"Tell me, and, by Heaven, mother, he shall pay, and pay indeed!" "Who ?" replied Rosa.

"King Charles VIII has done it, by the hands of his faithful allies, the Swiss.

It was well known that Melchior was away, and that I was living alone with a few wretched servants; so they came and broke in the doors, as though they were taking Rome by storm, and while Cardinal Valentino was making holiday with their master, they pillaged his mother's house, loading her with insults and outrages which no Turks or Saracens could possibly have improved upon." "Very good, very good, mother," said Caesar; "be calm; blood shall wash out disgrace.

Consider a moment; what we have lost is nothing compared with what we might lose; and my father and I, you may be quite sure, will give you back more than they have stolen from you." "I ask for no promises," cried Rosa; "I ask for revenge." "My mother," said the cardinal, "you shall be avenged, or I will lose the name of son." Having by these words reassured his mother, he took her to Lucrezia's palace, which in consequence of her marriage with Pesaro was unoccupied, and himself returned to the Vatican, giving orders that his mother's house should be refurnished more magnificently than before the disaster.
These orders were punctually executed, and it was among her new luxurious surroundings, but with the same hatred in her heart, that Caesar on this occasion found his mother.

This feeling prompted her cry of joy when she saw him once more.
The mother and son exchanged a very few words; then Caesar, mounting on horseback, went to the Vatican, whence as a hostage he had departed two days before.