The Borgias - Season 3

Alexander VI: Previously on The Borgias... Now is the time of reckoning. The vultures are circling our family.

Giuliano della Rovere: Our Rome. We must remove him from the chair of St. Peter's- and from this world.

Juan Borgia: Vengeance is mine, saieth the Lord.

Alexander VI: Ah, vengeance will be ours.

Catherine Sforza: No!

Alexander VI: Catherina Sforza. If she does not kiss the papal ring, we will drag her in chains through the streets of Rome!

Catherine Sforza: You would have me kneel to him? Bow? I only kneel when it suits me.

Cesare Borgia: Catherina Sforza shared her bed with me.

Alexander VI: Did she beg to be friends with us?

Cesare Borgia: She remains an enemy.

Alexander VI: Now we're in need of another alliance!

Lucrezia Borgia: I will not marry.

Alexander VI: It is a daughter's duty to marry her father's choice!

Juan Borgia: Surrender to my forces! Journey to Rome!

Catherine Sforza: I will never bend my knee to the whore master of Rome.

Sforza's Soldier: Fire!

Hernando de Caballos: We are under attack!

Juan Borgia: What should have been a glorious victory is an ignominious defeat.

Cesare Borgia: Father, we must discuss our brother. He is hurtling towards ruin. He will drag this whole family with him.

Lucrezia Borgia: Sleep well.

Giuliano della Rovere: The pope is surrounded by a ring of steel. I propose we use the weapon the Borgia family uses - Canterella.

Antonello: I would gladly die to rid the world of the Borgia pope.

Lucrezia Borgia: The thought of marriage turns my stomach. The warm touch of a lover might ease the pain.

Alexander VI: We grow weary of this game.

Lucrezia Borgia: It is no game.

Alexander VI: You are marrying for all of us, Lucrezia! For family!

Lucrezia Borgia: Who are you?

Alfonso d'Aragona: I'm Prince Alfonso d'Aragona, suitor to the Lady Lucrezia.

Lucrezia Borgia: Yes, I will marry him. He has all the sweetness of an apple on the tree.

Juan Borgia: You want to inhabit my shoes, carry my sword. You must resign yourself, Cesare. One day you'll realize that everything I've done has been for your own good.

Lucrezia Borgia: Leave my baby! Juan, leave my baby alone!

Alexander VI: I will not have this family torn apart! Help him through his dark night.

Juan Borgia: Have you come to beg forgiveness for your insult? You're already forgiven.

Cesare Borgia: We're Borgias. We never forgive.

Alexander VI: Your brother murdered in cold blood. Who would do such a thing?

Lucrezia Borgia: Many people, Father. I have wished him dead a thousand times.

Alexander VI: Find his murderer. Scour all Italy!

Cesare Borgia: There will be no need of that.

Alexander VI: Do you know who did this?

Cesare Borgia: I have taken upon my head the act that none other would dare commit. If I cannot have your affection, can you at least grant me your forgiveness?

Alexander VI: We realize now that we have brought this upon ourselves.

Cesare Borgia: FATHER! HELP!

Papal Guard: Come with me! Hurry!

Cesare Borgia: Help! Father!

Man: Summon the physician!

Man: Is he dead?

Papal Guard: Stand back!

Papal Guard: Make way, I say!

Papal Guard: Physician, hurry!

Papal Guard: Make way!

Papal Guard: Move! Move aside!

Papal Guard: Seal the city! Close the gates!

Papal Guard: Make way!

Papal Guard: Make way, make way.

Cesare Borgia: Cantarella. What can you do?

Physician: Nothing. His soul is already departing this world.

Cesare Borgia: His soul does not depart until I give it leave!

Physician: But-there is nothing-there is no remedy, no antidote- there is nothing to cure such a case.

Lucrezia Borgia: No, there is. There is something - charcoal. But I have only read of it, never seen it done. I need water, water. Open his mouth. Get this down. Come on! Help me! Force it in until he can bear no more. And if he vomits, force more. You understand me?

Physician: But, this is witchcraft.

Lucrezia Borgia: This is physick! Get to it!

Cesare Borgia: Do what she says. Every detail. And, if his soul departs, I shall ensure it does not do so alone.

Physician: Yes, Eminence. Hand me water.

Lucrezia Borgia: Push this down his throat!

Papal Guard: Get these people out of here. I want this room clear.

Cardinal: Ave Maria. Gratia plena. Dominus tecum...

Lucrezia Borgia: Get it down!

Cardinal: ...benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.

Man: Will he live?

Cardinal: Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur -

Micheletto: I found this in the boy's cell.

Cesare Borgia: A Dominican salter in a Franciscan cell?

Ascanio Sforza: I have closed the city.

Cesare Borgia: I must leave. Do what you can.

Cesare Borgia: Hah! Yah!

Lucrezia Borgia: Keep going.

Physician: Come on.

Lucrezia Borgia: The last words I spoke to him...

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Shh...

Lucrezia Borgia: They tore him apart.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Shh! It's not yet too late.

A Dominican: Who's there, Brother?

A Dominican: Stop! This is the house of God.

Cesare Borgia: And God is angry.

A Dominican: Ah! Ah!

A Dominican: Ah!

Cesare Borgia: Whose room is this?

A Dominican: Cardinal Della Rovere's.

Cesare Borgia: Where is he? Where is Della Rovere?

Soldier: My lord.

Cesare Borgia: Cantarella. You, where he is? Tell me where you have hidden Della Rovere- or your life is forfeit. Show me - or I will gut you like a fish.

A Dominican: You threaten me? We are men of God!

Cesare Borgia: Men of God who have conspired to murder my father. Your father. Did you really think I would not find you out? Look at me. Look at me! Show me.

A Dominican: Show him.

Cesare Borgia: Get up!

Lucrezia Borgia: There is nothing more I know to do.

Ascanio Sforza: Well, we cannot leave him here. Come.

Cesare Borgia: We've lost him.

A Dominican: Ah! Ahh!

Alberto Colonna: It seems our prayers may not be answered.

Ascanio Sforza: That would depend on the nature of your prayers.

Alberto Colonna: God forbid he should die. But should he die...

Cardinal: There will be opportunity. There will be mayhem.

Cardinal: God wants an Italian. The Holy Spirit wants a Roman. We should decide amongst ourselves. Find the safest pair of Italian hands and bless the martyr who brought about this outcome.

Cardinal: A Roman. One of the great Italian families.

Julius Versucci: Colonna, De Luca, Piccolimini, Sforza, Versucci... Orsini.

Cardinal: Yes.

Cesare Borgia: He could be anywhere.

Physician: His arm, lift his arm.

Cardinal: Of course.

Cardinal: I would need to know where you consider me.

Giuliano della Rovere: Cardinal Orsini. Cardinal DeLuca. Cardinal Colonna. Cardinal Sforza. My brothers; I came as soon as I heard.

Ascanio Sforza: As soon as you heard.

Giuliano della Rovere: Of the pope's death.

Ascanio Sforza: Cardinal Della Rovere, your information somewhat pre-empts the matter.

Giuliano della Rovere: He lives?

Priest: In nomine Patri et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, amen.

Priest: Amen.

Physician: The life has not left him yet, Eminence.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Cesare!

Cesare Borgia: You!

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Your blade! Cesare! Put up your blade!

Cardinals: No, no, no!

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Cesare! The least disturbance may tip the balance.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Cesare-please! Now think!

Cesare Borgia: Think of what?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Of what happens next. Of what becomes of us if he dies. You, me, Lucrezia. Do you think we've made friends here? Do you think we can turn to our allies? Where are these allies, Cesare? Who are our friends? I'm not pope. Neither are you. Without him, what becomes of us?

Cesare Borgia: Will he die?

Lucrezia Borgia: It hangs in the balance.

Cesare Borgia: Then we must wait to see which way the balance falls. Meanwhile, look to me for your safety.

Alessandro Piccolomini: We should align ourselves now to reap what we can.

Julius Versucci: There's nothing else.

Cardinal: There are the Borgia estates.

Alessandro Piccolomini: Are we agreed?

Cardinal: An Italian then?

Cardinal: And a Roman.

Julius Versucci: Della Rovere is both.

Cardinal: He has been long in the wilderness.

Julius Versucci: For far too long. How long will any of the Borgias survive once he's gone? I want the treasury. And I want land.

Ascanio Sforza: In nomini Patri...

Nanny: Sh, sh, sh. Sh, sh, sh. He won't sleep.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Take him back to the villa. Put him in his bed there. We'll join you as soon as we know his grandfather's fate.

Nanny: Thank you.

Lucrezia Borgia: Shh... Be safe.

Nanny: Yes, my lady.

Lucrezia Borgia: You should go too. It's not safe here.

Alfonso d'Aragona: If it's not safe for me, how can it be safe for you?

Lucrezia Borgia: It's not. But I am a Borgia, and my place is here.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I'm to be your husband -

Lucrezia Borgia: Yes, but you are not yet. Go back to your villa and... When this is over - one way or the other - I will send for you, never fear.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I would protect you, you know.

Lucrezia Borgia: The time may come. But not now.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us sinners...

Papal Guard: Take position!

Papal Guard: In place!

Papal Guard: Papal guard!

Cesare Borgia: Cardinal... Tell me- um... Where are the lines of allegiance?

Ascanio Sforza: Hmm?

Cesare Borgia: Please... Do not tell me that my father did not have you with your ear pressed to the wall on such matters. I wish to know. Which cardinals owe favours to which other cardinals? Who is in whose pocket? Who seeks the papacy? And who merely wishes an easy life? You know all this, do you not?

Ascanio Sforza: Yes, your father encouraged me to, uh... to know all of this.

Cesare Borgia: And?

Ascanio Sforza: I have a list in my private apartments. Names and notes.

Cesare Borgia: Get it.

Ascanio Sforza: Did my cousin Catherina send you? You are not welcome here.

Rufio: This is a dagger's tip upon which all events turn, Cardinal. We are at the fork in the road. Rome must not be allowed to take the wrong path here.

Ascanio Sforza: Did you do this?

Rufio: No. It took us by surprise. But it was our intention, at the proper moment. Preparations have been made for some time now, certain... matters arranged. All this has done is move things along a little faster than we'd anticipated. You have always known this day would come, Ascanio. All that has changed is that now I require your assistance in the matter.

Ascanio Sforza: By what right dare you require anything of me?

Rufio: By right of blood. Of family. Of kinsmen. And by right of what is good for Rome.

Ascanio Sforza: And if I refuse?

Rufio: You should not refuse.

Ascanio Sforza: If he dies -

Rufio: When he dies.

Ascanio Sforza: What comes after? Are you here to dangle the Papacy of Rome in front of me like a carrot in front of a hungry mule?

Rufio: Are you saying you would refuse, if it were offered? Understand me clearly. Your cousin Catherina will not be denied this chance. He will die. As will they all die.

Ascanio Sforza: All?

Rufio: The whole brood of bastards die tonight. So you should give thought to where you want to be come the dawn. One step closer to the throne of Rome, or confronting a pope whose family just died at Sforza hands. Come home, Ascanio. You have been too long away.

Giuliano della Rovere: It would be good if we could count on your support.

Cardinal: Of course.

Giuliano della Rovere: Thank you. You believe that one of you can beat him. You can't. Sforza knows too well your strengths and weaknesses, your little corridor politics. He'll set you against one another, let you vie for position, and then take down the winner without breaking a sweat. I can beat him - if you lend your strength to mine. None of you wants to be pope in any case. What you want is power. And that I will give you, all that you could eat of it.

Cardinal: Your Holiness!

Cesare Borgia: Water! Dottore, water, now!

Man: Yes, my lord!

Alexander VI: Oh!

Cardinal: Your Holiness!

Cardinals: Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.

Cesare Borgia: Your place is in the Vatican, Cardinal.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Rodrigo.

Cesare Borgia: You can leave us.

Alexander VI: I...

Lucrezia Borgia: Shh... Don't try to speak. Your throat will be torn from the charcoal.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: It's safe. It's safe, it's safe.

Alexander VI: I saw the face of death.

Cesare Borgia: Well, you're not dead, Father. You live.

Alexander VI: For how long?

Cesare Borgia: A day and a night.

Alexander VI: By who?

Cesare Borgia: Della Rovere. The Dominicans were hiding him right here in Rome. But we have him and I will know how many others, their names, their families... He will tell everything before I'm done with him, and then he will beg for death.

Alexander VI: They settled like crows around me... I heard them... praying for my death. I heard them.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: They're gone now.

Alexander VI: I have disappointed them. How come I did not die?

Cesare Borgia: You owe your life to Lucrezia.

Lucrezia Borgia: And the grace of God.

Cesare Borgia: Yes, and that.

Alexander VI: No, not God. Ah... Where is he?

Lucrezia Borgia: Who, Father?

Alexander VI: Juan. Where is Juan? Juan.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Look at me. Look at me. You have us. We are here.

Alexander VI: One day and a night. So much has changed.

Giuliano della Rovere: Ah!

Man: Well?

Nanny: What of my family?

Papal Guard: Make way!

Man: They're well, so far. And whether they remain so depends on your answer.

Nanny: There are five guards inside the villa. I don't know how many outside.

Man: Where placed?

Nanny: The main doors. Two in the garden. The others move around, upstairs mostly. I'm not sure of more.

Man: That's good enough. And the family?

Nanny: They will return when the pope is well. Or when he dies.

Man: The window in the washing room leads outside? When the family returns, leave the window unlatched and walk away.

Nanny: But you must promise me - Please, spare the child. He has done nothing.

Man: Of course. You have my word. No harm to the child. Let's go.

Man: Okay, go ahead!

Man: Yeah, yeah, yeah! That's it!

Man: Go!

Man: Hit him! Hit him! Peck his eyes out! Yeah! Get him! Yeah, that's it!

Ascanio Sforza: Call it off.

Rufio: What's happened?

Ascanio Sforza: He's alive!

Rufio: You're certain?

Ascanio Sforza: When I left he was calling for water. By now he's probably fucking some servant girl with a wine jug in one hand and a swan's leg in the other. It's over.

Rufio: Don't be a fool.

Ascanio Sforza: Are you deaf? He's alive.

Rufio: So make him die. The others die tonight in any case. I've already given the word.

Ascanio Sforza: Dear God.

Rufio: There's no backing down now. Within the month Rome will have a new pope. Better for all that it is a man of moderation and wisdom such as yourself.

Ascanio Sforza: You're insane.

Rufio: He trusts you. Toledo steel. It's one of a pair.

Ascanio Sforza: What have you done with the other?

Rufio: I told you, preparations had been made. In the pope's chamber. Concealed in the crucifix upon his offering table. You know what to do.

Cesare Borgia: My father lives. You've failed.

Giuliano della Rovere: Ah...

Cesare Borgia: What say you to that?

Giuliano della Rovere: Today he lives. One day he will not. And on that day, where will you be?

Cesare Borgia: You do know what awaits you, hmm? What we did to Savonarola will seem like the merest whimsy compared to what I will inflict on you.

Giuliano della Rovere: Wait... What I said, I meant. Give thought to it. Where will you be when he's gone? They will tear you down like jackals. I can help you.

Cesare Borgia: I have no need of your help.

Giuliano della Rovere: I can pave the way.

Cesare Borgia: Every word from your lips is a lie.

Giuliano della Rovere: I'm beaten. I have failed. I know that. What use am I to you dead?

Cesare Borgia: I do not mean for you to be dead. Not for a long, long time.

Alexander VI: I saw the face of death.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: I know. You said.

Alexander VI: And I was afraid. I am so afraid.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Don't be. It would take more than cantarella to fell an ox like you.

Alexander VI: No, you don't understand. I didn't see the face of God. He was not there. Why did He not show Himself to me? But I heard the others. I heard them. Colonna. Versucci. DeLuca, Della Rovere. How they prayed for my death, and swore to see me buried and never again a Spaniard on the papal throne. Carrion crows pecking away. And where was God to protect me?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: You must rest. Now close your eyes and sleep.

Cesare Borgia: He sleeps?

Lucrezia Borgia: He frets, as if in fever.

Cesare Borgia: You've done such work today. Take mother home. Stay with her. Take some sleep for tomorrow. I'll stay with him.

Lucrezia Borgia: Look after him.

Alexander VI: I heard that voice. In the room, before the poison took hold and darkness dragged me down. I heard you call out to me. "Father, Father." And you held me in your hands. Come here. Come. There was something before the darkness. Something you said, something you told me... that the world must never know. Your brother's murder was a terrible crime, and every crime must be seen to have a punishment. So we must find the person who is to be punished. You understand?

Cesare Borgia: And I?

Alexander VI: You have to find your own peace.

Papal Guard: Papal guard! Forward!

Giovanni Battista Orsin: I will speak with the prisoner. You are relieved.

Papal Guard: Yes, Your Eminence.

Giuliano della Rovere: What is this?

Giovanni Battista Orsin: This is your freedom. Don't forget who put it in your hands.

Giuliano della Rovere: But why?

Giovanni Battista Orsin: Others may succeed where you have not. And then, Rome will have need of you. Guard.

Giuliano della Rovere: I will not forget this.

Giovanni Battista Orsin: Go with them. They will show you the way. God be with you.

Giuliano della Rovere: And with you.

Ascanio Sforza: Is this necessary?

Papal Guard: My Lord Cesare's orders.

Cesare Borgia: No... Guards!

Cesare Borgia: Della Rovere! Find him! Follow me!

Papal Guard: Yes, my lord!

Papal Guard: Search everywhere!

Nanny: Oh! You scared me. What is it?

Micheletto: Do you not hear the child crying? Look at me. I said, look at me.

Nanny: I had no choice.

Micheletto: Hm. You had every choice.

Papal Guard: Who's there?

Cesare Borgia: Della Rovere is free.

Ascanio Sforza: What?

Cesare Borgia: There are dead men strewn through my father's house and Della Rovere is free. All is well here?

Ascanio Sforza: No... No, all is not well here.

Cesare Borgia: Just tell me.

Ascanio Sforza: There is a plot to kill your family. It is my cousin Catherina Sforza's doing.

Cesare Borgia: When?

Ascanio Sforza: Tonight. Now.

Cesare Borgia: Get in there!

Ascanio Sforza: Do not leave his side. Do not let anyone else in.

Man: Fuck!

Cesare Borgia: Where are they?

Micheletto: Your sister's bedroom.

Lucrezia Borgia: Shh...

Cesare Borgia: Thank God.

Micheletto: Shhh... Shh...

Rufio: They were warned. Ascanio betrayed us.

Catherine Sforza: Then we will have to find another way.

Rufio: That will be difficult. They will be watching for assassination.

Catherine Sforza: No. No more assassination.

Rufio: What then?

Catherine Sforza: Those they have dispossessed... Those they have made enemies of... Those upon whom they have trodden in their ascent to power... Let us gather them to us.

Rufio: The cardinals?

Catherine Sforza: No. If our own cousin fails us, why look to the rest of the Consistory? Go to their families. The young bloods, blades for hire. Second sons. Roberto and Paolo Orsini. Vitelezzo Vitelli.

Rufio: Prospero Colonna.

Catherine Sforza: Gian Paolo Baglioni. The families of Bologna, Umbria, Siena.

Rufio: An alliance. You think they would fall in? For the most part they hate each other.

Catherine Sforza: They hate the Borgias more. Bring them to us. Marshal them under our banner. And then let us see where we stand.

Man: What's this?

Papal Guard: This is murder.

Man: Taken out of the Borgia palace, so we heard. Run through and through with swords. Seems there's treason afoot. Best you keep your eyes open.

Ascanio Sforza: Were you in time?

Cesare Borgia: Yes.

Ascanio Sforza: I thank God for it.

Cesare Borgia: Two men were sent in the night to wipe my family from the face of the earth and came within a blade's breadth of doing so. The maid's family is dead. The maid too, I'm sure, would have been disposed of had we not finished her first. There is someone thinking far ahead, tying up loose ends. Who?

Priest: Venite exultamus Domino...

Ascanio Sforza: His name is Rufio. He is a man of my cousin Catherina Sforza's household. I have known him since he was a boy. He's the most deadly, the most lethal -

Cesare Borgia: We will find him.

Ascanio Sforza: No, no, you will not. He's not a mere assassin. He has made himself a student of the art of death. You will not find him unless he wishes it.

Cesare Borgia: And so he found you.

Ascanio Sforza: He came to me and told me to choose my allegiance.

Cesare Borgia: And you chose Rome.

Ascanio Sforza: Yes, of course I chose Rome! What do you take me for? A traitor?

Cesare Borgia: Why should I be surprised at one more... when there are so many?

Ascanio Sforza: Where is Della Rovere?

Cesare Borgia: Gone. Who knows where. He had friends. Friends within the Vatican.

Ascanio Sforza: I knew nothing of this. I swear it. I knew nothing before tonight.

Cesare Borgia: You did well enough.

Alexander VI: They came for our family?

Cesare Borgia: It has passed. Everyone is well.

Alexander VI: Who was it? Della Rovere?

Cesare Borgia: Perhaps.

Alexander VI: Perhaps!

Cesare Borgia: More likely, this past night, your poisoning has rattled the grass and all the snakes in Rome have slid forth. Della Rovere may not be the worst of it.

Alexander VI: Well, then who? Who did it?

Cesare Borgia: Catherina Sforza.

Alexander VI: That bitch. And you knew nothing of this until it was upon us? Who is to protect this family, if not you?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Rodrigo!

Alexander VI: You are truly safe! And little Giovanni?

Lucrezia Borgia: He's safe.

Cesare Borgia: I told you, Father. He's safe. We're all safe.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: This night is done, it is daylight. Open your eyes. We're not safe.

Alexander VI: No. We are at war.

Alexander VI: Previously on The Borgias... They settled like crows around me - praying for my death.

Giuliano della Rovere: Cardinal Orsini, Cardinal De Luca. I came as soon as I heard.

Cesare Borgia: My father lives. You failed.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Where are these allies, Cesare? Who are our friends? Without him, what becomes of us?

Lucrezia Borgia: You should go. It's not safe here.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I'm to be your husband.

Lucrezia Borgia: Yes, but you're not yet. I will send for you.

Giuliano della Rovere: What is this?

Giovanni Battista Orsin: This is your freedom. Don't forget who put it in your hands.

Cesare Borgia: Guards!

Ascanio Sforza: Did you do this?

Rufio: No. All this has done is move things along a little faster than we'd anticipated. Now I require your assistance.

Ascanio Sforza: And if I refuse?

Rufio: Your cousin Catherina will not be denied this chance. He will die. As will they all die.

Cesare Borgia: All is well here?

Ascanio Sforza: No. There is a plot to kill your family.

Cesare Borgia: When?

Ascanio Sforza: Tonight. Now.

Cesare Borgia: All the snakes in Rome have slid forth.

Alexander VI: Who is to protect this family if not you?

Rufio: Ascanio betrayed us.

Catherine Sforza: Then we will have to find another way.

Rufio: The cardinals?

Catherine Sforza: No, their families. Orsini. Vitelli. Baglioni.

Rufio: They hate each other.

Catherine Sforza: They hate the Borgias more.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Open your eyes. We're not safe.

Alexander VI: We are at war.

Alexander VI: Della Rovere's escape was orchestrated by whom?

Cesare Borgia: Of that, I must plead ignorance.

Alexander VI: We are in a snake pit, surrounded by venom and smiling vipers, and our son pleads ignorance? Maybe it was you, hm? Ow.

Cesare Borgia: Let me.

Alexander VI: Maybe you helped him to live to see another day. The day perhaps when your beloved father breathes his last.

Cesare Borgia: If you believe that, Father, then you have lost all faith in me.

Alexander VI: We have lost faith in everyone, everything, even the hand that guides us.

Cesare Borgia: Surely not in your own family?

Alexander VI: Our family. That... bosom of trust and tranquillity. No. We feel safe in the arms of our family. But as for that nest of vipers - called the College of Cardinals - we shall cleanse them. Purge it. As we ourselves have been purged.

Roberto Orsini: So, Brother, who called us here?

Paolo Orsini: This letter. Unsigned. It promised sport against the Borgia family.

Roberto Orsini: And what if a Borgia wrote it?

Paolo Orsini: Too clever surely - even for them.

Roberto Orsini: Can you think of a better way to draw out their enemies?

Paolo Orsini: Who's there? Vitelli.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Paulo Orsini - and Roberto. When did you take to writing letters?

Roberto Orsini: We didn't.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: You were summoned too?

Prospero Colonna: Vitelli.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Prospero Colonna.

Prospero Colonna: We were summoned here by the Orsini?

Rufio: You were summoned by me.

Prospero Colonna: And you are?

Rufio: I am the black heart of a Borgia nightmare. I speak with Catherina Sforza's voice and she invites you all to join her in a confederacy of hatred.

Paolo Orsini: A hatred of the Sforza? We all sign up to that.

Rufio: And she would call you fool. She would remind you of the days when families ruled this papacy of ours. Roman families. Sforza, Colonna, Vitelli - Orsini. Bury your enmities, bury them until the Borgia snake is lanced.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: And she has the power to do that?

Rufio: With your help.

Roberto Orsini: And then, we can happily hate each other again.

Rufio: She will drink to that.

Alexander VI: Think of Rome as a spider's web, my son. Each family has its silken thread attached to an egg that is planted within these walls.

Cesare Borgia: Orsini. Baglioni. Vitelli. Colonna.

Alexander VI: And each one of those diaphanous threads go back through their families to the tarantula of Forli. The great Arachne, Catherina Sforza. And every egg wears a cardinal's hat and a smile of obedience and piety. And plots to murder you, your mother, your sister. And the plot to murder your beloved brother... succeeds.

Cesare Borgia: Unforgiveable, surely.

Alexander VI: So if you are to gain our love again, we would have you trace those silken threads - back to the families outside these walls. And let us deal with the cardinals within.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: And then I never saw her again.

Bodyguard: We're being followed.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Warn him off.

Bodyguard: Yes, my lord.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: You! Be wise and go home now.

Man: I am never wise. Hey!

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Go!

Cesare Borgia: My Lord Vitelli.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: My Lord Borgia.

Cesare Borgia: You are in quite the hurry.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: We were accosted.

Cesare Borgia: Rome is a lethal place at times like these. Who bears you a grudge?

Vitellozzo Vitelli: I know not.

Cesare Borgia: My whole family was assaulted. And but for the actions of my brave manservant, my mother, sister, and nephew would lie like carrion in the streets.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Yes, I heard as much.

Cesare Borgia: You also heard who set the dogs upon them?

Vitellozzo Vitelli: No, I don't trust rumour.

Cesare Borgia: Catherina Sforza, it is rumoured. It is also rumoured that she had help.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: From whom?

Cesare Borgia: Who covets the papal crown? The great Roman families: Colonna, Orsini, Baglioni... Vitelli.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: A dangerous accusation, my lord. And one that would need evidence.

Cesare Borgia: Indeed. Micheletto - call the night watch. There was some unpleasantness in the streets. And so I shall escort the good Lord Vitelli safely home.

Giulia Farnese: Rodrigo.

Alexander VI: No, no. It's no good.

Giulia Farnese: Come here.

Alexander VI: It's no good!

Giulia Farnese: My love... it happens to every man once in a while.

Alexander VI: Not to me.

Giulia Farnese: To every man.

Alexander VI: Why, have you known so many? No. I'm sorry. Forgive me. Forgive me. Come here. We have never been unmanned before. Maybe it's the poison. Hm? I mean, we want you. We desire you.

Giulia Farnese: You are tired. You've been through too much.

Alexander VI: We have been tired before. We have never been undone before. Perhaps it's age.

Giulia Farnese: You are the most vigorous man I have ever known.

Alexander VI: "Was," perhaps.

Giulia Farnese: You are. And this will pass. Believe me, it will pass.

Cesare Borgia: Cardinal Orsini!

Man: Sh, sh, sh.

Cesare Borgia: You could hear a pin drop, Micheletto.

Micheletto: If I had a pin.

Cesare Borgia: Do you have a pin, Cardinal?

Giovanni Battista Orsin: No, my Lord, I have no pin.

Cesare Borgia: But you have relatives here. Could you introduce me to them?

Giovanni Battista Orsin: The Lords Paulo, Roberto Orsini: Lord Cesare Borgia.

Cesare Borgia: At your service. May I join you?

Paolo Orsini: Be our guest.

