Page:One Link in the Chain of Apostolic Succesion; or, The Crimes of Alexander Borgia (1854).djvu/46

 and made him much the debtor. He saw her lovely form ripening into womanhood, and bearing an almost exact resemblance to the form of her he had loved so well, but fatally, years before! He listened to her words, so sweet and winning, and every tone seemed but the echo of the voice of the mother, she who had so completely won his heart. Days sped on, years rolled away; and at last he found that his adopted daughter was so much like the first object of his passion, that the love which had once raged so violently in his heart was transferred to her. He loved her—adored her; and, see! that lover is kneeling at the feet of the one he loves!"

And Pope Alexander VI. sank down upon his knees before Lucretia Borgia!

started to her feet, and for full thirty seconds she stood before the libertine Pope, trembling, and deathly pale, without moving or uttering a word.

"Then you are the priest, and not my father," she exclaimed, at last. "My mother was the object of your love; and now I O, God! what is the meaning of this frightful revelation?"

"It means, dear Lucretia, that I love you! For years I have cherished a hope that you would one day be mine; for years I have looked upon your expanding beauties with the longing eyes of love and admiration! Though we may not wed, yet thou canst be to me all,—wife, daughter, "