 'FREDERICK BARON CORVO ' ] 
 NEVE ME IMPEDIAS NEVE LONGIUS PERSEQUARIS 
 
 7ropp(DT€p(J) 
 
 # 
 
 
 
 -€^ 
 
 CHATTO AND WINDUS 
 LONDON
 
 First published 1905 
 
 First issued in the Phoenix Library 
 
 1929 
 
 Printed in Great Britain : all rights reserved
 
 PR 
 
 52.5G 
 .J.d 
 
 TO 
 
 H. R. 
 
 FROM 
 
 TTIS AFFECTIONATE BROTHER 
 
 9920v'i0
 
 To some, Love comes so splendid and so soon, 
 With such wide wings, and steps so royally, 
 That they, like sleepers wakened suddenly 
 
 Expecting dawn, are blinded by His noon. 
 
 To some, Love comes so silently and late, 
 That all unheard He is ; and passes by. 
 Leaving no gift but a remembered sigh. 
 
 While they stand watching at another gate. 
 
 But some know Love at the enchanted hour : 
 They hear Him singing like a bird afar : 
 They see Him coming like a falling star : 
 
 They meet His eyes — and all their world's in flower. 
 
 Ethel Clifford. 
 
 VI
 
 PROLOGUE 
 
 Dear Herbert: 
 
 When the last century was a-dying, 
 a certain idiot asked me to write the history 
 of one day in the hfe of a man of fashion 
 in the era of the Borgia. It was to include 
 every single act and deed of his during a 
 given four-and-twenty hours : because it was 
 wanted for a magazine, which proposed to 
 publish a series of such histories illustrating 
 the manners and customs of the Smart Set 
 in all ages. 
 
 Of course I instantly thought of the holo- 
 graphs which Don Tarquinio Giorgio Drakon- 
 toletes Poplicola di Santacroce wrote for the 
 edification of his son Prospero. They pur- 
 port to have been written about 1523- 1527, 
 
 as the leisurely effort of a man of unbounded 
 
 vii
 
 viii PROLOGUE 
 
 energy very anxious to express himself; and 
 there was one of them which certainly seemed 
 pat to my purpose. It actually did describe 
 all Don Tarquinio's doings on one day in 
 1495, ^rom (a little before) 6 p.m. to 6 p.m. 
 round the clock. It was very exciting and 
 very comical. 
 
 So I did it. But it was by no means easy : 
 as you'll readily understand when I hint 
 that the frightful man wrote an Italian jargon 
 of his own, which was all Greek where it 
 wasn't Latin. No doubt the fashion of his 
 age was to write macaronics : but consider 
 his English tralator's difficulties 1 
 
 And then again, think what it means to 
 boil down a book into a magazine article. 
 You see, the terms of my commission were 
 that I was to set down everything the 
 gentleman did. But he did such a lot. 
 And he explained it all so voluminously, 
 with a wealth of detail which simply could 
 not be omitted. 
 
 And of course my version was rejected.
 
 PROLOGUE ix 
 
 It was a mere category — not a story. I 
 myself could see that. 
 
 I put the thing in a cupboard with 
 curses, on the idiot who had invited me 
 to do a useless thing, on myself for being 
 ass enough to waste four months in trying 
 to make a sow's ear out of a silken purse 
 — I mean, in attempting to compress a 
 piece of real and serious and elaborate history, 
 and an amazingly amusing character study, 
 and a breathlessly intricate story of adven- 
 ture, into a merely ephemeral ten pages or 
 so of journalism. 
 
 There the papers lay until a week ago, 
 when I had just finished my new book, 
 and was rummaging among my belongings 
 with the idea of tidying-up before beginning 
 something fresh. 
 
 They looked as though they might be 
 interesting. 
 
 I took them out ; and conned them 
 over. 
 
 Little by little 1 saw what an accented
 
 X PROLOGUE 
 
 fool I had been not to let Don Tarqulnio 
 tell his own tale, in his own quaint acute 
 humorous sensuous conscientious way. For 
 it's all nonsense to say that the Fifteenth 
 Century can't possibly speak to the Twentieth, 
 because it is the Fifteenth and not the 
 Twentieth, and because those two centuries 
 haven't got a Common Denominator. They 
 have. It's Human Nature. 
 
 And, so, since you're always bothering 
 me to write a book which is not about 
 silly Catholic clergymen, or incomprehensible 
 antiquities, or abnormal modernities — for once 
 I'll let my Waterman's Ideal be his Barnum, 
 and tralate to you Don Tarquinio's holograph. 
 
 You'll find him and his fellows just as 
 deliciously and comically silly, and just as 
 haphazardly and unexpectedly wise, and just 
 as good, and just as bad, as the people whom 
 you meet every day of your life, who always 
 go such a frightfully long way round in 
 their endeavours to attain their objects, — and 
 not a bit like the disagreeably unnatural
 
 PROLOGUE xi 
 
 people in ordinary books who persistently 
 do the right thing in the right way at the 
 right moment. 
 
 In short, if you're interested in human 
 beings, these are your ones. 
 
 Read what Tarquinio says of himself, and 
 his plight and his longings. Mark how he 
 tells the story of his fortunate day. Learn 
 how he risked his life to win release from 
 the Great Ban, anxious to act as a prince 
 should, and to live, and to love. 
 
 From Crabs Herborough, 
 
 On the Feast of Saint Mildred.
 
 DON TAROUINIO 
 
 I 
 
 During the present year, the first of the 
 paparchy of Clement,^ Messer Francesco 
 Guicciardini and Messer Paolo Giovio came 
 from Fiorenza, bringing to me their well- 
 written manuscripts : to the end that I might 
 read the same, and praise them or vituperate 
 them, as well for the purity of letters as for 
 the o-ood of the race of men. 
 
 But the said manuscripts ought to be burned ; 
 and no copy of them ought to be preserved. 
 These scribes are, as I have said, of Fiorenza ; 
 and they have written of events which took 
 place in the City^ when they were little boys. 
 
 ^ Pope Clement the Seventh began to reign 
 A.D. 1523. 
 
 2 Rome is the only " City " to a Roman.
 
 2 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 They have no means of knowing these events, 
 except trom hearsay. They have dared to 
 write that which they have heard : for they 
 certainly never saw. But we know well that 
 it is impossible for any man of Fiorenza truth- 
 fully to intreat ot Roman events, by cause 
 of the hatred, indelible, Carthaginian, which 
 all Fiorentini always bear to us Romans. 
 And I myself do know these their histories 
 to be false and shameful : for I indeed was 
 concerned in the making of history here in 
 the City, at the same time of which these men 
 have dared to write mendaciously. 
 
 Messer Francesco is a rather vain vacuous 
 man, Incapable of dealing with grave matters. 
 I believe that he wisheth to be honest : but 
 his shallow mind causeth him to collect gossip, 
 without testing Its truth, as may be seen in 
 the manuscript wnlch he will not burn, where 
 They say, and It is said, and I am told that, 
 and other suchlike forms are reiterated. 
 
 Messer Paolo, on the other hand, hath 
 written gossip as though it were history : nor
 
 DON TARQUINIO 3 
 
 hath he deemed it right to qualify his asser- 
 tions in the manner of the aforesaid Messer 
 Francesco. Moreover, when I plainly showed 
 him how that, to mine own knowledge, certain 
 of his allegations were false, he audaciously 
 responded in these three words, saying: 
 
 " The people wish to be deceived. I will 
 deceive them in return for gold sequins.^ 
 And, after an hundred years, my mendacity 
 will have become verity." 
 
 The said Messer Paolo thus hath confessed 
 himself to be a liar, flagrant, impenitent. So 
 long as he was content to write of those things 
 of which he had cognition, for example the 
 Book About Fishes'^ which lately hath been 
 printed, so long he was worthy of observance 
 as a rather rustic pagan man who diligently 
 used his little ability. But, seeing that he 
 
 ^ The gold zecchino was worth about half-a-guinea, 
 but it had about four times the latter's purchasing 
 v^alue. 
 
 2 I suppose Don Tarquinio to mean De Piscibus 
 Romanis^ published a.d. 1524.
 
 4 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 not only hath written many falsehoods but 
 also openly hath boasted of the same, let him 
 and his dead be anathema. 
 
 It appeareth to me that the writing of j 
 
 history is a simple matter. Let each man, 
 from the age of puberty, write of the things 
 which happen to himself So few men can 
 write that not more than enough will be 
 written. Also, some men, having been born 
 under benignant stars, will rise : while others, 
 having been born under malignant stars, will 
 fall. The writings of the first will live ; and 
 their successors will profit by reading what 
 they have written. The writings of the second 
 die and disappear with the corruptible carcase 
 of their writers. 
 
 Wherefore I myself will write the history 
 of one day of mine own life, in order that 
 thou, my son, mayst learn the true method 
 of writing history : that is to say, with know- 
 ledge, with a share in the fact, with truth as 
 before the priest, with accurate descriptions 
 of persons and things, but chiefly without
 
 DON TARQUINIO 5 
 
 any desire of persuading But the four 
 stumbling-blocI<:s to truth, which the Anglican 
 mage^ invented, must be avoided, and they 
 are : 
 
 The influence of fragile or unworthy au- 
 thority t 
 
 Custom : 
 
 The imperfection of undisciplined senses : 
 
 Concealment of ignorance by ostentation 
 of seeming wisdom. 
 
 Furthermore, as to what truth is, I will say 
 that, apart from the truths of our most holy 
 faith which are of divine revelation and there- 
 fore not to be questioned, the truth is that 
 which every man may acquire from the appre- 
 hensive nature of perfectly cultivated senses: 
 or, as Zeno the Stoic saith, the test of truth 
 is the Kataleptic Phantasm. For this cause, 
 o ProsperOj I will write history for thee from 
 the evidence of my proper senses alone, and 
 
 1 This would be Br. Roger Bacon, O.F.M.
 
 6 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 not from the idle reports of ungoverned and 
 ungovernable tongues. 
 
 I will choose to write the history of the 
 day on which I was delivered from disability, 
 of the day on which Alexander, magnificent, 
 invincible, made me what I now am. I will 
 write the history of my fortunate day. On 
 that day, many things were done in which I 
 had no little share. Of these things I will 
 write. But, to know the history of that day 
 absolutely as the Ruler of Olympos^ knoweth 
 it, needs must that The Prince ^ and the 
 Cardinal of Ferrara, and Prince GiofFredo 
 Borgia of Squillace, and innumerable other 
 persons, should be moved as I am moved, 
 and should be capable as I am capable, and 
 should write as I will write. Nevertheless, 
 seeing that none of these have written, thou 
 
 ^ Regnator Olympi is Don Tarquinio's designation 
 of The Deity. 
 
 - I am led to believe that this is he whom 
 Machiavelli called The Prince — viz., Cesare (Borgia), 
 Cardinal of Valencia, and later Duke of Valentinois.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 7 
 
 shalt be content to take the history of that 
 day from me, thy loving father. It will be 
 a good enough history, seeing that I assisted 
 at its making and that I wish to tell the 
 truth. 
 
 Thou shalt know, o virginal Prospero,^ that, 
 in the year mcccclxxxxv after the Admirable 
 Parturition of the Mother-Maid, our house was 
 suffering for its sins. For xij years before, on the 
 ninth day of the kalends of March, mine uncle 
 and our baron Madonno Francesco, the same who 
 was the model for Messer Simone Fiorentini's^ 
 image of our primate Saint George of Seriphos, 
 had been stabbed in a brawl by one of the 
 infamous Dellavalle. We instantly had leagued 
 with Orsini against this our hereditary enemy 
 
 ^ This Prospero was born xiii Sept. 15 13 — i.e.f 
 under the Sign Virgo and the Planet Mercury. He 
 seems to have been of a singularly pure mind, very 
 studious, and an excellent man of affairs. He left a 
 great name behind him as cardinal, plenipotentiary, and 
 nuncio ; and as the introducer of tobacco into Italy. 
 
 2 This sculptor was commonly known as Dona- 
 tello. The image of St. George is at Florence.
 
 8 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 and Colonna ; and had comported ourselves in 
 such wise that, during iij months, the blood of 
 those monsters befouled every gutter in the 
 City. But, when we were in the very article 
 of ridding this land of those reptiles, even as 
 Saint George our said progenitor ridded his 
 Isle of Seriphos of the pterodactyl, for very few 
 of them remained alive, then our Lord the 
 Paparch^ reinforced them with the bands of 
 His Own house of Dellarovere and with those 
 of Riarj to which He was allied by the marriage 
 of His sister. Then indeed we tolerated many 
 evils. His said Sanctity expelled us all from 
 the City, man, woman, priest, and child, 
 encumbering us with the Great Ban so that we 
 never should return ; and, further, He or- 
 dained the demolition of our palace on 
 Catinari,^ It was done ; and for this same 
 cause my cousin now buildeth that new palace 
 where we shall live. 
 
 ^ Xystus the Fourth (Francesco Dellarovere). 
 2 Piazza Catinari, where the earthenware dishes 
 came from.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 9 
 
 Marcantonio, my said cousin, being mine 
 equal in age, retired to Fiorenza. Being of a 
 singular habit of mind, anxious to evade the 
 society of most men, and not having a taste 
 either for war or for letters, he became a disciple 
 of Messer Lionardo da Vinci that miracle of 
 genius, who loved him as Sokrates loved 
 Phaidon for his beautiful hair : with whom he 
 studied the arts, fortifications, architecture, 
 painting, and the construction of ingenious 
 machines whereby men might fly with wings 
 like bats or swim with webbed feet like tritons. 
 
 We of the junior branch made way to our 
 castle of Deira by Squillace in the Kingdom, ^ 
 which thou never hast seen but shalt see. 
 That demesne formerly was denominated 
 Greater Greece,^ by cause that while yet the 
 City was no more than a cluster of Alban 
 shepherds' huts on Campidoglio^ and Latium a 
 
 ^ " Lo Regno " — i.e.y Sout! en Italy, the Kingdom 
 of Naples. "" T] fieyoXr] 'EWa?. 
 
 3 The space between the two peaks of the Capito- 
 line Hill.
 
 xo DON TARQUINIO 
 
 kingdom, numbers cf our progenitors took 
 ship from Athens, violet-crowned, immortal, 
 and founded states and cities on these shores. 
 
 But at Deira we fortified ourselves, drawing 
 fighting men and youths apt to war from 
 among the natives ; and, by cause that the 
 arteries of these were filled with the blood of 
 Athenian heroes mixed with the blood of those 
 fierce Northmen, who also settled in our 
 vicinity about the time when our castle was 
 a-building, that is to say about the year ml 
 since our Fructiferous Redemption, our potency 
 became superior to that of all other barons ot 
 the said Kingdom. But, though we lived in 
 peace, shewing ourselves rather dangerous to 
 any who would have been our enemies, yet we 
 maintained ourselves with all the incessant 
 stringency of siege, at first in preparation for 
 an assault by the Riarj, with our ancient foes, 
 (which never was delivered, I suppose by cause 
 that the whole orb of earth knew that we were 
 very gravely to be feared being driven to bay ;) 
 and even afterward, when Xystus had migrated
 
 DON TARQUINIO ii 
 
 to The Lord and the Riarj and the Dellarovere 
 had lost their predominance, we abated none of 
 our precautions, seeing that we were ignorant 
 concerning the manner in which the new 
 paparch Innocent^ would use Himself toward 
 us. 
 
 In those xij years, o Prospero, thy f-^ther 
 passed from the care of nurses to boyhood and 
 even to the gate of adolescence. I am not to 
 intreat of those years now, nor of the manner 
 in which I spent them. But I will say that, 
 having something of the solitary habit of 
 Marcantonio, and being not entirely engrossed 
 by martial exercises or by human letters as all 
 my fellows were, I learned to think ; and 
 thinking made me chafe, by cause that I 
 deemed it to be a terrible sacrilege against the 
 Maker of the World that I should be com- 
 pelled to waste my life among the rustics of 
 Deira, I being fit in mind and body to equal 
 any patrician in the City. My syllogism 
 was the syllogism of the Alexandrian mages : 
 
 1 Innocent the Eighth (Giambattista Cibo).
 
 12 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 Intelligence must be Active : 
 
 God is Intellin[ent : 
 
 Therefore, of His Nature He must create : 
 
 for a force which engendereth nothing 
 
 is not a force. 
 God is the Creator : 
 In His Own Image He created Me: 
 Therefore, I also must Create. 
 
 But at Deira I was as a bird in a cage, as a 
 prisoner in a dungeon, as a scorpion in a circle 
 of fire :^ nor was there any release for me. 
 Wherefore the new adolescence of me, 
 exquisite, ebullient, very grievously did chafe. 
 
 But by chance, on the festival of Saint 
 Valentine in the year mcccclxxxxv, there 
 occurred to me the Most Illustrious Lord 
 Cardinal-A. of Santa Lucia in Silice alias in 
 
 ^ Don Tarquinio seems to have been born undei 
 the Sign Scorpio and the Planet Mars : which accounts 
 for his queer character. I think this expression to be 
 an allusion to the scorpion's well-known practice of 
 committing suicide by stinging itself when surrounded 
 by fire.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 13 
 
 Orfea^ the Prince Ippollto d'Este of Ferrara. 
 He came with an admirable company out of 
 Syracuse where he had been buying wrestlers: 
 for he was very curious in every kind of human 
 monster, and his collection of athletes was 
 ivithout rival. He himself also was by way of 
 being abnormal : for he was of the age of xvij 
 years, and during ij years he had worn the 
 vermilion hat. He was tall of frame and 
 supple of sinew and mighty of limb, having 
 fortified his adolescence with archery and other 
 exercises. Grace and charm bloomed on the 
 face of him. His olive-coloured skin glowed 
 with healthful pallor. His bright black eyes 
 gleamed with grave tranquillity, meriting 
 praises. His whole aspect was most basilical. 
 He was an expert swimmer ; and, with whatso- 
 ever weapons he adroitly strove, he did inure 
 himself to heat and cold and night-long 
 vigils.i 
 
 Thou shalt know, o my rosy Prospero, that 
 
 ^ Ciacconius, in his Lives of the Pontiffs^ seems to 
 have availed himself of this description of the Cardinal 
 of Ferrara.
 
 14 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 there are two kinds of beauty, videlicet the 
 beauty of the body and the beauty of the soul. 
 The latter is to be preferred : for it is per- 
 manent ; and he who possesseth psychical 
 beauty is like the immortal gods, divine ones 
 inhabiting heavenly mansions. Yet this kind 
 of beauty is not easily perceived. Wherefore 
 the possession of the other kind is much to be 
 desired : by cause that physical beauty maketh 
 the world to turn round and to stand at gaze, 
 whereby perception of psychical beauty, if any 
 there be, is facilitated. Hence, physical beauty 
 is the more important : although, unless to it 
 be added psychical beauty, it is liable to become 
 invalid when its first effect should have faded. 
 But the Cardinal of Ferrara had both kinds of 
 beauty, even as I the present scribe have both 
 kinds of beauty. 
 
 When we first looked upon each other, our 
 attention was arrested by means of the sense of 
 sight : but, when words had passed, we recog- 
 nized each other as being of equal texture, 
 even as one star doth recognize another cross-
 
 DON TARQUINIO 15 
 
 ingf the firmament of heaven, or as travellers 
 returning to their dear homes recognize their 
 kindred standing on the threshold greeting. 
 
 After many words had been spoken : for, as 
 soon as the glances of our eyes first clashed 
 together, striking the spark of sympathy, 
 whereby a certain fire burned in our minds, 
 and as Harmodios and Aristogeiton loved each 
 other so did we : then the mighty Ippolito thus 
 addressed me : 
 
 *' It is not meet that such an one should be 
 chained to this rock of Deira, where the 
 vultures of impotent desire and of annulled 
 energy consume thine heart and liver." 
 
 Thus he spoke : but there was a plan 
 m his mind, perceiving which I responded, 
 saying : 
 
 " Only the successor of Him, Who chained 
 Us and Our house with the Great Ban, is 
 able to deliver ; and that is the Paparch 
 Alexander."^ 
 
 ^ Alexander the Sixth (Rodiigo dc Borja y Borja, 
 commonly called Borgia).
 
 i6 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 Ippolito answered me again, saying : 
 " We Ourself are in the grace of the saic 
 Alexander, magnificent, invincible. Moreover 
 the Great Ban will not run in thy despite so 
 long as that thou shalt be in Our company : 
 for, where Este is, Ferrara is : and Rome hath 
 no jurisdiction in Ferrara." 
 
 His saying was a true one. Wherefore, 
 having collected my familiars, with a joyful 
 heart I turned my back upon Deira ; and 
 anon, with the Cardinal of Ferrara, I rode to 
 Rome. As we rode, we conversed concerning 
 many things, in order that the beauty of our 
 souls might be manifested : nor did we omit to 
 exhibit the beauty of our bodies in feats of 
 strength and agility. It appeared that, though 
 I had not such irresistible strength as Ippolito 
 had, nevertheless my limberness and quickness 
 of eye gave me no cause to blush while we 
 contended. But, when our alliance was con- 
 firmed by the discovery of our admirable 
 qualities, we gave names to each other, as the 
 manner was. To Ippolito, I gave the name
 
 DON TARQUINIO 17 
 
 Hebe,^ on account of his xvij years. To me, 
 he gave the name Sideynes,^ on account of my 
 XV years. And so conversing and contending, 
 we reached the City. 
 
 It was agreed that I should live as a guest 
 in the Estense Palace, until such time when 
 Ippolito should find occasion for speaking of 
 me to our Lord the Paparch. And so it 
 was. But, as soon as we had invaded the 
 City, I became conscious that I had exchanged 
 one prison for another : for, on account of the 
 Great Ban, it was not convenient that I should 
 go out from the Estense Palace, unless a 
 decurion^ of the cardinalitial familiars attended 
 and surrounded me. 
 
 Thus, I was precluded from seeking such 
 adventures as my youth and my spirit required. 
 Now ana then, I accepted the restraint: in 
 order that I might see the world's metropolis, 
 
 1 j^/3?; = youthful prime (in Sparta, the eighteenth 
 year). 
 
 2 atSevvrj'i = a youth of fifteen to sixteen years 
 
 (Laconian). 
 
 2 Ten soldiers and a lieutenant. 
 
 2
 
 i8 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 of which 1 myself was no mean citizen. But 
 the estate of my procession terribly irked me ; 
 and I would not have gone out any more, 
 save for a maid whom I espied on the third 
 day ; and she was thy proper mother, o Pros- 
 pero. For, when I saw the tender girlishness 
 of her, and her blue-bJack hair, and her blue- 
 black eyes, and her rosy flesh, which was so 
 bright and pure that I knew it to be soft 
 and firm and cool to touch, then the fire o^ 
 love was kindled in my dear breast ; and 1 
 yearned after her. But her very name was 
 hidden from me: nor might I ask it of any, 
 for 1 was environed by my guards, and she 
 was in the train of a princess. Her gait 
 proclaimed her nobility. She appeared to be 
 of equal age with me. For which causes, I 
 pervaded the City at all hours in hope of an 
 auspicious encounter. 
 
 Once I scattered primroses low at the feel 
 of her beauty. She gazed modestly down- 
 ward : but I looked where I loved.
 
 II 
 
 That was the third day. 
 
 The eighth was my fortunate day. I will 
 set down the history of the said day, a.d. vij 
 Kal. Mar., being the day of Mars in the 
 year mcccclxxxxv. 
 
 Divine Phoibos was finishing his course, 
 and his radiant horses were about to plunge 
 into the ocean-stream, when the Most Illus- 
 trious Lord Cardinal-A. of Santa Lucia in 
 Silice alias in Orfea, Prince Ippolito d'Este of 
 Ferrara, with me, Prince Tarquinio Georgio 
 Drakontoletes Poplicola di Hagiostayros,^ came 
 
 ^ The gentleman's actual surname, of course, was 
 Santacroce : but, being rabidly infected with the 
 mania of his epoch for Greek, he must needs give it 
 the Greek form of ' Aycoaravpo'i. Regarding his 
 frequent allusions to Saint George of Seriphos as his 
 progenitor, the curious may remember that it was 
 
 iq
 
 20 DON TAROUINIO 
 
 from a certain meadow beyond the Milvian 
 Bridge^ where we had been playing at great- 
 ball.- A pair of patrician pages had played 
 on his side, which was red ; and another 
 pair played on my side, which was blue : but 
 the red were victorious. I cannot remember 
 the names of the said pages : nor is it of im- 
 portance that I should remember them. 
 Many persons have thrown the great-ball 
 since Deykalion threw stones ; and the names 
 of the throwers have gone down into oblivion. 
 These throwers were among those. 
 
 Having come to the bank of Tiber, we 
 
 Perseys of Seriphos who slew a dragon (pterodactyl ?), 
 that Perseys' mother Danae founded Ardea in Latium, 
 that Publius Valerius Poplicola came to Rome from 
 Ardea, that the house of Santacrcce descends from him, 
 and that the armorials of Santacroce are the armorials 
 of Saint George, argent a cross potent gules. From 
 which considerations a somewhat startling theory may 
 be formed. 
 
 1 Now called Ponte Molle. 
 
 2 Pallone, a deliriously scientifically ferocious game 
 common in Italy.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 21 
 
 ascended the cardinalitial barore. Indian oars- 
 men propelled it ; and the colour of their 
 flesh resembled the colour of a field of ripe 
 wheat when as some delicate zephyr sways the 
 stems in the sunlight not more than half re- 
 vealing poppies : but their eyes were like 
 pools of ink, fathomless, upon glittering 
 mother o' pearl, very beautiful, and quite un- 
 intellectual. Servitors crowded amidships. 
 Turkish arbalisters and halberdiers from 
 Ferrara manned the bulwarks. Pages, in 
 liveries resembling vermilion skins from toe to 
 throat and wrist, bearing armorials on their 
 tabards, displayed at the prow the double- 
 cross, golden, and the high Estense gonfalon, 
 in order to teach discretion. For, cardinals 
 like Ippolito, and princes like Tarquinio, 
 risked life whenever they would play at 
 great ball, in those old days when the Keltic 
 barbarians of Gaul were occupying half the 
 City on the one side of Tiber, while the 
 Paparch Alexander was being beleaguered 
 in the Castle of Santangelo on the other.
 
 22 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 For this cause Ippolito displayed his state, so 
 that any man of evil mind, presumptuous, 
 who should be tempted of the devil to molest 
 us, might know that he would incur the ban 
 of Holy Mother Church for molesting a car- 
 dinal not less than the ban of Ferrara for 
 molestinor an Este. 
 
 The air above the river was growing chilly. 
 We who were heated with the game needed to 
 continue in action, that we might evade perils 
 of ague or of fever or of the Pest, most per- 
 nicious. Wherefore I wrestled as vigorously 
 as possible with Ippolito inside the vermilion 
 curtains of the canopied poop. But his great 
 strength reduced my suppleness to no price ; 
 and he threw me once and twice and six 
 times, till he was weary of easy victories : but 
 I was weary of the carpet. 
 
 Abaft Ripetta,^ came one in a little boat with 
 rumours : with whom we Instantly collogued. 
 It was said that some sort of a peace had been 
 
 1 The port where the agricultural produce from 
 Umbria was landed.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 23 
 
 patched-up. It was said that the Keltic King 
 was about to relinquish the City. 
 
 Ippolito's mind became inflamed with desire 
 of inquiry. Wherefore, having crossed the 
 river, we descended from the barge ; and made 
 haste toward Vatican, in order that we might 
 get the news from that side. 
 
 As we hurried through the streets, mine 
 heart was sad and disconsolate in my breast, by 
 cause of my secret longing and by cause of 
 mine ill-used body ; and 1 was oblivious of all 
 other things. 
 
 Ippolito perceived my grief, and set himself 
 to console me, as we walked along : but he 
 knew not all the causes of my distress. He 
 spoke only of the Great Ban, which indeed 
 weighed heavily, and moreover it was the root 
 and source of all mine ill. For, had it not 
 been for that grave impediment, I should have 
 been a free prince ; and, with my freedom, I 
 could have won the desire of my soul, and also 
 could have used my body to advantage. Thus 
 he spoke: but I passed, from grieving over
 
 24 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 mine unknown maid and my bruised flesh, into 
 most profound trouble by cause of my dis- 
 ability. And that trouble was so sore that very 
 soon it changed into furious despair, I would 
 do : but I could not do, by cause that I might 
 not do. To myself I seemed useless. I was 
 merely a bandit. Yet I got no joy of my 
 banditry as other bandits did, by cause that 1 
 was too foolish or too wise to comport myself 
 as a bandit. 
 
 Blood was blinding mine eyes at these 
 thoughts ; and my lips quivered fiercely. Thus 
 to Vatican I came, in a passion of rage.
 
 Ill 
 
 I SAW those great stone stairs leading to the 
 long fortified gallery which extends from the 
 Apostolic Palace to the Castle of Santangelo. 
 I saw the porphyry-coloured lines of paparchal 
 men-at-arms which guarded them. I also saw 
 the porphyry-coloured knots of chamberlains 
 and pages and prelates which clustered upon 
 them. All around me were voices and the 
 noise of movement. Cardinals and bishops 
 and barons, each with his company, continually 
 were arriving and ascending the stairs and dis- 
 appearing along the gallery above, or emerging 
 therefrom and descending and departing. 
 
 All this time, IppoHto was pouring sympa- 
 thetic words into my deaf ears. As he left me, 
 I contrived to hear him say : 
 
 " Be of good heart, O Sideynes, for thy 
 chance may be near even now. Fortune never 
 
 25
 
 26 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 ceaseth to turn her wheel ; and what is down 
 to-day may be up to-morrow." 
 
 Then he climbed the stair, attended by his 
 pages ; and I was left alone. 
 
 1 stood by a window in the hall, very sad. 
 Our ij decurions remained, waiting in my 
 vicinity, but not so near as to intrude upon 
 my secret. Mine heart began to weep within 
 my breast, silently, very bitterly : but the crowds 
 which came in and the crowds which went out 
 were ignorant of my grief. To the genuinely 
 aggrieved, there is nothing more distracting 
 (and consoling) than the knowledge that he is 
 keeping his grievance to himself. 
 
 Anon, a certain princess entered, attended by 
 a galaxy of maids-of-honour, all chattering like 
 jays, very flippant. She was most virginal and 
 young, with a long sheet of shining yellow hair 
 flowing loosely from a garland of jacinths. Her 
 robe of mulberry-coloured silk was embroidered 
 with gold herring-bones. The paparchal pages 
 swept us against the wall to make a passage for 
 her. I took one by the car, demanding the
 
 DON TARQUINIO 27 
 
 lady's name for a very valid reason. Having 
 said that she was Madonna Lucrezia Borgia- 
 Sforza, the daughter of the Paparch's Sanctity, 
 the wife of the Tyrant of Pesaro, a pearl of 
 women, lovely and good, gentle and courteous 
 to all, anon he threatened me with penalties 
 for my abuse of his ear. But 1 consoled him 
 with iij silver ouches shaped like herons which 
 I tore out of my cloak ; and, having pushed 
 through the throng, I made a very low obeisance 
 to the princess : for I wished to be seen of her 
 in whose train 1 myself had noted my maid. 
 
 When Madonna Lucrezia had given me a 
 frank and simple look of admiration, for I was 
 not unnotable in a knitted habit like a skin of 
 nacre-coloured silk embroidered with a flight 
 of silver herons,^ she also climbed the stairs and 
 disappeared : but her maids-of-honour waited in 
 the gallery. 
 
 I was standing below, strenuously looking 
 upward. Courtiers came forward up there, 
 
 ^ The word Ardea signifies "a heron." The city 
 of Ardea is the cradle of the race of Santacroce.
 
 28 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 pairing with the girls, strutting to and fro like 
 a troop of apes and a muster of peacocks. 
 One of the maids had no companion. She 
 was walking by herself. 
 
