Alexander Borgia

“ Father Pope Alexander Borgia ! What do you intend to do ? Would you murder my lover in cold blood ? " and again she looked through the glass socket. "Ha ! the executioner has seized his bloody axe, at the sound of the bell, and approaches Mercado ! O, fiend, devil ! prevent this hellish work from going on, or I will strike you dead at my feet ! "
Borgia laughed.
" Think you that I should not have time to ring the bell twice more before I die ? " he asked, with an undis- guised sneer. " You do not seem to realize the power of the man you are trifling with." ”

“ Signor Mercado," he said, " I come from Alexander Borgia. One of the chief elements of my business is briefness ; so I shall not trouble you long. My master has learned that you are in love with his daughter which he dislikes. You are condemned to death, and only one course can save you. If you will leave Home forever, and within the hour, and swear never to have any further acquaintance with Donna Lucretia, either by word or deed, you will be set at liberty. ”

“ I was weak, and he painted a picture of luxury and happiness that dazzled me for the moment."
" Happiness ! " repeated Floretta, with a vehemence that startled her listener. " Would you sell your child to such a monster as Alexander Borgia for gold ? If so, know you that I will never consent to his wishes. He may kill, but he cannot enslave me. Do you not know that I am betrothed to Hernaldo Zinna ? " ”

“ ALEXANDER BORGIA. 19
dreaded being ; to the contrary, a look of gratification appeared upon his flushed features, and he exclaimed,
" Thank God ! I have found you ! "
" Indeed ! And what may you want with the mask ? " asked that personage, in a deep voice, while his eyes roved like lightning flashes over the form before him.
" Your aid. Thou art a man whose power, for good or evil, is greater than that possessed by all Rome."
" You forget the Pope ! " suggested the mask, with a slight bow.
" No, I do not forget ; nor will I retract my words in favor of the Pope God's curse be upon him ! ”

“ Rome is full of dark and distressing memories but nowhere more so than where the Tiber makes its historic elbow toward the Gianicolo.
Almost within the shadow of the grim castle was committed the blackest of all the crimes of the house of Borgia—the one crime that shook even the remorseless soul of Alexander VI to its depths and drove him in fear and trembling from his chambers in the Vatican into the gray and dismal silence of this refuge in his favorite fortress. The crime itself is one of the unsolved mysteries of the ages. ”

“ Again, I say, beware of Alexander Borgia ! "
Donna Lucretia subdued the resentment aroused by the repetition of the disagreeable words, and listened atten- tively as the old woman continued :
" You love a noble young man, and are beloved by him. But there is one ay, your father, girl, as you are pleased to call him who looks upon you both with feel- ings that bode neither of you any good. When next thou seest Mercado, warn him that danger is hovering in his steps ; tell him to be on his guard, sleeping and waking, if he would escape the machinations under foot against him." ”

“ And as the dark eyes of Alexander Borgia roved over that insensible, but strangely, wildly beautiful form, a laugh of exultation escaped him, and he cried, with the joy of a fiend rejoicing over a damned soul,
"Ha, ha ! she 's mine, mine forever, body and soul ! ”

“ He felt as- sured, by the almost devilish look of triumph that rested upon the features of Zinna, that he had told the truth ; but yet he did not know how he had become cognizant of it ; it was a madman's mystery.
" Fiend devil in the guise of woman ! " he cried, " has this man spoken the truth ? "
" Ay, as truly as that you are now alive ! Alexander Borgia, Pope of Rome, you have taken the most deadly poison of the Borgias ay, the very wine you so care- fully prepared for Cardinal Corneto ! " ”

“ I am ready for the sacrifice," continued the old man, " yet before I die let me call down a curse upon the one who "has wronged me so deeply, who has destroyed my daughter. Thou, God, that seest all things, be thou the avenger of one whose power for revenge is lost ! May
ALEXANDER BORGIA. 23
thy most terrible curse rest, now and forever, upon that fiend in human guise, Alexander Borgia " ,
" Hold ! " exclaimed the mask, with much agitation, as he seized the arm of the old man. " Thou knowest not what thou art saying. Though here I hold a warrant for thy death, thy life shall not be taken. ”

