n
Chicago or Boston some traveller will find an abandoned chapel, and will
ask: 'What is this? 'And they will tell him: 'This is what remains of
the Catholic Church.'"

"Don't talk like an Homais," said Kennedy.

"I don't know who Homais is," retorted Caesar.

"An atheistical druggist in Flaubert's novel, _Madame Bovary_. Haven't
you read it?"

"Yes; I have a vague idea that I have read it. A very heavy thing; yes,
... I think I have read it."

The woman opened the door and they went into the church. It was small,
overcharged with ornaments. They saw the tomb of Bishop Spinelli and
Giotto's Virgin, and then went into a hall gay with red flags with a
white cross, on whose walls they could read the names of the Grand
Masters of the Order of Malta. The majority of the names were French and
Polish. Two or three were Spanish, and among them that of Caesar Borgia.

"Your countryman and namesake was also a Grand Master of Malta," said
Kennedy.

"So it seems," replied Caesar with indifference. "I see that you speak
with contempt of that extraordinary man. Is he not congenial to you?"

"The fact is I don't know his history."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"How strange! We must go tomorrow to the Borgia Apartment in the
Vatican."

"Good."

They saw the model of an ancient galley which was in the same hall, and
went out through the church into the garden planned by Piranesi.
The woman showed them a very old palm, with a hole in it made by a
hand-grenade in the year '49. It had remained that way more than half
a century, and it was only a few days since the trunk of the palm had
broken.

From the garden they went, by a path between trees, to the bastion of
Paul III, a little terrace, from which they could see the Tiber at their
feet, and opposite the panorama of Rome and its environs, in the light
of a beautiful spring sunshine....

XVIII. CAESAR BORGIA'S MOTTO, "AUT CAESAR, AUT NIHIL"

_THE BORGIAS_

The next day was one of the days for visiting the Borgia Apartment.
Caesar and Kennedy met in the Piazza di San Pietro, went into the
Vatican museum, and walked by a series of stairs and passageways to the
Gallery of Inscriptions.

Then they went down to a hall, at whose door there were guards dressed
in slashed clothes, which were parti-coloured, red, yellow, and black.
Some of them carried lances and others swords.

"Why are the guards here dressed differently?" asked Caesar.

"Because this belongs