ickness nor from poison, nor
yet by the sword or cord, but from the eye of a basilisk.

"And what manner of creature may that be?" I asked, wonderingly.

"It is a serpent," he replied, "but one so rare in Italy that not once
in a century is it met with. The monster is gifted with the evil eye,
killing whomsoever it looks upon. It bears a star-shaped spot upon its
head, and when you whirled yon reptile in the air methought I discerned
its baleful flash."

"And so you did," I replied, "but you need have no apprehension, the
creature is blind."

"Blind!" he repeated incredulously.

"Of a verity. Its eyes have long since been removed, for the flesh has
grown over the empty sockets."

"Then," said Cesare, "some wizard must have extracted them to serve him
in his black art, and has let the serpent go free knowing that it is
only by the eye of a living basilisk that this prodigy can be wrought.
Fortunately you have killed it and there is no longer any danger."

"Nay," I replied, "I but wounded the creature. It crawled away when it
fell."

"Then he who holds its eyes holdeth my life and by his hand I shall
die," he stammered with white lips. Little thought I then that Cesare's
inhuman cruelty and perfidy would cause me to thank God for his belief
in the creature's malignancy and that the basilisk was to aid in the one
episode which was in some measure to take the evil taste of this
campaign from my mouth.

Only a few weeks later, on the first of January, 1500, our combined
forces began in earnest the assault of the citadel of Forli, which we
had held in siege throughout the previous month. Little stomach had I
for the business, since to my shame I was making war upon a woman.
Imola which had already surrendered to us, was also her fief, but had
she commanded its forces in person we would not have taken it so easily.
For fighting blood ran in the veins of the Lady of Forli, she being the
grand-daughter of the great condottiere Francesco Sforza. And this was
not the first time that she had fought for her castle.

She had come to it first as the bride of Girolamo Riario, but the
townspeople had refused to recognise his authority and had stabbed him
to death, throwing his naked, mutilated body into the moat before her
windows.

The young widow instantly trained the guns of the citadel upon the town,
and when it surrendered caused the murderers and their families to be
hacked in pieces; and this was but one of many ins