new pope, scarcely had he completed the formalities of
etiquette which his exaltation imposed upon him, and paid to each man
the price of his simony, when from the height of the Vatican he cast his
eyes upon Europe, a vast political game of chess, which he cherished the
hope of directing at the will of his own genius.

CHAPTER II

The world had now arrived at one of those supreme moments of history
when every thing is transformed between the end of one period and the
beginning of another: in the East Turkey, in the South Spain, in the
West France, and in the North German, all were going to assume, together
with the title of great Powers, that influence which they were destined
to exert in the future over the secondary States. Accordingly we too,
with Alexander VI, will cast a rapid glance over them, and see what were
their respective situations in regard to Italy, which they all coveted
as a prize.

Constantine, Palaeologos Dragozes, besieged by three hundred
thousand Turks, after having appealed in vain for aid to the whole of
Christendom, had not been willing to survive the loss of his empire, and
had been found in the midst of the dead, close to the Tophana Gate;
and on the 30th of May, 1453, Mahomet II had made his entry into
Constantinople, where, after a reign which had earned for him the
surname of 'Fatile', or the Conqueror, he had died leaving two sons, the
elder of whom had ascended the throne under the name of Bajazet II.

The accession of the new sultan, however, had not taken place with the
tranquillity which his right as elder brother and his father's choice of
him should have promised. His younger brother, D'jem, better known
under the name of Zizimeh, had argued that whereas he was born in the
purple--that is, born during the reign of Mahomet--Bajazet was born
prior to his epoch, and was therefore the son of a private individual.
This was rather a poor trick; but where force is all and right is
naught, it was good enough to stir up a war. The two brothers, each at
the head of an army, met accordingly in Asia in 1482. D'jem was defeated
after a seven hours' fight, and pursued by his brother, who gave him no
time to rally his army: he was obliged to embark from Cilicia, and took
refuge in Rhodes, where he implored the protection of the Knights of St.
John. They, not daring to give him an asylum in their island so near to
Asia, sent him to France, where they had him carefully guarded in one
of th