then I carry it with me always, as a precious testimony to Lorenzo's friendship and to the imperishable memory of those two unfortunate lovers who, like Paris and Helen, who had several times risked turning Florence into Ilium.
Throughout the narration, Pietro, fascinated and enraptured by the extraordinary nature of the facts, by the skilled narration of the speaker and by the abundance of details, dared not speak.
He waited a few seconds after the happy ending to be sure not to desecrate that incredible story and, giving a tight squeeze on his bandage, finally said proudly:
“Thank you sir. Serving you will not only be just an honor for me, it will be a pleasure.”
After two days of further journey, the Via Cassia revealed the magnificence of Rome and although men and animals were very tired, at the mere sight spirits regained their force and bodies their strength. Tristano urged on his horse and increased the speed.
V
The countess of Forlì
He didn’t find Giovanni Battista waiting for him in the rooms of the protonotary but a plump cleric who invited him to go directly to the busy monsignor who was in the basilica of San Pietro, where he had been urgently summoned by the pontiff. There he found both in the midst of a serious meeting in front of the funeral monument for Roberto Malatesta, the hero of the battle of Campomorto.
Standing beside Sixtus IV was his nephew, the sinister captain general Girolamo Riario, whom Tristano already knew as having been one of the main protagonists of the failed conspiracy in Florence four years earlier, hatched against his friends Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici, which had cost the life of the latter.
Not satisfied with having received the Lordships of Imola and Forlì from his uncle, after failing to take possession of Florence and having failed to conquer Urbino, the insatiable Riario was now in danger of seeing his ambitions for Ferrara also fail definitively.
The Republic of Venezia, as has already been said, continued to be deaf to the pontiff's warnings and excommunications; indeed, after having withdrawn its ambassadors from Rome, every day it increasingly threatened the Milanese border and the territories of the Church in Romagna. And now the old Sixtus IV worried about this more than anything else.
Before it was hopelessly too late, it was then thought to play the Aragonese card: it was decided to send Tristano to Naples to King Ferdinando in an attempt to convince him, after Campomorto, to enter into a new coalition agreement (in which Florence and Milan would also participate) against the Serenissima. In truth, Giovanni Battista was not enthusiastic about this solution and had instead proposed dealing directly with the doge, but given the firm determination of the Holy Father, he finally had to put a good face on it and accept the assignment.
The one who was the most satisfied with the deliberate solution was obviously Girolamo, who saw in this move the last glimmer of hope for his being able to sit as a protagonist at the winners’ table and finally get his hands on the Este city.
“Monsignor Orsini” appealed to the latter before the Holy Father dismissed those present, “Please do me the courtesy, Your Magnitude and Our honorable ambassador, to accept the invitation to a sober banquet that my lady and I will hold tomorrow evening at my humble palace at Sant'Apollinare to inaugurate the period of Holy Christmas.”
Giovanni Battista accepted and thanked him with deference.
Tristano, who deliberately had not made a statement before the captain, after the meeting, at a separate venue, was also persuaded by his protector to accept the invitation without hesitation. Going down the staircase at the Constantine basilica, Orsini intimated:
“Tomorrow morning at the third hour I will be waiting for you in my office for details about Mantua, but first send a quick confirmation to the Riario. You may also decline the invitation from the pope's nephew but not that of his son!”
Soon after he climbed into the carriage and disappeared into the crowded streets of the city.
The young diplomat was exhausted and that last indiscretion, besides his extreme strength, had also caused him to lose his ability to speak; he entered the first inn that was open and, after having a bite to eat, sent Pietro and the two horses to a temporary shelter; he walked home as the sun went down.
Having reached home, however, the emotions of that day seemed not to be over yet…
From the street he glimpsed a dim candlelight that for a brief instant illuminated the upper floor of his residence.
He put his hand to his sword and climbed cautiously to the upper level where he saw that glimmer rekindle in the bedroom… Then another more intense glow and a third candle…
“Who’s there?!” He asked, removing a sword from a shield on the wall. “Come on out!” He kicked open the door to the room that was already ajar.
An impertinent laugh then broke the tension and taking shape before his eyes were the soft curves of a female body he knew well. It was his Veronica.
“Tell me, oh my hero. My ears are yearning to hear your voice,” whispered the irreplaceable confidant and priceless lover.
“Not as much as my hands are yearning to encircle your body, my dear,” retorted Tristano, placing his weapons on a chair where the young prostitute had thrown her crinoline and bloomers and, letting his ultramarine blue coat fall to the floor, manfully he went to meet her.
She smiled bringing an index finger to her mouth and shaking her head untied her curly hair. He took off his shirt and pushing her onto the bed, adding:
“You will have to earn your hero's tale.”
And between laughter and the usual erotic games to which the two were accustomed, his fatigue suddenly disappeared.
In the aftermath, having recovered his strength and the elegant black wool overcoat that he had commissioned from the good Ludovico before leaving for Mantua, the young diplomat went, ob torto collo, to the Riario feast.
The brand new building, which stood on the ruins of an ancient temple of Apollo, was gorgeous. It was designed by the master from Forlì, Melozzo di Giuliano degli Ambrosi, to please Girolamo's lust for greatness and the refined taste of his young and beautiful lady: Caterina Sforza, the natural daughter of the late Duke of Milan, Galeazzo, and his lover, Lucrezia Landriani.
The amiable, nonchalant hostess welcomed him with her consort, twenty years older, the most prized invited into the admirable courtyard, despite the particularly harsh air of that evening. She wore a long, tightly fitting gamurra, sensually edged with black lace that created a contrast with the paleness of her skin. The robe was closed with back ties and completed with separate sleeves embroidered with gold threads, formed by variegated fabrics and artfully cut and held together with laces, and from whose cuts the white blouse puffed out. Her hair was gathered in a very sensual veil embellished with pearls and golden coronet.
As soon as his turn came, the Riario obsequiously presented the welcome guest to his wife:
“His Excellency Tristano de' Ginni, the one whom His Holiness places his total trust and blessing,” as if stressing that he was precisely the man on whom the success of the next venture depended and the fortunes of his family.
“An extraordinary fame precedes you, sir,”
