[Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) by John Addington Symonds]@TWC D-Link bookRenaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) CHAPTER VII 77/132
His effigy in bronze by Pollajuolo still carries in its hand this blood-gift from the infidel to the High Priest of Christendom. Djem meanwhile remained in Rome, and held his Moslem Court side by side with the Pontiff in the Vatican.
Dispatches are extant in which Alexander and Bajazet exchange terms of the warmest friendship, the Turk imploring his Greatness--so he addressed the Pope--to put an end to the unlucky Djem, and promising as the price of this assassination a sum of 300,000 ducats and the tunic worn by Christ, presumably that very seamless coat over which the soldiers of Calvary had cast their dice.[1] The money and the relique arrived in Italy and were intercepted by the partisans of Giuliano della Rovere.
Alexander, before the bargain with the Sultan had been concluded by the murder of Djem, was forced to hand him over to the French king.
But the unlucky Turk carried in his constitution the slow poison of the Borgias, and died in Charles's camp between Rome and Naples.
Whatever crimes may be condoned in Alexander, it is difficult to extenuate this traffic with the Turks.
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