is already on the way to marry her, in his
name. We have now massacred the most dangerous of our foes; if we
can win over or exterminate (which is almost the same thing) the
houses of Este and Medici, who will then have the audacity to oppose
the Borgias in Italy? I kiss the feet of your holiness.

"CAESAR BORGIA, Gonfalonier."

Faustus, after reading this letter, looked angrily upward; but the Devil,
without giving him time to moralise, led him to the Vatican, where they
found the Pope overjoyed at the success which had attended his weapons.
He had already ordered the remaining Orsinis, Alvianis, Santa Croces, and
the other cardinals and archbishops, to be arrested, and awaited the
event with impatience. All Rome hastened to congratulate him. Those who
were marked out for destruction were seized in the Vatican, conducted
into different prisons, and privately executed; whilst the myrmidons of
the Pope plundered their palaces. The Cardinal Orsini alone was sent to
the Castle of Saint Angelo, and was permitted, for a few days, to be
supplied with food from his mother's kitchen; but the Pope, having heard
that he possessed a pearl, very precious on account of its extraordinary
size, retracted this favour. The mother of the once mighty and
flourishing Orsinis went to the Vatican, and offered the Pope the pearl
and two thousand crowns if he would liberate her son; when he seized the
pearl and the money with one hand, and with the other gave the sign for
the cardinal's execution.

When Caesar Borgia learnt that the Pope had accomplished his design, he
instantly commanded all his own prisoners to be assassinated; and,
entering Rome in triumph, shared, with his holiness and the other
illegitimates, the booty he had brought with him; and, in return,
received his dividend of the confiscated property of the slaughtered
cardinals and ecclesiastics.

The marriage of Lucretia was soon afterwards celebrated with more than
Asiatic pomp, and the Romans contributed to render it as brilliant as
possible. The bells pealed from the churches; the artillery thundered
from Saint Angelo; there were bull-fights; the most immoral and indecent
comedies were performed; and the delighted populace shouted before the
Vatican, "Long live Pope Alexander! long live Lucretia, Duchess of Este!"
Faustus huzzaed with the best of them, and said to the Devil: "If these
acclamations ascend