e above-named cardinal and informed him of the
Pope's instructions, and laid the matter before him. Thereupon he said
to her, that whenever the Pope had anything to submit to the consistory,
the vice-chancellor, or some other cardinal in his stead, would write it
down together with the opinions of those present; therefore some one
should now record what is said. Lucretia replied, 'I can write very
well.' 'Where is your pen?' asked the cardinal. Lucretia saw that he was
joking, and she laughed, and thus their conference had a fit ending."

What a scene for the Vatican! A young and beautiful woman, the Pope's
own daughter, presiding over the cardinals in consistory. This one scene
is sufficient to show to what depths the Church of Rome had sunk; it is
more convincing than a thousand satires, than a thousand official
reports. The affairs which the Pope entrusted to his daughter were--at
least so we assume--wholly secular and not ecclesiastical; but this bold
proceeding was entirely unprecedented. The prominence given Lucretia,
the highest proof of favor her father could show her, was due to
special reasons. Alexander had just been assured of the consent of
Alfonso d'Este to the marriage with Lucretia, and in his joy he made her
regent in the Vatican. This was to show that he recognized in her, the
prospective Duchess of Ferrara, a person of weight in the politics of
the peninsula. In doing this he was simply imitating the example of
Ercole and other princes, who were accustomed, when absent from their
domains, to confide state business to the women of their families.

The duke had found it difficult to overcome his son's objections, for
nothing could offend the young prince so deeply as the determination to
compel him to marry Lucretia; not because she was an illegitimate child,
for this blot signified little in that age when bastards flourished in
all Latin countries. Many of the ruling dynasties of Italy bore this
stain--the Sforza, the Malatesta, the Bentivoglio, and the Aragonese of
Naples; even the brilliant Borso, the first Duke of Ferrara, was the
illegitimate brother of his successor, Ercole. Lucretia, however, was
the daughter of a Pope, the child of a priest, and this, in the eyes of
the Este, constituted her disgrace. Neither her father's licentiousness
nor Caesar's crimes could have greatly affected the moral sense of the
court of Ferrara, but not one of the princely houses of that age was so
depraved that it w