 An enormous baron, one of the loyal Cesarini, 
 came from the gallery. His company gathered 
 round him as he began the descent of the stair. 
 The solitary maid also stepped down in his 
 train, just when I was sinking again into my 
 melancholy; and then I saw no more of anyone, 
 but only her. 
 
 Her sea-blue robe was girdled by great cat's- 
 eyes set in gold. Her mane of blue-black hair 
 floated around her from a coronal of sea-blue 
 beryls. There was a modest look of seeking in 
 her eyes, half-veiled by lovely lashes. Tender 
 blushes brightened her diaphanous flesh. I 
 watched her very cautelously, maintaining my 
 dejected attitude by the window, using all the 
 powers of my will to draw her to me. Several 
 times she passed me as she paced the hall. Anon 
 she stayed by me, lifting her lashes, fulfilling 
 me with the light of her regard ; and she said :
 
 DON TARQUINIO 29 
 
 " O Madonnino, why art thou so unutterably 
 sad ? " 
 
 I wrenched myself from my distress ; and 
 comported myself as one to whom a divine 
 vision is vouchsafed, letting a look of recog- 
 nition gradually come into mine eyes. So I 
 went to her ; and drew her into the embrasure 
 of the window, where the mailed backs of my 
 decurion walled us off from the passers-by. 
 And, on my two firm knees, I told her that I 
 had loved her since first I saw her in the City. 
 
 She was not angry : but sweetly tender, 
 modest, not unwilling. Her mood brightened 
 mine ; and mine heart became as blithe as the 
 sea at dawn in spring. She was not mine ; but 
 she was to be had for the asking : for which 
 cause I continued to speak. I said that I 
 hitherto had had no means of approaching her : 
 that I even now was ignorant of her name ; and 
 I used the sacred language of lovers. 
 
 She begged me to rise, lest some passer-by 
 should misunderstand me ; and her eyes darted 
 up the stairs to the other maids with their
 
 30 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 partners. She was very young, and perhaps a 
 little terrified by the violence of love, though 
 she by no means was for flying from it. I 
 stood up ; and, by cause that I most fervently 
 regarded her, she let her eyelids droop a little 
 while she responded to me, telling me her name 
 and condition. Anon she used a new stratagem 
 in the sweet affray, demanding that I should 
 speak about myself. So, I was driven back 
 into the citadel of my sadness, mine assault 
 being prevented. She pushed me closer, per- 
 sisting, gently urging me. 
 
 Anon I told her how that our house had been 
 xij years in exile, notwithstanding that we were 
 the most noble patricians in the Golden Book 
 of Rome ; and I spoke of Saint George the 
 Dragon-slayer of Seriphos, of the Great Ban, 
 of our razed palace, of our baron fooling at 
 Fiorenza. I said that I was a scion of the 
 younger branch, and innocent of the murders 
 which had caused us to be banned ; and I 
 told her of my breeding, with all other matters 
 necessary to be known by her. I gave her 
 notice of mine arts and parts. There I was
 
 DON TARQUINIO 31 
 
 to serve her, as she could see, young, strong, 
 well-Instructed, not uncomely, and burning for 
 an opportunity of doing deeds. I also spoke 
 of Ippolito, my friend, who had brought me to 
 the City in search of that opportunity which 
 was not at Deira. 
 
 She, with divine tenderness, feared for my 
 safety. I gave her confidence again, reciting 
 the precautions observed and the privileges 
 enjoyed among the Estense familiars. But, by 
 side of these things, I bade her to know that 
 I as yet was not a notable person upon whom 
 our Lord the Paparch well might execute 
 justice. Further, I said that Alexander so far 
 had not manifested special virulence toward 
 mine house. We were bandits when He bep-an 
 to reign. So He found us. The Great Ban 
 had been laid on us by His predecessors ; 
 and, if He so willed. He could annul It. 
 Wherefore I had taken the risk, for the sake 
 of meeting an opportunity. And 1 showed 
 her how that Ippolito, being in the Paparch's 
 favour, was watching daily for a fortunate 
 moment in which to plead my case. Not
 
 32 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 that I wished to sue for favours : but I was 
 seeking an opportunity for doing some signal 
 service, which should merit and compel pa- 
 parchal approbation. I preferred to help myself. 
 But, until my disability should have been re- 
 moved, I was (so I said) like a prisoner in 
 chains, unable to use myself 
 
 She moved a little nearer to me, lifting the 
 sweet deep wells of her eyes for me to bathe 
 in ; and she said : 
 
 " O Madonnino, how I pity, how I pity !" 
 But I instantly responded, bending my 
 proper eyes to hers, saying: 
 
 " O Madonnina, pity is akin to love." 
 And, at the word, I saw mine image in- 
 shrined within those mirrors of her soul. It 
 was an omen, very fortunate, very invigorating. 
 If Hersilia loved me, that nerved me ; and I 
 would persevere. So I said. 
 
 She wished to speak for me to Madonna 
 Lucrezia : saying that that one was beneficent 
 to everybody and all-powerful with her Most 
 Holy Father. But I denied her. A man
 
 DON TARQUINIO 33 
 
 ousht to raise himself and not to owe his 
 fortunes to women. That was my sentence. 
 I also said that Hersilia was like the angel who 
 formerly delivered the Paparch Saint Peter from 
 chains. She had made me strong to free 
 myself. Nothing more was necessary except 
 a little patience and a fortunate event. 
 
 She gave her hand to mine hot kisses. It 
 was as dainty as a baby's. 
 
 At that moment, Ippolito and Madonna. 
 Lucrezia appeared together in the gallery ; and 
 beofan the descent of the stairs. There was a 
 sudden collecting of companies. Long-legged 
 pages darted hither and thither with much, 
 confusion ; and anon I was by Ippolito's side 
 striding down Borgo. 
 
 He had no news for me. Our Lord the Pa- 
 parch was playing with chess against His favourite 
 page out of Spain ;i and only had whispered ij 
 words to the cardinal. What those // words 
 
 ^ This perhaps would be the Pierotto Calderon 
 whom Cesare is said to have murdered so very 
 romantically indeed.
 
 34 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 were, was Ippolito's secret. Nor had I any news 
 for him. What I had heard from my maid, 
 was my secret. Together we went in silence, 
 pondering our proper affairs. 
 
 So we ascended the waiting barge ; and pro- 
 ceeded down Tiber, rapt in meditation. And 
 the sun set in gold.
 
 nil 
 
 When the barge had swung free of the shoal 
 of smaller boats by the quav., and had attanied 
 mid-stream, Ippolito anon emerged from his 
 thoughts. I also emerged from mine. There 
 was a gleam of hilarity in his black-eyed glance. 
 I returned it. It was understood that we were 
 setting trouble aside for the moment, and 
 engaging each other in some feat of daring, 
 as our manner was. 
 
 Having cast off" his vermihon robes, Ippolito 
 blessed his body ; and forthwith smoothly 
 plunged into the river, strongly swimming 
 with a huge leap sideways and a circular sweep 
 of alternate arms and a double downward 
 thrust of his mighty haunches. I for a few 
 moments watched him, while I strengthened 
 my proper arms by swinging the heavy arm- 
 shields, wooden, cylindrical, studded with 
 
 35
 
 36 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 square knops, which we had used in our game 
 of great-ball. Anon, having made ready, I 
 climbed on the high shoulders of the steers- 
 man, standing there till Ippolito saw my 
 whiteness ; and so 1 dived into the barge's 
 wake, and swam. 
 
 The oarsmen diminished their speed to 
 ours ; and we swam between the right bank, 
 where our Lord the Paparch kept His court 
 in the Castle of Santangelo, and the left bank, 
 where the army of the Keltic king inravished 
 half the City. We continued swimming to- 
 gether under the new Xystine Bridge, and 
 under the Cestian Bridge, and by the Island,^ 
 until the barge was moored by the Estense 
 quay in Trastevere. 
 
 Gigantic jatraleiptai,^ which Ippolito got out 
 of Morocco, attended us when we climbed 
 inboard. Their chestnut-coloured bodies were 
 girdled with azure-green. Using pure oil of 
 olives in which violets were macerated, they 
 
 ^ The Island of Saint Bartholomew in the Tiber. 
 - This is Don Tarquinio's word for shampooers.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 37 
 
 imparted friction with their hands to our chilled 
 flesh. When my skin had the rosy glow of 
 pomegranates, they robed me in a cloak of 
 vair of nut-brown squirrels : but Ippolito 
 muffled himself in the ermine and vermilion 
 of his great-cloak, covering his head with a 
 coif of the same. Chamberlains with vj 
 torches went before him, iij went before me, 
 when we left the barge and entered the palace. 
 Our teeth chattered with cold, preventing 
 articulate speech : but our bodies were warm. 
 
 There was an immense crowd of familiars 
 along the quay and by the water-gate, free- 
 lances from Ferrara, Gothic halberdiers, 
 Dacian sUngers, red-haired Skythian wrestlers 
 very gigantic, roe-footed runners from Utter 
 Britain, North African Moors, Ethiopic 
 athletes, Indian acrobats, all selected for some 
 singular physical beauty or capability. The 
 crowd, as I have said, seemed to be immense : 
 but considering that Ippolito was a prince as 
 well as a cardinal, a family of merely cccc 
 persons was by no means over - abundant.
 
 38 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 Many barons and many sacredly purpled 
 persons are well known to keep much larger 
 families : but Ippolito cared more for quality 
 than for quantity, and he cared n )thing at 
 all for ostentation or display. This trait of 
 his character was very pleasing to me : for I 
 myself at all times would rather have those 
 exquisite things which no other prince hath, 
 than a superfluity of those things which are 
 common to all. 
 
 The water-gate, iron-barred, iron-shielded, 
 clanged behind us. Armed footmen lined the 
 stair. Slight vermilion pages, patrician on 
 this side, plebeian on that, made obeisance in 
 the x-v antechambers. A bevy of delicate 
 youngsters, whose hair glittered like cocoons 
 in candlelight, joined our progress. Ippolito 
 was wont to pay cccmd golden sequins^ for 
 one of these specimens of The Creator's 
 handiwork ; and he had collected no more 
 than viiij . He told me this, seeing how 
 greatly I admired them ; and he described 
 1 About ^^7,000, or $30,000.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 39 
 
 the difficulty which his agents had had in 
 finding them, for there was no blemish on 
 them from sole to crown. Thus conversing, 
 we passed the wardrobe, where the master 
 waited with his grooms and our gentlemen ; 
 and so we parted to go to our bathing- 
 chambers. From this description, o Prospero, 
 thou shalt know how a cardinal kept state in 
 the days of thy fathers youth. But I will 
 continue, that no single thing which I did 
 on that day may be hidden from thee. 
 
 Well-grown pages, girt with white napkins, 
 spread the floor-sheets and sponged my flesh 
 with warm water, rubbing me with lupin-meal, 
 alkaline, emollient. Having poured cold 
 jasmine-water over me, and dried me with 
 fine flax, they indued me with knitted under- 
 garb of soft wool, swathing my wet hair with 
 cloths. Wrapped in a woollen night-gown, 
 I encountered Ippolito similarly arrayed in the 
 wardrobe. The grooms produced various 
 habits ; and our pages deftly did them on us. 
 Ippolito's grand legs were sheathed in silk
 
 40 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 hosen, tyrianthine-coloured. A loose doublet 
 of the same covered his body. It was open 
 on the breast and the long wide sleeves, shew- 
 ing the laces and embroidery of his smock. 
 His poignard dangled from a golden belt 
 formed of linked dryades and naiades. His 
 cap and his shoes were vermilion. His 
 pectoral cross was hidden in his smock ; and 
 his chain was set with those periapts which 
 procure fearlessness and avert drowning, passion, 
 incubi and succubi, videlicet carnelian, jasper, 
 topaz, coral. And I must not omit to record 
 that the sapphire of his ring, worth dc sequins,^ 
 was engraved with a figure of the Heroic 
 Herakles strangling the Nemean Lion, which 
 inchanteth against colic and gaineth favour. 
 But 1, on my part, chose to wear no smock 
 that night, preferring a certain habit of white 
 silk which clung to my contours. It was 
 shaped like an inverted chevron on breast 
 and back, with broidered bands of pearls on 
 silver ; and I chose it by cause that I could 
 1 About j^i,200, or $6,ooo.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 41 
 
 breathe more freely when my throat was 
 bare, for mine heart was very full of the joy 
 which cometh to him who hath done well 
 with his body. Indeed I hardly could stand 
 still while the pages very carefully rubbed the 
 delicate fabric on me, smoothing the wrinkles : 
 but, when this was done, I knew that I had 
 chosen rightly, for this habit was no restraint 
 to me. A pointed belt of linked silver medals 
 engraved with the loves of Leykippe and 
 Kleitophonta bound a brief close flounce of 
 silver-banded silk round my loins ; and my 
 boots were of white buckskin, clasped with 
 silver at an handsbreadth below my knees. 
 They also brought me a v/hite silk cap proud 
 with plumes, and a thick cloak of white velvet 
 reversed with ermine. 
 
 So I stood, while Ippolito praised me, saying 
 that I resembled Messer Verrocchio's lithe 
 thalerose imasre of David carven" of shimmer- 
 ing mother o' pearl. Concerning which same 
 image, and concerning also the other image of 
 David by Messer Donatello, I took occasion
 
 42 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 to narrate the tragicomedy of the said images, 
 and of the ij adolescents of Deira named 
 Baldonero Fioravanti and Rufo Drudodimare, 
 and of their doings with the white-faced 
 cardinal.^ And the same history I shall put 
 in an appendix,^ seeing that no more than 
 the mention of it is pertinent to this present 
 history. But my discourse was so pleasing 
 to Ippolito that, when I had made an end of 
 speaking, he sent to me a page with a tray of 
 rings for mine acceptance. Wherefrom I chose 
 vj for the adornment of my thumbs and my 
 first-fingers and my third-fingers : -videlicet a 
 cockatrice, intagliate in green jasper, for avert- 
 ing the evil eye: a fair boy's head well- 
 combed, intagliate in smaragd, for preserving 
 joy: an Apollino with a necklace of herbs, 
 intagliate in heliotrope, which conferreth in- 
 visibility when anointed with marigold-juice : 
 the Kythereia and Ares, intagliate in chal- 
 
 ^ Rafaele Sansoni-Riarj, struck pallid at sixteen 
 when he was expecting to be murdered by the Medici. 
 2 Which his present tralator takes leave to omit.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 43 
 
 cedonyx, for gaining victories : the Anadyo- 
 mene, intagliate in sea-blue beryl, fine, brilliant, 
 very large, also for gaining victories : a silver 
 ring set through on all sides with toadstone 
 and ass-hoof, for augmenting manlihood and 
 for protection against venom ; and, having 
 thanked Ippolito, I sent him the rest in the tray. 
 
 The patrician pages, who stood in our 
 shadows, quietly quarrelled among themselves 
 while they filled our burses with perfumes, 
 comfit-boxes, kerchieves, combs, mirrors, amu- 
 lets, tablets, rosaries, and other gear. We 
 struck them in the rear with spatulas from time 
 to time. Nor would we permit them to affix 
 the said burses to our belts : for our forms 
 would have been falsified thereby. Wherefore, 
 they perforce were compelled to carry them, 
 attending us closely, buffeted as occasion 
 served. But we sat resting in arm-chairs, 
 Vv'hile the grooms covered us with sheets with 
 fringes, drying and combing and scenting our 
 raven-hued and yellow-silver hair. 
 
 For our solace, a chamberlain admitted a
 
 44 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 p:iir of chaplains in black cymars with an arch- 
 luth and a book of hours. They kneeled, and 
 intoned vespers with completorium. At the 
 Sign and Et fidelium animae, the bells of the 
 City began to sound in a new manner, strange 
 then to me, but familiar enough to thee, 
 o Prospero, videlicet iij strokes, iiij strokes, 
 V strokes, i stroke, xiii strokes in all. 
 
 I looked with inquiry toward Ippolito. He 
 smiled : for he had been at the heart of things 
 that day ; and he said that it was the new 
 ordinance of our Lord the Paparch. 
 
 Our coverings instantly were removed. Two 
 vermilion cushions were placed before us. All 
 sank on the knees. The Cardinal of Ferrara 
 intoned, in honour of the Fructiferous Incarna- 
 tion ; and we responded to him, saying 
 
 F. Angelus Domini nutiavit Mariae : 
 R. Et cocepit de Spiritu Sacto. 
 Aue Maria, etc. 
 
 F. Ecce acilla Domini : 
 R. Fiat michi secudu' Verbu' Tuu* 
 Aue Maria, etc.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 45 
 
 F. Et Verbu' Caro factu' est : 
 R. Et habitauit i' nobis. 
 
 Aue Maria, etc. 
 
 F. Ora pro nobis, Slicta Dei Genitrix : 
 
 R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christ!. 
 
 F. Oremus. Gratia' Tua', quaesumus, Domine, 
 metibus nostris ifude, ut Qui, agelo nutiate, Christ 
 Filj Tui Icarnatione' cognovimus, per Passione' Ejus 
 et Cruce' ad Resurrectionis Gloria' perducamur. 
 Per Eude' Christu' Dominu' nostra' : 
 
 R. Amen. 
 
 F. 1^ Et fideh'u' animae per Misericordia' Dei 
 requiescat i' pace : 
 R. Amen. 
 
 It was the first hour of night.^ 
 
 Now, the day which for me for ever is 
 marked with a white stone, fortune-bringing, 
 the great day of my life was begun. 
 
 ^ About 6 p.m. Each day was counted to begin at 
 sunset of the previous night.
 
 V 
 
 1 WILL tell thee, o Prospero, of the Estense 
 Palace : for it is impossible for thee to see it 
 with thy proper sea-blue eyes, by cause that 
 it was pulled down in the year before thy 
 birth, after the miraculous picture appeared on 
 the garden-wall ; and hath given place to the 
 new church of Theotokos with the new 
 streets.^ 
 
 It was a gigantic oblong, extending from the 
 
 ^ This would seem to indicate the locality of this 
 mysterious palace : for a miraculous Madonna was 
 found on a garden-wall in Trastevere a.d. 1497, ^"'^ 
 the church of Santa Maria dell' Orto (Saint Mary of 
 the Garden) was built over it a.d. 1512, the year 
 before the birth of Cardinal Prospero Santacroce. 
 The palace, therefore, must have stood upon a slice of 
 the site now occupied by St. Michael's Hospice and 
 the barracks of the Bersaglieri, with a water-gate on 
 Ripa Grande. 
 
 46
 
 DON TARQUINIO 47 
 
 river-bank to the said garden-wall, having the 
 grove of the Divine Furina on the one side, and 
 Saint Cecilia and Saint Mary of the Chapel on 
 the other. It was neither so fine nor so large 
 as that new palace which my cousin and our 
 baron Marcantonio is about to build on Cati- 
 nari : but it was fine and large enough for 
 a foreign cardinal. One end of the oblong 
 abutted on Tiber, where was the great barbacan 
 and the water-gate ; and it was divided into 
 iiij equal-sided courts by the hall and the 
 audience-chamber and the chapel. The ex- 
 terior walls were fortifications v braccie^ in 
 thickness, where little window-slits lighted only 
 galleries and stairs. Who builded it, I do not 
 know : but, when it was pulled down we recog- 
 nized it as the work of a master-builder, cyclo- 
 pean, absolute. All the chief apartments were 
 on the first floor. Below were kitchens, 
 cellars, prisons, store-houses, military quarters. 
 Above were iij floors for the familiars and the 
 
 ^ 1 2 feet 1 1 inches. The braccia was 2 feet 
 7 inches long.
 
 48 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 athletes. The first court from the gate was 
 allotted to the soldiers and servitors : the 
 second, to the gentlemen and pages : the third 
 to the men of letters and to the illustrious, 
 nobilities, supernities, celsitudes, tranquillities, 
 ma";nificences, sublimities : the fourth was the 
 court of the women, where the wives and 
 daughters of the familiars cooked the food and 
 made or mended clothes, pent from boys 
 and adolescents savage or military, in suitable 
 seclusion beyond the ruota.^ A flat roof, with 
 machicolated battlement, crowned the pile, 
 chiefly fortified, but also providing a terrace, 
 d braccie- in total length, / braccie^ in width, 
 for Ippolito's recreations. 
 
 These things being understood, I will con- 
 tinue the history. 
 
 When we stood up ready to proceed from 
 the wardrobe, all the people came and made 
 
 ^ A huge revolving cupboard, by which means 
 communication was made. 
 - 473 yards I foot lO inches. 
 ^ 43 yards 2 inches.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 49 
 
 their genuflections. The pages with the 
 cardinalitial double-cross and the Estense gon- 
 falon went before. The gentlemen followed 
 after, playing with their budding upper-lips. 
 These were quite useless persons, not even 
 showy, and only included in the family in 
 order that they might learn manners. I never 
 have had gentlemen in my proper family : for 
 I prefer pages and servitors to whom I can 
 speak and who will respond to me in turn.. 
 I would rather be surrounded by barbarians, 
 as Ippolito generally was, than by these silent 
 simpering youths who are merely noble. And 
 as for myself, rather than be a gentleman in 
 another baron's family, I would prefer to be 
 a farmer. And, as I will for myself, so also 
 I will for my dear son. Note it, o Prospero. 
 
 The chamberlains preceded us with the vj 
 torches and the iij. As we passed down the 
 i^ij stairs which led into the first gallery, a 
 rhamberlain slipped on a patch of tallow, which 
 had dropped from a rush-light badly placed in 
 the sconce on the wall. He was a very fat 
 
 4
 
 50 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 man ; and his hosen split on the ham-bone : 
 at M'hose discomfiture we laughed, but Ippolito 
 was promising a thrashing for someone. 
 
 In the private dining-room, I was moved 
 to give an inkling of mine hopes to Ippolito, 
 continuing to whisper until we had passed 
 through the state withdrawing-room into the 
 hall. He sighed when I spoke of my maid ; 
 and suddenly smiled, as one who locketh the 
 box of his trouble when his friend unlocketh 
 his box of joy. It appeared to me that Ippo- 
 lito was not ignorant of an experience similar 
 to mine: but the importance of my proper 
 affairs prevented me from placing inquiries 
 concerning his. 
 
 My discourse was interrupted by the pages 
 at the door of the hall presenting the em- 
 bossed gold basin with the ewer of tepid rose- 
 water and diapered towels, while we washed 
 our fingers reciting the Psalm / ivill wash mine 
 hands in innocency. Our seats on the dais were 
 canopied by the vermilion baldaquin, Ippo- 
 lito's being on a step above mine. Below on
 
 DON TARQUINIO 51 
 
 our right, was the table of the chaplains and 
 the men of letters who knew the iiij human 
 languages, videlicet Greek, Roman, Tuscan, 
 Hebrew. Below on our left, was the table 
 of the general comptroller of estates, the 
 secretaries, the chief steward, the auditor, the 
 notary, the datary, the captain and lieutenants 
 of the guard, the herald, the physician, and 
 the barber-chirurgeon. Lower down the hall 
 were tables, large and long. At the middle 
 table, where the salt-cellar divided patrician 
 from plebeian, the gentlemen sat and the bevy 
 of pages. The rest of the family was at the 
 end of the hall. The plebeians each brought 
 their daily portions from the canteen, -videlicet 
 xvj ounces of beef, xx ounces of fine or coarse 
 bread according to condition, a pint and a halt 
 of wine, pieces of their monthly pounds ot 
 cheese. All through the meal, they looked 
 lickerishly toward the dais, thinking of their 
 chances of our gentle leavings. 
 
 Wax torches, v in number, escorted each 
 dish from the ruota to the carving-table ; v
 
 52 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 others illumined the tables of the patricians : 
 cool, dim, twinkling wicks floating on oil in 
 brazen lamps, and the blaze of the logs on 
 the hearth, gave light to the rest. The reflec- 
 tions of these in the panels of the walls and 
 roof, oaken, wax-shining, resembled golden stars 
 in a brown sea. 
 
 As I and Ippolito spread the napkins on our 
 breasts for tying, there was some commotion 
 at the pages' table. It was seen that, not 
 content with their own napkin, they had stolen 
 also the one pertaining to the gentlemen, which 
 napkin one of the last retrieved with a little 
 violence. We only saw the short struggle, 
 and we only heard the indignant advice to the 
 robbers that they should use their caps and 
 sleeves like the plebeians. 
 
 Ippolito demanded of me whether, in my 
 judgment, such advice was suitable for young 
 boys. I responded saying that it was in- 
 decorous, and that the adviser ouofht to be 
 dismissed. 1 target whether this last was 
 done.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 53 
 
 While the wan nervous venom-taster in 
 black, who stood at Ippolito's left hand, was 
 performing his office on the viands and on 
 the wine, my flesh glowed with the stinging 
 cold of my swim in Tiber and the subsequent 
 ministrations of my pages, Ippolito was in 
 a muse. But I looked at my face in my 
 mirror ; and saw happiness trying to shine 
 there. I smoothed mine hair. I stretched 
 my legs and arms. I felt strong. My bowels 
 yearned to do some violent deed. But what 
 deed ^ Ah, I did not know what deed to do. 
 And I instantly slid from the height of bliss 
 to the depth of misery. Oh, I indeed was 
 properly unhappy. 
 
 As soon as the chaplains had finished in- 
 toning the prayers, I drank beef-and-barley 
 broth from a silver bowl. It did not comfort 
 me. I ate the beef from which the broth had 
 been made. It was fibrous and dry. The 
 brigands of the Campagna who, in those old 
 days, used to steal half all imports sent to the 
 City, must have been employed elsewhere that
 
 54 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 day : for roast pig and venison appeared on the 
 carving table. I ate of both, being ravenously- 
 hungry and unwilling to waste time in talking 
 to Ippolito about a stranger who was sitting 
 at the table of the men of letters. But I said 
 that a man who had an olive-coloured skin 
 ought not to wear a pink and green gown ; 
 and I have forgotten all else about the said 
 stranger. The venison suited my taste, being 
 fat and full of blood ; and I signed for a third 
 platterful. Nor did I neglect the fried things, 
 videlicet minced chicken livers in paste balls, 
 goose-breasts in batter, cockscombs on lettuce, 
 leeks parboiled and fried in oil, a dish of quails 
 farced with figs. The goose-breasts and the 
 cockscombs were the best. Every time when 
 I paused to wash mine hands, I seemed to be 
 sinking deeper in the mire of my melancholy. 
 
 I was plunging, sighing, into a gigantic 
 salad : for I remembered that green-meat is as 
 efficacious for whitening the skin as are blood- 
 meats for rendering supple the sinews. But 
 we heard the sudden ringing of horse-hooves
 
 DON TARQUINIO 55 
 
 in the court, and the champing of bitts, and 
 the noise of an arrival. Then indeed the 
 jiuman tide at the end of the hall swept 
 sideways, as Tiber surges when cloven by a 
 galley's prow. A pursuivant and two ver- 
 milion chamberlains, each with a handful of 
 ]ighted torches snatched from anywhere, pre- 
 cipitated themselves at the dais, announcing: 
 
 " The Exalted Potency of Prince Gioifredo 
 Borgia of Squillace." 
 
 This prince, o Prospero, was then of mine 
 own age : but he already had commanded 
 dccxl free-lances in the war, and he already 
 was xj months a benedick : while I, who 
 could do nothing but fight and swim and run 
 and speak Greek and write it and look much 
 more like the David of Messer Verrocchio 
 than Baldonero Fioravanti or than Rufo 
 Drudodimare, I, I say, had no opportunity of 
 doing anything. And I was most miserable. 
 But I smiled, welcoming the guest : for he 
 seemed to be a merry lad ; and 1 admired 
 the hardy contours of his form, precocious.
 
 56 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 voluptuous. Sulphur-coloured silk defined 
 each line of him. The silver bands at his 
 throat and wrists and hips were set with 
 great cabochon emeralds no greener than his 
 eyes which flashed between long lashes. His 
 curly hair was as black, as night. His flesh 
 had the rosy clearness of carnation. His 
 laughing mouth was as red as beef. He used 
 himself with lively dignity as became the 
 veritable son of our Lord the Paparch ; and 
 he came to greet us with a certain gesture. 
 He said : 
 
 " Salute the father of a lovely girl, born a 
 month ago at Naples, whom Our Most Holy 
 Father yesterday hath baptized by the name 
 Antonia. " 
 
 The cellarers served a rich red wine of 
 Nemi, full-bodied, well-sunned. Ippolito com- 
 manded them to bring moss-agate cups : in 
 order that the Paparch's son might have 
 security against venom. ^ While we drank, 
 
 1 Moss-agate breaks when touched by poison.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 57 
 
 those ij began to chatter of matters unknown 
 to me. 
 
 I threw a cupful of wine in the face of 
 the page with my basin, that I might make 
 him as unhappy as I. He looked so meekly 
 furious that 1 laughed as I washed my fingers 
 before tastino the sweetmeats. But anon, re- 
 membering that the said page was noble and 
 that I had hurt his honour, I sent him to 
 fetch my two best swords. And, having 
 slipped into the state withdrawing-room, I 
 made him proud and happy by disarming him 
 twice, scratching the back of his right hand. 
 He was a bold boy, fearful of the blood of 
 the grape, not of his own. But I returned 
 to the cheese, more unhappy than before. 
 
 Chaplains intoned the long action of graces, 
 ►J^ Memoria' fecit mirabiliu' suoru' etc. I 
 lingered over a conserve of quinces, which, 
 said Ippolito, disperseth fumes and preventeth 
 vapours from striking upwards ; and I chatted 
 in Greek with Messer Pierettore Arrivabene 
 below the dais, while Ippolito and the Borgia
 
 58 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 prince eagerly whispered. When the familiars 
 were gone out by the lower door, we iij 
 washed our hands ; and went to take our 
 ease in the secret chamber. Singing boys 
 followed our progress, mingling voices with 
 archluths, quiet, clear, and low, music delightful 
 to hear.
 
 VI 
 
 That secret chamber, o Prospero, was circular 
 and very large. The walls and the vaulted roof 
 were covered with a veneer of ivory iij barley- 
 corns in thickness, smoothly gleaming. Ivory 
 images of fauns and nymphs as large as life, 
 xj of the one, x of the other, stood on 
 ivory pedestals round the walls supporting the 
 cornice. The said cornice also was of ivory 
 carved with a dance of satyrs in basso rilievo. 
 Wax torches burned on tall gold candlesticks 
 placed on the floor between the images, except 
 in the spaces occupied by the ivory door and 
 the window. The last was furnished with a 
 balcony over Tiber ; and shewed a view of 
 the City in darkening twilight. The floor 
 was covered by a very thick black carpet 
 from Byzantion. 
 
 Having washed our fingers at the gold 
 
 59
 
 Go DON TARQUINIO 
 
 lavabo by the door, we composed ourselves 
 on massive black velvet cushions, which were 
 heaped up here and there upon the floor. 
 Ippolito drew up a low ivory table ; and 
 offered sweetmeats to us from a gold box, 
 cursing meanwhile by cause that the pile of 
 napkins for the night was lacking. In the 
 midst of his objurgations, a servitor hurried 
 in with an armful, depositing the same by 
 the lavabo. Ippolito resumed his normal 
 grave smile. 
 
 The men of letters swaggered in, bent on 
 improving our minds. The first read the 
 histories of Solon and Publius Valerius Popli- 
 cola with Parallel, from the /3iot ■n-apaWij'Xoi of 
 Mcsser Ploytarchos : the second read a page 
 of Messer Cicero's Oration for Caecina : the 
 third declaimed the eighteenth canto of Messer 
 Alighieri's Paradiso : the fourth intoned a 
 lection from the Evangel of Saint John the 
 Divine (whose Greek, o Prospero, is purer 
 than that of the other Apostles, especially Saint 
 Paul), and he used the second volume of that
 
 DON TARQUINIO 6i 
 
 fine Bible which cost Duke Borso d'Este 
 mccdxxv sequins.-^ 
 
 Prince Gioffredo became uneasy in his body : 
 for he had not expected this kind of entertain- 
 ment. Wherefore Ippolito conversed with him 
 apart, while I became obedient to the mages who 
 were my masters for the nonce : it being at all 
 times my will, as it should be thine, o my 
 mercurial son, to give as much care to the 
 acquisition of mental superiority as to the 
 acquisition of physical. I translated aloud into 
 Tuscan a folio of the Phaidon of Plato, that 
 absolute work, and a breve of Messer Plinius 
 from the new edition which Messer Pomponius 
 Laetus had given to Ippolito.- Anon I meekly 
 tolerated an adverse judgment of my weekly 
 thesis, the absurd subject of which was The 
 Irreducible Surd : nor did I even wince when 
 Messer Pierettore denounced it by the epithet 
 Childish*!, for now I was beyond concern for 
 
 1 About /;7,500, or $37,500. 
 
 ^ No doubt this was the edition issued in 1491.
 
