"Fifteen oh-one." "With Gacet relieved of his papal duties..." " What are you doing?" " I will be gone tomorrow." "...others exert more influence over the pope." "And you must now give Louis what is his." "You are revived." "You are cured." "Your love for me is absolute." "Past misdeeds continue to haunt the Borgia." "Lucrezia would avidly harden my pene between her lips..." "Stop." "Stop!" "I have granted your request, allowing you to murder di Calabria." "The chances are greater that only the child will survive." "As the new century dawns, head and heart collide on all fronts." "For the sake of our child, I beg you, do not kill my father." "Duke Ercole, we give our daughter's hand to your son." "Such a match ill-fits." "We will make this marriage happen." "Dorotea." "Dorotea?" "Where are they?" "While you were in Rome, the Lady Dorotea Malatesta disappeared." "She was abducted." " Or fled, to her father in Rimini." " And my daughter Lucrezia?" "Gone as well." "How did a woman and a baby simply evaporate?" "Malatesta is cunning." "Cunning only in the acquisition of gold." "He must have realized or been informed that I am camped outside the city walls not to seize the neighboring Cervia, but his Rimini." "Go." "Tell the duke that I wish to meet and thank him for his peerless hospitality." "Please, Papa." "The sun will never rise upon my wedding day if you continue this impasse with Alfonso's father." "You must agree to Duke Ercole's demands." "Whose side are you on?" "We stand on the side of love." "Then let love pay the dowry of 200,000 ducats." "Our pockets are stretched thin." "Cesare's endless exploits." "The revenue from the Jubilee?" "All but spent." "Think, Papa." "A Borgia will someday become duke of Ferrara." "Cesare controls the Romagna." "Italy unified." "Is this not your dream made real?" "We cannot pay the dowry with dreams anymore than you can with love." " Mint more coins." " With what silver?" "What gold?" "Lucrezia, you could pawn your jewels." "A small sacrifice for happiness." "That will only get you to half of what Ercole demands." "Unless, Alfonso, you can convince your father to lower the sum?" "Me?" "I possess no leverage." "We have dreams for our family, so does Ercole for yours." "We will use his dreams to end this contretemps." "Your brother Ippolito will be elevated to cardinal." "A red hat is worth at least 20,000 ducats." ""Gold above all else," Ficino said." "For our pockets and our bodies." "Drink, my sons." "Annibale, Giovanni, Piero, go be useful elsewhere." "You too, Vincenzo." " Come, join me, Emperor Borgia." " Do not condescend, Pandolfuccio." "Conqueror, then?" "Titles matter not, I suppose, when they precede the dreaded name of Borgia." "And what of Malatesta?" "A name soiled by generation after generation of greed and malfeasance." "Your reign is over, the Castel Sismondo surrounded." "I am here only to avoid bloodshed." " Your bloodshed." " I pay my tithes to the Church." "I have granted you safe passage through Rimini and this is my reward?" "No." "This is." "Twenty thousand ducats for your cannons, munitions and solemn pledge to leave Rimini, never to return." "You want to buy my duchy with the same ducats I paid your father?" "Let me also grant you the lives of your sons, who, when they stepped out of this room just now, were arrested." "Very well." "I accept your generous gift of exile." "And Dorotea." "Dorotea, why do you weep?" "Your father has surrendered peacefully." " We are together once more." " Do you know the meaning of my name?" ""Gift of God," and so you are." "So I am to my father." "He begs me to join him in exile." " And will you?" " Fathers are hard to ignore." "You know that better than I." "And my daughter?" "A war wagon is no place to raise a child." "Lucrezia will leave with me come morning." " No more, please." " Cesare has turned reckless." "Why?" "Because he restores the Papal States to our rightful dominion?" "Rimini is loyal, yet Malatesta has been deposed." "My king..." "Will be given proof of Duke Pandolfo's disobedience to his sacred oath once we speak with our son." "Burchard, the pipe." "Carafa's argument is valid." "If you have lost control of Cesare..." "We have not." "Although we lied about his true plans to subdue Rimini