Prologue
Late one evening while Cesare lay ill and Lucrezia continued her life of luxury in the north, Pope Alexander VI, Roderigo Borgia, summoned his cardinals to his bedside. For a long time they stood in his presence. When his voice broke through lips which barely moved, his words seemed to come from another world: "For years..." he murmured, and they moved softly forward to hear better, " ... I have bargained with the devil!" He raised his half-closed eyes with effort to take in the faces of those around his bed, and a trace of a smile flickered over his visage. "A full ... and devilish ... life. And I'm not afraid to pay. The devil is not unkind to his disciples..." Thus began the decline of-THE HOUSE OF BORGIA