After long examination I came to the conclusion that the rudely executed
sketch must have been placed there by another hand, as it seemed in
somewhat different ink, a trifle more faded than the writing. As is so
often the case in old manuscripts, blank spaces were used by subsequent
posessors to note memoranda at a time when every inch of parchment or
other writing surface was precious.
It apparently had no connection with the text; therefore, placing it
aside for further examination, I turned the page and continued to
decipher this remarkable and forbidden document regarding the perfidy of
the terrible House of Borgia.
As an antiquary I had become intensely interested in the strange record,
for it apparently threw an entirely new light upon the notorious
Lucrezia Borgia, the woman who had brought secret poisoning to a fine
art.
And as I proceeded, I found it continued as follows:
"In my most humble wise I served my ladie Lucrezia, wrapping myself, I
fear, in manifold errors, and being privy to the detestable crimes of
the Cardinal Cesare. Both my ladie and myself knew that it was Cesare
who, with his own hand, stabbed his elder brother Giovanni Duke of
Gandia and threw him into the Tiber on the night of the feast given by
his mother the Madonna Giovanni at San Pietro ad Vincula. We knew, too,
of many dark and foul crimes beyond those in which my lady's father and
brother compelled here to partake. After the assassination of the lord
of Gandia, the Cardinal Cesare threw aside his scarlet hat and became
capitain-general of the Church, with the title of the Lord Duke Cesare
de Valentinois. He shrank from neither sacrilege or murder, readily
doffing the purple to assume the breastplate, and at head of his army
crushed the feudal power of the barons in the Romagna.
"For a short space, alas! did he tarry, and brief was my lady's respite
from the horrors thrust upon her. You, mi reader, who hath noe fere OF
DEATH may still continue to scann this recorde; but I yet do warn and
beseache of you to stay thine inquisitiveness, or the gaining of the
secret, as it must be at thine own rysk and peril. Truely I affirm unto
you that the thinges done in the palace of my lord Prince of Bisceglia
at instigation and order of the fat-faced, double-chinned Borgia Pope
were the foulest and blackest that ever man did conceive. To His
Holiness's enemies the mere touch of my ladie's soft hand meant certain
death, and feastes were given at the which those singled out were swept
away like flies. None who dared to thwart the Borgia Pope or the lord
Duke of Valentinois escaped swift and certain destruction. For them,
death lurked at all times no matter how much care they took of their
personal safetie. The fiendish ingenuity of Cesare Borgia showed itself
in divers and sundry ways all to encompass the death of rivals that the
House of Borgia became paramount, and its power overwhelming.
"Pleas it your goodness to understande that I be so bold as to put it to
writing that which I have seene that you who live after me shall know
and learn this my secret contained herein."
Here, again, was a second drawing, slightly more complicated than the
former, and at the bottom was written, evidently in old Lovel's hand,
the single and inexplicable word, in no language known to me, "_treyf_."
At one corner was a sketch of a circle with radiating lines which might
be intended to represent the sun; but so crude was the drawing that it
might be meant for anything. Therefore, after a few minutes' minute
examination, I came to the conclusion that my first theory was wrong,
and that both had been drawn by the same hand that had inscribed the
curious record.
Continuing my task of deciphering, I suddenly became seized by violent
neuralgic pains in the head and back, attended by excruciating cramp in
the hands, similar to that I had once experienced through writing too
much. Notwithstanding this, however, I further prosecuted my
investigation of the secret record which, as will be seen, proved a very
remarkable one. After the inexplicable design, it continued:
"I suppose it to be the will of God that I remained the humble servante
of my ladie Lucrezia obstinately determined to suffer all extremities
rather than to leave her in the hands of those secret assassins. Many
times did mi unhappie ladie seek my counsel, remorseful of the part she
was forced to bear by His Holiness and the lord Duke of Valentinois. To
mine own knowledge many who visited at the palace were envenomed in
secret and went to their homes to die. Of these, one was my lord Don
Ludovico Visconti, who had allied himself to the Doge and Senate of
Venice, and upon the hilt of whose sword, whych he unbuckled while he
sat at meat, was there placed a drop of the Borgia poison. Another was
the lord Alessandro Farnese, cardinal-deaycon of San Cosina, who died
suddenly after leaving the presence of His Holiness and my lady
Lucrezia; a third victim was the Madonna Sancia, daughter of His Majesty
Don Alonso II., to whom my lady Lucrezia was forced by her father to
sende a ringe of gold, and who died one hour after plaicinge it upon her
finger. Again, my lady Lucrezia was compelled to invite to a great
banquet the Don Oliverotto da Femo, Don Giovanni Fogliani, Don Vitellozo
of Citta di Castello, Don Paolo Orsini of Sinigaglia, Don Lorenzo
Manfredi of Faenza, the white-faced cardinal-chamberlain Riarjo, and Don
Juan Vera, cardinal of Santa Balbina. His Holiness and the Duke Cesare
were both presente, the feaste beinge gyven in order to effect a peace
with the fiefs of the Romagna. Myself I sat at the ende of the table
next my lord Orsini; but a foule treachery was practised, for every
guest, wythout exception, was secretely poisoned, and at breake of daye
not one was alive, although no effect was felt by anyone before they
left the palace. By such means as these did the Romagna fall beneath
the power of the Borgias.
"Full many a woman hateful to the House of Borgia became envenomed by
dainty comfits handed to her by my lady's lisping child the Duke
Roderico, who was thus a poisoner at two years old, but of whose
sweetemeats the ladies were unsuspecting. And be it known to you by
this my record that my lady's husband, my lord Prince of Bisceglia, was
but of the age of twenty and one years at this time, and helpless in the
venomous hands of the Duke Cesare. Rome was filled wyth assassyns.
