rtain clothes made for the little Rodrigo and to send them to her
immediately by a courier. She also orders him to have prayers said for
her in all the convents "on account of this, my new sorrow." October
30th she wrote as follows:

VINCENZO: As we have decided that the memorial service for
the soul of his Lordship, the duke, my husband--may the glory of
the saints be his--shall be held, you will, with this end in view,
go to his Eminence the Lord Cardinal of Colenzo, whom we have
charged with this office, and will do whatever his Eminence
commands you, both in regard to paying for the mass and also for
performing whatever his Majesty directs; and you will keep account
of what you spend of the five hundred which you have, for I will
see that you are reimbursed, so it will be necessary. From the
castle of Nepi, next to the last day of October, 1500.

THE UNHAPPY PRINCESS OF SALERNO.

There is an undated letter written by Lucretia which, apparently,
belongs to the same period, because it is written in a melancholy tone,
and in it she asks Heaven to watch over her bed. The last dated letters,
which are of October 31st and November 2d, are devoted to unimportant
domestic affairs; they show that Lucretia was in Nepi as late as
November. Another undated letter to the same Vincenzo Giordano refers to
her return to Rome; it purposely contains obscurities which it is now
impossible to decipher and fictitious names which had been agreed upon
with her servant. Even the signature is a conventional sign. The epistle
is word for word as follows: "I am so filled with misgivings and anxiety
on account of my returning to Rome that I can scarcely write--I can only
weep. And all this time when I found that Farina neither answered nor
wrote to me I was able neither to eat nor sleep, and wept continually.
God forgive Farina, who could have made everything turn out better and
did not do so. I will see whether I can send him Roble before I set
out--for I wish to send him. No more for the present. Again look well to
that matter, and on no account let Rexa see this letter."

Lucretia, it appears, wished to leave Nepi and return to Rome, for which
her father at first might refuse his permission. Perhaps Rexa in this
letter means Alexander, and the name Farina may signify Cardinal
Farnese, upon whose intermediation she counted. Vincenzo finally wrote
her that he had spoken to the Pope him