suffered himself.

She would talk with me for hours together of the Lord Giovanni, of his
mental gifts, and of his splendid courage and military address, and
for all that my gorge rose with jealousy and with the force of this
injustice to myself, I held my peace. Indeed, indeed, it was better
so. For all that I was no longer Boccadoro the Fool, yet as Lazzaro
Biancomonte, the poet, I was not so much better that I could indulge
any mad aspirations of my own such as might have led me to betray the
dastard who had arrayed his craven self in the peacock feathers of my
achievements.

In the course of the confidence with which the Lord Filippo honoured me
I made bold, on the eve of Cesare's arrival, to suggest to him that he
should remove his sister from the Palace and send her to the Convent of
Santa Caterina whilst the Borgia abode in the town, lest the sight of
her should remind Cesare of the old-time marriage plans which his family
had centred round this lady, and lead to their revival. Filippo heard
me kindly, and thanked me freely for the solicitude which my counsel
argued. For the rest, however, it was a counsel that he frankly admitted
he saw no need to follow.

"In the three years that are sped since the Holy Father entertained such
plans for the temporal advancement of his nephew Ignacio, the fortunes
of the House of Borgia have so swollen that what was then a desirable
match for one of its members is now scarcely worthy of their attention.
I do not think," he concluded, "that we have the least reason to fear a
renewal of that suit."

It may be that I am by nature suspicious and quick to see ignoble
motives in men's actions, but it occurred to me then that the Lord
Filippo would not be so greatly put about if indeed the Borgias were to
reopen negotiations for the bestowing of Madonna Paola's hand upon the
Pope's nephew Ignacio. That swelling of the Borgia fortunes which in the
three years had taken place and which, he contended, would render
them more ambitious than to seek alliance with the House of Santafior,
rendered them, nevertheless, in his eyes a more desirable family to be
allied with than in the days when he had counselled his sister's flight
from Rome. And so, I thought, despite what stood between her and the
Lord Giovanni, Filippo would know no scruple now in urging her into an
alliance with the House of Borgia, should they manifest a willingness to
have that old affair reopened.

On the 29th of tha