Cesare Borgia: You were here for the game, I would hazard. The pope falls ill. The game begins. Who will succeed him? An Orsini? A Colonna? A D'Este? Or, would anyone dare bet on another Spaniard?

Paolo Orsini: But the pope lives.

Cesare Borgia: Indeed. The game is over.

Paolo Orsini: For now.

Cesare Borgia: So then why do you still linger here in Rome?

Roberto Orsini: We like the ruins.

Cesare Borgia: You prefer them to your castle in Bracciano?

Roberto Orsini: We like that too.

Cesare Borgia: But you must confer with your cousin, the cardinal. Which is difficult in Bracciano.

Roberto Orsini: His business is in Rome.

Cesare Borgia: Yes, he serves the pope, in Consistory. Does that service include the attempted assassination of his family?

Roberto Orsini: Be careful, my lord.

Cesare Borgia: I am - most careful. I gutted those incompetent dogs. Sent by Catherina Sforza? By you? Or by a great combination of both?

Giovanni Battista Orsin: But the pope survived, thanks be to God. Here, take it down. So, be careful with your calumnies and your accusations. Rome is a city of rumour. And you had a brother, who was murdered. And rumour has it that the culprit still lives.

Cesare Borgia: He has yet to be found.

Giovanni Battista Orsin: Ah. Well, perhaps he's here.

Roberto Orsini: Are you accusing me?

Paolo Orsini: Or me?

Juan Borgia: Come father, come!

Alexander VI: Where we going?

Juan Borgia: That's the mystery. Come!

Alexander VI: Ooh!

Juan Borgia: Come! Father!

Alexander VI: Hold on!

Juan Borgia: Hold me, Father - promise you'll hold me!

Alexander VI: I...I... No!

Juan Borgia: Father!

Alexander VI: Juan!

Cesare Borgia: Cesare, Holy Father, your loving son.

Alexander VI: Our only son.

Cesare Borgia: Catherina Sforza seeks out allies.

Alexander VI: Ah. You've come to talk to us about spiders.

Cesare Borgia: In an alliance against us -

Alexander VI: With whom?

Cesare Borgia: All of them: the great Roman families.

Alexander VI: Hm. So it is time to act. To snip those silken threads from their source. The great Arachne. And to give her a lesson in the elegance of revenge.

Cesare Borgia: Can revenge be elegant?

Alexander VI: Oh, yes. And eloquent. We shall begin with words. An inquisition, within these walls.

Cesare Borgia: They will all cry innocent.

Alexander VI: We will have one interrogate the other. Interrogate.

Cesare Borgia: And of what do we accuse them?

Alexander VI: Of a hand in the conspiracy. To murder our sacred person, and of our family.

Cesare Borgia: The murder of your beloved son.

Alexander VI: You surpass yourself, Cesare.

Cesare Borgia: I have a lot to atone for.

Alexander VI: Mm. We shall start with he who is closest to the tarantula of Forli: Cardinal Sforza.

Ascanio Sforza: Holiness, I swear by the living God that I am innocent in this matter. I have long forsaken all ties with my family. I am a nameless orphan, in the service of God, my pope, and the Borgia family.

Alexander VI: You would rather be a Borgia than a Sforza?

Ascanio Sforza: In everything but name, I already am.

Alexander VI: And you wish to prove to us your innocence?

Ascanio Sforza: Your Holiness, I must.

Alexander VI: Then find for us those responsible.

Ascanio Sforza: Who else then lies under suspicion?

Alexander VI: Everyone. Anybody who wears a red hat. Interrogate them all.

Ascanio Sforza: I am hardly an inquisitor.

Alexander VI: Then become one. We will cleanse this Vatican of ours of anyone who even thinks to question our fitness for this most holy of offices.

Ascanio Sforza: Is thought to be a crime now?

Alexander VI: Begin with De Luca. Threaten him with loss of office and banishment and - ...he will sing madrigals.

Ascanio Sforza: And if he doesn't?

Alexander VI: Take him to the Castel Sant Angelo. Acquaint him with the instruments of torture.

Ascanio Sforza: You cannot torture a prince of the church.

Alexander VI: I know that. You know that. But imagination is a great persuader. He saw Savonarola burn. He'll soon begin to sing - if he hasn't already - like a nightingale.

Ascanio Sforza: And then?

Alexander VI: Then -seize his estates, strip his red hat. Banish him to some hermitage. And arrest all those he has implicated. And start the process again. We are in a new world, Cardinal.

Alfonso d'Aragona: You were married before.

Lucrezia Borgia: Indeed, my love. The whole world knows that.

Alfonso d'Aragona: And yet this child is not your husband's.

Lucrezia Borgia: True. The whole world knows that too. If we are to be married, and happily my love, we must have no secrets.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Then I have a confession to make to you, Lucrezia Borgia.

Lucrezia Borgia: I'm listening.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I saved myself for marriage.

Lucrezia Borgia: Ah! Thank God. So you are all mine.

Alfonso d'Aragona: You misunderstand me. I am that most un-Italian thing. A virgin.

Lucrezia Borgia: Oh. Well, we can soon put that to rights.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I made a vow to Saint Agnes.

Lucrezia Borgia: The patron saint of purity.

Alfonso d'Aragona: The first woman that I'd lie with would be my wife.

Lucrezia Borgia: Well lie with me. I will be your wife.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Yes, but you are not yet.

Lucrezia Borgia: Ah. We must wait then.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Yes, we must wait. And until that night, all this beauty will be just a promise.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Perhaps the poison is still within you. Perhaps it strikes at the root of you.

Alexander VI: The doctor said that the poison is gone.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Perhaps it's God's punishment: your lack of vigour.

Alexander VI: Or maybe His blessing. In the past we have striven to subdue our passions. Maybe now we can succeed. How can we love when the very air we breathe is poisoned with venom and hatred? And trust no one - but you? And we could not protect you when the assassins struck.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: You can't blame yourself for that.

Alexander VI: We are God's minister on Earth; He has abandoned us. If we cannot keep you safe, we would rather give up our calling.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Life without the papacy; what a thought. But how would you spend your days? Tending your vines?

Alexander VI: Yes! Oh! We would sit together in the garden in the evening and watch our grandchildren grow.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: A garden? We'd have a garden?

Alexander VI: Mm. Flowers, a beehive -

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Beehive.

Alexander VI: -a soft spring well. Then we would find peace. With all that we have, all the trappings of office and power, we cannot protect you, our family. We would rather be a peasant in a garden with a pitchfork - if that would keep you safe.

Ascanio Sforza: Cardinal De Luca. I would speak with you.

Ascanio Sforza: He heard every word, the Holy Father. Every word, every plot, every insinuation.

Cardinal De Luca: He must know what happens on the illness of a pope. He plotted so himself.

Ascanio Sforza: This is not just any ordinary pope. This is a pope whose son has been murdered and whose family almost died at the same blade. He will take action.

Cardinal De Luca: So tell me, what must I do?

Ascanio Sforza: First, you must confess.

Cardinal De Luca: Well, I admit it then. I am guilty.

Ascanio Sforza: Of what?

Cardinal De Luca: Of avarice - for advancement. For, dare I say, the throne of St. Peter. Well, that may not be enough. Am I guilty of more?

Ascanio Sforza: Who murdered the son?

Cardinal De Luca: The world awaits news on that.

Ascanio Sforza: There was a plot led by Catherina Sforza and Della Rovere to rid the earth of the Borgia family. The plotters are in the Vatican walls.

Cardinal De Luca: I am a cleric, Cardinal. I am adept at strategy; perhaps arranging votes on conclave, on committee. As to my expertise in murder, I would plead incompetence. You are the cousin to Catherina Sforza. The finger of such an accusation must surely fall on you.

Ascanio Sforza: Indeed it does. Which may well explain my sense of urgency in this matter. When the Holy Father was ill, he heard no words of mine.

Cardinal De Luca: And what are my options?

Ascanio Sforza: Confession.

Cardinal De Luca: To a crime I would never even dream of committing?

Ascanio Sforza: Then name those who would. The plotters.

Cardinal De Luca: And who are they?

Ascanio Sforza: Orsini, Versucci, Colonna. Pick who you will. It doesn't matter. They all wanted him dead.

Cardinal De Luca: I could never.

Ascanio Sforza: Yes, I know; the very thought seems outrageous. But we must learn how outrage becomes normality.

Ascanio Sforza: This Vatican of ours has changed... forever. Follow me.

Cardinal De Luca: Follow you where?

Ascanio Sforza: Into the future.

Cardinal De Luca: Am I, a prince of the church, to be to put to the rack?

Ascanio Sforza: The very thought appalls me. But there are others less delicate than I. So perhaps these instruments of torture may act as an aid to contemplation.

Cardinal De Luca: Cardinal Sforza, Cardinal Sforza, Cardinal Sforza, please! Please, Cardinal Sforza! Please, Cardinal Sforza! Cardinal Sforza! Sforza! NO! Sforza!

Alfonso d'Aragona: May I enter?

Lucrezia Borgia: Will modesty allow it? Please. Little Giovanni. He's a virgin. He will punish me cruelly. He will make me wait. Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I have had word from my uncle, King Ferdinand of Naples.

Lucrezia Borgia: Observe. The sleep of the innocent. You have come to kiss him good night? Or to kiss me?

Alfonso d'Aragona: My uncle's letter mentioned him: the child.

Lucrezia Borgia: The child?

Alfonso d'Aragona: Neither mine nor your husband's.

Lucrezia Borgia: What of it?

Alfonso d'Aragona: My uncle has expressed his disquiet at the thought of...

Lucrezia Borgia: The thought of?

Alfonso d'Aragona: The thought of a child without legitimacy in the palace of Naples.

Lucrezia Borgia: Well, you and your uncle will have to agree to disagree then.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Of course.

Lucrezia Borgia: You would never -

Alfonso d'Aragona: Who negotiates your dowry?

Lucrezia Borgia: My brother.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Well, then I must go to him and insist that -

Lucrezia Borgia: Perhaps I should broach the matter with him.

Alfonso d'Aragona: You?

Lucrezia Borgia: My brother's passions can be intense where issues of family are concerned.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Oh.

Cardinal De Luca: Why have you forsaken me? Why have you forsaken me?

Micheletto: You are in the house of lies.

Cardinal De Luca: The devil's house?

Micheletto: Think of them as your friends.

Cardinal De Luca: The rack? The iron maiden?

Micheletto: They have a message for you.

Cardinal De Luca: You have used them, I am sure.

Micheletto: I have suffered on them. Your inquisitor believes that they elicit the truth. They do not. A man will say anything on the rack to make it end.

Cardinal De Luca: Then why am I here?

Micheletto: To learn to lie. To say whatever is needed. To avoid their embrace.

Lucrezia Borgia: You are to negotiate my dowry, Brother. With his uncle.

Cesare Borgia: The King of Naples; yes.

Lucrezia Borgia: So must I trade one love for another?

Cesare Borgia: Leave us.

Servant: My lord.

Cesare Borgia: Do you mean me for him?

Lucrezia Borgia: That too.

Cesare Borgia: What do you mean?

Lucrezia Borgia: I mean my son, Giovanni. His presence in Naples might be unwelcome.

Cesare Borgia: Ah. I could have seen that coming.

Lucrezia Borgia: The King of Naples feels that one cannot carry into one marriage baggage from the last.

Cesare Borgia: Is your son baggage to you?

Lucrezia Borgia: No. He's the light of my life.

Cesare Borgia: Well, you could insist.

Lucrezia Borgia: I will, as must you.But you must make the case for the son of a stable boy in a royal household.

Cesare Borgia: Listen. You are Lucrezia Borgia. You are the scandal of Italy. You are also the envy of Italy. And soon to be a princess of Aragon. Whoever gets in the way of your happiness will meet my wrath. We are the unholy family. Let him know that.

Lucrezia Borgia: I fear he knows already.

Cesare Borgia: He will love you, he will serve you, and if Naples dares to take your son from you, I promise... it will never know peace again. Can I get help, please? Help now!

Servant: Yes, my lord!

Ascanio Sforza: Did you sleep?

Cardinal De Luca: But I dreamed, Cardinal.

Ascanio Sforza: You dreamt without sleeping? Now that is miraculous.

Cardinal De Luca: Call it a waking dream.

Ascanio Sforza: Tell me.

Cardinal De Luca: I dreamed of a vast conspiracy encircling our beloved Vatican. It has its roots in the hills of the Romagna, in the great families that would claim St. Peter's as their own. And its tendrils spread like writhing serpents through the streets of Rome, breaking inside the Vatican walls... where it becomes a many-headed hydra and each head wears a cardinal's hat.

Ascanio Sforza: Why don't you tell me more?

Cesare Borgia: Lucrezia?

Lucrezia Borgia: Is that my brother?

Cesare Borgia: Yes.

Lucrezia Borgia: The brother who loves me?

Cesare Borgia: The same.

Lucrezia Borgia: Come in then. See my wedding gown.

Cesare Borgia: God, um -

Lucrezia Borgia: Come closer, Brother. My gown. Do you approve?

Cesare Borgia: The gold is um... divine. I - I should leave, Sis -

Lucrezia Borgia: Why? Am I ugly, Brother?

Cesare Borgia: The man who makes that claim will lose his tongue.

Lucrezia Borgia: My foot. It is ungainly? Too large, perhaps?

Cesare Borgia: Your foot is beautiful.

Lucrezia Borgia: You can't tell from there. Feel it.

Cesare Borgia: Is this a game?

Lucrezia Borgia: It is a game of want and wanting. The toes are splayed a little. God has made better feet, I'm sure.

Cesare Borgia: Not that I have found.

Lucrezia Borgia: You are a connoisseur of feet.

Cesare Borgia: Yes. And I have found none better.

Lucrezia Borgia: My calf. Is it elegant? Is it smooth?

Cesare Borgia: What is this game, Sis?

Lucrezia Borgia: My betrothed will not bed me. He will not touch me. He is a virgin.

Cesare Borgia: You have the means to change that history, I'm sure.

Lucrezia Borgia: Are you sure? That this body has the necessary charms?

Cesare Borgia: I am certain.

Lucrezia Borgia: He has made a vow to St. Agnes, the patron saint of purity - to remain chaste until married.

Cesare Borgia: Unwise.

Lucrezia Borgia: I am a Borgia. And I feel unloved.

Cesare Borgia: Positively foolish.

Lucrezia Borgia: You look but don't touch.

Servant: My lady.

Lucrezia Borgia: Ah!

Servant: My lady, your fitting.

Lucrezia Borgia: That will be the dressmakers to fit my wedding dress. You must leave us, Brother.

Cesare Borgia: Yes...

Lucrezia Borgia: For delicacy's sake.

Cesare Borgia: Yes, of course.

Lucrezia Borgia: Come in!

Cardinal De Luca: There was a conspiracy, Holy Father, devised by the mistress of Forli, Catherina Sforza. But it is a conspiracy so vast that we have no doubt that she had help.

Alexander VI: From within these walls?

Cardinal De Luca: Indeed. And have no doubt, Holy Father, that he that denies such a conspiracy existed was part of the conspiracy himself.

Alexander VI: We had feared as much.

Cardinal De Luca: A vast many-headed hydra, spreading from the families of the Romagna and each head wears a cardinal's hat. The end was plain: the murder of you and your entire family. In the instance of your most sacred person, it almost succeeded. In the instance of your beloved son, Juan Borgia, it succeeded only too well.

Alexander VI: And the conspirators? Are they amongst us here?

Cardinal De Luca: They are, Holy Father. And most shamefully, I must count myself amongst their number.

Alexander VI: Your honesty is noted. But you must name names, Cardinal.

Cardinal De Luca: Cardinal Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini.

Alessandro Piccolomini: Liar! Accuse yourself, De Luca and that perfidious Orsini!

Cardinal De Luca: Cardinal Giovanni Battista Orsini.

Giovanni Battista Orsin: These are false accusations coming from -

Cardinal De Luca: Cardinal Rocca Colonna. Julius Versucci!

Julius Versucci: I have been party to no conspiracy, Your Holiness!

Alexander VI: Those cardinals, those who have betrayed our sacred trust - will be stripped of their offices and titles, their properties confiscated and returned to our Holy Mother Church. They will be forbidden entry through the gates of Rome, and live under censure for the rest of their days.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Is this why you would speak with me? I who was once you. You who will become me.

Giulia Farnese: Should I resign myself? To being a mistress discarded?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: I should be hating you, not providing a sympathetic ear.

Giulia Farnese: Advise me then.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Is there another?

Giulia Farnese: Not that I know.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Perhaps it is you, then.

Giulia Farnese: Something has changed between us. I have felt it for some time.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Does he still love you?

Giulia Farnese: I hope.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Perhaps you'll find, as I have that... love deepens, regardless of whether you share the same bed.

Giulia Farnese: You mean I may find it is truly over between us?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Perhaps. Then you must state your terms. Negotiate your exit. What would you have from him, if not his passion?

Giulia Farnese: A palace like yours.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: That's easy. The cardinals are falling like flies.

Giulia Farnese: And... a cardinal's hat.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: For you? Have you no shame?

Giulia Farnese: For my brother.

Alexander VI: Do you think she'd be happy here? La Farnese?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: So she's to be banished from your life then?

Alexander VI: No. But a little distance might be beneficial... between us.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Have you told her that?

Alexander VI: I did mention it.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: And?

Alexander VI: She was upset, but the tears didn't last long. I mean, I think she was... relieved, maybe, to be released from us.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Everything has its end. Whose palace was this?

Alexander VI: Oh... one of the cardinals who betrayed me.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: It'll take more than a palace to keep her happy.

Alexander VI: Have you spoken to her?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: She told me that your vigour had somewhat diminished. I told her I couldn't imagine such a thing.

Alexander VI: As I said before, it's a blessing in disguise. Why do you laugh?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Because my life without you has turned out to be another blessing in disguise.

Alexander VI: We are both blessed then.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Together we're cursed.

Alexander VI: Hm...

Vanozza dei Cattanei: But apart, at least I'm at peace.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: My God, what a bed. It would fit the whole Consistory. Perhaps it did. What?

Alexander VI: This is a rare pleasure. Alone together. We find ourselves becoming a little agitated.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: You should call the guard.

Alexander VI: We lack the voice.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Cappretino.

Alexander VI: Little goat. It's been a long time since you called me that.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Well, every now and then I whisper it. But rarely. Ah no, no, no, no, no. You lack the vigour, remember?

Alexander VI: It would appear no longer.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: So the cause was not the poison, my love.

Alexander VI: It would appear not. You know... We feel safe with you. As if we've come home.

Giovanni Battista Orsin: These offices I relinquish willingly. These estates I place in the care of our Holy Mother Church. This hat... I now return to the hands that blessed me with it.

Alexander VI: In nomine Patris et Fillii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

Giovanni Battista Orsin: But I would ask one last blessing before I leave our beloved Vatican forever. Confession. I would confess to the pope's ear alone, and be absolved of my heinous sins by the successor to St. Peter.

Cesare Borgia: Now?

Giovanni Battista Orsin: Yes.

Ascanio Sforza: This is most irregular. The business of defrocking alone will take hours...

Giovanni Battista Orsin: Your Holiness, I have been asked to effect my retirement with maximum and unseemly haste. I have complied. If my request is granted, I will be gone forever. You need never set eyes on me again.

Alexander VI: Well...

Giovanni Battista Orsin: Please... Please.

Alexander VI: We grant this blessing.

Cesare Borgia: No!

Alexander VI: With the utmost efficacy. Cardinal Sforza, take our place.

Giovanni Battista Orsin: Bless me, Your Holiness, for I have sinned. And my sins are many. But the greatest of them... is this murder.

Alexander VI: Murder?

Alessandro Piccolomini: I must protest against this outrage! This hat is red as a symbol of our willingness to spill our blood in defence of our Holy Mother Church!

Alexander VI: Whose murder?

Giovanni Battista Orsin: A murder yet... to be committed! For which the whole world will grant me forgiveness!

Alessandro Piccolomini: And I return it willingly since there is nothing of value - [murmuring] No residue of honour, of goodness, of sanctity left to defend!

Giovanni Battista Orsin: Ah! Ah! There will be rejoicing in the Heavens as Hell welcomes you with open arms...

Alessandro Piccolomini: May it lie in the filth which will be its deserved home!

Giovanni Battista Orsin: I'll gladly die with you. Ah!

Alexander VI: As you sink into the darkness - call out His name, see if He replies. Or if you must hear the eternal silence.

Ascanio Sforza: Next! Cardinal Colonna!

Cesare Borgia: This is one endless confession.

Alexander VI: Close the door. God must want us to live.

Alexander VI: Previously on The Borgias... We are in a snake pit surrounded by venom. We shall cleanse the College of Cardinals.

Catherine Sforza: Vitelli, Orsini. Let us gather them to us.

Rufio: Catherina Sforza invites you all to join her in a confederacy of hatred. Until the Borgia snake is lanced.

Cesare Borgia: Catherina Sforza seeks out allies.

Alexander VI: Give her a lesson in revenge.

Cardinal De Luca: There was a plot to rid the Earth of the Borgia family.

Ascanio Sforza: So tell me, what must I do?

Cardinal De Luca: Confess. To a crime I would never even dream of committing!

Ascanio Sforza: Then name those who would.

Cardinal De Luca: Cardinal Sforza!

Alfonso d'Aragona: My uncle has expressed his disquiet at the thought of a child without legitimacy.

Lucrezia Borgia: You are to negotiate my dowry, Brother.

Cesare Borgia: If Naples dares to take your son from you, it will never know peace again.

Lucrezia Borgia: My betrothed will not bed me. He is a virgin. I am a Borgia. I feel unloved.

Servant: My lady.

Lucrezia Borgia: Ah!

Cardinal De Luca: Why am I here?

Micheletto: To learn to lie. To say whatever's needed.

Cardinal De Luca: Cardinal Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini.

Alessandro Piccolomini: Liar!

Cardinal De Luca: Cardinal Giovanni Battista Orsini.

Giovanni Battista Orsin: These are false accusations coming from-

Cardinal De Luca: Cardinal Rocca Colonna! Julius Versucci!

Julius Versucci: I have been party to no conspiracy, Your Holiness!

Alexander VI: Those cardinals will be stripped of their offices and titles. They will be forbidden entry through the gates of Rome.

Giovanni Battista Orsin: My sins are many. But the greatest of them is this murder.

Alexander VI: God must want us to live.

Julius Versucci: Your lies should make you choke, De Luca.

Alexander VI: The sentence is banishment. Cardinal Versucci will be stripped of his position as procreator of the Office of Public Works forthwith and his property will be donated to our Holy Mother Church.

Julius Versucci: How many more, your Holiness... until your coffers are adequately lined?

Alexander VI: Take him from our sight.

Cesare Borgia: You're running out of cardinals. What use is an empty Consistory?

Alexander VI: An empty Consistory is at least free of traitors and assassins. We will cleanse our house and get rid of this deceit with our own hands, if that be God's will. And the fruits of their degeneracy will be put to God's use.

Man: Your Grace.

Julius Versucci: Out of the way! No, no. Not now.

Cesare Borgia: A summary of the state of the papal armies.

Alexander VI: This your work?

Cesare Borgia: The articles of war demand the papal army at full strength number: 10,000 men-at-arms. You have less than half that. Of horses, wagonry, and six tenths. Of supplies, provisions, medicines, foodstuffs and general equipment half.

Alexander VI: Half?

Cesare Borgia: What good are our men-at-arms if we can only equip them with one sword between two? Are they supposed to share?

Alexander VI: Well, what do you expect me to do?

Cesare Borgia: What of your cardinals' fortunes?

Alexander VI: There were debts. The treasury is filling, but not to the extent of equipping an army.

Cesare Borgia: Well, we must find a way. Because Catherina Sforza gathers allies to her daily like flies to a corpse. And we are weak.

Alexander VI: We are not yet at war, Cesare.

Cesare Borgia: Father, we're already seeing the first gambits on the chessboard: plot, intrigue, assassination. But the endgame will be war, and it will engulf all Italy. Am I wrong?

Alexander VI: No, you're not wrong.

Cesare Borgia: Then give me command!

Alexander VI: In time, Cesare.

Flunkey: FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!

Alexander VI: You go to Naples to discuss the terms of your sister's wedding, do you not?

Cesare Borgia: Yes.

Alexander VI: When do you arrive?

Cesare Borgia: Tomorrow.

Alexander VI: We offer Naples a chance to strengthen our kinship with them in a bond of blood and family. It is a joyous visit. But you might take the opportunity to judge how our friends and cousins in the south fare in terms of men, arms, horses, wagonry, supplies, general equipment, and the like. So that kinship may not be the only thing strengthened by this joyous marriage.

Cesare Borgia: Is that smoke? Do you smell smoke?

Man: The treasury's on fire!

Man: Fire in the treasury!

Man: The account books! Hurry!

Man: Quickly!

Man: Help! Help!

Alexander VI: My God! How did this happen?

Ascanio Sforza: Your Holiness, it seems Cardinal Versucci was the last person in the room. Whether this is by negligence or by design I can't tell. Unfortunately, no one can find him to ask him.

Nun: God be with you.

Man: Good day, Brother.

Julius Versucci: Benedicte.

Referee: Move back, I say! Give the swordsmen room!

Man: Finish him!

Referee: Ready!

Florentine Swordsman: Yah! I've won.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: No.

Florentine Swordsman: I won! I'm telling you. I had you!

Gian Paolo Baglioni: I think not.

Florentine Swordsman: I had you, Baglioni! If this were for real -

Gian Paolo Baglioni: If this was for real, you'd be dead.

Florentine Swordsman: I have a hundred ducats that say I get first blood. Whoa! Once more.

Referee: On my mark. My lords.

Florentine Swordsman: Ya! Nothing either way. You're not so fast as you think, huh, Gian Paolo Baglioni? Huh? Let's do that again.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Look at your neck.

Referee: Baglioni!

Man: He's cut him!

Man: Baglioni's untouchable!

Gian Paolo Baglioni: You think you could do better?

Rufio: Against Gian Paolo Baglioni, Lord of Perugia, the most renowned blade in all Umbria? I value my own shirt too highly. Blood is the very devil to get out.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: I know who you are. You're Catherina Sforza's man.

Lucrezia Borgia: Alfonso wishes me to ask you if he may accompany you to Naples.

Cesare Borgia: Alfonso cannot ask me himself?

Lucrezia Borgia: I think he finds you a little, um...

Cesare Borgia: What?

Lucrezia Borgia: Frightening. Take him. He wants to see his family.

Cesare Borgia: Ah! Well, if you insist.

Lucrezia Borgia: How long will you be away?

Cesare Borgia: It's difficult to know. To negotiate the harmony of two households -

Lucrezia Borgia: Harmony of households be damned. You know what I want.

Cesare Borgia: You wish your son to be acknowledged.

Lucrezia Borgia: As much as I am, you are. As much as any other... bastard child in Italy.

Cesare Borgia: I give you my word - I will do my utmost, for Giovanni and for you.

Lucrezia Borgia: Come back soon.

Cesare Borgia: Why do you say that?

Lucrezia Borgia: I don't feel safe unless I know you're nearby.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: What brings you to Florence?

Rufio: I am on my way home from visiting friends.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Which friends would those be?

Rufio: Prospero Colonna, Roberto and Paolo Orsini, Vitelezzo Vitelli.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: A miracle even to get them in the same room together.

Rufio: We share a common interest.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: And these are now your friends?

Rufio: We hope that they will be, yes.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: I see. Your lady does not lack for ambition.

Rufio: You have done well suppressing the uprising in Umbria. The Florentines speak highly of you. But... your contract with them is over. Perhaps it's time to consider where you go next?

Alfonso d'Aragona: Naples. I haven't seen her in too long a time. We're to be brothers. And, mindful of that honour, I should like to show you around the city. Its beauties are modest in comparison to Rome - but- uh, it is my city, so...

Cesare Borgia: Impress me not with your love for your native city but your love for my sister.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I could not love her more, my lord!

Cesare Borgia: Will your "more" be enough? You are marrying Lucrezia Borgia. Your sole allegiance is to her now - And to Rome. Never forget that.

Woman: Keep that wagon moving!

Alfonso d'Aragona: Palace is this way, my lord.

Cesare Borgia: Our allies.

