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THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



al other members of the royal family. 

 It appeared that he was an agent of 

 Charles the Bad, King of Navarre, who 

 had given full and detailed instruc- 

 tions as to how to proceed. The latter 

 described to him a white powder, arseni- 

 cum sublimatum, which could be 

 bought at the apothecary shops in 

 Pampeluna, Bordeaux, Bayonne,' and 

 all the large towns through which he 

 would pass. "If a man eats of it a piece 

 as large as a pea he will never live. Take 

 it and put it into their soups, wine, or 

 meat, whenever it can be done in safety. ' ' 

 Fortunately the plot was detected before 

 any harm was done, and the minstrel was 

 duly executed after horrible punishment. 

 From the early middle ages up to 

 the end of the last century, poisoning 

 as a fine art seems to have centered itself 

 in Italy, and, indeed, we find it constantly 

 referred to in the contemporary literature 

 of all countries, as distinctly an Italian 

 accomplishment. It rose to its heighth 

 in the 15th and early in the 16th centuries, 

 largely under the fostering care of the 

 famous Borgia family. The head of the 

 family was Alexander VI, born in 1431, 

 and elected Pope in 1492, a fierce, licen- 

 tious old man, magnificent in his intel- 

 lect and his vices, who devastated all cen- 

 tral Italy to gain power and estates for 

 himself and his family. His favorite son 

 Caesar was a worthy descendant. A re- 

 port of Capello to the Venetian Senate, 

 A. D. 1500, describes him in the quaint, 

 old Italian, as loved but greatly dreaded 

 by his father, remarkably handsome, 

 very tall and well made, able to strike 

 off the head of a wild bull with one 

 blow, while righting on horseback. But 

 it also tells of how he murdered his own 

 brother, throwing his body into the 

 Tiber; how he stabbed a favorite of his 

 father under his very mantle, that so the 

 blood splashed in the face of the Pope, 

 and finally says that "All Rome trembles 



at the said duke, fearing to be assassinated 

 by him." 



Although the Borgias were, as thus 

 described, perfectly ready to carry out 

 their vengeance freely, either with their 

 own hands or through bravos, they also 

 devoted much and close attention to the 

 art ol secret poisoning. Some of the stories 

 are doubtless exaggerated, as for instance, 

 those about the poisoned gloves, and 

 poisoned fans, or the poisoned candles and 

 torches whose fumes, when inhaled, 

 meant death. But they had, undoubtedly, 

 not only learned the art of mixing tasteless 

 and soluble poisons in the food, but also of 

 applying poisons in new and ingenious 

 ways. We read, and the stories seem to 

 be authentic, of keys to doors and closets, 

 with hidden and envenomed points, and 

 of rings which, on clasping the hand in a 

 particular manner, would inflict deadly 

 scratches. The 'death grasp of the 

 Borgia' became a by-word in Rome at the 

 time; and, while the poisons usually 

 employed were probably some form of 

 arsenic, these latter stories lead us to 

 suspect the use of some bacterial poisons, 

 from the resemblance of some of the symp- 

 toms to those of blood poisoning. 



An interesting account is given by a 

 contemporary Venetian historian, Mar- 

 ino Sanuto, of the death of Alexander VI, 

 in his seventy-second year, while still in 

 the full vigor of his strength and wicked- 

 ness. One of his richest Cardinals, 

 Adrian da Cornuto, received word that the 

 Pope, with his son Caesar, intended to 

 come and take supper with him at his 

 vineyard, bringing the food with him. 

 The Cardinal at once suspected that this 

 was a plot laid against himself, and 

 happening to know the Pope's butler, he 

 had him brought to him, and, with the 

 aid of enormous bribes, learned that after 

 supper three caskets of sweetmeats 

 would be brought on the table, and that 

 the one set before him would be poisoned. 



