"Della Rovere's escape was orchestrated by whom?" "Of that, I must plead ignorance." "We are in a snake pit surrounded by venom and smiling vipers and our son pleads ignorance?" "Maybe it was you." "Let me." "Maybe you helped him to live to see another day." "The day perhaps when your beloved father breathes his last." "If you believe that, Father, then you have lost all faith in me." "We have lost faith in everyone." "Everything." "Even the hand that guides us." "Surely not in your own family?" "Our family." "That"" "...bosom of trust and tranquillity." "No." "We feel safe in the arms of our family." "But as for that nest of vipers called the College of Cardinals we shall cleanse them, purge it." "As we ourselves have been purged." "So, brother, who called us here?" "This letter." "Unsigned." "It promised sport against the Borgia family." "And what if a Borgia wrote it?" "Too clever surely, even for them." "Can you think of a better way to draw out their enemies?" "Who's there?" "Vitelli." "Paulo Orsini." "And Roberto." "When did you take to writing letters?" "We didn't." "You were summoned too?" "Vitelli." "Prospero Colonna." "We were summoned here by the Orsini?" "You were summoned by me." "And you are?" "I'm the black heart of a Borgia nightmare." "Ispeak with Catherina Sforza's voice." "She invites you all to join her in a confederacy of hatred." "A hatred of the Sforza?" "We all sign up to that." "And she would call you fool." "She would remind you of the days families ruled this papacy." "Roman families:" "Sforza, Colonna, Vitelli, Orsini." "Bury your enmities." "Bury them until the Borgia snake islanced." " And she has the power to do that?" "With your help." "And then we can happily hate each other again." "She will drink to that." "Think of Rome as a spider's web, my son." "Each family has its silken thread attached to an egg that is planted within these walls." "Orsini, Baglioni, Vitelli, Colonna." "And each one of those diaphanous threads go back through their families to the tarantula of Forli:" "The great Arachne, Catherina Sforza." "And every egg wears a cardinal's hat and a smile of obedience and piety." "And plots to murder you your mother, your sister." "And the plot to murder your beloved brother... ."succeeds." "Unforgiveable, surely." "So if you are to gain our love again we would have you trace those silken threads back to the families outside these walls." "And let us deal with the cardinals within." "And then I never saw her again." " We're being followed." "Warn him off." "Yes, my lord." "You, be wise and go home now." "I am never wise." "Hey!" "Go." "My Lord Vitelli." " My Lord Borgia." "You're in quite the hurry." "We were accosted." "Rome is a lethal place at times like these." "Who bears you a grudge?" "I know not." "My whole family was assaulted." "And but for the actions of my brave manservant my mother, sister and nephew would lie like carrion in the streets." "Yes, I heard as much." "You also heard who set the dogs upon them?" " No, I don't trust rumour." "Catherina Sforza, it is rumoured." "It is also rumoured that she had help." "From whom?" "Who covets the papal crown?" "The great Roman families:" "Colonna, Orsini, Baglioni." "Vitelli." "A dangerous accusation, my lord." " And one that would need evidence." "Jndeed." "Micheletto, call the night watch." "There was unpleasantness in the streets." "And so I shall escort the good Lord Vitelli safely home." "Rodrigo." " No, no." "It's no good." "Come here." "It's no good." "My love, it happens to every man once in a while." " Not to rne." "To every man." "Why?" "Have you known so many?" "No." "I'm sorry." "Forgive me." "Forgive me." "Come here." "We have never been unmanned before." "Maybe it's the poison." "I mean, we want you." "I desire you." "You are tired." "You have been through too much." "I've been tired before." "Never been undone before." "Perhaps it's age." "You are the most vigorous man I have ever known." " Was, perhaps." "You are." "And this will pass." "Believe me, it will pass." "Brother." "Yes!" "Cardinal Orsini." "You could hear a pin drop, Micheletto." "If I had a pin." " You have a pin, cardinal?" "No, my lord, I have no pin." "But you have relatives here." "Could you introduce me to them?" "Lords