bastard,
Giuffredo, with Sancia of Aragon, the natural daughter of the Duke of
Calabria, heir to the throne of Naples, and that she should bring the
Principality of Squillace and the County of Coriate as her dowry.

The other condition demanded by Naples--at the suggestion of Cardinal
Giuliano della Rovere--was that the Pope should disgrace and dismiss
his Vice-Chancellor, Ascanio Sforza, which would have shattered the
pontifical relations with Milan. To this, however, the Pope would not
agree, but he met Naples in the matter to the extent of consenting to
overlook Cardinal della Rovere's defection and receive him back into
favour.

On these terms the peace was at last concluded in August of 1493, and
immediately afterwards there arrived in Rome the Sieur Peron de Basche,
an envoy from the King of France charged with the mission to prevent any
alliance between Rome and Naples.

The Frenchman was behind the fair. The Pope took the only course
possible under the awkward circumstances, and refused to see the
ambasssador. Thereupon the offended King of France held a grand council
"in which were proposed and treated many things against the Pope and for
the reform of the Church."

These royal outbursts of Christianity, these pious kingly frenzies to
unseat an unworthy Pontiff and reform the Church, follow always, you
will observe, upon the miscarriage of royal wishes.

In the Consistory of September 1493 the Pope created twelve new
cardinals to strengthen the Sacred College in general and his own hand
in particular.

Amongst these new creations were the Pope's son Cesare, and Alessandro
Farnese, the brother of the beautiful Giulia. The grant of the red hat
to the latter appears to have caused some scandal, for, owing to the
Pope's relations with his sister, to which it was openly said that
Farnese owed the purple, he received the by-name of Cardinal della
Gonella--Cardinal of the Petticoat.

That was the first important step in the fortunes of the House of
Farnese, which was to give dukes to Parma, and reach the throne of Spain
(in the person of Isabella Farnese) before becoming extinct in 1758.

BOOK II. THE BULL PASCANT

Roma Bovem invenit tunc, cum fundatur aratro, Et nunc lapsa suo est ecce
renata Bove.

From an inscription quoted by Bernardino Coaxo.

CHAPTER I. THE FRENCH INVASION

You see Cesare Borgia, now in his nineteenth year, raised to the purple
with the title of Cardinal-Deacon