Myself, like every man who valued his safety, put on a mail-shirt when I
left my bed, and set no foote in the streetes till I had buckled a sword
or at least a poignard at my side. But the red bull was rampant, for
the whole power of the Borgias was contained in the deadly potency of
those small phialls of glass and the impossibility of detection of the
fatal _cantarella_.
"Think you, my reader, that any indifferent man, knowinge these things,
and knowing also that the position of the lady Lucrezia was hateful unto
her, could but suffer himselfe to remain as her faithful chamberlain,
and seek to guard her from the fearsome perils that surrounded her.
Forthermore, one night at nine of the clock, my ladie came to me in
terror, saying that she having quarrelled with her father, His Holiness
had sent for her to his private apartment in the Vatican, where he spoke
unto her and took her hand in forgiveness. As she withdrewe it she saw
that he wore the venome ring the which is hollow, like that in my
possession, and containeth the deadly _cantarella_! Then did my lady
know that she had been victym of treachery, and was doomed. Already her
beautiful face was pale, and upon her were the pains in the jaws and
tongue, the whych told us the truth. Not loosing a moment of time, I
obtained the poignard containing the antidote, and with it struck deep
into her white forearm, and whych she held for me withoute flinching
untill the blood flowed, and by this meanes was her life, attempted by
His Holiness the lord Alexander P.P. VI., given back unto her.
"Twyce myself was I envenomed by the Duke Cesare (accursed be his memory
for ever), and twice was I able to counteract the poison with the
antydote that my ladie Lucrezia had given me. The Borgia poison lurked
in everything. A flower could be so impregnated that its perfume was
rendered fatal; gloves were treated so that the wearer died wythin
twelve hours; the hat, the boots, the staff, the mail-shirt, the woman's
kirtle or the man's hose were all envenomed; nay, even unto the very
chair upon the which a gueste sat. No poison was placed in the cup, it
beinge always external and impossible to detect; beside which its action
could be so regulated that I have known death to take place in an hour
in some cases, while in others the fatal conclusion would not arrive for
a week or even a month, according to the wishes of the Pope Alexander
and his ambicious son. In very truth the possession of that secrete
venom gave to the house of the Borgias power over both Church, state,
and the riches and treasures of the world, all of whych they conquered
by the vilest treachery known unto man.
"My singular good reader, my duty presupposed, pleaseth it your good
readership to understande that as in the case of my lorde Sforza of
Pesaro, so in the case of my lorde Prince of Bisceglia, His Holiness
finding himself foiled in the attempt to kill his daughter, soon wished
to rid her of her husband, seeing that to marry her again unto one of
the new lords of the Romagna would support the papal power in those
parts. The crisis occurred on the morrow after my lord prince had
returned from Naples, the VIIIth day of August in the year of grace
1500. My lord had been secretely envenomed twice, and escaped death by
meanes of the antidote; but on the night afore named, at eleven of the
clock, he went forthe to Saint Peter's, but while ascending the steps
was greviously stabbed by a bande of masqued men in the pay of the Duke
Cesare. Weak from loss of blood, he dragged himselfe unto the Pope's
apartmentes, where my ladie Lucrezia, chancing to be there, swooned at
sight of him. There were fifteene wounds upon him, but his life had
been saved by his mail-shirte; yet for three weekes he lay ill in the
Borgia tower, my lady Lucrezia never leaving him, and, fearful of
poison, preparinge his food with her own hands. None the less, before
my lorde had recovered, the Duke Cesare, accompanied by one Don
Michelotto, visited him one night, and havinge driven my lady and the
Madonna Sancia from the room, they remained alone with him. My ladie
flew down to the chamber of the Segnatura, that had been set apart for
me duringe my lord's illness; and, hearinge what had transpired, I
rushed up to my lord's apartment only to discover he had been foully
strangled. The bravo Michelotto aimed a blow at me; but his blade
turned by my mail-shirte, he made his escape. When my brave lady came
and found her lord dead, her sorrow knew no bounds, for she saw that he,
like unto the others, had fallen at last a victim of the Borgia
treachery. Both the lord Alexander P.P. VI. and his son Cesare had the
habit of saying `That which is not done at noon can be done at sunset.'
"Reader, who darest to seek within this book, curb thy curiosity and
inquisitiveness, and stay thine hand, for herein is written strange
things, secrets which concern you not, and have remained hidden
mysteries from the world--things the knowledge of which must render you
among the greatest on earth, yet must bring evil and destruction unto
you. Having gained knowledge so far, I do entreat of you, brave as thou
art, to seek no further to reopen this Closed Book. Again, harken to
this warning of a dead man, and save thyself."
Again those extraordinary, excruciating pains cramped my brow and limbs,
while my throat once more became contracted, just as it had been on the
previous night when I had commenced to make investigation.
But with my brain reeling and my senses confused I turned the
time-stained page, and overleaf saw written there in capitals in the
centre of one blank folio the ominous words:
"O AVARICIOUS READER
WHO HAST HEEDED NOT THE WARNING!
TRULY THOU ART ENVENOMED AND MUST
DIE. TO THEE NO POWER OF ANTIDOTE CAN
AVAIL, NO HAND CAN SAVE. THE SHARPNESS
OF DEATH IS UPON THEE."
Then, for the first time, the terrible truth flashed upon me.
The vellum leaves of that secret record were impregnated by some unknown
and subtle poison, probably that secret compound of the House of Borgia
that could be used to envenom any object and render it deadly to the
touch; and I, disregarding the premonition, was poisoned.
I cast the heavy volume from me with a cry of horror and despair. The
pain was excruciating. The sting of death was already upon me.