After this, all came about as Caesar had desired; he became the man who was all-powerful after the pope; but when he was second in command it was soon evident to the Roman people that their city was making a new stride in the direction of ruin.  There was nothing but balls, fetes, masquerades; there were magnificent hunting parties, when Caesar—­who had begun to cast off is cardinal’s robe,—­weary perhaps of the colour, appeared in a French dress, followed, like a king by cardinals, envoys and bodyguard.  The whole pontifical town, given up like a courtesan to orgies and debauchery, had never been more the home of sedition, luxury, and carnage, according to the Cardinal of Viterba, not even in the days of Nero and Heliogabalus.  Never had she fallen upon days more evil; never had more traitors done her dishonour or sbirri stained her streets with blood.  The number of thieves was so great, and their audacity such, that no one could with safety pass the gates of the town; soon it was not even safe within them.  No house, no castle, availed for defence.  Right and justice no longer existed.  Money, farce, pleasure, ruled supreme.

Still, the gold was melting as in a furnace at these Fetes; and, by Heaven’s just punishment, Alexander and Caesar were beginning to covet the fortunes of those very men who had risen through their simony to their present elevation.  The first attempt at a new method of coining money was tried upon the Cardinal Cosenza.  The occasion was as follows.  A certain dispensation had been granted some time before to a nun who had taken the vows:  she was the only surviving heir to the throne of Portugal, and by means of the dispensation she had been wedded to the natural son of the last king.  This marriage was more prejudicial than can easily be imagined to the interests of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain; so they sent ambassadors to Alexander to lodge a complaint against a proceeding of this nature, especially as it happened at the very moment when an alliance was to be formed between the house of Aragon and the Holy See.  Alexander understood the complaint, and resolved that all should be set right.  So he denied all knowledge of the papal brief though he had as a fact received 60,000 ducats for signing it—­and accused the Archbishop of Cosenza, secretary for apostolic briefs, of having granted a false dispensation.  By reason of this accusation, the archbishop was taken to the castle of Sant’ Angelo, and a suit was begun.

But as it was no easy task to prove an accusation of this nature, especially if the archbishop should persist in maintaining that the dispensation was really granted by the pope, it was resolved to employ a trick with him which could not fail to succeed.  One evening the Archbishop of Cosenza saw Cardinal Valentino come into his prison; with that frank air of affability which he knew well how to assume when it could serve his purpose, he explained to the prisoner the embarrassing situation in which the pope was placed, from which the archbishop alone, whom His Holiness looked upon as his best friend, could save him.