tances reported of her
dauntless and vindictive character. She had remarried, but her second
husband, Giovanni de' Medici, had recently died, and Caterina Sforza
Riario de' Medici, in spite of her noble birth and connexions, had none
to help her.

If Cesare Borgia had not already married perchance the opportunity would
have been offered her to add another great name to those she already
bore, for he recognised in this tigerish woman a fitting mate. He hated
her indeed, but one does not hate one's inferiors, one despises or pets
them, and Cesare hated the Lady of Forli because he knew that he could
never master her.

Therefore on New Year's Day, we having, as I have said, drawn our forces
so closely about the citadel that for weeks past not a mouse could
escape, Cesare before ordering the assault sent me to its lady with
sealed conditions of capitulation.

I thought, as I rode across the draw-bridge with the white truce pennon
fluttering from my lance, how at that other siege when summoned to
surrender on pain of having her children put to death before her walls,
this unnatural mother had replied coldly: "Children are more easily
replaced than castles," and I was unprepared for the vision which
greeted me in the gloomy hall.

For Caterina was no repulsive termagant, but a woman of marvellous
charm. This fascination was something quite different from ordinary
beauty. Its seat was in her eyes, which many thought not at all
beautiful, for they were like those gems called aquamarine, of a
puzzling tint varying from blue to green, lustrous and lapping the
beholder with their gentle lambency, except when passion moved her,
when I have seen them glow with a menacing light as though they might
shoot forth green flames. But now she was all loveliness. The
vicissitudes of her tragic life had left no trace except the slight
scowl, which might be due to defective vision, for from the curiously
linked chatelaine there depended a lorgnon with which she had a nervous
trick of trifling.

[Illustration: _Alinari_

Catenna Sforza

Castle of Forli in Background

By Palmezzani]

She leaned forward as I entered, her lips a little apart and her cheeks
glowing with excitement.

"You have brought me a message from your commander?" she asked, and I
presented the letter.

But as she read her colour flamed to deeper crimson and her small hands
tore the missive in fragments. "And these are the terms proposed by a
belted knight, com