is what happened--

"On the last Sunday of the month of October, fifty courtesans supped in
the apostolic palace in the Duke of Valentinois' rooms, and after supper
danced with the equerries and servants, first wearing their usual
garments, afterwards in dazzling draperies; when supper was over, the
table was removed, candlesticks were set on the floor in a symmetrical
pattern, and a great quantity of chestnuts was scattered on the ground:
these the fifty women skilfully picked up, running about gracefully, in
and out between the burning lights; the pope, the Duke of Valentinois,
and his sister Lucrezia, who were looking on at this spectacle from a
gallery, encouraged the most agile and industrious with their applause,
and they received prizes of embroidered garters, velvet boots, golden
caps, and laces; then new diversions took the place of these."

We humbly ask forgiveness of our readers, and especially of our lady
readers; but though we have found words to describe the first part of the
spectacle, we have sought them in vain for the second; suffice it to say
that just as there had been prizes for feats of adroitness, others were
given now to the dancers who were most daring and brazen.

Some days after this strange night, which calls to mind the Roman
evenings in the days of Tiberius, Nero, and Heliogabalus, Lucrezia, clad
in a robe of golden brocade, her train carried by young girls dressed in
white and crowned with roses, issued from her palace to the sound of
trumpets and clarions, and made her way over carpets that were laid down
in the streets through which she had to pass. Accompanied by the noblest
cavaliers and the loveliest women in Rome, she betook herself to the
Vatican, where in the Pauline hall the pope awaited her, with the Duke of
Valentinois, Don Ferdinand, acting as proxy for Duke Alfonso, and his
cousin, Cardinal d'Este. The pope sat on one side of the table, while
the envoys from Ferrara stood on the other: into their midst came
Lucrezia, and Don Ferdinand placed on her finger the nuptial ring; this
ceremony over, Cardinal d'Este approached and presented to the bride four
magnificent rings set with precious stones; then a casket was placed on
the table, richly inlaid with ivory, whence the cardinal drew forth a
great many trinkets, chains, necklaces of pearls and diamonds, of
workmanship as costly as their material; these he also begged Lucrezia to
accept, before she received those the bridegro