Ferdinand II: Cousin. My Lord Borgia. We welcome you in the name of the fair and ancient city of Naples.

Cesare Borgia: Rather more ancient than fair, from what I've glimpsed. It seems the French army were not exactly considerate tenants.

Ferdinand II: Tonight we dine to honour the union between our own Alfonso and the most-gracious Lady Lucrezia. A union not only of man and wife, but of Naples and Rome. We beg you, you will grace us with your presence.

Cesare Borgia: I would be glad.

Flunkey: Presenting His Excellency, the Duke of Acquitane, Ambassador of the Court of his Highness Louis XII of France.

Alexander VI: We are honoured to receive the Ambassador from France.

French Ambassador: And France is most deeply honoured to be so received.

Alexander VI: Hm. Your new king, Louis the XII, sends his ambassador. Tell me, does he bring murmurings of peace or of war?

French Ambassador: Peace, Your Holiness.

Alexander VI: Tell us more of this considerate young man.

French Ambassador: He, uh, has the energy of youth but the wisdom of age. He is attentive to counsel, but decisive in his own authority. And most of all, he wishes no discord with Rome or with her pope.

Alexander VI: Are we to believe he is without fault?

French Ambassador: Well - you could perhaps, were you not to meet his wife.

Alexander VI: His wife?

French Ambassador: It is the most unfortunate match. The shame of France.

Alexander VI: Hm.

French Ambassador: Arranged, of course, when he was only a child. Back then no one knew how she would develop. And now we know... All we can do is wish - wish for an act of God. My apologies, Your Holiness. I have entirely forgotten myself. Please forgive me.

Alexander VI: Oh, you have our forgiveness. Let us talk... further... if you so desire... of, uh, the shame of France.

Ferdinand II: The Royal Guard. Here lies the true worth of Naples, my Lord Borgia, not in its buildings nor its peasants, but here.

Cesare Borgia: Impressive.

Ferdinand II: And yet merely the razor tip of the great spear that is the Neapolitan army. Straight!

Cesare Borgia: If I may ask... uh, how many men does Naples have under arms?

Ferdinand II: Ten thousand men.

Cesare Borgia: Impressive. One might almost say... incredible.

Armourer Naples: Put that down! No more fucking thieving, do you hear me?

Micheletto: You're telling me that people would wish to steal such shit?

Armourer Naples: That's good armour, that. Just needs shaking in sand for 10 minutes; it'll come up good.

Micheletto: You shake this in sand for 10 minutes and all you'll end up with is rust.

Ferdinand II: Now as to residence - on her marriage, your sister will become the Duchess of Bisceglie.

Alfonso d'Aragona: We had-

Ferdinand II: Some attendance at the court would be in order.

Alfonso d'Aragona: We had already discussed it. She's happy to undertake any duties that are expected.

Cesare Borgia: Agreed.

Ferdinand II: Very well; then I think our business here is concluded.

Cesare Borgia: There is one other thing. The child.

Ferdinand II: The bastard son?

Cesare Borgia: Yes.

Ferdinand II: My feelings on that matter have already been made abundantly clear.

Cesare Borgia: I do not ask that you parade him in public. I do not ask that you make any statement, any commitment. But to separate a mother from her child -

Ferdinand II: Her bastard child.

Cesare Borgia: A child that she loves -

Ferdinand II: A bastard child nevertheless.

Cesare Borgia: All I ask is that Giovanni should accompany his mother. Quietly, if you wish. In the company of a nursemaid. Out of the public eye, but in the bosom of his family.

Ferdinand II: His family is to be my family, a family that traces back its lineage to Aragon and Castille, the kings and queens of Spain and Portugal, and I can assure you, my Lord Borgia, my family has never encompassed the offspring of stable boys.

Cesare Borgia: You would risk an open breach over this? An open breach with me?

Ferdinand II: Do not parade your empty threats around here, Cesare Borgia. Rome needs Naples - you know this as well as I do. Your father sent you here to consolidate an alliance, not to treat favours for an infant.

Cesare Borgia: I'm not here to consolidate an alliance but to consider one. And I will consider one elsewhere if the need arises. Do not be hasty, Your Highness. Turn the matter over in your mind. Come to my sister's wedding and let us have your answer then.

Man: Highness.

Cesare Borgia: Why did you say nothing?

Alfonso d'Aragona: What?

Cesare Borgia: You sat there, meek as a girl - and said not one word. Your wife! Your family! Have you nothing to say? Back to Rome.

Rufio: There's a report.

Man: A report in what?

Rufio: The state of the army. Stores, powder, shots for the cannon, readiness of the men. Commissioned for the pope himself.

Man: In preparation for war.

Rufio: What else? I should very much like to see it.

Lucrezia Borgia: Was it pleasant to see your home?

Alfonso d'Aragona: Yes.

Cesare Borgia: You and I should speak together.

Lucrezia Borgia: He refused?

Cesare Borgia: When he finally comes to his senses he will realize that one child's happiness is a small price to pay for the goodwill of Rome.

Lucrezia Borgia: Yes, one child's happiness. And that of his mother. Is that so much to ask, that threats must be made, alliances held in jeopardy? Am I so hard to love?

Cesare Borgia: No. No, my love.

Lucrezia Borgia: Rome is the peak of the world, and we are at its pinnacle, and yet... still, no matter which way I turn, I still can't seem to find that which will make me truly happy. Why can I not be happy?

Cesare Borgia: I will make you happy. I promise.

Alexander VI: Forgive my prurience. Am I to understand she is so uncomely she is unbeddable?

French Ambassador: In all honesty, then...

Alexander VI: Yes, honesty, is always good.

French Ambassador: She is what we must call a two-sack woman.

Alexander VI: What?

French Ambassador: There are women one might take to bed only if they were to wear a sack over their heads. And then there are others where you too must wear a sack, lest theirs fall off. Sadly, she is more than likely barren.

Alexander VI: Ah. Well, King Louis has our every sympathy.

French Ambassador: I am most encouraged to hear you say so, Your Holiness.

Alexander VI: Now, we should bid you goodnight. It could hardly have been clearer.

Cesare Borgia: He wants an annulment.

Alexander VI: Uh-huh.

Cesare Borgia: And you're the only person in Christendom who can give it to him.

Alexander VI: Uh-huh.

Cesare Borgia: This is it. This is where the game turns. Everyone fears the French, and we hold their royal succession in our hands.

Alexander VI: Everyone fears the French. Especially those who have felt her sword, like Naples.

Cesare Borgia: Ah! I have seen Naples, Father. There is nothing there. Nothing but a king whose throat I would joyfully slit. A warehouse full of rust and spiderwebs. No army, no will, just a leper with his hand out begging Rome for coin.

Alexander VI: Hm. Your sister marries Naples. Why don't you marry France?

Cesare Borgia: And you would hold two states in the palm of your hand: France and Naples.

Alexander VI: Cesare to France, Lucrezia to Naples. Two states, one who desires the other. A desire that is destined to be frustrated. Once your sister is married to Naples, you will take ship to France. You will take with you a papal brief granting annulment to the king's marriage. But you will not grant this gift lightly. You will use every advantage you can. Hm? As you said yourself: everybody fears France. Well, let it be everybody but us. And while you're there... find yourself a bride.

Rufio: Your cousin banished Vitelli. Your family dispossessed. Your cousin- Cardinal Orsini- dead, at the pope's own hand. What more convincing do you need to come to my lady's side?

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Your mistress deludes herself if she believes she can be victor over the Pope of Rome.

Rufio: My mistress alone... perhaps.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: The assassinations failed. He lives. The alternative you would bring us is open warfare against the papal armies of Rome. That is a great deal more of a risk than a blade in the dark.

Paolo Orsini: And the blade in the dark failed miserably...

Rufio: What if it was less of a risk? What if it was more of a certainty?

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Dear God. Is this information accurate?

Rufio: This is an exact copy of the report commissioned by Cesare Borgia himself. It's accurate. The papal armies of Rome... barely exist.

Man: I was told to deliver these. Shall I take them through?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Yes, take that one. And over there.

Man: Where would you like them?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Over there. Should we arrange King Ferdinand's retinue and family on the one hand, and ours on the other, or should we take the fashionable route and let the guests intermingle? What is it?

Lucrezia Borgia: Cesare is to go to France.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: What of it?

Lucrezia Borgia: Straight after my wedding - the wedding that shackles me to Naples - my brother sets sail to court Naples's greatest enemy.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: He said as much?

Lucrezia Borgia: No. But it was in his eyes. He can't hide things from me.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Why are you so upset? This makes no odds between Alfonso and you -

Lucrezia Borgia: What rules this family, Mother?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Love.

Lucrezia Borgia: Ambition. Ambition rules this family. My father's. My brother's. And I will have to add to that, my own if I don't want to live in a garden of weeds.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Lucrezia... It was you who purged the poison from your father's veins. In that hour, you saved Rome. I believe you are the equal to any task, least of all that of taking care of your family. Do you hear? Have more faith in yourself.

Lucrezia Borgia: I shall. There's no one else to have faith in.

Alexander VI: He's done what?

Cesare Borgia: Invited her to the wedding.

Alexander VI: He would invite that bitch whore into our house?

Cesare Borgia: Not alone. Gian Paulo Baglioni, Prospero Colonna-

Alexander VI: Oh!

Cesare Borgia: The Orsini brothers. Vitelezzo Vitelli. Half the Lords of the Romagna!

Alexander VI: And Catherina Sforza.

Cesare Borgia: And Catherina Sforza. As honoured guests of King Ferdinand of Naples.

Alexander VI: Why is he doing this?

Cesare Borgia: I don't know. To show his strength? To show that Naples does not stand alone? To throw my own words back in my face and show that the alliance with Rome is only one of any number he would consider. You'll forbid it, of course.

Alexander VI: What, and insult him publicly? Humiliate him?

Cesare Borgia: Yes. Yes, why not?

Alexander VI: Because the whole of Italy is watching! Would you have them see us divided even amongst our own family? Bickering like peasants? Do you not see that even the impression of weakness begets weakness? No. We are the Pope of Rome, the vicar of Christ. Let her come.

Flunkey: My lord.

Lucrezia Borgia: I placed you here, as you see. At my side.

Cesare Borgia: I see it.

Lucrezia Borgia: Are you?

Cesare Borgia: Of course, at your side. Whatever happens: France, or Spain, Naples... they can crumble to dust, for all I care. As long as you - Forgive me!

Il Cerimoniere: His Royal Highness, King Ferdinand II of Naples.

Alexander VI: You are welcome in the name of Christ. Peace be upon you.

Ferdinand II: Naples thanks you.

Il Cerimoniere: Catherina Sforza Riario, Countess of Forli and Lady of Imola.

Alexander VI: We had almost lost hope of having you kneel before us.

Catherine Sforza: I bend my knee to no man... unless I choose to.

Cesare Borgia: We should have prepared her apartments in the Castel Sant Angelo...

Alexander VI: Hm.

Cesare Borgia: I knew she was clever, but I never realized how clever until today.

Alexander VI: Well, put her from your mind. The die is cast and we must hazard everything or leave the game.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Have you lost your mind? What have you done, you fool! You invite her here? Into the heart of Rome onto the steps of the Vatican for the whole world to see? You're insane.

Ferdinand II: And you're naive! My invitation of Catherina Sforza is a move in the game, as is your marriage to the pope's daughter.

Alfonso d'Aragona: My marriage is no game.

Ferdinand II: Don't be a child.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I love Lucrezia. Maybe you can't understand -

Ferdinand II: Whether you love her, hate her, are repulsed by her - you marry her, and you secure our claim to the friendship of Rome. Why else do you think I put you forward to be her suitor? And therefore also choose to remind His Holiness that Naples has friends, friends beyond Rome. And if Rome wishes the friendship of Naples, that friendship needs to be cultivated, nurtured -

Alfonso d'Aragona: She tried to kill his children! His grandchild!

Ferdinand II: That, too, is the game; a game in which you are new and uninstructed. Now, play your part. Get married, fuck the pope's daughter, and leave the serious matters for your elders. Now go.

Catherine Sforza: My lord. May I take the opportunity to offer your sister my congratulations on the occasion of her marriage.

Cesare Borgia: I shall be sure to tell her. Should I also offer my father your congratulations on his recovery from poison? My family your congratulations on their escape from assassination?

Catherine Sforza: If it pleases you to do so.

Cesare Borgia: You risk everything, my lady.

Catherine Sforza: Do you think me ignorant of that? You have your blade there. No one would stop you. I know what I risk. You could sink your steel into me - to the hilt - if you wished.

Cesare Borgia: My lady.

Il Cerimoniere: His Holiness, Your Majesty, my lords. Ladies and gentlemen - Pray open the dance.

French Ambassador: Such delights! Your sister looks quite entrancing, does she not?

Cesare Borgia: She does.

French Ambassador: Would you take a drink with me? Marriage can be such a blessing. A man and wife united in the sight of God. It is a beautiful thing.

Cesare Borgia: It should be. It can be. Even for the King of France.

French Ambassador: Do you cry at weddings? I always find my eyes a little... moist.

Cesare Borgia: I would cry at my own, perhaps.

French Ambassador: Ah, why so, my Lord Borgia?

Cesare Borgia: Because it would mean the end of a certain life for me.

French Ambassador: Your father has mentioned the possibility of a French bride.

Cesare Borgia: Ah. What would France say to that?

French Ambassador: One marriage for another. Beauty and blessings all round.

Catherine Sforza: Our little pack of wolves. What is their price?

Rufio: Land. The restoration of what has been taken from them.

Catherine Sforza: Tell them if they pledge their swords to me, they shall have all they had before, and the Borgia estates I will divide among them.

Rufio: I will. So we are done in Rome?

Catherine Sforza: Very far from it. Those who we would overcome we must first confound. I would confound this pope.

Rufio: More than you have already?

Catherine Sforza: Considerably more.

Cesare Borgia: My lords. Orsini.

Roberto Orsini: And who are you?

Cesare Borgia: Do you not know?

Roberto Orsini: You are no cardinal. You have no robes, and you are no soldier. You have no army. You're not even anyone's legitimate son.

Paolo Orsini: Roberto.

Roberto Orsini: So I ask again. Who are you?

Cesare Borgia: Oh, take a breath, Roberto. Have some more wine, my wine. Take a dance in the garden, my garden. The pretty young noblewomen of Rome would, I'm sure, delight to have you paw at them.

Roberto Orsini: I care nothing for your pretty young noblewomen.

Cesare Borgia: Then I will introduce you to some pretty young noblemen instead.

Paolo Orsini: Calm down! Brother! Take a walk.

Lucrezia Borgia: So... Are you, umm... are you still a virgin?

Alfonso d'Aragona: You know I am.

Lucrezia Borgia: Saving yourself for marriage.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I told you as much, didn't I?

Lucrezia Borgia: And, um, are we now married?

Alfonso d'Aragona: I believe so. I seem to remember a ceremony.

Lucrezia Borgia: I also.

Alfonso d'Aragona: What's this?

Lucrezia Borgia: This board? It's nothing. It's seating arrangements for the wedding. Fuck me.

Alfonso d'Aragona: This isn't the wedding. This is ally on the one hand and enemy on the other. Who did this?

Lucrezia Borgia: Only my brother would have -

Alfonso d'Aragona: Is this what I am to your brother? A question mark. A question mark. A QUESTION MARK! Is this what I am to your family?

Cesare Borgia: What on God's earth?

Lucrezia Borgia: Am I so hard to love?

Cesare Borgia: No, Lucrezia - you cannot.

Lucrezia Borgia: But I must. Only a Borgia, it seems, can truly love a Borgia. They already whisper it of us- throughout the whole of Italy. Why deny ourselves the pleasure of which we're already accused?

Cesare Borgia: Your husband -

Lucrezia Borgia: You will be my husband... tonight.

Alexander VI: Previously on The Borgias... The sentence is banishment. Cardinal Versucci will be stripped and his property will be donated to our Holy Mother Church.

Ascanio Sforza: Cardinal Versucci was the last person in the room. No one can find him.

Ludovico Sforza: May I introduce Francesco Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and his bride, the lovely Bianca.

Alexander VI: Divine indeed.

Lucrezia Borgia: You know what I want.

Cesare Borgia: You wish your son to be acknowledged. To separate a mother from her child -

Ferdinand II: Her bastard child. My feelings on that matter have already been made abundantly clear.

Cesare Borgia: You sat there, meek as a girl, and said not one word.

Il Cerimoniere: Catherina Sforza Riario, Countess of Forli.

Alexander VI: We had almost lost hope of having you kneel before us.

Alfonso d'Aragona: You invite her here? Into the heart of Rome onto the steps of the Vatican for the whole world to see?

Ferdinand II: My invitation of Catherina Sforza is a move in the game - as is your marriage to the pope's daughter.

Alfonso d'Aragona: My marriage is no game. I love Lucrezia. Who did this?

Lucrezia Borgia: Only my brother would've -

Alfonso d'Aragona: Is this what I am to your brother? A question mark? Is this what I am to your family?

Catherine Sforza: I would confound this pope. Our little pack of wolves. If they pledge their swords to me, and the Borgia estates I'll divide among them.

Cesare Borgia: What on God's earth?

Lucrezia Borgia: Am I so hard to love? Only a Borgia, it seems, can truly love a Borgia. Why deny ourselves the pleasure of which we're already accused?

Alexander VI: We hereby invest you, Alessandro Farnese, with the dignity of Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. Receive this ring from the hand of Peter and know that through the love of the Prince of the Apostles...

Domenico Grimani: Who is he?

Alexander VI: Your love towards the church is strengthened.

Ascanio Sforza: Remember Pope's whore, Giulia Farnese? That's the brother.

Domenico Grimani: God help us all.

Ascanio Sforza: You shall report to Cardinal Grimani who is in charge of the Treasury. We need a comprehensive account of all funds and outlays, with each transaction recorded twice. I am sure you are aware of the principle of double entry? Tithes and taxes are garnered in the Treasury and deposited here; these dockets record the amounts, the various funds, sub-funds and sub-funds of sub-funds to which the amounts are due. You will make two books: one of credit, one of debit. This is your desk.

Man: Here.

Ascanio Sforza: I'm sure your sister impressed on you the importance of counting the money before the client has rinsed off and walked away.

Alessandro Farnese: What happened here?

Ascanio Sforza: Cardinal Versucci happened here.

Abbess: Sister... More water. There, Brother.

Julius Versucci: The title deeds to the alum mines so graciously transferred to the Office of Public Works are now restored, in perpetuity, to the Little Sisters of the Poor. With all the income resultant.

Abbess: You're a strange messenger to bring such good tidings. You look like a man in a hurry. What is it you are hurrying from, Father?

Julius Versucci: Oh, at first I thought I was hurrying from. But now, I rather think I am hurrying towards.

Abbess: Towards God?

Julius Versucci: Towards whatever destiny I have wrought for myself.

Cesare Borgia: So, Rome is well stocked with cardinals once more.

Alexander VI: With loyal cardinals. When the garden is overcome with weeds, it is sometimes best to burn it down and sow again.

Cesare Borgia: Are they competent? Do any of them know their duties?

Alexander VI: Their only duty is loyalty to us. The rest they can learn as they go along.

Cesare Borgia: Father, the envoy from Venice.

Alexander VI: What does Venice want?

Cesare Borgia: An audience. He's been waiting three days.

Alexander VI: Ah! The new bride finally appears. How are you, my dear? Are you well?

Lucrezia Borgia: Yes, Father.

Alexander VI: Married life suits you? Last night brought you everything you could desire? Oh! We brought a blush to your cheeks. Look, Cesare. Your sister, the blushing bride. Well, there we are.

Alexander VI: So... What brings Venice so far south? The price of indigo? The illiberal duties charged on imports from the Baltic states? Or are mosquitoes in the lagoon getting too much to bear?

Venetian Envoy: It is the Turks, Your Holiness.

Alexander VI: The Turks?

Venetian Envoy: We have lost three trade convoys this year.

Alexander VI: Uh-huh...

Venetian Envoy: Innumerable smaller merchant vessels.

Alexander VI: The price of doing business.

Venetian Envoy: This past month they've been raiding the coastal towns along the province. They've not done that before. If trade suffers, we all suffer. Rome as well.

Alexander VI: So Venice's suffering is Rome's suffering.

Venetian Envoy: Exactly so, Holiness.

Alexander VI: Except with rather more mosquitoes. Well, we thank you for bringing our suffering to our attention. We were not aware. We will give this matter the consideration that it merits.

Ferdinand II: So our cousin has married the woman all of Italy talks about. Who would have thought, of all those suitors, she would choose our little Alfonsito? You've done well, for our family and yourself. Very, very well, I might say. Lucrezia Borgia! Even a king hears tales. So tell me... What's she like?

Alfonso d'Aragona: She is, uh, kind, and gentle.

Ferdinand II: You idiot. Not like that. I mean in bed. What's she like in bed?

Alfonso d'Aragona: She's everything you could wish for, I suppose.

Ferdinand II: You suppose? Cousin, we're men talking here! I mean, how does she like it? Dog style? Up the back alley? How?

Alfonso d'Aragona: The usual way.

Ferdinand II: "The usual way?" What is it you're not telling me? What happened on your wedding night?

Alfonso d'Aragona: Nothing.

Ferdinand II: Nothing? What do you mean, nothing?

Alfonso d'Aragona: Nothing happened.

Ferdinand II: The marriage wasn't consummated?

Alfonso d'Aragona: Nothing happened!

Ferdinand II: Nothing happened? Nothing at all? But it must happen. For the sake of both our families, it must happen.

Alfonso d'Aragona: And it will!

Ferdinand II: Yes, it most certainly will.

Man: Father.

Man: Your Grace.

Alexander VI: Cardinal Farnese.

Alessandro Farnese: Your Holiness.

Alexander VI: Hard at work, I see.

Alessandro Farnese: Yes, Holiness. I am reconciling dockets, Holiness.

Alexander VI: Ascertaining the true level of Vatican funds. Please, don't let me stop you. Your sister Giulia requested that you be created a cardinal.

Alessandro Farnese: Yes, Holiness.

Alexander VI: You did not put yourself forward.

Alessandro Farnese: No, Holiness.

Alexander VI: Not even to her? A suggestion, the merest hint?

Alessandro Farnese: No, Holiness. It - it was her idea.

Alexander VI: So, you are not like the others. No ambition.

Alessandro Farnese: I am deeply honoured by the -

Alexander VI: Yes, yes, yes. She told me that you have a felicity for numbers, for accounts. Which is why we have placed you in a position in our Treasury.

Alessandro Farnese: Holiness.

Alexander VI: Now listen to me very carefully.

Alessandro Farnese: Yes, Holiness.

Alexander VI: You'll not report to Cardinal Grimani. You will not report to Cardinal Sforza. To none of them. You will detail the full extent of Vatican finances, and your report you will place in our hands and our hands alone. Am I clear?

Alessandro Farnese: Yes, Holiness.

Alexander VI: Good.

Alessandro Farnese: Giulia! What brings you here?

Giulia Farnese: A sister's devotion. Is your head above the water still?

Alessandro Farnese: In truth - I fear the waves closed over me long ago.

Giulia Farnese: What is this?

Alessandro Farnese: I no longer know. Lies and confusion. Would sisterly devotion go so far as to help me make sense of it?

Alfonso d'Aragona: Are you awake?

Lucrezia Borgia: Yes.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I wanted to say I'm sorry for last night. I wish it never happened. Can we pretend it never happened, and start anew?

Lucrezia Borgia: I'm sorry. I cannot. I -

Alfonso d'Aragona: We're married now. We're married.

Lucrezia Borgia: Last night... something more happened than just a question mark on a place setting.

Alfonso d'Aragona: What happened? I don't understand. What else happened?

Lucrezia Borgia: A cloud descended on me - my heart.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Let me lift it then. You feel nothing?

Lucrezia Borgia: I feel your hand.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Help me... to love you. Please - just -

Lucrezia Borgia: Maybe... maybe our love has to be more of the soul.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Like... brother and sister?

Lucrezia Borgia: No. Not like that.

Cesare Borgia: We've been stripped bare.

Alexander VI: Yes. Extraordinary, isn't it? With such ease.

Cesare Borgia: You're laughing? Where is the outrage? The fury?

Alexander VI: Because... we never would have thought he had it in him. Oh, we'll replenish the coffers. Meanwhile, seek him out, the old goat. Teach him the error of his ways.

Cesare Borgia: Find him.

Alexander VI: Leave us.

Giulia Farnese: Holy Father, if you wish me to visit you, you have but to say the word. There is no need for Vatican Guards in the night.

Alexander VI: Your handwriting on Vatican accounts. Your notes. Here and here. Don't try and deny it.

Giulia Farnese: Yes, I was helping Alessandro to make sense -

Alexander VI: You told us he was capable! That he had a felicity for numbers! We took your word!

Giulia Farnese: He does. That rat's nest of figures would make a saint weep.

Alexander VI: You lied to gain your brother a position!

Giulia Farnese: He is capable!

Alexander VI: Moreover, we ordered him explicitly to answer to no one but us, and he runs straight to you!

Giulia Farnese: I was merely helping him! As I once helped you.

Alexander VI: Give me one reason why we should not have him defrocked this instant!

Giulia Farnese: There is nothing underhand here. He could not understand the numbers.

Alexander VI: Could not understand the numbers!

Giulia Farnese: That is all! I helped him! No one else, nothing more. Just a sister helping a brother to serve his pope.

Alexander VI: But he is a man, is he not?

Giulia Farnese: What do you mean?

Alexander VI: All men are false. We had thought to purge our Vatican. As though the fresh blood of new cardinals would wash it clean. But it will not. New cardinals become old cardinals, and it will all begin again - the plotting, the scheming. We can see it all - as inevitable as the tide.

Giulia Farnese: You are not yourself, Holiness.

Alexander VI: But we are not mistaken either. We are so utterly alone.

Giulia Farnese: You are not alone, Holiness. How can I prove it?

Alexander VI: You can't... unless you can ensure a loyalty of an entire Consistory.

Giulia Farnese: If that will bring me your forgiveness, and you some peace of mind, then I shall find a way.

Man: It does require your attention.

Alexander VI: You wished to speak to us? In private?

Ferdinand II: It's a matter of delicacy, Holiness, but a matter that can no longer go unattended.

Alexander VI: Then speak.

Ferdinand II: The marriage of your daughter to our cousin. It has come to my attention that it is a marriage in name only.

Alexander VI: Hm?

Ferdinand II: It is unfulfilled. Unconsummated.

Alexander VI: What?

Cesare Borgia: It's only been a few days.

Ferdinand II: Still. A few days become a few weeks and then come the lovers.

Alexander VI: Do not speak of our daughter thus. You are a guest here!

Ferdinand II: Forgive me, Holiness, but God himself tells us, "Thou shalt enter unto her - "

Alexander VI: Do not preach to us about what God tells us.

Ferdinand II: "...and thou shalt know her, and she shall be to thee for a woman." Now, unless this is done, this marriage is a sham.

Alexander VI: If it is unconsummated, then whose fault is that?

Ferdinand II: How am I to tell?

Alexander VI: Well, you tell me, you seem to know everything else!

Ferdinand II: I will tell you what I know. I know your daughter is married to my kinsman. Now, he's an honourable man. Meanwhile, your daughter -

Alexander VI: You should -

Ferdinand II: ...has a son already whose father is unknown.

Cesare Borgia: You tread carefully, sir.

Ferdinand II: I am careful, my lord. I am careful of myself and my family. Now I will see this marriage consummated, lest there be any doubt, any confusion, weeks or months hence.

Cesare Borgia: Then just tell your little cousin to get on with it!

Ferdinand II: No. I will take no one's word on this matter, do you understand? There must be proof.

Alexander VI: What do you mean, proof?

Alexander VI: It is a petty revenge for the slight you gave him.

Cesare Borgia: It is an insult to Lucrezia! It is an insult to us!

Alexander VI: Oh, quieten yourself. On how many fronts would you have us fight? And besides, there is a precedent.

Cesare Borgia: I will see him burn for this.

Alexander VI: There is a precedent! It may stick in your gullet as it sticks in mine, but when all is said and done, he is in the right.

Cesare Borgia: Do you honestly think it matters one jot to me?

Alexander VI: Well it should! It must! Would you have this alliance soured with Naples the moment it is struck? Huh?

