The Cenci | Page 4

in the middle
of which you will find the Pauline fountain. Having passed this
monument, and having lingered a moment on the terrace of the church

of St. Peter Montorio, which commands the whole of Rome, you will
visit the cloister of Bramante, in the middle of which, sunk a few feet
below the level, is built, on the identical place where St. Peter was
crucified, a little temple, half Greek, half Christian; you will thence
ascend by a side door into the church itself. There, the attentive
cicerone will show you, in the first chapel to the right, the Christ
Scourged, by Sebastian del Piombo, and in the third chapel to the left,
an Entombment by Fiammingo; having examined these two
masterpieces at leisure, he will take you to each end of the transverse
cross, and will show you--on one side a picture by Salviati, on slate,
and on the other a work by Vasari; then, pointing out in melancholy
tones a copy of Guido's Martyrdom of St. Peter on the high altar, he
will relate to you how for three centuries the divine Raffaelle's
Transfiguration was worshipped in that spot; how it was carried away
by the French in 1809, and restored to the pope by the Allies in 1814.
As you have already in all probability admired this masterpiece in the
Vatican, allow him to expatiate, and search at the foot of the altar for a
mortuary slab, which you will identify by a cross and the single word;
Orate; under this gravestone is buried Beatrice Cenci, whose tragical
story cannot but impress you profoundly.
She was the daughter of Francesco Cenci. Whether or not it be true that
men are born in harmony with their epoch, and that some embody its
good qualities and others its bad ones, it may nevertheless interest our
readers to cast a rapid glance over the period which had just passed
when the events which we are about to relate took place. Francesco
Cenci will then appear to them as the diabolical incarnation of his time.
On the 11th of August, 1492, after the lingering death-agony of
Innocent VIII, during which two hundred and twenty murders were
committed in the streets of Rome, Alexander VI ascended the pontifical
throne. Son of a sister of Pope Calixtus III, Roderigo Lenzuoli Borgia,
before being created cardinal, had five children by Rosa Vanozza,
whom he afterwards caused to be married to a rich Roman. These
children were:
Francis, Duke of Gandia;
Caesar, bishop and cardinal, afterwards Duke of Valentinois;
Lucrezia, who was married four times: her first husband was Giovanni
Sforza, lord of Pesaro, whom she left owing to his impotence; the

second, Alfonso, Duke of Bisiglia, whom her brother Caesar caused to
be assassinated; the third, Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, from whom
a second divorce separated her; finally, the fourth, Alfonso of Aragon,
who was stabbed to death on the steps of the basilica of St. Peter, and
afterwards, three weeks later, strangled, because he did not die soon
enough from his wounds, which nevertheless were mortal;
Giofre, Count of Squillace, of whom little is known;
And, finally, a youngest son, of whom nothing at all is known.
The most famous of these three brothers was Caesar Borgia. He had
made every arrangement a plotter could make to be King of Italy at the
death of his father the pope, and his measures were so carefully taken
as to leave no doubt in his own mind as to the success of this vast
project. Every chance was provided against, except one; but Satan
himself could hardly have foreseen this particular one. The reader will
judge for himself.
The pope had invited Cardinal Adrien to supper in his vineyard on the
Belvidere; Cardinal Adrien was very rich, and the pope wished to
inherit his wealth, as he already had acquired that of the Cardinals of
Sant' Angelo, Capua, and Modena. To effect this, Caesar Borgia sent
two bottles of poisoned wine to his father's cup-bearer, without taking
him into his confidence; he only instructed him not to serve this wine
till he himself gave orders to do so; unfortunately, during supper the
cup-bearer left his post for a moment, and in this interval a careless
butler served the poisoned wine to the pope, to Caesar Borgia, and to
Cardinal Corneto.
Alexander VI died some hours afterwards; Caesar Borgia was confined
to bed, and sloughed off his skin; while Cardinal Corneto lost his sight
and his senses, and was brought to death's door.
Pius III succeeded Alexander VI, and reigned twenty-five days; on the
twenty-sixth he was poisoned also.
Caesar Borgia had under his control eighteen Spanish cardinals who
owed to him their places in the Sacred College; these cardinals were
entirely his creatures, and he