 62 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 these lesser matters, pondering the unmitigable 
 calamity in which I stood. 
 
 Anon it was Ippolito's turn to do his lessons ; 
 and mine to amuse the guest. That one, by 
 no means satisfied with the grave conversation 
 of the cardinal, looked upon me as being a 
 more suitable companion ; and he instantly 
 proposed that we should ride through the City 
 to see the sights of the night. I was by no 
 means loath to oblige him : indeed the peril of 
 such an adventure recommended itself to me as 
 a means of escape from my melancholy. 
 
 While my decurion and the prince's were 
 being collected, 1 chose my mail-shirt from a 
 trayful. Ippolito had obtained a few minutes' 
 interval in which to speed our departure ; and 
 he praised my caution to Prince Gioffredo, 
 saying that foolhardiness was not courage, and 
 that vanity (however just) should not breed 
 rashness. The Paparch's son watched me 
 glittering in the pliant steel, while I was 
 buckling-on my sword-belt ; and he said that 
 I was as comely in the mail falling in escallops
 
 DON TARQUINIO 63 
 
 round mine haunches as I was in silk or velvet. 
 Thus he spoke ; and, finding on the tray 
 another mail-shirt so fine that his two hands 
 plump, juicy with heat, completely covered it, 
 he let my pages do it on him. Certainly he 
 made a gallant show ; and a mirror taught him 
 that veiling the splendour of the body (in such 
 a gleaming web) enhances the splendour of the 
 limbs : which gave him great content. 
 
 We mounted in the first court ; and gave 
 the word to our // decurions. The great gate 
 yawned before us ; and clanged behind us. 
 With a pomp of xx torches, we clattered over 
 Tiber by the double-bridge and the Island. 
 The night was young. The City was still : for 
 the Keltic army chiefly lay outside the Flaminian 
 Gate and in the Region of Campo Marzo. We 
 rode quietly, bidding our guards to follow us : 
 for so the light of their torches made clear the 
 way, and our eyes were not dazzled with the 
 glare. 
 
 The Prince of Squillace said that he was 
 going to amuse himself. I, desperate with the
 
 64 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 oppression of my misery, declared that 1 also 
 would amuse myself, Great Ban or no Great 
 Ban, safely or unsafely. I had my sword and 
 my X men with their lieutenant ; and I would 
 risk something for the sake of a little amuse- 
 ment. 
 
 GiofFredo said that Rome was a dull city, not 
 to be compared for gaiety with little cities like 
 Naples or Ferrara, seeing that Colonna and 
 Orsini had eaten all the baronage save Cesarini, 
 which last house alone remained leal to our 
 Lord the Paparch. One might cultivate the 
 arts, quoth he : or plague the rebellious barons 
 and their Keltic friends : or sit in the Apostolic 
 Palace making and unmaking kings and conti- 
 nents. But these were dismal sports, quoth 
 he. 
 
 Little vulgar boys might go and throw stones 
 on Campo Vaccino,^ in defiance of the Cardinal- 
 Vicar's edict, quoth I. 
 
 Degenerates, quoth he, might go and gamble 
 
 ^ The waste land which occupied the side of the 
 then unexcavatcJ Forum.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 65 
 
 with the white-faced cardinal, who certainly was 
 the pink of fashion, but whose luck was too 
 infernally good for younger sons. 
 
 We agreed that princes were much to be 
 commiserated. 
 
 Formerly, quoth GiofFredo, much diversion 
 had been gained by hunting Jews or Bargelli,! 
 slicing off their noses, or other ways afflicting 
 them : but now the Paparch prohibited these 
 exercitations, using Himself very kindly to 
 the accursed race which so feloniously had 
 slaughtered our Divine Redeemer, and being 
 determined to keep order in the City by means 
 of the said Bargelli. Wherefore, quoth he, 
 these things being so, and the Paparch's 
 Sanctity being not only so good but also so 
 loving and so dear that no one but a devil wil- 
 fully would offend Him, it behoved respectable 
 princes to be at some pains in obeying Him. 
 
 I loved the boy for those words, o Prospero : 
 for they showed that a good heart accompanied 
 his handsome person and his lightly merry 
 
 ^ Alexander the Sixth's police.
 
 66 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 temper. But I found no word to say ; and 
 mine unhappiness overwhelmed me. We both 
 were silent. Anon we halted on the Square of 
 Santangcio. 
 
 GiofFredo leaned across to me, slyly saying 
 that we ought to seek legitimate adventures. 
 I took fire at his words ; and we rode on, 
 through and through the Street of the Bear, 
 peeping in the inns where foreigners lay : but 
 we savoured no spice of adventure in the public 
 resorts. At Saint John's of the Florentines, we 
 agreed to prowl separately ; and, taking each our 
 decurion, we chose different roads. Gioffredo 
 went by Banchi Vecchi. I tried Giulia Street. 
 
 All the shops of the archers and armourers 
 were shut on Campo de' Fiore ; and the eyes of 
 the houses twinkled with no light. I avoided 
 the Square of Catinari : for I could not bear to 
 see the razed palace of our house there ; and I 
 halted under the Capitol at the foot of Toasted 
 Beans Lane. I was drowning in the cold 
 waters of unhappiness. I also was molested by 
 the pangs of hunger : for study doth augment
 
 DON TARQUINIO 67 
 
 the carnal appetite most wonderfully, and, at 
 that time, it was necessary also that I continually 
 should heap fuel on the furnace of the prime of 
 mine adolescence. I diverged at a right angle, 
 proceeding through a series of narrow streets, 
 and by the black bulk of Rotondo^ in the 
 Region of Pigna, to the Square of Saint 
 Eustace : where I dismounted at the new 
 Falcon Inn. Ippolito had spoken of this place, 
 as being already famous for its grotesque 
 chambers and its antic viands ; and I wished to 
 see for myself, and to taste food similar to that 
 which had gratified mine illustrious forefathers : 
 for it seemed that such a diversion would enable 
 me to overcome the malignance of my stars. 
 
 The chamber, which I chose, was shaped Hke 
 an isoskelene triangle couped at the apex by a cir- 
 cular alcove about iij braccie^ in diameter. The 
 door was in the base of the triangle. The 
 walls and roof and tiled floor were porphyry- 
 colour. The last was strewn with lemon 
 verbena, a most delicious odour, invigorating, 
 
 1 The Pantheon. ^ 7 feet 8 inches.
 
 68 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 passion-inspiring. The alcove was a couch ot 
 cushions. The shuttered windows concealed 
 their blindness behind white and porphyry- 
 coloured curtains. A rush-seated settle waited 
 by a bronze table in the middle ; and a lamp of 
 vij wicks smiled from overhead. While I de- 
 manded supper of the innkeeper, 1 dismissed my 
 cap and cloak into the alcove, giving my sword 
 leave to rest by the bench, washing mine hands 
 and combing mine hair as though there was no 
 such thing as wretchedness on this orb of earth. 
 
 He named a boiled owl farced with assa- 
 foetida, a roasted wild-boar with sweet sauce 
 and pine-kernels, a bear's hams, and a baked 
 porpentine. I chose the boar and the porpen- 
 tine for my proper repast, with a measure of the 
 black wine of Marino ; and I sent the bear's 
 hams and xj measures of wine to my decurion, 
 paying two double giulj^ for the entertainment. 
 
 A sturdy Roman hob, in snowy linen with, 
 black hosen and leathern bellyband, brought 
 
 ^ The double giulio was worth (say) a florin, but 
 had about four times the latter's purchasing value.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 69 
 
 napery and the apparatus of the table. He 
 came again with a dish on each hand, and the 
 wine-flask's loose rush cover gripped in his 
 strong white teeth. This time, a clean-Hmbed 
 youngster accompanied him, precociously and 
 grandly formed, having a wonderful freshness 
 of complexion, short curly brown hair, and an 
 expression of disgust in his frank eyes. 
 
 The eye is the mirror of the soul, o 
 Prospero, and it is of ij kinds, videlicet the 
 open eye and the shut eye. The open eye 
 denoteth a soul which is ready, willing, able, to 
 enter into unreserved communion with its 
 peer : not abnegating its proper rights, but 
 sharing the same, according to the precepts of 
 nobihty. The shut eye is that eye wherein a 
 veil is drawn continually, or at will, before the 
 true image of the soul. It appertaineth to 
 those unfortunate persons who, either from 
 poorness of spirit or from vileness, wish to con- 
 ceal their souls in selfish solitude. Note this, 
 o Prospero. My proper preference (like that 
 of all White Men) is for the open eye ; and
 
 70 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 having seen this youngster, I knew that some 
 benignant star had deigned to send me one 
 with whom I was in sympathy ; and I addressed 
 myself to wait for further manifestations. 
 
 The boy appeared to be clothed on his arms 
 and his sides and the outsides of his legs : but 
 he really was covered from throat to wrist and 
 foot with a single garment of knitted wool, 
 resembling a skin, myrtle-green with a wide 
 central stripe of flesh-colour, very ingenious. He 
 did table-service inaccurately and disdainfully. 
 It was plain that he never had served, and that 
 he was accustomed to be served. Not a word 
 was said while I satiated mine hunger. 
 
 When I had performed the last lavation, 
 I lay back on the bench, stretching out my 
 legs at length ; and I formed a totally erroneous 
 idea of the avocation of mine attendant. 
 I did not speak : but only looked at him. He 
 furiously blushed ; and his eyes flamed. . . . 
 
 The events of the next quarter-hour will be 
 set forth in another history, which thou, o 
 Prospero, wilt read when thou shalt have come 
 to the age of xv years. . . .
 
 DON TARQUINIO 71 
 
 Anon, having summoned my lieutenant, I 
 declared my will to him. I would rescue these 
 ij children, taking the lad behind my saddle : 
 but he would take the girl behind his. The 
 decurion was to close our rear ; and all was to 
 be swiftly done. 
 
 So it was done. There were protests and 
 outcries at the door, a fine affray, hard blows ; 
 and I stung more than one with my sword. 
 But, when we were free of the crowd, I changed 
 pursuers into scramblers, by scattering the con- 
 tents of my burse on the cobble-stones ; and so 
 I escaped with my spoils. 
 
 We galloped through the Square of Navona 
 in the Region of Parione \^ and, by the tortuous 
 lanes of the Region of Ponte to Saint John's of 
 the Florentines. 
 
 Straightly behind me balanced, hands on his 
 haunches, the lad rode. Strange was that fierce 
 spell of riding through the darkness of night. 
 
 1 The fourteen districts of Rome were called 
 " Regions."
 
 Vll 
 
 The City was quiet on the other side of Tiber 
 and where we halted : but, on our right hand, 
 the Keltic camp, now blazing with torches, 
 hummed like a swarm of wasps. My guards 
 lighted their own torches from the lanthorn 
 which hung before the image of Saint John at 
 the street corner. 
 
 We went onward slowly, through Banchi 
 Vecchi and by the Cenci Palace, in search of 
 GiofFredo : whom we found near the fort of 
 Pierleone,^ much disordered in his habits, his 
 hosen being full of dried peas of which his 
 decurion was reheving him. Their laughter 
 prevented my words for a time. Wherefore, 
 giving favour to my tongue, I consigned the 
 
 1 I suppose this to be the ruined Theatre of 
 Marcellus which the Pierleone fortified in the 
 eleventh century. It is now the Palazzo Savelli. 
 
 72
 
 DON TARQUINIO 73 
 
 Keltic lad to one of my proper guards ; and, 
 when anon Gioffredo had remounted, we H rode 
 on side by side. 
 
 He was very loquacious concerning his 
 adventures in a Jew's house, which used to 
 stand by St. George's of the Golden Sail and 
 the arch of Janus, where certain Jewesses had 
 been entertaining him. But, their father 
 having returned unexpectedly from some noc- 
 turnal orgy, they had hidden Gioffredo in the 
 pea-bin : from which uncomfortable abode he 
 at length emerged, deeming the moment con- 
 venient for flight. But the said Jew, having 
 found a strange sword, was on the watch ; and 
 furiously withstood him. Gioffredo had only 
 a poignard and a mail-shirt, the latter in his 
 hand instead of on his body : but, nevertheless, 
 he had bidden old Abraham to bethink himself, 
 seeing that the said poignard had been used for 
 carving pork. But the Jew had enraged him- 
 self the more ; and Gioffredo, having, all his 
 points untrussed and his hosen about his feet, 
 was unable to run. Wherefore, taking the
 
 74 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 mail-shirt by the sleeves, he swinged at his 
 opponent such a blow that he fell prone, over 
 whom incontinently rolling, the Paparch's son 
 contrived to get into the street. He had lost 
 his sword and his boots ; and he had spoiled 
 his garments : but his speech was so comical, 
 and his occasional jerks (when the movement 
 of his horse caused him to sit upon a forgotten 
 pea) by degrees dismissed the severity with 
 which 1 at first was inclined to treat him. And 
 also I was no saint myself So I said. And 
 so we came in silence to the Fabrician Bridge. 
 
 Gioffredo affectionately inquired the cause of 
 my silence, saying that thinking made one 
 grow old. 
 
 To whom I responded, saying that I was 
 unhappy, and that all these games appeared to 
 be only vain and rather silly, seeing that there 
 w^ere many other worthier occupations for 
 princes of our quality. But, remembering that 
 Gioffredo was a guest, anon I changed my mood, 
 lightly asking whether he would wend to Vatican. 
 
 He would not; but he demanded half of my 
 bed for the night, commanding his decurion to
 
 DON TARQUINIO 75 
 
 bring a valise of new habits from Traspontina,^ 
 for him to don on the morrow. And so we 
 entered the palace. 
 
 Some malignant star caused a misfortune at 
 our entrance. The soldier, who had my Keltic 
 lad on his horse's crupper, dismounted; and 
 began to unbuckle the girth. Near by, ij 
 pages had been fighting ; and one was bewailing 
 and letting drip a bleeding nose. The odour 
 of the blood enraged the stallion, on whose 
 bare back the Keltic lad was sitting sideways, 
 waiting for orders. That one promptly flung 
 his leg over ; and, leaning forward, seized the 
 bridle. Insued sudden dispersal of the crowd, 
 wild galloping through the courtyards, sidelong 
 sweepings and rushings, heavenward tossings, 
 frantic plungings; but the rider sat erect, tense 
 as young Bellerophon before Chimaira, gripped 
 to his steed by thighs and knees. Indeed, it 
 was a very grand spectacle. 
 
 ^ The palace of the Cardinal of Saint Mary's across 
 the Bridge, by the Vatican. It was rented for the 
 Borgia princes.
 
 76 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 While we all were gazing, the noise disturbea 
 Ippolito : who came bounding down the stair, 
 as the furious beast dashed through the low 
 arch beneath the hall. That cardinal instantly 
 cast his cardinalature to the iiij winds, leaping 
 and tearing at the bitt with his gigantic 
 strength, muffling the stallion's head in his 
 vermilion mantle, while the grooms ran up 
 and hobbled the dire hooves. 
 
 Anon the Keltic lad dismounted; and stood 
 before us, blushing, trembling, bright-eyed, 
 brave, a slender supple figure, with articulations 
 of most delicate distinction. His glance strayed 
 toward the girl. She stood still where she had 
 been placed at first. In admiring him, I forgot 
 that I myself was miserable. Gioffredo's eyes 
 began to goggle. 
 
 Ippolito looked from the stranger to me. 
 Having whispered what was necessary to the one, 
 I announced to the other Ippolito's condition of 
 Most Illustrious Lord Cardinal-A. and Prince 
 of Ferrara. The Keltic lad kneeled; and did 
 obeisance to the sapphire.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 77 
 
 Ippolito resumed his cardinalature, stiffly 
 asking the lad to name himself. 
 
 That one responded, saying that he was the 
 Vicomte Ren6 XVIIII Raoul Alain Gabriel 
 Marie de Sainctrose, Vidame de Sainctrose, 
 Sieur de Chastelmondesir ; and now, o Prospero, 
 thou knowest how thy father, and thy god- 
 father, and Renato's,-^ first became acquainted 
 each with other. 
 
 We all were much astonished. Ippolito 
 demanded more news. To whom the Vicomte 
 de Sainctrose was pleased to say that his father 
 had had two brothers, videlicet the Sieur 
 Estienne who was father to the Damoiselle 
 Estelle there present and cousin of the speaker, 
 and the Sieur Guichart who was father to the 
 Damoiseau Armand then absent but also cousin 
 of the speaker. Further he said that his own 
 father and mother long had lived in olympian 
 
 1 This would be that magnanimous Renato, son of 
 the Marcantonio here mentioned, of whom Dom 
 Gheraldo Pinarj so deliciously has written in his 
 journal.
 
 78 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 mansions •} that his uncle Esticnne had gone 
 by the same road at Michaelmas : that his uncle 
 Guichart, being then his warden and the girl's, 
 and wishing to have his demesne and hers for 
 his own son, kept them both hardly, fearing by 
 cause that they loved one another. Wherefore, 
 on the day of the dead,^ those ij had prayed 
 to their parents with the gods, and anon 
 escaped into the forest belonging to the said 
 Vicomte de Sainctrose, intending to love and to 
 die there. But a company of Egyptians had 
 captured them ; and had brought them, with 
 other stolen children, by long roads to the City, 
 selling them as slaves. 
 
 Ippolito interrupted, saying something about 
 an evil trade. 
 
 The Vicomte indignantly gainsaid him : as- 
 severating that he himself and his cousin had 
 been but a night and a day in the City; and 
 that, as he was not alone, it behoved him to use 
 
 ^ A pretty way of saying that they were gone to 
 heaven. 
 
 ^ All Souls' Day, the second of November.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 79 
 
 subtilty for the sake of his said cousin. He 
 denied that he had followed an evil trade, 
 having a knife, which either would cause force 
 to flee, or would open Paradise for the girl and 
 for him then speaking. 
 
 Ippolito still demurred : but Rene persisted, 
 saying : 
 
 " The Most Illustrious Prince Tarquinio 
 Giorgio Drakontoletes Poplicola di Hagio- 
 stayros used princely words and kindlike, the 
 first from strangers during many months : for 
 which cause We wished to let him know that a 
 Keltic noble could be as generous as a Roman 
 patrician." 
 
 And he added, in the Greek tongue, that he 
 venerated me as his Deliverer.^ 
 
 As thou well knowst, o Prospero, the road to 
 my love lieth through Hellas ; and, when I heard 
 that last word of the Vicomte de Sainctrose, my 
 bowels yearned because of him.^ I said : 
 
 1 eXevdepwTrjf;. 
 
 ^ Don Tarquinio was a great one for judging by 
 the evidence of his senses. The brave and pitiful little
 
 So DON TARQUINIO 
 
 " Tell us thine age, o Damoiseau." 
 He responded to me, saying that the nones 
 of April would mark the opening of his fifteenth 
 year. 
 
 When I understood that he had been born 
 under the Ram and Mars, the cause of his 
 extraordinary courage and of the astounding 
 manner in which he had governed his affairs, at 
 once became clear to me. Desiring to be asso- 
 
 vicomte had told an amazing tale ; and there was not 
 a shred of corroborative detail. If this had happened 
 in the nineteenth century, they of course would have 
 interned the couple in more or less criminal seclusion, 
 until they had obtained a pack of identificatory papers — 
 w^hich any fool can forge. But it luckily happened in 
 the fifteenth century, when men (being men of sense) 
 believed in God, Who had made them in His 
 Own Image ; and, consequently, they felt no false 
 delicacy about assuming for themselves some of the 
 divine attributes — for example, the power of recogniz- 
 ing truth when they saw and heard it. Prince 
 Tarquinio heard the Vicomte de Sainctrose : he 
 looked into his open eyes ; and decided that the thing 
 was true — saving himself (and everyone else) an 
 infinity of trouble by his sensibility.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 8i 
 
 ciated with such an one, I completed my 
 deliberations with these words : 
 
 " We offer to take thee into Our service." 
 He responded to me again, saying that he 
 desired nothing better than to learn the duties 
 of his estate, in order that he might oust the 
 usurper of his feoffs at an opportune time. But 
 his eyes wandered to the girl. 
 
 I said that the comptroller should have order 
 regarding him, and that the mistress of the 
 women should have order regarding the 
 damoiselle : for, being no more than a guest in 
 the Estense palace, I was in a quandary at the 
 moment. And so I turned away, with Ippolito 
 and the Borgia boy. As we went, I was telling 
 Ippolito more of what had happened at the 
 Falcon Inn. Gioffredo continually ejaculated 
 concerning the good fortune of certain people : 
 but Ippolito's brow became as black as night. 
 Anon he interrupted me; and took command 
 of the whole matter, saying that he would not 
 know of any sin or of anything needing amend- 
 ment in his palace. And he began to act.
 
 82 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 The page Giovempedocle (he was very finely 
 made, o Prospero, but his right eye was brown 
 while his left eye was blue) evanesced with an 
 order for the mistress of the women to conduct 
 the Damoiselle Estelle de Sainctrose to the 
 cedar cabinet with a vicecomitial escort. 
 
 The page Giacinto (he was quite young, 
 but his hair was as white as hoar-frost and 
 very luxuriant indeed) evanesced with an order 
 for an abbate (whose name I have forgotten) 
 to attend in the chapei. 
 
 But we returned ; and joined the Vicomte 
 de Sainctrose to our company. Rene was 
 palpitating with emotions not necessary to 
 be described. I took his hand ; and we 
 followed Ippolito to the treasury, where a 
 choice was made of certain matters. As we 
 went along, a full state of gentlemen and 
 chamberlains with the double-cross collected ; 
 and attended us to the cedar cabinet. 
 
 There, we withdrew the ij Keltic nobles to 
 the window, where we could speak in secret ; 
 and Ippolito examined them as to their real
 
 DON TARQUINIO 83 
 
 sentiments each for other. Their wonderful 
 frank eyes became grave as they responded, 
 saying that they were one. He gave rings 
 to them, each ring a flight of golden cupids 
 bound with scrolls inscribed 3|e St3f id 011 Ift) 
 D' amp and JTil5 0\3 jTiUe. Taking their 
 hands, he led them to the chapel. The presbyter 
 blessed the rings. They were exchanged and 
 planted. Benediction hallowed nuptials, legiti- 
 mate, indissoluble. 
 
 Thus was one of the many grand deeds 
 done by thy father, o my son Prospero, well 
 done on that fortunate day.
 
 VIII 
 
 We conducted the bridegroom and his bride 
 to an apartment on the second stair ; and the 
 door was shut. Ippolito returned to his 
 lessons : but I took GiofFredo to my proper 
 lodging. 
 
 Having seen those children happy, I felt 
 mine own unhappiness surging again in my 
 breast. By the grace of the gods, the Borgia 
 boy chattered like a pie all the time, enraptured 
 with his own garrulity, needing no attention. 
 Thus I was able to let my proper thoughts 
 range freely. We rested in arm-chairs, while 
 the pages doffed our garments, wrapping us in 
 white woollen frocks. 
 
 It was not to be denied that I had done a 
 noble deed in rescuing those children from 
 a den of infamy. I looked at the sheets, 
 filled with fragrant herbs, which hung by their 
 
 84
 
 DON TARQUINIO 85 
 
 corners from the ceiling of the bathing-chamber, 
 as though I expected a message of approval 
 from the Divine Ones who live in that 
 direction. We were sitting on large sponges 
 placed on rush-seated stools upon the floor- 
 sheet ; and pages laid other sponges under our 
 feet. 
 
 I remember noting that Gioffredo's big toes 
 were his longest toes : but my second toes are 
 my longest toes, according to the canon of 
 Lysippos.^ Otherwise his form was without 
 blemish ; and if, as Ippolito alleged, I in mine 
 adolescence resembled the marble copy of the 
 lithe thalerose image of David by Messer 
 Verrocchio, certainly the Borgia boy at that time 
 
 1 This would be the Athlete with the Strigil, the 
 Apoxyomenos, the supreme model of human form, 
 which is so unaccountably and yet so assiduously 
 neglected by all " strong men " and physiculturists of 
 the present day. It is strange that this statue should 
 be named by Don Tarquinio : for it was not dis- 
 covered till A.D. 1849, though it certainly was 
 discovered in Trastevere, the district of Rome in 
 which Don Tarquinio was in a.d. 1495.
 
 86 DON TAROUINIO 
 
 resembled the sleek plump image of David by 
 Messer Donatello, which images copied in tinted 
 marble the white-faced cardinal then possessed. 
 So I judged ; and I resolved to mention this par- 
 ticular to Ippolito : not that I actually believed 
 myself to resemble the beautiful Rufo Drudo- 
 dimare, admirable, pathetic, or Gioffredo to 
 resemble the splendid Baldonero Fioravanti, 
 admirable, treacherous, in more particulars 
 than a few and those very superficial : but 
 those ij adolescents had been mistaken for the 
 very images themselves above-named ; and so 
 we ij also possessed a certain similitude to the 
 same, but only to the casual spectator. How- 
 ever, the thing was strange ; and I pondered 
 it in my mind. 
 
 Anon I began to wonder what colour of 
 body his stars had deigned to Ren6. That his 
 form was as exquisite and as vigorous as his 
 mind, I already knew from the evidence of 
 my sense of sight : but I often have noted 
 that a fine form and fine features sometimes 
 are marred by some imperfect tincture of the
 
 DON TARQUINIO 87 
 
 skin in parts ; and I eagerly looked forward 
 to the morrow, when I might take an oppor- 
 tunity of assuring myself as to the person 
 of one whose individuality seemed to be so 
 sympathetic. 
 
 After these rather absurd meditations, I went 
 on to consider the likely effects of my deed of 
 the night. 
 
 The pages had placed beneath our stools 
 great silver bowls containing the steaming stew 
 of hollyhock, mallow, pellitory, sweet fennel, 
 wall-wort, johnswort, centaury, rib-grass, camo- 
 mile, heyhove, heyriff, herbbenet, daisy, wild- 
 water-parsley, water-speedwell, scabious, hen- 
 bane, withy-leaves, green oats, all boiled to a 
 pulp in distilled water. Note the composition 
 of this bath, o Prospero. It was invented by 
 one of his mages for the cardinal ; and as 
 conducing to physical health, it hath no equal. 
 I heard the senior page reciting the names of 
 the herbs, as I had heard him on the vij 
 previous nights, while the others wrapped us 
 and our stools closely in thick woollen cloths
 
 88 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 of enormous size. While thus we sat sweating 
 in the odoriferous steam, Gioffredo incessantly 
 gabbled : but I cogitated many things in my 
 mind. 
 
 It appeared to me that I had delivered a 
 Keltic noble from slavery, had enabled him 
 to provide himself with legitimate heirs of his 
 body in contempt of his wicked uncle, and that 
 I was going to enable him sooner or later to 
 achieve his natural rights and dignities. In 
 plain words, I had laid him under a debt of 
 gratitude. Secondly, I had conceived an 
 immense affection for him, which he in turn 
 seemed to reciprocate. In plain words, I 
 had acquired another friend who might be 
 valuable. 
 
 At this point of the argument, the cloths 
 were removed ; and our flesh was seen to be 
 as scarlet as the flesh of tunny-fish. The pages 
 sponged us with tepid rose-water ; and several 
 bucketfuls of cold, poured over our heads when 
 we stood up, caused pallor anon to conquer 
 ruddiness. So we stood on dry sheets by the
 
 DON TARQUINIO 89 
 
 glow of the fire, spitting into gold basins while 
 cleaning our teeth with linen, moistened in a 
 liquid made of mastic, rosemary, sage, bramble- 
 leaves all macerate in Greek wine, and dipped 
 in a powder of barley-bread burned with salt. 
 This was the recipe which our mage of Deira 
 gave to me ; and I gave it to Ippolito. 
 
 The pages dried our bodies, chafing our limbs 
 with their hands ; but I was persuading myself 
 that such a friend as the Vicomte de Sainctrose 
 might be very useful to me anon, supposing 
 that Ippolito should fail to induce our Lord the 
 Paparch to treat me fairly : for, I deliberated, if 
 the Great Ban were to continue in force against 
 me here, I should be compelled to seek an 
 opportunity for expending mine energies else- 
 where. And I stretched myself, looking down 
 upon my tremendous natural capabilities with 
 anger at the thought that they were totally use- 
 less. I most earnestly desired to sting someone. 
 
 Gioffredo went on chattering. I believe that 
 he had not found me a good listener : for he 
 was addressing himself to the pages who were
 
 90 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 rubbing his ribs. We went into the bed- 
 chamber for the drying and combing of our 
 hair. Long before this was finished, Gioffredo 
 slept where he sat in his chair. The service 
 was a poor one for the son of our Lord the 
 Paparch, accustomed to luxuries as he was : but 
 he himself had chosen his lot, and his breeding 
 prohibited complaint. 
 
 But I, on my part, bitterly complained of evil 
 knitting in the hosen which I had doffed, re- 
 ducing my comptroller to terror, very comical, 
 lest he should be degraded from his situation ; 
 for mine anger at the malignance of my stars 
 made me angry with all and singular. What 
 was the use, I reflected, of a Keltic friend, not 
 XV years old, dispossessed of his demesnes, and 
 actually dependent on me for a livelihood ? And 
 I thought bitterly of Rene blissfully mounted 
 and riding to fortune, and of myself writhing 
 under the oppression of the Great Ban. 
 
 Our hair having been tucked into our night- 
 caps, nothing now remained but that we should 
 betake ourselves to bed. But, while the pages
 
 DON TARQUINIO 91 
 
 were spreading the footcloths, and covering the 
 rush-lights with shades, and opening the win- 
 dows, GiofFredo suddenly awakened and would 
 have been merry. I myself was in no mood for 
 sleep : nor could I join in his mirth. But I 
 suggested that we /"; should go to find Ippolito. 
 A couple of my best nightgowns^ were 
 brought ; and the Borgia boy chose the one 
 of vair of nut-brown squirrels, with slippers 
 of the same : but I indued the other of ermine 
 reversed with ermines, with slippers of minever. 
 I remember this, by cause that both these night- 
 gowns were of great value, and after this night 
 I never saw either of them again. ^ 
 
 ^ He means " dressing-gowns," I surmise : for 
 gentlemen of the fifteenth century slept as God made 
 them. 
 
 2 It's extremely likely. They appear to have been 
 cast off in a great hurry a little later, in a place 
 accessible to many miscellaneous persons. Patricians, 
 who fling away fur nightgowns among people not respon- 
 sible for their preservation, ought not to be surprized 
 when they lose them. Valuable fur nightgowns are 
 saleable ; and — strange, but absolutely true, to say —
 
 92 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 Thus we proceeded ; and we found the 
 cardinal writing, in the secret chamber, still 
 engaged with his tasks. 
 
 Rome was full of Jews who had fled from Torqucmada 
 and the Spanish Inquisition to the generous protection 
 of Pope Alexander the Sixth.
 
 vim 
 
 While we washed our fingers on entering, 
 Ippolito threw aside his writing, making room 
 for us on the big black heap of cushions. He 
 was too grand a prince to be a bad host. 
 
