o, the wicked cardinal's courtier, fell into difficulties from
which he escaped in a way not altogether honorable, which lessens the
worth of the praise he bestowed upon Lucretia. He wrote a poem in which
he endeavored to clear the murderer by blackening Giulio's character and
concealing the motive for the crime. In this same eclogue he poured
forth the most ardent praise of Lucretia. He lauded not only her beauty,
her good works, and her intellect, but above all her modesty, for which
she was famous before coming to Ferrara.[205]

A year later, December 6, 1506, Lucretia married Donna Angela to Count
Alessandro Pio of Sassuolo, and by a remarkable coincidence her son
Giberto subsequently became the husband of Isabella, a natural daughter
of Cardinal Ippolito.

In November, 1505, an event occurred in the Vatican which aroused great
interest on the part of Lucretia, and likewise caused her most painful
memories. Giulia Farnese, the companion of her unhappy youth, made her
appearance there under circumstances which must have overcome her. We
know nothing of the life of Alexander's mistress during the years
immediately preceding and following his death. She and her husband,
Orsini, were living in Castle Bassanello, to which her mother Adriana
had also removed. At least Giulia was there in 1504, about which time
one of the Orsini committed one of those crimes with which the history
of the great families of Italy is filled. Her sister, Girolama Farnese,
widow of Puccio Pucci, had entered into a second marriage--this time
with Count Giuliano Orsini of Anguillara--and had been murdered by her
stepson, Giambattista of Stabbia, because, as it was alleged, she had
tried to poison him. Giulia buried her deceased sister in 1504, at
Bassanello.

She must have gone to Rome the following year and taken up her abode in
the Orsini palace. Her husband was not living, and Adriana may also have
been dead, for she was not present at the ceremony in the Vatican in
November, 1505, when Giulia, to the great astonishment of all Rome,
married her only daughter, Laura, to the nephew of the Pope, Niccolo
Rovere, brother of Cardinal Galeotto.

Laura passed among all those who were acquainted with her mother's
secrets as the child of Alexander VI and natural sister of the Duchess
of Ferrara. When she was only seven years old her mother had betrothed
her to Federico, the twelve-year-old son of Raimondo Farnese; this was
April 2, 1499. This allian