“ Never, even in the later years of her life, does she appear as a woman of unusual genius; she had none of the characteristics of the viragos Catarina Sforza and Ginevra Bentivoglio; nor did she possess the deceitful soul of an Isotta da Rimini, or the spirituelle genius of Isabella Gonzaga. If she had not been the daughter of Alexander VI and the sister of Cæsar Borgia, she would have been unnoticed by the historians of her age or, at most, would have been mentioned only as one of the many charming women who constituted the society of Rome. ”

“ I urge the fulfilment of your promise now, this very hour."
" And what if I refuse ? " asked Borgia, with assumed carelessness, as an evil look appeared in his dark eyes.
"Refuse! You dare not; nor is it wise in you to trifle longer with me. Mercado is still in a loathsome dun- geon "
" Where he will remain till he becomes food for worms," interrupted the Pope, with a look of infernal tri- umph. " Dare not ! There 's not a heaven I dare not defy, a hell I dare not brave, when, by so doing, I can avenge the injuries I received at the hands of your mother." ”

“ He turned suddenly as he spoke, and retired from the apartment, while Floretta clasped her father in a fond embrace, and exclaimed,
" Saved saved, my father ! "
" Yes, thank Heaven ! But let us hasten from this gild- ed abode of crime and infamy ! " responded Delano, as they arose and passed from the room.
" Ha, ha ! " laughed Borgia, entering the apartment as they departed, and there was Satanic joy in every look, and word, and action, as he gazed after them. " Thus have I planned my revenge, and now for the Inquisition ! " ”

“ Plac- ing an unsheathed dagger in her bosom, she murmured,
"Now for a deed that 'shall free Mercado, and convince even Alexander Borgia that man's power for wrong is not always equal to his will."
As she was passing from the hall, a servant placed him- self on her path. " Well, sirrah, what do you want ? " demanded Lucretia, angrily.
" Excuse me ; but it is the Pope's order that you do not leave the palace. I dare not permit you to pass."
" Nor need you permit me," said Donna Lucretia, scorn- fully, " for I shall go and come without your permission, or that of your most worthy master ! " ”

“ I am glad of that very glad ; for he is doomed to die. I have his death-warrant."
Donna Lucretia started up and stood before her father, pale as death, and quivering in every limb.
" What do I hear ? " she shrieked. " Mercado doomed to death ! The death-warrant of my lover ! O, what means this horrid revelation ? "
" Ah, he is your lover, then ? " asked Alexander Borgia, with an involuntary expression of irony in his voice.
" Since it has come to this, I swear it ! Mercado is my lover ; / am his betrothed ! " ”

“ Emboldened by his reception, and not realizing its cause, the mask seats himself beside Floretta, and passes his arm around her waist. Again she looks up into his face and smiles. Her head is resting upon his bosom ; her features are upturned to his own, and the smile that rests upon her lips seems such is the delusion of his passion to invite his kisses. He bends forward, is about to bestow these unholy evidences of the feelings that are
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reigning in his heart, when he feels the dagger drawn with a quick but steady hand from his belt.
" Woman ! Floretta ! " ”

“ Back, every one of ye ! " exclaimed the mask, to the cardinals and their followers ; " back, if you value your lives ! Mark me well ; behold my men ; and know that I am master still ! "
" And who, in the name of Heaven," cried the aston- ished Corneto " who is the mask of St. Peter's ? "
The black mask was torn from the features it had so long concealed; the cloak dropped from his form; and as every eye was fixed upon the face revealed, the lips of each exclaimed :
" T is Alexander Borgia ! " ”

“ I pledge my life to its truth. The children ivere changed by the nurse in the employ of my sister. The noble lady's child grew up in poverty, while my sister's child your child, Alexander Borgia was tenderly cared for by the Senorita Caselli, who deemed it her own."
" Liar ! This be thy passport to hell, where you can tell the story to the fiends ! " cried the madly-excited man, as he drew his dagger and plunged it to the hilt in mad ”

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and a renegade. The pledges under which you held your life have all been broken ; and I shall be much mistaken if the death you have merited by your late deportment is not speedily yours. Do you understand me ? Surrender at once, or we shall resort to force."
" Try it, if you dare ! " said the mask, coolly, though it was evident that strong excitement was raging in his breast. " The first man that lays hands upon me will be the first to die. If any one of your number is ambitious of such distinction, let him come on ! " ”