 As soon as the servitors were gone, Gioffredo 
 began again to recite his adventures with much 
 noise and gesture. I let him talk ; and sat a 
 little apart, in silence, thinking my proper 
 thoughts, wishing for the time when I might 
 consult Ippolito thereon. A twice-told tale is 
 not always very amusing : but the Borgia boy 
 gabbled so insistently and so incessantly that I 
 at last was compelled to listen. I will not set 
 down his words : for they were of no import- 
 ance whatever, but merely as bright and as 
 sharp and as pleasant and also as ephemeral as 
 the foam of the sea. He omitted no singular 
 particular of his exploits. Had the matter been 
 
 93
 
 94 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 an Easter shrift, it could not have been more 
 explicit. He was exquisitely droll, frankly- 
 shameless. 
 
 Ippolito gradually lapsed into gloom : a 
 species of distaste affected him. But I, for 
 want of something better, began to be amused. 
 The thing was infectious. And anon, when I 
 also began to speak in the same strain, the 
 cardinal revolted against us both, crying : 
 
 " Is woman all } Is there naught else in 
 Total Christendom to serve you in passing 
 time.^* Thou, o Prince of Squillace, hast tried 
 war : men name thee fearless. It can be seen 
 that thou hast lively wits as well as robust 
 sinews. Canst thou not use these for Madonna 
 Sancia thy wife, or for thy Most Holy Father in 
 His need, leaving vulgar adventures to pages 
 or apprentices ? And thou, o Sideynes, hast 
 hyperexcellent parts. We never have seen an 
 adolescent more godlike in white splendour of 
 body and mind, though thou knowest that We 
 keep xl merchants travelling over the orb of 
 the earth solely to seek and to purchase for Us
 
 DON TARQUINIO 95 
 
 such monstrosities. There is not a man, there 
 is not a sovereign, equal to thee in birth. 
 Th' art healthy, strong. With the sword thou 
 hast not a peer : also, Messeri Claudio and 
 Pierettore Arrivabene both say that thy written 
 Greek might be the Greek of an archangel. 
 And they should know, having been the friends 
 of the Divine Poliziano, on whom be peace. It 
 is true that We could kill thee with one hand. 
 Domeniddio so made Us : putting into these 
 limbs that which, after mature consideration, 
 He might have put into Our head. Different 
 calamities oppress different persons.^ Of ad- 
 vantages also each hath his own : to Us, Our 
 purple and Our strength of body : to the 
 Prince of Squillace, lusty sinews and a daring 
 mind and an opportunity : to thee, o Sideynes, 
 splendid wits, adolescence full of grace, and the 
 aspect of one nourished on the marrow and 
 
 1 av/jL(f)opa krepov^ erepa irte^et (Eyripides). These 
 conversations are interesting, as showing the taste of 
 the times for displaying acquaintance with the Greek 
 writers, if on no other account.
 
 96 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 nerves of lions. And ye tj are content to 
 squander these gifts on women," 
 
 Thus he spoke ; and the speech was a very 
 memorable one. The sudden outburst and the 
 pungent force of it set me striding to and fro, 
 with my fists clenched and my brows drawn 
 straight to the upright furrow above dilated 
 eyes, sea-blue, glittering. And now my mind 
 was in a whirl : for I knew that this was my 
 chance for speaking unwinged words, which 
 should lie and germinate and bear fruit there 
 where I flung them. I could not ask for 
 boons. I could not propose plans. But, with 
 certain furious selected speeches, I might dis- 
 close the intimate root of mine unhappiness, of 
 my despair. 
 
 But Gioffredo instantly had taken him up, 
 saying : 
 
 "Where is Our opportunity, o prudent 
 Purpled Person ? Give Us Our Sancia ; and 
 she shall swoon with joy. Give Us Our free- 
 lances ; and We will lead them against devils. 
 But, when there is neither wife nor war for Us,
 
 DON TARQUINIO 97 
 
 when Sancia is yet in the straw, and the Keltic 
 army is about to take flight, and our Most 
 Holy Father sitteth silent and solemn in the 
 Castle, what else can We do but accept such 
 adventures as We find ?" 
 
 But I stopped in my fierce striding ; and 
 inveighed, saying : 
 
 " Hear Us also, o Hebe, Us, thy Sideynes,. 
 descended from Zeys not only on the spade 
 but also on the distaff side.^ Thou well 
 knowst how We are : Our house being under 
 the Great Ban, Our palace razed. Our princes 
 bandits, Madonno Marcantonio a meek student 
 in exile, Madonno Francesco in exile with a 
 price upon his head, Madonno Giorgio in exile 
 hunted fiDr his life since he slew Colonna. 
 Why should We not amuse Ourself with the 
 Prince of Squillace, seeing that no better way 
 lieth open to Us ? Why dost thou decry 
 such pleasures, when thine own hero Herakles 
 
 ^ 6v jjbovov 7rpo<i irarpo'; aWa Kat irpo'i /jLTjrpoiy 
 UTTO Ato? y€yovoTe<i (Isokrates).
 
 98 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 married the most women that ever one man 
 did?^ Know that Our adolescence burneth 
 like a furnace vij times heated. It must have 
 vent. Where can we vent it ? We are 
 tolerated in this place only by cause of thy 
 protection and of Our Own insignificance. 
 What advantage is life to Us?^ What chance 
 of a career have We?" 
 
 Ippolito threw up his grand head ; and 
 sturdily injuncted, saying : 
 
 '* Make a career with that thine intellect, 
 o dear Sideynes. Where the will is, there 
 will be a way.^ In spite of thy words, thou 
 knowst that the pleasures of sense are inferior 
 to the pleasures of the intellect. Let thy mind 
 be thy ruler and governour. As Messer 
 Lionardo^ saith, Make thine own life as thou 
 wouldst make any other work of art : the life 
 
 ^ 77X6tcrTa<? dvrjp et? 'YipaKKr}^ eyr/jjie Brj (Sopho- 
 kles). 
 
 ^ Ti /jLOL ^rjiv kvBlov (Eyripides). 
 
 2 dapaeL irapecnai ^ri'^avrj 8paaT7}pto<i (Aischylos). 
 
 ^ This is Lionardo da Vinci.
 
 DON TARQUINIO gg 
 
 of intellect should be of intellect's own design : 
 to have but not to be had,^ is the rule from 
 which intellect must not swerve. Further, 
 trust in thy splendid stars ; and take no 
 count of Fortune, whose name is not in any 
 martyrologium.2 She hath, indeed, no Divine 
 Creator, for any man may make her at his 
 will : of whom Messer Decimus Junius Juve- 
 nalis hath written, Thou, o Fortune, art not 
 divine where prudence is, for it is we, we, 
 who make thee a goddess and place thee in 
 heaven.^ Why dost thou pause to play the 
 fool ? By cause that thou art not free to 
 work out thine own salvation ? So. Now 
 mark me well and closely, o Sideynes. Be 
 it known to thee that Alexander, magnificent, 
 invincible, loveth beauty, loveth wit ; and 
 
 ^ Habere non haberi. 
 
 - The Roman Martyrology is the official roll of 
 sanctity. 
 
 ^ Nullum numen habes, si sit prudentia : nos te, 
 nos facimus, Fortuna, deam ; cceloque locamus. 
 
 [Satura JT.)
 
 100 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 those twain in one person need not lack His 
 favour for a paltry disability, such as the 
 Great Ban. Wilt thou serve Him with thy 
 body, with thy mind ? With the last, thou 
 wilt have a chance of shewing thy goodness.^ 
 Know also that on the morrow We ride to 
 Vatican, where We shall render a certain 
 account. This done, it will be Our privilege 
 to demand a boon. Thou wilt go with Us, 
 o Sideynes ?" 
 
 Gioffredo wagged a long leg, plump, carna- 
 tion-coloured, out of his brown fur nightgown ; 
 and yelped, saying : 
 
 " No, no, go not, o Tarquinio : for Our 
 Most Holy Father starveth Himself and His 
 ofuests. But We and thou will ride to Vatican 
 with the lord cardinal ; and there part peace- 
 fully. He will proceed by Lo Andare to 
 render his said account : but we ij will cross 
 to Our palace of Traspontina, where food is, 
 
 ^ Kuhvvev(Tei<i eVtSet^at y^pr)aro<; iivat (Xeno- 
 phon).
 
 DON TARQUINIO loi 
 
 and wine, and many maids-of-honour to be 
 tickled." 
 
 Ippolito angrily ejaculated : 
 
 *' Women again !" 
 
 To whom the pert prince responded, saying : 
 
 " But only for passing the afternoon 
 pleasantly, which is the point of Our argu- 
 ment." 
 
 The noble strong young cardinal gravely said: 
 
 "Thy Venus We totally disregard.^ The 
 point of the whole argument is the salvation 
 of Our well-beloved friend. Prince Tar- 
 quinio." 
 
 Thus he spoke ; and it was enough. I 
 kneeled to him, kissing his sapphire, and 
 saying : 
 
 *' We accede to the Lord Cardinal of 
 Ferrara:^ for thou, o Hebe, art not only grand 
 
 1 TTjv ar]v he YLvirpiv ttoW iyco '^atpecv Xejco 
 (Eyripides). 
 
 ^ This is a witty misuse of the formula employed in 
 the Conclave, when cardinals elect the Paparch by the 
 way of accession after the way of scrutiny has failed.
 
 102 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 but also good. Nevertheless We will not 
 dine with our Lord the Paparch : for food, 
 and food in bulk, We must have lest Our 
 wits wither and Our sinews shrivel. Neither 
 will We consent to ask a favour, nor to accept 
 thy mediation : but We will that Alexander, 
 magnificent, invincible, should see Us as We 
 shall shew Ourself to Him, and that He should 
 hear Us as it were by accident. If that can be 
 contrived, well. If not, let Us have a chance 
 of serving Him, so that We may compel Him 
 to deal fairly by Us. If neither of these things 
 can be done now, bear them in mind. Now 
 that thou knowst Our desire, We are content 
 to wait patiently for some benignant affection 
 of Our stars ; and We no more will meddle 
 with base matters." 
 
 Thus I spoke: for the genuine loving- 
 kindness of Ippolito cheered me. 1 knew not, 
 at that moment, anything save that I was 
 happier in my mind ; and, being at length 
 desirous of turning the conversation away from 
 myself, I continued, saying :
 
 DON TARQUINIO 103 
 
 " But tell Us, o Hebe, hast thou never 
 amused thyself as we ij have been amusing 
 ourselves ? Sometimes We have thought." 
 
 Ippolito instantly demanded : 
 
 "What hast thou thought?" 
 
 I responded to him, saying : 
 
 " That thou at some time hast been like the 
 rest of us, loving a woman : that thou hast 
 lost her, and cherish but the wreck, of thy 
 love." 
 
 He smiled ; and his whole being seemed to 
 open, blossoming like a rose. He, with full 
 breath, said : 
 
 *' We have loved : but We have had no 
 lover ; and We very greatly love." 
 
 Gioffredo gabbled : 
 
 " Oh, oh, oh ! And whom ? Madonna 
 Lucrezia ? Yes : so it must be : for all men 
 love Our sister." 
 
 Ippolito said : 
 
 " Nay. Our lady is of Gaul, not of Spain." 
 
 We both stammered : 
 
 " Of Gaul r
 
 104 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 We gritted our teeth : for the saying was 
 a terrible one, akin to treachery. 
 
 IppoHto proclaimed, with tremendous mag- 
 nificent unfolding : 
 
 ** She is the unique illumination which hath 
 lighted Gaul, and through all ages still shall 
 light that land from the throne where she 
 sitteth beyond the stars." 
 
 We waited : for the moment was one of 
 revelation. 
 
 His great black eyes became deliberate and 
 grave. He continued, saying : 
 
 " Our Lord Alexander Himself made Us 
 to know her ij years ago. The Holiness of 
 Him saw Us to be lusty and froward, un- 
 worthy of the purple which Our father Duke 
 Ercole sent Us to have of Him. Wherefore 
 He questioned Us concerning Our loves ; and, 
 finding that insatiate desire and strenuous 
 strife had failed to cheer, He told Us, oh but 
 gently, as we walked in the court under the 
 
 Borgia Tower, (the cardinal was speaking, 
 
 o my Prospero, of the court where the
 
 DON TARQUINIO 105 
 
 Paparch Julius placed the image of that 
 mediocre anisopod which He called the Apollo 
 
 of the Belvedere^) He told Us of a maid 
 
 so sympathetic that the mere name of her 
 put Our heart in chains. She was well- 
 grown, strong-limbed, young, of the age of 
 xvij years, He said. Her land was distracted 
 by more than a century of years of war. 
 Her sovereign was a slave. Came to her for 
 strength, the god Michael Archangel : came 
 to her for wisdom and for maiden charm, 
 the goddesses Katharine and Margaret, all in 
 an orchard of apple-bloom. These divine 
 ones brought word that she must go to save 
 her fatherland and to crown her king. Many 
 times they came. And she went. She gave 
 news that she was of divine sending ; and 
 
 1 " Anisopode mediocre " in the original holograph. 
 " The Unequal-legged one," or "The Limper," is an 
 exquisite name for that silly, stupid, utterly vulgar 
 caricature of Phoibos Apollon, the Bright, the Pure, 
 which the nineteenth century regarded as a work 
 of art.
 
 105 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 shewed tokens. That little girl commanded 
 armies, strove with sword, took blows and 
 gave. In ij years, she brought to her 
 country that deliverance which men had failed 
 to compass in an hundred. Her crowned 
 king ennobled her : she had given him the 
 means. But anon she was captured treacher- 
 ously by the flying foe : they traded her to 
 foes of her own country who of envy sought 
 her life. The chief of these last, and he was 
 a bishop, bought her : fraudulently adjudged 
 her Heretic, Heretic by cause that she was 
 urged by heavenly voices, fraudulently by 
 cause that she stated an appeal to God's 
 Vicegerent here on earth, thus soaring far 
 above merely episcopal jurisdiction. But that 
 foul prelate had might. The girl had only 
 right. And he was promised an arch- 
 bishopric for her death. He suppressed her 
 appeal. He laid the Great Ban on her. She 
 most miserably died for a most glorious deed •} 
 
 1 kukictt' air' ipycov ivKXeeararcov (jidipec (So- 
 phokles).
 
 DON TARQUINIO 107 
 
 for he afflicted her with natural death by fire. 
 Wait. Her king who owed her a crown, 
 her countrymen who owed her their liberty, 
 were craven cowards having the bowels and 
 brains of apes from Barbary. They minced 
 and gibbered and grimaced ; and they let her 
 burn. They were Keltic dogs. What could 
 ye expect? But, after xx years, that Christian 
 King^ found that he held his crown from a 
 girl whom Holy Church (ill-served by that 
 Satanic bishop) had burned as bandit and 
 heretic ; and for his crown he trembled most 
 exceedingly. Wherefore, after those xx years, 
 he let Rome have that holy maid's appeal. 
 Our Lord the Paparch all incontinently pre- 
 conized new judges, who, having examined 
 the whole case, pronounced her to be all that 
 they would desire their own sisters to be, 
 'videlicet holy, maiden, favourite and ambas- 
 sador of Divine Ones inhabiting olympian 
 mansions. This their decree was confirmed 
 
 1 " The Christian King " is the official style of the 
 Kings of France.
 
 io8 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 in form. That marvel, that miracle, that 
 adorable sweet child, that most courageous 
 palatine, Madame Jehane de Lys by her 
 king's creation, called The Maid by Christen- 
 dom, so foully killed and slain, was named by 
 God's Vicegerent as one of the blessed carry- 
 ing lilies in paradise, wearing an immortal 
 diadem. She is the lady of Our love and 
 worship. As ivy clingeth to oak, so will 
 We cling to her memory. It was the Lord 
 Alexander who made us to know her, as We 
 have said. He Himself had her history when, 
 in His Own youth, He entered the Sacred 
 College with that self-same Bishop of Con- 
 stance, Archpresbyter of the Vatican basilica, 
 the Lord Richart de Longvevil Olivier, 
 Cardinal-presbyter of the Title of Santa 
 Susanna, who had been one of the judges of 
 the Maid. Moreover, ye shall know that 
 it was the said Lord Alexander's Own uncle 
 and creator, the Paparch Calixtus the Third, 
 Who decreed her rehabilitation." 
 
 Thus Ippolito spoke : but we bestowed
 
 DON TARQUINIO 109 
 
 favour on our tongues, revolving the whole 
 matter in our minds. 
 
 Sitting erect on the black cushions, he 
 murmured these words in an undertone : 
 
 " Saincte Vierge et Martyre, dictee Jehane 
 d' Arcques, priez toulzjours pour moy et 
 pour toulz tes serviteurs." 
 
 Gioffredo eyed him, decorously waiting for 
 licence to speak. I was hugging mine own 
 bare arms in the sleeves of my nightgown ; and 
 my glance was directed to the toes of my 
 slippers which were stretched out straight 
 together in front of me. 
 
 But my mind was wandering far away to a 
 live love, yearning for her who was sleeping 
 over there in the dark.
 
 X 
 
 But our meditations were interrupted by an 
 instant scratching on the outside of the ivory- 
 door ; and a wave of secret chamberlains flowed 
 in with torches, announcing : 
 
 *' The Most Respectable Worship^ of the 
 Lord Cardinal of Valencia." 
 
 Ippolito arose, grave, self-dominant. I and 
 Gioffredo also arose, wrapping our furs more 
 closely round us, surprized, very greatly won- 
 dering. 
 
 I will tell thee, o Prospero, how Cardinal 
 Cesare appeared to me on that night : so that 
 
 ^ Cesare (whom the nineteenth century was apt to 
 call " Borgia ") ranked as a pontifical nephew : hence 
 his proper epithets were " Osservantissimo " and 
 " Colendissimo." The other cardinals were " IIlus- 
 trissimo." The style "Most Eminent" and "Emi- 
 nency " was not invented in 1495. 
 
 no
 
 DON TARQUINIO iii 
 
 thou mayst have ever before thine eyes a vivid 
 image of the prodigious personality who, as 
 Messer Niccolo Machiavelli saith, might have 
 done Anything, He was of the age of xx years, 
 tall and splendid of form. Tawny hair and 
 beardlet shaded his swarthy features. The hair 
 was rolled in a golden bag of network con- 
 venient for travelling. His eyes were like 
 glowing iron in the furnace of his face. Under 
 the cardinalitial great-cloak, he wore a secular 
 habit of vermilion velvet. The huge sapphire^ 
 glittered on the first finger of his right hand. 
 A thick gold chain surrounded his neck, dis- 
 appearing in the lace of the smock which peeped 
 out of the breast of his doublet. Beneath the 
 lower hem of the last, the escalloped edge of a 
 mail-shirt appeared. All this I noted, while 
 he was washing his fingers at the door. 
 
 His pages caught the great-cloak flung to 
 them : left the double-cross leaning against one 
 
 ^ The sapphire is the proper stone for a cardinars 
 ring, as the amethyst is for a bishop's or an arch- 
 bishop's.
 
 112 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 of the ivory images ; and retired ; and the door 
 was shut. He advanced towards the Cardinal 
 of Ferrara : but he was winking at Gioffredo 
 with haggard brilliant eyes. As for me, he 
 noted me no more than the said ivory images : 
 whereat I fumed with rage, only restraining 
 myself from using my sting by cause that I 
 desired to see more of this splendid creature. 
 
 Ippolito accorded to him the kiss of peace : 
 to whom he spoke, saying: 
 
 " In virtue of his obedience to our Lord the 
 Paparch, We are to demand secret conference 
 with the Cardinal of Ferrara." 
 
 It was evident from the form of this speech 
 that very great matters were afoot. I instantly 
 shot such a glance at Ippolito as taught him my 
 vehement desire to be mixed up with the affair. 
 Such was the force of my will that the thing 
 was understood as readily as though I had 
 spoken. 
 
 Ippolito went to the door ; and issued com- 
 mandments to the chamberlains in the ante- 
 chamber.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 113 
 
 Cardinal Cesare was pinching the plump legs 
 Df GiofFredo in a merry manner, running round 
 the room. 
 
 Anon a guard of viiij gigantic Numidians, 
 ebony-coloured, girt with jaguar-skins, white 
 and tawny, armed with terrible clubs, produced 
 themselves ; and were ranged outside, in a 
 wedge whose base was the ivory portal. But 
 xviij other Numidians in the outer ante- 
 chamber kept the way against all comers. 
 And so the door again was shut. 
 
 Ippolito beckoned me to him ; and placed 
 me with my back against it, making it my 
 charge. I kept silence : but my looks told him 
 of my gratitude. 
 
 Gioffredo escaped from his tormentor ; and 
 taking the comb from his pouch, tidied his 
 ruffled hair, and resumed his nightcap. 
 
 Ippolito and the Cardinal of Valencia dis- 
 posed themselves on the black cushions. The 
 former drew up the low ivory tables of wine 
 and sweetmeats, beginning to chew fresh sage- 
 leaves from a vase : but the latter degusted 
 
 8
 
 114 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 spoonfuls of a confection of prickly pear. Anon 
 GiofFredo joined himself to them. But I 
 munched coriander-seeds steeped in marjoram- 
 vinegar and crusted with sugar, which by- 
 chance I had in my comfit-box. They bring a 
 special commodity to the memory, o Prospero. 
 
 Cesare abruptly asked Ippolito how much he 
 knew of affairs. 
 
 Ippolito responded, saying that he very 
 assiduously had been playing at great-ball since 
 his return to the City, and had not paid 
 much attention to affairs. He knew, of course, 
 that Alexander, magnificent, invincible, had 
 interned Himself in the castle ; and that the 
 Keltic king was occupying part of the City on 
 the other side of Tiber. Also he knew, from 
 rumour, that the said king's nose resembled a 
 raw ham, that a pink birth -flare surrounded 
 his left eye, that his twelve-toed shanks had no 
 more form than women's spindles, that he had 
 brought into the City a new disease which he 
 who was speaking called Morbus Gallicus, but 
 Prince Tarquinio here present called it Morbus
 
 DON TARQUINIO 115 
 
 Keltlcus, and the Cardinal of Valencia might 
 decide between us. Finally, resuming his gravity, 
 Ippolito named the rumour which said that the 
 said Keltic king, finding our Lord the Paparch 
 to be quite impregnable, was forced to conclude 
 some sort of peace. 
 
 Cesare silently produced the pectoral cross 
 which was attached to his neck-chain. It was 
 set with great table-rubies. Unfastening its 
 clasp, he disengaged a ring, huge, massive, 
 which hung by its side. 1 never had seen 
 so enormous a ring then. It was made of 
 gilded bronze, viiij barleycorns in diameter. 
 Its oblong bezel was set with a cabochon rock- 
 crystal, highly projecting. One shoulder was 
 carved with the Borgia armorials, videlicet Sol 
 a Bull passant Mars on a closet Venus flory 
 proper within a bordure Mars semee of flam- 
 mels Sol.^ The Triple Crown and the Keys 
 were carved on the other shoulder. The 
 
 ^ The tinctures are given by Don Tarquinio as in 
 the arms of princes. Sol = or, Mars = gules, Venus = 
 vert.
 
 ii6 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 legend papQ ^\tX t)i was carved on the hoop. 
 This ring, as thou knowst, o Prospero, is the 
 most precious thing in my proper treasury at 
 the time of writing : for which cause I am able 
 to describe it, although at the time of which 
 I write I was not able to see more than its 
 tremendous magnitude and its reddish colour. 
 
 While he was disentangling this ponderous 
 jewel, Cesare was cursing in the urbane and 
 simple manner of a real Roman of Rome, 
 saying : 
 
 " That a Worship of my Respectability 
 should be compelled to carry so vulgar an 
 ingot, a sordid lump only intended for couriers 
 to wave at post-houses in passing by, a blasted 
 gyve which even a blind postmaster could not 
 fail to see !" 
 
 With which words he presented the said ring 
 to the Cardinal of Ferrara. 
 
 Ippolito kneeled, applying his ear to it with 
 surprise and reverence,^ ejaculating : 
 
 1 This would appear to be the Roman method of 
 answering an official citation — as old as Horace, anyhow.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 117 
 
 " Credentials?" 
 
 Cesare assented: 
 
 " Credentials on the part of our Most Holy 
 Father." 
 
 Ippolito maliciously inquired : 
 
 "Father?" 
 
 Cesare jumped up ; and put himself to stride 
 about the room. At first he shouted : but 
 anon his voice sank into the tone of self- 
 communion ; and finally, resuming his seat, 
 he returned to an ordinary mode of speech. 
 He said : 
 
 " Father ? Yes, father. Pater patrum. 
 Thine as well as Ours. Oh We catch the 
 sneer of thy meaning, o Cardinal of Ferrara. 
 But We mean Father after the spirit. Whether 
 after the fiesh also, who knoweth ? Not We, 
 for one. He is generous to Us : but He is not 
 fatherlike to Us. Nor do We Ourself believe 
 — no. We do not believe. There be secret 
 mysteries, incongruities. Yet We dare not ask 
 her. But she was the other's before she was 
 His. And the time of Our birth coincideth.
 
 ii8 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 Did We ever tell thee, o Cardinal of Ferrara 
 of the woman who screamed at Us out of the 
 crowd at Naples when We took GiofFredo to 
 his marriage? See the Dellarovere, she cried, 
 wagging a stark finger at Us. But enough. 
 Thou takest cognizance of this Our creden- 
 tials ?" 
 
 Remember, o Prospero, that thy father heard 
 those pregnant words, while his eyes saw that 
 splendid creature laying bare his mind. So 
 thou shalt know truly who was the actual 
 father of Cesare whom men called Borgia. 
 
 He put the great ring on his right middle 
 finger. 
 
 Ippolito again offered his ear to be touched 
 by the ring ; and responded, saying : 
 
 " We recognize ; and We are ready to 
 obey." 
 
 Cesare began to deliver his message, say- 
 ing: 
 
 " Then listen : for time is short. Thou 
 knowest nothing of affairs. Well, We will 
 treat thee honestlv. Always We save Ourself
 
 DON TARQUINIO 119 
 
 pains so. First, thou shalt know that the 
 Christian King, on pretence of a crusade 
 against the Grand Turk, obtained leave from our 
 Lord the Paparch to march his troops through 
 Italy. On the way, he conceived a claim to the 
 crowns of Aragon, Naples, Both Sicilies, and 
 Hierusalem. At Fiorenza, he intrigued with 
 the maniac Fra Girolamo,^ whose proper place 
 should be Santo Spirito.^ When anon the said 
 Christian King reached the City, finding him- 
 self with an army at his back, he dared to 
 require our said Lord the Paparch to confirm 
 his claim, knowing that (without such recog- 
 nition) he can wear no crown. But Alexander, 
 magnificent, invincible, having no particular 
 grievance against King Don Alonzo of Naples 
 and the rest, who already is in possession, 
 refused to depose that sovereign in favour of 
 the Christian King. Wherefore that Keltic 
 monkey, in revenge, conspired with the traitor 
 Cardinal-bishop Giuliano Dellarovere, and with 
 
 1 This would be Savonarola. 
 
 2 The Roman " Bedlam."
 
 120 DON TAROUINIO 
 
 his friends the traitor barons Colonna, Orsini, 
 Savelli, Sanseverini, Cajetani ; and he even 
 hath won the Cardmal-vicechancellor Sforza- 
 Visconti with Cardinal-presbyter Sanseverini 
 and Cardinal-A. Lunati. Then he appealed 
 to the arbitrement of war. What cared the 
 invincible Alexander? Having laid hands on 
 those iij treacherous purpled persons, He 
 nipped them in the dungeons of the castle. 
 Taking the Sultan Jam^ along with Him, He 
 Himself also retired into the castle, snapping a 
 thumb and finger at the Christian King." 
 
 Ippolito interrupted, demanding the reason 
 for the sequestration of the said Sultan Jam. 
 To whom Cesare responded, saying : 
 " The Sultan Jam is of inestimable value 
 to our Lord the Paparch, by cause that he is 
 the brother and rival of the Grand Turk. The 
 said potentate, by name the Sultan Bajazet, 
 preferreth not to be dethroned by the Sultan 
 
 ^ This Oriental personage appears to have been 
 me 
 Era. 
 
 somewhat of a Man-in-the-Iron-Mask in the Borgian
 
 DON TARQUINIO 121 
 
 Jam. Wherefore he agreed to pay xlm ducats 
 yearly to the Supreme Pontiff, so long as that 
 He shall keep the said brother and rival from 
 Byzantion. Lately no ducats have been paid ; 
 and the Grand Turk now demandeth the 
 person of the Sultan Jam. But the Sanctity 
 of the Paparch knoweth ij things. First, that 
 the Sultan Bajazet hath a mind to kill and 
 slay his brother; and the magnificent Alexander 
 will not become a proximate occasion of fratri- 
 cide. Secondly, that so long as that Christian 
 hands retain the Sultan Jam, so long will 
 the Muslim Infidel refrain from advancing 
 nefariously on Hungary and Vienna, lest 
 Christendom, postponing private quarrels, 
 should combine to set up the Sultan Jam in 
 his despite, having obtained warranties of good 
 behaviour. Wherefore, although the said 
 Sultan Jam actually is our pensioner, our 
 Lord the Paparch generously permitteth him 
 to keep his own court here with Him in the 
 security of the Castle of Santangelo." 
 Ippolito ejaculated :
 
 122 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 "Good, good !^ Either the Paparch's Blessed- 
 ness or Thy Worship's Respectability, We know 
 not which, is as expert and as artificial with 
 the wits of the head as We are with the sinews 
 of Our body." 
 
 Cesare continued, saying: 
 
 " These things having been understood, thou 
 art to know that the Christian King made a 
 show of siege, sitting down before the Castle 
 of Santangelo with a gaggle of the common 
 queans of the City and the stinking strumpets 
 of the stews. But, after this diversion, he 
 seeth that the paparchal fortress is too hard a 
 nut to crack. As the Sieur de Commines 
 confessed to Us, he hath become aware that 
 the deposition of our Lord the Paparch is 
 beyond his power. As Messer Demosthenes 
 saith, The mouse hath found out that he is 
 eating pitch. ^ And so the said Christian King 
 will be wholly glad to go away, if he can save 
 
 1 ** iijye, iir/e" in the original holograph. 
 ^ 'apTL ytiu? yeveTai Trtcrcr?;? (Demosthenes).
 
 DON TARQUINIO 123 
 
 his face. Our Lord the Paparch, on the other 
 hand, doth not enjoy sitting in the castle like 
 a cat in a cherry-bay-tree, even though that 
 dog of a Kelt can do no more than yelp at 
 him. But the Christian King is totally 
 ignorant of this. He knoweth no more than 
 that he hath failed to capture Santangelo, and 
 that the invincible Alexander most mercifully 
 doth deign to give him these terms. First, 
 the Christian King may raise the siege, de- 
 parting in peace from the inviolable City and 
 from Peter's Patrimony: whither, our Lord 
 the Paparch saith not — Gaul, Crusade, Naples, 
 His Sanctity specifieth not whither : but the 
 Christian King must go. His attempted in- 
 timidation of the Roman Paparch was very 
 blamable: but he will be permitted to retire 
 unmolested. Secondly, our Lord the Paparch 
 maketh no engagement concerning the crowns 
 of Naples and the rest : but the Christian 
 King must go. Thirdly, our Lord the Paparch 
 deigneth to give hostages for vj months to 
 the said Christian King, sop to uncurbable
 
 124 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 conceit. Whom will He give, dost thou ask, 
 as hostages in such a grave case? First, He 
 hath given Sultan Jam ; and the second's 
 Ourself."
 
 XI 
 
 We /(/, o Prospero, fetched our breath faster; 
 and our eyes dilated, but, speaking no word, 
 we listened. 
 
