ly to our
advantage. So we commend ourselves to your Excellency's mercy.

Your Highness's servants,
JOHANN LUCAS and GERARDUS SARACENUS.

JANUARY 2, 1502.

Finally the date set for Lucretia to leave--January 6th--arrived. The
Pope was determined that her departure should be attended by a
magnificent display; she should traverse Italy like a queen. A cardinal
was to accompany her as legate, Francesco Borgia, Archbishop of Cosenza,
having been chosen for this purpose. To Lucretia he owed his
cardinalate, and he was a most devoted retainer; "an elderly man, a
worthy person of the house of Borgia," so Pozzi wrote to Ferrara.
Madonna was also accompanied by the bishops of Carniola, Venosa, and
Orte.

Alexander endeavored to persuade many of the nobles of Rome, men and
women, to accompany Lucretia, and he succeeded in inducing a large
number to do so. The city of Rome appointed four special envoys, who
were to remain in Ferrara as long as the festivities lasted--Stefano del
Bufalo, Antonio Paoluzzo, Giacomo Frangipane, and Domenico Massimi. The
Roman nobility selected for the same purpose Francesco Colonna of
Palestrina and Giuliano, Count of Anguillara. There were also Ranuccio
Farnese of Matelica and Don Giulio Raimondo Borgia, the Pope's nephew,
and captain of the papal watch, together with eight other gentlemen
belonging to the lesser nobility of Rome.

Caesar equipped at his own expense an escort of two hundred cavaliers,
with musicians and buffoons to entertain his sister on the way. This
cavalcade, which was composed of Spaniards, Frenchmen, Romans, and
Italians from various provinces, was joined later by two famous men--Ivo
d'Allegre and Don Ugo Moncada. Among the Romans were the Chevaliers
Orsini; Piero Santa Croce; Giangiorgio Cesarini, a brother of Cardinal
Giuliano; and other gentlemen, members of the Alberini, Sanguigni,
Crescenzi, and Mancini families.

Lucretia herself had a retinue of a hundred and eighty people. In the
list--which is still preserved--are the names of many of her maids of
honor; her first lady-in-waiting was Angela Borgia, _una damigella
elegantisima_, as one of the chroniclers of Ferrara describes her, who
is said to have been a very beautiful woman, and who was the subject of
some verses by the Roman poet Diomede Guidalotto. She was also
accompanied by her sister Donna Girolama, consort of the youthful Don
Fabio Orsini. Madonna Adriana Orsini, another woman named Adriana,