Paulo and Roberto Orsini, Lord Cesare Borgia." "At your service." " May I join you?" "Be our guest." "You were here for the game, I would hazard." "The pope falls ill, the game begins." "Who will succeed him, an Orsini?" "A Colonna?" "A d'Este?" "Or would anyone dare bet on another Spaniard?" " But the pope lives." "indeed." "The game is over." "For now." "So then why do you still linger here in Rome?" "We like the ruins." "D0 you prefer them to your castle in Bracciano?" "We like that too." "But you must confer with your cousin, the cardinal which is difficult in Bracciano." "His business is in Rome." "Yes, he serves the pope in consistory." "Does that service include the attempted assassination of his family?" " Be careful, my lord." "I am most careful." "I gutted those incompetent dogs." "Sent by Catherina Sforza?" "By you?" "Or by a great combination of both." "But the pope survived, thanks be to God." "Take it down." "So be careful with your calumnies and your accusations." "Rome is a city of rumour." "And you had a brother who was murdered." "And rumour has it that the culprit still lives." "He has yet to be found." "Well, perhaps he's here." "Are you accusing me?" "Or me?" "Come, Father." "Come." " Where are we going?" "That's the mystery." "Come!" "Come!" " Father!" "Hold on." "Hold rne, Father." "Promise you'll hold me." " No!" "Father!" "Juan!" "Cesare, Holy Father, your loving son." "Our only son." "Catherina Sforza seeks out allies." "Come to talk to us about spiders." " In an alliance against us." "With whom?" "All of them, the great Roman families." "So it is time to act to snip those silken threads from their source the great Arachne and to give her a lesson in the elegance of revenge." " Can revenge be elegant?" "Oh, yes, and eloquent." "We shall begin with words." "An inquisition within these walls." "They will all cry innocent." "We will have one interrogate the other." "Interrogate." "And of what do we accuse them?" "Of a hand in the conspiracy to murder our sacred person, and of our family." "The murder of your beloved son." "You surpass yourself, Cesare." "I have a lot to atone for." "We shall start with he who is closest to the tarantula of Forli:" "Cardinal Sforza." "Holiness, I swear by the living God that I am innocent in this matter." "I have long forsaken all ties with my family." "I'm a nameless orphan in the service of God my pope and the Borgia family." "You would rather be a Borgia than a Sforza?" "In everything but name, I already am." "And you wish to prove to us your innocence?" "Your Holiness, I must." "Then find for us those responsible." "Who else then lies under suspicion?" "Everyone." "Anybody who wears a red hat." "Interrogate them all." "I'm hardly an inquisitor." "Then become one." "We will cleanse this Vatican of ours of anyone who even thinks to question our fitness for this most holy of offices." "Is thought to be a crime now?" "Begin with De Luca." "Threaten him with loss of office and banishment and he'll sing madrigals." "And if he doesn't?" "Take him to the Castel Sant'Angelo." "Acquaint him with the instruments of torture." "You cannot torture a prince of the church." "I know that, you know that, but imagination is a great persuader." "He saw Savonarola burn." "He'll soon begin to sing, if he hasn't already, like a nightingale." "And then?" "Then seize his estates, strip his red hat." "Banish him to some hermitage." "And arrest all those he has implicated then start the process again." "We are in a new world, cardinal." "You were married before." "Indeed, my love." "The whole world knows that." "And yet this child is not your husband's." "True." "The whole world knows that too." "If we are to be married, and happily, my love we must have no secrets." "Then I have a confession to make to you, Lucrezia Borgia." "I'm listening." "I saved myself for marriage." "Thank God." "So you are all mine." "You misunderstand rne." "I am that most un-ltalian thing." "A virgin." "Well, we can soon put that to rights." " I made a vow to Saint Agnes." "The patron saint of purity." "The first woman that I'd lie with would be my wife." "Well, lie with me." "I will be your wife." "Yes, but you are not yet." "We must wait, then." "Yes, we must wait." "And until that night