[Lifting both hands.] His Vicar here on earth!
CARDINAL BORGIA.
[Who kneels and supports the Pope.] Beware!
His father must not see him.
BURCHARD.
Washed and habited
As Gonfalonier, on an open bier,
He will be borne,
With flambeaux, to his mother’s private chapel,
And will be swiftly hidden!
[Shrugging his shoulders.] But, my lords,
The populace is ribald: it acclaims
His Holiness the fisher of his son,
Though not, by rights, of men.
[Poto and the Cardinals laugh.
ALEXANDER.
[Slowly opening his eyes.] Francesco, are they talking of my son?
SCENE IV
A room in the Lord Cardinal Cesare Borgia’s Palace of Borgo Sant’ Angelo.