 Cesare continued, saying : 
 
 *' Now these terms are not what the Keltic 
 monkey wanted : but they are the best which 
 he can get. Being a fool, never constant to 
 a single idea, he hath determined to hasten 
 southward, and to conquer Naples on his 
 own initiative : having persuaded himself that, 
 if he could return some day with the crowns 
 of Naples and the rest in his hand, the Father 
 of princes and kings would not refuse to put 
 them on his head. So the treaty hath been 
 signed. And, touching the matter of Sultan 
 Jam, Our fellow-hostage, thou shalt suppose 
 that, since the Grand Turk hath ceased to 
 pay, he is but a burthen on our Lord the 
 
 i2>;
 
 126 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 Paparch. Also thou shalt suppose that it 
 mattereth not a jot in whose ward he is, so 
 long as that warden be Christian. Wherefore 
 the magnificent Alexander most sagaciously will 
 shift him on to the shoulders of the Christian 
 King, whence he can be reclaimed at any time 
 
 by a threat of the Dirae.^ So much for Sultan 
 
 J>> 
 am. 
 
 The speaker thrust out the protruded middle 
 finger of his ringed right hand ; and continued, 
 saying : 
 
 '* But We also are an hostage ; and, after the 
 mass of dawn. We ride in the train of the 
 Christian King." 
 
 My bowels began to beat like armourers' 
 hammers. My lips retired, and left my teeth 
 bare. I drew breath through the last, softly 
 whistling : but as yet I knew not the true 
 cause of mine emotions. The words which I 
 had heard were terrible. Very great affairs 
 were afoot : yet it did not seem that they 
 
 ^ Excommunication, Interdict, Deposition, and so 
 forth.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 127 
 
 concerned me. I was only an unnoted prince, 
 profoundly but inexplicably agitated, with my 
 back against an ivory door. 
 
 Gioffredo left the cardinals on the cushions, 
 with a snort of incredulity, or despair, or 
 disgust ; and came and threw his arm around 
 my neck, nestling against me. 
 
 But the Cardinal of Valencia continued, 
 saying : 
 
 " Long speeches are better than short ones.^ 
 They give understanding, without which no 
 action of great import can be accomplished. 
 Dost thou admit the validity of my credentials, 
 o Cardinal of Ferrara .''" 
 
 Ippolito again offered his ear to be touched 
 by the gigantic ring ; and, standing, he 
 asseverated : 
 
 " We are the son and servant of our Lord 
 the Paparch, and of The Most Respectable 
 Worship of thee speaking to Us in His name. 
 In the words of Plato, immortal, beaming on 
 
 ^ ra fiuKpa rtov a/xiKpcov Xoycov eVt irpoo-dev iart 
 (Eyripides).
 
 128 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 all things, All Our money is at thy ser- 
 vice. ^ 
 
 But now Cesare seemed to fall into a muse, ^ 
 yawning, playing with our impatience as the 
 tawny tiger at our castle of Deira used to play 
 with goats and deer. 
 
 Gioffredo left me ; and went nearer, lying 
 on the black carpet, supporting his chin on 
 his hands, widely stretching his legs. 
 
 Ippolito sat intent, erect, on the black 
 cushions. 
 
 I stood transfixed, staring at that queer 
 fateful Cardinal of Valencia, who could afford 
 to play when iiij hours would see him an 
 hostage and a prisoner in an enemy's camp. 
 Very strange it is to say, but I will tell thee, 
 o Prospero, that, though there were iiij able- 
 bodied lusty adolescents at that moment in 
 that secret chamber, nevertheless the minds of 
 iij of them were in complete abeyance ; and 
 only the mind of the fourth predominated. 
 
 1 ffOi he virap-x^ei fiev to e/xa '^^pij/xara (Platon).
 
 DON TARQUINIO 129 
 
 Wherefore we iij had naught to do but to 
 listen to the mind of the Cardinal of Valencia, 
 who at length resumed his discourse, saying : 
 
 " This ring is one of a score, which have 
 been journeying round Christendom, on the 
 hands of paparchal ablegates, to the Elect- 
 Emperor Maximilian Always August, to the 
 Catholic Kingi and Queen Don Hernando and 
 Dona Isabella, to the Sacred King^ Henry 
 of the Anglicans, to the Majesties and Tran- 
 quillities and Valvasours and Supernities and 
 Celsitudes and Magnificencies and Sublimities 
 and Highnesses and Mightinesses and Splen- 
 dours and Potencies of the Empire and 
 Portugal and Poland and Hungary and Naples 
 and Milan and Ferrara and Sabaudia and 
 Genoa and Venice and Fiorenza and Mantua 
 and Parma and Padua and Piacenza." 
 
 1 am unable to tell thee, o Prospero, why 
 
 ^ The official style of the Kings of Spain. 
 
 2 This would appear to be the official style of the 
 Kings of England. It would be interesting to know 
 when it became disused. 
 
 9
 
 130 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 I refrained from roaring. But I perceived 
 that this most feline cardinal would tell his 
 tale in his own way and in none other. It 
 pleased him to dally with us, watching the 
 surging of our emotions. But anon, being 
 satisfied, he struck with the swift talons of 
 his stratagem, saying : 
 
 " Our Lord the Paparch is by no means 
 at the end of His resources ; and let no man 
 think the contrary.^ Once let Him deliver 
 Himself from the Christian King, once let 
 Him rid Peter's Patrimony of that pestiferous 
 monkey, and the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, 
 the Italian kingdoms and duchies and republics, 
 Christendom, will league with Alexander against 
 Gaul. In which galley We Ourself are to hold 
 the rudder. To get the Christian King away 
 from the City, the Sultan Jam was conducted 
 to his camp an hour ago. When We leave 
 this palace. We also will join the Keltic army, 
 exposing Our life to the chances of fate." ^ 
 
 ^ fMr]8e ro)i Bo^rji irdXiv (Aischylos). 
 
 2 ■\lrvxr}v Trpo^aWwv ev Kv/BoLai 8ai/u,oyc»?(Eyripides).
 
 DON TARQUINIO 131 
 
 GiofFredo burst in with an oath and an 
 offer. 
 
 Cesare silenced him ; and continued, say- 
 ing : 
 
 " No, Gioffredo : We will go alone. But 
 now, o Cardinal of Ferrara, lend Us both thine 
 ears. After the dawn-mass, We ride from the 
 City, southward by the Appian Way toward 
 the kingdom of Naples. So Our spies have 
 brought news. Three hours later, We reach 
 Velletri, beyond the frontier : where the 
 Christian King intendeth himself to dine and 
 sleep." 
 
 Ippolito rose, mightily towering, torvidly 
 storming, saying : 
 
 " Hear Us now. The Most Respectable 
 Worship of thee is the most valuable of all 
 the Paparch's lieges. The loss of thee will be 
 like the chopping off of Alexander's right 
 hand. Wherefore, if it be really and truly 
 necessary for thee to leave the City as thou 
 sayst, let thy going be but a feint. We have 
 here ccc armed barbarians to serve thee, and
 
 132 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 the trained forces of Ferrara at call. We 
 Ourself are as strong as any man ; and, with 
 a mace, a mace of tempered steel, and Our 
 Arabian stallion between these thighs, We, 
 even We, will be at Velletri for Thy Worship's 
 
 rescue." 
 
 Gioffredo jumped up ; and chattered, say- 
 ing: 
 
 " Let Us go in thy stead, o Valencia. Are 
 We not Alexander's son ? Do We not com- 
 mand a troop ? Is not Our wife a princess 
 of Aragon of Naples ? If there be question 
 of ransom, are We not worth as much as 
 thou?" 
 
 But I still maintained phrenetic silence, keen, 
 alert, strenuously desiring to do something, not 
 knowino; what to do. 
 
 Cesare waved his hand in a furry manner, 
 saying : 
 
 " We will not have valorously violent 
 rescues. None in the City may be known as 
 conniving at Our escape : that would insure 
 the Christian King's return. This is an aftair
 
 DON TARQUINIO 133 
 
 for the head, not for massive limbs. A 
 cunning sage is here more precious than a 
 palatine, o heraklean Ippolito. And as for 
 thee, GiofFredo, know that there is no time in 
 which to change Our plans. The action 
 already is begun. The obligation is made ; 
 and cannot be evaded. But it may be annulled. 
 If it is to be annulled, that must be done in 
 such a way that the Christian King will not be 
 able to prove complicity on the part of any 
 Roman. Our Lord the Paparch must not 
 be found out participating in conspiracy. We, 
 His servants, must combine the columbine 
 manner of doves with the serpentine actions of 
 snakes. Wherefore, what is to be done must 
 be done by others, beyond Roman territory, 
 and (to all seeming) quite spontaneously." 
 
 It was clear that we were expected only to 
 listen, not to advise. We were not a council : 
 but merely pupils, in the presence of a master, 
 who was unfolding schemes already cut and 
 dried. We composed our bodies ; and our 
 minds attended. Cesare continued, saying  
 
 134 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 " That blear-eyed ape of Gaul must be 
 pinned in the kingdom of Naples as vermin 
 is pinned in a trap. His teeth and talons 
 must be drawn there. His army never again 
 must return to Gaul. It must be annihilated 
 in Italy. Wherefore, to lead the said Christian 
 King into this trap, We Ourself will be the 
 bait. We will go with him beyond the Roman 
 frontier. At Velletri, We will halt with him, 
 during the heat of the day. And, from Velletri, 
 We will escape ; and return to the City, 
 promptly assuming direction of the league 
 against Gaul."
 
 XII 
 
 Ippolito said : 
 
 "We admire the plan, but know not how an 
 escape can be effected under such conditions." 
 To whom Cesare responded, saying: 
 " Know that the Borgia of Velletri, though 
 little insignificant people, are of the same origin 
 as the Roman Borgia : but they have been 
 established in Italy many gliding lustrums 
 longer. Know also that the Regent of Velletri 
 hath a son, by name Pietro Gregorio Borgia, 
 an adolescent of parts, very anxious for a career, 
 very friendly to Ourself, and of equal age with 
 and similar appearance to Us. A messenp-er 
 instantly must be sent to the said Pietrogorio : 
 who knoweth that he can make his own fortune 
 by caring for Ours. Wherefore, o Cardinal of 
 Ferrara, seeing that the fame of thy collection 
 of barbaric athletes hath come to the ears of our 
 
 135
 
 136 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 Lord the Paparch, thou art commanded, by 
 thine obedience to the bearer of this ring thou 
 art commanded, to produce a swift runner here 
 and now." 
 
 I think that Ippolito was dazzled, at the 
 moment, by so distinct a recognition of his 
 exquisite connoisseurship of physique : for he 
 sat there smiling and blinking his eyes while one 
 might say a paternoster. 
 
 Cesare closely regarded him, until his counte- 
 nance resumed its normal gravity, shewing that 
 the intellect within was operating ; and then he 
 turned away, drawing Gioffredo on to his knees, 
 feeding him with comfits from the table. 
 
 But Ippolito approached me where I stood 
 rigid by the door ; and would have consulted 
 me, naming his runners one by one, Liparo, 
 Hygropyrrho, Bueselvatico, Fantedifiume, Teres, 
 Lo Skytho, Lo Skoto, the sleek one, the 
 supple redhead, the wild bull, the servant of 
 the sea, the smooth-fleshed one, the Skythian, 
 the Skot, demanding my judgment of each. 
 
 But I could not think of anything saving the
 
 DON TARQUINIO 137 
 
 great good fortune of Pietrogorio, my stars 
 being malignant. I envied and hated him as 
 much as possible ; and I wished to occupy his 
 place. There came before mine eyes a phan- 
 tasm of my maid, as she stood before me at 
 Vatican, with her dear brows so finely lifted 
 and her sweet lips so rapturously trembling, 
 pitying me and urging me. Yet, here I was, 
 stone-still, unable to move, for I knew neither 
 whither nor how. 
 
 Ippolito looked at me with inquiry, I 
 vacantly returned his gaze. And anon, having 
 led me aside, he opened the door. 
 
 The wedge of Numidians, basaltine, gigantic, 
 turned to face him, making a path for him. A 
 vermilion page advanced, impertinently bend- 
 ing to the ground. That one had the form of 
 a young Hyakinthos, and the face of a beautiful 
 white fiend framed in a web of buttercup- 
 coloured hair. Ippolito commanded him to 
 summon the chief chamberlain. 
 
 The page's parthenean voice shrilled through 
 the outer antechambers.
 
 138 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 The chief chamberlain trotted toward us, 
 bustling and genuflecting. To whom Ippolito 
 delivered a mandate, saying : 
 
 " Lo Skoto, in secret." 
 
 The chief chamberlain fled. In flying, he 
 swept before him ail the pages and gentlemen 
 until the door of the private stairs was passed, 
 driving them out of sight and hearing, leaving 
 only those mute eunuchs of the Numidian 
 guard. Anon, he returned accompanied by a 
 half-savage runner, a lanky, stone-deaf youth 
 of the age of xviiij years bought out of the 
 horrible and ultimate Britains. This animal 
 was pushed into the secret chamber ; and the 
 door again was shut. 
 
 I shall describe this singular barbarian, o 
 Prospero, who was of astonishing leanness, 
 stepping like a prancing horse, and very archaic 
 as to his aspect. He was clad in an oblong 
 cloth, chequered in brown and green and yellow. 
 The lower quarter of the said cloth was belted 
 in folds round his waist. The upper three- 
 quarters were folded together lengthways, and
 
 DON TARQUINIO 139 
 
 passed upward, behind his back, over his left 
 shoulder and breast; and the end was tucked 
 into the front of the right side of his belt.^ A 
 goat-skin pouch^ depended from the fore-part 
 of the said belt. All the rest of him was un- 
 covered. His arms were very long and very 
 thin. His breast was enormous. His long 
 legs also were very lean, but round and sinewy. 
 His feet were horny. His heavy head was 
 pear-shaped : the brow, white : the cheeks and 
 nose and pointed jaw, thickly freckled: the hair, 
 a nasty light mud-coloured brown knot on the 
 crown; and the steel-coloured eyes awkwardly 
 wavered behind small slits, unlashed, sly. His 
 stench was abominable. 
 
 The Cardinal of Valencia sniffed at the 
 perfumed amber ball which was chained to 
 his left wrist ; and, having examined Lo Skoto's 
 points in the way which one useth for horses, 
 he appeared to be satisfied. So he came to us 
 
 ^ This " oblong cloth " seems to be the original 
 " kilt and plaid " in one garment. 
 
 2 Obviously a fifteenth century " sporran."
 
 140 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 sitting on the cushions ; and demanded of 
 Ippolito that a mage should be summoned, who 
 could cause the runner to sleep instantly and 
 heavily during a half-hour without impeding 
 his speed thereafter. 
 
 Ippolito went into the antechamber, com- 
 manding the service of Messer Nerone Dioti- 
 salvi, the mage who tolerated natural death by 
 strangling after the conclave which elected the 
 Piccolhuomini.^ But, to occupy the time which 
 preceded the arrival of this one, Cesare took 
 writing materials ; and wrote this letter : 
 
 " I'd Our well-beloved Don Pietro Gregorio 
 Borgia of Velletri. 
 
 " These with speedy speedy speed P' 
 
 " Our Lord the Paparch suddenly sendeth Us 
 as hostage with the Christian King, leaving 
 
 ^ Alexander the Sixth's successor, Pius the Third 
 (Francesco de' Piccolhuomini). What particular can- 
 trips Diotisalvi engaged in at that conclave, the gods 
 only know. Anyhow, he richly deserved a hanging 
 long before he got it. 
 
 ^ " Cito : Cito : Cito :" in the original holograph.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 141 
 
 Us no opportunity of attending to Our proper 
 
 affairs. Wherefore thou art to know that the 
 
 bearer of these letters is an unruly slave^ who 
 
 {if We remained here) should tolerate not more 
 
 than one hour of Our private pillory^ distended 
 
 as to arms and legs^ not stringently enough to 
 
 harm^ but stringently enough, with divers apt 
 
 and commodious actions on the flesh of his hare 
 
 back. For which cause^ well-beloved Pietro- 
 
 gorio, by the affection which thou dost nourish 
 
 for Us, thy trusty kinsman, We lay it upon 
 
 thee to treat our said slave conveniently as 
 
 aforesaid, with all other order known to thy 
 
 piety, that he may have amended his said 
 
 naughty ways before Our return. And so earn 
 
 Our gratitude. 
 
 *' C. Car^l de Valencia.'' 
 
 When we were permitted to peruse the 
 screed, Gioffredo denounced it as nonsense. 
 Ippolito uttered the opinion that it meant what 
 it did not say. But I, being perplexed and 
 angry, gave favour to my tongue.
 
 142 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 Cesare, having guffawed at our stolidity, said: 
 
 ' Be it known unto these princes that Our 
 use >s to keep, in every city, at least one 
 adolescent on whom We may depend in need. 
 Such an one in Velletri is Pietrogorio, prepared 
 for any emergency, prompt to serve ; and he 
 will know what ought to be done. Further- 
 more, if the Kelts, or Colonna, or Orsini, or 
 Savelli, or Dellarovere, or Cajetani, or any other 
 bandits, shall catch the runner of such a mes- 
 sage as this, having read it, will they not rather 
 most hilariously hasten him on to his whipping .^" 
 
 We tij laughed, conceding the point. 
 
 Messer Nerone presently entered, indulging 
 himself in a phrenetic spasm of obeisances, 
 chirruping like a slow tomtit. He was antique, 
 humpty-backed. He spoke always in mono- 
 tone, using a high shrill scream with most 
 exasperating deliberation. 
 
 At whom Ippolito rushed, explaining what 
 was to be done. We others stuffed our ker- 
 chieves in our nostrils, standing laughing near 
 Lo Skoto, anxious to see the doing.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 143 
 
 But the physician forthwith crossed the room 
 to the table where the wine was and the water, 
 prattling of the virtues of belladonna and 
 stramonium. There, standing with his back to 
 Lo Skoto and having taken ij little silver pots 
 from his burse, he put a pinch from each into a 
 cup of wine. This cup he put on a salver with 
 another similar cup which he filled with pure 
 water ; and so he brought them both to the 
 runner. 
 
 As this was being done, the ij cardinals and 
 GiofFredo held a parley on the cushions : but 
 I moved toward the window, whence I 
 watched all, unseen, breathing cleaner air. 
 
 Messer Nerone offered the water to the 
 runner. Lo Skoto reluctantly sipped it, 
 longingly leering at the wine. The mage, 
 having pretended to assure himself that no one 
 was observing, simulated a sudden access of 
 liberality ; and offered the wine instead. It 
 was done most admirably, with absolute art. 
 
 Lo Skoto gulched down the infected potion, 
 stroking himself, vacuously grinning.
 
 144 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 The mage replaced the salver with the cups 
 on the ivory table. The Cardinal of Valencia 
 took the ij little silver pots from him, and 
 pouched them : giving him the jewel with its 
 slight chains from the back of his own hand, 
 and putting him outside the ivory door in the 
 antechamber among the Numidians with a 
 word of dismissal. 
 
 As he went, I touched his hump for luck ; 
 for it seemed that I needed all the aids which 
 fortune had in store, my stars being most 
 malignant. We heard the shrill whining of his 
 voice dying away as he was escorted beyond 
 the antechambers. 
 
 The door having been shut, we continued to 
 entertain ourselves, paying no attention to the 
 drugged runner, except with the corners of our 
 eyes. 
 
 But I was staring at the innumerable lights 
 of the waxen torches, reflected in endless 
 vistas in the polished ivory of the circular walls 
 and the dome of the roof, until mine eyes were 
 dazzled by the sheen. And I chafed : being in
 
 DON TARQUINIO 145 
 
 that agony of bewilderment when the whole 
 world seems to whirl round, near, very near, 
 but just out of reach. For nothing is more 
 exasperating than to find oneself still and 
 alone, when everything else is in myriads 
 violently moving, eluding one's grasp. 
 
 Anon, the runner suddenly started as though 
 a phantom had touched him unawares. He 
 cast suspicious glances round him : but we iiij 
 were in the middle of the chamber, while he 
 was alone by the door. We stood up, openly 
 looking at him as though we were astounded at 
 his audacity: for, in starting, he had knocked 
 down the double-cross, golden, which leaned 
 against the pedestal of the ivory faun near him,, 
 nor did he attempt to replace it. Indeed, his 
 eyes began to glare like those of one who un- 
 advisedly had looked upon a cluster of hob- 
 goblins. His knees also began to bend like 
 those of one pressed downward by an incubus, 
 gently, irresistibly. Anon he became prone on 
 the black carpet. 
 
 Having approached him, Cesare opened one 
 
 10
 
 146 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 of his eyes with thumb and index-finger. 
 Naught but white was seen. Having pinched 
 together iij barleycorns' length of the freckled 
 flesh of the neck, the said cardinal transfixed 
 the same with a needle-point from Ippolito's 
 hand-case. But the sleeper soundly slept. 
 
 Cesare returned to the black cushions ; and 
 seated himself by side of Ippolito, saying : 
 
 " Let Us have the skin of this barbarian's 
 back." 
 
 GiofFredo assisted me. We left the runner 
 in possession of nothing but himself. He was 
 very heavy and inert ; and we pulled him about 
 rather roughly. Anon, having dragged him to 
 the feet of the cardinals, we laid him out on 
 the black carpet, limp as a freshly-made 
 cadaver, a lean long form, huge of loin, the 
 breast deeply arched, puny and narrow of 
 shoulder and arm. The tan of the sinuous 
 legs faded at the middle of the thighs : thence, 
 to the ribs on the right side and to the 
 shoulder on the left side, there was dazzling 
 whiteness. Having inspected him, we turned
 
 DON TARQUINIO 147 
 
 him downward ; and left him, eagerly fixing 
 our gaze on the Cardinal of Valencia. 
 
 That purpled person produced from his 
 burse a tiny crystal vial containing a flesh- 
 coloured liquid, viscous and opaque as cream, 
 with a little brush of very fine hogs bristles. 
 Having unstopped the vial, he gave it into 
 Ippolito's ready hand ; and dipped the brush. 
 We became conscious of a certain foetor, 
 mysterious, mephitic. 
 
 Cesare said : 
 
 " Know that ye are savouring a solution in 
 spirit of the juice of an Indian fig, ^ which We 
 took from Messer Leone Abrabanel of Naples. 
 Know also that We habitually bereave mages of 
 their drugs when We have seen the method of 
 using and the effect of the same : for a prince 
 very often hath need of such matters." 
 
 Mark well, o Prospero, those words of 
 wisdom. 
 
 Thus he spoke : but we signified assent with 
 
 ^ I am inclined to think that this is what we call 
 indiarubber.
 
 148 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 our eyebrows very intently watching his actions. 
 He began to write with the brush upon the 
 runner's back. 
 
 But a terrific catastrophe instantly happened. 
 
 For, at the first touch of the said brush on 
 the top of the left shoulder-blade, the malig- 
 nance of his stars caused the sleeper to think 
 fit to move his head, and to attempt to rise. 
 Immense confusion instantly invaded the secret 
 chamber. 
 
 Cesare sprang up, vociferating maledictions. 
 Ippolito stopped the vial ; and pouched it, pre- 
 paring himself to rebut accusations of treachery. 
 GiofFredo danced up and down like a cat who 
 inopportunely hath stepped on an oven. 
 
 Lo Skoto with a bound was on his feet, 
 phrenetic with fear, capering hither and thither, 
 babbling in an unknown savage jargon. Upon 
 whom I launched myself like a flash of white 
 thunder. 
 
 But, before I could touch and crush his flesh 
 with mine, Cesare whipped a raging poignard 
 into him, and out : a clever Roman thrust
 
 DON TARQUINIO 149 
 
 upward through the heart from the stomach. 
 The runner wriggled and choked, spouting red 
 blood ; and fell. He kicked the carpet iiij 
 times very quickly ; and writhed ; and died 
 straight. I never have seen so short an agony. 
 
 The Cardinal of Valencia at once recovered 
 his equanimity ; and dried his poignard in the 
 knot of dead hair, saying to Ippolito : 
 
 " Pardon, o Cardinal of Ferrara, on account 
 of this puddle on thy carpet. It is not caused 
 by malice but by necessity. But now, before 
 we consider new plans, let us be rid of this 
 carrion, secretly." 
 
 Ippolito continued to gaze at the carcase. 
 
 But, by favour of some benignant star, my 
 wits seemed to be coming back to me. I began 
 to know, one by one in order, the things which 
 I ought to do. 
 
 Wherefore, I beckoned to Gioffredo to take 
 the ankles : but I myself took the hollow arm- 
 pits; and terribly the head waggled between. 
 In this manner we flung the dead slave from 
 the balcony : but, after we had heard the splash
 
 150 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 of his fall In Tiber, we returned, expecting 
 new events. 
 
 Still was the gaze of Ippolito fixed on the 
 mess on the carpet. Cesare walked like a tiger 
 to and fro in a fume. Now my vision was 
 clear ; my stars being very benignant : nor did 
 perplexity blind me any more to my chance.
 
 XIII 
 
 Having collected the vesture of the runner, I 
 placed myself in the way of the Cardinal of 
 Valencia, whom I addressed, saying : 
 
 '' Tiber beareth that dead barbarian to the 
 sea ; and I, o Lord Cardinal, will be Thy Most 
 Respectable Worship's angel." ^ 
 
 With which words I flung down my night- 
 gown of ermine. 
 
 Cesare instantly stopped, inquiring whether 
 I could run. To whom my mouth gave no 
 response : for my form and membrature testi- 
 fied the thing. His glances impinged upon me, 
 bringing the hot blood from mine heart ; and 
 looking down, I saw my breast reddening as 
 though stricken with the flat of the hand. 
 
 Ippolito suddenly interrupted, saying : 
 
 " Can he run indeed ? But he can run, an 
 
 1 " ayyeXo'i " (messenger) in the original holograph, 
 
 151
 
 152 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 he will, with the superhuman swiftness and 
 endurance of Wing-footed Hermes, or of 
 Asahel who ran hke a wild roe in the Sacred 
 Scriptures." 
 
 Thus was Cesare satisfied. He said : 
 
 " Be then Our angel, o white prince ; and 
 run for Us and for thyself." 
 
 In this manner I became the first of the iiij 
 adolescents there present. 
 
 At my commandment, pages brought certain 
 matters from the wardrobe, depositing them at 
 my feet : and, retiring, left us alone to make 
 preparations for the running. 
 
 I belted the runner's cloth on my loins, 
 letting the larger portion hang down behind, so 
 that my back was bare. Ippolito very carefully 
 folded ij squares of tanned buckskin round my 
 feet ; and firmly bandaged them with thongs of 
 the same. Thus garbed, I turned my face to 
 the ivory door, exposing the flesh of my back as 
 the Cardinal of Valencia willed. 
 
 Thereon he began to write cyphers with the 
 brush. The viscous liquid, which he used,
 
 DON TARQUINIO 153 
 
 seemed somewhat to sting and bite me : but I 
 clenched my teeth and fists, and remained im- 
 movable; and anon the little pangs evanesced. 
 He covered my back with writing fi-om shoulder 
 to shoulder and below to my middle, vij lines 
 in all. While he was writing, he explained the 
 thing, saying : 
 
 " These characters, which now are wet and 
 glossy, will become invisible when they are 
 dried, being of the same colour as the substance 
 on which We write. Such is the nature of this 
 magic, that neither sweat nor water will affect 
 it. Ye have seen the letters, which We wrote 
 in ink upon the paper, to be naught but a mere 
 blind. The prince will carry those letters in 
 the goatskin pouch ; and anyone may read 
 them. But he beareth the real message on his 
 proper body ; and no Roman ever hath seen 
 that message : for ye see that each letter 
 evanisheth as We write it. Nor hath this angel 
 himself seen it : for no adolescent can see his 
 own back. But Pietrogorio alone will see it : 
 for he will rub this fine white flesh with soot
 
 154 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 which, adhering to the cyphers, will render 
 them visible when the back which beareth them 
 shall have been cleansed with washing." 
 
 Thus he spoke : but I was thinking of my 
 reward, though a reward was not named : for 
 I knew that great rewards would be due for 
 such a service ; and furthermore the cardinal 
 had said that I was about to run for myself as 
 well as for him. Moreover I knew from his 
 way of handling me, very gentle, very urbane, 
 what all the world knoweth now, videlicet^ 
 that, from the moment when he first saw how 
 my stars had made me, the splendid Cardinal of 
 Valencia loved and honoured me. 
 
 And, when the matter was completed, I 
 demanded a poignard for mine equipment, lest 
 the said Pietrogorio, or any other person 
 instigated by the devil, being strange to me, 
 should try to fulfil the mandate of the letters 
 which I carried in the goatskin pouch : for it 
 was not meet that a prince of my quality, 
 nameless, nearly naked, and without credentials 
 as I was, should submit to pillory and stripes.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 155 
 
 And so, having folded the upper part of the 
 cloth together lengthways, I passed it under my 
 right arm and across my breast and over my 
 left shoulder, fixing the end in the belt, so that 
 the wind of my swift movement should not 
 cause it to impede me. And, having composed 
 mine hair as tightly as possible in my nightcap, 
 I at length was ready to run. 
 
 Sumpter-mules, which bore the cardinal's 
 valises, were waiting in the first court. 
 GiofFredo donned one of my riding-habits of 
 white doeskin, while a litter was being prepared 
 for me. Covered with a cloak, I was placed 
 therein. Two decurions attended us, chosen 
 for secrecy and fidelity. We crossed Tiber 
 by the Island, riding very quietly by Saints 
 Nereys and Achilleys to the Gate of Saint 
 Sebastian. 
 
 During the journey in the silent litter, I was 
 able to recollect myself It was more than 
 ever plain to me that I was the chief prince in 
 this adventure. Wherefore I did not hesitate 
 at taking the government into mine own
 
 156 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 hnnds, even to the issuing of command- 
 ments to the cardinals and to the Prince of 
 Squillace. 
 
 On mine emergence, bare-limbed, light- 
 hearted, I assured Cesare that his errand 
 was as good as done ; and dismissed him 
 with Ippolito to the Keltic camp. They 
 swore : but they smiled at me ; and they 
 went. 
 
 But I bade GiofFredo to return to the Estense 
 Palace, there to rest in my bed, in order that 
 he might be able to render the assistance 
 which I would need in the morning after 
 my running. For I was intending myself 
 to return, a-horseback if possible, by the 
 upper road,^ that I might not encounter the 
 Kelts swarming along the lower. Where- 
 fore I bade him to bring his troop and 
 my litter to the Lateran Gate at the first 
 
 ^ The New Appian Way which diverged from the 
 Old Appian Way, avoiding the fortified tomb of 
 Cecilia Metella, generally a nest of brigands in the pay 
 of bandit barons.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 157 
 
 hour of the day/ there to attend about a 
 league outside the gate until my coming. 
 
 He agreed ; and, embracing me, gave me 
 good luck in my going. Nothing delayed 
 me longer, and I took to the road. 
 
 ^ 6 a.m.
 
 XIIII 
 
 The night was very dark and cold. A 
 little horned moon gave as much light as 
 let me see the riband of road stretched out 
 before me, and no more. The lines of 
 ruined tombs on both sides were only 
 shapeless blacknesses silhouetted on blacker 
 blackness. I cared nothing then for the 
 pleasures of sight. 
 
 The cool fresh breath of Lady Night greeted 
 my nostrils, and caressed my flesh as I ran. 
 
 The hum of the City very soon was left 
 behind. I heard naught save the sighs of the 
 sleeping earth and the quick delicate patter of 
 my well-shod footsteps. 
 
 The aromatic flavour of herbs growing by 
 the roadside was on my lips : from time 
 to time my protruded tongue tasted the cool 
 sweetness. 
 
 158
 
 DON TARQUINIO 159 
 
 AH my body tingled with the pleasure of 
 swift movement. 
 
 I thought of nothing at all : letting my 
 forces collect and develop only in pressing 
 onward with long light striding. I knew that 
 the triumph of our Lord the Paparch depended 
 on me, that I was alone and unprotected : 
 but I felt myself to be so terribly strong 
 that I could have shouted for very gladness. 
 I saved my breath ; and continued running. 
 More than this I cannot tell thee of my 
 running, o mine own mercurial Prospero : for 
 I myself know nothing more. 
 
 I went with extreme caution by Cajetani's 
 Tower :^ but the darkness of midnight and the 
 malignance of that baron's stars favoured me, 
 so that the watch did not perceive my passing. 
 That was the only real piece of danger in mine 
 enterprize. Having escaped it, I stretched 
 myself to the fulness of my speed. 
 
