r did she rise to avenge her husband's murder, or to
flee from the terrible Vatican.

She was in a position similar to that of her sister-in-law, Dona Maria
Enriquez, after Gandia's death; but while the latter and her sons had
found safety in Spain, Lucretia had no retreat to which she could retire
without the consent of her father and brother.

It would be wrong to blame the unfortunate woman because at this fateful
moment of her life she did not make herself the subject of a tragedy. Of
a truth, she appears very weak and characterless. We must not look for
great qualities of soul in Lucretia, for she possessed them not. We are
endeavoring to represent her only as she actually was, and, if we judge
rightly, she was merely a woman differentiated from the great mass of
women, not by the strength, but by the graciousness, of her nature. This
young woman, regarded by posterity as a Medea or as a loathsomely
passionate creature, probably never experienced any real feeling. During
the years she lived in Rome she was always subject to the will of
others, for her destiny was controlled, first, by her father, and
subsequently by her brother. We know not how much of an effort, in view
of the circumstances by which she was trammeled, she could make to
maintain the dignity of woman. If Lucretia, however, ever did possess
the courage to assert her individuality and rights before those who
injured her, she certainly would have done so when her husband was
murdered. Perhaps she did assail her sinister brother with
recriminations and her father with tears. She was troublesome to Caesar,
who wished her away from the Vatican, consequently Alexander banished
her for a time; and apparently she herself was not unwilling to go. The
Venetian ambassador Paolo Capello refers to some quarrel between
Lucretia and her father. He departed from Rome, September 16, 1500, and
on his return to Venice made a report to his government on the condition
of affairs, in which he says: "Madonna Lucretia, who is gracious and
generous, formerly was in high favor with the Pope, but she is so no
longer."

August 30th, Lucretia, accompanied by a retinue of six hundred riders,
set out from Rome for Nepi, of which city she was mistress. There,
according to Burchard, she hoped to recover from the perturbation which
the death of the Duke of Biselli had caused her.

CHAPTER XVII

LUCRETIA AT NEPI

Travelers from Rome to Nepi, then as now, followed the Vi