Cesare Borgia: Naples was, and always will be, an infected swamp. What about Lucrezia?

Alexander VI: She must be told. I will tell her.

Cesare Borgia: No. No... I will.

Lucrezia Borgia: What perversion is this? You would put me on display for every vile, lecherous creature to fondle himself to?

Cesare Borgia: We had no choice.

Lucrezia Borgia: You weak, shameless, pitiful excuse. If I was a man I would have run him through. I would have cut out his tongue before I let him speak about my own sister in this way.

Cesare Borgia: It was for the good of the family. We had no choice.

Lucrezia Borgia: You had every choice! Where is your honour? Where is your strength? Where is your love for me?

Cesare Borgia: I would have killed him where he stood. I would have cut his heart out of his body. But I stayed my hand for the good of the family.

Lucrezia Borgia: So the King of Naples is to watch me in bed - for the good of the family. Very well... Very well. When is it to be?

Cesare Borgia: Tonight.

Lucrezia Borgia: And from our family who is to bear witness?

Cesare Borgia: Whomever you wish.

Lucrezia Borgia: Then I want you.

Alexander VI: Just tell us who is who.

Ascanio Sforza: Bankers, guilds, merchants.

Alexander VI: Dear friends. We have invited you to break bread with us tonight, because the news we bring affects you most of all. God is our guide, but trade is our lifeblood.

All: Hear, hear.

Alexander VI: As bankers, as merchants, you know this best of all. But a dusky menace shadows our prosperity. The Turk threatens our shipping. Our cousins in Venice find their storehouses raided, their cargoes stolen, their lifeblood seeping into the sand. But Venice is suffering. And I ask you, if Venice suffers, does not Rome suffer also? We must meet this menace head on. With God's help, we will raise a Mighty Crusade to drive the Turk back into the desert whence he came. And protect our homeland, and to sweep the seas clean once more. Christ walked upon the water. If the Infidel would prevent us, then we will consign him to the Gates of Hell!

Venetian Envoy: Venice will do everything in its power to be behind this Crusade, Holiness. We could not have asked for more.

Alexander VI: Then it is agreed. In the name of Christ, we thank you for your unhesitating and unstinting support for this, our Holy War.

Ascanio Sforza: In order to fund the Holy Crusade against the Turkish Menace, the following papal levies are hereby enacted upon trade goods outgoing from Rome to Venice, and incoming from Venice to Rome -

Man: More taxes?

Ascanio Sforza: And also on assets in coin, note of hand, drafts upon banking houses, promissory notes, gold, silver, precious metals, and stones.

Catherine Sforza: The matter of which we spoke before needs to be set in motion.

Rufio: Is he ready to join our cause?

Catherine Sforza: He is. He has many reasons to hate Rome.

Rufio: And does he fully understand what will be required?

Catherine Sforza: More than that. He relishes it.

Giulia Farnese: I believe I have found a way, Holy Father, to bring you some peace of mind.

Alexander VI: Go on.

Giulia Farnese: You fear treachery. Now, a compromised man cannot plan treason. The sword hangs above his head day and night; he never knows when it may fall. But if he's compromised, and weak, that's when he's loyal.

Alexander VI: Go on. We are listening.

Catherine Sforza: Let me ask you this. What compromises a man more than anything else?

Rufio: His prick.

Catherine Sforza: And the horns of a cuckold are only sharpened by time. My Lord Gonzaga.

Francesco Gonzaga: My lady.

Catherine Sforza: Please, join us.

Giulia Farnese: They are men, Holy Father. And as you said, all men are false. And, because they are also weak... I propose a night's festivities that might expose just how weak they are. It would need to be chronicled.

Alexander VI: Why?

Giulia Farnese: For posterity's sake.

Alexander VI: Ah. Well, Master Burchard would enjoy that.

Giulia Farnese: Now, if all goes according to plan, that chronicle would, I believe, ensure the loyalty of the entire Consistory.

Alexander VI: If this succeeds, we would grant you a cardinal's hat. Now leave us, if you please. Our daughter's ordeal approaches.

Lucrezia Borgia: Do I look pleasing?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: You look beautiful.

Lucrezia Borgia: Beautiful enough to satisfy a King of Naples?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: One night, and it will be done. It will soon be behind you.

Lucrezia Borgia: The act may be done in a night but I will have blood for this.

Ferdinand II: It is time.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Dear God. God's sake.

Lucrezia Borgia: My eyes. Remember.

Ferdinand II: Oh! Beautiful!

Lucrezia Borgia: Hey, hey. Here with me. Here with me.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Okay.

Lucrezia Borgia: Just me... Just me. Just me.

Ferdinand II: Excellent. Your sister's a lucky woman to have a husband that can bring her to ecstasy on his very first time. I didn't know the boy had it in him. Now, you may tell your father the matter has been dealt with to my satisfaction.

Cesare Borgia: And you may get out of my house.

Friar: Father, a man has come for you.

Julius Versucci: Oh. I have been expecting him. Tell him he will find me at the old Roman baths at dusk.

Lucrezia Borgia: Any French princess of your choosing?

Cesare Borgia: I believe that was the ambassador's suggestion.

Lucrezia Borgia: The French King must truly desire to be rid of his wife.

Cesare Borgia: Look at me. What happened before. What all but happened again last night. It belongs in the past. It has no place in your future, nor in mine. All is done now. You can go off and love your husband, and I can go off and find myself a bride. Maybe we both can work our way to happiness.

Lucrezia Borgia: Come back soon.

Giulia Farnese: Listen now. There will be a dinner tonight here in the Vatican. All the cardinals are to be invited. You will not attend.

Alessandro Farnese: Why not?

Giulia Farnese: Because your sister tells you so. Become ill, stay at home. Don't come to the Vatican.

Ascanio Sforza: Francesco Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua, requests an audience.

Alexander VI: Has he brought the duchessa with him? Oh well. Fit him in.

Alexander VI: So, all set for France? Now, before you give Louis his annulment, look to our advantage. Get him to renounce his claim on Naples and beyond that, whatever else you can to strengthen our position.

Cesare Borgia: I understand.

Alexander VI: You hold the fate of Rome in your hands. Go on then.

Guard: Rider!

Julius Versucci: So... You have found me.

Micheletto: Yes. I have found you. Now I would find the money you have stolen from His Holiness.

Julius Versucci: How could I steal that which was already stolen? From good men and bad, from rich and poor, the pope steals from all Italy, regardless. I have merely redistributed.

Micheletto: Where is it?

Julius Versucci: Gone.

Micheletto: Where?

Julius Versucci: Gone. All gone. I have wiped him clean away. Did I hurt his Holiness? Where it hurts most? In his pocket?

Micheletto: You wish to know the truth?

Julius Versucci: Yes.

Micheletto: He laughed.

Giulia Farnese: Be seated. Eminencies, Sisters. Now, the Holy Father calls upon us all to give what we can to support his endeavours. Sister, please stand up. Your name, please.

Angela: Sister Angela, my lady.

Giulia Farnese: Step to the front now. Don't be shy. Come on. May I ask you to begin?

Angela: But - my lady - we have sworn a vow of poverty. I have nothing to give. All I own is the clothes I wear.

Giulia Farnese: Then, they will have to do. Who will give ten ducats to the Crusade for Sister Angela's veil? Cardinals, this is your night. Do not be shy. I know you have gold. Sister Angela only has her clothes. Now let's exchange the one for the other.

Domenico Grimani: Ten ducats!

Giulia Farnese: Cardinal Grimani! Please, Sister Angela, show us what you have. There we go. Look at that. Sister Angela, oh! Eminencies, how much for Sister Angela's habit?

Cardinal: Fifty ducats!

Giulia Farnese: Fifty ducats. Anyone?

Cardinal: Sixty!

Giulia Farnese: Sixty ducats!

Cardinal: Eighty ducats!

Johannes Burchart: Item. Twenty-one nuns' habits, from the Carmelite convent in Trastevere. Item. Twenty - one decent prostitutes from the best Roman establishments. And as chronicler to our beloved Vatican, it is my sad duty to report that the said habits did not remain on the comely maidens long beyond the first course.

Giulia Farnese: Mm. Sister Angela.

Johannes Burchart: They divested themselves for gold and silver of garment after garment till they were naked as the day they were born. They flaunted their nakedness for the cardinals with the abandon for which Roman prostitutes are renowned. And as they auctioned their clothes, soon they auctioned their bodies to the considerable delight of the cardinals assembled.

Alexander VI: Who's there?

Flunkey: Guards! Guards!

Bianca Gonzaga: It is a friend, Your Holiness. Who means you no harm.

Alexander VI: Leave us! How did you get past the guards?

Bianca Gonzaga: They know me well enough by now.

Alexander VI: Ah.

Bianca Gonzaga: My Lord Gonzaga had business in Rome.

Alexander VI: I know. He requested an audience.

Bianca Gonzaga: As do I.

Rufio: Knowing this pope, I'd say he's entering your wife... just about...now.

Francesco Gonzaga: Consider the bitch's insanity my contribution to your lady's war on Rome.

Johannes Burchart: Item: 200 candied chestnuts.

Giulia Farnese: Dear sisters, Eminences, please follow me.

Johannes Burchart: The festivities began at ten and descended into debauchery around midnight.

Giulia Farnese: Go at it!

Johannes Burchart: La Farnese distributed the chestnuts on the floor and challenged the valiant damsels to pick them up using only their nether regions - in which enterprise they showed considerable invention. Prizes were offered for those cardinals most successful with the prostitutes.

Johannes Burchart: Cardinal Constanzo was awarded six silken doublets.

Alexander VI: Dear Lord. Who would have thought that youngster had it in him?

Johannes Burchart: Cardinal Pertucci...

Alexander VI: Oh.

Johannes Burchart: ...seven pairs of shoes.

Alexander VI: Seven? Enough for a lifetime!

Johannes Burchart: Cardinal Grimani... three feathered hats.

Alexander VI: Master Burchard, we will spare you further elucidation. We will keep this record - under lock and key - for posterity.

Johannes Burchart: For history, Your Holiness.

Alexander VI: Well, you think future generations will be interested in such shameful antics? No, no, no, no. This will be for our eyes... alone.

Alexander VI: You request from us a decree of annulment.

Francesco Gonzaga: You heard me, Holiness.

Alexander VI: But annulment can only be granted with a papal brief - in the gravest of circumstances.

Francesco Gonzaga: The circumstances are grave - and gross - and constant. Infidelity.

Alexander VI: With whom?

Francesco Gonzaga: With His Holiness the Pope of Rome. The night before the battle of Fornovo, where I spilled my blood for our Holy Mother Church, and subsequently.

Alexander VI: The very implication is outrageous.

Francesco Gonzaga: Indeed it is. It would scandalize the whole of Italy.

Alexander VI: Where is this wife of whom you speak?

Francesco Gonzaga: Your Holiness, I presume, has no idea?

Alexander VI: No, no idea.

Francesco Gonzaga: Well, if you happen upon her, please inform her of my desire. And of your decision.

Alexander VI: Previously on the Borgias...

Catherine Sforza: Our little pack of wolves. Tell them, if they pledge their swords to me, the Borgia estates I will divide among them.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Your mistress deludes herself if she believes she can be victor over the Pope of Rome.

Rufio: The papal armies of Rome barely exist.

Cesare Borgia: The articles of war demand the papal army at full strength number: 10,000 men-at-arms. You have less than half that.

Il Cerimoniere: Ambassador of the Court of his Highness Louis XII of France.

Alexander VI: The king is a man without fault.

French Ambassador: Perhaps, were you not to meet his wife...

Cesare Borgia: He wants an annulment.

Alexander VI: Uh-huh.

Cesare Borgia: This is where the game turns. What happened before belongs in the past. You can go off and love your husband, and I can go off and find myself a bride.

Lucrezia Borgia: I'm sorry. I cannot. Maybe our love has to be more of the soul.

Ferdinand II: Your daughter is married to my kinsman. And she has a son already whose father is unknown.

Cesare Borgia: To separate a mother from her child...

Ferdinand II: I am careful of myself and my family.

Alexander VI: Your sister marries Naples. What don't you marry France? You hold the fate of Rome in your hands.

Catherine Sforza: My Lord Gonzaga. Please join us.

Bianca Gonzaga: My lord had business in Rome.

Alexander VI: He requested an audience.

Bianca Gonzaga: As do I.

Francesco Gonzaga: Consider the bitch's insanity my contribution to your lady's war on Rome.

Alexander VI: You request from us a decree of annulment.

Francesco Gonzaga: The circumstances are grave and constant. Infidelity.

Alexander VI: With whom?

Francesco Gonzaga: His Holiness the Pope of Rome.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: You must be so excited to see your husband.

Lucrezia Borgia: Indeed. He prepares our quarters. Which will have no need of a cradle. Sh... Shh...

Alexander VI: No no no, Lucrezia -

Lucrezia Borgia: I will not cry father, this King will not see my tears.

Alexander VI: This marriage was your choice.

Lucrezia Borgia: It was. And I still love my husband. I would not have our love poisoned with politics.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: We will love him as our own, Lucrezia.

Alexander VI: You'll be all right.

Catherine Sforza: Gonzaga... He is not with us?

Rufio: No, but he made a contribution. Of his own special kind.

Alexander VI: Madame, you know you're going to have to leave us.

Bianca Gonzaga: Is that what you want?

Alexander VI: No, but your husband... muttering scandal. You are going to have to go back to him.

Bianca Gonzaga: But I cannot.

Alexander VI: Why not?

Bianca Gonzaga: Because... I am the lily of the valley. And the King hath brought me to His chambers.

Alexander VI: Scandal may be the prerogative of kings... But we are the Pope of Rome. We have a church to run.

Bianca Gonzaga: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.

Alexander VI: Must you always quote scripture?

Catherine Sforza: I could exhaust myself in an account of the Borgia Pope's licentiousness.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: But that would be boring.

Catherine Sforza: Can licentiousness ever be boring? It can be tedious in the extreme. As His Holiness might soon discover.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Tell us what you are proposing.

Catherine Sforza: A union. Of Italian families. Vitelli, Colonna, Baglioni, Orsini. Like the fasci of the Caesars. Together, we would be unbreakable.

Roberto Orsini: And all that. Under you? A woman?

Catherine Sforza: I propose myself. Feel free to propose yourself, Roberto. But I have the arms, the cannon, the castle. And, unlike you, my hatred of the Borgia Pope is public already. Common knowledge.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: This Pope has an army too -

Catherine Sforza: And we have all seen it at work. I dispelled it from beneath these walls. His son Juan Borgia -

Vitellozzo Vitelli: His son, Cesare Borgia is nothing like his brother.

Catherine Sforza: He has vigour, I admit. But does his father trust him enough to grant him the Papal army? No, he sends him to France. So father fights with son, like two bears in a pit. And this, believe me, this is our moment. So be with me, my family, my arms... Or against me.

Roberto Orsini: Her rhetoric is persuasive.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: As is her plan. All roads lead to Rome. And pass through the Romagna.

Roberto Orsini: Yes Baglioni, yes. but what if it is just rhetoric?

Vitellozzo Vitelli: What she threatens means war Orsini. Perhaps war with more than Rome. The Pope's daughter married Naples. His son journeys to France. I say we keep our counsel. Until he returns...

Georges d'Amboise: My Lord Borgia... You look quite sober for a Duke.

Cesare Borgia: And you look quite priestly, for a King.

Georges d'Amboise: The King is hunting. And please do not take it amiss. There are diplomatic niceties to observe. Even for the son of a Pope. The bastard son... of a Borgia pope.

Bianca Gonzaga: For His love is better than wine.

Alexander VI: Oh but now, he needs... he needs sleep.

Bianca Gonzaga: For the wolf shall lie down with the lamb. And the leopard shall lie with the goat... And a little child shall lead them... You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes... Lying in a manger.

Nanny: Shh... shh...

Cesare Borgia: Ah, Signor Machiavelli. Good Morning. I heard you had business in Avignon -

Niccolo Machiavelli: Sadly, as you come, we go.

Cesare Borgia: Does Florence have an interest in France?

Niccolo Machiavelli: Florence has an interest in everything.

Cesare Borgia: So, tell me... what do you think of this one?

Niccolo Machiavelli: Forsake the colourful display. Wear the simple black satin.

Cesare Borgia: Really? Why?

Niccolo Machiavelli: They have never met a Riario, or a Medici, let alone a Borgia. Italian wealth unsettles them. As much as they want it, it offends their martial nature.

Cesare Borgia: Hmm... Well... Black satin it is then.

Niccolo Machiavelli: Keep it black. As you do so well.

Cesare Borgia: Do you have advice on anything other than presentation?

Niccolo Machiavelli: But presentation is everything. This King desires more than Naples. He has an equal fondness for Milan.

Cesare Borgia: Ah...

Niccolo Machiavelli: But I didn't say that.

Cesare Borgia: No. No, you said black.

Lucrezia Borgia: Has your heart ever been sick, Micheletto?

Micheletto: Some would doubt that I even have a heart, my Lady.

Lucrezia Borgia: Well unfortunately, I do. And mine is weeping. Can you cure it?

Micheletto: You will be with your husband soon enough.

Lucrezia Borgia: It's not weeping for my husband. It is weeping for my son.

Micheletto: Your brother tells me this King has forbid you see him yes?

Lucrezia Borgia: And how do I make him change his mind, Micheletto?

Micheletto: You will find a way.

Flunkey: Lady Lucrezia Borgia - Duchess of Bisceglie!

Alfonso d'Aragona: There they are... Come, let me help. I missed you! Safe trip?

Lucrezia Borgia: Yes, thank you. So this is Naples.

Alfonso d'Aragona: You must call it home.

Lucrezia Borgia: Will calling it home make it so? Your Royal Highness...

Ferdinand II: My lady.

Alexander VI: You are the Duchessa Gonzaga and you will always remain so. You have to return to your husband. Quench any hint of scandal between us - You've been here too long Madam.

Bianca Gonzaga: The Pope is sad because his children have left him -

Alexander VI: No, Madam you are not... you are not listening to me -

Bianca Gonzaga: But that sadness may soon be put to rest.

Alexander VI: How so?

Bianca Gonzaga: I am with child, Your Holiness.

Alexander VI: Your duty is to return to your husband -

Bianca Gonzaga: And the child is not his. The fruit of my womb will be the fruit of your loins.

Alexander VI: You imply this child is ours -

Bianca Gonzaga: I am sure it is. As is my husband. We haven't shared a bed for a year.

Alexander VI: Oh, this is madness -

Bianca Gonzaga: Wonderful madness. A madness worthy of the Song of Solomon.

Alexander VI: You say he knows?

Bianca Gonzaga: He asked me to perform an act - so heinous and so bloody - that I could not bear to contemplate it -

Alexander VI: He asked you to murder the child?

Bianca Gonzaga: Our child. So I shall bear you a son, and you will be sad no longer.

Alexander VI: No...

Bianca Gonzaga: For the King hath brought me to his chambers... Yes, and the angel said unto her, fear not for thou hast found favour unto God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son.

Georges d'Amboise: It is the French custom, Duke Valentino, to await their Highnesses' attention, before bowing low before them.

Cesare Borgia: Is the Queen still in residence?

Georges d'Amboise: Of course.

Cesare Borgia: The same queen for whom I carry the Papal Brief of Annulment?

Georges d'Amboise: Not on your person, surely?

Cesare Borgia: In my back pocket. I shall take care not to bow too low then. Otherwise the queen might see her destiny... protruding from my bastard Borgia arse.

Major-domo: Presenting the Duke of Valentinois, and the ambassador of the Holy See, His Excellency Cesare Borgia.

Jeanne de Valois: Once a Cardinal, I believe.

Cesare Borgia: Indeed I was, Your Highness.

Jeanne de Valois: And now a Duke. Please explain.

Cesare Borgia: Well, I found the need, Madame, to divorce myself from my bride, the Holy Mother Church.

Jeanne de Valois: Ah. Can it be done that easily?

Cesare Borgia: With difficulty. And not without soul-searching. But with the help of a Papal Brief, anything is possible.

Jeanne de Valois: Well, you are noble now, after a fashion. You may kiss my hand.

Louis XII: And you may kiss my cheek. In the true French manner.

Jeanne de Valois: You are in search of a bride, I believe? Among my ladies in waiting? Carlotta D'Aragona or Charlotte d'Albret - or... no, not for you.

Alexander VI: If you were to return to your husband...

Bianca Gonzaga: Then I must murder this child -

Alexander VI: No... we would afford you every support - in the confinds that are appropriate to your condition.

Bianca Gonzaga: Your chambers are more than appropriate -

Alexander VI: No, that is impossible. We were thinking perhaps -

Bianca Gonzaga: What?

Alexander VI: A Convent. With the Sisters.

Bianca Gonzaga: And that is impossible. I am the Lily of the Valley. And the King has taken me to his chambers!

Ferdinand II: The wedding of Alfonso D'Aragona and Lucrezia Borgia was more than just a union, of body and soul. It was a restoration, of historic contacts between Rome and Naples, between the Vatican and Spain. So let us raise our glasses, to the falling of the French winter and to the coming of the true Italian spring. To harmony between our states... And to this new family, that we welcome into our bosom, as our own.

Lucrezia Borgia: I have a child, Your Highness, who must someday hear those words.

Ferdinand II: A child, you say?

Lucrezia Borgia: I seem to remember one, yes.

Ferdinand II: How odd. And is this child your husband's?

Lucrezia Borgia: If he is mine, he is my husbands, surely.

Ferdinand II: We would welcome any fruit of your union. Meanwhile, all other fruit is best forgotten. As if it never existed. So let us drink, once again, to the harmony between our states.

All: Harmony!

Ferdinand II: To this family, that we welcome as our own.

Cesare Borgia: This Queen is actually quite comely.

Georges d'Amboise: But barren. The King will be rid of her. I am aware you come here bearing one, quite significant, gift. And I am aware that this gift will not be given cheaply.

Cesare Borgia: It may not, Archbishop, be given at all.

Georges d'Amboise: Then, I would propose myself as a facilitator in this matter. You need a well-borne bride.

Cesare Borgia: The least of my needs.

Georges d'Amboise: Then let me guess the others. A French Duchy for the newly-made Duke de Valentino? One of the more ancient titles, to banish the arriviste odour?

Cesare Borgia: Ah, do I smell, then?

Georges d'Amboise: Only of expensive Italian perfume. The Order of the Golden Rose, perhaps? The most prestigious the French King can bestow?

Cesare Borgia: That would indeed be welcome.

Georges d'Amboise: And... French support for your father's Italian adventures?

Cesare Borgia: What I need most of all, Cardinal, is an army.

Georges d'Amboise: An army?

Cesare Borgia: Horses, cannon, infantry, savoliere lancers. An army. An army that can cut through Italy like a knife through butter.

Georges d'Amboise: You called me Cardinal.

Cesare Borgia: I did indeed. A little premature, perhaps, Archbishop. But a Papal Brief is not the only gift... in my gift... Is this what you French call dancing? Your Highness.

Jeanne de Valois: Not her. She is properly noble. For you, the bastard child of a minor aristocrat.

Cesare Borgia: You are too kind, Madame...

Jeanne de Valois: I am. My husband has often remarked upon the very fact.

Cesare Borgia: Your husband is also kind.

Jeanne de Valois: My husband smells. Of horse manure, and the hunt. If you could persuade him to bathe more often, I might find you a better bride.

Cesare Borgia: I will do my utmost, Madame. And if he comes to you smelling of roses, my reward is?

Jeanne de Valois: A Duchess, perhaps. Legitimate, maybe. Here, try this one, Charlotte d'Albret.

Charlotte d'Albret: She hates me.

Cesare Borgia: She must. She recommended you to me.

Charlotte d'Albret: Ah, so she hates you too?

Cesare Borgia: She hates us both.

Charlotte d'Albret: Hardly a reason for courtship, surely.

Cesare Borgia: But I come with some admirable qualities.

Charlotte d'Albret: So I have heard. And what do you demand of marriage, Cesare Borgia?

Cesare Borgia: A title. An heir. A dowry.

Charlotte d'Albret: What about everlasting love?

Cesare Borgia: Of course. That too. How could I forget? What do you ask of it, Charlotte d'Albret?

Charlotte d'Albret: A child. I would have a husband whose physique promises he is handsome.

Cesare Borgia: And what of everlasting love?

Charlotte d'Albret: I'm glad you reminded me. That too. But Rome. I am not sure I could live in Rome. All that heat, that conspiracy.

Cesare Borgia: You will not have to.

Charlotte d'Albret: Are we married already?

Old Lady: They went that way -

Lucrezia Borgia: Should I care?

Old Lady: The noble hunts the boar. The peasant scratches the grass.

Lucrezia Borgia: But they both must eat, surely.

Old Lady: They must. You should mind where he grazes.

Lucrezia Borgia: It is just grass...

Old Lady: Those ferns. They hide the Galerina. This tiny bolus could kill a horse.

Lucrezia Borgia: You have a use for it?

Old Lady: I have a use for everything. Some kill, some cure. Each has its moment. On your way, my lady... Kill that boar...

Alexander VI: Tell us.

Doctor: She is not with child.

Alexander VI: So... She is deranged? Entirely without reason?

Doctor: She is deranged. But not without reason. She was with child. The child was cut from her. Most cruelly. Her womb is scarred forever. And the event has unhinged her.

Alexander VI: So what is to be done?

Doctor: For her body, or her mind?

Alexander VI: For her soul.

Doctor: Rest. Tranquillity. Prayer.

Lucrezia Borgia: Have you ever had a child, Micheletto?

Micheletto: No, my lady. I have none.

Lucrezia Borgia: But if you had?

Micheletto: Then I would bind him to me with hoops of steel. And I would love them till death and beyond. And I would make all tremble who tried to come between us.

Lucrezia Borgia: So you have a heart.

Micheletto: I must have. It is the thought of the child being kept from you, it's mother, that makes it break.

Ferdinand II: Bullseye! Yes!

Lucrezia Borgia: If, God forbid, this King were to die, who would succeed him?

Micheletto: Your husband?

Lucrezia Borgia: He is but a cousin, on the mother's side.

Micheletto: This King is strong, My Lady. His father lived a long life. He will be with us for a long time.

Lucrezia Borgia: Until my son is a boy no longer.

Ferdinand II: That's why I'm the king!

Louis XII: So, you can free me of this wife of mine?

Cesare Borgia: Your Highness, I would do anything to free you.

Louis XII: In return for the annulment - Charlotte D'Albert is yours if you desire it.

Cesare Borgia: I do.

Louis XII: The Duchy also is yours. The Order of the Golden Rose, yours also. But, as to the matter of an army, we'll need them for ourselves.

Cesare Borgia: For an invasion of Milan, I would hazard.

Louis XII: Do you read our thoughts?

Georges d'Amboise: Before one thinks of them Your Highness. This young man is clairvoyant.

Cesare Borgia: The last French invasion ended in disaster. For all concerned. Maybe if the next was under Italian leadership...

Louis XII: Yours, I presume.

Cesare Borgia: With the blessing of the Pope of Rome, of course.

Louis XII: And he would give it? He would sever his ties with Naples? And with Spain?

Cesare Borgia: I would make sure, Your Highness, that he did.

Louis XII: My God. What you propose could shake the foundations of the Italian city states.

Cesare Borgia: Perhaps. But it would give you Milan.

Louis XII: And it would give you an army. I would have your advice, Archbishop D'Amboise -

Cesare Borgia: Well you can call him Cardinal D'Amboise.

Louis XII: Cardinal D'Amboise. I think I know your advice.

Jeanne de Valois: You! You came like a Greek, bearing gifts. May that shrew you are to marry suffocate you with her bile. May she bear you a dwarf, a succubus. And may you rot in that circle of hell reserved for the Borgia family.

Cesare Borgia: There is no hell. No heaven either. This world is what we make of it. Forgive me, if my purpose here was to remind you of that fact. Bitch.

Charlotte d'Albret: So this is the beast they would betroth me to...

Cesare Borgia: Don't be too hasty. The negotiations are at a delicate stage.

Charlotte d'Albret: For the pleasure of witnessing that scene alone, my answer would be... Yes... Can you promise me more of them?

Micheletto: Mushrooms.

Lucrezia Borgia: Oh! You frightened me.

