Excerpt from Foreign Quarterly Review, Vol. 26 Alexander, says-ranke, thus saw hislwarmest wishes fulfilled, the barons of the land annihilated, and his house about to found a great hereditary power in Italy. But already be had begun to feel of what excesses hot and unbridled passions are capable. Caesar would share his powe1 neither with kinsman nor favourite. He had caused his brother, who stood in his way, to be muidered and th1own into the tibe1.his brother -ia law was attacked, and stabbed on the steps of the palace by his 01 ders. The wounded man was nu1sed by his wife and siste1s the sister cooked his food, in order to secure him from poison, and the pope set a guard before his house, to protect his son-in-law from his son; pre cautions which Caesar derided. He said, What is not done by noon may be done by evening. When the prince was recovering from his wounds, Caesar burst into his chamber, drove out the wife and sister, called an executioner, and ordered the unfortunate prince to be strangled. He used his father as a means to power, otherwise he was utterly te gardless of him. He killed Peroti, Alexander's favourite, while clinging to his patron, and sheltered by the pontifical mantle, the pope's face was sprinkled with his blood. There was a moment at which Rome and the papal states were in C&sar's power. He was a man of the greatest per sonal beauty; so strong, that at a bull fight he cleft the head of the hull with one stroke; liberal, and not without traits of magnanimity, but voluptuous and sanguinary. Rome trembled at his name. Caesar wanted money and had enemies; every night murdered bodies were found in the streets. Men lived in seclusion and silence; there was none that did not fear that his turn would come. T hose whom force could not reach were taken off by poison. There was one point 011 earth where such a state of things was possible, namely, at which the plenitude of secula1 power was united to the supieme spiritual jmisdiction. This point was occupied by Caesar. The1e IS a pe1fection even in depravity. Many of the sons and nephews of popes attempted similar things, but none ever approached Caesar' 3 bad en11nence. He was a Virtuoso zn Crzme. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.