s
that were put forward as having led to it were roared across Italy in
a great, derisive burst of laughter, of which the Lord Giovanni was the
unfortunate and contemptible butt.

CHAPTER VIII. "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN"

And now, lest I grow tedious and weary you with this narrative of mine,
it may be well that I but touch with a fugitive pen upon the events of
the next three years of the history of Pesaro.

Early in 1498 the Lord Giovanni showed himself once more abroad, and he
seemed again the same weak, cruel, pleasure-loving tyrant he had been
before shame overtook him and drove him for a season into hiding.
Madonna Paola and her brother, Filippo di Santafior, remained in Pesaro,
where they now appeared to have taken up their permanent abode. Madonna
Paola--following her inclinations--withdrew to the Convent of Santa
Caterina, there to pursue in peace the studies for which she had a
taste, whilst her splendid, profligate brother became the ornament--the
arbiter elegantiarum--of our court.

Thus were they left undisturbed; for in the cauldron of Borgia politics
a stew was simmering that demanded all that family's attention, and of
whose import we guessed something when we heard that Cesare Borgia had
flung aside his cardinalitial robes to put on armour and give freer rein
to the boundless ambition that consumed him.

With me life moved as if that winter excursion and adventure had never
been. Even the memory of it must have faded into a haze that scarce left
discernible any semblance of reality, for I was once again Boccadoro,
the golden-mouthed Fool, whose sayings were echoed by every jester
throughout Italy. My shame that for a brief season had risen up in arms
seemed to be laid to rest once more, and I was content with the burden
that was mine. Money I had in plenty, for when I pleased him the Lord
Giovanni's vails were often handsome, and much of my earnings went to
my poor mother, who would sooner have died starving than have bought
herself bread with those ducats could she have guessed at what manner of
trade Lazzaro Biancomonte had earned them.

The Lord Giovanni was a frequent visitor at the Convent of Santa
Caterina, whither he went, ever attended by Filippo di Santafior, to pay
his duty to his fair cousin. In the summer of 1500, she being then come
to the age of eighteen, and as divinely beautiful a lady as you could
find in Italy, she allowed herself to be persuaded by her brother--who,