Micheletto: I've been charged with your safety, my lady. It was your empty room that frightened me.

Lucrezia Borgia: Ah...

Micheletto: You wish to do some cooking?

Lucrezia Borgia: Call it husbandry.

Micheletto: Galerina. You would poison a whole dinner table with this. Do wish us all to die?

Lucrezia Borgia: Not us all of us. No.

Micheletto: Then be more specific. Bide your time. It will come. Trust me. Please.

Bianca Gonzaga: I must eat, Your Holiness. This child will be a Hector, or nothing at all. Made of good Roman meat and Spanish blood.

Alexander VI: Maybe a Helen.

Bianca Gonzaga: No. A boy. His Holiness deserves nothing less.

Alexander VI: You must sleep. You haven't slept in days. These Sisters are from a house, beyond the hills of Rome. You will be safe there. You will sleep there. Sisters -

Bianca Gonzaga: My beloved!

Alexander VI: It's for your own good. For the good of your eternal soul.

Bianca Gonzaga: No! No! No!

Cesare Borgia: The negotiations are concluded.

Charlotte d'Albret: Ah.

Cesare Borgia: Fifty thousand ducats from your father. And the estates in the Auvergne.

Charlotte d'Albret: Is it to your satisfaction?

Cesare Borgia: You are to my satisfaction, Madame.

Charlotte d'Albret: As are you to mine. And all this is in return for?

Cesare Borgia: Only me, I'm afraid.

Charlotte d'Albret: Ah... I am being robbed.

Cesare Borgia: But happily robbed.

Charlotte d'Albret: Very happily.

Cesare Borgia: There is of course the issue of your maidenhead.

Charlotte d'Albret: My maidenhead?

Cesare Borgia: Are you a virgin, Madame?

Charlotte d'Albret: I was my Lord. Until I met you.

Cesare Borgia: Oh!

Bianca Gonzaga: For the wolf shall lie down with the lamb - And a little child shall lead them -

Alexander VI: Bianca! Bianca!

Bianca Gonzaga: You will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Alexander VI: Oh, please...

Bianca Gonzaga: You will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. ...lying... ...lying in a manger.

Alexander VI: What have you done? Bianca! Pray with me... Pray with me...

Ascanio Sforza: Leave us, say nothing. Not a word.

Nun: Yes, Cardinal.

Ascanio Sforza: Let me handle this.

Georges d'Amboise: Love suffers long, and is kind; love envies not; love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up... does not behave rudely, does not seek its own. Is not provoked. Thinks no evil. Does not rejoice in inequity but rejoices in truth. Bares all things. Hopes all things. Endures all things.

Charlotte d'Albret: Tell me about love, my husband.

Cesare Borgia: Love suffers long, and is kind. Love envies not.

Charlotte d'Albret: Is there one you have loved?

Cesare Borgia: Yes.

Charlotte d'Albret: Is this one close to you?

Cesare Borgia: Yes.

Charlotte d'Albret: Is it me then?

Cesare Borgia: Yes.

Charlotte d'Albret: You lie to comfort me. Because you leave tomorrow?

Cesare Borgia: Yes.

Charlotte d'Albret: And I love you for it.

Ascanio Sforza: For a Papal Brief of annulment, a statement from your wife will be required.

Francesco Gonzaga: Let His Holiness write it down. From her own adulterous lips. And then I can return to Mantua, and leave this Roman swamp -

Ascanio Sforza: His Holiness has no knowledge of her whereabouts.

Francesco Gonzaga: A suicide...

Ascanio Sforza: And God forgive the man who drove her to it. Beg forgiveness, Lord Gonzaga. Beg forgiveness, on your knees for the ice that resides in your heart.

Georges d'Amboise: You were a Cardinal once.

Cesare Borgia: I was a bishop, too.

Georges d'Amboise: And why the change?

Cesare Borgia: I lost my faith.

Georges d'Amboise: In God?

Cesare Borgia: I woke up one morning and I realized... He is not in His heaven. And the world will not change, if I do nothing to change it.

Man: After him!

Micheletto: Wait...

Ferdinand II: What does the boar fear? More than this arrow?

Micheletto: I know not.

Ferdinand II: The pool. My uncle Ferrante had it built. Stocked with lampreys, flesh eating eels. For the ones he hated the most.

Micheletto: An original idea.

Ferdinand II: Nothing original about it. He came across the idea in Seneca.

Micheletto: Yes, I have heard of him. Or maybe it was Cicero? Watch this part, when the eel... No!

Alfonso d'Aragona: Uncle!

Man: Highness!

Alfonso d'Aragona: Dear God.

Man: For God's sake!

Man: Oh, my Lord!

Man: Get him out of there!

Alfonso d'Aragona: I would avert your eyes, if possible.

Micheletto: I see nothing but slime.

Man: Get him out.

Man: Get some rope!

Lucrezia Borgia: Should I weep, Micheletto?

Micheletto: For yourself my lady, no. But for this King, perhaps... Do you read books, my lady? Have you heard of a man named Seneca?

Lucrezia Borgia: A little.

Micheletto: Did he write of the pool of lampreys?

Lucrezia Borgia: Indeed he did. Vedius Pollio, friend of Augustus, stocked a pool by his villa in Naples.

Micheletto: Hm...

Lucrezia Borgia: Should I bring my child here, Micheletto? Into this theatre of cruelty?

Micheletto: Well at least now, my lady, the choice is your own.

Alexander VI: Previously on The Borgias...

Cesare Borgia: One of your Cardinals fortunes...

Alexander VI: They were debts. Treasury is filling, but not to the extent of equipping an army.

Cesare Borgia: Catherina Sforza gathers allies to her daily, like flies to the corps. In the end there will be war.

Alexander VI: What do you expect me to do?

Cesare Borgia: Give me command!

Catherine Sforza: A Union of Italian families. Together we will be unbreakable.

Roberto Orsini: Under you, a woman?

Catherine Sforza: My hatred of the Borgia Pope is public already.

Cesare Borgia: Catherine Sforza son, Benito. Remember this moment, as an act of mercy.

Micheletto: This dog will come back and bite.

Ferdinand II: Let us raise our glasses! For this family, that we welcome as our own.

Lucrezia Borgia: I have a child, you must hear these words...

Ferdinand II: We would welcome any fruit of your union. All other fruits, is best forgotten.

Lucrezia Borgia: Should I bring my child, to this theater of cruelty?

Micheletto: Well at least now my lady, the choice is your own.

Cesare Borgia: Your Highness.

Niccolo Machiavelli: This king desires more than Naples. He has an equal fondness for Milan.

Georges d'Amboise: You need well born bride.

Cesare Borgia: The least of my needs.

Georges d'Amboise: What I need most of all, cardinal...

Cesare Borgia: Is an army that can cut through Italy.

Louis XII: What you propose, could shake the foundations of the Italian city states.

Cesare Borgia: But it would give you Milan.

Louis XII: And would give you an army.

Micheletto: Give me the child. Here we are. You have suffered your mama's absence for too long. Come. Hush now. You will be with her in a minute. My Lady. There will be no more barriers, to the mother's affection, for her son. None.

Alexander VI: Next year, the year of our Lord, 1500, will be a year of Jubilee. Jubilate - jubilation. And we would have it with the greatest, the most glorious the Holiest year of jubilee in the history of our Holy Mother Church. And we look to you, our cardinals to ensure its success. We are putting on, a show here. Pilgrims will be flocking to Rome, from all over Christendom. And we would create in our St Peter's a spectacle of such magnificence, to satisfy the universal longing for salvation. For example, the shal which bears the imprint of our savior's face.

Ascanio Sforza: Is in Constantinople your Holiness.

Alexander VI: But, must it remain there?

Ascanio Sforza: In the absence of your Holinesse's great Turkish crusade I am afraid it must.Yes.

Alexander VI: Well, there must be others. Relics which have touched upon the lives and bodies of our beloved saints. Oratorial celebrating the life of our most blessed Savior hymns, yet to be written. We will provide the spectacle. And the pilgrim who kneels in aura, will be more likely to contribute generously to St. Peter's pence. We awaits your suggestions with anticipation.

Rufio: No further, my Lady. Plague lives in this rag. Back Away now!

Catherine Sforza: God preserve you.

Cardinal: Your Holiness.

Alexander VI: Yes.

Cardinal: You asked for ideas.

Alexander VI: Oh yes, we did indeed.

Cardinal: This idea is not mine. It was your predecessors, Pope Innocence.

Alexander VI: God rest his soul.

Cardinal: Pope Innocence proposition was a bank of sinners.

Alexander VI: Oh yes, we remember his idea. We opposed it, at the time.

Cardinal: I see. But rather than repentance by means of prayer, penance, fasting, flagellation the sinner would pay for his or her forgiveness In coin, gold, silver, promissory notes. The liar, for example would pay more than the fornicator, less than the usurer. The usurer would pay less than the murderer. And so on. And so on. A sinner saved, is a sinner saved.

Alexander VI: And the coming and our Rome will be flooded with pilgrim, penitent, all sinners. All fluning the confessionals for their share of heavenly grace.

Cardinal: The simple expediant of a coin box, outside each confessional may make the process manageable.

Alexander VI: We will consider it.

Cardinal: Your Holiness.

Alexander VI: The diversion is noted.

Cesare Borgia: Vitelli!

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Why ask to meet me here, in the middle of nowhere?

Cesare Borgia: Neutral ground.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Neither Rome nor Forli.

Cesare Borgia: Near La Spezia.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: So, surprise me with what you want.

Cesare Borgia: Your allegiance. And that of the Orsini, Baglioni.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: And why would I give you that? The Pope did not even give you the full charge of his army.

Cesare Borgia: Come. France did me some favors, my lord. Why would I need my father's army, when I have one of my own?

Ascanio Sforza: Holiness.

Alexander VI: Observe our new bees, Cardinal Sforza. How ever far they swarm, in search of pollen they always return with their bounty. To the hive! Like the pilgrims of Christendom, flocking into Rome.

Ascanio Sforza: They are not the only ones flocking into Rome. There are also, the Jews.

Alexander VI: Ah, good.The Jews?

Ascanio Sforza: Yes, from Constantinople, more of them come every day.

Alexander VI: Begging for trading rights, within the city walls.

Ascanio Sforza: Indeed.

Alexander VI: Taste that, Cardinal. Vatican Honey. How is it?

Ascanio Sforza: Marvelous your Eminence.

Alexander VI: Tell us, at present how stand the taxes particularly the taxes from the merchant guilds of Rome?

Ascanio Sforza: They are somewhat in arrears.

Alexander VI: By how much?

Ascanio Sforza: You can see it for yourself.

Alexander VI: Let us meet with the Jews.

Rufio: A message. For the Borgia Pope.

Man: My lord.

Alexander VI: So you were driven out of Constantinople by the Turks? We too have issues with the Turks. We have taken this upon ourselves to rid the civilized world of their presence. The great and glorious Crusade against the infidel. The Crusade which must necessarily benefit, you.

Jewish Merchant: The Crusade follows the Christian cross, your Excellence. We Jews have no business with the Crusade.

Alexander VI: Rome follows the Christian Cross. And you Jews, would do business with Rome. We offer you a home, a place to prosper, and the opportunity to contribute to the downfall of your enemies.

Jewish Merchant: And in return, what can we poor merchants offer you?

Alexander VI: Not so poor, I suspect. A fair price for trading within Rome's walls. A small contribution towards our Holy Crusade, and a ties towards next year's Holy Year of Jubilee.

Jewish Merchant: You ask for much.

Alexander VI: As do you. Or would you rather return to Constantinople?

Ascanio Sforza: This matter cannot wait, Your Holiness! The French army is landed at Liguria.

Alexander VI: What? Let us know your decision. The French Army?

Papal Guard: They pulled into the Port of La Spezia in the cover of darkness and disembarked. Made their way inland.

Alexander VI: How many?

Papal Guard: Reports conflict Your Holiness, some say 10, 000 some say more.

Alexander VI: Are they heading south towards Rome?

Papal Guard: I do not know, Holiness.

Alexander VI: Then you don't know much!

Papal Guard: Forgive me Holiness, I...

Alexander VI: Summon all the generals of the Papal Army! Go immediately. What is he done? Is he insulted the king? Raped some poor princess? And what in Heaven's name, gonna pull this upon us?

Alexander VI: An entire army lands, without your knowledge? King Louis of France invades our shores without our knowing? And without our permission?

Cesare Borgia: He has our permission. Allow me to present the, Archbishop of Rouen. I have taken the liberty of pledging to him Cardinal's hat. As acknowledgement of the continuing amity between France and Rome. So, Your Holiness, gentlemen. Cardinal D'Amboise.

Georges d'Amboise: Your Holiness. Tres honoré!

Cesare Borgia: Give me joy of my marriage father! I am an honest man, at last.

Alexander VI: What do you say of this army?

Cesare Borgia: The French army that is landed in Liguria has done so with my permission, and is under my command.

Alexander VI: With your permission?

Cesare Borgia: In your name, father.

Alexander VI: We gave you this dispensation?

Cesare Borgia: You told me to ensure the safety of Rome you told me moreover, that there were no limits to the extent of my negotiations. I took you of your word. I bring an army.

Alexander VI: Out, out, out! All of you. All of you. So you appoint cardinals now?

Cesare Borgia: In your name, father. He's most likely spying for King Luis, but at least he is where we can keep watching him.

Alexander VI: You would bring an army into our land?

Cesare Borgia: An army that answers to me alone.

Alexander VI: But we have our own army!

Cesare Borgia: Ill Equipped, ill funded, spread thin, unprepared. My army stands 4 days march for Milan. And Milan is not ready for me. I propose that I ride north. That I rally Italian families to my cause. That I overthrow the tyrant Ludovico Sforza. That I take Milan.

Alexander VI: In the name of King Luis of France?

Cesare Borgia: The full Catherina Sforza even realises, that the fight has come to her doorstep.

Alexander VI: You would give away cities as if you were playing cards?

Cesare Borgia: We will eliminate the Sforza dynasty. Ludovico first and in need or trouble, the Papal army is what I oath to. Then Catherina.

Alexander VI: Without the Frenchmen, Milan was not our design.

Cesare Borgia: No, but it was the only design that it showed success. And you told me to secure our every advantage. And I've done so. I brought you an army father. Would you have me send it back? Doors!

Alexander VI: Ride north Cesare! That is our command.

Jewish Merchant: You spoke out of turn! They will throw us back to Catalonia.

Jewish Merchant: I am well aware of that. But I think I can read this Alexander, I know what he wants.

Jewish Merchant: The Holy Crusade against the Turks, requires coin. That is what he wants. Wha coin do we have? He already looks to drain us bloodless with this taxation.

Jewish Merchant: Yes, yes, yes, yes. So you must convince him not to. Think! What do we have, that they do not?

Alessandro Farnese: The Spear of Longinus.

Jewish Merchant: Yes.

Alessandro Farnese: The Spear that pierced Christ side while he was up on the cross?

Jewish Merchant: The same.

Alessandro Farnese: But... It has been lost for centuries!

Jewish Merchant: No, not lost! Kept, hidden, safe. A secret known only to the jews.

Lucrezia Borgia: So the king died.

Cesare Borgia: Most horribly. And you have your son back?

Lucrezia Borgia: Well, for now.Until the new king is crowned.

Cesare Borgia: There are several claimers, I've heard. Is your Alfonso among them?

Lucrezia Borgia: There are two in line before him.

Cesare Borgia: Did you marry the wrong man, sis'?

Lucrezia Borgia: Of course, is it of my habit. If I'd marry 1, 000 times and all would be the wrong choice. And you brother, did you marry, the wrong woman?

Cesare Borgia: Of course. But she is beautiful. And cultivated.

Lucrezia Borgia: And came with an army, I am told.

Cesare Borgia: France gave me the army.

Lucrezia Borgia: Ah. The same which devastated the lands, that I have moved to. Are you sure about this?

Cesare Borgia: Now you take issue with me? Just like our father.

Lucrezia Borgia: Well, neither of us like surprises.

Cesare Borgia: Our Father may forget that one day, his son will follow his example. Not his advice.

Lucrezia Borgia: My darling brother. In whom politics, stratagem, and affection always linked.

Cesare Borgia: Not unlike my sister.

Lucrezia Borgia: I love my husband, Cesare, however difficult this be. Do you love your wife?

Cesare Borgia: Love is not an issue between us. There is none other like you.

Lucrezia Borgia: Hold it... Promise me. That you will return victorious, and that your french engagement will never put my marriage in danger.

Cesare Borgia: Your marriage to Naples?

Lucrezia Borgia: My marriage to my husband, who is of Naples.

Cesare Borgia: What is this?

Cardinal Costanzo: A message, from Lady Catherina Sforza of Forli, to His Holiness, Pope Alexander VI of Rome. Treating for peace.

Cesare Borgia: Peace? Wasn't aware we were at war?

Cardinal Costanzo: For a continue peace my lord.

Cesare Borgia: Burn it!

Cardinal Costanzo: My Lord...

Cesare Borgia: Catherina Sforza has no more interest in sewing for peace then I do. She sees to saw a confusion. Count on, mind would doubt. She thinks a Pope who seeks a peace, would not ready him's of war. This is a bluff.

Cardinal Costanzo: Is that not for his Holiness to decide?

Cesare Borgia: I would not have His Holiness judgment in the matter tainted one joke with Catherine Sforza's poisoned words. Burn it!

Stefano: Your Eminence.

Cardinal Costanzo: Burn it! Burn it!

Stefano: As you wish.

Cardinal Costanzo: Wait. Wait. We should at least preserve the box. It is exquisite.

Stefano: Yes, Your Eminence.

Cardinal Costanzo: More wine.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Your choice of drinking holes, have fallen off of late, Vitelezzo.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: The wine may have little to recommend it. But the location, does. Halfway from Milan to Forli.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Convenient for all of us. I'm sure this intrigue of yours, is convenient for us all, Vitelezzo.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Judge for your self! We threw the Papal armies in his face, We Called this bluff. And now he has an army of his own.

Roberto Orsini: As does Catherina. The scale is balanced.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: For the moment,

Roberto Orsini: Perhaps.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: And what of us? Our men, united under a common banner. We tip the scale, one way or another, did we not?

Paolo Orsini: So? Do we toss a coin?

Vitellozzo Vitelli: There is Rome, there Forli. Now I tell you plain, I care little for the Borgia Pope. But I have looked the son in the eye. And I have seen his army. Massing on the key in La Spezia. And this much is plain. Rome is no longer the Borgia Pope alone. Rome is Cesare Borgia also. And that in all truth, is a fight I have no stomach for.

Cesare Borgia: So? Do you ride with me?

Gian Paolo Baglioni: I was talk of an army.

Cesare Borgia: This is just a small fraction of the army already on the march to Milan. You're all second sons. Bastard sons. Fathers who deny you, your rightful estates. I offer you a chance. To carv out your own faith. To damn your fathers to the past. Or to hell. Ride with me, my bastard army. To the only future allow to us.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Shall we drink?

Paolo Orsini: To the bastards!

Roberto Orsini: Speak for yourself.

Prospero Colonna: To the bastards!

Gian Paolo Baglioni: To the bastards!

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Bastards! To us!

Cardinal: And the content?

Cardinal Costanzo: An honest application of peace. Even as we tremble on the brink of war and this application is intended to the Pope alone.

Cardinal: This is dangerous.

Cardinal Costanzo: Well, perhaps. But also an opportunity. A lever. Cesare Borgia seeks to suppress the one piece of news that could entirely alter the tapestry of politics in Italy. Why?

Cardinal: Why?

Cardinal Costanzo: Does it matter? He seeks to suppress it. To keep it from his father. But whatever their personal enmities, may be, this is treason! Is not? And I command the one piece of evidence.

Cardinal: May it benefit you.

Cardinal Costanzo: I'm sure it will.

Alexander VI: The Spear of Longinus!

Jewish Merchant: It is touched the very blood of your Christ.

Alexander VI: You know where it is?

Jewish Merchant: It's set deep beneath Jerusalem, buried for centuries. It wasmoved with our tribe to Constantinople. It travels with us. We keep it hidden. For events of great "import", ... important! Such is our imminent entry into Rome.

Alexander VI: Yes.

Jewish Merchant: We poor jews have little in the way of coin. But we are rich in history. And we would like to show our gratitude to Your Holiness, in which ever way God allow us.

Alexander VI: If...

Jewish Merchant: We can gain entry into Rome.

Alexander VI: Can You send to us here?

Jewish Merchant: Is is already on it's way, Your Holiness. I could gift to you, if...

Alexander VI: We understand. We will have a relevant ball, thrown up and on receipt of the spear of Longinus you and your people will be welcome, to make your homes here in Rome.

Jewish Merchant: Your Excellency's generosity knows no bound.

Alexander VI: It's good to see at least one of our Cardinals takes our purposes so close with the heart.

Alessandro Farnese: Thank you, Holiness.

Alexander VI: Well, Cardinal Farnese will go far.

Cardinal: Indeed.

French Soldier: Allow me! We're under attack! That way!

Cesare Borgia: Get me my horse.

Ascanio Sforza: Their word, the Spear of Longinus.

Cardinal: Apparently.

Ascanio Sforza: To quote the Holy Father's words of approval: that young man will go far.

Cardinal: Again. Apparently.

Ascanio Sforza: I detect a note of irritation, Cardinal. If I may be so precipite even jealousy.

Cardinal: No Cardinal. Nearly of caution. Jews have sold Christians, dart relics for centuries. Why, Pope Innocent was offered the Ark of the Covenant by an itinerant rabbi from Salamanca? We are children, to that guile, Cardinal. Innocence, like our Savior himself. And someone must knock this fake antiquarian off his purge.

Alessandro Farnese: Your Holiness. May I present to you A treasure that we feared was lost forever at the eyes of Christendom. The Spear that touched the blood of our Savior himself.. The Spear of Longinus.

Jewish Merchant: Even the wrapping, Holiness, falls away at the touch.

Alexander VI: May we hold?

Jewish Merchant: Indeed. It has been awaiting hands as blessed as yours. Legend has it, sometimes trembles to the touch.

Alexander VI: Indeed. We felt it. Tremble.

Cardinal: Holiness, if I may interrupt this sacred moment. May I also present, The Spear of Longinus.

Alexander VI: Are there two spears? Are they two Longinuses?

Cardinal: Sadly Your Holiness, having researched the matter, It appear to be many, one in Alexandria, one, in a monastery in Sicily and one was promised to your predecessor, Pope Innocent by a Maur, fleeing from the siege of Grenada. This current claim to the title, was found in an etruscan ruin, north of Rome.

Jewish Merchant: Does it tremble to the touch?

Cardinal: It can be made to.

Jewish Merchant: Would you Cardinal be so kind? Looks authentic. Feels authentic. But as to the tremulation, there is none! And there is fresh sap. I see. Oozing from the wood. This wood was cut from a roman beach tree I would hazard, within, a month past? Are there beaches in the Holy Land?

Alexander VI: No Cardinal, they are not. There are seeders in the Holy Land. Use, there are no beaches. But we thank you, Cardinal. For proving the authenticity of the real spear of Longinus, which we will present to the world, when we break down the doors of St. Peter, at the begining of the next year jubilee. And you Cardinal, mai consign this piece of pretend relic, to the trove of forgeries from which you found it.

Sforza's Soldier: My Lord Sforza.

Benito Riario-Sforza: My mother was right. Come tomorrow's dawn. There will be revised plan.

Sforza's Soldier: But now?

Benito Riario-Sforza: I've seen enough.

Cesare Borgia: Tomorrow, our fathers will know our place in history. Until tomorrow!

All: Until tomorrow!

Vitellozzo Vitelli: When we take Milan, my brother, will see who the better fighter.

Cesare Borgia: Are we ready?

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Soon, My Lord.

Cesare Borgia: How long to pull a cannon into place?

Vitellozzo Vitelli: 4 hours?

Cesare Borgia: Not one living soul gets in or out.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Of course.

Micheletto: My Lord, you must come see!

Micheletto: The gates are open, my Lord. City looks unguarded.

Man: Welcome to Milan, my lord.

Cesare Borgia: Where is Ludovico Sforza? Where is Il Moro, where's the Duke?

Man: Gone, my lord.

Cesare Borgia: And his army?

Man: Gone with him.

Cesare Borgia: What's this molten thing?

Man: It was a bronze horse once, 10 houses high. Designed by Leonardo...

Cesare Borgia: Da Vinci.

Man: Duke had it melted down for cannon. And abandoned the cannon and rode up into the hill.

Cesare Borgia: The French king would meet with Leonardo.

Man: If you can find him. Da Vinci is gone too.

Micheletto: You have Milan, my lord.

Cesare Borgia: No, the french have Milan. And Ludovico Sforza lives to fight another day. And it he has a rightful claim to Naples. Damn him!

Alexander VI: So... You say it trembles.

Jewish Merchant: So legend has it, Your Holiness.

Alexander VI: Or does it just "seem" to tremble?

Jewish Merchant: No, Your Holiness!

Alexander VI: The Judgment of Solomon. I think we will have to make do with "seems". Our Holy Mother Church is driven by belief, and we choose to believe that this is the spear of Longinus. So that you and your tribe, may make your lives here in Rome. Now, what are the gifts do you have to bring us?

Cardinal Costanzo: Stefano! Stefano, I need you. Stefano! Stefano?

Stefano: Do not enter, Your Eminence.

Cardinal Costanzo: I've been call... You sick, what's the matter?

Stefano: I am burning up with fever.

Cardinal Costanzo: Plague! Plague!

Alexander VI: Previously on The Borgias...

Ascanio Sforza: The Jews, from Constantinople. More of them come every day.

Alexander VI: You were driven out by the Turks. We offer you a home, a place to prosper.

Jewish Merchant: And, in return?

Cesare Borgia: So, the King of Naples died.

Lucrezia Borgia: Most horribly.

Cesare Borgia: There are several claimants, I've heard. Is your Alfonzo among them?

Lucrezia Borgia: There are two in line, in front of him.

Cesare Borgia: Your Highness. The last French invasion ended in disaster. Maybe if the next was under Italian leadership...

Alexander VI: King Louis of France invades our shores without our permission?

Cesare Borgia: He has our permission.

Alexander VI: You would bring an army into our land?

Cesare Borgia: I would eliminate the Sforza dynasty. Ludovico, first. What is this?

Cardinal: A message from Lady Caterina Sforza, treating for peace.

Cesare Borgia: This is a bluff. Burn it. Caterina Sforza has no more interest in suing for peace than I do.

Cardinal: Are you sick? What's the matter? Plague.

Niccolo Machiavelli: This king desires more than Naples. He has an equal fondness for Milan.

Sforza's Soldier: My Lord Sforza.

Benito Riario-Sforza: My mother was right. Come tomorrow's dawn, there will be rivers of blood.

Micheletto: The gates are open, my Lord. The city looks unguarded.

Man: Welcome to Milan.

Cesare Borgia: Where is Ludovico Sforza?

Man: Gone.

Micheletto: You have Milan, my Lord.

Cesare Borgia: No, the French have Milan. Ludovico Sforza lives to fight another day. Damn him.

Micheletto: How do you know this place?

Man: I know Milan very well. I know a boy, who knows a boy whom Leonardo painted. You understand me?

Micheletto: Who is this boy you spoke of?

Man: We call him "Il Saliano".

Micheletto: The Little Devil.

Man: Yes. He's that, and more. But, Leonardo loves him dearly.

Micheletto: Leonardo loves them all.

Man: Um-hum. The more he steals from him, the more he lies to him, the more Leonardo loves him.

Micheletto: Why?

Man: Why?

Micheletto: Mm.

Man: That's why.

French Soldier: The King of France, my lord.

Cesare Borgia: Your Highness.

Louis XII: So. Ludovico is alive. His army is intact.

Cesare Borgia: His army is no longer what I call an army. It's scattered.

Louis XII: You promised me Milan. And, while the Duke Ludovico is alive, he has a claim to it.

Cesare Borgia: I will hunt him down.

Louis XII: Excellent. Do that. And, when you've captured him, tell your father, the Pope, I hold this city in his name.

Cesare Borgia: His. Not mine.

Louis XII: But, you share the same name.

Micheletto: What is that thing?

Man: A bird. A mechanical bird.

Micheletto: Can it fly?

Man: Perhaps some day it will.

Micheletto: For what purpose?

