Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/322

292 on condition of his keeping the prince in close confinement, or else to pay down the sum of 300,000 crowns if he would once for all make away with his prisoner.

Alexander’s notoriety as a poisoner was already spread over Europe; Bajazet, therefore, did not hesitate to propose in plain terms to the head of the Christian church the coldblooded murder of a defenceless refugee. The Pope would rather have retained Djem alive and a prisoner, preferring the annual payment to the sum offered for the murder; but the option did not long remain open. The steps which Alexander had taken caused the most lively indignation not only to D’Aubusson, who was powerless to interfere in the matter, but also to the king of France, who was in a very different position. It had never entered into his calculations that the Pope should retain the Turkish prince a close prisoner merely for his own pecuniary benefit. Advancing, therefore, at the head of a considerable force which he had assembled for the purpose of an attack on the kingdom of Naples, he appeared at the gates of Rome before Alexander had been able to make any preparations to resist him.

The iniquities of the Pope’s career had become a public scandal, and everywhere his deposition was ardently desired; at this moment those wishes seemed certain to be gratified, and his doom appeared inevitable. Alexander, however, was a very expert politician. By means of lavish bribes he bought over the most trusted advisers of the young king, and a treaty was concluded which secured him in his pontificate. One of the clauses of this treaty bound him to surrender Djem into the hands of Charles. Vainly did he resist the insertion of this condition, but the king was inexorable. The presence of the Turkish prince was necessary for the prosecution of his enterprise, and provided he carried that point lie cared but little for the other iniquities of which Alexander had been guilty. The annual stipend paid by Bajazet was now clearly lost to the Pope for ever. The time had therefore arrived to earn the 300,000 crowns for the murder of Djem. The age in which Borgia lived was notorious for the perfection to which the art of poisoning had been brought, and that pontiff had earned for himself