Valentino

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE BORGIAS. On the morning succeeding the foregoing events, Pope Alexander VI.?Rodriguez Borgia?-was occupied in one of the many chambers in the Vatican set apart for the purposes of affairs. On a table lay a pile of unopened letters and despatches, while on either hand were arranged those...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE BORGIAS. On the morning succeeding the foregoing events, Pope Alexander VI.?Rodriguez Borgia?-was occupied in one of the many chambers in the Vatican set apart for the purposes of affairs. On a table lay a pile of unopened letters and despatches, while on either hand were arranged those already considered in two heaps, the one reserved for further perusal, the other intended for the hands of his secretaries. He had been busy thus since dawn, between papers and occasional brief reveries, and now and then a turn up and down the long room. From early manhood he had been attentive to business, and assiduous to its demands whenever his personal interests were affected. As matters of importance increased in proportion as station and power had been absorbed in his grasp, his devotion to the charms of beautiful women had diminished. To the abstemiousness of his habits in other particulars must be attributed his capacity for unflagging application. When affairs of state were to be treated, envoys received, finances considered, orsome machination set afoot, he was himself wont to say that day and night were the same. He drank only pure red wine, and his midday meal consisted of a broth followed by one dish of meat, a couple of vegetables, and cheese and cakes to end with. The ambassadors thought it penance to dine with a sovereign who feasted them thus sparingly. The crisis of his life had been at his election to the Papacy; for this he had manipulated and promised beforehand, bribed without stint at the decisive moment, and rewarded magnificently after the triumph. His greatest chagrin had been in the death of his eldest son, the Duke of Gandia, whose assassination had been brought about by his brother Cesare. The corpse of this ill-fated youth was carried to t...