Man: No purpose. Maestro likes to dream. So tell me, where does this lead us?

Micheletto: Us? Nowhere.

Man: Where does this affection go?

Micheletto: There was no affection. Affection leads to weakness. And I have no use for either. What is this?

Man: An arquebus.

Micheletto: Arquebus. So, he's an artist and a condottieri.

Man: No. He designed the sight. It has two notches. Here, and here. You line them up with the eye.

Micheletto: Clever.

Alexander VI: Your son hopes to capture Milan.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Is he not your son, too?

Alexander VI: Sometimes, We wonder.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: I do not. And I should know. Giulia Farnese has captured a suitor.

Alexander VI: Oh, must you?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: I must, because she asked me. She wants to present him to you.

Alexander VI: For Our approval.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: For your blessing.

Alexander VI: What's his name, this suitor?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Vincenzo.

Alexander VI: Terrible name.

Lucrezia Borgia: Can we be happy, now? Like any family?

Alfonso d'Aragona: This is not just "any" family.

Lucrezia Borgia: Things have been difficult between us, but I wanted to thank you for your kindness. For your patience.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Kindness ever satisfy a Borgia?

Lucrezia Borgia: All I ever wanted, was to be loved by a prince like you. You could be king, one day.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Never.

Lucrezia Borgia: Don't you see, my love, it is the only way we can ensure our safety, as a family, with my beloved child. If you rule this kingdom.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I'm the Duke of Bisceglie, which means I'm third in line to the throne of Naples and I have two cousins, who would fight to the death for that very same throne. Prince Frederico and Prince Rafael. And I have no interest in that kind of power.

Lucrezia Borgia: But you must, if you want to ensure your survival. Our survival. Well, I must.

Flunkey: My Lord. Cardinal Costanzo requests you posthaste.

Cesare Borgia: Before I have changed and bathed?

Flunkey: He is in, in his palace. He made mention of the letter.

Cesare Borgia: The letter?

Flunkey: From Caterina Sforza.

Cesare Borgia: Make way. Make way! Where is the Cardinal?

Flunkey: Within.

Cesare Borgia: Show me, then.

Flunkey: See for yourself. My Lord, wait. Wear this. Over your mouth.

Cesare Borgia: Costanzo. Costanzo. Costanzo.

Cardinal Costanzo: Do you recognize that?

Cesare Borgia: I commanded you burn it. And the letter inside it.

Cardinal Costanzo: But, I didn't. Now you must burn this palace, with me inside it. And forgive me, for my disobedience.

Cesare Borgia: Why must you burn for disobedience?

Cardinal Costanzo: There was a plague-infested hankerchief, in the box that contained her overtures of peace.

Cesare Borgia: Oh, my God. There are quicker deaths, than burning.

Cardinal Costanzo: Then, throw me a blade, and burn all that remains.

Papal Guard: Make way for His Holiness.

Alexander VI: Is this how you announce your return to Rome?

Cesare Borgia: There was a plot, Holy Father. A plague letter, designed for your Person. Costanzo's curiosity got the better of him.

Alexander VI: So you burn down his palace?

Cesare Borgia: Better his palace, than the whole quarter.

Alexander VI: Where is Costanzo now?

Cesare Borgia: Burning, inside. Your sacred Person is healthy still.

Alexander VI: Caterina Sforza?

Cesare Borgia: Who else?

Alexander VI: Walk with Us. What do We need to know of this matter?

Cesare Borgia: As little as possible.

Alexander VI: But a letter was sent.

Cesare Borgia: A false overture of peace. I ordered it burnt.

Alexander VI: And the King of France is in possession of Milan. Was that to be kept from Us, as well?

Cesare Borgia: I wanted to tell you in person.

Alexander VI: And Ludovico Sforza is still at large.

Cesare Borgia: Ah. You have heard.

Alexander VI: We do not live entirely in the dark, Cesare. He is in hiding, with Caterina's son, Benito whom, it seems, he is willing to hand over to us, in exchange for a pledg of his own safe passage.

Cesare Borgia: Where is he now?

Alexander VI: That is not for us to know. Ask your friend, signor Machiavelli. It was him, who delivered Ludovico's letter to us.

Cesare Borgia: Do I have your permission to...

Alexander VI: To deliver our pledge into the hands of Ludovico Sforza? To lay hands on the pair of them? And to bring them, in chains, to Us, in Rome? You do.

Alexander VI: You know Constantinople, don't you?

Jewish Merchant: Intimately.

Alexander VI: Judea will be captured, returned to Rome.

Jewish Merchant: By some miracle, perhaps.

Alexander VI: Ah. Well, we don't trade in miracles. We're amassing funds, for a great crusade. But we fear, they could be needed closer to hand.

Jewish Merchant: May I enquire why, Holiness?

Alexander VI: The French have taken Milan.

Jewish Merchant: Wait, your son had taken Milan.

Alexander VI: Is there a difference? Rome needs arms. And funds for our Constantinople endeavor could have provided them. We can't leave her undefended.

Jewish Merchant: If I may be so bold to suggest, Holiness. The main threat from the Turks, is to shipping. If the entire Turkish fleet can be disposed of, would not his Holiness' Crusade have served its purpose?

Alexander VI: How would we achieve that?

Jewish Merchant: If the Pope is lacking funds, perhaps the tribe of Abraham could do it for him.

Alexander VI: Again, how?

Jewish Merchant: There are Jews in every port on the Turkish coastline. There may be a way, if the Jews in Rome could be assured of His Holiness' favor.

Alexander VI: Do you think he has caught us?

Jewish Merchant: He has caught the office. Catching the man is more elusive.

Lucrezia Borgia: And the knight moves thus.

Rafael d'Aragona: Yes. So I imagine you knew that already.

Lucrezia Borgia: No, my lord. I am a novice to the game of... What was it called, again?

Rafael d'Aragona: You fool on there.

Lucrezia Borgia: No, chess. Oh, my lord. Now, that was unkind.

Rafael d'Aragona: It was meant to be. The game is cruelty personified.

Lucrezia Borgia: Or, rather, strategy personified, my lord Rafael.

Rafael d'Aragona: You are beautiful, Lucrezia Borgia. But even I, a simple Neopolitan prince, can tell that your beauty hides a design. Why did you wish to meet with me?

Lucrezia Borgia: To learn the game, of course.

Rafael d'Aragona: The game of chess or the game of inheritance?

Lucrezia Borgia: There is a difference?

Rafael d'Aragona: In both, the rules are fixed and have been for centuries. And the room for manoeuvre is limited. A king dies, and the game begins again.

Lucrezia Borgia: So, the players are...?

Rafael d'Aragona: My half-brother, Frederico, and I. There can only be one winner.

Lucrezia Borgia: You.

Rafael d'Aragona: That is how I intend it. And that bastard child shall find no more favor in me, than it did with my uncle, the King.

Lucrezia Borgia: No?

Rafael d'Aragona: You will be returned to Rome. Or to a stable. You can choose which. I will ensure all the traditional proprieties are upheld. And Lucrezia Borgia shall have as little influence on the court of Naples, As your queen on this board.

Lucrezia Borgia: So, I have a king, and two bishops. And a knight. Is there a place for a pope in this game?

Rafael d'Aragona: There is no pope in the game of chess.

Lucrezia Borgia: But the game of succession has a pope. Surely.

Micheletto: You. Who are you? You followed me here?

Man: Surely, it is you who followed me, sir.

Micheletto: To Rome?

Man: I have a friend here, who paid for my journey. You, gentle sir, have followed me.

Micheletto: I'm not gentle.

Man: I remember.

Micheletto: Follow.

Micheletto: You will tell no one of this place. You do not ask where I go or where I've been. If you do not see me for a week or more, then you will wait. And if you cannot, then all this comes to naught, and you will leave. And you will leave in silence. And that silence, you will carry to your grave. But if you break that silence, I will find you. And believe me boy, that you do not want.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: She writes to me. Tells me her every move is watched.

Cesare Borgia: She should wear a veil, then.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Why?

Cesare Borgia: To hide her true feelings.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: She loves this husband, Cesare. She chose him.

Cesare Borgia: Is it only me he disappoints?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: You are too harsh.

Cesare Borgia: When I pleaded her son's case to the king, her husband just sat there beside me, saying nothing.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Naples is not Rome.

Cesare Borgia: No? And Naples may soon not even be Naples. A French presence there would see that they did our bidding.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: A French presence there would end her marriage for good. She hopes to wield some influence, Cesare. On the next heir to the throne.

Cesare Borgia: Just how will she manage that?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: From your father. Investiture of the crown till lies with the Pope, does it not?

Cesare Borgia: Not the choice of who wears it.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: What power has a crown, without papal investiture?

Cesare Borgia: Clever girl.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: If I were to die and my half-brother were to die, your husband would take the throne.

Lucrezia Borgia: Well that's a lot of dying.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: Death happens all the time, here. By accident. Look at my uncle.

Lucrezia Borgia: That was a horrible accident. Who could have thought?

Fredirigo d'Aragona: His father, actually. He had that pool stocked, for that very purpose. Naples terrifies me. It has terrified me ever since I learned to walk. Little Sebastian here, I have to feed him from my own plate. Lest my half-brother try and poison him.

Lucrezia Borgia: Why would he do that?

Fredirigo d'Aragona: Any number of reasons. For sport, to frighten me, or... merely to show me he can eliminate what's dear to me, at will. I know your plight, Lucrezia Borgia. I even pleaded with King Ferdinand, to let your child live here. But my words meant little then, and will mean even less, when my brother takes the crown.

Lucrezia Borgia: Must your brother take the crown?

Fredirigo d'Aragona: Unless he dies. Believe me, I'm no murderer.

Lucrezia Borgia: But the Pope must invest the new-crowned King of Naples.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: What of it?

Lucrezia Borgia: If there is any scandal, any rumor of public ignominy, the Pope may refuse.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: My brother has a heart of ice, But only I know that heart. The world knows a paragon of manliness, duty and virtue.

Lucrezia Borgia: We all have our secrets.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: Indeed.

Micheletto: I will be gone. Perhaps days, perhaps weeks.

Man: Where are you going?

Micheletto: I told you, never ask that question. Now you stay ignorant, you stay alive, boy.

Man: Days, weeks, what am I to do?

Micheletto: Enjoy the delights of Rome. There is wine in that jar. Hang around Bramante's studio. Maybe you'll catch his eye. No? If you are here when I return, I would like that.

Niccolo Machiavelli: There is a quarry, north of here. It is arranged the exchange will happen there. And Ludovico will deliver the boy, have no doubt.

Cesare Borgia: Guide us there, signor Machiavelli. Then absent yourself.

Niccolo Machiavelli: There are... complications in the air?

Cesare Borgia: No. The outcome will be simplicity itself. But I would recommend you keep your hands clean.

Benito Riario-Sforza: What is this place?

Ludovico Sforza: A disused quarry. Here, we will meet with forces loyal to the Sforza family, who will escort you home, to mother. Have no fear.

Lucrezia Borgia: Sebastian. Oh, God.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: He did have secrets, poisonous ones.

Lucrezia Borgia: Poison? What poison? Would it be cantarella? I know something of it.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: The dog ate from my plate.

Lucrezia Borgia: Forget the dog. Guards. Anybody. Quickly.

Cesare Borgia: There are two sights, and a double notch.

Micheletto: Yes.

Cesare Borgia: This your invention?

Micheletto: I wish I could claim so, but no. Leonardo's. My lord, my lord.

Benito Riario-Sforza: It's empty. There is no one here, Ludovico.

Ludovico Sforza: Well, Benito, it seems we are the first to arrive. You must be patient, and wait.

Benito Riario-Sforza: Half of Italy wants our heads and you're asking me to be patient.

Alfonso d'Aragona: What happened?

Lucrezia Borgia: Poison. Cantarella.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Who did it?

Lucrezia Borgia: Does it matter now? Go and get a physician, love. Quickly.

Cesare Borgia: So you align one sight with the other?

Micheletto: And the sights with your target, my lord.

Ludovico Sforza: What have you done!?

Alfonso d'Aragona: Here, here.

Lucrezia Borgia: Water. Water. I need water.

Doctor: This is the Roman cure?

Lucrezia Borgia: It is the only cure.

Ludovico Sforza: I said "capture". Not kill. It was agreed. There was no mention of killing.

Micheletto: That dog will bite no more.

Doctor: Your cure is useless. My lady, he cannot breathe.

Lucrezia Borgia: But if this is cantarella, I've done this before.

Doctor: It's not cantarella, it's galerina. A poisonous mushroom. He's dying of lack of breath. His whole throat is swollen.

Ludovico Sforza: What of our agreement? I am guaranteed safe passage. Now. I will have it now.

Benito Riario-Sforza: I trusted you. You barbarian.

Cesare Borgia: Ludovico. There.

Ludovico Sforza: I thank you.

Doctor: He breathes. We must hold his throat like this for two hours, until the swelling subsides.

Lucrezia Borgia: You. I accuse you of the murder of your brother.

Rafael d'Aragona: How could I have killed that, which is not yet dead?

Lucrezia Borgia: Of the poisoning of the only barrier that lies between you and the throne of Naples.

Rafael d'Aragona: An enterprise at which I failed miserably. Choke him on his own bile. I'd like to see that.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Be still, cousin.

Doctor: Hold him still.

Man: What are you doing here?

Rufio: Checking on my lady's investments. We all need vermin, like you to search out secrets, communicate anything that cannot be held in a diplomatic pouch.

Man: You should leave. Now. He could return.

Rufio: He's in the north, I heard. Far from here.

Man: Doing what?

Rufio: Are you not being paid good coin to find that out?

Man: I have to tread carefully with him. I have to earn his affection.

Rufio: The long game. That will last only as long as his love lasts.

Man: Well, then, there is time. Even for vermin like me.

Rufio: Is it possible? Have you fallen for him?

Man: I'm in the Devil's bed, Rufio. Have you ever been embraced by the Devil? Have you ever felt his touch, have you ever dared to touch him? I doubt it.

Rufio: Yes, that's love. It doesn't smell good. What a dingy place for it. But, then, certain love thrives best in the gutter.

Man: I see. You come here to pass judgment.

Rufio: No, I came to inhale this odor. He is my double, here in Rome. We will meet one day, he and I. Stick to him. Sooner or later, he will tell you everything. Nothing is too small. Remember the book?

Man: Catullus' Carmina.

Rufio: Good boy.

Lucrezia Borgia: Would you play more chess, my lord?

Rafael d'Aragona: I would be alone.

Lucrezia Borgia: I can understand why. You failed.

Rafael d'Aragona: How did I fail?

Lucrezia Borgia: It's foolish, to attempt murder and to fail.

Rafael d'Aragona: Better to succeed, I am sure.

Lucrezia Borgia: If you embark upon that course, yes, much better.

Rafael d'Aragona: My brother has always been histrionic. As a child, he accused me of drowning his pet newt.

Lucrezia Borgia: Did you?

Rafael d'Aragona: How does one drown a newt?

Lucrezia Borgia: There will be consequences.

Rafael d'Aragona: And you, the Pope's bastard, will be the judge of that?

Lucrezia Borgia: The Pope has in his gift the investiture of the Kingdom of Naples. How could he, in all conscience, place a murderer on the throne?

Rafael d'Aragona: You lack evidence, madam.

Lucrezia Borgia: I intend to find it.

Rafael d'Aragona: You are on dangerous ground, my lady.

Lucrezia Borgia: Yes, I can see that. You have your fingers against my throat. Failed again.

Old Lady: I was given word that some great lady needs a potion. A love potion? Your husband sleeps between the sheets? I know you.

Lucrezia Borgia: What if my needs were more lethal?

Old Lady: I only deal in cures.

Lucrezia Borgia: I heard a different story.

Old Lady: I can't understand your words.

Lucrezia Borgia: You provided certain potions to a certain party.

Old Lady: I still don't understand you.

Lucrezia Borgia: Do they burn witches in these parts?

Old Lady: I am no witch, my lady. I tend the forest, I gather its fruits.

Lucrezia Borgia: And sell them to whoever has need of them, for good or for ill. But, the truth might yet save you.

Old Lady: The truth?

Lucrezia Borgia: You gave the galerina mushroom.

Old Lady: I gave no galerina. I gave a dried powder, mixed with juniper.

Lucrezia Borgia: To whom?

Old Lady: Pay me first. To Prince Rafael.

Lucrezia Borgia: I asked you to meet with me.

Rafael d'Aragona: To play the game again?

Lucrezia Borgia: We could do that, too. I asked you to meet with me, to suggest that there might be two options available to you. One, you pursue your quest for the crown, for the Pope's blessing, and you will be accused of the attempted murder of your half-brother.

Rafael d'Aragona: I repeat, my brother lies.

Lucrezia Borgia: He has evidence.

Rafael d'Aragona: And I've heard of your evidence: an old crone from the forest. She should be burned, as a witch.

Lucrezia Borgia: Well, who knows? Perhaps, one day, she will be.

Rafael d'Aragona: What did she say?

Lucrezia Borgia: That she gave you a mixture of dried galerina and juniper berries.

Rafael d'Aragona: Someone primed her to say that. Find out who put the words in her mouth.

Lucrezia Borgia: Well, who then?

Rafael d'Aragona: You, perhaps. Your reputation does precede you.

Lucrezia Borgia: Your second choice is to hand the field over to your brother, whom the Pope will happily invest. And retire to your hunting lodges, with your reputation intact. Thank you, nurse. Hunting is a good life.

Rafael d'Aragona: I have a third, you know?

Lucrezia Borgia: What's that?

Rafael d'Aragona: I could poison the both of you. All of you.

Lucrezia Borgia: And succeed, this time?

Rafael d'Aragona: I'll take the second choice. If only to see you realize the folly of your strategem. You will lose. You will lose most horribly.

Alexander VI: He's very young. Will he be faithful?

Giulia Farnese: One hopes. Raise. His palace has fountains, a belvedere, extensive hunting grounds.

Alexander VI: He hunts. Not a good thing in a husband.

Giulia Farnese: You hunted.

Alexander VI: Rarely. And only with you.

Giulia Farnese: I will hunt with him, then.

Alexander VI: Well, let's get it over with.

Giulia Farnese: Dearest. Holiness. May I present to you, Vincenzo Salvatore.

Vincenzo Salvatore: Your Holiness.

Alexander VI: Your hands.

Vincenzo Salvatore: My hands?

Alexander VI: Yes, let me touch your hands. Soft. Never worked with land.

Vincenzo Salvatore: They toil with the feathered quill, your Holiness. They plow with that.

Alexander VI: Is he deranged?

Giulia Farnese: No, Your Holiness. He's a poet.

Alexander VI: Poet. So deranged.

Giulia Farnese: He may be another Petrarch, Holiness.

Alexander VI: Yes.Can you make her laugh? Well... Marry him if you will. Our son, come closer. What of Our command in regard to Ludovico Sforza?

Cesare Borgia: I executed it. He is no more.

Alexander VI: That was not our command. You were to bring him to Rome in chains. What purchase can we get with a dead Sforza?

Cesare Borgia: Two dead Sforzas.

Alexander VI: Are you to be the one who decide Rome's future...

Cesare Borgia: Father...

Alexander VI: Who shapes our fate, who dictates our strategies? Why in God's name did you kill them?

Cesare Borgia: Because the French king demanded it.

Alexander VI: What of Our wishes? Who are We to trust, if not Our family? Whom are we to rely on?

Cesare Borgia: You can trust me, Father.

Alexander VI: We can? Why?

Cesare Borgia: Because you have no alternative.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: You are wonderful people. Thank you.

Alfonso d'Aragona: So we are safe now?

Lucrezia Borgia: As long as this king lives Yes, we are safe.

Man: I'm Caterina Sforza's eyes and ears in this nest of vipers. And I would beg you, my liege, to make no hasty moves, until my exit is secured.

Louis XII: Bring me my copy of Catullus. Carmina.

Flunkey: Yes, your Majesty.

Alexander VI: Previously, on The Borgias-

Cesare Borgia: I will eliminate the Sforza dynasty. Ludovico first.

Alexander VI: He's in hiding with Catherina's son, Benito.

Ludovico Sforza: I said capture, not kill!

Alexander VI: What purchase can we get with a dead Sforza?

Cesare Borgia: Two dead Sforzas.

Alexander VI: Are you to be the one who decides Rome's future?

Micheletto: You followed me, to Rome?

Pascal: Where does this affection go?

Micheletto: Affection leads to weakness.

Rufio: Sooner or later, he will tell you everything. Remember the book.

Pascal: Catallus's Carmina.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I have two cousins who would fight to the death for the throne of Naples: Prince Frederico and Prince Raphael. I have no interest in that kind of power.

Alexander VI: The Turk threatens our shipping. We will raise a mighty crusade!

Jewish Merchant: The crusade requires coin. That is what he wants.

Alessandro Farnese: The spear of Longinus.

Alexander VI: Pilgrims will contribute generously to St. Peter's pep. We are putting on a show here.

Lucrezia Borgia: I accuse you of the poisoning of the only barrier that lies between you and the throne of Naples. Hand the field over to your brother.

Alfonso d'Aragona: So, we're safe now?

Lucrezia Borgia: As long as this king lives, yes, we're safe.

Pascal: I am Caterina Sforza's eyes and ears, and I would beg you, to make no hasty moves, until my exit is secured.

Louis XII: Bring me my copy of Catullus.

Alexander VI: Benedicat vos omnipotens Deus, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus. Amen.

All: Amen.

Alexander VI: Open ye to me the gates of justice.

Priests: I will go in to them and give praise to the Lord.

Alexander VI: I will come into thy house, O Lord.

Priests: I will worship at thy temple, in fear of Thee.

Man: Wait! Wait! Wait!

Alexander VI: Open, Lord, for me the gates, for God is with us.

Priests: And in God's house there are many mansions.

Alexander VI: Behold! The spear that touched the blood of Jesus Christ, our Savior! Behold! The spear of Longinus!

Woman: Bless me father, for I have sinned.

Cardinal: A Hail Mary and 20 ducats.

Cardinal: Eleven ducats-

Man: for my sins... I have fornicated.

Cardinal: Be faithful to your wife, pray for forgiveness for your sins, and donate sixteen ducats to our Holy Mother Church.

Cardinal: Be pure of thought and deed, and donate twelve ducats to our Holy Mother Church.

Cardinal: Twenty-five.

Carpenter: Twenty-five?

Cardinal: Twenty-five!

Carpenter: I'm a carpenter, not a banker. Can I not say my penance in prayer?

Cardinal: It's twenty-five.

Catherine Sforza: Benito, my son. Can we both taste revenge now, Cardinal?

Cardinal De Luca: I am but a common prelate, and revenge will be sweet.

Catherine Sforza: The holy year. The pilgrims flock to Rome, filling the papal coffers, for what I have no doubt about it, will be an assault on me. But the pilgrims way passes through Marino.

Cardinal De Luca: Through Sforza territory.

Catherine Sforza: There are catacombs in Marino. If we could display a relic there, of such magnificence, of such sanctity, that it would divert all of those pilgrims from their journey to St. Peter's, what would it be?

Catherine Sforza: What have we here, Cardinal DeLuca?

Cardinal De Luca: The shroud of Constantinople.

Catherine Sforza: It looks convincing.

Cardinal De Luca: Thank you!

Catherine Sforza: It definitely cost enough.

Cardinal De Luca: It wrapped our blessed Savior's sacred body. It bears the imprint of his sacred face.

Catherine Sforza: Will it fill the faithful with awe, Cardinal?

Cardinal De Luca: It should. It's the most sacred relic known to Christendom.

Catherine Sforza: So, we charge the pilgrims a hefty fee for onward passage to Rome, or, they can view our shroud for no fee at all.

Cardinal De Luca: But, is the shroud wonder enough? Perhaps we should add a miracle. Tears.

Catherine Sforza: Tears?

Cardinal De Luca: Tears of blood, on our Savior's face. It should draw the faithful, like flies to honey Better than any spear of Longinus.

Catherine Sforza: Do it!

Alexander VI: Adultery, no doubt.

Alessandro Farnese: Holiness.

Alexander VI: Diamond and black pearl.

Alessandro Farnese: Indeed.

Alexander VI: A word, young man.

Alessandro Farnese: Holiness?

Alexander VI: All these donations to the confessional fund go to-

Alessandro Farnese: The Vatican treasury, your Holiness.

Alexander VI: No. No. To a side account in the Vatican treasury.

Alessandro Farnese: Called-

Alexander VI: The Constantinople Endeavor.

Alessandro Farnese: The Constantinople Endeavor?

Alexander VI: Our crusade against the infidel, the Turk. And the account books for this fund, are for your eyes only.

Mattai the Hebrew: The entire Turkish navy could be burnt to a cinder, with oil.

Alexander VI: Oil?

Mattai the Hebrew: Lamp oil. Pitch. Tallow. Olive oil. If we spend the coin, place the order now, for shipment to the Christian lands, Come the month of Ramadan our oil-laden ships could be berthed in Kefalonia for the holy month, alongside the entire Turkish fleet.

Alexander VI: How does it burn?

Mattai the Hebrew: There are Jews in Kefalonia.

Alexander VI: Can you ensure its success?

Mattai the Hebrew: If, and only if, your Holiness withdraws his demands to tax my people. If we can live freely, trade freely, in this city of Rome.

Alexander VI: You ask for much, Murano!

Mattai the Hebrew: I am no Murano!

Alexander VI: No?

Mattai the Hebrew: You, on the other hand-

Alexander VI: Careful-

Mattai the Hebrew: I have heard the rumors, that Jewish blood runs in Borgia veins. Why do you think they hate you so?

Alexander VI: We could have your hide, for this presumption.

Mattai the Hebrew: But you're wiser than that. So follow my guidance, and your crusade is won! The Adriatic is free of the Moor and the Turk, as is the Mediterranean. All that is needed is the coin to buy the oil.

Alexander VI: Well, if you can ensure the success of this scheme, you will have your Papal bull.

Man: Welcome! Come inside. Please, take one. It's a miracle, you will see.

Catherine Sforza: A miracle!

Woman: A miracle!

Man: O Lord, I have lived to see the glory of your tears.

Man: In nomine Patris, et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.

Catherine Sforza: Behold! The tears of our Savior. A miracle.

Cesare Borgia: You've heard?

Alexander VI: She's blocked the pilgrim way! She claims that some random rag hanging in Marino is the shroud of our blessed Lord himself! Our son finds it amusing?

Cesare Borgia: I merely wonder where this will end. What next in this competition of relics? The Ark of the Covenant? The tablets of Moses?

Alexander VI: The ark of Noah, perhaps.

Cesare Borgia: If she could find the manpower to build it.

Alexander VI: My son, whatever our failings, we do not trade in fakery.

Cesare Borgia: No? The spear of Longinus.

Alexander VI: It's genuine! We have it on the best authority.

Cesare Borgia: Of course. That wandering Jew.

Alexander VI: He has been more help to our cause than the entire consistory. You will ride north. You will expel the bitch of Forli from Marino, and bring the shroud back here, so that we can vouch its authenticity ourself.

Cesare Borgia: With what army?

Alexander VI: With your own army.

Cesare Borgia: Surely, papal arms should be used for such a task. I would not waste my own blood and treasure to free up pilgrim coin. One last time, father...

Alexander VI: What?

Cesare Borgia: Give me command.

Alexander VI: We will pay you. By the day, by the horse, by the man.

Cesare Borgia: Your mercenary, Holy Father.

Pascal: Cesare Borgia is headed toward the shrine at Marino, to open up the pilgrim way.

Man: Keep that torch back! You're too close.

Rufio: We have word, my lady, that the Borgia is coming. If there are pilgrims here, there will be deaths. Many deaths.

Catherine Sforza: They will die with good in their hearts, as my son did.

Cesare Borgia: Out! All of them, out! Move along! Clear the square! Send them away! Send them to Rome.

Man: It's a miracle! Tears of blood.

Cesare Borgia: What's he saying?

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Something about a miracle, tears of blood.

Cesare Borgia: The shroud of Constantinople. Tears of blood, my friend.

Micheletto: I shed them often, my lord. Paint.

Cesare Borgia: Red pigment.

Micheletto: Run!

Catherine Sforza: The wrath of God, my friend.

Micheletto: Jesus must love you, Cesare Borgia.