 Anon the straight white way lost itself 
 
 ^ The tomb of Cecilia Metella, apparently then used 
 as a fortress by the bandit baron Cajetani.
 
 i6o DON TARQUINIO 
 
 beneath a carpet of grass. ^ I guided my course 
 between the gaunt ruins of the tombs on each 
 hand. I could not pass Solfatara^ without 
 refreshing myself; and, having denuded my 
 body reeking with sweat, I plunged into the 
 pool again and again until all my flesh was 
 benumbed. I will tell thee, o Prospero, that 
 thy father at that moment was in a mood for 
 violent feats. My strength was multiplied a 
 thousand times by the cold water : but the 
 heart in my breast rejoiced greatly, because 
 I knew that I was in a way to break my fetters. 
 Wherefore I set out again at augmented speed, 
 desiring to accomplish mine errand, but also 
 to leave behind me the disgusting stench of the 
 pool. 
 
 Hereafter, in my running, I thought of my 
 maid in the City, who knew not what great 
 deeds her loving lover was doing in order that 
 
 ^ The Old Appian Way was disused between 
 Palombaro and Bovillae. Near the latter place the 
 juncture with the New Appian Way occurs. 
 
 2 An antique sulphur spring.
 
 DON TARQUINIO i6i 
 
 he might win her. But these thoughts went 
 near to impede my progress : for which cause 
 I postponed them until a more opportune 
 occasion. 
 
 The night became more obscure ; and I ran 
 for a very long time keeping my mind in 
 abeyance, concentrating all my physical force on 
 my running. 
 
 Anon the moon set ; and there was no light 
 but dim starlight. It behoved m.e to go very 
 cautelously : for, at Albano was Savelli, 
 fortified, rebellious. Wherefore, having prayed 
 to my proper divinities as well as to those who 
 were the protectors of my maid, beseeching 
 them that they would bring me to the her- 
 borough where 1 would be, I ascended the hill, 
 passing that city on the right ; and made my 
 way by the lake into Aricia. 
 
 I was running by faith and not by sight. 
 The road was much more difficult by cause of 
 the many ups and downs. But I did not 
 slacken speed : for I knew that my stars were 
 
 as benignant as possible. 
 
 II
 
 i62 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 Cinthyanum^ was still asleep as I fled 
 through its street, silent, vacant. In all my 
 journey indeed I encountered no one of 
 human origin, clearly shewing that the gods 
 approved my course. I might have rested 
 safely anywhere in the dark. But I would 
 not : for I feared lest my limbs should 
 stiffen ; and there was in my mind only the 
 sole desire of fulfilling my mission. Where- 
 fore I continued to run faster and faster, 
 knowing how very grateful is rest after 
 activity very strenuous, very prolonged. 
 
 Anon the darkness of the night gave way 
 to a certain timid greyness, whereby I was 
 enabled to follow the windings of the road 
 with less caution. But by cause that dawn 
 was near, I put forth all my vigour. I was 
 conscious only that my legs were swinging 
 to and fro with no effort, lightly-flying, space- 
 devouring. I was happy, by cause of them, 
 by cause that my flesh glowed in the cold air, 
 by cause that I was alive and doing. 
 
 ^ Genzano di Roma.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 163 
 
 Naught else gave me happiness, here, 
 at the end of my journey. So I entered 
 Velletri, through the gate, with the 
 dawn.
 
 XV 
 
 My shouts for the palace of the Regent, and 
 the fierceness of my mien, brought me instantly 
 to Pietrogorio. 
 
 Had I not known that the Cardinal of 
 Valencia had remained in the City, and that 
 none had passed me on the road, I should 
 have suspected magic of the particular kind 
 called bilocation, by means of which the 
 golden-thighed Pythagoras was seen and heard 
 to lecture, at the same day and hour, in the 
 two widely distant cities of Metapontion and 
 Tayromenion : for the aspect of this adolescent 
 was precisely similar to that of the other who 
 had sent me. But my stars told me that 
 they must be two and not one : for which 
 cause I did not hesitate to present the written 
 letters from the goatskin pouch. 
 
 Pietrogorio permitted himself to laugh while 
 
 164
 
 DON TARQUINIO 165 
 
 he was reading : in which diversion I did not 
 omit to join, although, fearing lest he might 
 stray unduly into error, I kept my poignard 
 handy. Anon I took the first opportunity of 
 acquainting him with the quality of mine 
 estate ; and he instantly withdrew me from 
 the court, where he had been about to exercise 
 some horses, conducting me to a secret apart- 
 ment allotted to him by the Regent, his 
 father. 
 
 He said : 
 
 " If, as We believe, the truth is being told, 
 it will be known unto this prince what other 
 matters must be done before the whole message 
 can come to Our knowledge." 
 
 To whom I instantly responded, saying : 
 
 " Let a shovelful of soot be brouffht, and 
 several bucketfuls of water for washing ; and 
 anon this noble will not be prevented from 
 completing the said message for himself." 
 
 The things having been brought into an 
 empty part of the stables, near by the boxes 
 where the horses were, but separate therefrom
 
 i66 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 by a wooden wall, I divested myself of the 
 long cloth ; and stood still, keeping my 
 poignard in my hands, alert to unsheathe it. 
 
 Pietrogorio understood ; and he also knew 
 that I understood. So far we had gone step 
 by step in turn ; and now he was to advance 
 to the last stage. 
 
 Taking the soot in handfuls, he rubbed the 
 flesh of my back therewith. I felt it drop- 
 ping, with odious softness, on my loins and 
 on the calves of my legs: for I was standing 
 very stiffly. Sometimes, looking over my 
 shoulders, I saw that the shining whiteness of 
 me was becoming as dully black as a Moor : 
 but, having so degraded myself as to run 
 across Campagna in a barbaric slave's garb, I 
 placed no demurrer against this last abomina- 
 tion. But I promised myself many very long 
 ablutions, elaborate, exquisite, in the moment 
 after my return to the City. Indeed, I was 
 not in a condition to place remonstrances of 
 any kind at that time : for, whether my 
 message pleased him or irked him, I was at
 
 DON TARQUINIO 167 
 
 Pietrogorio's mercy for present accommodation 
 and refreshment as well as for means of 
 return. So I submitted in silence. 
 
 Having blacked half of me thoroughly, 
 making me a piebald prince for the first and 
 last time, he fetched a horse-block near me ; 
 and, standing thereon, he poured iiij bucketfuls 
 of water over me. 
 
 It greatly refreshed me : but I grieved 
 when I saw that the water, in flowing over 
 my back, carried away the superfluous soot, 
 trickling over every part of me save my 
 breast and mine arms which I held upward. 
 The first bucketful ran off in inky streams : 
 the second and third were greyer and still 
 greyer ; and the fourth was almost clear. 
 But the flesh of me remained of a terrible 
 dirtiness ; and I stood still, sodden, unclean, 
 beginning to shiver, very strenuously expecting 
 an end. 
 
 Pietrogorio dismounted from the horse- 
 block ; and inspected the visible cyphers on 
 my back. Incontinent he uttered the greatest
 
 i68 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 shout which I ever have heard from the throat 
 of one adolescent. It was so full of surprize, 
 of delight, of urgency, that I turned upon him, 
 eagerly inquiring. 
 
 But emotion transfixed him for the moment. 
 The intense expression of his countenance 
 taught me that he was collecting his energies 
 for some tremendous effort, that he was in 
 the throes of labour with some huge idea. 
 
 Anon, his plan was born ; and the tension 
 was relaxed. Not forgetful of good manners, 
 even at such a moment, he thus addressed 
 me: 
 
 *' Order shall be given for the comfort and 
 the entertainment due to Thy Most Illustrious 
 Potency. But We Ourself beg to be excused 
 from attendance, seeing that We have in hand 
 the vital welfare of Our patron, on whose 
 account We are willing to die : for it seemeth 
 to Us that another messeno^er must go to 
 Cinthyanum. on the instant." 
 
 To whom I promptly responded, saying : 
 
 " Give Us the means of riding, and We
 
 DON TARQUINIO 169 
 
 Ourself will be that messenger : for We desire 
 nothing better than to emulate Thy Nobility 
 in serving the Cardinal of Valencia to the 
 uttermost; and it is clear that We shall serve 
 Ourself at the same time, seeing that Cin- 
 thyanum lieth on the high road to the City." 
 
 Thus I spoke, letting the fire of mine eyes 
 add force to the words ; and Pietrogorio saw 
 that the thing must be so. He himself is, as 
 thou knowest, o Prospero, more a man of 
 deeds than of words ; and, thereafter, we 
 spoke little but did much in a few moments of 
 time. 
 
 While I girded on the runner's garb again, 
 he saddled an horse for me, shouting mean- 
 while for his people to bring the juice of a 
 live goose pressed to death for me to drink, 
 and to rub my stiffening legs with mugwort in 
 oil. Which was done. 
 
 Anon I leaped into the saddle ; and he led 
 me through the gateway alone. There, he 
 gave me the little gold ring with the carbuncle 
 (which thy mother, o Prospero, weareth on her
 
 170 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 neck-chain), signing for the use of mine ear. 
 Having bent to him, he whispered : 
 
 " Present this ring to the postmaster of 
 Cinthyanum, as a sign that all the horses in 
 that city are bought up by the Cardinal of 
 Valencia." 
 
 Thus having spoken, he sent me flying away 
 at a gallop, mightily striking the stallion on the 
 rump with his fist.
 
 XVI 
 
 I HAD no more than a superficial knowledge of 
 what was doing now. But I was returning to 
 the City ; and that sufficed for my satisfaction. 
 Little vulgar boys gibed at my disgraceful 
 aspect as I rode through the streets. At 
 another time I would have cut out their 
 tongues : but, then, I did not even stop to 
 frown at them. Little simpering girls, going 
 to mass with the nuns of their convent, pre- 
 tended to shudder at the dirty, detestable, but not 
 unshapely legs so shamelessly exposed : but I 
 did not even kiss my fingers. Every moment 
 now brought me nearer to my proper maid. I 
 thought of nothing else as I flew along the 
 road : but I grieved a little by cause that I had 
 no spurs, and the whip (which I had snatched 
 up at parting) was but a slight one. More- 
 over, I had left my poignard in the stable. 
 
 171
 
 172 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 But, when I drummed with mine heels on 
 my beast's barrel, the sodden leather of my 
 footgear emitted certain squelching noises, 
 amusing to the rider, terrific to the ridden : 
 for he augmented his speed in a very agreeable 
 manner, not needing any other incitement. 
 
 So I came to Cinthyanum; and, having done 
 my business with the postmaster, I pursued 
 my course without drawing rein. 
 
 When I reached the summit of the hill by 
 the ruins,^ I saw (in the ravine before me) an 
 approaching troop. Mine eyes were so blinded 
 by my sweat and the dust of my furious riding, 
 that (though 1 perceived the glint of the sun 
 on loricate mail-coats and on cross-bows) I 
 could not see clearly whether these were worn 
 and borne by friends or foes. 
 
 But I knew that it was easier to ride 
 
 1 I don't quite know what these ruins are, unless 
 they are the remnants of the Villa of Vitellius on 
 Monte Gentile : but, if this be the case, Don Tar- 
 quinio was off the main road. There are plenty of 
 ravines between Genzano and Aricia, now spanned by 
 the viaducts of Pius the Ninth.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 173 
 
 through a squadron from an high place, than 
 for an ascending squadron to obstruct precipi- 
 tate attack. Wherefore I goaded mine horse 
 to extra speed with terrific shoutings as well as 
 with the thuds of mine heels ; and it seemed 
 that I was going very quickly. 
 
 But the beast, having run away four times 
 for his own pleasure and being now constrained 
 to run for mine, was becoming exhausted ; and 
 I myself was becoming sore and rather feeble 
 from the stress of my night's adventure : 
 moreover, I was famishing with hunger. For 
 which causes we came down the steep hill with 
 less impetus than I had designed ; and nothing 
 would have been done at the bottom in the 
 way of smashing a passage through the ad- 
 vancing troop. 
 
 The said troop, indeed, did not wait for 
 the onslaught: but, to my immense surprise, 
 ranged itself by the sides of the road laughing 
 very loudly indeed. 
 
 But I, indignant at gratuitous contumely, 
 erected myself on my saddle, straight and
 
 174 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 filthy (for I had come down the hill lying 
 along the horse's back the better to avoid 
 wounds during the proposed swift passage); 
 and I indignantly looked about for one of mine 
 own estate whom I might call to account. 
 And, while I was looking, my beast rocked 
 and fell dead : but I made shift to leap clear 
 of him, in order to meet mine own torture 
 and death in a princely manner. 
 
 But I had fallen into no worse hands than 
 those of the chubby Gioffredo. That one 
 instantly began to chatter: to whose inquiries 
 I would not respond, until he had dismounted 
 one of his own kataphractors^ in order to give 
 me a new horse; and then I insisted that we 
 should hasten toward the City. 
 
 So we galloped together like Kastor and 
 Polydeykes: but the dismounted kataphractor 
 rode a-pillion with one of his comrades. And, 
 as we went, I gave a little news of my deeds to 
 
 1 Mail-clad cavalry with cross-bows. Pietrogorio's 
 tombstone at Velletri names him as the lieutenant of 
 Caesar Borgia's kataphractors.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 175 
 
 GiofFredo until my breath failed me. The 
 remnant I kept for the business of riding as 
 quickly as possible ; for I was very anxious to 
 make an end. 
 
 When I lapsed into silence, Gioffredo began 
 to be garrulous. What he said was not im- 
 portant. He had spent an hour of the night 
 with his wife at Traspontina. But it pleased 
 me to hear that impatience and a kind heart 
 had constrained him to leave long before the 
 time, and had sent him so great a distance along 
 the road to mine assistance. And I eagerly 
 desired to reach the Lateran Gate : for there 
 (so he said) the litter was waiting, wherein I 
 longed to seclude myself, by cause of the sordid 
 condition of my body, which shame forbade 
 me to exhibit in the City, and by cause 
 that fatigue was affecting me very gravely 
 indeed. 
 
 Anon we reached the place ; and, having 
 been lifted on to the soft cushions, the curtains 
 were drawn about me. Instantly I fell asleep : 
 for which cause, o Prospero, I am unable to
 
 176 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 write the history of my progress from the 
 Lateran Gate to the Estense Palace. But 
 there I awoke, as the mules halted with a 
 jerk in the first court. 
 
 I peeped between the curtains ; and I saw 
 the double-cross and the torches of the cardinal's 
 estate disappearing up the steps of the audience- 
 chamber : from which portent I augured that 
 it would be useless to try to approach Ippolito 
 until such time when he should have finished 
 the morn's business of dispensing justice to his 
 family. 
 
 But, that I might come at him as soon as 
 possible, 1 advised Gioffredo to dismiss the 
 decurions, and himself to accompany me as I 
 was, mixing unnoted with the motley of clients, 
 parasites, flatterers, men-at-arms, chamberlains, 
 pages, chaplains, athletes, poets, painters, mer- 
 chants, officials, secretaries, servitors, women, 
 who were thronging into the audience- 
 chamber. 
 
 So we did. But, though we were able to 
 enter, we could not penetrate to the front of
 
 DON TARQUINIO 177 
 
 the crowd, having come in behind all the 
 others. I myself was too drowsy and too 
 stiiF to care whether I spoke then or at another 
 time. My only idea was to refrain from 
 interrupting the natural order of events, and 
 to wait for an opportunity : for I saw that 
 my stars had become malignant. Wherefore 
 I restrained GiofFredo from certain violent 
 demonstrations which he was preparing ; and 
 together we found a corner quieter than the 
 others. 
 
 Here, by the marble wall, we sat on the 
 settle of marble, out of the stink and confusion 
 of the mob at the front. 
 
 12
 
 XVII 
 
 In order to prevent myself from falling again 
 into slumber, I carefully noted the white 
 walls and the cornice of shields, spade-shaped, 
 richly blazoned, and the Byzantine tapestries 
 which depended therefrom. Nor did the 
 grandeur of Ippolito on his vermilion throne, 
 listening to the chaplains who intoned the 
 Office of None, escape my notice. In the 
 same manner I assiduously attended when the 
 day's business was begun. At first it was 
 uninteresting. 
 
 While the auditors whispered advice in the 
 cardinal's ears, and while the secretaries recorded 
 events in huge tomes or wrote at his dictation, 
 I put myself to count the gilded coffers of the 
 oaken roof. This casting upward of mine 
 eyes made me more drowsy than ever : but 
 I knew that, if once I permitted myself to 
 
 178
 
 DON TARQUINIO 179 
 
 sleep, my sleep would be a stupor from which 
 even an earthquake would not awaken me. 
 Wherefore I constrained myself to note all 
 that was going on : lest I should lose a chance 
 of declaring mine achievement. For it must 
 be clear to thee, o Prospero, that, when I ran 
 as the Cardinal of Valencia's angel, I ran as 
 the Cardinal of Ferrara's familiar, to which 
 last it behoved me to render an account as 
 soon as possible, as well for relieving him 
 from his obligation to the credentials sent by 
 our Lord the Paparch as for mine own 
 deliverance, first, from the filth of my body, 
 secondly, from the rigour which was paralyzing 
 my limbs, thirdly, from the Great Ban which 
 so direly was afflicting me. For I did not 
 doubt but that the last would be the reward of 
 my running. 
 
 To pass the time, I entertained myself with 
 thoughts of my maid, as soon as I had convinced 
 GiofFredo of my determination to remain silent. 
 He, being more than a little fatigued, took a 
 nap, after cursing me for a sulky prince. I
 
 i8o DON TARQUINIO 
 
 promised myself an abundance of felicity in the 
 contemplation of Hersilia, when she should 
 have heard of my viiij leagues' journey through 
 the lonely night: for it is very pleasant to be 
 pitied and admired by one's lover when one 
 has striven strenuously and successfully. I 
 tried to be deaf to the hubbub in front of 
 me, while I indulged my mind as aforesaid : 
 but it was merely another insidious way to 
 sleep. Wherefore, having rejected it, I dis- 
 missed my proper affairs, and alertly attended 
 to the others. They were as follows. 
 
 The master of pages exhibited, to the cardinal, 
 the monthly sheaf of the boys' specimens of 
 handwriting. Ippolito having inspected the 
 same, dictated to a secretary to be written 
 neatly on a bad one : *' Gianlucido, write thus 
 or better here and now." 
 
 The master of pages retired, to see it done : 
 but Ippolito signed some billets authorizing 
 sundry expenditures for household stuff. The 
 notary executed them ; and the datary sealed 
 them.
 
 DON TARQUINIO i8i 
 
 The steward brought a plebeian page, who 
 had been caught in the act of spitting idly into 
 the rainwater tank of the cardinal's bathing- 
 chamber. The rascal was condemned to be 
 stripped in the courtyard, and to be spat upon 
 by X of his companions during half-an-hour. 
 Order was issued for covering the said tank 
 with stout canvas. 
 
 The mistress of the women shrilly com- 
 plained that one Fulgencia, a laundry-maid, was 
 refusing to be married by the barber's son, to 
 whom she had been betrothed one year. Inter- 
 rogated whether she could shew cause for so 
 culpable a defection, the said Fulgencia re- 
 sponded, saying : No. And sucked her thumb. 
 The mistress of the women was impowered to 
 whip her, in the presence of iij maids, every 
 Friday at the ninth hour of the day, until the 
 marriage should have been consummate. The 
 said Fulgencia, having bellowed for instant 
 nuptials, was conveyed to the chapel with the 
 said barber's son, iiij witnesses, and one chap- 
 lain, to be married forthwith.
 
 i82 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 The oil -merchant appealed against the 
 steward, who was intending to cause him to 
 bear the loss of a consignment of his mer- 
 chandize which had been stolen, on the Ostian 
 Way, by brigands in the pay of the bandit 
 Cardinal Giuliano Dellarovere desirous of 
 building a new cathedral.^ The said appeal 
 was admitted. 
 
 The vegetable-merchant very brazenly came 
 forward, producing a similar appeal. But the 
 steward confronted him with proofs of his 
 fraud. His appeal was rejected, and his privi- 
 lege was cancelled ; and the steward had com- 
 mandment to purchase vegetables in future 
 from the deceiver's rival. 
 
 The slave-merchant offered for sale ij young 
 Indian acrobats, saying that Cardinal Rafaele 
 Riarj wished to have them. They performed 
 divers tricks of agility, which Ippolito ap- 
 
 ^ He did build it two years later (a.d. 1497). This 
 example of the fifteenth century method of raising 
 cathedral-building-funds may be compared with that of 
 the twentieth.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 183 
 
 plauded ; and he gave order that, on the 
 physician certifying them to be healthy and 
 their bodies without blemish, the treasurer 
 should pay the price. They were extremely 
 slim of figure ; and their flesh was as yellow 
 as dew-kissed pumpkins gleaming in the sun- 
 light. 
 
 The chief equerry had order to water the 
 horses daily in Tiber, beyond the Portuensian 
 Gate, seeing that the Keltic army was gone 
 away. 
 
 Order was issued for the burial of ij mer- 
 cenaries, who had been found murdered outside 
 the barbacan at dawn, having gone out at night 
 without their mail-shirts. Order was issued for 
 ij masses to be intoned for their souls' repose. 
 
 Order was issued for iij masses to be intoned 
 for the repose of the soul of one without a 
 name, who had died improvisedly and suddenly. 
 
 The absurd Messer Nerone Diotisalvi was 
 required on pain of the minor torments to 
 apply himself more assiduously to his studies 
 in the magic arts. For it will be clear to
 
 i84 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 thee, o Prospero, that, had it not been for 
 that mage's ignorance of his proper craft, 
 homicide would not have been necessary. 
 
 Permission was granted to the firelighter to 
 become served by ij extra boys, if the weather 
 should continue to be cold. 
 
 The new goldsmith offered a crucifix for 
 purchase. Ippolito, having inspected the piece, 
 gave order that the wretch should be bufi^eted 
 by all and singular, from the audience-chamber 
 to the gate of the barbacan, by cause that he 
 contumeliously had used carelessness in making 
 the Image of the Divine Heros. 
 
 A strange poet, in a dark-green wig resem- 
 bling sea-weeds, declaimed a sonnet in praise of 
 a bee's nipples ; and he was derided. 
 
 A very young painter, shy, rather rosy-faced, 
 exhibited a panel whereon he had depicted the 
 Divine Herakles and the gruesome Hydra. To 
 whom the treasurer had order to pay xx gold 
 sequins. 
 
 Ippolito complained that the tallow-scraper 
 had neglected to scrape tallow from iiij stairs,
 
 DON TARQUINIO 185 
 
 whereby the attire of a certain chamberlain 
 (whose name I have forgotten) had been 
 rendered indecorous, and the cardinalitial shins 
 themselves liable to divers incommodious abra- 
 sions. The said misdemeanant was produced ; 
 and charged with his crime. He blubbered. 
 Order was issued that he should tolerate vij 
 stripes in honour of the Apostles. He yelled. 
 
 The master of the pages exhibited the 
 amencJed specimen of handwriting. Ippolito, 
 having denominated it still very evil, dictated 
 to a secretary to be written very neatly there- 
 upon : " Gianlucido, write thus or better 
 before to - morrow, or bid farewell to thine 
 hide." 
 
 The captain of the mercenaries accused a 
 Turkish arbalister of having murdered a bap- 
 tized Dacian slinger treacherously, in a brawl, 
 at the sixth hour of the night : also, of having 
 torn out the said Dacian's heart, eating the 
 same, hot, in contempt of our most holy 
 faith. Order was issued that the said Turk, 
 having been conveniently tormented, should
 
 i86 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 tolerate natural death by strangulation within 
 the hour : that his carcase should hang in the 
 place of exposition till avemmaria, and then 
 be thrown into Tiber at a mile below the 
 Portuensian Gate. 
 
 Two tormentors introduced the miscreant 
 tallow-scraper before the dais, loudly bawling. 
 He was a sturdy Trasteverino of about the age 
 of xiij years, dark-coloured and big-eyed, and 
 tough and sinewy as a young wolf. Having 
 placed him, they tied his wrists behind him 
 with the end of a coil of rope, deftly tossing 
 the other end over a beam in the roof, and 
 pulling it taut ; and so they waited. 
 
 Ippolito was smelling to an orange infected 
 with rose-attar : for indeed the foetor of the 
 mob in the audience-chamber was most putid. 
 He threw the fruit to a favourite page ; and I 
 augured from the expression on his physiognomy 
 that he was about to manifest abnormal sagacity. 
 He pretended that he understood not the busi- 
 ness which was afoot ; and demanded the reason 
 for these preparations.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 187 
 
 The tallow-scraper ceased his clamour, con- 
 centrating his gaze on the cardinal. 
 
 The first tormentor responded, saying : 
 
 '* The Most Illustrious Purpled Person will 
 choose to hear the rogue's confession of his 
 crime." 
 
 Ippolito said : 
 
 " We have heard." 
 
 The first tormentor volubly expostulated, 
 saying : 
 
 " But not under The Question, o Most Illus- 
 trious : for none can believe a creature who is 
 neither clerk nor noble, unless he (first) shall 
 have been hauled upward by the drawn-back 
 wrists and (secondly) shall have been dropped 
 suddenly to within a span from the floor. It 
 is the torture of hanging from dislocated 
 shoulders which alone insureth a true con- 
 fession." 
 
 Thus having spoken, he instantly pulled the 
 rope ; and the boy ascended high over the heads 
 of all. 
 
 But that rascal, being very sinewy and very
 
 i88 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 quick-witted, did not wait for the dislocation of 
 his shoulders. For, drawing up his legs and 
 clenching his teeth as he left the floor, he 
 instantly pressed his bound hands downward 
 on his buttocks, with admirable force, twisting 
 round and round like an athlete. 
 
 Applause began to be heard. The boy's 
 throat curved stiffly backward ; and his breasts 
 and shoulders resembled tan-coloured knots as 
 he hung up there. He bended his legs further 
 and further back ; and, by degrees, he contrived 
 to grasp his own ankles, relaxing the strain on 
 his sinews, and hanging face-downward in a 
 delicate semicircle like a strung bow hanging 
 by its string. 
 
 But Ippolito went on speaking to the tor- 
 mentor, saying very quickly : 
 
 " What thou hast said is purely silly. Our 
 chamberlain's split hosen, and the tallow on Our 
 stairs, proclaim the crime. The boy's office is 
 to look that Our floors lack tallow. No con- 
 fession is needed, with The Ouestion or without. 
 Let him come down. Give him his whipping.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 189 
 
 And let him go to the treasurer for a rose- 
 giulio^ as the reward of dexterity. And then 
 let him go to the master of the athletes, who 
 hath order to take him in charge. And let 
 the comptroller provide another tallow-scraper, 
 who will do well not to waste Our tallow." 
 
 When the boy came down, the first tormentor 
 disappointedly untied his wrists ; and, seizing 
 them, hoisted him in the usual manner : while 
 the other, having turned his garment over his 
 head, scored xij criss-cross weals on his plunging 
 hams with a cane. 
 
 Anon being released, the freshly sprouted 
 athlete stifled his yells ; and he instantly stood 
 on his head with his arms and legs spread as 
 widely apart as possible. 
 
 Everybody burst out laughing. 
 
 There was commotion at the door of the 
 audience-chamber. 
 
 GiofFredo woke up and would have been 
 precipitate : for chamberlains were announcing : 
 
 1 About a shilling, with four times its purchasing 
 value.
 
 igo DON TARQUINIO 
 
 "The Exalted Tranquillity of the Tyrant 
 Lucrezia Borgia-Sforza of Pesaro," 
 
 Beating as quickly as possible then was the 
 heart in my bosom, instantly sensing the coming 
 of its mate in my maid's.
 
 XVIII 
 
 All the women in the audience-chamber were 
 plebeian, ugly, stinking. But this most beauti- 
 ful princess brought in the odours of a garden 
 of fragrant herbs ; and, among the bevy attend- 
 ing her, I saw my maid. 
 
 Her eyelashes were lowered : but, every 
 now and then, she flashed a glance on this side 
 and on that, as though she were seeking some- 
 thing. I knew what she was seeking. 
 
 But I shrank down in my corner, pulling 
 the impetuous Gioffredo with me : for I was 
 not conscious that the opportune moment had 
 arrived, even now. 
 
 The crowd opened a pathway for the tyrant. 
 A stool was set for her under the canopy near 
 Ippolito. Her maids-of-honour stood behind 
 her. All their hair was dyed yellow with oil 
 of honey in imitation of their mistress : but 
 
 191
 
 ig2 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 my maid's hair was as black as a sapphire in a 
 night without light. 
 
 The chamberlains emptied a great space 
 in front of the dais, pressing back the 
 crowd. 
 
 But I and GiofFredo thrust ourselves through, 
 not to the front rank but to the second : for 
 I did not wish to be seen, and I did wish to 
 hear. 
 
 The tyrant thus addressed the cardinal, 
 saying : 
 
 " We are come, o lord cardinal, from 
 visiting Our mother. Madonna Giovannozza^ 
 rejoiceth by cause that the Keltic soldiers are 
 departed : for she hath been in terror lest they 
 should rob the blossoms of her orchard, the 
 which is her heart's treasure ; and the revenues 
 of her late husband's bequest suffice not for 
 the pay of an armed guard. Wherefore, We 
 are sworn to ask Our Most Blessed Father 
 
 ^ This was her nickname (Big Jenny), which she 
 commonly bore in accordance with the Roman 
 custom : but her real name was Giovanna de' Catanei.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 193 
 
 for the immunity of her inn^ against taxation 
 and against the excise-duty on wines, so that 
 she may reap a little profit in these hard 
 times." 
 
 She spoke rapidly, as her young brother did, 
 but in a voice which was very sweet and soft 
 to hear. But it was clear to me that she 
 had other more important things to say by 
 side of this gossip. IppoUto also perceived 
 it : for he sagaciously nodded his head, 
 smiling in silence. 
 
 The tyrant continued, saying : 
 
 *' Thou goest at noon to dine with Our 
 Most Blessed Father, o Cardinal of Ferrara. 
 His Blessedness is very lonely, very grave. 
 
 1 The Lion Inn in Bear Street, a bequest from her 
 deceased husband. Excepting perhaps the sixty Roman 
 patricians, no one in those days thought a whit the 
 worse of a lady for getting her living banaysically than 
 people do now. Madonna de' Catanei was neither a 
 barmaid nor a female boniface. She was the proprietor 
 of the most celebrated hostelry in Rome ; and lived 
 privately on her income in a villa near San Pietro ad 
 Vincula. 
 
 13
 
 194 I^ON TARQUINIO 
 
 He taketh hardly the defect of the Vice- 
 chancellor, whom He hath loved much : for 
 He cannot see that Sforza needs must stand 
 by Sforza in these horrid quarrels. As for 
 those Keltic invaders, He saith that the end 
 is not yet: that, though they go now, anon 
 they will return: that there will be war, per- 
 haps during iij months, but not in the City: 
 but that there first will be happenings which 
 will astound the Christian King." 
 
 Ippolito appended grave nods and impene- 
 trable smiles. 
 
 Madonna Lucrezia again tried to approach 
 the matter which she had in mind, saying : 
 
 " After Lent, o lord cardinal, it is Our 
 intention to dine daily in the gardens of 
 La Magliana^ to the sound of luths. Madonna 
 Giuha^ hath brought iiij luthists from Venice ; 
 
 1 A paparchal villa in the Campagna, ten miles S.E. 
 of Rome, founded by Xystus the Fourth and enlarged 
 by Innocent the Eighth, the predecessor of Alexander 
 the Sixth. 
 
 2 Giulia (Farnese) Orsini, a lady of the court.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 195 
 
 and one is an improvisatore. We therefore 
 beg that thou wilt be Our beadsman, giving 
 Us the benefit of thine holy prayers for fair 
 weather after Eastertide." 
 
