"About the same time—that is, about the beginning of 1499—a certain
courtesan named La Corsetta was in prison, and had a lover who came to
visit her in woman’s clothes, a Spanish Moor, called from his disguise
’the Spanish lady from Barbary!’ As a punishment, both of them were led
through the town, the woman without petticoat or skirt, but wearing only
the Moor’s dress unbuttoned in front; the man wore his woman’s garb; his
hands were tied behind his back, and the skirt fastened up to his
middle, with a view to complete exposure before the eyes of all. When in
this attire they had made the circuit of the town, the Corsetta was sent
back to the prison with the Moor. But on the 7th of April following, the
Moor was again taken out and escorted in the company of two thieves
towards the Campo dei Fiori. The three condemned men were preceded by a
constable, who rode backwards on an ass, and held in his hand a long
pole, on the end of which were hung, still bleeding, the amputated limbs
of a poor Jew who had suffered torture and death for some trifling
crime. When the procession reached the place of execution, the thieves
were hanged, and the unfortunate Moor was tied to a stake piled round
with wood, where he was to have been burnt to death, had not rain fallen
in such torrents that the fire would not burn, in spite of all the
efforts of the executioner."
This unlooked for accident, taken as a miracle by the people, robbed
Lucrezia of the most exciting part of the execution; but her father was
holding in reserve another kind of spectacle to console her with later.
We inform the reader once more that a few lines we are about to set
before him are a translation from the journal of the worthy German
Burchard, who saw nothing in the bloodiest or most wanton performances
but facts for his journal, which he duly registered with the
impassibility of a scribe, appending no remark or moral reflection.
"On the 11th of November a certain peasant was entering Rome with two
stallions laden with wood, when the servants of His Holiness, just as he
passed the Piazza of St. Peter’s, cut their girths, so that their loads
fell on the ground with the pack-saddles, and led off the horses to a
court between the palace and the gate; then the stable doors were
opened, and four stallions, quite free and unbridled, rushed out and in
an instant all six animals began kicking, biting and fighting each other
until several were killed. Roderigo and Madame Lucrezia, who sat at the
window just over the palace gate, took the greatest delight in the
struggle and called their courtiers to witness the gallant battle that
was being fought below them."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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