intimation that Lucrezia was to marry the heir
presumptive to the duchy of Ferrara was received with a joy so great
that it smacked of the humble beginnings of the Borgian house. The Duke
of Valentinois was invited to return to Rome, to take his share in
the family rejoicing, and on the day when the news was made public the
governor of St. Angelo received orders that cannon should be fired every
quarter of an hour from noon to midnight. At two o'clock, Lucrezia,
attired as a fiancee, and accompanied by her two brothers, the Dukes of
Valentinois and Squillace, issued from the Vatican, followed by all the
nobility of Rome, and proceeded to the church of the Madonna del Papalo,
where the Duke of Gandia and Cardinal Gian Borgia were buried, to render
thanks for this new favour accorded to her house by God; and in the
evening, accompanied by the same cavalcade, which shone the more
brightly under the torchlight and brilliant illuminations, she made
procession through the whale town, greeted by cries of "Long live Pope
Alexander VI! Lang live the Duchess of Ferrara!" which were shouted
aloud by heralds clad in cloth of gold.

The next day an announcement was made in the town that a racecourse for
women was opened between the castle of Sant' Angelo and the Piazza of
St. Peter's; that on every third day there would be a bull-fight in the
Spanish fashion; and that from the end of the present month, which was
October, until the first day of Lent, masquerades would be permitted in
the streets of Rome.

Such was the nature of the fetes outside; the programme of those going
on within the Vatican was not presented to the people; for by the
account of Bucciardo, an eye-witness, this is what happened--

"On the last Sunday of the month of October, fifty courtesans supped in
the apostolic palace in the Duke of Valentinois' rooms, and after
supper danced with the equerries and servants, first wearing their usual
garments, afterwards in dazzling draperies; when supper was over, the
table was removed, candlesticks were set on the floor in a symmetrical
pattern, and a great quantity of chestnuts was scattered on the ground:
these the fifty women skilfully picked up, running about gracefully, in
and out between the burning lights; the pope, the Duke of Valentinois,
and his sister Lucrezia, who were looking on at this spectacle from a
gallery, encouraged the most agile and industrious with their applause,
and they received prizes of embroid