 Ippolito conceded a gesture of assent. 
 What was the use of a cardinal-deacon, ex- 
 cepting to pray for fair weather for fair ladies 
 who were minded to dine in gardens, his 
 aspect seemed to say. Having obtained so 
 small a boon, the tyrant (womanlike) instantly 
 demanded a great one, saying : 
 
 " And now, o Cardinal of Ferrara, We desire 
 to hear thy news." 
 
 To whom he responded, saying : 
 
 *' Since yesterday, divers strange things have 
 happened. One of Our athletes, by race a 
 Dacian, hath been murdered ; and his mur- 
 derer even now is tolerating torment before 
 strangulation." 
 
 Madonna Lucrezia interrupted, saying : 
 
 " The news which We desire are not of that 
 nasty species." 
 
 Ippolito added :
 
 196 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 " There are not any news of affairs known 
 to Us, save those of Our family and those 
 which Thine Exalted Tranquillity hath named." 
 
 Madonna Lucrezia looked him up and down. 
 She would try the effect of a taunt ; and 
 continued, saying : 
 
 " Our Most Blessed Father sitteth in the 
 Castle of Santangelo, dumb, but smiling at 
 His thoughts. Of what pleasant thing is He 
 thinking.? There is not anyone in the City 
 who will respond to Our inquiries. The 
 others, perchance, cannot : but thou canst 
 and wilt not, o Cardinal of Ferrara." 
 
 She was becoming indignant, but sorry. 
 A dark woman never ought to inflame her- 
 self with anger, by cause that the black or 
 the brown of her hair and the red of her rage 
 are the colours of our old enemy, the devil : 
 but fury augmenteth the beauty of a fair 
 woman to the highest degree, for it brighteneth 
 the clear blue of her eyes, while the poppy- 
 colour of her face is exquisitely allied with 
 the straw-colour of her hair. At such a
 
 DON TARQUINIO 197 
 
 moment, she resembleth a joyful field ready 
 for reaping ; and happy is the youth who 
 is bold enough to reap. 
 
 Ippolito was a little confiised ; but he used 
 himself serenely enough, saying that (for his 
 part) he was willing but unable. 
 
 The tyrant no longer restrained her spleen. 
 She spoke, while her fair cheeks flamed, 
 scornfully saying : 
 
 " It is well known to Us that the Cardinal 
 of Ferrara doth profess himself to be the friend 
 of the Cardinal of Valencia. Our mind telleth 
 Us also that the said Cesare is this day in some 
 dire peril, having gone away with that very 
 abominable Keltic king. Wherefore We 
 should have thought that the Cardinal of 
 Ferrara, having so many vigorous familiars in 
 his hand, would be doing something for the 
 safety of his friend. Or are all these mighty 
 and magnificent gentlemen merely for show 
 but not for use ?" 
 
 And then, o Pro?pero, my darling little maid 
 burst out incontinent, saying :
 
 198 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 *' At least one of the Lord Cardinal's 
 gentlemen is useful and willing as well as 
 magnificent and mighty and very beautiful, 
 o Exalted Tranquillity." 
 
 Everybody shouted with laughter at such 
 effrontery. Her blushes burned her like a 
 fire : but she maintained her situation bravely 
 in front of the other girls ; and her eyes 
 glittered like stars, blue -black, brilliantly 
 beaming. I almost believed that she actually 
 saw me : but I kept my face behind the head 
 of a fool, peeping between his hood and the 
 twisted liripipe of the same. 
 
 Madonna Lucrezia changed her posture, with 
 the alacrity of one who findeth that her seat 
 is a nest of scorpions, demanding shrilly, 
 mockingly : 
 
 " What doth a maid-of-honour know about 
 a cardinal's beautiful gentlemen ?" 
 
 There was a noise at the door ; and chamber- 
 lains entered announcing : 
 
 " The Exalted Potency of the Princess 
 Sancia d'Aragon Borgia of Squillace."
 
 DON TARQUINIO 199 
 
 I instantly cuddled GiofFredo's head as tightly 
 as possible, pressing one wrist into his very 
 wide-open mouth ; and, at the same time, 
 despite my fast failing strength, with the 
 other hand I seized him in a certain grip from 
 which no one may move an hair's breadth. 
 Nor did I release him without a promise of 
 silence, asked in a whisper, granted by green 
 eyes bulging and glaring. Thus we ij stood 
 staring at the form of his wife.
 
 XVIIII 
 
 She came in with her own galaxy of maids- 
 of-honour, all in black habits, waving her 
 hands and swaying her head distractedly, 
 querulously blaming everybody. 
 
 She was a fat girl, very long in the back, 
 red-haired, white- fleshed ; and her eyes re- 
 sembled those of a bereaved cow. A large 
 nurse stepped closely behind her, carrying a 
 baby swaddled on a board, terribly squealing. 
 This, together with the recriminations now 
 proceeding at the throne, and the occasional 
 howls of the Princess of Squillace, and the 
 shrieking laughter of the crowd, produced 
 a tumult resembling that of Navona at 
 Epiphany.^ 
 
 Another stool having been set on the 
 
 ^ The Epiphany Fair in the Square of Navona, 
 where everybody screeches and blows tin horns. 
 
 200
 
 DON TARQUINIO 201 
 
 dais, the new comers arranged themselves in 
 order. 
 
 GiofFredo's wife wept loudly until everyone 
 was silent. Then she began to speak, saying : 
 
 " Ah-hoOj o Lord Cardinal, We are come 
 for consolation, ah-hoo, ah-hoo, ah-he-he-he- 
 he. For thou shalt know that Cesare hath 
 gone to Naples ; and Our Fredo hath followed 
 him, ah-hoo, ah-hoo, ah-he-he-he-he. We 
 desire to know why. Ah-hoo. We desire 
 to know why. Ah-he-he-he-he-hoo. Now 
 we all will be compelled to sell our jewels. 
 Now we all will be compelled to be ransomed, 
 ah-hoo, ah-hoo. Why hath not Lucrezia 
 prevented Cesare from going.'* Why hath not 
 this Purpled Person prevented Our Fredo from 
 following.'' Both those impetuous adolescents 
 were in this very palace during the past night : 
 for Fredo himself said so. And now he hath 
 deserted Us, his most loving wife ; and hath 
 ridden after Cesare with a mere handful of an 
 escort, and on swift horses, ah-hoo. Three 
 hours ago, We missed him. Four hours
 
 202 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 and who knoweth how much more, have We 
 been a widow, and Our baby but a month 
 old, a-hoo, a-hoo. Lord Cardinal, We desire 
 Our husband. Ah-he-he-he-he-hoo. Hoo." 
 
 She tottered toward the large nurse ; and 
 set herself to moo over her baby, mumbling 
 it with her lips from time to time. I wished 
 for the death of the brat and its mother: 
 for I feared that I should not be able to 
 restrain Gioffredo much longer. That prince 
 was wriggling like a clean dolphin. 
 
 Ippolito's visage showed the extreme dis- 
 comfort of his mind. 
 
 The Tyrant Lucrezia spat out a sentence, 
 saying : 
 
 " We are unable to treat such people with 
 patience. Women do not become widows 
 every time when their husbands run after the 
 soldiers. Hath not Our Own husband gone 
 to assist his cousin, Duke Lodovico Sforza- 
 Visconti of Milan, and the Kelts, ^ some months 
 ago, before these wars began ? And is there 
 
 ^ The Sforza were siding with Gaul.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 203 
 
 any Roman temerarious enough, or suburban 
 enough, to denominate Alexander's daughter 
 Widow on that count ?" 
 
 The Princess Sancia bewailed herself, saying 
 that she wanted her Fredo. 
 
 But now indeed Gioffredo began to jump 
 about, disturbing the people whose bodies had 
 concealed us ; and I was totally unable to hold 
 him. For, having broken away from me, he 
 bounded towards his wife, very agitated, roar- 
 ing like Stentor. And, at the same moment, 
 Ippolito, catching a glimpse of me, emitted 
 tremendous shouts of welcome, calling me by 
 name. 
 
 But mine eyes were directed toward my 
 maid. Now that this long (and, as I think, 
 rather silly) period of concealment at length 
 was concluded, I had no thoughts in my breast 
 save of her who, unknowingly, had nerved me 
 to my great exploit. Wherefore, there being 
 no longer any cause for secrecy, I attempted to 
 rush to her. 
 
 But it became clear that I could do no more
 
 204 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 than limp, slowly, painfully, very ungracefully ; 
 and, when vij paces had extricated me from the 
 crowd, placing me alone in the empty space in 
 the middle of the audience-chamber, where I 
 instantly felt myself to be the target for the 
 arrows of more than dccc eyes, then I sud- 
 denly remembered that my yellow-silver hair 
 was knotted in an abominable night-cap, that 
 the flesh of my body and limbs was a great 
 deal more than half-naked, that I stank most 
 indelicately, that I was besmirched and be- 
 grimed from head to foot with sweat and mire 
 and every kind of uncleanness. 
 
 Such a terrific piece of knowledge caused me 
 to utter yells, and to bolt (like a rabbit into his 
 burrow) through the tapestried door at the 
 side of the audience-chamber. Tumults of 
 laughter pursued me ; and lent wings to my 
 flight.
 
 XX 
 
 Having made shift to get as far as the 
 threshold of my proper antechamber, my limbs 
 failed me there ; and I sank to the ground. 
 
 The way through the palace was long and 
 devious. All the family was in the audience- 
 chamber ; and I encountered no assistant on 
 my painful passage. 
 
 I was so utterly exhausted that I ceased to 
 care for anything at all ; and the mind in my 
 breast advised me to lie still, until such time 
 when my servitors should come to me. For, 
 it being- known that I had returned to the 
 palace, I did not doubt but that search would 
 be made for me. 
 
 That antechamber, o Prospero, was a very 
 long room panelled with slabs of lapis-lazuli 
 and malachite. The ceiling of it was painted 
 with the images of the Divine Hylas struggling 
 
 205
 
 2o6 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 with the nymphs. 1 deliberated that my maid 
 was fairer than any of these ; and I wondered 
 what she might be doing at that moment. 
 
 The sunlight streamed in through the row 
 of windows which abutted on the court, 
 brightening the gilding of the cornice. On 
 the other side all the outer doors of my divers 
 chambers stood open ; but I continued to lie 
 where I was on the very threshold of the 
 antechamber, happy, drowsy, not anxious to 
 go further. 
 
 Anon, a posse of my familiars came ruiming 
 up the stairs behind me, moaning and shouting 
 commiseration for my condition : who, having 
 carried me into the bathing-chamber, stripped 
 me, and began to perform their office. And 
 now indeed my mind devised new schemes ; 
 and I became most anxious for instant restora- 
 tion of my normal aspect. Wherefore, I 
 condemned them for a parcel of fools and 
 lazy oaves ; and I issued divers peremptory 
 commandments. 
 
 Pages galloped hither and thither to and
 
 DON TARQUINIO 207 
 
 from the wardrobe, bringing towels, ewers of 
 various waters, and all the apparatus of 
 washing, with numerous ceremonial garments, 
 trays of jewels, flasks of the quintessence of 
 southernwood, and the paraphernalia of mine 
 estate. 
 
 While my flesh was being scrubbed, I 
 selected a certain very singular new habit, 
 which, by the benignance of my stars, I had 
 caused to be made, when I first entered the 
 City, for just such an occasion as the present 
 appeared likely to be. For now my mind 
 was persuaded that but one more turn of 
 Divine Fortune's wheel would bring me to 
 the top. But here my meditations were in- 
 terrupted. 
 
 Ippolito with the Tyrant Lucrezia, and 
 Gioffredo with the Princess Sancia, and 
 mine own maid with all the company, came 
 bounding up the stair inquiring for me. 
 
 A gesture from the chamberlains at my 
 door kept them in the antechamber. The 
 said door was not quite shut ; and, having put
 
 2o8 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 my wet hair away from mine eyes, I was able 
 (through the crevice) to see Gioffredo and his 
 wife going to the embrasure of one of the 
 windows. There they sat down, billing and 
 cooing : but the others, unseen by me, began 
 to bombard me with questions. 
 
 Ippolito vociferated, saying : 
 
 " Gioffredo saith that thou hast done that 
 which thou didst set out to do. Tell us of the 
 same, o Sideynes." 
 
 To whom I briefly responded (for, at the 
 moment, the page on the stool was deluging 
 me with hot water), saying: 
 
 " Pietrogorio hath received both messages ; 
 and he desireth nothing better than to die for 
 the Cardinal of Valencia, o Hebe." 
 
 But, when I had said this, I noted that my 
 servitors were wearing a rather desperate 
 aspect : nor durst they give more than depre- 
 cating gestures and sad imploring glances to 
 my prompt interrogations. Wherefore, having 
 commanded them to bring mirrors, I placed 
 myself between the same in order that I might
 
 DON TARQUINIO 209 
 
 examine my person. What I saw on the flesh 
 of my back caused me to utter certain very 
 fervent objurgations. 
 
 The people in the antechamber with one 
 voice instantly demanded the cause of mine 
 anger. 
 
 To whom I indignantly responded, saying 
 that the cyphers evidently were indelible : for 
 vigorous scrubbing with hot water and lupin- 
 meal only rendered my white flesh whiter, but 
 the diagram itself remained clearly grey. It 
 was a terrific predicament. 
 
 A certain page suggested an application of 
 pumice : but I indignantly denied him, not 
 being willing to have my smooth flesh roughened 
 and ruined. 
 
 Those friends of mine in the antechamber 
 cackled with laughter at my discomfiture ; and 
 Madonna Lucrezia implored me to exhibit the 
 accursed inscription. Ippolito also placed a 
 similar request : to whose voice all the others 
 added theirs. 
 
 My pages having swathed me in dry sheets 
 
 14
 
 210 
 
 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 (covering me from head to foot like a shrouded 
 cadaver but exposing my back), I placed myself 
 for a few moments in the open doorv^ay. 
 Everybody giggled ; and came near. I heard 
 their snuffling gasps of exclamation ; and felt 
 the warm breath of the heads which stooped to 
 gaze. No one was able to read the cyphers. 
 These be they, o Prospero. 
 
 mm mwm iraira 
 wwnm.mxin- 
 
 nnnn.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 211 
 
 The Tyrant Lucrezia instantly averred that 
 this was a lovely device for embroidering in 
 gold on the front of a bodice, and that such a 
 work would drive the plain Marchioness of 
 Mantua mad with envy. 
 
 Ippolito, having traced the grey lines slowly 
 with the tip of a loving finger (for so I felt 
 it to be), stated an opinion that this was 
 the kabbahstic character invented by Messer 
 Honorios, formerly of Thebes, which Cesare 
 was known to have taken from that erudite 
 Gothic boy called Enrico Cornelio Agrippa 
 von Nettesheim, who now is a councillor of 
 the Emperor. In this case, he said, no one 
 could read it save Cesare only and his proper 
 familiars. As for the defilement of my flesh, 
 he said, it no doubt would wear off in 
 time. 
 
 And then I rejoiced very greatly : for I 
 heard the dear little voice of my maid, 
 saying : 
 
 " We will offer most fervent prayers that
 
 212 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 the lord cardinal's prediction may not lack 
 fulfilment." 
 
 At which words Madonna Lucrezia suddenly 
 turned to examine the last speaker, instantly- 
 becoming agog for match-making. In her 
 opinion, so she said, so beautiful a gentleman 
 was fit to be anybody's husband. 
 
 Ippolito put in a salient word about the 
 Great Ban. 
 
 That, she said, could not be permitted 
 to run longer in despite of such an one 
 as I had shown myself to be. For which 
 cause, she said, the beautiful and blameless 
 gentleman in the doorway instantly must hasten 
 to the Castle of Santangelo with the present 
 company, in order to tell all the tale to our 
 Lord the Paparch Himself. 
 
 I howled with delight ; and, having leaped 
 forward into my secret chambers, I com- 
 manded the pages to indue me with mine 
 habits using extreme celerity. 
 
 Ippolito cried out, inquiring whether Pietro- 
 gorio had read the cypher message to me,
 
 DON TARQUINIO 213 
 
 demanding also what the said noble was going 
 to do. 
 
 To whom I responded, saying that His 
 Nobility had read the inscription as signifying : 
 " Statim adveniunt Gallicani, cum iis ego, obses 
 retentus : fac ut exquiras, et auxilium praestes 
 — The Galileans are upon thee, with me as 
 their hostage ; find me, and lend succour : " 
 and the autograph, " C. Car*^ de Valencia." 
 Also I said that I was ignorant of Pietro- 
 gorio's plans, knowing only that he had sent 
 me to buy up all the horses at the post- 
 house of Cinthyanum in Cesare's name. And 
 I added that the said adolescent, in my 
 judgment, was not only a very Odysseys 
 for deep-scheming, but also a gentleman with 
 whom it would be safe to play odd-and-even in 
 the dark. 
 
 Having pondered these words, Ippolito 
 began to have an inkling of Pietrogorio's 
 plan. So he said. For there are but ij 
 leagues between Velletri and Cinthyanum, 
 which last city doth belong to Rome ; and,
 
 214 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 if Cesare could get there and find himself 
 master of all means of transit, he would have 
 no difficulty in effecting a speedy return. 
 But those ij leagues were the crux of the 
 affair. Such was Ippolito's sentence. 
 
 The Tyrant Lucrezia delivered herself of 
 another opinion. She said that Cesare was 
 a beast, a fine beast, an admirable beast, an 
 irresistible beast, and just now a necessary 
 (nay) an indispensable beast. And she was 
 quite certain that he would contrive to cover 
 those ij leagues. 
 
 But, at the moment of speaking, at length 
 I escaped from my pages, radiant, delicate, 
 princely, in a habit of state.
 
 XXI 
 
 I CAME out into the antechamber, very vivid, 
 very vigorous, for fatigue seemed to have left 
 •ny limbs, very pale and clean, for I was 
 myself again, very grand - eyed, for lovely 
 pleasant things were waiting for me to look 
 upon them. My smooth hair was glittering 
 like a cocoon, sunlit, dehcate. My garb was 
 shining silk, white as pearls, adorned with 
 silver set with great cabochon moonstones. 
 The armorials of mine house were emblazoned 
 on my breast, not in our ordinary tinctures 
 of white and red but in white and black, 
 videlicet Luna and Saturn party per pale, a 
 cross potent party per pale Saturn and 
 Luna.^ 
 
 1 Really, this is just like Don Tarquinio's naive 
 arrogance. Instead of being content with the ordinary 
 nomenclature of his tinctures (Argent and Sable), 
 
 215
 
 2i6 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 Everybody made haste to inspect me. 
 
 Ippolito said that he never had seen these 
 habits before. 
 
 To whom I responded, saying that T had had 
 them prepared secretly for the day when I 
 should come face to face with our Lord the 
 Paparch ; and that they bore a certain signifi- 
 cation. I in fact had made myself as it 
 were a book which His Sanctity might read. 
 He would see youth and strength and abihty : 
 He would see the candid whiteness of inno- 
 cence : He would see the blazon of mine house 
 blackened by the Great Ban, whitening with the 
 dawn of hope. But, having said these things, 
 I became conscious of the eyes of my maid, 
 a few paces away, gazing upon me with 
 adoration : at whom I instantly precipitated 
 myself, forgetting the others. 
 
 disdaining even the form used by peers (Pearl and 
 Diamond), he needs must use the terms which are 
 employed only in blazoning the armorials of a 
 sovereign ! Certainly his lineage has no equal in this 
 world. But ! Well ! There !
 
 DON TARQUINIO 217 
 
 Madonna Lucrezia put in a sentence, say- 
 ing : 
 
 '* All these things are very poetic and pretty ; 
 and the beautiful and blameless gentleman 
 certainly is most urbane : but We take pride 
 in Ourself by cause that We are purely 
 practical. Furthermore, all the damage, which 
 is done on this orb of earth, is done either 
 by saying the right things to the wrong person, 
 or the wrong things to the right person. These 
 admirable words ought not to be uttered to 
 Us, but to Our Most Blessed Father. Where- 
 fore, the present company instantly must go 
 to the Castle of Santangelo. Boy ! Litters ! 
 At the Vatican, a division shall be made, not to 
 embarrass Our Most Blessed Father with a 
 show of force. The Cardinal of Ferrara hath 
 the right of demanding a boon, by cause that 
 he provided the swift runner. The beautiful 
 and blameless gentleman hath an equal right, 
 by cause that he ran swiftly. Let those ij 
 demand their said boons. If they win them, 
 well. In any case, after dinner, when Our
 
 2i8 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 Most Blessed Father is in a good humour and 
 will concede anything for the sake of being left 
 to His afternoon nap, then We Ourself and 
 Our well-beloved brother, Don Gioffredo, will 
 enter The Presence prepared to intercede. But 
 the Lord Alexander is just and gentle ; and 
 He will be propitious. Litters ! Boy ! 
 Litters !" 
 
 Half a score of pages fled down the stair 
 with Her Tranquillity's commandments. No 
 one said any more : for there was nothing 
 more to be said. Our several families began 
 to collect themselves, while we washed our 
 fingers ; and anon we left the antechamber in 
 due order. 
 
 In the courtyard, the tyrant and the prin- 
 cess and their maids ascended the litters : but 
 we others took horse in full state ; and so 
 we set forth, a very grand procession, but 
 not unusual in those old days, o my par- 
 thenean Prospero, when a pageant of princes 
 going to pay respects to the Pontifex Maximus 
 was common enough.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 2ig 
 
 We went by Lungara. I rode by side of 
 Ippolito. We both were silent, pondering the 
 matter in hand. 
 
 As we passed the great Riarj Palace on the 
 left, where the white-faced cardinal was enter- 
 taining The Beloved,^ I said : 
 
 " They say that one liveth there who 
 knoweth more Greek than We do." 
 
 It was a silly irrelevant word, uttered only 
 by cause that I did not wish to seem either 
 sulky or afraid. Ippohto shook his head, 
 
 soberly saying : 
 
 " No one knoweth more Greek than thou, 
 o Sideynes." 
 
 Thereafter we rode without speaking. I 
 knew that I was as nervous as a February 
 sparrow, jipping and flirting, and liable to 
 twitter entirely automatically. For which cause 
 
 ^ This would be that very wonderful person of 
 Rotterdam called Gerard, who (having no legal surname) 
 translated his Flemish Christian name (which means 
 " The Beloved ") into its Latin and Greek equivalents, 
 Desiderius 'E/aacr/tito?, by which combination indeed we 
 know him now as Desiderius Erasmus.
 
 220 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 I set myself to consider who I was, and what 
 I had done, and how extremely notable mine 
 aspect was. I contemplated myself, my mind, 
 my body, my qualities, capabilities, exploits, 
 desires. I also called to remembrance the 
 benignance of my stars. And behold it was 
 all very good. So we came to Vatican. 
 
 Nothing disturbed me. Nothing ever again 
 would disturb me. Was I not riding in 
 triumph, to the Giver of Bays ?
 
 XXII 
 
 Having parted from our companions and 
 dismissed our trains, I and Ippolito walked 
 along the high gallery, emerging at length 
 on the vast corridor of the castle, spiral, 
 gloomy. Below were labyrinthine depths. 
 We ascended several little stairs, passing 
 through numerous antechambers hung with 
 porphyry-coloured arras. The odour of the 
 place was sepulchral. 
 
 A ruffled flunkey in a Spanish habit of 
 black, with cloak and sword, drew aside a 
 thick porphyry-coloured curtain ; and we 
 passed out of darkness into the blazing sun- 
 light of The Presence. 
 
 We were on a secluded terrace on the 
 summit of the fortress. Beyond the battle- 
 ments, we could see the panorama of all 
 Rome and the Campagna with the Alban 
 
 221
 
 222 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 Mount on the distant horizon. Tiber seemed 
 to be a chain of chrysoliths meandering among 
 mounds of emeralds. So lofty a situation was 
 convenient for Him, Whose authority was 
 world-wide. 
 
 Some orange-trees in tubs formed a screen 
 in the shadow of a turret. A square carpet, 
 porphyry-coloured, was spread on the pave- 
 ment. A throne-like chair, raised on one 
 step, with a foot-stool and cushions and other 
 stools, all of the same colour, stood upon it. 
 
 Here sat the Ruler of the world, the Father 
 of princes and kings, the earthly Vicar of 
 Jesus Christ our Saviour, the Paparch Alex- 
 ander, magnificent, invincible, alone and read- 
 ing in His breviary. 
 
 I will tell thee, o Prospero, how that 
 incomparable prince and pontiff appeared to 
 me. He was habited in the white cassock, 
 sash, and hosen, the porphyry-coloured shoes 
 embroidered with gold crosses, the cape and 
 cap of porphyry-coloured velvet, reversed 
 with ermine, the golden paparchal stole.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 223 
 
 The pallium of universal jurisdiction, well- 
 woven, snow-like, was fixed, on His breast 
 and shoulders, by diamond pins of the form 
 of crosses potent elongate. A gold chain 
 surrounded His neck ; and its pendent cross 
 decorously was hidden in the folds of His 
 cape.^ The grand gold signet of the paparchy 
 glittered on the first finger, and an enormous 
 amethyst on the third of His right hand. 
 He was in the sixty-fifth year of His age, 
 of a robust habit of body ; and genial generous 
 majesty distinguished the splendour of His 
 Spanish features. 
 
 The chamberlains and pages in porphyry- 
 coloured liveries, who stood about the turret- 
 doorway, performed their genuflections ; and 
 retired backward. 
 
 Ippolito let his great-cloak of ermine and 
 vermilion fall to trail voluminously behind 
 him ; and led me forward by the hand. I sud- 
 denly became conscious that I was very young 
 
 ^ This seems to be less ostentatious than the modern 
 prelatic method.
 
 224 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 and very slim by side of all this sumptuous 
 grandeur. I felt as a new taper feeleth when 
 stuck suddenly on high upon a pricket, rather 
 pleased with the light on its head : but 
 knowing that a mere flip of the finger can 
 break its body in twain and consign it to 
 the darkness of oblivion. But yet, remem- 
 bering how diaphanously white and vivid 
 were mine aspect and my gait, I comforted 
 myself a little. 
 
 We kneeled at the foot-stool. Ippolito 
 kissed the paparchal hand : I, the cross on 
 the shoe. 
 
 The Archiereys closed His prayer-book, 
 looking with inquiry from me to Ippolito, 
 and back again to me. I perceived admira- 
 tion in His glance which swept and enveloped 
 me ; and I knew that my stars were benignant. 
 I was glad. 
 
 Ippolito stood up : but I remained on 
 my knees. He took mine hand ; and pre- 
 sented me by name, reciting my style and 
 estate.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 225 
 
 Our Lord the Paparch did not remove his 
 glance from me : nor I, mine from Him. 
 
 Ippohto continued his discourse, stating mine 
 abominable condition, naming my natural 
 abilities as well as the disabilities which, as. 
 a bandit, I was compelled to tolerate ; and 
 he briefly narrated the deed which I had done,, 
 meriting favour. And at length he made an 
 end. 
 
 Our Lord the Paparch gave me a sign to 
 rise, saying nothing. I alertly sprang to my 
 feet ; and took ij paces backward, from the 
 shadow into the full glare of the sun, stiffening 
 my strong knees, standing well-poised and very 
 rigidly erect indeed. So, having shaken mine 
 hair from mine eyes, I looked squarely and 
 superbly in the face of His Sanctity. 
 
 He intently regarded me during ij or iij 
 moments. Then He said : 
 
 " Let Us hear thy voice, that We may know 
 thee." 
 
 I drew in a very long breath, inflating my 
 breast, raising my head and shoulders ; and; 
 
 15
 
 226 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 began to speak, gravely, slowly, saying that 
 I knew myself to be in the presence of the 
 Ruler of the world, Whose plenitude of power 
 could reinstate mine house of Poplicola di 
 Hagiostayros, no one contradicting, or could 
 eradicate the same utterly by means of the 
 Great Ban — power, I said, of making or of 
 marring. 
 
 Then I hesitated : for sudden overwhelming 
 conviction of mine helpless insignificance 
 rushed into my mind. I poured out a tor- 
 rent of words. What was I, I said, in the 
 sight of the Father of princes and kings, but 
 a negligible worm. 
 
 And impotent fury, at my total dependence 
 on the Paparch's will and pleasure, inflamed 
 me. My face tingled with angry blood, at 
 the thought that anyone should be my superior, 
 at the knowledge that I knew myself to be 
 this One's inferior and had confessed the 
 same. But instantly, with a very vehement 
 effort, I mastered mine emotions ; and con- 
 tinued speaking, deliberately, even frigidly.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 227 
 
 while the bowels terrifically throbbed within 
 my body. I said : 
 
 " But I will not sue. There are no crimes 
 on my soul which are matter for pardon. I 
 will not ask for favour. But, rather than 
 live another hour, blameless under the Great 
 Ban which I have not merited, I will dive 
 headlong from these near battlements, that 
 the candour of mine innocence may shatter the 
 blood-stained stones of Rome." 
 
 Thus having spoken, I flashed mine eyes 
 to the side for an instant, noting the place 
 whence I would spring. Then I looked back 
 with most fierce determination, alert and ready 
 to leap before Ippolito could lay his mighty 
 hands on me, standing intense, expecting 
 paparchal fulminations. 
 
 Our Lord the Paparch eyed me up and 
 down, comprehending each plane and contour 
 of the incarnate independence, pallid, not 
 uncomely in defiance, which refused to ask 
 for right as a grace. And anon He very 
 gently said :
 
 228 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 " Dear lovely child, think not so unkindly 
 of thy Father." 
 
 At those words, sublime, benignant, my 
 throat was constricted and my knees trembled 
 very exceedingly. Mine eyes glared upon 
 the Paparch and the cardinal in turn, without 
 seeing either of those personages. Then I 
 looked upward to the empyrean where the 
 gods live : for surely it was a god's voice 
 which I had heard ; and I noted a little sky- 
 lark soaring above me, singing like an angel. 
 Nothing else was visible to me at that mo- 
 ment. My body was simply tottering by 
 cause of the sudden violent evanescence of 
 my fury. 
 
 I sank on my knees, very meekly kissing 
 the extended hand of my Father. 
 
 The bells in all the turrets of the City began 
 clanging in the new manner. It was the hour 
 of noon. 
 
 Our Lord the Paparch and the Cardinal 
 of Ferrara kneeled where they were ; and
 
 DON TARQUINIO 229 
 
 said the prayers, Angelas Domini and the 
 rest. 
 
 I also was kneeling, thankful enough for the 
 interval granted while I conquered my weak- 
 ness, recollecting myself.
 
 XXIll 
 
 A COMPANY of paparchal familiars entered. 
 Some brought a table sustaining the apparatus 
 for dining. Others brought another table 
 covered with a fair linen cloth. On the last, 
 the cook placed a covered dish : the butler, 
 a dish of raisins and a basket of bread : the 
 cellarer, a glass flask of wine and another of 
 water. I never have seen a service so extremely 
 plain. 
 
 Being now fulfilled with vigour and thank- 
 fulness, I longed to do something dynamic. 
 Wherefore, I violently hustled three pages, 
 robbing them of the basin and the ewer and 
 the towel ; and, on my knees, I did boy's 
 service, while our Lord the Paparch first 
 washed His hands. 
 
 He smiled at mine ardour : but knowing 
 (in His enormous wisdom) that I was excited 
 
 230
 
 DON TARQUINIO 231 
 
 beyond measure, He addressed His words to 
 Ippolito, saying : 
 
 " Most of thy colleagues, o Cardinal of 
 Ferrara, are either in prison or in rebellion ; 
 and the orators ^ and the barons are unwilling 
 to dine with Us, by cause that We so far 
 abstain from carnal lusts in that a single dish 
 sufficeth for our table. Consequently, when 
 We find in Our hand, at dinner time, a 
 cardinal- prince and a Roman patrician, it is 
 but natural that they should become Our 
 guests. What is enough for one is enough 
 for ij, and what is enough for /)' is enough 
 for iij. Let then stools be set for the 
 cardinal and for this white flame of adoles- 
 cence." 
 
