as indifferent to the reputation of a woman destined
to become one of its prominent members.

Alfonso was the prospective husband of a young woman whose career,
although she was only twenty-one years of age, had been most
extraordinary. Twice had Lucretia been legally betrothed, twice had she
been married, and twice had she been made a widow by the wickedness or
crimes of others. Her reputation, consequently, was bad, therefore
Alfonso, himself a man of the world, never could feel sure of this
young woman's virtue, even if he did not believe all the reports which
were circulated regarding her. The scandalous gossip about everything
which takes place at court passed from city to city just as quickly then
as it does now. The duke and his son were informed by their agents of
everything which actually occurred in the Borgia family, as well as of
every story which was started concerning its members. The frightful
reasons which the disgraced Sforza had given Lucretia's father in
writing as grounds for the annulment of his marriage were at once
communicated to the duke in Ferrara. The following year his agent in
Venice informed him that "a report had come from Rome that the Pope's
daughter had given birth to an illegitimate child."[95] Moreover, all
the satires with which the enemies of the Borgias persecuted
them--including Lucretia--were well known at the court of Ferrara, and
doubtless maliciously enjoyed. Are we warranted in assuming that the
Este considered these reports and satires as really well founded, and
yet overcame their scruples sufficiently to receive a Thais into their
house when they would have incurred much less danger by following the
example of Federico of Naples, who had persisted in refusing his
daughter's hand to Caesar Borgia?

It is now time to investigate the charges which were made against
Lucretia; and, in view of what Roscoe and others have already proved,
this will not occupy us long. The number of accusers among her
contemporaries certainly is not small. The following--to name only the
most important--charged her explicitly or by implication with incest:
the poets Sannazzaro and Pontanus, and the historians and statesmen
Matarazzo, Marcus Attilius Alexis, Petrus Martyr, Priuli, Macchiavelli,
and Guicciardini, and their opinions have been constantly reiterated
down to the present time. On the other side we have her eulogists among
her contemporaries and their successors.

Here it should be note