ection was decided there were days of feverish expectation
for the cardinal's family. Of his children only Lucretia and Giuffre
were in Rome at the time, and both were living with Madonna Adriana.
Vannozza was occupying her own house with her husband, Canale, who for
some time had held the office of secretary of the penitentiary court.
She was now fifty years old, and there was but one event to which she
looked forward, and upon it depended the gratification of her greatest
wish; namely, to see her children's father ascend the papal throne. What
prayers and vows she and Madonna Adriana, Lucretia, and Giulia Farnese
must have made to the saints for the fulfilment of that wish!

Early on the morning of August 11th breathless messengers brought these
women the news from the Vatican--Rodrigo Borgia had won the great prize.
To him, the highest bidder, the papacy had been sold. In the election,
Cardinal Ascanio Sforza had turned the scale, and for his reward he
received the city of Nepi; the office of vice-chancellor, and the
Borgia palace, which ever since has borne the name Sforza-Cesarini.

[Illustration: ALEXANDER VI.

From an engraving published in 1580.]

On the morning of this momentous day, when Alexander VI was carried from
the conclave hall to S. Peter's there to receive the first expressions
of homage, his joyful glance discovered many of his kinsmen in the dense
crowd, for thither they had hastened to celebrate his great triumph. It
was a long time since Rome had beheld a pope of such majesty, of such
beauty of person. His conduct was notorious throughout the city, and no
one knew him better in that hour than that woman, Vannozza Catanei, who
was kneeling in S. Peter's during the mass, her soul filled with the
memories of a sinful past.

Borgia's election did not cause all the Powers anxiety. In Milan,
Ludovico il Moro celebrated the event with public festivals; he now
hoped to become, through the influence of his brother Ascanio, a "half
pope." While the Medici expected much from Alexander, the Aragonese of
Naples looked for little. Bitterly did Venice express herself. Her
ambassador in Milan publicly declared in August that the papacy had been
sold by simony and a thousand deceptions, and that the signory of Venice
was convinced that France and Spain would refuse to obey the Pope when
they learned of these enormities.[17]

In the meantime, Alexander VI had received the professions of loyalty of
all the Ita