the sacred order of the diaconate; but
feeling that in his situation it was improper to follow his passions, and
at his age impossible to resist them, he humbly entreated His Holiness
graciously to yield to the desire he had failed to overcome, and to
permit him to lay aside the dress and dignities of the Church, and enter
once more into the world, thereto contract a lawful marriage; also he
entreated the lord cardinals to intercede for him with His Holiness, to
whom he would freely resign all his churches, abbeys, and benefices, as
well as every other ecclesiastical dignity and preferment that had been
accorded him. The cardinals, deferring to Caesar's wishes, gave a
unanimous vote, and the pope, as we may suppose, like a good father, not
wishing to force his son's inclinations, accepted his resignation, and
yielded to the petition; thus Caesar put off the scarlet robe, which was
suited to him, says his historian Tommaso Tommasi, in one particular
only--that it was the colour of blood.

In truth, the resignation was a pressing necessity, and there was no time
to lose. Charles VIII one day after he had came home late and tired from
the hunting-field, had bathed his head in cold water; and going straight
to table, had been struck dawn by an apoplectic seizure directly after
his supper; and was dead, leaving the throne to the good Louis XII, a man
of two conspicuous weaknesses, one as deplorable as the other: the first
was the wish to make conquests; the second was the desire to have
children. Alexander, who was on the watch far all political changes, had
seen in a moment what he could get from Louis XII's accession to the
throne, and was prepared to profit by the fact that the new king of
France needed his help for the accomplishment of his twofold desire.
Louis needed, first, his temporal aid in an expedition against the duchy
of Milan, on which, as we explained before, he had inherited claims from
Valentina Visconti, his grandmother; and, secondly, his spiritual aid to
dissolve his marriage with Jeanne, the daughter of Louis XI; a childless
and hideously deformed woman, whom he had only married by reason of the
great fear he entertained far her father. Now Alexander was willing to
do all this far Louis XII and to give in addition a cardinal's hat to his
friend George d'Amboise, provided only that the King of France would use
his influence in persuading the young Dona Carlota, who was at his court,
to marry his son C