cember 1st by Juan Marades, the Pope's
chamberlain.[38]

This romantic adventure caused a sensation throughout all Italy. The
people, instead of sympathizing with the Pope, ridiculed him
mercilessly. A letter from Trotti, the Ferrarese ambassador at the court
of Milan, to Duke Ercole, quotes the words which Ludovico il Moro,
the usurper of the throne of his nephew, whom he had poisoned, uttered
on this occasion concerning the Pope.

[Illustration: CHARLES VIII.

From an engraving by Pannier.]

"He (Ludovico) gravely reproved Monsignor Ascanio and Cardinal
Sanseverino for surrendering Madonna Giulia, Madonna Adriana, and
Hieronyma to his Holiness; for, since these ladies were the 'heart and
eyes' of the Pope, they would have been the best whip for compelling him
to do everything which was wanted of him, for he could not live without
them. The French, who captured them, received only three thousand ducats
as ransom, although the Pope would gladly have paid fifty thousand or
more simply to have them back again. The same duke received news from
Rome, and also from Angelo in Florence, that when the ladies entered,
his Holiness went to meet them arrayed in a black doublet bordered with
gold brocade, with a beautiful belt in the Spanish fashion, and with
sword and dagger. He wore Spanish boots and a velvet biretta, all very
gallant. The duke asked me, laughing, what I thought of it, and I told
him that, were I the Duke of Milan, like him, I would endeavor, with the
aid of the King of France and in every other way--and on the pretext of
establishing peace--to entrap his Holiness, and with fair words, such as
he himself was in the habit of using, to take him and the cardinals
prisoners, which would be very easy. He who has the servant, as we say
at home, has also the wagon and the oxen; and I reminded him of the
verse of Catullus: 'Tu quoque fac simile: ars deluditur arte.'"[39]

Ludovico, the worthy contemporary of the Borgias, once an intimate
friend of Alexander VI, hated the Pope when he turned his face away
from him and France, and he was especially embittered by the treacherous
capture of his brother Ascanio. December 28th the same ambassador wrote
to Ercole, "The Duke Ludovico told me that he was hourly expecting the
arrival of Messer Bartolomeo da Calco with a courier bringing the news
that the Pope was taken and beheaded."[40] I leave it to the reader to
decide whether Ludovico, simply owing to his hatred of the Po