instead of Cervia." "There remains a great disparity between acting against our will and acting without our knowledge." "Is there?" "The prince is unpredictable and therefore unreliable." "He works only in secret at night and then sleeps at dawn, for a mere two hours." "But when awake, he charges about with boundless energy." " Where is our pipe?" " I cannot find..." " Holiness, it is not here." " Incompetent." "We have chastised Cesare for being so elusive." "Yet his success supports his methods." "You will head to Rimini at once." "Learn from Cesare the legal grounds for the city's capture." "And remind our prince, we are the father and he is the son." "Silvia..." "Excuse my lateness, yet I am off as quickly as I arrive." "The pope has ordered me to Rimini." "What is wrong?" "Sit down, my son." " We received news today." " What is it?" "I am three months with child." "Oh." " Then why do you mourn, my beloved?" " The birth risks Silvia's life." "The doctor says the strain of pregnancy will be too much." "The pig gelder's surgery worked before." "You forget Jakob Nufer said Silvia would not survive another cutting." " I am afraid our baby will die with me." " No." "I will not stand idly by." "If we cannot have faith in medicine, then we will seek refuge in Christ." " I will summon Vannozza Catanei." " Vannozza?" "No." "I am master of this house and I say yes." "Vannozza has become more devout than any woman I know, with a bank account large enough to grant her access to the holiest of cures." "I will also inform the pope that I cannot travel to Rimini." "He will not listen." "He will anger." "Xander, you must do as the Holy Father commands." "But please return as soon as your horse will carry you." "My love, the sight of you..." "News first, romance later." "Most Supreme Pontiff, the duke of Ferrara hereby agrees to your terms." "I am to marry Lucrezia." "Hmm..." "If, besides being created a cardinal, your brother Ippolito" " is appointed archbishop of Bologna." " Is that not a frivolous detail?" "Frivolous?" "An impenetrable roadblock." "Della Rovere is Bologna's titular archbishop." "If his hatred for our papacy were not enough, he has despised the d'Este since your father betrayed his uncle, Pope Sixtus." "Ercole knows this." "You cannot negotiate with a man who has no desire to settle." "Ercole tests the limits of my love for Alfonso." "So I will prove that my love is insurmountable." "Angela, invite Cardinal della Rovere to dinner." "Just the two of us." "I bring two cures: the waters from Santa Maria Via Lata, and this." "On loan from a priest in the Lateran Basilica who owed me some money." "The last physical trace of Jesus Christ on earth: the Holy Prepuce." "Preserved since our Lord's circumcision in the temple of Jerusalem." "You think this divine... foreskin can rescue Silvia?" "Combined with sacred water and our trust in the goodness of God." "To have faith in the unknown is like having faith in one's husband." "At times you have no other choice." "The doge is emphatic." "The unlawful seizure of Rimini forces Venice to reexamine our ties to the Papal States." "We say to Venice as we have said to the envoys of Genoa," "Mantua, Modena and Florence, our domain's internal affairs should not cause you concern." "Holiness, I am sorry." " She would not..." " Burchard, escort the ambassador out." "You interrupt affairs of state." "Because I do not know where else to turn." "My oldest and dearest friend is dangerously ill." "Rodrigo, gentle Rodrigo, help me be strong for her and my family." "We know this pain and anxiety from when our uncle, the great Pope Calixtus was sick." "Yet the day he crossed over, our heartache ended knowing" " his soul was finally at rest." " My father's passing I could accept, yet I still carry the grief of my brother Angelo's death." "We cannot know how we will react until the moment comes." "Still, Giulia..." "Will you cry when I die?" "Come on, come on, come on, let's go." "Send the statues to my father." "Except that one, which I will keep." "Ship the books to Cesena." "I will give Michelangelo's Buonarroti's statue of the Sleeping Cupid to her." " Pick something Silvia would like." " Your Grace." "Dionigi?" "What happened?" "Troops loyal to Malatesta knew our route and