"I swear by my soul and my salvation," answered Borgia, "that if you will aid me in this matter--aid me in its consummation--I will molest her in no shape. She shall be to me as sacred as a nun."
"I am sure your lordship is sincere," replied Ramiro, "but if oaths were to be accepted at all, I would prefer that you swore in something you believe in, rather than by your soul and your salvation. Then as to your looking upon her as sacred as a nun, I have never heard that you regarded nuns as sacred at all. It is better we should understand each other clearly. I find, during your pleasure tour in Tuscany, you entered the Villa Morelli, had very nearly caught and carried her off, had she not been somewhat too light of foot for your gentlemen-in-armour, and that you then set fire to the villa in order to 'smoke her out,' as you expressed yourself. I have all the information, my lord, and although you are pleased to pass the matter off as a wild caprice to gratify your soldiery with a few fair captives, without any cognizance of her being in the villa, yet the answers to the inquiries you caused to be made at Florence should have satisfied you that she could be nowhere else. Now I believe I can aid you to the very man you want; and, as you are somewhat impatient, can do it without delay; but I must, in the first place, have some strong place put in my possession, where my daughter can be more safe than she was in the Villa Morella, until such time as her lover becomes her husband, and she leaves Italy for a somewhat quieter land."
Cæsar Borgia laughed low and quietly.
"Now what a strange thing is this that men call morality and virtue!" he exclaimed, with a bitter sneer. "Not the chameleon changes colour more frequently, and more completely according to the things around. But we have no time for philosophical reflections, my dear Ramiro. Tell me, are these men near at hand?"
"They are here in Rome," replied Ramiro d'Orco. "In fact, my lord, being a man of no great wealth and no power, I judged it expedient in coming here in order to seek for both, to gather round me at times serviceable men from various states of Italy, who might supply men with a kind of authority tantamount to that which I did not possess. Your Eminence's people, it seems, fail you at this step, although, God wot, I should have thought they had few scruples left by this time. I am willing to aid you with mine, provided you insure me against some little frailties of your Eminence, which might lead to things displeasing to me."
"Well, well, send the men to me," said Cæsar Borgia; "it shall be done."
"It must be done before they come here, my lord," replied Ramiro d'Orco.
A flush passed over the young cardinal's countenance; but he said, starting up suddenly--
"Well, wait here till I return. I must get the donation from his Holiness."
"Remember, I must have all rights and privileges--of high and low justice--of war and of defence, with only reservation of homage of the Holy See. I know not what it is exactly that your Eminence requires these men to do; but they have strong stomachs, and are not likely to be nauseated by trifles."