put him in the position of a butcher who, if he needs money, has
only to cut the throat of the fattest sheep in the flock.

The nomination came to pass: the new cardinals were Giovanni Castellaro
Valentine, archbishop of Trani; Francesco Remolini, ambassador from the
King of Aragon; Francesco Soderini, bishop of Volterra; Melchiore Copis,
bishop of Brissina; Nicolas Fiesque, bishop of Frejus; Francesco di
Sprate, bishop of Leome; Adriano Castellense, clerk of the chamber,
treasurer-general, and secretary of the briefs; Francesco Boris, bishop
of Elva, patriarch of Constantinople, and secretary to the pope; and
Giacomo Casanova, protonotary and private chamberlain to His Holiness.

The price of their simony paid and their vacated offices sold, the pope
made his choice of those he was to poison: the number was fixed at three,
one old and two new; the old one was Cardinal Casanova, and the new ones
Melchiore Copis and Adriano Castellense, who had taken the name of Adrian
of Carneta from that town where he had been born, and where, in the
capacity of clerk of the chamber, treasurer-general, and secretary of
briefs, he had amassed an immense fortune.

So, when all was settled between Caesar and the pope, they invited their
chosen guests to supper in a vineyard situated near the Vatican,
belonging to the Cardinal of Corneto. In the morning of this day, the
2nd of August, they sent their servants and the steward to make all
preparations, and Caesar himself gave the pope's butler two bottles of
wine prepared with the white powder resembling sugar whose mortal
properties he had so often proved, and gave orders that he was to serve
this wine only when he was told, and only to persons specially indicated;
the butler accordingly put the wine an a sideboard apart, bidding the
waiters on no account to touch it, as it was reserved for the pope's
drinking.

[The poison of the Borgias, say contemporary writers, was of two kinds,
powder and liquid. The poison in the form of powder was a sort of white
flour, almost impalpable, with the taste of sugar, and called Contarella.
Its composition is unknown.

The liquid poison was prepared, we are told in so strange a fashion that
we cannot pass it by in silence. We repeat here what we read, and vouch
for nothing ourselves, lest science should give us the lie.

A strong dose of arsenic was administered to a boar; as soon as the
poison began to take effect, he was hung up by his heels; co