 So this Sanctity deigned to give order. 
 
 The table, being an high one, was wheeled 
 to our Lord the Paparch where He sat on His 
 elevated chair. But our stools were heightened 
 
 ^ The ambassadors of the Powers, who, at this 
 epoch, did most of their ambassadorial business in 
 flowery rhetoric.
 
 232 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 by cushions. Very strange ceremonial was 
 observed at this meal. 
 
 A chamberlain presented a bundle of nap- 
 kins, from which we each selected ij. With 
 the first, we scrupulously rubbed our platters 
 and knives and forks and moss-agate cups, 
 before using the same. With the second, we 
 protected our garments from slops, or wiped 
 our mouths before drinking. All this being 
 strange to me, I carefully imitated the example 
 of Ippolito, perceiving him to be acquainted 
 with the practice. But I wondered greatly 
 what might be the significance of such ela- 
 borate functions. And anon it was given to 
 me to understand. 
 
 For the cook, having uncovered the dish, 
 genuflected ; and presented beef and olives 
 to Our Lord the Paparch : Who Himself 
 deigned to cut off a mouthful at random, 
 putting the same on a fork with an olive 
 similarly selected ; and watched the said cook 
 eating both morsels. This having been done. 
 His Sanctity took His portion of the viands ;
 
 DON TARQUINIO 233 
 
 and the dish was brought to us others in 
 turn. In like manner, the butler profFered 
 the bread-basket ; and ate crust and crumb of 
 the Paparch's choosing, before any bread was 
 so much as touched by us iij. The same 
 ceremony having been kept with the raisins, 
 the dish and the basket were established 
 on the table under our eyes. The cellarer 
 brought also the wine and water ; and, having 
 drunk a cupful of both, which the Paparch 
 deigned to pour for him, he filled for us, and 
 placed the flasks by side of the dish of 
 raisins.' 
 
 By this time, I had become conscious that 
 these practices merely were a substitute for the 
 customary venom-taster ; and, all incontinent, 
 I said, by way of comment, that life would 
 not be worth my while, if I were compelled 
 to take so many meticulous precautions against 
 venom every time when I desired to satiate 
 mine hunger. 
 
 Our Lord the Paparch retorted on me, 
 saying :
 
 234 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 " The life of Him who is God's Vicegerent 
 is not worth any man's while." 
 
 And He began to speak to Ippolito, as 
 soon as the servitors had left us alone, ques- 
 tioning him very acutely concerning the events 
 of the night and morning. It was very 
 strange to hear Him talking of the Cardinal 
 of Valencia:^ for He by no means spoke of 
 that splendid purpled person, tawny, tiger-like, 
 as a father speaketh of the son of his loins, 
 nor did He speak of the said adolescent as 
 a slave speaketh of his tyrant or as a victim 
 speaketh of his persecutor, in despite of 
 those who very vainly have alleged that 
 Cesare dominated the indomitable Alexander : 
 but it seemed to me that He spoke of him 
 rather as one would speak of a servant of 
 hyperexcellent parts, whom one employeth for 
 
 ^ This piece of the holograph, although not exactly 
 germane to the thread of the story (except in so far as 
 it is the reflections of Don Tarquinio while a guest at 
 the paparchal dinner-table), is extremely interesting as 
 history, especially to all sorts of silly daws who would 
 like to try to pretend to think otherwise.
 
 DON TARQUINIO 235 
 
 the sake of another who is served by such 
 employment of such a servant. And this 
 indeed is true : for we now know that 
 Madonna Giovannozza bore Cesareto Giuliano^ 
 before she bore Juan Francisco ^ and Lucrezia 
 and GiofFredo to Rodrigo ;^ and, that Alex- 
 ander should have deigned to advance the 
 fortunes of Cesare, as well for that splendid 
 prince's own utility as for the love which 
 He bore for the mother of the same, is only 
 natural. But, while I was excogitating the 
 matter, I did not omit to devour as much 
 food as decorum permitted, I being most 
 terrifically hungry, and the attention of the 
 other ij being diverted from me during nearly 
 all the time. 
 
 And anon, at the end, our Lord the 
 
 1 Cardinal Dellarovere (who afterward became 
 Julius the Second) was named Giuliano. 
 
 ^ The young Duke of Gandia who was murdered. 
 
 2 Cardinal Borja y Borja (who became Alexander 
 the Sixth) was named Rodrigo. And here we seem to 
 have gotten to the bottom of one of the many Borgia 
 mysteries — viz., the real parentage and status of Cesare 
 (called) Borgia.
 
 236 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 Paparch thus addressed me by the same 
 appellation as before ; and He used the Roman 
 tongue in a very archaic manner, saying : 
 
 *' Dear lovely child, what wouldst thou have 
 and what canst thou do?" 
 
 But, before that I was able to utter a 
 syllable, Ippolito interrupted, reciting a cate- 
 gory of my numerous peculiar excellencies, 
 which I will not include in this history, seeing 
 that they are known to every man. But, 
 after many words concerning my bravery, he 
 ended with the assertion of Messer Pierettore 
 that I could write Greek and speak it like 
 Saint Gabriel Archangel. 
 
 This seemed to be intended as an advice 
 to me : for which cause, seeing that the 
 Paparch's grand eyes still dwelled on me as 
 though expecting mine own response, I began 
 to orate in the crisp and dulcet syllabification 
 of Hellas, saying : 
 
 " Wisdom, as I suppose, is a different thing 
 from couraae."^ 
 
 ^ 'X^oopt'i BrjTTOv ao^ia iarcv avhpia^ (Platon).
 
 DON TARQUINIO 237 
 
 But there our Lord the Paparch stopped 
 me, saying again : 
 
 " Dear lovely child, thou shalt know that 
 an old man Hke Ourself, Who hath been 
 worried by recalcitrant" kings and by other 
 naughty men, hath forgotten all the Greek 
 which He ever knew, save the wail of that 
 scribe who wrote. Would that We could grow 
 young again." ^ 
 
 But the saying was a pathetic one, tear- 
 bringing, love-inspiring ; and, at that moment, 
 I could not think of anything better to say 
 than that I was in all things obedient to His 
 sovereign will. 
 
 He was listening very intently : for, having 
 afforded me so much time for recollection, I 
 think that He expected me to make an 
 elaborate discourse. But I, being mindful of 
 His supremacy not less than of His generosity, 
 preferred to show an equal generosity and 
 confidence on mine own part : for which cause, 
 
 ^ dvr)/3t]TT)piav pcojxrjv iTraivoo Xaji^avetv (Eyri- 
 pides).
 
 238 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 1 responded as aforesaid. He urged me then 
 to make a formal definite petition : but, being 
 indeed very pleased with the form of words 
 which 1 had used, I continued to respond to 
 all His urging, saying only : 
 
 " I am in all things obedient to my 
 sovereign's will." 
 
 At this the paparchal pages returned, bring- 
 ing the rosewater for our last hand-washing. 
 This duty having been performed and the 
 psalm ended, they removed the tables and 
 retired. 
 
 Ippolito stood up, stretching his gigantic 
 limbs and combing his hair : but our Lord 
 the Paparch was observing me all the time. 
 As the servitors were going away. He shot a 
 sudden commandment after them to bring a 
 skin of parchment, with ink and pens and 
 pounce. 
 
 This having been done, and we iij being 
 alone again, He ordained that 1 should bring 
 my stool near to Him, having thrown the 
 cushions aside, and having placed the writing
 
 DON TARQUINIO 239 
 
 materials on it ; and also that I should kneel 
 there, ready to write. 
 
 Thus, He Himself dictated to me the 
 petition, which thou, o Prospero, knowest to 
 be the most precious document in thy father's 
 archives. But, although thou hast seen the 
 same so often that its contents are impressed 
 indelibly on thy memory, nevertheless I will 
 not omit to transcribe it here, in order that 
 this history may be perfect and complete, 
 videlicet : 
 
 The petition of the Roman patrician named 
 Tarquinio Giorgio Drakontoletes Poplicola di 
 Hagiostayros 
 is 
 
 that he may be delivered from the Great Ban^ 
 that he may be relieved from all disabilities, 
 that he may be absolved from all canonical 
 
 censures and excommunications^ 
 in his own person, 
 and 
 in the persons of all of his house :
 
 240 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 also 
 
 that he himself may be named among the Advo- 
 cates of the Sacred Consistory, where he 
 may use his mind : 
 
 also 
 
 that he himself may be named among Our knights 
 of Saint George for the Defence of Chris ten- 
 dom^ where he may use his body against 
 the foes of our Most Holy Faith. 
 
 Thus He spoke and thus I had written : 
 but when I conned it over, as I threw the 
 golden pounce upon the wet ink, a kind of 
 terror seized me ; and I began again to shake 
 like one in a palsy. And suddenly a new 
 diversion occurred. 
 
 Numerous footsteps and voices approached 
 the door of the turret, wafting a delicate odour 
 as of women and love.
 
 XXIIII 
 
 Madonna Lucrezia entered with her galaxy 
 of maids, who did obeisance ; and crossed the 
 terrace toward the battlements. There they 
 stood, admiring the view, moving a little 
 among themselves like flowers in a breeze. 
 But the tyrant came and sat on one of the 
 cushions near the Paparch's footstool, between 
 me and Ippolito, facing us both. 
 
 She put a most delicate hand on the 
 archieratic knee ; and thus she spoke, say- 
 ing: 
 
 '* Dear and Most Holy Father, I hope that 
 Thou hast been doing justice to this beautiful 
 and blameless gentleman." 
 
 But, while she was speaking, yet more noises 
 came from the door of the turret ; and Giof- 
 fredo entered with his wife and their baby 
 and their several trains. The prince and 
 
 241 ^^
 
 242 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 princess seated themselves on the other cushions 
 on the step of the throne: but their familiars 
 drifted away to the other maids-of-honour who 
 were already by the battlements. 
 
 I was kneeling still with the portentous 
 parchment under mine hand. AH my body 
 was quaking terribly : for I was not quite 
 able to believe in my good fortune, and 
 rather feared that I was being played 
 with. 
 
 Ippolito, having drawn up a stool, sat by 
 my side in front of the Paparch and His 
 children, 
 
 I durst not move from my knees : but I 
 cast a quick look among the maids for my 
 proper maid. She instantly caught it, returning 
 a smile, very lovely, soul-inspiring. Wherefore 
 I comforted myself, knowing that my stars 
 most certainly were benignant. 
 
 But Madonna Lucrezia and her brother 
 besfan to make intercession on mine account ; 
 and Ippolito joined himself to them from time 
 to time. The iij voices blended very har-
 
 DON TARQUINIO 243 
 
 moniously, videlicet, the clear treble of the 
 girl, the counter-tenor of the boy as insistent 
 and mellow as a bell, the bass of the young 
 cardinal, sonorous, profound. 
 
 I at first listened very gratefully to their 
 melodious intonation : but anon, the things 
 which they said of me afflicted me with nausea. 
 1 have done many great and noble deeds, with 
 my body as well as with mine intellect ; and 
 I am not ashamed of esteeming- the same accord- 
 ing to their merits, or of hearing them praised 
 in convenient terms. But enough is as good 
 as a feast ; and at this moment I had heard 
 enough and more than enough. Wherefore, 
 with mine eyes I strove most earnestly, 
 imploring Ippolito and GiofFredo to be favour- 
 able to their tongues. All to no purpose. 
 They continued to speak ; and I perforce was 
 compelled to kneel where I was, listening, 
 blushing with augmenting fury. 
 
 At length our Lord the Paparch signed for 
 silence ; and He said : 
 
 " We have heard you, o lord cardinal and
 
 244 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 o dearest daughter and o dearest son ; and We 
 thank you for your good offices. But inter- 
 cessors are not necessary in this present matter: 
 tor Our dear lovely child here present hath an 
 exceedingly definite notion of what is due from 
 Us to him ; and he hath set down the same 
 most eloquently in writing." 
 
 And, having thus spoken, He took the 
 parchment from me ; and handed it to the 
 others. 
 
 Ippolito already had heard what I had 
 written by commandment : but Madonna 
 Lucrezia and GiofFredo put their heads to- 
 gether, eagerly perusing the writing. 
 
 But the fine features of Alexander remained 
 as imperscrutable as those of the sphynx. 
 
 His daughter looked at Him, trying to read 
 the intention of His mind : but, having failed, 
 she said : 
 
 "The beautiful and blameless gentleman 
 hath merited these rewards at least ; and there 
 is another reward known to me which he in 
 any case shall have. But first deign a stroke
 
 DON TARQUINIO 245 
 
 of the pen here, o dear and Most Holy 
 Father." 
 
 Thus she spoke : but we all suddenly began 
 to hear very joyful shouts from the distance 
 far below, surging nearer and nearer, ever 
 augmenting. Crowds of familiars, baronial, 
 cardinalitial, paparchal, came tumbling into 
 The Presence, all phrenetically roaring. 
 
 But, while we stood and kneeled staring in 
 amazement, the splendid Cardinal of Valencia 
 also strode on to the terrace, panting, sweating, 
 mud-stained, but elate with triumph. He 
 wore an astonishing Neapolitan habit of green - 
 velvet, pinked and escalloped and purfled with 
 orange-coloured satin, the same which I myself 
 already had seen on another person in another 
 city on tnat very day. His hosen were striped 
 in green and orange-colour. His boots were 
 of orange-coloured leather. His high conical 
 green hat, long-peaked in front, was adorned 
 by a tall orange-coloured feather : but his 
 tawny hair bulged behind in a net of green 
 cord. I never have seen a cardinal in such an
 
 246 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 incommodious guise before or since. And he 
 dragged with him by the hiind that noble 
 Pietrogorio, of whom I already have written, 
 who wore the vermilion habit which Cesare 
 had worn when he left us during the night, 
 which habit now was very gravely disordered. 
 Had it not been for their different voices, it 
 would have been difficult to say which was the 
 cardinal and which the noble : but, as it was, 
 they only resembled twins in trouble, horribly 
 dirty, tattered, dilapidated. 
 
 Gioffredo made himself heard in a sentence, 
 saying that it would occupy the servitors of 
 these gentlemen during iiij hours to correct 
 the condition of their persons. 
 
 They fell on their kness ; and the Cardinal 
 of Valencia began to bellow a narration of 
 his adventures. 
 
 But our Lord the Paparch with a gesture 
 produced silence. And anon He beckoned 
 me to hold up my stool and to give Him 
 the pen. This I did, holding my face low : 
 in order to avoid the pricking of the mul-
 
 DON TARQUINIO 247 
 
 titudinous eyes which were impinging upon 
 every bare part of my flesh. And, having 
 taken the parchment, and having placed it 
 on the stool, He began to write in this way, 
 saying each word aloud as He wrote it ; and 
 thus He said : 
 
 '* It pleaseth Us, and so by Our Own 
 impulse We command : Alexander the Sixth, 
 Supreme Pontiff."^ 
 
 And he gave the signed parchment into 
 my tingling hands. 
 
 Having bent down to kiss the cross on 
 His shoe, purely grateful, and having made 
 obeisance to Madonna Lucrezia and to 
 Gioffredo, and having embraced Ippolito, 
 oblivious of manners I launched myself toward 
 my maid by the battlements. 
 
 The moment was opportune. Everybody 
 was approaching The Presence to hear the 
 newest news: for mine afi^airs were no longer 
 important. Could I have done aught else, 
 
 1 Placet ; et ita, motu Proprio, Mandamus. Alex- 
 ander VI P.M.
 
 248 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 o Prospero ? We were alone, at the back of 
 the crowd. I offered to her the parchment, 
 and my body and soul with it, kneeling on 
 both my knees as one who kneeleth before 
 some Divine One. But she raised me with 
 a most gentle movement, giving herself all 
 to me. 
 
 I "cannot remember what happened in the in- 
 suing minutes : but, when I once more became 
 conscious of my circumstances, the Cardinal 
 of Valencia, unchecked, was bellowing like the 
 Borgia bull. I will set down the few words 
 which I heard him saying : not that 1 paid 
 much observance to him, for who, having 
 the desire of his heart in his heart and pressed 
 against his heart, would listen to another 
 roaring of other matters? Yet, by cause of 
 that cardinal's vociferations (and his teeth 
 and his eyes gleamed the while like a tiger's, 
 delicate, very triumphant in vigour), I could 
 not avoid seeing his gestures and hearing the 
 noise which he was making. He said : 
 
 " Having secluded me as aforesaid, this
 
 DON TARQUINIO 249 
 
 Nobility changeth clothes with me ; and forth- 
 with betaketh himself in my room to the 
 neighbourhood of the Keltic monkey. But I 
 made haste to ride back to Cinthyanum, where 
 during iij hours I waited in the house of 
 which some of ye pretend to know. Anon, 
 this Nobility cometh, laughing as though his 
 cheeks were another's. For the Christian 
 King, on preparing to ride from Velletri, 
 quickly perceived that his hostage no longer 
 was the Cardinal of Valencia; and, falhng in 
 a fume lest I myself should harass his rear, 
 resolved to make a sudden dash for Naples, 
 where he might fortify his camp. But he left 
 behind him the Cardinal of Amboise and the 
 Sieur de Commines, ordaining that they 
 should strangle very worthy Nobility and 
 fire his city. They did neither, admiring 
 his courage and fidelity as much as I do — 
 Pietrogorio, thou art Our locumtenens and 
 signifer from to-day : — but, having put him 
 near a fresh horse, they turned their backs 
 and looked for him elsewhere, quietly evacu-
 
 250 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 ating Velletri and following their master. 
 Wherefore this Nobility, seeing that his 
 escape was permitted, came to Cinthyanum, 
 and thence with me hither with all speed." 
 
 Thus he spoke. But Madonna Lucrezia, 
 not being overmuch entertained by his narra- 
 tion, was letting her sweet eyes rove round 
 among the company. And here she pointed 
 a mischievous finger at me and my maid : 
 for, at the moment, we by chance were lip to 
 lip. The crowd divided, exhibiting us in 
 that situation. 
 
 We instantly became conscious of a very 
 terrific silence, and of innumerable glances 
 stabbing us. Having recognised our pre- 
 dicament, we drew a little apart. Slight 
 giggles arising fi-om the crowd, and the 
 glittering of innumerable teeth manifested 
 by innumerable smiles, further disconcerted 
 and dismayed us. We ran forward hand in 
 hand, kneeling before our Lord the Paparch. 
 I was hot with blushes : but I contrived to 
 stammer a few words, saying :
 
 DON TARQUINIO 251 
 
 '* Immense happiness is our excuse for 
 indecorum in the Apostolic Presence : for, o 
 Sanctity, we love one another." 
 
 Alexander, magnificent, invincible, benignly 
 smiled upon us; and He deigned a response, 
 saying : 
 
 " Love one another, o dear lovely children ; 
 and We will consecrate your love." 
 
 And He held out His hand for a ring. 
 
 Seeing how I was in the Paparch's favour, 
 everybody instantly proffered all their rings. 
 We might have been married with Ippolito's 
 cardinalitial sapphire. Madonna Lucrezia 
 offered ij handfuls. Prince Gioffredo thrust 
 upon me his great table ruby. I might have 
 had a peck-measure full of rings. But I 
 myself was drawing off mine own jasper with 
 the Scorpion and Ares,^ being desirous of com- 
 municating the benignance of my stars with my 
 maid, when the Cardinal of Valencia produced 
 the enormous gilt -bronze ring, the cre- 
 
 ^ This appears to have been his nativity-ring, a 
 iasper intagliate with TT\_ and J.
 
 252 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 dentials which had procured for him the swift 
 runner. And we all realized the suitability 
 of that. 
 
 GiofFredo, having brought the little silver 
 stoup of holy water from the inside of 
 the door of the turret, placed himself as 
 acolyth at the right hand of his Most Holy 
 Father. 
 
 The sky above our heads had the beautiful 
 blue of spring-time, clear as the light in my 
 maid's eyes. We were kneeling together in 
 the freshness, high over the City and the 
 world. 
 
 Out of profound silence, the strong voice 
 of the Archiereys came to me, demanding 
 whether I willed to have Hersilia as my 
 wedded wife. To Whom I responded, 
 saying : 
 
 " I so will have her." 
 
 He demanded of her whether she willed 
 to have me as her wedded husband. To 
 Whom she responded, saying : 
 
 " An it so please Thee, o Sanctity."
 
 DON TARQUINIO 253 
 
 Everybody was smiling again. Our Lord 
 the Paparch joined our hands. Having 
 sprinkled the enormous ring and blessed it, 
 He deigned it to me. I put it on the first, 
 the second, and left it on the third left finger 
 of my maid, saying the accustomed words 
 which bound her indissolubly to me. 
 
 Our Lord the Paparch rose. All the com- 
 pany kneeled round us. Lifting His hand. 
 He imparted Apostolic Benediction. 
 
 So He withdrew to His afternoon nap, like 
 the life-giving sun, who sinketh, glorious, 
 golden, to his rest in the sea.
 
 XXV 
 
 Instantly, the light of The Presence having 
 been extinguished, we were (so to speak) all in 
 the dark. 
 
 Great confabulations insued. Everybody 
 exuded important but perfectly preposterous 
 propositions. 
 
 The Cardinal of Valencia was for raising 
 armies wherewith to pursue the Keltic scamps ; 
 and put himself to speak seriously to the 
 Cardinal of Este, inquiring how many mer- 
 cenaries could be bought from Ferrara. But 
 Ippolito would not have anything to say to 
 him ; and he went off, muttering, with his 
 new lieutenant and standard-bearer. 
 
 But all the others came to converse with me. 
 From what was said, certain matters appeared, 
 which gave food for thought. 
 
 The question of my next act was discussed. 
 
 254
 
 DON TARQUINIO 255 
 
 It seemed not to be decorous that I should 
 live with my wife in the palace of the 
 Cardinal of Ferrara. It clearly was my 
 bounden duty to send news, of the re- 
 moval of the Great Ban, to my cousin and our 
 baron Marcantonio. I also desired very 
 strenuously to go at once to my castle of 
 Deira by the southern sea, there to arrange 
 the transit of my goods and my familiars to the 
 City, where I was intending to pass my life. 
 Furthermore, I was famishing with hunger, not 
 only for my maid but also for a meal, solid, 
 interminable, seeing that I had been fasting 
 since supper-time : for what I had eaten at the 
 Paparch's table was no more than a snack. 
 
 Wherefore, the Cardinal of Valencia having 
 disappeared, while the tyrant and the princess and 
 their girls were chattering to my blushing wife 
 (whose dear little hand I did not relinquish for 
 a moment), I turned the other way ; and, at 
 length, contrived to overcome the loud voices 
 of Ippolito and GiofFredo, proclaiming to them 
 my necessities.
 
 256 DON TARQUINIO 
 
 But, though they demurred from my de- 
 parture, nevertheless they confessed that I 
 spoke reasonably ; and, finally, after many 
 words, Gioffredo offered an immediate banquet 
 with lodgings at Traspontina till the evening, 
 and Ippolito offered an escort of xl athletes and 
 xl men-at-arms for our journey to Deira, 
 
 And anon we went to Traspontina. There 
 we feasted. There we played. There we 
 also slept. What we ate and drank, or 
 what we did, in those iiij hours, I am unable 
 to specify. For I was in a species of 
 delirium, having no more mind and body 
 than sufficed for these ij things, videlicet 
 my wife, and mine insuing progress to the 
 cradle of my race, in comparison with 
 which all other worldly matters seemed very 
 rightly to be of no price. 
 
 But at one hour before avemmaria, my 
 valises having been brought from the Estense 
 Palace and my wife's from the Apostolic 
 Palace of Vatican, viij decurions of Ippolito's 
 came with my proper ///, being a company
 
 DON TARQUINIO 257 
 
 of cxxj persons in all to attend us ; ana 
 so we rode out from the City, on the first 
 stage toward the eastern road which leadeth 
 at length to Deira, in the cool of the 
 evening 
 
 Thus, thy loving father hath set down 
 the full history of the four-and-twenty 
 hours of his fortunate day, not concealing 
 anything which his own senses perceived ; 
 and he saith, that this is the manner in 
 which history ought to be written, o 
 Prospero, my son. 
 
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 of Lully') and a one-act play, 'Happy Families.' 'A book 
 not easily forgotten.' The New Statesman. 
 
 19. SECOND PLAYS by A. A. Milne. 
 
 Containing 'Mr. Pim Passes By'; 'The Romantic Age'; 
 'Make Believe'; 'The Camberley Triangle' and 'The 
 Stepmother.' 
 
 20. THE RIGHT PLACE ^y C.E.Montague. 
 
 A book on hohday travel, of which The Sunday Times 
 said: 'A tonic to the mind and spirit of man, his book 
 cannot be overpraised.' 
 
 21. THE SAILOR'S RETURN 
 
 by David Garnett. 
 
 Mr. Garnett's third story, longer than either Lady Into 
 Fox or J Man in the Zoo, which was hailed by The 
 Empire Reviezv as a 'masterpiece.' 'Cette ceuvre n'est pas 
 inferieure a la "Femme Changee en Renard." ' Langues 
 Mod ernes. 
 
 22. MORTAL COILS by Aldous Huxley. 
 
 Short stories, containing 'The Gioconda Smile,' 'Permu- 
 tations among the Nightingales,' 'The Tilloston Banquet,' 
 Green Tunnels,' and 'Nuns at Luncheon.' 'As a short 
 story writer he is in the first rank.' The Daily Chronicle.
 
 23 
 
 MR. WESTON'S GOOD WINE 
 
 by T. F. PowYs. 
 
 The first unlimited edition of Mr. Powys's longest and 
 greatest story, of which The Bookman said that it was 
 ' worthy at once to take its place among the great allegories 
 of English hterature.' 
 
 24. LOLLY WILLOWES 
 
 by Sylvia Townsend Warner. 
 
 The witch-story hailed by The Times Literary Supple- 
 ment as 'an object lesson in the proper way of bringing 
 Satan into modern fiction.' 
 
 25. ON THE MARGIN by Aldous Huxley. 
 
 Notes and essays on such subjects as 'Centenaries,' 'The 
 Subject-Matter of Poetry,' 'Bibhophily,' 'Nationality in 
 Love,' 'Chaucer,' etc. 'One of the most interesting and 
 provocative of the younger generation of EngHsh men of 
 letters.' The Daily Telegraph. 
 
 26. THE GRIM SMILE OF THE FIVE 
 
 TOWNS by Arnold Bennett. 
 
 All who have read and enjoyed Mr. Bennett's stories of 
 the Five Towns will be glad of a reprint of this book. 
 Here, as in all his Five Town stories, Mr. Bennett's 
 humour and buoyancy are unfailing. 
 
 27. TARR by Wyndham Lewis. 
 
 Mr.Wyndham Lewis's novel, long out of print, is here 
 completely revised. From reviews of the first edition: 
 — 'This admirable novel. ... A book of great importance 
 . . . because it will become a date in hterature . . . because 
 here we have the forerunner of the prose and probably 
 of the manner that is to come.' The Nezv Witness. 
 'A thunderbolt.' The Weekly Dispatch. 
 
 28. LITTLE MEXICAN by Aldous Huxley. 
 
 Short stories, containing: 'Uncle Spencer,' 'Little 
 Mexican,' 'Hubert and Minnie,' 'Fard,' 'The Portrait,' 
 and 'Young Archimedes.' 'The opulence of Mr. Huxley's 
 talent speaks in every page.' The Observer.
 
 29- LOVE & FREINDSHIP i^y Jane Austen. 
 
 And other Early Works now first published, with an In- 
 troduction by G. ;•:. ciiesterton, who writes: 'A thing 
 to laugh over again and again,' 
 
 30. THREE PLAYS h A. A. Milne. 
 
 Containing 'The Great Broxopp'; 'The Dover Road'; 
 'The Truth about Blavds.' 
 
 31' 
 
 THE HOUSE WITH THE ECHO 
 
 i^y T. F. PowYS. 
 
 'Connoisseurs of the short story should not miss this little 
 book, for Mr. Powys has a rare mastery of the art.' 
 T/ie Evenins: Standard. 
 
 *<b 
 
 32. SWANN'S WAY,vol. i,^_j Marcel Proust. 
 
 Translated bv c. k. scott moncrieff. 'M. Proust is a 
 genius; and Mr. Scott Moncrieff has treated him like 
 one.' The Nation. 
 
 33. SWANN'SV/AY, vol. 2, <^j Marcel Proust. 
 
 Translated by c. k. scott moncrieff. 'The translator . . . 
 faced a task of prodigious difficulty with extraordinary 
 success. Until it was done, it was unbelievable that it 
 could be done so well.' The London Mercury. 
 
 34. ESSAYS IN POPULAR SCIENCE 
 
 by Julian Huxley. 
 
 'One of the few scientific books that is popular and scien- 
 tific without patronising the reader.' The Cambridge 
 Review. 
 
 35. A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND 
 
 by G. K. Chesterton. 
 
 'He is at once the most concise and fullest historian this 
 country has yet found.' The Observer.
 
 36. TWO OR THREE GRACES 
 
 by Aldous Huxley. 
 
 Four stories. 'It is a joy to read ... I have no hesita- 
 tion in saying that of the younger men writing to-day, 
 Mr. Huxley is in a class of himself.' Ralph Straus in 
 The Bystander. 
 
 37. HADRIAN VII by Fr. Rolfe 
 
 ('Baron Corvo.') 
 
 A fine novel which has been some time out of print. 'It 
 sparkles with wit and gleams with satire; and the writer 
 displays a really remarkable knowledge ... of Roman 
 Cathohc proceedings at the headquarters of the faith.' 
 The Daily Graphic. 
 
 38. THE GENTLE ART OF COOKERY 
 
 by Mrs. C. F. Level and Miss Olga 
 
 Hartley. 
 
 A really original cookery book which 'no properly in- 
 stituted home should be without.' The Morning Post. 
 
 39. ROUGH JUSTICE by C. E. Montague. 
 
 A novel. ' A beautiful and a terrible book. ... A master- 
 piece of fiction.' Sir Philip Gibbs in The Catholic 
 Times. 
 
 40. FOUR PLAYS by A. A. Milne. 
 
 Containing 'To Have the Honour'; 'Ariadne, or 
 Business First'; 'Portrait of a Gentleman in Shppers'; 
 and ' Success.' 
 
 41. SINCE CEZANNE by Clive Bell. 
 
 ' All who have ever asked the question, " What is Art.?" 
 should read this collection of essays.' The Manchester 
 Guardian.
 
 5 For October, 1929 
 
 42. IN THE BEGINNING 
 
 by Norman Douglas. 
 
 A romance. 'The nearest approach in our language 
 to the manner of Anatole France.' The Spectator. 
 
 43. WITHIN A BUDDING GROVE, vol. i 
 
 by Marcel Proust. 
 
 'That unapproachable triumph of the translator, mr. 
 SCOTT moncrieff's translation of Proust's A FOmbre des 
 Jeunes Filles en Fleurs^ The New Statesman. 
 
 44. WITHIN A BUDDING GROVE, vol. 2 
 
 by Marcel Ppoust. 
 
 'mr. SCOTT MONCRiEFF'f translation continues as well as 
 it began.' The Observer. 
 
 5 For November, 1929 
 
 45. PROPER STUDIES by Aldous Huxley. 
 
 Essays. 'Brilliantly illuminating.' Arnold Bennett in 
 The Evening Standard. 
 
 46. MR. TASKER'S GODS by T. F. Powys. 
 
 A story. 'A little epic of the divine at war with the 
 human.' The Outlook. 
 
 47. DON TARQUINIO by Fr. Rolfe 
 
 (' Baron Corvo ') 
 
 'It has the irresponsible high spirits of the youth of 
 the. world.' The Daily Mail. 
 
 48. TWENTIETH CENTURY POETRY 
 
 an anthology by Harold Monro. 
 
 A first-class anthology of contemporary verse, chosen on 
 new lines. Also available at 5s. net, leather. 
 
 * 
 
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