to the Dominions of the Pope."

"And what kind of guards are these?"

"These are pontifical Swiss guards."

"They look comic-opera enough," said Caesar.

"My dear man, don't say that. This costume was designed by no one less
than Michelangelo."

"All right. At that time they probably looked very well, but now they
have a theatrical effect."

"It is because you have no veneration. If you were reverential, they
would look wonderful to you."

"Very well, let us wait and see whether reverence will not spring up in
me. Now, you go on and explain what there is here."

"This first room, the Hall of Audience, or of the Popes, does not
contain anything notable, as you see," said Kennedy; "the five we are
coming to later, have been restored, but are still the same as at the
time when your countryman Alexander VI was Pope. All five were decorated
by Pinturicchio and his pupils, and all with reference to the Borgias.
The Borgias have their history, not well known in all its details, and
their legend, which is more extensive and more picturesque. Really, it
is not easy to distinguish one from the other."

"Let's have the history and the legend mixed."

"I will give you a resume in a few words. Alfonso Borja was a Valencian,
born at Jatiba; he was secretary to the King or Aragon; then Bishop of
Valencia, later Cardinal, and lastly Pope, by the name of Calixtus III.
While Calixtus lives, the Spaniards are all-powerful in Rome. Calixtus
protects his nephews, sons of his sister Isabel and a Valencian named
Lanzol or Lenzol. These nephews drop their original name and take their
mother's, Italianizing its spelling to Borgia. Their uncle, the Pope,
appoints the elder, Don Pedro Luis, Captain of the Church; the second,
Don Rodriguez...."

"Don Rodriguez?" said Caesar. "In Spanish you can't say Don Rodriguez."

"Gregorovius calls him that."

"Then Gregorovius, no doubt, knew no Spanish."

"In Latin he is called Rodericus."

"Then it should be Don Rodrigo."

"All right, Rodrigo. Well, this Don Rodrigo, also from Jatiba, his uncle
makes a Cardinal, and at the death of Pedro Luis, he calls him to
Rome. Rodrigo has had several children before becoming a Cardinal, and
apparently he feels no great enthusiasm for ecclesiastical dignities;
but when he finds himself in Rome, the ambition to be Pope assails him,
and at the death of Innocent VIII, he buys the tiara? Is it legend or
history that he bought the tiara? That is not clear