" returned Don Juan Belvidero.
"Well, well, I have another life in reserve in which to repent of the
sins of my previous existence."

"Oh, if you regard old age in that light," cried the Pope, "you are in
danger on canonization----"

"After your elevation to the Papacy nothing is incredible." And they
went to watch the workmen who were building the huge basilica dedicated
to Saint Peter.

"Saint Peter, as the man of genius who laid the foundation of our double
power," the Pope said to Don Juan, "deserves this monument. Sometimes,
though, at night, I think that a deluge will wipe all this out as with a
sponge, and it will be all to begin over again."

Don Juan and the Pope began to laugh; they understood each other. A
fool would have gone on the morrow to amuse himself with Julius II. in
Raphael's studio or at the delicious Villa Madama; not so Belvidero. He
went to see the Pope as pontiff, to be convinced of any doubts that he
(Don Juan) entertained. Over his cups the Rovere would have been capable
of denying his own infallibility and of commenting on the Apocalypse.

Nevertheless, this legend has not been undertaken to furnish materials
for future biographies of Don Juan; it is intended to prove to
honest folk that Belvidero did not die in a duel with stone, as some
lithographers would have us believe.

When Don Juan Belvidero reached the age of sixty he settled in Spain,
and there in his old age he married a young and charming Andalusian
wife. But of set purpose he was neither a good husband nor a good
father. He had observed that we are never so tenderly loved as by
women to whom we scarcely give a thought. Dona Elvira had been devoutly
brought up by an old aunt in a castle a few leagues from San-Lucar in
a remote part of Andalusia. She was a model of devotion and grace. Don
Juan foresaw that this would be a woman who would struggle long against
a passion before yielding, and therefore hoped to keep her virtuous
until his death. It was a jest undertaken in earnest, a game of chess
which he meant to reserve till his old age. Don Juan had learned wisdom
from the mistakes made by his father Bartolommeo; he determined that
the least details of his life in old age should be subordinated to one
object--the success of the drama which was to be played out upon his
death-bed.

For the same reason the largest part of his wealth was buried in the
cellars of his palace at Ferrara, whither he seldom went. As for the