Cesare Borgia: Yes, he wept He wept bloodied tears. He does. He does. He loves me. Jesus loves me!

Alexander VI: Tears of blood?

Cesare Borgia: And then the earth exploded.

Alexander VI: Thank the Lord you were spared!

Cesare Borgia: Thank God, indeed!

Alexander VI: A false shroud.

Cesare Borgia: One has to admire her invention. If it is hers.

Alexander VI: You think there is another hand involved?

Cesare Borgia: She has a dark shadow. It has crossed us twice, now.

Alexander VI: What is the name of this dark shadow?

Cesare Borgia: Rufio.

Alexander VI: Rufio. We need all the friends we can get, which is why we are investing King Frederico of Naples.

Cesare Borgia: Your cousin, I believe.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Once removed, yes.

Cesare Borgia: Can you trust him with your fa mily's future?

Alfonso d'Aragona: I have no option, my lord.

Cesare Borgia: Which means, you don't.

Alfonso d'Aragona: No. No, which means your sister was the author of these events. Not I.

Micheletto: What is that?

Pascal: Your name. You can't read, can you?

Micheletto: I have no learning. I worked with my father, when I was meant to be at school.

Pascal: Then, how can you write?

Micheletto: I remember shapes, all shapes, like pictures in my head. I do not forget. I can copy. I saw these shapes on the floor, over there. Why?

Pascal: I like to write your name when you're absent.

Micheletto: Why?

Pascal: It is the language of love.

Micheletto: So, if I cannot read, I cannot love? How do I learn?

Pascal: I can read to you.

Micheletto: Then, read.

Pascal: "Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris? Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior."

Micheletto: What does it mean?

Pascal: "I hate and I love. Why, you may ask. I don't know. But it happens, and I burn."

Micheletto: I've known this feeling, all my life. All my life.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: I have one last favor I would ask, your Holiness.

Alexander VI: Tell us.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: French arms are on Italian soil, once more.

Cesare Borgia: And they will stay in Milan.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: One hopes. But, to guard against any misunderstanding between us, I would ask for the appointment of a special ambassador between the Holy See and Naples.

Alexander VI: We already have one.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: One of little consequence. But, to keep our ties of friendship intact, I would plead for one of mighty consequence, with all the wisdom and stagecraft necessary to the task. Your daughter, Lucrezia Borgia.

Alexander VI: That is, indeed, an honor. Lucrezia?

Lucrezia Borgia: I am surprised, and honored.

Cesare Borgia: So, she will reside in Naples?

Fredirigo d'Aragona: She already does.

Cesare Borgia: With her husband, and her child?

Fredirigo d'Aragona: Of course! I would have her travel back with my retinue, as my most honored guest.

Lucrezia Borgia: Peace, brother. Peace.

Cesare Borgia: Ambassador?

Lucrezia Borgia: My embassy awaits.

Cesare Borgia: Do you trust him?

Lucrezia Borgia: Yes. What does it matter now? I have my child. I have my husband. I have everything I wanted.

Cesare Borgia: Everything?

Lucrezia Borgia: Almost everything. Come and visit, soon.

Micheletto: We need bread.

Pascal: Yes, and milk, and honey, and cheese.

Micheletto: Go to the market.

Cesare Borgia: When do you learn to write?

Micheletto: I do not read, and I do not write. But I remember, and I copy, and I must. Before the sleight it is lost.

Cesare Borgia: What is this?

Micheletto: I see pictures in my mind's eye. Shapes on the page. Like a map that will lead us to all. But, I... I do not know what it means.

Cesare Borgia: We need a mirror. Look! This is mirror writing.

Micheletto: You can read this?

Cesare Borgia: These are all numbers. Each one of them has to mean something different. It must be a code. A book code, I think. Where did you find this?

Micheletto: You do not need to know.

Cesare Borgia: I'm afraid I must!

Micheletto: The letter, my lord! What does it say?

Cesare Borgia: Nothing, as yet. Who did you copy this from?

Micheletto: Someone I know.

Cesare Borgia: A friend? Well, you make sure he remains your friend. He'll have a book. Find it! The book is the key to this.

Man: King Frederico!

Lucrezia Borgia: How would you define my ambassadorial duties, your Highness?

Fredirigo d'Aragona: Quite simple really. You must keep me informed of your brother's designs, And your father's. Your home is Naples, Your heart must be in Naples. Your allegiance, solely to Naples.

Lucrezia Borgia: Your tone has changed, my liege.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: Of course.I am king. What else did you expect? Ladies first.

Micheletto: Read to me.

Pascal: "Let us live, my Lesbia, and love, and value at one farthing the talk of crabbed, old men."

Micheletto: Crabbed, old men.

Cesare Borgia: You have the letter? Sit. Each number refers to a verse, then a line, then a word. Nine, that's verse nine. Then, "novem", another nine. That's line nine. Seven; seventh word, line nine, verse nine. That's "They." Beginning... Who are "they"... I wonder? Twenty-seven, that's verse twenty-seven. Line six, word three. "Must." "They must."

Cesare Borgia: "Forli." The message. "They must not suspect.He will lock the cage. We must know when they will move on Forli."

Micheletto: A cage is for an animal, or a prisoner. So who is in the cage, and who is the prisoner?

Cesare Borgia: Forli. Catherina Sforza. But, who is this "he"?

Micheletto: I could... beat it out of him.

Cesare Borgia: Beat it out of who?

Micheletto: The boy who had the letter.

Cesare Borgia: A boy? What boy?

Micheletto: The boy I took to my bed.

Cesare Borgia: The spy... you took to your bed.

Micheletto: Kill me now, my lord. Please. Please?

Cesare Borgia: No! No more killing. You must keep on loving this boy.

Micheletto: I can hate and love.

Cesare Borgia: These words are worth more than gold. They will tell us what she thinks, and what she plans.

Lucrezia Borgia: All eyes! Are we in need of protection?

Alfonso d'Aragona: Not that I know of.

Lucrezia Borgia: Well, then, why do we have it? Is Naples always thus? Eyes watching one's every move? Guards in every corner? Will they even watch us make love?

Cesare Borgia: "They suspect nothing. She thinks the King of Naples is a friend." My God! I knew! Some way I knew!

Micheletto: Knew what, my Lord?

Cesare Borgia: He's in league with Caterina Sforza. King Federico of Naples. She chose the wrong brother! My sister is no ambassador. She and her child will be kept hostage, the moment we attack Forli! Kill him! You kill the boy!

Chamberlain: My lady!

Lucrezia Borgia: However irregular it may be, I would speak to his Highness, and ask him to explain my confinement.

Chamberlain: I apologize, your Highness.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: Leave us. You are a prisoner, my dear. Plain and simple.

Lucrezia Borgia: And why am I a prisoner?

Fredirigo d'Aragona: Because you chose the wrong brother.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: Lent it was passed. You will be missed, Sebastian! He did have secrets. Poisonous ones!

Fredirigo d'Aragona: As a Borgia, you should have known better. Poison is your hobby, is it not? So, you are in a cage, my dear. Your every need will be catered for. You will dine on gold and silver platter, the best Neopolitan cuisine. But you can never leave. Borgia bitch!

Medic: Could she be with child?

Alfonso d'Aragona: I truly doubt that possibility.

Lucrezia Borgia: Where do you are, my love? There's a woman in the forest. She knows every cure this earth provides. I will be examined by her.

Micheletto: "I hate, and I love. Why, you may ask? I do not know. But it happen, and I-" And... how does it go?

Pascal: "...I burn."

Micheletto: No, in the Latin, please.

Pascal: "Excrucior!" "Excrucior!"

Micheletto: It is a big word for "burn". Why? Why did you become my lover? Why?

Pascal: Because I was made an offer.

Micheletto: From whom? You enjoyed the thrill? The danger? Yes?

Pascal: Yes! Yes! I admit, I did.

Micheletto: I should flay you alive! But I will be merciful.

Pascal: You will.

Micheletto: You tell me how you wish to die, Pascal.

Pascal: I die? In your arms.

Old Lady: You love another, who is not your husband. Close to you. Too close.

Lucrezia Borgia: Tell me more.

Old Lady: You are a prisoner here.

Lucrezia Borgia: Whose fault is that?

Old Lady: Mine. Forgive me. I knew that he wanted to be king, but I did not know that he would confine such a splendid witch as you. But you have a future, away from here. So your hand tells me.

Lucrezia Borgia: How do I leave?

Old Lady: You could make them sleep. Everybody sleeps, do they not? Just never at the time we want them to. I put a whole village to sleep once, with this.

Ascanio Sforza: The bull is prepared, and awaits your signature, Holiness.

Alexander VI: All is ready?

Mattai the Hebrew: Ships loaded with oil are docked in Kefalonia.

Alexander VI: And the Turkish fleet?

Mattai the Hebrew: Docked alongside.

Alexander VI: When will this happen?

Mattai the Hebrew: It may have happened already.

Alexander VI: A Borgia bull.

Alexander VI: Previously, on The Borgias ...

Mattai the Hebrew: The entire Turkish navy could be burnt to cinder.

Alexander VI: What other gifts do you have, to bring us?

Vitellozzo Vitelli: All roads lead to Rome, and pas through the Romagna. Our men, united under a common banner. Would tip the scales, one way or another.

Lucrezia Borgia: I have my child, my husband. I have everything I wanted.

Cesare Borgia: Everything?

Lucrezia Borgia: Almost everything.

Cesare Borgia: Caterina Sforza has a dark shadow. It has crossed us twice, now.

Pascal: What are you doing here?

Cesare Borgia: It's code. "We must know when they will move on Forli." Who did you copy this from?

Micheletto: The boy I took to my bed.

Lucrezia Borgia: Your Highness, how would you define my ambassadorial duties?

Fredirigo d'Aragona: You must keep me informed of your brother's designs. You are a prisoner, my dear. Plain and simple.

Alexander VI: Who are we to trust?

Cesare Borgia: You can trust me.

Alexander VI: Oh.

Cesare Borgia: You have no alternative. King Frederico of Naples is in league with Caterina Sforza. She will be kept hostage, the moment we attack Forli!

Lucrezia Borgia: And why am I a prisoner?

Fredirigo d'Aragona: Because you chose the wrong brother.

Cesare Borgia: The spy - kill him!.

Lucrezia Borgia: How do I leave?

Old Lady: You could make them sleep. I put a whole village to sleep once, with this.

Micheletto: Why? Why did you become my lover?

Pascal: Because I was made an offer.

Micheletto: Tell me how you wish to die, Pascal.

Pascal: In your arms.

Pascal: Hold me.

Micheletto: Give me your left hand.

Pascal: I see colors, like stars.

Micheletto: They say that is your soul, leaving your body.

Pascal: Never let me go. Never! You're crying.

Micheletto: Tears of blood. Forgive me.

Pascal: You have killed so many!

Micheletto: But none like you, boy.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: Naples may have her failings, fair Ambassador, but let no one deny: she knows how to celebrate!

Lucrezia Borgia: So, you approve of my little display?

Fredirigo d'Aragona: It's a wondrous addition! To Bacchus! To a full grape!

Alfonso d'Aragona: These men, our guards, my liege, they will not partake?

Fredirigo d'Aragona: Your guards?

Alfonso d'Aragona: Our jailers.

Fredirigo d'Aragona: Your protectors! No, they must stay ever alert for the slightest hint of danger to your person.

Lucrezia Borgia: Given the day we are celebrating, let me thank them for their service. Do you guardians have names? And would you share them with your humble charge?

Oliveretto: I'm Oliveretto, he's Francesco.

Lucrezia Borgia: A token of my gratitude, overdue. Good health!

Alfonso d'Aragona: My God, Lucrezia!

Lucrezia Borgia: Don't worry, Maria. They're not dead. They're just sleeping.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Lucrezia, it's as if a witch had cast a spell!

Lucrezia Borgia: We are in a fairy tale. And the witch, is me. A magical carriage will come and whisk us to safety, in Rome. My thanks.

Old Lady: If you do not mind, my lady, we take our pickings. It would not have been possible, without our little trick.

Lucrezia Borgia: No, of course! My thanks.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I'm right behind you.

Lucrezia Borgia: Take care,my love.

Cesare Borgia: Micheletto doesn't flee!

Paolo Orsini: He has, my lord. There's no sign of him.

Cesare Borgia: So, you say you've been searching?

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Since the morning. He has vanished, without trace.

Cesare Borgia: You will find no trace, unless he wants you to. His only code was loyalty. Can one of you replace him?

Prospero Colonna: My lord.

Cesare Borgia: Don't even try to answer that. We ride to Naples within the hour.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Do you expect to die soon, dear?

Alexander VI: The grave awaits us all, Vanozza. We would have our family rest together.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Is there room in there for me?

Alexander VI: For you? A nook, perhaps. Have you spoken to our eldest son?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Hardly. He comes and goes, like a ghost in the night.

Alexander VI: Well, if he has plans, we would know of them.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Do you think he shares them with me?

Alexander VI: You are his mother.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Cesare Borgia is well-nigh unknowable.

Alexander VI: Yes, like a sphinx! You know he has the French king in is pocket, and a French army at his beck and call. I haven't any idea what he's going to do next.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Have you tried talking to him?

Alexander VI: I never see him to talk to him.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Have you tried forgiving him?

Alexander VI: For what?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: For whatever lies between you two.

Alexander VI: What's that?

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Well, only you two know. That's the trouble: you're too alike.

Alexander VI: The trouble is... I miss him.

Cesare Borgia: He called Naples a garden of weeds. Micheletto.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: But you will need a hundred times these men, to take it.

Cesare Borgia: I don't want Naples, yet. I want my sister!

Alfonso d'Aragona: Brother.

Lucrezia Borgia: Stop, stop! Cesare! Cesare!

Cesare Borgia: At last!

Lucrezia Borgia: We were captives.

Cesare Borgia: I know. You were betrayed. I was betrayed. All of us. Never again!

Prospero Colonna: Not everyone can love like that.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Like what?

Prospero Colonna: Like brother and sister.

Alexander VI: Another relic?

Mattai the Hebrew: Yes, Holiness.

Alexander VI: The head of John the Baptist, perhaps?

Mattai the Hebrew: No, Holiness. A relic of a more recent drama. A relic of your crusade against the Turkish navy, achieved in one fell swoop.

Alexander VI: So that Venetian ships can ply the Adriatic once more.

Mattai the Hebrew: You can charge them for the privilege, and forgo your tithe on my Hebrew brethren.

Alexander VI: You worked your stratagem with oil; can you do the same with sulfur?

Mattai the Hebrew: Sulfur?

Alexander VI: We would control the supply of sulfur in this land.

Mattai the Hebrew: Sulfur and saltpeter make gunpowder.

Alexander VI: Yes. Now, any alchemist can make saltpeter. But sulfur must be drawn from the bowels of the earth. And there is only one source.

Mattai the Hebrew: The Solfatara Caldera.

Alexander VI: We would use the coin you have saved us, to buy up the whole supply. And deprive our enemies of gunpowder.

Mattai the Hebrew: Your enemies being ...?

Alexander VI: Oh, it doesn't matter. Milan, Sforza's, Naples, France, whoever wants to wage war, will need our compliance.

Mattai the Hebrew: How does this help my people?

Alexander VI: There will come a time, favors will be repaid. You will be our agent in this. You should present yourself as a Christian.

Mattai the Hebrew: Holiness, I cannot.

Alexander VI: You will be trading beyond Rome's protection.

Mattai the Hebrew: The laws of Abraham forbid...

Alexander VI: We ask you to present yourself, not to convert. Get rid of that... Hebrew garb. Trim those locks,... and pray to whom you will in private. But in public,show a little piety.

Jewish Merchant: You are a Christian now?

Mattai the Hebrew: No, but I can pretend. I serve a Christian pope,, so you can remain a Jew. I may have a task for our brethren, Come.

Alfonso d'Aragona: You're home.

Lucrezia Borgia: Thank the Lord!

Cesare Borgia: Orsini. I have a task for you.

Paolo Orsini: You know I'm at your service, my lord.

Cesare Borgia: The only one I could trust with my family's safety has vanished.

Paolo Orsini: You can trust me.

Cesare Borgia: Well, we'll just see. You're charged with my sister's protection, and that of her husband and her child. You will choose her staff, her cooks, her child's nursemaid, and manservants. I would know where she is, and where her husband is, at every hour of every day. Is task enough for you?

Lucrezia Borgia: He's home once more.

Cesare Borgia: Does he remember? The Vatican? Home.

Lucrezia Borgia: Home. It doesn't feel like home.

Cesare Borgia: Are you lost, sister?

Lucrezia Borgia: Perhaps.

Cesare Borgia: He will need a bigger cot. As will he.

Alfonso d'Aragona: He made you smile.

Lucrezia Borgia: No,you did.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I did? How?

Lucrezia Borgia: Because you are the joy of my life. The light of my days.

Alfonso d'Aragona: You know, that I know, that that isn't true. How long could we last like this?

Lucrezia Borgia: How long does marriage last?

Mattai the Hebrew: Tell me, the income from this pit in a month.

Sulphur Mine Overseer: You must speak to the proprietor.

Mattai the Hebrew: Where is the proprietor?

Sulphur Mine Overseer: There are many, scattered through the region. Their families divide the spoils.

Mattai the Hebrew: Tell them I would buy this year's supply.

Sulphur Mine Overseer: In total?

Mattai the Hebrew: Tell them I would buy every ounce of sulfur this mine produces throughout this coming year, and whatever else lies in storage.

Sulphur Mine Overseer: You are contemplating a war, sir?

Mattai the Hebrew: A war, or a peace. Does it matter?

Cesare Borgia: This palace is yours. Signor Orsini will see to your protection.

Lucrezia Borgia: Why here?

Cesare Borgia: You need premises of your own, to avoid prying eyes. A place that is safe, protected. I will not have your safety compromised.

Lucrezia Borgia: And my husband?

Cesare Borgia: What of him?

Lucrezia Borgia: If he were to ride back to Naples.

Cesare Borgia: I will not allow it.

Lucrezia Borgia: If you cannot prevent it.

Cesare Borgia: You know me, sister. Certain things I will not countenance.

Lucrezia Borgia: He could cause public scandal, if he...

Cesare Borgia: If he what?

Lucrezia Borgia: Intimates any impropriety between us.

Cesare Borgia: We are family; we love each other. We are Spanish; we embrace. Where is the scandal?

Lucrezia Borgia: You know where the scandal is.

Mattai the Hebrew: There's a warehouse, filling with sulfur as we speak.

Alexander VI: I'll make a Christian of you, yet.

Mattai the Hebrew: My reward being your heaven?

Alexander VI: A Christian and an optimist. We like that! Nobody knows of its location? They will all blame each other for the lack of powder.

Mattai the Hebrew: You wanted to sow confusion.

Alexander VI: You read us too well.

Papal Guard: Twenty-five silver? Is there gold in those wagons?

Mattai the Hebrew: What did I pay you for?

Papal Guard: Silence. Gold that burns.

Cesare Borgia: Father? Caterina. We must resolve this, or it will resolve for us.

Alexander VI: How?

Cesare Borgia: She plots with Naples, she reinforces her stronghold, she requisitions cannon. She will soon be impregnable.

Alexander VI: Are you so sure?

Cesare Borgia: Yes! Yes, I'm certain. I cannot understand why you don't share my certainty.

Alexander VI: Certainty is the preserve of youth.

Cesare Borgia: So I still have to wait. I know your coffers are full. I know your crusade was an illusion. I know you are re-equipping the papal armies, as you should. Can you give me permission to survey them, at least?

Alexander VI: Survey them, my son. See our Rome's defenses secure. Blast the spider of Forli! I have reason to believe she will wait.

Sforza's Soldier: Open the gates!

Catherine Sforza: Florence will neither help nor hinder us.

Rufio: And Machiavelli?

Catherine Sforza: Will do nothing.

Rufio: His nothing is worth a lot.

Catherine Sforza: He will deny them passage across Florentine lands.

Rufio: Good news! Now the bad: our powder is almost out.

Catherine Sforza: Powder?

Rufio: Gunpowder. For the cannon. Supplies of sulfur have dried up. Some agency and person has bought them wholesale.

Catherine Sforza: Cesare Borgia!

Rufio: Is he that clever?

Catherine Sforza: Let us hope not.

Lucrezia Borgia: Nurse, I need an earthenware jug. Where is my maidservant?

Nurse: She is indisposed, my lady.

Lucrezia Borgia: Who appointed you?

Nurse: The master of the household.

Lucrezia Borgia: Who is master of the household?

The Master of the Household: I am, my lady.

Lucrezia Borgia: Who appointed you?

The Master of the Household: Signor Orsini.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: This behemoth fires a ball of 300 pounds.

Cesare Borgia: Admirable.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: But there is a problem.

Cesare Borgia: Problem?

Vitellozzo Vitelli: The powder to fire the ball. Gunpowder is made of saltpeter and sulfur. Saltpeter, we have in plenty. But the supplies of sulfur have dried up.

Cesare Borgia: How can they just dry up?

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Someone has been buying the supplies from Solfatara Caldera, and that someone has in their power a moratorium on warfare.

Cesare Borgia: It's a clever move. Catherina Sforza?

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Too clever even for her.

Cesare Borgia: We need a spy out there. Someone to smell out sulfur. Prospero?

Prospero Colonna: I shall sniff it out, my lord.

Lucrezia Borgia: A bird in a cage. How appropriate.

Man: We are fully armed, my lord.

Cesare Borgia: As I can see. But, for what?

Man: For whatever his Holiness intends.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Cesare Borgia!

Cesare Borgia: Alfonso!

Alfonso d'Aragona: Finally, we're on first-name terms. Spar with me, brother!

Cesare Borgia: Brother-in-law.

Alfonso d'Aragona: You could love me as a brother, ...if you ever loved your brother.

Cesare Borgia: I did. Mightily.

Alfonso d'Aragona: So I've heard.

Cesare Borgia: Do not provoke me, my lord!

Alfonso d'Aragona: I said spar, not fight.

Cesare Borgia: You're good with a blade.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Are you surprised?

Cesare Borgia: I would not harm that which my sister loves.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Does she love me, as she loves her brother?

Cesare Borgia: You're in bad humor, my lord.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Yes, dangerously bad humor. And this Vatican is a hive of whispers, and rumors and innuendos that set my imagination to a fever!

Cesare Borgia: You should never heed rumor.

Alfonso d'Aragona: But you're the source of them, my lord! And rumor has it that there are three in this marriage, not two!

Cesare Borgia: You are both so dear to my heart.

Prospero Colonna: Just follow the wagons.

Papal Guard: Thank you. Close the gates!

Mattai the Hebrew: You seem curious.

Prospero Colonna: You have a treasure, here.

Mattai the Hebrew: Just the scrapings of the earth.

Prospero Colonna: From where?

Mattai the Hebrew: We collect gravel, shale; sell it where we can.

Prospero Colonna: Hebrews! You would sell the very soil, if you could.

Mattai the Hebrew: Does soil have any value?

Prospero Colonna: Does it burn? That burns. I've seen it.

Mattai the Hebrew: I am no Hebrew. I am a Christian.

Prospero Colonna: Bless yourself, then. You have a master, who? A mistress, perhaps.

Prospero Colonna: This is our moment, if ever there was one.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Be careful, Propsero. You tread on splintered glass.

Prospero Colonna: He is starved of powder, and for all we know, so is she.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Someone paid for those shipments. They've a purpose, hidden from you.

Prospero Colonna: But, does it matter? The point is: those stores exist. I know where. We should capture those stores, hold them both to ransom. And we have neutered Cesare Borgia!

Gian Paolo Baglioni: You hate him, don't you?

Prospero Colonna: As do you!

Gian Paolo Baglioni: I love my hide, more than I hate him.

Prospero Colonna: If you love your hide, follow me in this. There is only one end for us, with him. Come with me now.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Not now. Tomorrow.

Lucrezia Borgia: I was prisoner in Naples, and now I am prisoner in Rome!

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Maybe we're all prisoners here.

Lucrezia Borgia: Is there another city? Another realm, where I can be free? ...Of my father, my brother.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: You love them both.

Lucrezia Borgia: Love can be another chain, mother, in this Borgia family. There is a great reckoning coming, that will leave none of us the same. I would leave now, if I could. Take my child, take you.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: And your husband?

Lucrezia Borgia: I'd take him if he would come, but I doubt it.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Go home, Lucrezia. You brood too much.

Prospero Colonna: You see the wheel tracks? Follow the trail of yellow.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: If I ever get lost.

Prospero Colonna: You're not lost!

Gian Paolo Baglioni: I am. In a maze of betrayal.

Prospero Colonna: He would betray you in a heartbeat!

Gian Paolo Baglioni: They leave it unguarded.

Prospero Colonna: A guard would draw too much attention to it. Here, look! A store of yellow!

Gian Paolo Baglioni: The color of betrayal.

Prospero Colonna: Baglioni, no!

Gian Paolo Baglioni: I'm afraid, my friend, yes!

Prospero Colonna: My lord, I found powder.

Cesare Borgia: Yes, you found powder! For which, I thank you. Now show us around. Show us what you found. Seize him now! You didn't quite betray me.

Prospero Colonna: Not yet, my lord!

Cesare Borgia: Because I didn't give you time enough? With enough time,you would have burned me in that mound of sulfur. Is that true, Baglioni?

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Too true, my lord.

Prospero Colonna: Why, Baglioni? Why?

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Because, my friend, this is what we do!

Cesare Borgia: We are connoisseurs of treachery. But can anyone tell me: who owns this pile of dust?

Prospero Colonna: Catherina Sforza.

Cesare Borgia: Why would she store it in Rome? Who was it? King Frederico of Naples? Louis of France? Whoever gathered it here did so for a purpose!

Mattai the Hebrew: I brought it here!

Cesare Borgia: And you are?

Mattai the Hebrew: I am a humble merchant.

Cesare Borgia: Who holds the power of life and death. War and peace.

Mattai the Hebrew: I bought it for another.

Cesare Borgia: Take him outside.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: And do what?

Cesare Borgia: Burn him.

Prospero Colonna: No!

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Do not do that, my lord!

Prospero Colonna: No!

Cesare Borgia: Take him outside, at least! Go home, any of you who would not witness this!

Gian Paolo Baglioni: I bid you good night.

Cesare Borgia: He'll light up your way.

Prospero Colonna: No! No! Wait! No! No! No!

Cesare Borgia: Go home now. Let this be a lesson to those who would betray me.

Mattai the Hebrew: You are cruel, you Romans.

Cesare Borgia: We do not forgive. So, sell it to me.

Mattai the Hebrew: I cannot.

Cesare Borgia: I haven't named my price.

Mattai the Hebrew: It doesn't matter.

Cesare Borgia: Merchants buy and but they always sell. Always have their price.

Mattai the Hebrew: None of this is mine; I bought it for another.

Cesare Borgia: Let him name his price, then.

Mattai the Hebrew: He has no price.

Cesare Borgia: Why does he want it?

Mattai the Hebrew: The thought of war disturbs him.

Cesare Borgia: A man of peace. You could say that. Well, I would meet with this paragon.

Mattai the Hebrew: He is a paragon. It could easily be arranged. He's your father! The Pope of Rome.

Cesare Borgia: He would deny me powder?

Mattai the Hebrew: Yes!

Cesare Borgia: Why?

Mattai the Hebrew: Isn't it obvious? Because he fears you!

Cesare Borgia: But we share the same names.

Mattai the Hebrew: Fathers and sons. It is always thus!

Cesare Borgia: I will have my powder.

Mattai the Hebrew: With your father's permission!

Cesare Borgia: Must I beg?

Mattai the Hebrew: No! But, perhaps I can intercede.

Mattai the Hebrew: Holiness! I have commandeered every ounce of sulfur in this land.

Alexander VI: So, you're both a Christian and a peacemaker!

Mattai the Hebrew: Is that your intention, an Italy of peace?

Alexander VI: Not entirely.

Mattai the Hebrew: I suspected as much. As I have done all I can do for you, I would return to the tribe of Abraham.

Alexander VI: No, no! No, we have need of you. We have further plans. We have need of a man with your resource.

Mattai the Hebrew: But, you are surrounded by advisors, Holiness. Cardinals, cannon lawyers...

Alexander VI: No! What do they know of the real world? Can we trust them with anything, apart from drawing up the papal bull? No, we need you further yet. We need you in hand.