all this beauty will be just a promise." "Perhaps the poison is still within you." "Perhaps it strikes at the root of you." "The doctor said the poison is gone." "Perhaps it's God's punishment, your lack of vigour." "Or maybe his blessing." "In the past, we have striven to subdue our passions." "Maybe now we can succeed." "But how can we love when the very air we breathe is poisoned with venom and hatred and trust no one but you?" "And we could not protect you when the assassins struck." " You can't blame yourself for that." "We are God's minister on earth." "He has abandoned us." "If we cannot keep you safe, we would rather give up our calling." "Life without the papacy, what a thought." "But how would you spend your days?" " Tending your vines?" "Yes." "We would sit together in the garden in the evening." " Watch our grandchildren grow." "A garden?" " We'd have a garden?" "Flowers." "A beehive." " Beehive." "And a soft spring well." "Then we would find peace." "With all that we have, all the trappings of office and power we cannot protect you, our family." "We would rather be a peasant in a garden with a pitchfork if that would keep you safe." "Cardinal De Luca." "I would speak with you." " Out of our way!" "He heard every word, the Holy Father." "Every word, every plot, every insinuation." "He must know what happens on the illness of a pope." "He plotted so himself." "This is not just any ordinary pope." "A pope whose son has been murdered, family almost died at the same blade." " He will take action." "So tell me, what must I do?" "First, you must confess." " Well, I admit it then, I am guilty." "Of what?" "Of avarice for advancement for, dare I say, the throne of St. Peter." "Well, that might not be enough." "Am I guilty of more?" "Who murdered the son?" "The world awaits news on that." "There was a plot led by Catherina Sforza and Della Rovere to rid the earth of the Borgia family." "The plotters are in the Vatican walls." "I am a cleric, cardinal." "I am adept at strategy." "Perhaps arranging votes on conclave, on committee." "As to my expertise in murder, I would plead incompetence." "You are the cousin to Catherina Sforza." "The finger of such an accusation must surely fall on you." "Indeed it does, which may well explain my sense of urgency in this matter." "When the Holy Father was ill, he heard no words of mine." "And what are my options?" "Confession." "To a crime I would never even dream of committing?" "Then name those who would, the plotters." "And who are they?" "Orsini, Versucci, Colonna." "Pick who you will." "It doesn't matter." "They all wanted him dead." " I could never." "Yes, I know." "The very thought seems outrageous." "But we must learn how outrage becomes normality." "Bowls for sale." "Bowls for sale or trade." "This Vatican of ours has changed." "Forever." "Follow me." "Follow you where?" "Into the future." "Am I, a prince of the church, to be put to the rack?" "The very thought appals me." "But there are others less delicate thanl." "So perhaps these instruments of torture may act as an aid to contemplation." "Cardinal Sforza." "Cardinal Sforza." "Cardinal Sforza, please." "Please, Cardinal Sforza." "Please, Cardinal Sforza." "Cardinal Sforza!" "Sforza!" "No!" "Sforza!" "May I enter?" "Will modesty allow it?" "Please." "Little Giovanni." "He's a virgin." "He will punish me cruelly." "He will make me wait." "I have had word from my uncle, King Ferdinand of Naples." "Observe." "The sleep of the innocent." "You have come to kiss him good night?" "Or to kiss me?" "My uncle's letter mentioned him." "The child." " The child?" "Neither mine nor your husband's." "What of it?" "My uncle has expressed his disquiet at the thought of" " The thought of?" "The thought of a child without legitimacy in the palace of Naples." "Well, you and your uncle will have to agree to disagree, then." "Of course." " You would never" "Who negotiates your dowry?" "My brother." "Well, then I must go to him and insist that" "Perhaps I should broach the matter with him." "YOU?" "My brother's passions can be intense where issues of family are concerned." "Why have you forsaken me?" "Why have you forsaken me?" "You are in the house of lies." "The devil's house." "Think of them as your friends." "The