e
him the gift of the abbacy of Subiaco, and sent him in the capacity of
ambassador to the kings of Aragon and Portugal. On his return, which
took place during the pontificate of Innocent VIII, he decided to fetch
his family at last to Rome: thither they came, escorted by Don Manuel
Melchior, who from that moment passed as the husband of Rosa Vanozza, and
took the name of Count Ferdinand of Castile. The Cardinal Roderigo
received the noble Spaniard as a countryman and a friend; and he, who
expected to lead a most retired life, engaged a house in the street of
the Lungara, near the church of Regina Coeli, on the banks of the Tiber.
There it was that, after passing the day in prayers and pious works,
Cardinal Roderigo used to repair each evening and lay aside his mask.
And it was said, though nobody could prove it, that in this house
infamous scenes passed: Report said the dissipations were of so dissolute
a character that their equals had never been seen in Rome. With a view
to checking the rumours that began to spread abroad, Roderigo sent Caesar
to study at Pisa, and married Lucrezia to a young gentleman of Aragon;
thus there only remained at home Rosa Vanozza and her two sons: such was
the state of things when Innocent VIII died and Roderigo Borgia was
proclaimed pope.

We have seen by what means the nomination was effected; and so the five
cardinals who had taken no part in this simony--namely, the Cardinals of
Naples, Sierra, Portugal, Santa Maria-in-Porticu, and St.
Peter-in-Vinculis--protested loudly against this election, which they
treated as a piece of jobbery; but Roderigo had none the less, however it
was done, secured his majority; Roderigo was none the less the two
hundred and sixtieth successor of St. Peter.

Alexander VI, however, though he had arrived at his object, did not dare
throw off at first the mask which the Cardinal Bargia had worn so long,
although when he was apprised of his election he could not dissimulate
his joy; indeed, on hearing the favourable result of the scrutiny, he
lifted his hands to heaven and cried, in the accents of satisfied
ambition, "Am I then pope? Am I then Christ's vicar? Am I then the
keystone of the Christian world?"

"Yes, holy father," replied Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, the same who had
sold to Roderigo the nine votes that were at his disposal at the Conclave
for four mules laden with silver; "and we hope by your election to give
glory to God, repose to the Chur