The Family - Mario Puzo [123]
During the months ahead, while he waited to begin the next leg of his campaign, Cesare wrote letters to his wife, Lottie, in France, telling her how much he missed her, and how they would soon be together. But he felt it was not safe for her to come to Rome. He seemed propelled by an unnatural ambition, and tormented by what he feared. Though he was immensely strong, he was thin and muscular; driven by his competitive nature, he toured the villages surrounding Rome in disguise, and challenged the local champions to boxing or wrestling matches which he always won.
Cesare, like many of the royals of the time, believed in astrology, and now he visited the most prominent astrologer of the courts, who by studying the stars and planets concluded that his fate was a troubling one. Yet he did not worry, for Cesare was certain that he could trick even the stars if he were clever enough.
Afterward, at lunch with his sister, he reached across the table to take her hand and revealed what he had learned, with a smile. “I now know that at the age of twenty-six I am in danger of ending my life, in arms and by arms. Therefore you should take advantage of the opportunity to love me while I still live.”
Lucrezia chided him. “Don’t speak so, Chez. For without you I am helpless. And so are the children. You must be careful, for Father counts on you as much as we do.”
But within a week, to test his fate, he ordered a bullfight in which six bulls were to be set free in a specially built enclosure at the Piazza San Pietro.
Cesare rode into the arena mounted on his favorite white stallion and took each bull in turn, driving his light lance, his only weapon, so deeply into them that soon five were killed. The sixth was a large ebony bull, muscular and faster than the others, for it was in its prime. Cesare exchanged his light lance for a double-headed sword, and again rode into the arena. Then, mustering all his strength, with one fierce blow he sliced the head from the body of the bull.
Each day he seemed to have more need to challenge his own skills and courage by performing almost impossible feats of daring. His masked face, his lack of fear, and his mysterious ways began to frighten everyone in Rome.
When Duarte Brandao approached the Pope with his concern, Alexander replied, “It is true he is terrible in revenge, and does not tolerate insults. But other than that, my son Cesare is a good-natured young man.”
22
PRINCE ALFONSO OF Aragon, the proud son of kings, carried himself regally—even when he had drunk too much wine, as he had on this moonlit evening. The moment he finished dinner at the Vatican with the Pope, Lucrezia, and her brothers, he made excuses to leave. He told them he wanted to return home, for he had something he must attend to. He kissed his wife good-bye with the promise that he would anxiously await the pleasure of her company whenever she chose to return.
The truth was that he found it quite uncomfortable sitting in the company of the Pope and his sons, for he had been meeting in secret with Cardinal della Rovere. On two occasions, della Rovere, driven once again by ambition, had asked for Alfonso’s support, and discussed the danger to the young man in the current situation. Della Rovere encouraged the young prince to look toward the future, after the Borgia’s fall from power, when he—the cardinal—would become the next Pope. Naples would then have nothing to fear, for the crown would be taken back from the French king and returned to its rightful owners. And someday it would be his.
Now Alfonso was terrified that Alexander would discover the truth about these secret meetings. Since he had returned from the Colonna castle to Rome, he often caught the brothers watching him closely, and he knew they suspected him of treachery.
As Alfonso walked across the empty square in front of Saint Peter’s, the sound of his own footsteps seemed suddenly to echo loudly on the pavement. As the moon hid behind some passing