mbassador to the kings of Aragon and Portugal. On his
return, which took place during the pontificate of Innocent VIII, he
decided to fetch his family at last to Rome: thither they came, escorted
by Don Manuel Melchior, who from that moment passed as the husband
of Rosa Vanozza, and took the name of Count Ferdinand of Castile. The
Cardinal Roderigo received the noble Spaniard as a countryman and a
friend; and he, who expected to lead a most retired life, engaged a
house in the street of the Lungara, near the church of Regina Coeli,
on the banks of the Tiber. There it was that, after passing the day in
prayers and pious works, Cardinal Roderigo used to repair each evening
and lay aside his mask. And it was said, though nobody could prove it,
that in this house infamous scenes passed: Report said the dissipations
were of so dissolute a character that their equals had never been
seen in Rome. With a view to checking the rumours that began to spread
abroad, Roderigo sent Caesar to study at Pisa, and married Lucrezia to a
young gentleman of Aragon; thus there only remained at home Rosa Vanozza
and her two sons: such was the state of things when Innocent VIII died
and Roderigo Borgia was proclaimed pope.

We have seen by what means the nomination was effected; and so the five
cardinals who had taken no part in this simony--namely, the Cardinals
of Naples, Sierra, Portugal, Santa Maria-in-Porticu, and St.
Peter-in-Vinculis--protested loudly against this election, which they
treated as a piece of jobbery; but Roderigo had none the less, however
it was done, secured his majority; Roderigo was none the less the two
hundred and sixtieth successor of St. Peter.

Alexander VI, however, though he had arrived at his object, did not dare
throw off at first the mask which the Cardinal Bargia had worn so long,
although when he was apprised of his election he could not dissimulate
his joy; indeed, on hearing the favourable result of the scrutiny,
he lifted his hands to heaven and cried, in the accents of satisfied
ambition, "Am I then pope? Am I then Christ's vicar? Am I then the
keystone of the Christian world?"

"Yes, holy father," replied Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, the same who
had sold to Roderigo the nine votes that were at his disposal at the
Conclave for four mules laden with silver; "and we hope by your election
to give glory to God, repose to the Church, and joy to Christendom,
seeing that you have been chosen by the Almighty Him