et, and led by six valets, also in velvet to match.

The third group consisted of, first, two mules quite covered with cloth
of gold, each carrying two chests in which it was said that the duke's
treasure was stored, the precious stones he was bringing to his fiancee,
and the relics and papal bulls that his father had charged him to convey
for him to Louis XII. These were followed by twenty gentlemen dressed
in cloth of gold and silver, among whom rode Paul Giordano Orsino and
several barons and knights among the chiefs of the state ecclesiastic.

Next came two drums, one rebeck, and four soldiers blowing trumpets
and silver clarions; then, in the midst of a party of four-and-twenty
lacqueys, dressed half in crimson velvet and half in yellow silk, rode
Messire George d'Amboise and Monseigneur the Duke of Valentinois. Caesar
was mounted on a handsome tall courser, very richly harnessed, in a robe
half red satin and half cloth of gold, embroidered all over with pearls
and precious stones; in his cap were two rows of rubies, the size of
beans, which reflected so brilliant a light that one might have fancied
they were the famous carbuncles of the Arabian Nights; he also wore on
his neck a collar worth at least 200,000 livres; indeed, there was no
part of him, even down to his boots, that was not laced with gold and
edged with pearls. His horse was covered with a cuirass in a pattern of
golden foliage of wonderful workmanship, among which there appeared to
grow, like flowers, nosegays of pearls and clusters of rubies.

Lastly, bringing up the rear of the magnificent cortege, behind the duke
came twenty-four mules with red caparisons bearing his arms, carrying
his silver plate, tents, and baggage.

What gave to all the cavalcade an air of most wonderful luxury and
extravagance was that the horses and mules were shod with golden shoes,
and these were so badly nailed on that more than three-quarters of their
number, were lost on the road For this extravagance Caesar was greatly
blamed, for it was thought an audacious thing to put on his horses' feet
a metal of which king's crowns are made.

But all this pomp had no effect on the lady for whose sake it had been
displayed; for when Dona Carlota was told that Caesar Bargia had come to
France in the hope of becoming her husband, she replied simply that she
would never take a priest far her husband, and, moreover, the son of a
priest; a man who was not only an assassin, but a fra