set a deadly trap." " Decimating our escort." " The family escaped?" "Into the hills." "As the duke rode off, he cursed your name and promised to return to Rimini with Venetian arms and ships." "Pandolfo said that his sons would bury you." "I spared their lives for Dorotea." "I will not make that mistake twice." "You have failed me, Di Naldo." "Restore yourself by finding the fugitives, and fast." " Why are you here, Alessandro?" " I come as a mediator." "I withheld my war plans, so the pontiff expects an apology?" "A justification." "You tell no one of your true intentions, must you also withhold your reasons?" "My silence was inseparable from my strategy." "Now I am the Holy Bible, ready to open at any verse." "Why attack Rimini when all eyes were set on Cervia?" "Precisely because of that." "Malatesta's warm greeting was a lie." "Before arriving in Cervia, I was to be met with an ambush." "The weapons supplied by Malatesta himself." " You have proof of this?" " I have letters signed by the duke." "Some forged, of course, but two are written in gold dust." "I need not tell you that the fall of Rimini has caused a tidal wave throughout the Italian peninsula." "Anyone with half a brain knew that I would have to seize Rimini." "The area is essential to my control of the Romagna." "So you are suggesting that the pope possesses only half a brain?" "I am suggesting that you tell that old man the following." "So for Cesare's maneuver to work, his actions had to appear without premeditation." " Hence the secrecy." " He does not trust the Holy Father?" "He wishes to keep the spies who infest the papal court uninformed." "And Rimini?" "The citizens, though happy to be free of Malatesta, remain subdued, voices hushed, hands busy." "There is an unquiet silence while the deposed duke remains at-large." "Cesare anticipates revolt?" "Il Valentino demonstrates no lack of courage in dominating the situation." "No one has ever accused Cesare of excessive modesty." " And next?" " Now he will attack Cervia or so he says." "Send duplicates of Malatesta's treasonous letters to King Federigo in Naples, as well as to Venice, Genoa, Mantua, Modena, and Florence." "So we may put an end to their relentless whining." " What do you think, Vice Chancellor?" " Cesare conquers with guile, but rules with wisdom." "Perhaps his reforms can keep Rimini fat and content." "Unless he exceeds his limit..." "Holiness?" "I am sorry my duties as papal legate delayed such a surprising and delightful appointment, Princess." "Dowager princess, at best." "Without my late husband's claim to the principalities of Bisceglie and Salerno, I am Lucrezia, pure and simple." "Hardly simple." "The food is sublime, the wine gorgeous." "You seem to know my tastes to the extreme." "Almost as if..." "I thought you oppose spying." "I see no harm in gathering culinary intelligence." "Filiberto surrenders his recipes too easily." "And the tune would be my choice as well." "Music inspires the mind, fuels the spirit and softens the heart." "Dance with me?" "My dear, I have been at this a long time, and I can tell when someone needs something." "And from what I can gather, your need is substantial." "You think you know me, Giuliano." "But you know only of me through my father, my family the vicious rumors which encircle my life." "And what would you like me to do once I know the real Lucrezia Borgia?" "Help secure my happiness, free of my father's shadow and stricture." "A desire which you most likely possess." "But how could I possibly free you?" "Surrender the archdiocese of Bologna to Ippolito d'Este, so I may marry Alfonso." "And when my husband ascends to the ducal throne, I will have his ear, and you will know no better friend than the duchess of Ferrara." "Of all the Borgia, sweet Lucrezia," "I believe you are the most dangerous." "Della Rovere will surrender Bologna." "How in God's great Heaven did you convince that son of a fishmonger to help your cause?" " We danced." " Danced?" "Della Rovere danced?" "Brilliant tactic, which we have never thought to employ." "Thank you, Your Highness." "Your Grace, Pandolfo Malatesta has been captured, along with three of his sons." " Three?" " Giovanni Maria eluded us." "Gone to Venice no doubt, in search of an army." "What