ust 8, 1497. Archives of
Modena.

[55] Et mancho se e curato de fare prova de se qua con Done per poterne
chiarire el Rmo. Legato che era qua, sebbene S. Extia tastandolo sopra
cio gli ne habia facto offerta. Despatch from the Ferrarese ambassador
in Milan, Antonio Costabili, to Duke Ercole, Milan, June 23, 1497.
Archives of Modena.

[56] Concerning this, Pandolfo Collenuccio, a member of Cardinal
Ippolito's suite in Rome, wrote to the Duke of Ferrara, December 25,
1498 (1497), as follows: El S. de Pesaro ha scripto qua de sua mano: non
haverla mai cognosciuta ... et esser impotente, alias la sententia non
se potea dare.... El prefato S. dice pero haver scripto cosi per obedire
el Duca de Milano et Aschanio. The autographic letter is in the archives
of Modena.

[57] In the same despatch from Milan, June 23, 1497, the Ferrarese
Ambassador Costabili stated that Sforza had said to the Duke Ludovico:
Anzi haverla conosciuta infinite volte, ma chel Papa non gelha tolta per
altro se non per usare con Lei. Extendendose molto a carico di S.
Beatno.

[58] The original of this letter is in the archives of Modena.

[59] Bisceglie, formerly pronounced and written Biseglia or Biselli.
Quadrata is now Corato, near Andria.

CHAPTER XIII

A REGENT AND A MOTHER

Lucretia, now Duchess of Biselli, had been living since July, 1498, with
a new husband, a youth of seventeen, she herself having just completed
her eighteenth year. She and her consort did not go to Naples, but
remained in Rome; for, as the Mantuan agent reported to his master, it
was expressly agreed that Don Alfonso should live in Rome a year, and
that Lucretia should not be required to take up her abode in the kingdom
of Naples during her father's lifetime.[60]

The youthful Alfonso was fair and amiable. Talini, a Roman chronicler of
that day, pronounced him the handsomest young man ever seen in the
Imperial City. According to a statement made by the Mantuan agent in
August, Lucretia was really fond of him. A sudden change in affairs,
however, deprived her of the calm joys of domestic life.

The moving principle in the Vatican was the measureless ambition of
Caesar, who was consuming with impatience to become a ruling sovereign.
August 13, 1498, he flung aside the cardinal's robes and prepared to set
out for France; Louis XII, who in April had succeeded Charles VIII,
having promised him the title of Duke of Valentinois and the hand of a
French princess.