The second brief is addressed to Messer Filippo Strozzi; and claims, from the consuls of Pesaro, the baggage which the young noble had lost after his shipwreck in sight of that city! It is dated the second of December 1517; and begins, “Mandatum Ill^{mae} Dominae Ducissae Ferrariae in palatio Ducali ... Ill^{ma} Domina Lucretia Borgia Estensis ... suo nomine, et nomine ac Tanquam coniuncta persona Ill^{mi} Domini Joannis Borgiae _eius frater_——.” Little or nothing further has been discovered regarding the life of this youth. His history, with that of his brother Prince Gioffredo Borgia of Squillace, waits to reward research in the archives of Naples, Nepi, Camerino and Ferrara. Reluctantly, they must be left here among the _Sparks That Die_. * * * * * The following announcement closes the second epoch of the House of Borgia. It is dated the twenty-first day of June 1519; and was sent by flying posts to his nephew, the Marquess Federigo Gonzaga of Mantua: “It hath pleased the Lord God to take unto Himself the soul of the Illustrious Duchess, my much-beloved Consort. (Signed) Alfonsus Dux Feraria.” The “Illustrious Duchess” Lucrezia Borgia was buried in her favourite church at the monastery of Corpus Domini, by side of her husband’s mother the Duchess Leonor de Aragona, deeply and sincerely mourned by her children, and her husband Duke Alfonso d’Este, and, indeed, by all Ferrara duchy crowding round her bier. She was only in the forty-second year of her age. May she rest in the fragrant peace of her good deeds. =Book the Third= The Brilliant Light[99] “_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_;” The Borgia, who have gone before, present no difficulty to the Twentieth Century. When once their formula has been learned, they are found to be men of like passions with ourselves. They were born—they struggled through life with an amazing amount of dignity and success—they died. For a reason which has yet to be explained, the human race has made them serve for hell-myths, for prodigies of turpitude, for symbols wherewith to express ultimate and abysmal crime.