talent for hypocrisy which made of him the most perfect incarnation of
the devil that has perhaps ever existed; and Roderigo was no longer the
same man: with words of repentance and humility on his lips, his head
bowed as though he were bearing the weight of his past sins, disparaging
the riches which he had acquired and which, according to him, were the
wealth of the poor and ought to return to the poor, he passed his life in
churches, monasteries, and hospitals, acquiring, his historian tells us,
even in the eyes of his enemies, the reputation of a Solomon for wisdom,
of a Job for patience, and of a very Moses for his promulgation of the
word of God: Rosa Vanozza was the only person in the world who could
appreciate the value of this pious cardinal's conversion.

It proved a lucky thing for Roderiga that he had assumed this pious
attitude, for his protector died after a reign of three years three
months and nineteen days, and he was now sustained by his own merit alone
against the numerous enemies he had made by his rapid rise to fortune: so
during the whole of the reign of Pius II he lived always apart from
public affairs, and only reappeared in the days of Sixtus IV, who made
him the gift of the abbacy of Subiaco, and sent him in the capacity of
ambassador to the kings of Aragon and Portugal. On his return, which
took place during the pontificate of Innocent VIII, he decided to fetch
his family at last to Rome: thither they came, escorted by Don Manuel
Melchior, who from that moment passed as the husband of Rosa Vanozza, and
took the name of Count Ferdinand of Castile. The Cardinal Roderigo
received the noble Spaniard as a countryman and a friend; and he, who
expected to lead a most retired life, engaged a house in the street of
the Lungara, near the church of Regina Coeli, on the banks of the Tiber.
There it was that, after passing the day in prayers and pious works,
Cardinal Roderigo used to repair each evening and lay aside his mask.
And it was said, though nobody could prove it, that in this house