of Dorotea?" "She and your daughter remain at-large." "Deliver the prisoners to the dungeon." "Execute two of Malatesta's offspring." "Leave the third for me." " Your Grace?" " What?" "When Caterina Sforza threatened the life of my boy, you saved him." "Ah, yes, I see." "A fair point, Dionigi." "I go too far." "Thank you." "Find an ambitious young soldier, with no children, to carry out the executions." "Wait." "I will kill them." "Ah." "A lion lives beneath the lamb." " Which two should die?" " Keep the one who drawls alive." "Malatesta loves him most." "Borgia." "Pandolfo, I assume that as a child, Vincenzo's sensitivity required an unusually strong paternal presence." "Please." "He is an innocent." "And yet the innocents died, so the Christ Child might live." " I beg you, as a father." " Yes, I am a father." "Every time I go into battle," "I think of the fathers of the soldiers who will die." "We all must be willing to sacrifice our sons for the benefit of others." "You are a prince, the Prince of Devils." "You are Lityerses." "Take comfort." "You will not live long enough to see the fourth of your progeny join his brothers, once Giovanni Maria too is in chains." "Neither will you, Borgia." "As we speak your own general, Vitelli, conspires to overthrow you." "I have persuaded the duke of Bologna to join the plot to exact vengeance for his son." "Oh, the list goes on:" "Petrucci of Siena, Baglioni." "You see, Catalan!" "They are coming for you." "I may have lost, but you will never win." "Agapito, I need verification." "Dispatch our spies to Bologna and Siena." "Soon you will either be driven out of Italy or held captive." "Your reign, a mirage." "Your name, vilified." "Aah!" "There." "Everything you've ever desired." "You can breathe, eat and fuck all the gold you want." "Then, think about how your greed led to the loss of your duchy, the death of your children." "Think too of your granddaughter, my Lucrezia, your blood forever mingled with the Borgia." "And then soon these treasures will devour you from inside-out." "Like Midas, the king whose touch turned his daughter into cold, heartless gold." "No." "No." "No." "Borgia, no!" "From Prince Cesare, in Rimini." "So much blood on our hands, Burchard." "Three children dead and a father who will starve." "Is conquest worth the weight on our soul?" "I will craft a response to Cesare later." "Leave us." " Where is Alfonso?" " I thought he would be with you." "No." "From the illustrious Duke Ercole." ""Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae"" "by Lucrezia's former tutor, Josquin des Prez." "An engagement gift." "My father finally and fully agrees to the marriage." "May God bless this union with eternal bliss and ten strong children." "We will post the banns of marriage so the entire continent of Europe may share our blessings." "But first, Lucrezia, we claim a father's prerogative:" "a moment alone with your fiancé." "We are curious as to your opinion on the recent treaty between Emperor Maximilian and King Louis regarding" "French supremacy in northern Italy." "Oh..." "We need to speak about the unfortunate event which took place between us." " No, that is not necessary." " We must, if we are to be family." "Our love for Lucrezia is matched solely by our desire to see her happy." "Promise that once in Ferrara, you will increase her happiness tenfold, and we in turn promise that nothing you ask will ever be denied." " She will live a life of endless joy." " Endless joy." "If only such a thing were possible." "I, Johann Burchard, by order of his Holiness," "Alexander the Sixth of that name, hereby publish the banns of marriage between Lucrezia Borgia and Alfonso d'Este." "Light the fire." "If any true believer should know cause why these two souls should not be joined in holy matrimony, come forward and declare the reasons." ""Drown, Oh avenging Tiber, the bull calves in your raging billows, and may the Ox fall, an unholy victim offered to the god of Hades."" "To write such words about the supreme pontiff is sacrilege." "Perhaps this poor pilgrim just suffers from a weakened mind." "This is the sole item found on his person." "He refuses to give us his name or the city of his birth." "Hmm." "Bring him." "So, you are accused of