Mattai the Hebrew: I may have found just the man, Holiness. He has talent to burn. It pains him that those talents are so underused.

Alexander VI: Is he another Jew, like you?

Mattai the Hebrew: A Christian. A warrior.

Alexander VI: A warrior ?

Mattai the Hebrew: A leader of men. One that you should take close to your bosom. May I introduce you to him?

Alexander VI: What, now?

Cesare Borgia: You would play games with me?

Alexander VI: Don't you talk to me about playing games!

Cesare Borgia: You would deny me powder! You would make me think it was Caterina Sforza's doing!

Alexander VI: You would invite the French army to my doorstep!

Cesare Borgia: We share the same aims!

Alexander VI: But what are your aims? You do not share them with us! You keep them secret! We are the Pope of Rome!

Cesare Borgia: You are also my father, and you still cannot give me your trust!

Mattai the Hebrew: Enough! You are family, are you not? In my people, the bonds of family are unbreakable! Even stronger than family the bond between father and son.

Alexander VI: Do you have a son?

Mattai the Hebrew: It is sacred. Adam begat Cain.

Alexander VI: Who killed his brother, Abel.

Mattai the Hebrew: Abraham begat Isaac.

Cesare Borgia: Whom he offered up for sacrifice.

Mattai the Hebrew: And God stayed his hand! So, here we are. All of us, children of Abraham. So I ask this father to embrace his son. Give him his sanction, his support, his love.

Alexander VI: His powder, his army, ...

Mattai the Hebrew: His love!

Cesare Borgia: His love.

Mattai the Hebrew: He is made in your image.

Alexander VI: You think we don't know that? He is me! All the fire, and the fury, the drive! The pitiless ambition! I look into his eyes and I see myself! Do you expect me to love that?

Cesare Borgia: Do you not love yourself, Father? Must we hate each other, then? Father, please, just open your heart to me.

Alexander VI: What have I wrought for this family? On the altar of power and ambition. A temple built on rotten foundations. And you're asking me to let you continue down the road? I can't do that.

Cesare Borgia: You have no option, father. If we weaken now, they'll destroy us. There is only one road, and that is forward. Trust me. I'll carve you out an empire there. But, abandon me, and you'll live in ruins. So, give it to me, your trust. At last.

Alexander VI: From now on, you have it!

Cesare Borgia: And your forgiveness, for my sins.

Alexander VI: Ego te absolvo.

Alexander VI: Previously on The Borgias...

Lucrezia Borgia: You are the joy of my life.

Alfonso d'Aragona: You know that I know that that isn't true. How long can we last like this? Rumour has it that there are three in this marriage, not two!

Cesare Borgia: Do not provoke me, my lord.

Lucrezia Borgia: He could cause public scandal, if he... intimates any impropriety between us.

Cesare Borgia: We are family; we love each other. Where is the scandal?

Catherina Sforza: I would confound this pope.

Rufio: More than you have already?

Catherina Sforza: I have the arms, the cannon, and the castle. This is our moment.

Cesare Borgia: Catherina Sforza plots with Naples. She reinforces her stronghold. She requisitions cannon. She will soon be impregnable. You are charged with my sister's protection. I would know where she is, where her husband is at every hour of every day.

Lucrezia Borgia: I was prisoner in Naples. And now I'm prisoner in Rome.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Cesare Borgia comes and goes like a ghost in the night.

Alexander VI: You know he has the French King in his pocket and the French army at his beck and call, and nobody knows what he's going to do next.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: You hate him, don't you? I love my hide more than I hate him.

Cesare Borgia: Let this be a lesson to those who would betray me. As Catherina Sforza gathers allies to her daily, the end game will be war. Give me command! We share the same aims, Father.

Alexander VI: But what are your aims? You do not share them with us!

Cesare Borgia: If we weaken now, they destroy us. I will carve you out an empire. Trust me.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Rome is no longer the Borgia Pope alone. Rome is Cesare Borgia also.

Niccolo Machiavelli: I have no servants when here in Rome, my lord. Florence can no longer afford them.

Cesare Borgia: Ah, democracy, Senor Machiavelli.

Niccolo Machiavelli: They say it has its merits. What would you say is the perfect crime, my lord?

Cesare Borgia: The one without a victim?

Niccolo Machiavelli: Hm. The one without a suspect. And I have often thought that whoever killed your brother remained unsuspected- but made a suspect of everybody. Such a one has committed the perfect crime. And such a one may, one day, make the perfect prince.

Cesare Borgia: How can one be a prince without a principality?

Niccolo Machiavelli: One cannot. Which is why, I presume, you came to talk to me of Forli.

Cesare Borgia: If Rome moves on Forli, what would Florence do?

Niccolo Machiavelli: You know well what Florence will do. What we always do. Nothing.

Cesare Borgia: We must cross the borders of Florence to get there.

Niccolo Machiavelli: Do so then at night. But armies make noise.

Cesare Borgia: I'll make sure they move quietly. No disturbance, no pillage.

Niccolo Machiavelli: Two armies I have heard. Double the noise.

Cesare Borgia: Can you keep a secret? The French Army is already there in the Romagna forests. Well beyond Florentine borders.

Cesare Borgia: I will send the papal army ahead of me under cover of night.

Alexander VI: What, no grand departure? No cheering crowd?

Cesare Borgia: No, nothing like that. And it is better if you know nothing of my progress. I will have them at the borders of Florence before Florence awakes.

Alexander VI: Well, we cannot justify to the Florentine ambassador-

Cesare Borgia: You will not have to. I have his assurance we can skirt their territories and move on.

Alexander VI: Hm, well, as Socrates said, "True wisdom is knowing that you know nothing."

Cesare Borgia: I will carve you out an empire, Father.

Alexander VI: But who will rule it after we are gone, huh? All this rancour, this discord. Votes in conclave bought and sold. Families and factions, blade against blade. Would it not be simpler just to hand on the keys of St. Peter's from father to son? Primogeniture. It's the simplest and most efficient transfer of power known to man.

Cesare Borgia: Like... like a monarchy.

Alexander VI: Hm... God's true kingdom, here on earth.

Cesare Borgia: Handed from father to son?

Alexander VI: Is God served well by the papal elections? Is the College of Cardinals mentioned in the gospels? No. That is the past. Primogeniture is the future. Simple, preordained.

Cesare Borgia: The world would not tolerate...

Alexander VI: Not yet. But... See, we have the power to make and unmake monarchies but we have no kingdom of our own. No, if you create for us a kingdom, we will write the book of our future. The future of the church, of the world we live in, will be ours- yours, and your children's. You say nothing?

Cesare Borgia: I am... stunned into silence.

Alexander VI: Why do you think we wished you a cardinal, hm? So you would be pope one day. Carve us out a kingdom, Cesare. And be both king and pope. Hm?

Cesare Borgia: You saw what happened to Colonna, so you know the rules.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: We knew them already, my lord.

Cesare Borgia: Good. Never presume that I will not act on my worst instincts. Or that it is not in your best interests to stay loyal to me. We have an army here. It is well stocked, powdered at last. It has generals. They imagine they rule. They don't. You rule. Armies act like locusts on the lands that they move through. You will prevent these armies from doing so. You will attack one citadel, and one citadel only. The citadel of Forli. And now my friends, meet your troops. What does this sword read?

Troops: Aut Caesar! Aut nihil!

Paolo Orsini: So, we are with him now.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: I would not be against him.

Cesare Borgia: What does this sword read?

Troops: Aut Caesar! Aut nihil!

Troops: Aut Caesar! Aut nihil!

Troops: Aut Caesar! Aut nihil!

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Either Cesare or nothing.

Lucrezia Borgia: We have shamed him, Brother.

Cesare Borgia: I have?

Lucrezia Borgia: In more ways than I can count. He knows. Somewhere he knows. Oh. Mm... Why is it your touch is the only one that soothes me? You have spent a lifetime pulling away from me. I am tired of that. I am tired of my husband. I am tired of life. The only thing that never tires me is you. Can you tell me why? Why... Why we're cursed with this feeling that feels so... natural... and good? Why, when we're together, God seems to sit in the room with us? And when you're away I manage to forget you... and then one touch of your hand and God comes rushing back.

Cesare Borgia: God or the Devil.

Lucrezia Borgia: Whatever it is, it overwhelms.

Cesare Borgia: I have to leave soon.

Lucrezia Borgia: Yes, I know. You have your army at last. You have castles to knock down. Will you think of me a little? And will you promise to protect yourself?

Cesare Borgia: What could console you, Sis?

Lucrezia Borgia: The one thing that could, I think, is another child. My husband seems only capable when he's in his cups... Oh! As he is now.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Ah, Brother.

Cesare Borgia: Alfonso.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Or is it Il Duce?

Cesare Borgia: That too.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Have you- have you met my shadows? They watch me drink, they watch me fuck!

Lucrezia Borgia: I had a brother who smelt like that.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Like what?

Lucrezia Borgia: Wine. Too much.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Ooh, but he died.

Lucrezia Borgia: Yes, of the same.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Of what?

Lucrezia Borgia: Indulgence! Stop, my love.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Can't you hear? His army's on the march. Can I join them?

Lucrezia Borgia: Alfonso!

Alfonso d'Aragona: Oh, no, I think we can all agree I'm useless here, but I can wield a sword.

Lucrezia Borgia: Put it down, my love.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I can even draw blood.

Cesare Borgia: Don't.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I'd welcome a challenge. A conquest of any kind. Am I hired then?

Cesare Borgia: When I return, I will consider a commission. Until then, rest your blade.

Captain: Steady on, men! Guards, to the battlements!

Soldier: Yes, Captain!

Captain: Hold your lines! Rear guard to the battlements!

Captain: Remain in cohorts! Hold the pennants high!

Captain: Keep formation at the front, there!

Cesare Borgia: Would that you could fight, Mother.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: I can scratch. Like a cat.

Cesare Borgia: I have lost my henchman. I miss his counsel.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: I could counsel if I cannot fight.

Cesare Borgia: He could read me like a book. He knew how to move, without a sentence, without a word.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Armies need whores, don't they? I used to be a whore.

Cesare Borgia: Don't.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: The truth hurts?

Cesare Borgia: You were a courtesan. I would not be the son of a whore.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: It made you what you are.

Cesare Borgia: So we came from nothing.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Not if your father has his way.

Cesare Borgia: He has ambitions. More than even I could have dreamed.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Tell me.

Cesare Borgia: I can't. I fear to even think of them.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Fear? You? I haven't heard that before.

Cesare Borgia: I have many fears. Most of all about Lucrezia. Keep her safe.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: She can hardly move with the guard that minds her.

Cesare Borgia: It minds her husband.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: You don't trust him?

Cesare Borgia: To keep her out of harm's way? No, I don't trust him. Rome is about to change, Mother.

Vanozza dei Cattanei: Not again.

Guard: Rider! Open the gates!

Catherina Sforza: Tell me.

Rufio: What do you think? It's begun. His army marching at night from Rome.

Catherina Sforza: Ten days away.

Rufio: You can count; good, you will need to. They are in their thousands, equipped for a siege.

Catherina Sforza: Well, we have ten days at least to prepare.

Catherina Sforza: Our plan, unless someone has a better one... is to stock up on enough supplies to outlast any siege. I want every ounce of grain, all poultry, livestock brought to the city.

Lookout: Captain! There's movement!

Lookout: There!

Lookout: General! Look!

Catherina Sforza: I want to cut all the forests around Forli, every tree, every bush, every hiding place. I want an open plain below these battlements, a clear field of fire where everything that moves is a target. Dig trenches along these borders- here, here, and here- with a covering of wattle, and ditches, dykes, sharpened spikes below.

Rufio: My lady!

Catherina Sforza: We will engage the enemy on their approach, draw them toward the trenches -

Rufio: My lady, forgive me but -

Catherina Sforza: -our cavalry leap the trenches, draws their infantry in-

Rufio: My lady, you must -

Catherina Sforza: And their cannon cannot cross. What is it?

Rufio: You must see this!

Catherina Sforza: Can't it wait?

Rufio: No. Cesare Borgia does not wait.

Guard: Close the gates! The gates! Quickly! To arms!

Catherina Sforza: You saw his army leave Rome - ten days away.

Rufio: He had a second army from France that he managed to hide somewhere, somehow.

Catherina Sforza: God. We're under siege. We're under siege already, and winter is coming.

Alexander VI: Go on.

Alessandro Farnese: But as Christian merchants, they must also contribute a tithe to the church.

Alexander VI: Uh-huh.

Alessandro Farnese: They have heard rumours that...

Ascanio Sforza: The siege at Forli has begun.

Alexander VI: Oh, well, that's a surprise. The papal armies have barely left Rome.

Ascanio Sforza: Your son hides armies the way a juggler hides carnations. The forests at Forli are sprouting cannon as we speak.

Alexander VI: Oh.

Ascanio Sforza: The Venetian ambassador demands an audience, as do the ambassadors of Umbria, Ferrara, Bologna, and the Holy Roman Empire. It's gonna be a busy morning, Your Holiness.

Alexander VI: Get them to address their questions to our son, the Gonfaloniere of the papal armies, Duke Valentino.

Ascanio Sforza: And where might we find him?

Alexander VI: Well, with his armies, we presume. Wherever they may be.

Alexander VI: You have raised a hornets' nest, and it's not yet noon.

Cesare Borgia: Good. Let surprise be our secret weapon.

Alexander VI: One army in place, another one lumbering along in full public view. We would have appreciated being told.

Cesare Borgia: Is it better to know or not to know when you must plead ignorance?

Alexander VI: Well, we would rather speak the truth, if truth be told.

Cesare Borgia: Then I must leave you in ignorance.

Alexander VI: There will be a price to pay for your French involvement.

Cesare Borgia: Naples. The French ambassador will be seeking an audience.

Alexander VI: Oh, well, we would happily send Naples to the dogs if your sister could be spared any further discomfiture.

Cesare Borgia: I wasn't here.

Alexander VI: What?

Cesare Borgia: You haven't seen me-

Alexander VI: Oh, oh -

Cesare Borgia: -or spoken to me.

Alexander VI: Oh, no. We address an empty bed. We had never realized it would provide such sport. So, remain invisible. To everyone but us.

Captain: Papal guard, forward. Steady...

Soldier: Rider!

Soldier: Make way!

Soldier: The Gonfaloniere!

Cesare Borgia: Tell me your worst.

Niccolo Machiavelli: Florence was so surprised by your siege at Forli, she hardly notices the army moving past her hinterland.

Cesare Borgia: Hm. Can I impose on you once more, then?

Niccolo Machiavelli: Does it involve the security of my homeland?

Cesare Borgia: Perhaps. King Louis of France is at present in Milan.

Niccolo Machiavelli: And he will not long remain there.

Cesare Borgia: No, he wants his beloved Naples back.

Niccolo Machiavelli: And how can I be of help with such a terrifying prospect?

Cesare Borgia: You could advise him - that once I have taken Forli, I will deal with Naples. My sister Lucrezia will act as his regent and will rule it in his name.

Niccolo Machiavelli: Does your sister know of her intended destiny?

Cesare Borgia: She is the most capable person I know.

Niccolo Machiavelli: And her husband. Will he have a role to play? I shouldn't have asked that, should I?

Captain: Hold your positions!

Captain: Positions!

Captain: Hold your positions!

Overseer: I need more men!

Cesare Borgia: Vitelli! Why the need for siege towers? Don't you trust your cannon?

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Those walls are 12 feet thick. They've never yet been breached. So we may need other options.

Rufio: You must eat, my lady.

Catherina Sforza: What is on offer? Trapped pigeon? Boiled rat?

Rufio: The usual broth... of whatever remains.

Catherina Sforza: What if this is the end?

Rufio: I cannot believe you say that.

Catherina Sforza: I've lost my son. My people starve. And freeze.

Rufio: Something will come.

Catherina Sforza: Some deus ex machina?

Rufio: Mm. And you've no option but to fight. You've nothing to negotiate with.

Catherina Sforza: My body? It is no longer young. But it teased him once.

Rufio: Hm. I have heard the rumours.

Catherina Sforza: My legend?

Rufio: You cannot negotiate with that.

Catherina Sforza: No. No... And my legend demands I go down in flames, or die on some blade. Or live... in triumph. But I do not see a triumphant outcome unless I am missing something. Am I?

Rufio: It is not yet the end.

Catherina Sforza: No. No, these walls are 12 foot thick. No cannon can fell them. So our choice is to starve... slowly... or surrender. And I will never surrender. Promise me one thing. Here. Whatever happens, do not let him take me alive.

Rufio: I will do my utmost.

Catherina Sforza: And if you survive, you should consider your future.

Rufio: What future?

Catherina Sforza: Hm. Cesare Borgia. He may be the future.

Cesare Borgia: Micheletto. Where have you been?

Micheletto: Talking to God.

Cesare Borgia: And what did He say?

Micheletto: Nothing.

Cesare Borgia: So you're with me once more?

Micheletto: You can batter those walls for weeks. You'll have no effect.

Cesare Borgia: You just came to tell me that?

Micheletto: I was born in Forli, do you forget? Come. There is an old Roman quarry that runs beneath the north tower, next to the gate. If you measure your distance, triangulate a path, put down a marker above. Bombard that spot. That tower will fall.

Cesare Borgia: You can't just leave like that.

Micheletto: Who's to stop me? You? I'm dead. Follow the old river bed. There is some overhanging vines. You'll find an entrance. Goodbye, Cesare Borgia.

Overseer: What is this place?

Cesare Borgia: It's an old Roman quarry. So... if my informant is right, the north tower is above us. And the gates are there.

Overseer: And if he's wrong?

Cesare Borgia: Well, if he's wrong, he's wrong. Let's assume he's right. How do we measure it?

Overseer: We would have to pace it out, figure out north by northwest. And then triangulate.

Cesare Borgia: Let's get to work then.

Overseer: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight...

Overseer: This can work but we have to be exact. It's 248 steps-

Cesare Borgia: Northwest.

Overseer: Northwest. Exactly.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: It's never going to work.

Overseer: No, it can work! It can work.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: How can you be so sure?

Cesare Borgia: If you don't believe, just sit back and watch.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: I never thought I'd see you holding this.

Cesare Borgia: Not for long.

Captain: Here, my lady.

Overseer: Five, six, seven...

Catherina Sforza: Here.

Overseer: One hundred and twenty, twenty-one...

Catherina Sforza: I should kill you now!

Cesare Borgia: You can. But I bear a white flag. You could also talk...

Catherina Sforza: Not with a Borgia. I've had duplicity enough for a lifetime.

Cesare Borgia: I am not my brother, Catherina.

Catherina Sforza: No, you do not torture boys - you kill them.

Cesare Borgia: He was under arms. There are many - thousands - within these walls who are not.

Catherina Sforza: Ah. There are boundaries you draw.

Cesare Borgia: Don't you even want to hear my terms?

Catherina Sforza: I think I know them. But refresh my memory.

Cesare Borgia: Surrender - you, your arms, your castle - and I will spare the populace.

Catherina Sforza: As I told your dead brother, I will never bow to the whoremaster of Rome.

Captain: Shields!

Captain: Back!

Captain: To the line!

Captain: Get out of range!

Captain: Out of range!

Captain: Come on!

Captain: Ready ranks!

Captain: Open the line!

Captain: Open!

Overseer: My lord.

Cesare Borgia: Did I pace it right?

Overseer: I counted; 248.

Cesare Borgia: And the direction?

Overseer: I checked. Northwest.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Let me be clear on this. You want to strike the ground beneath the wall, not the wall itself.

Cesare Borgia: The white flag.

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Be prepared for laughter. Derision.

Cesare Borgia: I'd welcome it.

Captain: Preparez les cannon!

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Load it up! Aim... Fire!

Captain: Fire!

Soldier: Ah, it's too short.

Soldier: Out of range.

Captain: Change the range!

Soldier: It's target practice!

Soldier: Couldn't even hit that!

Cesare Borgia: Once more!

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Reload! Fire!

Soldier: Well done!

Soldier: Bulls-eye!

Soldier: Give him a prize!

Captain: En guard!

Captain: Preparez!

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Reload! Fire! Again, again!

Captain: Again!

Vitellozzo Vitelli: Fire! Again!

Captain: Fire!

Captain: Faster! Light it up! Fire!

Captain: Reload!

Captain: Reload!

Captain: Fire!

Soldier: What's happened?

Soldier: Captain, we're moving!

Soldier: Take a look!

Soldier: What's that sound?

Soldier: I don't know!

Captain: Get back!

Captain: Move! All of you!

Overseer: The wall is down!

Cesare Borgia: Oh ye of little faith. Get the armies in line. Now it begins.

Captain: Form up! Prepare the attack!

Captain: En formation!

Captain: Present arms!

Captain: Arms!

Captain: NOW!

Captain: Present arms!

Cesare Borgia: Charge!

Captain: Attack!

Captain: Attack!

Soldier: Ride them down!

Man: Come along, hurry!

Soldier: Attack!

Cesare Borgia: Stop! Stop!

Soldier: Slow down! Halt!

Cesare Borgia: Stop!

Soldier: Hold your arms!

Cesare Borgia: Stop! I don't want a massacre.

Catherina Sforza: You want me? You want me? Have me. Blow me into a thousand pieces! Come on, aim your bows, every one of them. I want to sprout a hundred arrows. Like a porcupine!

Cesare Borgia: Aim for the rope.

Catherina Sforza: Come on!

Cesare Borgia: You can have your life, Catherina.

Catherina Sforza: No... but I don't want it anymore. Come on, give me a legendary death. Does it take a Catherina Sforza to kill a Catherina Sforza? Damn you, Spanish half-breed!

Cesare Borgia: You will live. I insist.

Catherina Sforza: Why?

Cesare Borgia: Because I want you to.

Cesare Borgia: The key.

Catherina Sforza: I should have stabbed you on this bed.

Cesare Borgia: We both know that. But you didn't.

Catherina Sforza: Ow. Do not touch my dresses!

Cesare Borgia: Forgive me. But I would not have you seen in public like... that.

Catherina Sforza: Why do you care?

Cesare Borgia: I have tamed a legend. The Tigress of Forli. I would have you dress to the occasion. Yellow and black. Tiger stripes.

Captain: Forward!

Cesare Borgia: Make her a cage. A golden one. Line it with ermine and black satin like a hearse. Have it pulled by liveried, feathered horses. I want her entry to Rome to be spectacular. We have captured a legend. She should be seen as one.

Gian Paolo Baglioni: And then?

Cesare Borgia: I will prepare premises in the Castel St. Angelo. Her prison can become her castle; she deserves nothing less. She had an assassin, didn't she?

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Rufio.

Cesare Borgia: A master of the art of death. Is he among this sorry lot?

Gian Paolo Baglioni: Yes.

Cesare Borgia: Then see this Rufio is sent to Rome as well.

Cesare Borgia: Come, but don't claw me.

Catherina Sforza: I have no claws left.

Cesare Borgia: Then take my hand. No. Take my arm.

Catherina Sforza: This is my wake, not my wedding.

Cesare Borgia: Still, take it.

Catherina Sforza: Why?

Cesare Borgia: You took it once.

Roberto Orsini: My lady.

Man: Welcome to Rome!

Man: Good day, my lady!

Alexander VI: Would it not have been simpler, my lady, to have come of your own free will?

Catherina Sforza: I'm sure in the end it would've been the same.

Alexander VI: Hm.

Catherina Sforza: Am I to be put to the rack?

Alexander VI: No. We have rooms prepared for you above. Fit for your station. With a beautiful view of St. Peters.

Catherina Sforza: Don't be so rash, Your Holiness.

Alexander VI: Hm.

Catherina Sforza: I still have teeth.

Alexander VI: Hm.

Cesare Borgia: Release him from the wall. Have they abused you, Rufio? I had a man like you once. Capable of any task. Beyond virtue. Beyond good and evil. Beyond everything but loyalty.

Lucrezia Borgia: I asked you to meet me in confession, Father.

Alexander VI: Because you have sinned.

Lucrezia Borgia: No, because it is the only place I cannot be overheard. My brother has his spies everywhere.

Rufio: Should I put myself forward?

Cesare Borgia: You seem unbreakable. I like that.

Rufio: Is this an offer of employment?

Cesare Borgia: I could set you a task, see how you perform.

Rufio: Tell me.

Lucrezia Borgia: I've been a bad wife.

Alexander VI: You have strayed?

Lucrezia Borgia: As I said, Father, this confession is false. As everything around us is false. But I asked you here to meet with me to tell me privately just one true thing.

Cesare Borgia: I need someone done away with. In such a way that suspicion can never rest on me, my family, anyone to do with me.

Rufio: Do you have a name?

Lucrezia Borgia: It is rumoured that Cesare has designs on Naples. I know that you have had some dealings with the French King. If all of this is true, then my husband is as good as dead.

Cesare Borgia: Alfonso of Naples, Prince of Bisceglie.

Rufio: Husband to your sister.

Cesare Borgia: Yes.

Rufio: And you want to use me. That's clever. And if I'm caught at the task?

Cesare Borgia: Will you be?

Rufio: What do you think?

Alexander VI: You should not listen to rumour.

Lucrezia Borgia: I have no other confidante. And this is a simple inquiry from a daughter to a father... who once believed that she was close to his heart.

Alexander VI: There is no one closer-

Lucrezia Borgia: Oh, don't lie to me, Father. Now that your ambition is at one with my brother's, then that ambition is multiplied tenfold. So I ask again about Naples. That silence is my answer.

Cesare Borgia: Time to go home.

Guard: My lord.

Cesare Borgia: Lucrezia? Lucrezia! Lucrezia! Lucrezia!

Alfonso d'Aragona: She's indisposed.

Cesare Borgia: Alfonso. I told her I would be coming here tonight.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Come to release us? Is that it? To release me, finally.

Cesare Borgia: Yes. Yes, you're free to go.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Free?

Cesare Borgia: The city is yours.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Without shadow?

Cesare Borgia: Go wherever you want-alone.

Alfonso d'Aragona: The way your brother went?

Cesare Borgia: I warn you.

Alfonso d'Aragona: An anonymous blade, a splash in the Tiber- or was the blade your own?

Cesare Borgia: Brother!

Alfonso d'Aragona: Prince to you, not brother! Husband to your sister!

Cesare Borgia: Enough!

Alfonso d'Aragona: Of course you love your sister!

Cesare Borgia: Too much. Stop!

Alfonso d'Aragona: Oh God! Oh God!

Lucrezia Borgia: No!

Cesare Borgia: No.

Lucrezia Borgia: No!

Cesare Borgia: It's not what you think.

Lucrezia Borgia: No! Brother, no! No! No!

Cesare Borgia: He challenged me.

Lucrezia Borgia: No!

Cesare Borgia: He tried to run me through and he fell onto my blade.

Lucrezia Borgia: No! Let me go! Call a medic! Call a medic! No! No! Go!

Alfonso d'Aragona: He's killed me... He has killed me, love.

Lucrezia Borgia: No. No.

Alfonso d'Aragona: He has killed me- just as you both wanted.

Lucrezia Borgia: No.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I should never... I should have never loved you... I should have never loved you... I should have never loved you...

Alfonso d'Aragona: I can't feel my hands! My side's burning! Give me something - Give me something - anything!

Lucrezia Borgia: Sh, sh.

Medic: Chew on this - chew, chew!

Lucrezia Borgia: Okay, my love. For the pain! For the pain. Hold still. Hold for a moment.

Cesare Borgia: Wait here, I may yet need a professional.

Lucrezia Borgia: Stay still.

Cesare Borgia: What can you do?

Medic: Nothing. Let it run its course. It could take days.

Lucrezia Borgia: Ah, my love.

Cesare Borgia: Leave him with his family then.

Alfonso d'Aragona: I know you have the means to end this agony. So if you ever loved me, you'll do me this one last favour.

Cesare Borgia: I cannot.

Alfonso d'Aragona: Yes, you can! You're a Borgia.

Lucrezia Borgia: Is that all I am now, Brother? A Borgia.

Cesare Borgia: A professional.

Cesare Borgia: Lucrezia? Lucrezia. Lucrezia!

Lucrezia Borgia: I will never wash this blood away.

Cesare Borgia: Then I must. You will be naked... and clean... and bloodless again. And mine.