Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1899-03-15
or Two at the ours,ae.,

urr Two at the ouusiue.'
"Ihank God! / am eating my heart out
here
Courage, cavaliere. 1t will end soon
By the way, is Bayard right in saying you
have enlisted st. Armande?"
Eyes, your eminence."
'Cic! l should not have thought he
would have been one for your purpose. But
that is your affair."" and he began to
laugh.
~ have seven good swords behind me,
your cminence. The chevalier may or may
not do we'll; but could hardly refuse his
request"
D'Amboise made no answer, and our in
terview came to close. l would, however,
add here that nothing ever came of the
burning of the inn. No complaint was ever
laid, as far as could find out, and the mat
ter might have been an everyday occur
renee, so little attention did it excite ]
Of course did not know that affairs had
reached to such pitch of disorder in Rome,
and lived in hourly expectation, notwith-
standing the cardinals speech, of having
considerable worry over the revengeful zeal
of Jacopo. l took care that no such thing
was likely to occur again, and Master ia
N'l'o Nds pSullSuI, oMcdIlilB uG WOuiu ucNGE
give me further cause for annoyance. At
the levee, that morning, St. Armande was,
as usual, beside me, and whispered to him
to hold himself in readiness, as the time
for our business was at hand.
81 am glad of that" he answered, his
face lighting up.
81 attend the cardinal to-day to the vati-
cam" l said, by way of continuing the con-
versation.
"There will be much going on this even
ing he made reply. "The Florentine en-
voy has been here for the past two days,
and the affair at the vatican tonight is in
his honor. Do you know that you have
excited great curiosity in the hearts of the
court ladies?''
Indeed? 1t is not my way"
'1s it not! Well, Lucrezia expressed a
particular desire to see YOU
II trust it may not lead to the Tiber,
chevalier. The attentions of the Lady Lu-
erezia are trifle dangerous"
His face became very grave.
''Be civil TO her, nothing more" he whis-
pered. You are quite right. Oh, how
hate that place" he shivered little.
"Well, we will soon be out of it,"
please God!"
There was no one at the high table at
dinner that day, both the cardinal and Bay
ard having gone to dine with Sforza at the
Sforza Cesarini, quite an informal business,
and none of the suite accompanied them.
The conversation at our table turned
much on affairs, and, as there were for once
no guests, speech was very free.
"rhe feur-de-lis will cover our tongues"
said LIE Clerc, "and to-day we may let them
wag."
"'rhen how long is this truce to last?"
asked De Briconnet, the captain of the
cardinals guard 81 am sick of this idle
ness here" he added.
CAS- for that, no man knows whether it is
peace or war" replied LIE Clerc. t'Tremouille
is chatting at Passignano, swearing that the
game was ours if we had only let him march
on after Fossombrone, and he was right.
Now Cesare has stamped out the Magione
league, and the Rorgia are as strong as
ever"
GLOW came such man as Roderigo Bor-
gia ever to be made pope?" Iasked.
LIE Clerc laughed as he passed on the
Orvieto,
"When our lord, the sainted Innocent,
was called away, there were three favorites
in the conclave. One was Giuliano della
Revere, the other Ascanio Sforza, and the
third Roderigo Borgia. His eminence Of
st. Sabine's was our man, and the cleo
ton would have been certain had not Bor-
gia and Ascanio joined hands and the Milan
ese voted for Roderigo."
81 did not think Sforza would have been
so self-sacrihcing, said De Briconnet.
'1here were compensations, Jacques"
LIE Clerc went on. -Four mule-loads of gold
were given to Ascanio, he was made vice
chancellor of the church, and given Dor.
gia's own palace, the Cesarini, where his
eminence dimes to-day. Immediately after
the elections were made was at the rota
exchanging few words with your uncle,
the cardinal of st. Malo, and he told me
that as soon as the result was known, Me-
dici turned to Cardinal Cibo, and said: I'VE
are in the jaws of the wolf! Heaven grant
that he may not devour us!' AS for Boy-
gia he could do nothing but walk about,
calling out: I am pope, pontiff, vicar of
Christi"
II do not suppose it can last long," said
De Briconnet.
Heaven knows. He is close upon II
and grows younger every day. He is
as strong as he was thirty years ago. And
there are few men who can sit horse
as he can, even now
"'lhat is true" l remarked, and gave the
story of my meeting with the Rorgia on
the day of my arrival in Rome,
Shortly after this our dinner, where
speech had been go free, broke up, and, find
ing out the hour at which the cardinal
would require my attendance, i took my
book on falconry, and repaired to the gar
den, intending to pass the afternoon in it's
pcrusal. made for the Lemon walk, and
found companion in Bran, who was wan
dering there in a disconsolate manner, evil
IDENTIFY missing his master. l sat myself
down on a sheltered seat, Bran stretching
out his length at my feet, his muzzle rest.
| ing between his paws, and SO we remained
in quiet, the dog absolutely motianless, and
l engaged in my book.
In this manner passed my time until my
lackey called me, in order to be ready to
accompany the cardinal to the vatican
After dressing, descended the stairs and
mounting Castor, placed myself at the head
of my men, and joined De Briconnet at the
grand entrance of the palace. The captain
of the cardinals guard had his full force
| of 80 swords out, it being reception
night Of some Importance, and with grea,
courtesy allowed me to place Jacopo and
my six men in front of his troop, drawing
his own horse alongside of mine, and dis
cussing, with much cunning, of falconry, in
which he was more than an adept.
| We had to wait some little time for the
cardinal, but at length he came, accom-
panied as usual by Bayard, and with him
all the gentlemen of his suite, including
st, Armande. On reaching the foot of the
stairs, D'Amboise inquired somewhat sharp
ly for me; but changed his tone to one O
pleasant greeting when he saw I was il
waiting
est. Dennis!" he exclaimed, 1T thought
you were not coming after ALL"
We had but few yards to ride, and oul
passage along the Via Alessandrina to the
Fortone Bronse took hut few minutes
| As we rode up there, we kept the obelisl
in the center Of the Piazza di S. Pietro tt
our left, and saw before us the walls of tn,
new cathedral of st. Peter, then abou
four or five feet high, the ruins of the ole
church still standing around it. AT thu
time ] speak of, nothing had been don,
for about so years towards advancing the
work, begun by Nicholas ", and the grea
design, afterwards altered and put into ex