so. We entered into a long
discussion touching various matters. In truth she showed herself a
prudent, discreet, and good-natured lady."(1)

1 See Gregorovius's Lucrezia Borgia.

The handsome, athletic Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, with his brothers
Sigismondo and Fernando, had arrived in Rome on December 23 with the
imposing escort that was to accompany their brother Alfonso's bride back
to Ferrara.

Cesare was prominent in the welcome given them. Never, perhaps, had he
made greater display than on the occasion of his riding out to meet the
Ferrarese, accompanied by no fewer than 4,000 men-at-arms, and mounted
on a great war-horse whose trappings of cloth of gold and jewels were
estimated at 10,000 ducats.

The days and nights that followed, until Lucrezia's departure a
fortnight later, were days and nights of gaiety and merry-making at the
Vatican; in banquets, dancing, the performance of comedies, masques,
etc., was the time made to pass as agreeably as might be for the guests
from Ferrara, and in all Cesare was conspicuous, either for the grace
and zest with which he nightly danced, or for the skill and daring
which he displayed in the daily joustings and entertainments, and more
particularly in the bull-fight that was included in them.

Lucrezia was splendidly endowed, to the extent, it was estimated,
of 300,000 ducats, made up by 100,000 ducats in gold, her jewels and
equipage, and the value of the Castles of Pieve and Cento. Her departure
from Rome took place on January 6, and so she passes out of this
chronicle, which, after all, has been little concerned with her.

Of the honour done her everywhere on that journey to Ferrara, the
details are given elsewhere, particularly in the book devoted to her
history and rehabilitation by Herr Gregorovius. After all, the real
Lucrezia Borgia fills a comparatively small place in the actual history
of her house. It is in the fictions concerning her family that she is
given such unenviable importance, and presented as a Maenad, a poisoner,
and worse. In reality she appears to us, during her life in Rome, as a
rather childish, naive, and entirely passive figure, important only in
so far as she found employment at her father's or brother's hands for
the advancement of their high ambitions and unscrupulous aims.

In the popular imagination she lives chiefly as a terrific poisoner, an
appalling artist in venenation. It is remarkable that this should be the
case, for no