instead of obeying his uncle, he delayed the preparations for departure,
hoping that Calixtus would forget him. It was not so: two months after he
received the letter from the pope, there arrived at Valencia a prelate
from Rome, the bearer of Roderigo's nomination to a benefice worth 20,000
ducats a year, and also a positive order to the holder of the post to
come and take possession of his charge as soon as possible.

Holding back was no longer feasible: so Roderigo obeyed; but as he did
not wish to be separated from the source whence had sprung eight years of
happiness, Rosa Vanozza also left Spain, and while he was going to Rome,
she betook herself to Venice, accompanied by two confidential servants,
and under the protection of a Spanish gentleman named Manuel Melchior.

Fortune kept the promises she had made to Roderigo: the pope received him
as a son, and made him successively Archbishop of Valencia,
Cardinal-Deacon, and Vice-Chancellor. To all these favours Calixtus
added a revenue of 20,000 ducats, so that at the age of scarcely
thirty-five Roderigo found himself the equal of a prince in riches and
power.

Roderigo had had some reluctance about accepting the cardinalship, which
kept him fast at Rome, and would have preferred to be General of the
Church, a position which would have allowed him more liberty for seeing
his mistress and his family; but his uncle Calixtus made him reckon with
the possibility of being his successor some day, and from that moment the
idea of being the supreme head of kings and nations took such hold of
Roderigo, that he no longer had any end in view but that which his uncle
had made him entertain.

From that day forward, there began to grow up in the young cardinal that