rack, the iron maiden." "They have a message for you." " You have used them, I am sure." "I have suffered on them." "Your inquisitor believes that they elicit the truth." "They do not." "A man will say anything on the rack to make it end." " Then why am I here?" "To learn to lie." "To say whatever is needed to avoid their embrace." "You are to negotiate my dowry, brother, with his uncle." "The king of Naples, yes." "So must I trade one love for another?" " Leave us." "My lord." "Do you mean me for him?" "That too." "What do you mean?" "I mean my son, Giovanni." "His presence in Naples might be unwelcome." "I could have seen that coming." "The king of Naples feels that one cannot carry into one marriage baggage from the last." " Is your son baggage to you?" "No." "He's the light of my life." "Well, you could insist." "I will, as must you." "But you must make the case for the son of a stable boy in a royal household." "Listen." "You are Lucrezia Borgia." "You are the scandal of Italy." "You are also the envy of Italy, and soon to be a princess of Aragon." "Whoever gets in the way of your happiness will meet my wrath." "We are the unholy family." "Let him know that." "I fear he knows already." "He will love you, he will serve you and if Naples dares to take your son from you I promise it will never know peace again." "Can I get help, please?" " Help now!" "Yes, my lord." "Did you sleep?" "But I dreamed, cardinal." "You dreamt without sleeping?" "Now, that is miraculous." "Call it a waking dream." "Tell me." "I dreamed of a vast conspiracy encircling our beloved Vatican." "It has its roots in the hills of the Romagna in the great families that would claim St. Peter's as their own." "And its tendrils spread like writhing serpents through the streets of Rome breaking inside the Vatican walls where it becomes a many-headed hydra and each head wears a cardinal's hat." "Why don't you tell me more." " Lucrezia?" "ls that my brother?" " Yes." "The brother who loves me?" " The same." "Come in, then." "See my wedding gown." " God" "Come closer, brother." "MY gown." "DO YOU approve?" "The gold is divine." " I should leave, sis." "Why?" "Am I ugly, brother?" "The man who makes that claim will lose his tongue." "My foot." "It is ungainly." " Too large, perhaps?" "Your foot is beautiful." "You can't tell from there." "Feel it." " Is this a game?" "It is a game of want and wanting." "The toes are splayed a little." " God has made better feet, I'm sure." "Not that I have found." " You are a connoisseur of feet?" "Yes." "And I have found none better." "My calf." "Is it elegant?" "Is it smooth?" "What is this game, sis?" "My betrothed will not bed me." "He will not touch me." "He is a virgin." "You have the means to change that history, I'm sure." "Are you sure that this body has the necessary charms?" "I'm certain." "He has made a vow to St. Agnes, the patron saint of purity to remain chaste until married." "Unwise." "I am a Borgia." "And I feel unloved." "Positively foolish." "You look but don't touch." "My lady." "My lady, your fitting." "That will be the dressmakers to fit my wedding dress." " You must leave us, brother." "Yes." "For delicacy's sake." "Yeah, of course." "Come in." "There was a conspiracy, Holy Father devised by the mistress of Forli, Catherina Sforza." "But it is a conspiracy so vast that we have no doubt that she had help." "From within these walls?" "Indeed." "And have no doubt, Holy Father that he that denies such a conspiracy existed was part of the conspiracy himself." "We had feared as much." "A vast many-headed hydra spreading from the families of Romagna and each head wears a cardinal's hat." "Nonsense!" "Preposterous." "The end was plain:" "The murder of you and your entire family." "In the instance of your most sacred person, it almost succeeded." "In the instance of your beloved son, Juan Borgia it succeeded only too well." "And the conspirators?" "Are they amongst us here?" "They are, Holy Father." "And most shamefully, I must count myself amongst their number." "Your honesty is noted, but you must name names, cardinal." "Cardinal Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini." "Liar!" "Accuse yourself, De Luca, and that perfidious Orsini!" " Cardinal Giovanni Battista