suae"--to which, of course,
Ximenes had no answer.

But, with the object of conciliating Spain, this ever-politic Pope
indicated that, if Cesare was about to become a prince of France, his
many ecclesiastical benefices, yielding some 35,000 gold florins yearly,
being mostly in Spain, would be bestowed upon Spanish churchmen, and he
further begged Ximenes to remember that he already had a "nephew" at the
Court of Spain in the person of the heir of Gandia, whom he particularly
commended to the favour of Ferdinand and Isabella.

Thus was Cesare Borgia's petition granted, and his return to the world
accomplished. And, by a strange chance of homonymy, his title remained
unchanged despite his change of estate. The Cardinal of Valencia, in
Spain, became the Duke of Valence--or Valentinois--in France and in
Italy Valentino remained Valentino.

BOOK III. THE BULL RAMPANT

"Cum numine Caesaris omen."

(motto on Cesare Borgia's sword.)

CHAPTER I. THE DUCHESS OF VALENTINOIS

King Louis XII dispatched the Sieur de Sarenon by sea, with a fleet of
three ships and five galleys, to the end that he should conduct the
new duke to France, which fleet was delayed so that it did not drop its
anchors at Ostia until the end of September.

Meanwhile, Cesare's preparations for departure had been going forward,
and were the occasion of a colossal expenditure on the part of his sire.
For the Pope desired that his son, in going to France to assume his
estate, and for the further purposes of marrying a wife, of conveying
to Louis the dispensation permitting his marriage with Anne of Brittany,
and of bearing the red hat to Amboise, should display the extraordinary
magnificence for which the princes of cultured and luxurious Italy were
at the time renowned.

His suite consisted of fully a hundred attendants, what with
esquires, pages, lacqueys and grooms, whilst twelve chariots and fifty
sumpter-mules were laden with his baggage. The horses of his followers
were all sumptuously caparisoned with bridles and stirrups of solid
silver; and, for the rest, the splendour of the liveries, the weapons
and the jewels, and the richness of the gifts he bore with him were the
amazement even of that age of dazzling displays.

In Cesare's train went Ramiro de Lorqua, the Master of his Household;
Agabito Gherardi, his secretary; and his Spanish physician, Gaspare
Torella--the only medical man of his age who had succeeded in
discovering