pt Calvin and Clement Marot in concealment at her court a long time.

By a curious coincidence, in the year 1550 a man appeared at the court
of Lucretia's son, who vividly recalled to the Borgias who were still
living their family history, which was already becoming legendary. This
man was Don Francesco Borgia, Duke of Gandia, now a Jesuit. His sudden
appearance in Ferrara gives us an opportunity briefly to describe the
fortunes of the house of Gandia.

Of all the progeny of Alexander VI the most fortunate were those who
were the descendants of the murdered Don Giovanni. His widow, Donna
Maria, lived for a long time highly respected at the court of Queen
Isabella of Castile, and subsequently she became an ascetic bigot and
entered a convent. Her daughter Isabella did the same, dying in 1537.
Her only son, Don Giovanni, while a child, had succeeded his unfortunate
father as Duke of Gandia and had managed to retain his Neapolitan
estates, which included an extensive domain in Terra di Lavoro, with the
cities of Suessa, Teano, Carinola, Montefuscolo, Fiume, and others. In
1506 the youthful Gandia relinquished these towns to the King of Spain
on payment of a sum of money. To the great Captain Gonsalvo was given
the Principality of Suessa.

Don Giovanni remained in Spain a highly respected grandee. He married
Giovanna d'Aragona, a princess of the deposed royal house of Naples; his
second wife was a daughter of the Viscount of Eval, Donna Francesca de
Castro y Pinos, whom he married in 1520. The marriages of the Borgias
were as a rule exceedingly fruitful. When this grandson of Alexander VI
died in 1543 he left no fewer than fifteen children. His daughters
married among the grandees of Spain and his sons were numbered among the
great nobles of the country, where they enjoyed the highest honors. The
eldest, Don Francesco Borgia, born in 1510, became Duke of Gandia and a
great lord in Spain and highly honored at the court of Charles V, who
made him Vice-Regent of Catalonia and Commander of San Iago. He
accompanied the emperor on his expedition against France and even to
Africa. In 1529 he married one of the ladies in waiting to the empress,
Eleonora de Castro, who bore him five sons and three daughters. When she
died, in 1546, the Duke of Gandia yielded to his long-standing desire to
enter the Society of Jesus and to relinquish his brilliant position
forever. It seemed as if a mysterious force was impelling him thus to
expiat