_Alexander P.P. VI_ (_from a Portrait in the Vatican Library_) _Frontispiece_ _To face page_ _Calixtus P.P. III_ 18 _Alfonso of Aragon_ 40 _Fridericus IV, Emperor_ 62 _Alexander P.P. VI_ 90 _Charles VIII of France_ 120 _Fra Girolamo Savonarola_ 152 _Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara_ 182 _Julius P.P. II_ 264 _Saint Francis Borgia_ 324 CHRONICLES OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA “A FIRE, THAT IS KINDLED, BEGINS WITH SMOKE AND HISSING, WHILE IT LAYS HOLD ON THE FAGGOTS; BURSTS INTO A ROARING BLAZE, WITH RAGING TONGUES OF FLAME, DEVOURING ALL IN REACH, SPANGLED WITH SPARKS THAT DIE; SETTLES INTO THE STEADY GENIAL GLARE, THE BRILLIANT LIGHT, THAT MEN CALL FIRE; BURNS AWAY TO SLOWLY EXPIRING ASHES; SAVE WHERE SMOULDERING EMBERS FLICKER, AND NURSE THE GLOW, UNTIL PROPITIOUS BREEZES BLOW IT INTO LIFE AGAIN.” =Book the First= The Kindling of the Fire “_A fire, that is kindled, begins with smoke and hissing, while it lays hold on the faggots_” In the year 1455 of Restored Salvation, Christendom was in a parlous way. The Muslim Infidel swarmed from the dark Orient, sworn to plant the Crescent on the ruin of the Cross. In resisting encroachment, King Wladislaw of Hungary and the Apostolic Legate, the Most Illustrious[1] Lord Giuliano Cesarini, Cardinal-Bishop of Tusculum, a Roman of Rome, and scion of a most splendid family,[2] had laid down life at the Battle of Varna. After three and fifty days of siege, Constantinople fell to the Great Turk, the Sultàn Muhammed II. Ioannes Palaiologos, “King and Autocrat of the Romans,” was dead; and his successor Konstantinos Dragases XIII, the last Christian Emperor of the East, was slain in defence of his capital. By the fall of the great Byzantine Empire, the bulwarks of Christendom were broken down; the Infidel was raiding on her borders. Alone, with no ally, Jan Hunniades desperately defended Hungary’s frontier. The Powers of Europe occupied themselves with less important matters. At this time, Rome was the eye, and the brain, of the world; and Rome had seen and realised all that was portended.