Ludovico was carried away to France, where he died in misery, having spent ten years a prisoner in the tower of Loches; the once powerful cardinal was likewise taken a captive to France.

A great tragedy had occurred in the house of Sforza.

What must have been Catarina's distress when she, in her prison, learned that fate had overthrown all her race! Could one transport himself to that environment he would breathe the oppressive atmosphere with which Shakespeare enveloped his characters.
Catarina's jailers were the two most dreaded men of the age--the Pope and his son.

The very thought of what surrounded her must have filled her with terror.

In the Belvedere she was in constant dread of Caesar's poison, and it is indeed a wonder that she did escape it.