Francesco was good among the great. As to his face, even contemporary
authors have left utterly different descriptions; for same have painted
him as a monster of ugliness, while others, on the contrary, extol his
beauty. This contradiction is due to the fact that at certain times of
the year, and especially in the spring, his face was covered with an
eruption which, so long as it lasted, made him an object of horror and
disgust, while all the rest of the year he was the sombre, black-haired
cavalier with pale skin and tawny beard whom Raphael shows us in the fine
portrait he made of him. And historians, both chroniclers and painters,
agree as to his fixed and powerful gaze, behind which burned a ceaseless
flame, giving to his face something infernal and superhuman. Such was
the man whose fortune was to fulfil all his desires. He had taken for
his motto, 'Aut Caesar, aut nihil': Caesar or nothing.

Caesar posted to Rome with certain of his friends, and scarcely was he
recognised at the gates of the city when the deference shown to him gave
instant proof of the change in his fortunes: at the Vatican the respect
was twice as great; mighty men bowed down before him as before one
mightier than themselves. And so, in his impatience, he stayed not to
visit his mother or any other member of his family, but went straight to
the pope to kiss his feet; and as the pope had been forewarned of his
coming, he awaited him in the midst of a brilliant and numerous
assemblage of cardinals, with the three other brothers standing behind
him. His Holiness received Caesar with a gracious countenance; still, he
did not allow himself any demonstration of his paternal love, but,
bending towards him, kissed him an the forehead, and inquired how he was
and how he had fared on his journey. Caesar replied that he was
wonderfully well, and altogether at the service of His Holiness: that, as
to the journey, the trifling inconveniences and short fatigue had been
compensated, and far mare than compensated, by the joy which he felt in