turned to Rome.[215]

FOOTNOTES:

[209] In the record of her household expenses, under date of November
20, 1506, there is the following entry: A Garzia Spagnolo per andare a
Venezia per la nova del Duca Valentino che era fugito de progione.
November 27, she wrote to Gonzaga.

[210] Record of Lucretia's household expenses for the year 1506
(Archives of Modena): July 31, 1506, a Federigo Cancelliere del Duca
Valentino per andare per le poste in Spagna dal Duca.

[211] Despatch of the Ferrarese ambassador to France, Manfredo Manfredi,
to Duke Alfonso, January, 1507.

[212] Letters of Hieronymus Magnaninus to his master, Alfonso, Ferrara,
April 11 to 22, archives of the Este.

[213] Caesaris Borgiae Ducis Epicedium per Herculem Strozzam ad Divam
Lucretiam Borgiam Ferrariae Ducem. In Strozzi Poetae Pater et Filius,
Paris, 1530.

[214] See Cittadella's genealogy of the house of Borgia.

[215] Letter of Giulio Alvarotti from France, February 14, 1550, in the
archives of Modena.

CHAPTER IX

MURDER OF ERCOLE STROZZI--DEATH OF GIOVANNI SFORZA AND OF LUCRETIA'S
ELDEST SON

Alfonso's hopes of having an heir had twice been disappointed by
miscarriages, but April 4, 1508, his wife bore him a son, who was
baptized with the name of his grandfather.

Ercole Strozzi regarded the birth of this heir to the throne as the
fulfilment of his prophesy. In a _genethliakon_ he flatters the duchess
with the hope that the deeds of her brother Caesar and of her father
Alexander would be an incentive to her son--both would remind him of
Camillus and the Scipios as well as of the heroes of Greece.

Only a few weeks after this the genial poet met with a terrible end. His
devotion to Lucretia was doubtless merely that of a court gallant and
poet celebrating the beauty of his patroness. The real object of his
affections was Barbara Torelli, the youthful widow of Ercole
Bentivoglio, who gave him the preference over another nobleman. Strozzi
married her in May, 1508.

Thirteen days later, on the morning of June 6th, the poet's dead body
was found near the Este palace, which is now known as the Pareschi,
wrapped in his mantle, some of his hair torn out by the roots, and
wounded in two and twenty places. All Ferrara was in an uproar, for she
owed her fame to Strozzi, one of the most imaginative poets of his time,
the pet of everybody, the friend of Bembo and Ariosto, the favorite of
the duchess and of the entire court. On his f