taken, and opened negotiations with the Colonnas.

Meanwhile the obsequies of the pope were going forward: the
vice-chancellor had sent out orders to the highest among the clergy, the
superiors of convents, and the secular orders, not to fail to appear,
according to regular custom, on pain of being despoiled of their office
and dignities, each bringing his own company to the Vatican, to be
present at the pope's funeral; each therefore appeared on the day and at
the hour appointed at the pontifical palace, whence the body was to be
conveyed to the church of St. Peter's, and there buried. The corpse was
found to be abandoned and alone in the mortuary chamber; for everyone
of the name of Borgia, except Caesar, lay hidden, not knowing what might
come to pass. This was indeed well justified; for Fabio Orsino, meeting
one member of the family, stabbed him, and as a sign of the hatred they
had sworn to one another, bathed his mouth and hands in the blood.

The agitation in Rome was so great, that when the corpse of Alexander
VI was about to enter the church there occurred a kind of panic, such as
will suddenly arise in times of popular agitation, instantly causing so
great a disturbance in the funeral cortege that the guards drew up in
battle array, the clergy fled into the sacristy, and the bearers dropped
the bier.

The people, tearing off the pall which covered it, disclosed the corpse,
and everyone could see with impunity and close at hand the man who,
fifteen days before, had made princes, kings and emperors tremble, from
one end of the world to the other.

But in accordance with that religious feeling towards death which all
men instinctively feel, and which alone survives every other, even in
the heart of the atheist, the bier was taken up again and carried to the
foot of the great altar in St. Peter's, where, set on trestles, it was
exposed to public view; but the body had become so black, so deformed
and swollen, that it was horrible to behold; from its nose a bloody
matter escaped, the mouth gaped hideously, and the tongue was so
monstrously enlarged that it filled the whole cavity; to this frightful
appearance was added a decomposition so great that, although at
the pope's funeral it is customary to kiss the hand which bore the
Fisherman's ring, not one approached to offer this mark of respect and
religious reverence to the representative of God on earth.

Towards seven o'clock in the evening, when the declining