“ And you will not curse me ? You will not appear against me in a future world ? "
" No, no ! I am glad to die for thee. Save Mercado. He too is noble and good, and has spoken kindly to poor Marco. I am dying ! I feel the dews of death on my
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brow, and its icy fingers at my heart. Give me your hand, dear lady ! let me kiss it thus and "
His voice ceased ; his nerves relaxed, and he sank back upon the floor. His soul had gone to its God.
VI.
THE ESCAPE.
TUB scene changes to Mercado's dungeon. The young noble stood by the grated door ”

“ They well knew that the greatness of a crime concealed the shame of it. The celebrated poet Strozzi in Ferrara placed Cæsar Borgia, after his fall, among the heroes of Olympus; and the famous Bembo, one of the first men of the age, endeavors to console Lucretia Borgia on the death of the "miserable little" Alexander VI, whom he at the same time calls her "great" father.
No upright man, conscious of his own worth, would now enter the service of a prince stained by such crimes as were the Borgias, if it were possible for such a one now to exist, which is wholly unlikely. ”

“ Every emperor has left some vestige of his power, and so has every pope. The yesterdays of Rome may be taken almost literally.
Numerous are the souvenirs of the Borgias. Of some of them I have spoken in other chapters, but all of them are interesting and valuable to the historian. Next to the Borgia apartments in the Vatican, mentioned elsewhere at some length, the one building richest in Borgia memorials is the famous Castel Sant' Angelo. Alexander, though he had not even a conscience in embryo, never ceased to dread the Roman populace. ”

“ Dead your lover is to all intents and purposes ; for, by the vengeance of a Borgia, he shall never leave his dungeon alive ! Dost hear?"
Donna Lucretia was wrought up to a terrible state of excitement. She saw the whole damning plot, of which she had been the victim. She saw how Mercado had been denounced and doomed, how she had been inveigled in the hope of saving him, and now she realized that Borgia was still determined on his death. Her excite- ment amounted to a species of madness, and, drawing a dagger, with the quickness of thought, she aimed a power- ful blow at his heart. ”

“ You can save yourself further trouble," said Borgia, quietly, as he rang a bell.
Two servants entered.
" Conduct Donna Lucretia to her rooms ; she is faint."
They proceeded to obey the order, receiving no opposi- tion from her. She turned but once, once only, as she passed from the apartment; but it was a look in which the hate and revenge of a lifetime seemed concen- trated.
" Were she not Iwr child, and there were few of her sex to command my admiration, I would not carry my vindictiveness so far," soliloquized Borgia. " As it is, I am determined. ”

“ The heart breaks when, after having been elated by flattering hopes, it sees all its illusions destroyed. Faria has dreamed this; the Cardinal Spada buried no treasure here; perhaps he never came here, or if he did, Caesar Borgia, the intrepid adventurer, the stealthy and indefatigable plunderer, has followed him, discovered his traces, pursued them as I have done, raised the stone, and descending before me, has left me nothing." He remained motionless and pensive, his eyes fixed on the gloomy aperture that was open at his feet. ”

“ The cunning political genius of Cesare Borgia had maneuvered the pope into a position of great advantage. France and Spain were bidding for the support of Alexander, who through his son now controlled a not inconsiderable portion of Italian territory. All indications pointed to a further increase of Cesare's conquests and to a corresponding augmentation of the papal power in the politics of Europe. It is not too much to say that the Borgia were on the road to absolute dominance of the world when they plotted to poison and rob the aged Cardinal Adrian of Corneto. ”

“ Borgia, Cæsar, fourth son of Pope Alexander VI.; was made cardinal at the age of 17, an honour he relinquished to become a soldier, in which capacity it is alleged he gave himself up to deeds of inhumanity, which have made his name a synonym for every action that is most crafty, revolting, and cruel; a portrait of him by Raphael, in the Borghese gallery, is a masterpiece. Notwithstanding the execration in which his memory is held, he is reputed to have been just as a ruler in his own domain, and a patron of art and literature ”