heterodoxy." " Acquit yourself." " I had to see you, Papa." "There was no other way." "Your son, the prince, desecrates the Romagna." "Crucifixes splintered, houses of worship transformed into chambers of war." "Please, Papa, tell the prince to restore the Mass." "You poor soul." "Enough." ""Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man!"" "Halt!" " What is your name?" " Giannetto." "You have shattered the pope's faith, Giannetto." "Not in God, but in common man, who is incapable of grasping the Holy Writ on his own." "From this day, all who print without the imprimatur of the Church will face excommunication." "The ordained must supervise the uneducated." "As for you, when you bite the hand that feeds your soul you trade deliverance for perdition." "Since you wish to act the part of Christ, we will treat you as the ancient Romans treated Christ." "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." "Amen." "Oh, congratulations, Vannozza." " Congratulations?" " On Lucrezia's betrothal." " Her what?" " Have you not heard?" "The banns of marriage have been posted." "Giulia, you are cruel." "I speak fact." "And if the fact is cruel I cannot be blamed." "These past months Vannozza has been a godsend." "I liked her better when she was a sinner." "But not by much." "I found solace in God, just as Vannozza has while I wait for Him to decide my fate." "We cannot wait for God to choose when we possess the power to alter our fortune." "Your muscles relax." "The child of your womb no longer rests in conflict." "Giulia..." "As your figure numbs, the pain subsides, letting the child die." "He's coming." "No!" "Christ have mercy on this sinner's ungainly soul." "In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti." " Where is Silvia?" " Alessandro." " Get out of my way." " No..." "The baby is a boy." "He will live." "And Silvia?" "How will I go on without her?" "Ranuccio." "Silvia named him as she drew her last breath." "Ranuccio." "Mama and I will help you raise your children." "We Farnese will always be a single beating heart." "We are so happy for you." "Thank you, Papa." "Ferrara will serve as a buffer for Cesare, to keep Venice from interfering with his conquests." "While France moves south to Naples, unabated." "Yes, rare when love and politics intersect." "Why then did you give up Bologna?" "This way Lucrezia will tell her brother that I am able to compromise when the music is right." "My darling ones." " I love you." " Come, boys." "Time for bed." "There will be more fun in the morning." "Hmm?" "Yes, of course." "It's a pleasure seeing you." " How is your father?" " We tried several..." " Alfonso." " Lucrezia." "My lady." "I want to bring Giovanni and little Rodrigo with us to Ferrara." " Lucrezia, tonight is not..." " I know women are expected to leave their children by a former marriage in a guardian's care, but I made a vow that I cannot break." "My father may accept little Rodrigo, given he is the child of my blood." "But Giovanni is legally Cesare's son, not yours." "What if I insist?" "I have already done more than any man should to gain you as a wife." "I can do no more, Lucrezia." "What do you mean, "done more than any man should"?" "Too many questions, not enough wine." " What?" " Highness." "Jean de Foix has found Dorotea Malatesta." "She was hiding in the woods." "Is that to kill me or to slit your own throat?" "Or you could step into legend and do both." "Go on." "Be the one who finally put a shroud around Cesare Borgia." "But be quick." "Ow!" "I am sorry to say, the two of us will live and love." "Do you think that by killing those I love I could continue loving you?" "Yes, murder does complicate a relationship, as does betrayal." "I wonder if you knew about your father's lies to me, his skullduggery." "There is also the irritating question of whether you left my camp voluntarily." "Should either be true, I would be justified killing you." "But no, I would not deprive my daughter of a maternal nipple." "So simply answer this." "Where is Lucrezia?" "I have sent her away." "You will never see the child again." "You have slaughtered many men." "Will I be the first woman?" "Go to your husband, Dorotea." "Explain to him where you have been and whom you have been fucking these many