The Family - Mario Puzo [117]
“Cross the drawbridge,” the commander shouted. “The countess will meet you in the sheltered pathway.”
Cesare watched the drawbridge slowly descend and the castle gates swing open. He and the Spanish captain, Porto Díaz, began to walk through the gates, but when Cesare looked up through the wide opening in the wooden roof above the entrance, he thought he heard something scurrying above them. Suddenly, he turned around in time to see several of Caterina’s men raising the drawbridge. He turned back to see the iron grate dropping in front of him.
Cesare grabbed for Porto Diaz and shouted, “Be quick. A trap!”
He leapt atop the giant steel-toothed pulley that raised the bridge. It was only inches from crushing him as the bridge swung shut, and in a fit of daring Cesare dove sideways into the moat below. Dozens of crossbows shot heavy iron spearheads into the water, barely missing him as he desperately swam toward the far bank.
Three swarthy Swiss soldiers cursed Caterina loudly as they pulled Cesare from the water.
But Porto Diaz was not so lucky. He was trapped between the iron grating and the closed drawbridge. As soon as Cesare was on land again, Caterina ordered boiling oil to be poured upon Diaz from the opening in the roof above. Standing on the bank, Cesare listened to his bloodcurdling screams and vowed Caterina would not escape without punishment for the torture of this good captain.
Cesare knew she would not surrender without a deadly battle. And so he retreated to his camp to make a plan. Finally, after several hours, he believed he had a surprise that might change her mind. Two of her children had been captured in Imola, and he brought them to the bank of the moat in sight of the castle.
He called to her, “Caterina, I have something here that is yours.”
She looked down to see him, and he pointed to her children.
“If this castle is not surrendered, and the torture of my commander stopped immediately, I will slaughter these children right before your eyes.”
In the dim twilight, with the falling orange sun behind her, Caterina emerged, a dark shadow. She laughed raucously, and her laughter echoed menacingly. Then she lifted her skirt up to her chestplate to expose herself.
“Look, you son of a whore,” she shouted at Cesare, and then pointed at her loins. “Do you see this? Go ahead and destroy them: I have the mold. I can make more children—many more—so do what you must.”
Just then Caterina waved her arm, and Cesare heard a splash. The headless, scalded body of Porto Diaz had been thrown into the moat.
And so it was that Cesare Borgia, duke of Valentinois and son of the Pope, ordered the bombardment to begin. Vito Vitelli’s cannons fired round after round at the castle walls.
In the dark of night, Dino Naldi approached him. “Are you going to order the children killed?” he asked Cesare.
Cesare looked surprised; he had forgotten. Quickly, he reassured Naldi. “It was only a threat. And it would have worked with any normal mother. Then we could have saved many lives. Now, because of this crazy woman, those lives will be lost. But killing two children won’t serve. Take them away.”
“What shall I do with them?” Naldi asked.
“Keep them,” he said. “Raise them as your own.”
Naldi smiled in gratitude, and crossed himself in prayer. Why they called this man a monster he could not imagine, for the woman who now held his sons was far worse indeed.
As soon as the sun appeared the following morning, Cesare bombarded the fortress. Still, Caterina stood on the ramparts brandishing her sword. Cesare turned away and ordered his men to cut nearby trees, to build square rafts to transport them.
“Each must hold thirty soldiers,” he shouted. “For when the walls are breached, these will carry our soldiers across the moat.”
The end did not come quickly. But finally the stone balls shot by Vitelli’s cannons broke through the fortress wall, and Cesare heard the shout: “A breach! A breach!” The north wall had crumbled.
The French captain