especially as it happened at the very moment
when an alliance was to be formed between the house of Aragon and the
Holy See. Alexander understood the complaint, and resolved that all
should be set right. So he denied all knowledge of the papal brief though
he had as a fact received 60,000 ducats for signing it--and accused the
Archbishop of Cosenza, secretary for apostolic briefs, of having granted
a false dispensation. By reason of this accusation, the archbishop was
taken to the castle of Sant' Angelo, and a suit was begun.

But as it was no easy task to prove an accusation of this nature,
especially if the archbishop should persist in maintaining that the
dispensation was really granted by the pope, it was resolved to employ a
trick with him which could not fail to succeed. One evening the
Archbishop of Cosenza saw Cardinal Valentino come into his prison; with
that frank air of affability which he knew well how to assume when it
could serve his purpose, he explained to the prisoner the embarrassing
situation in which the pope was placed, from which the archbishop alone,
whom His Holiness looked upon as his best friend, could save him.

The archbishop replied that he was entirely at the service of His
Holiness.

Caesar, on his entrance, found the captive seated, leaning his elbows on
a table, and he took a seat opposite him and explained the pope's
position: it was an embarrassing one. At the very time of contracting so
important an alliance with the house of Aragon as that of Lucrezia and
Alfonso, His Holiness could not avow to Ferdinand and Isabella that, for
the sake of a few miserable ducats, he had signed a dispensation which
would unite in the husband and wife together all the legitimate claims to
a throne to which Ferdinand and Isabella had no right at all but that of
conquest. This avowal would necessarily put an end to all negotiations,
and the pontifical house would fall by the overthrow of that very
pedestal which was to have heightened its grandeur. Accordingly the
archbishop would understand what the pope expected of his devotion and
friendship: it was a simple and straight avowal that he had supposed he
might take it upon himself to accord the dispensation. Then, as the
sentence to be passed on such an error would be the business of
Alexander, the accused could easily imagine beforehand how truly paternal
such a sentence would be. Besides, the reward was in the same hands, and
if the sentence w