"
Cosimo braced himself for a last effort. "Do you defy the Pope?" he
thundered.
"If necessary," was the answer. "I have done so all my life."
Cosimo turned to Gonzaga. "It is not I who have branded this memorial
false," he said, "but the Holy Father himself."
"The Emperor," said my father, "may opine that in this matter the Holy
Father has been deluded by liars. There are other witnesses. There is
myself, for one. This memorial contains nothing but what was imparted to
me by the Lord of Pagliano on his death-bed, in the presence of his
confessor."
"We cannot admit the confessor," Gonzaga thrust in.
"Give me leave, your excellency. It was not in his quality as confessor
that Fra Gervasio heard the dying man depone. Cavalcanti's confession
followed upon that. And there was in addition present the seneschal of
Pagliano who is present here. Sufficient to establish this memorial alike
before the Imperial and the Pontifical Courts.
"And I swear to God, as I stand here in His sight," he continued in a
ringing voice, "that every word there set down is as spoken by Ettore
Cavalcanti, Lord of Pagliano, some hours before he died; and so will those
others swear. And I charge your excellency, as Caesar's vicegerent, to
accept that memorial as an indictment of that caitiff Cosimo d'Anguissola,
who lent himself to so foul and sacrilegious a deed--for it involved the
defilement of the Sacrament of Marriage.
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