"Thank God for that also," said Leonora, in a low tone. "Oh, this has been a terrible day."
Again she let fall the curtain of the litter; and the bearers moved slowly up the hill. They carried her along the terrace to her own saloon; but when they stopped, and Leonardo would have aided her to descend, they found her sound asleep.
Tired nature, exhausted with the conflict of passions, had given way, and slumber had sealed her eyes at the first touch of returning peace. There was a sweet, well-contented smile upon her lips, but Leonardo marked a bright red spot upon her cheek, and calling her maids to her, he himself stayed at the villa till she awoke. The burning fever was already upon her; her words were incoherent, her pulse beating terribly. For fourteen days Leonora d'Orco hung between life and death; and happy was it, perhaps, that anything occurred to place a veil between her eyes and the last terrible act of the drama in which she herself had borne so conspicuous a part.
Every one at all acquainted with Italian history knows what followed; how Cæsar Borgia, about four days after the events last recorded had taken place, commanded the personal attendance of Ramiro d'Orco on his terrible and treacherous march to Senegaglia; how Ramiro found himself compelled to obey, both by the presence of the French and the papal troops in his capital, and by fear lest his machinations against Lorenzo Visconti should be too closely investigated; and how his dead body was found one morning out in two pieces, in the marketplace of Bologna. None knew how he died, or by whose command; and Leonora never suspected that he had suffered a violent death.
That he was dead they told her as soon as she could bear such tidings; and under the escort of De Vitry and his forces she joined Bianca Maria and returned, after some months, to the Milanese. At the end of some fifteen or sixteen months, Lorenzo Visconti and Leonora d'Orco cast off the garb of mourning, and united their fates for ever. It was on the day when she reached her twenty-first birthday; and if the reader will look back through this veracious history, he will see that few so young have ever gone through such varied and terrible griefs and trials; nor will he wonder that, while I say Leonora d'Orco was at last happy, I add, that a shade of melancholy mingled with her joy, and that the dark cloud of memory still hung over the past, forming a sombre background to the sparkling sunshine of the present.
FOOTNOTES
[Footnote 1]: Paul Jovius describes these guns--the embryo musket--amongst the arms of the Swiss infantry, which did such good service in the campaign against Naples. They were at first looked upon with great contempt by the men-at-arms.
[Footnote 2]: The facts alleged against Alexander by the cardinal were, unfortunately, only too notorious, and the letters produced were the authentic letters of Borgia and Bajazet. They are still extant and authenticated by the Apostolic notary. In one from the pope to the sultan he demands "ut placeat sibi (Bajazet) quam citius mittera. nobis ducatos quadraginta millia in auro venetos, pro annata anni praesentis, quae finiet ultimo die novembris," and Bajazet sweetly suggests to his Christian ally, "dictum Gem (Zizim) levare facere ex augustiis istius mundi et transferri ejus animam in alterum saeculum ubi meliorem habebit quietem," promising him three hundred thousand ducats as soon as the corpse is delivered to his (Bajazet's) agents.
[Footnote 3]: The Kings of France always claimed to be such, and the bishop flattered the monarch's pride by the allusion.