Sigismund made the most of it: He took off his crown and threw himself at the pontiff's feet, kissed them tenderly and thanked him again and again for what he had done for the Holy Church. A Te Deum Laudamus was sung. All the church bells in the city broke out into peals of joyous music. The congregation was in tears and everyone believed that, at last, the great schism was about to be ended.
Cossa was urged to appoint Sigismund and certain cardinals as his proctors to carry through the abdication: He was supported by the Italian nation when he refused this. His refusal sent Sigismund into such a rage that he ordered the lake and city gates to be heavily guarded night and day to prevent anyone from leaving Konstanz. `He is toying with us,' Sigismund ranted. `He has no intention of keeping his word.'
The next day he called a congregation to introduce the need for an immediate conclave to meet and elect a new pope for the Church, proclaiming in the most pointed way that he no longer considered Cossa to be pope. John of Nassau arose in wrath and shouted that, unless John XXIII were re-elected he would recognize no pope, but his worldly character matched the reputation of the Holy Father and lent no weight to the process. At a meeting of the council the following day, Bishop Buckley, speaking for the English nation, demanded, in the presence of the King of the Romans, that Cossa be arrested and imprisoned and, were, it not for the instinctive and implacable opposition of the French, this would have happened.
That night, on Cossa's orders, I brought the Duke of Austria secretly to the papal palace. Frederick was, a tall, fat, florid man of Twenty years still young enough to believe that life, was an adventure and that intrigues brought power, He had readily made a lucrative deal with Cossa. The time had come for him to deliver,
`I want to speak to you in an entirely tentative way,' the Holy Father said gently. `We must be prepared at all times, even though we may never need to carry out our plans. But that is what leadership is, isn't it, my son?'
`You were twice the commander I could ever be, Holiness. I would give my, life to learn from you in all things.'
`I bless you for that. First, I'd like you to get me a boat with a sail and keep it moored in readiness at Steckhorn – that's about five miles down the river from Ermatingen, they tell me just past the Gottlieben castle on the Rhine.'
`Oh, I know Steckhorn, Holy Father. Steckhorn is in my dominion.'
Ah. Yes.'
`Are you really thinking of escape, Holiness?'
`I cannot conceive that it could be necessary.' He paused and gazed sadly at the young man. `Although, if the English are able to dominate the council with their threats to burn me, I should have to try to escape then.'
Should such a monstrous thing take place, you will ride out of this travesty at the centre of my two thousand horse.'
'My Cardinal Ellera lives by one rule,' the pontiff said. "If you're always ready, you're always glad," he says.'
`Yes. I see. By all means
`If you will be ready, my son; Cossa said, `all Christendom will be glad.'
When the fat young duke had gone, I brought Cossa a large parchment page. `This is what they are circulating throughout the nations today' I said
Cossa examined the page without reading it. 'A fairly expensive job of scrollwork, I would say. How many copies?
`Dozens. These things are nailed to the doors of every nation's meeting place. And every officer has one.'
`Then someone has been working on this little move for weeks. Someone with money to burn. What does it say?'
'Say? Oh, it merely accuses you of every mortal or abominable sin in the book and demands a public inquiry into your character.'
'Sins? It is only because those glossy rats in the council are so well informed on the subject that they are able to define every mortal and abominable sin in the book. How can they expect mercy?' What have they charged me with?'
`'Orgies, grand thefts and the commission of greater simonies than have ever been bled from Christendom.'
'As if I could top Boniface.'
`This is serious, Cossa. The misappropriation of Church funds is listed item by item.'
`Decima did this. It took money and inside information.' He covered his face, with his hands. `She must be taken out of my way. She will be here tonight. God give me strength.'
He knew that it was because this was the last time he would ever see her that she was more beautiful and charming than ever. But the exterior beauty, He could see, was there only to conceal the form of an ancient witch, long skilled in murder by poison and betrayal by lies. Her long, flame-coloured dress had sleeves buttoned to her wrists and a demurely high bodice. There were jewels in her hair. She was shining and womanly on the outside but a pit of horrors beneath. He must force himself to understand her as she truly was, I thought. He must see the truth of her and not be cheated by: her as she has cheated him throughout their time.
Now that he held all the keys to the cipher her conspiracy with Spina, her murder of Catherine Visconti and her husband, the betrayal by Cosimo, the circulation of the charges against him to the nations – he could admire what a fine actress she was. ‘How long, has she pretended with me?' he wondered. Did she ever love me? Was she ever my friend?
The marchesa had grown so accustomed to Cossa's taking her for granted as his closest adviser; and to his indifference to what was happening around him or what other people thought of him, that she was sure that he knew nothing about her many-level plots to bring him down. But she was also certain that, if he ever did know or found out, he would be the first to understand that it was only business which had set them against each other. She was even more fond of him now, at the brink of his overthrow, than she had been when they had been going up together. She knew, insofar as it could be measured, that, if she loved any man, she loved him. She had made Cosimo swear that whatever they or the council did to him – it could not be allowed to bring him any harm. Although she had persuaded Bishop Buckley to cry out twice that Cossa should be burned at the stake, that was merely a tactical position taken to force Cossa to make a wrong move and another way to harden opinion within the council. Cossa was her lover and, her friend, but the papacy was a business proposition.
The marchesa was fond of Cossa, but she worked for the Medici. The great, schism in the Church meant nothing to her or to them except that it was bad for business. It was a sad fact to her that Cossa was replaceable; he could have been ten other men. He was pope and he had used his power to move the Church's banking to her employer's bank. He had called the Council of Konstanz to expand and protect that banking. Life was business and business was money and power. When this council, was over, she was going to use her money and her power to have herself made a duchess.
They sat down to dinner. The marchesa served Cossa from a sideboard. They were alone.
`I've missed you, Cossa,' she said.
`We each have our duties,' he murmured.
`All this will be over soon.'
`Very soon.'
`Sigismund has behaved badly. At Lodi he swore to be your defender.'
`I can abide Sigismund. he is a bumpkin but I understand him. And, of course, he is an ambitious man.'
But he needs money, I said to me self that, if Cossa could lend him the money, a new agreement could be reached which would make a vast improvement to his manners.'
Cossa smiled. `Did you talk to him about it?'
‘Well, yes. Maria Louise mentioned it to him and he asked her to ask me to ask you for the money.’
‘You didn't actually speak to him' yourself?' `I did, actually.'