The Family - Mario Puzo [157]
Jofre lifted the cot then and both of them sat upon it, his arm around her shoulders, comforting her. “Will you bring me paper at once, and make certain the message goes quickly?” she asked.
“I will,” Jofre said, “for I cannot bear being without you.”
Sancia smiled then, and he felt hopeful.
“We are as one,” he said. “And therefore what they do to you, they do to me as well.”
“I know it is a sin to hate another,” Sancia said. “But for the hate I hold against your father, I am willing to stain my soul with sin. No matter that he is the Holy Father: he is as evil in my eyes as the greatest of the fallen angels.”
Jofre had no desire to defend him. “I will write to my brother, Cesare,” he said. “For I have no doubt he will help us as soon as he returns.”
“Why? I have not seen this side of him that makes him so endearing,” Sancia said.
“I have my reasons,” Jofre said. “My brother Cesare will understand, and I trust he will release you from this hell.”
When he kissed her good-bye, he held her longer than usual. And she allowed it.
But that night, once he had gone, one guard after another entered her cell and ravished her. They stripped her of her clothes, they kissed her lips and breathed their ugly breath into her face, and they pushed themselves inside her without any regard for her resistance. For once she had been placed among the prostitutes and thieves she was no longer under the protection of the Borgia Pope, and so they feared no punishment.
By the time her husband came to visit in the morning Sancia was dressed and washed again, but she had ceased to speak. And no matter what Jofre said to her she did not notice, for the light that had once shone so brightly in her sparkling green eyes had been extinguished, and now they were merely a muddy gray.
Cesare Borgia controlled the Romagna now, at last. But there were other cities still to be conquered before he could accomplish his vision to unify all of Italy. There was Camerino, run by the Varano family, and Senigallia, where the della Rovere ruled. And there was Urbino, where Guido Feltra ruled as duke. Urbino seemed too powerful for Cesare’s army to attack; still, it blocked his route to the Adriatic, and could cut off communication with Pesaro and Rimini, if nothing were done to alter the situation in the Borgia’s favor.
And so Cesare’s campaign continued . . .
His first objective was the small city-state Camerino. Cesare assembled an army to strike north from Rome. There they would link up with one of Cesare’s Spanish captains and his troops that remained in the Romagna.
In order to accomplish his goal, however, he was forced to request that Guido Feltra allow the passage of his captain, Vito Vitelli, and his artillery through Feltra’s Urbino. Now, it was known throughout Italy that Feltra had little affection for the Borgia. Feltra, whose reputation as a condottiere was greater than his skill and intelligence, was eager to avoid an immediate confrontation, and so he granted Cesare permission—in order to disguise his true intention, which was to help Alessio Varano defend Camerino.
Unfortunately for the duke, Cesare’s spies discovered his plan, and Vitelli’s powerful artillery moved on Urbino. Without warning, both Cesare’s force from Rome and his army from the north arrived at the gates of the city.
That view of the entire papal force, with Cesare in his black battle armor riding his spirited charger back and forth before them, was enough to persuade Guido Feltra to flee.
The city quickly surrendered to Cesare—to the amazement not only of Italy but of all Europe, since the powerful duke of Urbino had before this day been considered invincible.
And so, as he had planned, Cesare moved on to Camerino. Without the help of Guido Feltra, that city also surrendered with little resistance.
Once Urbino and Camerino had been conquered, it appeared that nothing could stop Cesare from imposing his will—and papal rule—on