"Now to your second question, Why they have sought him? The first motive was to control, or, rather to restrain and mollify the bitterest and now most powerful enemy of the house of Borgia. Do you know that he is nearly related to the family of Rovera? that he is not only first cousin, but schoolfellow and playmate of that famous cardinal, Julian de Rovera, whose enmity to Alexander and to Cæsar is so strong that, were it at the peril of his own life and the disorder of all Christendom, he would attempt to hurl the present pontiff from his seat, and has already branded the head of the Church with all the infamies that can disgrace a man, much more a priest--ambition, avarice, fraud, heresy, adultery, murder? "With him, who now journeys with the King of France, Alexander and his bastard hope to negotiate, and to mollify him through the intercession of Ramiro d'Orco, the only one on earth who has influence worth consideration with the stern Cardinal Julian. This is why they seek him. There are many other motives, but this is enough. Take her not to Rome, young man. Listen to the counsel of one who can have no object but your good and hers. If you do not listen, you are responsible for all the results." "I fear not that anything can make her aught but what she is," replied Lorenzo, with all the proud enthusiasm of young love. "Better, nobler she cannot be, and as the foulest breath cannot sully the diamond, so can no foul atmosphere tarnish her purity." A faint smile fluttered for a single instant round the lips of Da Vinci; but he resumed his serious aspect instantly--nay, his countenance was more grave and stern than before. "Doubtless," he said, "doubtless; for they who study much the human face, learn to read it as a book; and hers is a beautiful page--clear, and pure, and bright. But there are arts, young man, you know not of--drugs of terrible power, which lull the spirit into a sleep like that of death, and leave the body impotent for resistance or defence. Nay, violence itself--coarse, brutal violence, may be dreaded in a place--" "They dare not!" exclaimed Lorenzo, fiercely, "they dare not!" "What dare not a Borgia do?" asked Leonardo. "When they have set at nought every tie, moral and religious--when they have made crime their pastime, vice their solace, poison and murder their means--provoked to the utmost, without a fear, the wrath of man and the vengeance of God--what dare not the Borgias do? And what could be your vengeance, that they should fear it?" "But her father," said Lorenzo, "her father!" An expression almost sublime came upon the great painter's countenance, and he answered, in a tone of stern warning.