ng
forward, and the progress through the streets, packed with shouting
multitudes, was of necessity slow. At last, however, the Bridge of Sant'
Angelo being crossed, the procession pushed on to the Vatican along
the new road inaugurated for the Jubilee by Alexander in the previous
December.

From the loggia above the portals of the Vatican the Pope watched his
son's imposing approach, and when the latter dismounted at the steps his
Holiness, with his five attendant cardinals, descended to the Chamber
of the Papagallo--the papal audience-chamber, contiguous to the Borgia
apartments--to receive the duke. Thither sped Cesare with his multitude
of attendants, and at sight of him now the Pope's eyes were filled with
tears of joy. The duke advanced gravely to the foot of the throne, where
he fell upon his knees, and was overheard by Burchard to express to
his father, in their native Spanish, all that he owed to the Pope's
Holiness, to which Alexander replied in the same tongue. Then Cesare
stooped and kissed the Pope's feet and then his hand, whereupon
Alexander, conquered no doubt by the paternal instincts of affection
that were so strong in him, raised his son and took him fondly in his
arms.

The festivities in honour of Cesare's return were renewed in Rome upon
the morrow, and to this the circumstance that the season was that of
carnival undoubtedly contributed and lent the displays a threatrical
character which might otherwise have been absent. In these the duke's
victories were made the subject of illustration. There was a procession
of great chariots in Piazza Navona, with groups symbolizing the triumphs
of the ancient Caesar, in the arrangement of which, no doubt, the
assistance had been enlisted of that posse of valiant artists who were
then flocking to Rome and the pontifical Court.

Yriarte, mixing his facts throughout with a liberal leaven of fiction,
tells us that "this is the precise moment in which Cesare Borgia, fixing
his eyes upon the Roman Caesar, takes him definitely for his model and
adopts the device 'Aut Caesar, aut nihil.'"

Cesare Borgia never adopted that device, and never displayed it. In
connection with him it is only to be found upon the sword of honour
made for him when, while still a cardinal, he went to crown the King
of Naples. It is not at all unlikely that the inscription of the device
upon that sword--which throughout is engraved with illustrations of the
career of Julius Caesar--may h