The Pope, on the day of his daughter's marriage, had made an election of cardinals, choosing only the richest prelates for that dignity. Caesar Borgia, being in want of large sums of money for the next campaign, determined to send some of the newly-elected into the other world, at a festival which his father intended to give at one of his villas. [The details of these marriage-festivities are omitted; inasmuch as the grossness of the spectacle renders it unfit for the general reader. The conduct of Lucretia Borgia has been the subject of much obloquy, which her defenders maintain rests chiefly on inferences from her living in a flagitious court, where she witnessed the most profligate scenes. It is asserted that some of the accusations have no better foundation than the epigrams of Pontano, and other Neapolitan poets, the natural enemies of her family.--_Transl_.] The Pope went in a coach, with his daughter, the Devil, Faustus, Borgia, and the wife of the Venetian general. Here, after witnessing a gross spectacle, Lucretia retired with Faustus; and Borgia went with the Venetian; and the Pope remained alone with the Devil. His holiness now made to the fiend certain proposals, which so exasperated the Devil that he appeared under a form which no mortal eye had ever yet been able to sustain. The Pope, who knew him immediately, uttered a cry of joy. "Ah, ben venuto Signor Diavolo! You could not have come to me at a more seasonable time than the present; I have long wished to see you, for I know perfectly well what a deal of use might be made of so powerful a spirit as yourself. Ha, ha, ha! you please me now much better than you did before, you rogue, you! Come, be my friend; assume your former figure, and I will make you a cardinal; for you only can raise me at once to the height which I wish to attain. I entreat you to destroy my foes, procure me money, and drive the French out of Italy, since I have no further occasion for them. This to you will merely be the work of a moment; and you may then ask me for any reward you please. But by all means do not discover yourself to my son Caesar: he is so great a wretch, that I verily believe he would poison me, his father, in order to become, by thy help, King of Italy and Pope at the same time." The Devil, who had at first been a little mortified that his frightful exterior had produced no greater effect, was now unable to refrain from laughing; for what he saw and heard surpassed every thing which had as yet come to the knowledge of hell. But recovering himself, he said, with a serious air, "Pope Alexander, Satan once showed to the Son of the Eternal all the kingdoms of the world, and offered him them, if he would fall down and worship him." _Pope_. I understand you. He was a God, and wanted nothing; had he been a man, and a pope, he would have done what I will now do. He fell upon his knees, and kissed the fiend's feet.