rom the walled window which
gave on the balcony and upon which all eyes were fixed: a general shout
saluted its fall; little by little the aperture grew larger, and in a few
minutes it was large enough to allow a man to come out on the balcony.

The Cardinal Ascanio Sforza appeared; but at the moment when he was on
the point of coming out, frightened by the rain and the lightning, he
hesitated an instant, and finally drew back: immediately the multitude in
their turn broke out like a tempest into cries, curses, howls,
threatening to tear down the Vatican and to go and seek their pope
themselves. At this noise Cardinal Sforza, more terrified by the popular
storm than by the storm in the heavens, advanced on the balcony, and
between two thunderclaps, in a moment of silence astonishing to anyone
who had just heard the clamour that went before, made the following
proclamation:

"I announce to you a great joy: the most Eminent and most Reverend Signor
Roderigo Lenzuolo Borgia, Archbishop of Valencia, Cardinal-Deacon of San
Nicolao-in-Carcere, Vice-Chancellor of the Church, has now been elected
Page, and has assumed the name of Alexander VI."

The news of this nomination was received with strange joy. Roderigo
Borgia had the reputation of a dissolute man, it is true, but libertinism
had mounted the throne with Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII, so that for the
Romans there was nothing new in the singular situation of a pope with a
mistress and five children. The great thing for the moment was that the
power fell into strong hands; and it was more important for the
tranquillity of Rome that the new pope inherited the sword of St. Paul
than that he inherited the keys of St. Peter.

And so, in the feasts that were given on this occasion, the dominant
character was much more warlike than religious, and would have appeared
rather to suit with the election of some young conqueror than the
exaltation of an old pontiff: there was no limit to the pleasantries and
prophetic epigrams on the name of Alexander, which for the second time
seemed to promise the Romans the empire of the world; and the same
evening, in the midst of brilliant illuminations and bonfires, which
seemed to turn the town into a lake of flame, the following epigram was
read, amid the acclamation of the people:

"Rome under Caesar's rule in ancient story
At home and o'er the world victorious trod;
But Alexander still extends his glory:
Caesar was