years." "He will kill you for me." "Find my daughter." "I go to Rome." "I am sorry." "I did not think anyone would be here at this late hour." "I have rarely seen you pray." "I have not had a reason for quite awhile." "I pray for a worthy friend and her immaculate soul." "For our desperate family." "For me." "I am here for my son, my Giovanni, whose future hangs in question." "Because of the marriage, you will not bring the boy to Ferrara." "I have planned this exquisite happiness for myself, but never considered the damaging outcome for my son." "As painful as it is, comply with Alfonso's request." "Aurelio Borgia Matuzzi and his mother Isabella." "Look at him." "Our grandson is a man." "Grandpapa." "I came as soon as I received your summons." "You have been away from Rome for far too long." "Since finishing my studies Pisa, I have been traveling our peninsula working as a priest, wherever one is needed, learning the souls of our people." "And what do they say of us, the pope?" "You are respected by many, feared by all." "Some question your methods, some applaud." "A diplomatic answer, Aurelio." "A trait we could sorely use around here." "Tell us, how would you like to work at the Vatican?" "We need a young, sharp mind." "Greater than our own." "Or the ones that bedevil us." "Be our new papal secretary." " I thought you were in Rimini." " Shh." "You will wake him." "I came to offer my best wishes on your betrothal." "You are not happy?" "I must speak to you." "My son suffers for my mistakes." "As most children do from their parents." "Cesare, Giovanni cannot accompany me to Ferrara." "So I will raise the boy, as if he is, what others believe, my son." "And appoint him a duke." "You can have your choice:" "Rimini, Urbino, Fano." "Nepi?" "His Grace Giovanni Borgia, duke of Nepi." "He and I must leave soon." "There's unrest in the Romagna to which I must tend." "Bid him farewell." "I am sorry, child of mine." "I made you a promise which I now must abandon." "Please forgive me." "Bentivoglio, Vitelli, Petrucci and Baglioni have approached the signory, hoping to bring Florence into this," ""the urgent and final defeat of Borgia." Their words, not mine." "Urgent?" "Yet they pause long enough for a Florentine response." "I will guess that they have visited Venice as well." "These men speak with one mouth but are not yet of one mind, dithering on a plan of attack." "Cesare, the signory offers you, if necessary, asylum." "Do you dance, Niccolo?" "You seem like someone who does not dance." "I have no time for dancing." "I fear without pleasure, without every single one of my senses alert and alive," "I would go mad." "I know that I stand in danger of my life ending at the sharp edge of a sword." "So I devote the rest of my time to fine living and reckless enjoyment." "What should I tell the signory?" "Their offer is much appreciated, but I will not need asylum." "I will need a cemetery large enough to bury my several enemies." "Now, as for tonight, you see her, there?" "She is one of the finest of Rimini's finest citizens." "I will fuck her throughout the night." "At dawn she will go back to Rimini, back to her husband with a hunger that will frighten him." "Lucrezia." "Eat with me." "Did you know that the Apple of Discord, which led to the Trojan War, was actually an orange?" "The Greeks did not yet have a word for orange, so they called it a golden apple." "My fiancée knows many things, and I only know one." "If like Prince Paris, I had to pick a single goddess, amongst all, I would select you." "According to the myth, Venus gave Helen of Troy to Paris." "But if one does not believe in myths, then Paris stole Helen from her husband, through trickery." "Which caused the destruction of Paris' family, his homeland." "I choose the myth." "I wish I could." "What?" "Were you involved in Alfonso di Calabria's death, in any way?" "My love, no." "After the feelings you and I have shared, the truths of our inner selves, how can such an accusal come to your mind?" "I do not kill." "Yes, Alfonso and I were at odds, but..." "Well, he wanted me dead." "He even tried once." "But I did not kill him, Lucrezia." "And I am wounded that you would even ask." "You do believe me, do you not?" "I do." "Then come." "Be my glorious Helen."