Orsini." "Listen, Your Highness." " These are false accusations coming" "Cardinal Rocca Colonna." "Cardinal Julius Versucci!" "I have been part of no conspiracy, Your Holiness!" "Those cardinals those who have betrayed our sacred trust will be stripped of their offices and titles their properties confiscated and returned to our Holy Mother Church." "They will be forbidden entry through the gates of Rome and live under censure for the rest of their days." "Is this why you would speak with me?" "I who was once you." "You who will become me." "Should I resign myself to being a mistress discarded?" "I should be hating you, not providing a sympathetic ear." "Advise me, then." "Is there another?" "Not that I know." "Perhaps it is you, then." "Something has changed between us." "I felt it for some time." "Does he still love you?" "Ihope." "Perhaps you'll find, as I have that love deepens, regardless of whether you share the same bed." "You mean I may find it is truly over between us?" "Perhaps." "Then you must state your terms." "Negotiate your exit." "What would you have from him, if not his passion?" "A palace, like yours." "That's easy." "The cardinals are falling like flies." "And a cardinaFs hat." "For you?" "Have you no shame?" "For my brother." "Do you think she'd be happy here?" "La Farnese?" "So she's to be banished from your life then?" "No." "But a little distance might be beneficial between us." "Have you told her that?" "I did mention it." "And?" "She was upset but the tears didn't last long." "I mean, I think she was relieved, maybe, to be released from us." "Everything has its end." "Whose palace was this?" "One of the cardinals who betrayed me." "It'll take more than a palace to keep her happy." "Have you spoken to her?" "She told me that your vigour had somewhat diminished." "I told her I couldn't imagine such a thing." "As I said before it's a blessing in disguise." "Why do you laugh?" "Because my life without you has turned out to be another blessing in disguise." "We're both blessed then." "Together we're cursed." "But apart at least I'm at peace." "My God, what a bed." "It would fit the whole consistory." "Perhaps it did." "What?" "This is a rare pleasure." "Alone together." "We find ourselves becoming a little agitated." "You should call the guard." "We lack the voice." "Little goat." "It's been a long time since you called me that." "Well, every now and then I whisper." "But rarely." "No,no,n0." "You lack the vigour, remember?" "It would appear no longer." "So the cause was not the poison, my love." "It would appear not." "You know we feel safe with you." "As if we've come home." "These offices I relinquish willingly." "These estates I place in the care of our Holy Mother Church." "This hat I now return to the hands that blessed me with it." "But I would ask one last blessing before I leave our beloved Vatican forever." "Confession." "I would confess to the pope's ear alone and be absolved of my heinous sins by the successor to St. Peter." " Now?" "Yes." "This is most irregular." "The business of defrocking alone will take hours." "I have been asked to effect my retirement with maximum and unseemly haste." "I have complied." "If my request is granted, I will be gone forever." "You need never set eyes on me again." " Well" "Please." "Please." "We grant this blessing." " No." "With the utmost efficacy." "Cardinal Sforza take our place." "Bless me, Your Holiness for I have sinned." "And my sins are many." "But the greatest of them is this murder." "Murder?" "I must protest against this outrage." "This hat is red as a symbol of our willingness to spill our blood in defence of our Holy Mother Church." "Whose murder?" "A murder yet to be committed!" "For which the whole world will grant me forgiveness." "And I return it willingly since there is nothing of value no residue of honour, of goodness of sanctity left to defend." "There will be rejoicing in the heavens as hell welcomes you with open arms." "May it lie in the filth which will be its deserved home." "Ru gladly die with you." "As you sink into the darkness, call out his name see if he replies." "Or if you must hear the eternal silence." "Next!" "Cardinal Colonna." "This is one endless confession." "Close the door." "God must want us to live."