hem thrusting a sharp and
slender iron pike through a weak place in his armour, pierced his breast;
Caesar cursed God and died.

But the rest of the enemy's army was defeated, thanks to the courage of
Michelotto, who fought like a valiant condottiere, but learned, on
returning to the camp in the evening, from those who had fled; that they
had abandoned Caesar and that he had never reappeared. Then only too
certain, from his master's well-known courage, that disaster had
occurred, he desired to give one last proof of his devotion by not
leaving his body to the wolves and birds of prey. Torches were lighted,
for it was dark, and with ten or twelve of those who had gone with Caesar
as far as the little wood, he went to seek his master. On reaching the
spot they pointed out, he beheld five men stretched side by side; four of
them were dressed, but the fifth had been stripped of his clothing and
lay completely naked. Michelotto dismounted, lifted the head upon his
knees, and by the light of the torches recognised Caesar.

Thus fell, on the 10th of March, 1507, on an unknown field, near an
obscure village called Viane, in a wretched skirmish with the vassal of a
petty king, the man whom Macchiavelli presents to all princes as the
model of ability, diplomacy, and courage.

As to Lucrezia, the fair Duchess of Ferrara, she died full of years, and
honours, adored as a queen by her subjects, and sung as a goddess by
Ariosto and by Bembo.

EPILOGUE

There was once in Paris, says Boccaccio, a brave and good merchant named
Jean de Civigny, who did a great trade in drapery, and was connected in
business with a neighbour and fellow-merchant, a very rich man called
Abraham, who, though a Jew, enjoyed a good reputation. Jean de Civigny,
appreciating the qualities of the worthy Israelite; feared lest, good man
as he was, his false religion would bring his soul straight to eternal
perdition; so he began to urge him gently as a friend to renounce his
errors and open his eyes to the Christian faith, which he could see for
himself was prospering and spreading day by day, being the only true and
good religion; whereas his own creed, it was very plain, was so quickly
diminishing that it would soon disappear from the face of the earth. The
Jew replied that except in his own religion there was no salvation, that
he was born in it, proposed to live and die in it, and that he knew
nothing in the world that could change his opinion.