`Five thousand florins!' he snapped. `Ten thousand.'

`Seven thousand.' `Ten Thousand.'

`You guarantee that I will be rid of him?'

`As always, dear man, that is our understanding. If I fail to provide what you wanted to buy, then I cannot charge you for, it.'

`We are not talking about money any more. Will you pluck Ladislas off my back?'

`I have a double incentive now, haven't I? You should have thought of this much sooner.'

45

The marchesa held an open safe conduct to Perugia from King Ladislas of Naples which Rosa had obtained during, the time in which Spina had been Gregory's ambassador to the Neapolitan court. She rode in among her bodyguard through Perugia's north gate, beside my own bulky, white-bearded civilian presence – not on that day in my capacity as a member of the sacred college of cardinals – to her villa on the outskirts of the city. As we travelled„ I took occasion to ask her why she had requested me for the journey – that is, I could understand why she would feel, that she needed me, but why as a civilian? Why not as a cardinal?

'Because you are a superb actor, Franco Ellera,' she said. `And, being such a distinguished man yourself, it is all, the better for our plan that you play the part of a distinguished man…' I understood her.

After two days of resting she sent a note to the local physician, Dott. Ezio Bazoni. `Dear Master,' the letter said. `For a short time, it will be my privilege to entertain as guest at my house the celebrated Jean-Marie de Valhubert, physician to the King of France and to the Duke of Burgundy, as well as being Chancellor of the Department of Medicine at the University of Paris. While in Perugia, he has expressed the wish to meet you, hoping to exchange views with you upon the state of the arts of medicine, so I intrude upon your busy life, to invite you and your daughter Elvira to dine with us in two days' time. I remain, your votary, Decima di Artegiana.'

`Esteemed Marchesa,' Dott. Bazoni replied. `The reputation of Jean Marie Valhubert is esteemed throughout Europe. I am overwhelmed with honour that he should wish to exchange views with me. Although my daughter devoutly hopes to be able to attend you at dinner in two days' time, her duties at the court may prevent this. Your faithful servant who kisses your hand, Ezio Bazoni.'

`It will be useless to have him here without her,' the marchesa said to me.

'Perhaps -if you would explain what we are doing?' `Who is Cossa's worst enemy?'

`Cossa, I suppose.'

`No, no – who beside himself?'

`Ladislas?'

`Yes. And the daughter of this man,' she held up Bazoni's note, `is Ladislas's lover. Through her, we will, remove Ladislas as Cossa's enemy.

'Remove?'

She shrugged. `We do it for Cossa's papacy and to ensure the possibility of the Council of Konstanz.',

'Why do you keep saying we? This is: the first I've heard about it.'

`You have a small part to play. Surely you would do that to help your friend.' The girl will do everything, actually.'

Elvira Bazoni came to dinner at the Villa di Artegiana with her lather. She was a tiny, full-bosomed and wondrously stupid woman of sixteen, whose masses of dense curls were grape-red. She resembled Ladislas in other ways. She had crafty eyes, sharp elbows and an astonishing basso voice. Her father had impressed her with the fame of the great physician Jean-Marie Valhubert, even though he had never heard of the man. Dott. Bazoni considered that omission to bet normal enough thing for a man who had left Perugia only twice in his life. The marchesa, who knew everyone and everything, had told him who Valhubert was, and if the marchesa. said it that was enough to make Dott. Bazoni drunk on Valhubert's reputation.

As the royal physician, I was grave and not forthcoming. I refused to speak of medicine at first but gradually, as the marchesa drew, me out about my travels and my practices, it was revealed that the circumstances of contemporary life had forced me into pre-eminence for the treatment of the pox. As I told the Bazoni of treating Pope Benedict, the Doge of Venice and the Duke of Burgundy for the pox, Elvira Bazoni became thoughtful and more attentive. Dott. Bazoni became distracted. Immediately after dinner, the Bazoni apologized that they must leave at once because they were expected at the palace to attend the king.

`Four days in Perugia, one quick dinner,' I said. `If we've been assassinating Ladislas, it is certainly a long, slow death for.him.'

`You were marvellous,' the marchesa told him. `One more hour tonight and I would have placed the health of my family in your hands.'

`But what are we doing?'

`Ladislas has the pox. He has given it to the girl. Her father is treating both of them. You are Valhubert, the great healer of the pox. They'll be back.'

Elvira Bazoni arrived in a curtained chair carried by two men late in the afternoon, the next day. She asked to see Monsieur Valhubert. She was veiled. The servant took her to Valhubert's apartment. As the great physician, I was surprised to see her. Words came out of Elvira like boulders crashing down a mountainside. `No one knows it, maestro, but I am affianced to the King of Naples. There has never been such a whirlwind courtship. He loves me as I love him. Nothing else matters to either of us. But he is sick. He never knew what or who he had been seeking until we found each other: But in his seeking, before we found each other, in the innocence of his need to find me, he came upon an unclean person. You understand me. It is your holy profession. He caught the pox from that person. But he will not acknowledge it because that would mean acknowledging that it has been passed to me. He cannot bring himself to admit such a terrible thing. Suddenly; without warning, as if you had been sent by God and the angels, you have come to Perugia at the brief moment when he is here. Only you can save him, as you have saved those others. The pox is rotting away the insides of both of us, but he cannot admit that he could ever have been unfaithful to me before he met me. He will not discuss it with my father – a doctor, as you know. You must cure him, my lord. I want to give him healthy children. Please help us, my lord.'

As the great doctor, I walked to the high open windows and stared out at the fountain playing in the patio. I dropped my voice an octave to increase its awful authority and, running my hand through my beard, I said, `I will help you. I will discuss the treatment with your father. He will give the medicine to you. You must find a way to give it to the king.'

She took up my hand and kissed it, covering it with her grateful tears.

Dott. Bazoni came to me that evening. He said, `We will never know how to thank you, my lord.'

`Dear colleague,' I answered him. `They are the victims of their lives. How could I not do anything I can?' I went to my baggage and rummaged about in a small case. I brought a vial to Bazoni. `They are not the first to deny having the pox. This potion will paralyse the guilt which lets the king deny the truth. If he refuses direct treatment, then science has to find ways to persuade him to be treated. Your daughter must, put this into his wine and make certain he drinks it. Make certain – absolutely certain – that she understands that there is only enough here to effect one, cure. The king must have all of it.'

But my daughter her own treatment.'

'Ah, but she needs no persuasion. She wants sound children. You shall treat her as you will treat him after this medicine has persuaded him that he must be treated.'

`I see, I see. Yes. But how can we ever thank you?'' By serving science,' I said.

The marchesa and I with our escort, departed from Perugia that night within an hour after Dott. Bazoni had left the villa. By evening Elvira Bazoni was dead from the poison and her father had killed himself by opening his veins. A hammock and a chair were prepared for the dying Ladislas. He was carried from Perugia to Rome, to the church of St Paul outside the city walls, thence to the river beside it, and placed upon a racing galley which sped to Naples. He died on 6 August 1414. Cosimo di Medici, the seekers for the reform of the Church and Pope John XXIII were freed of an enemy. I had made it possible for my friend to go forward to Konstanz with his back protected, and the Marchesa di Artegiana was richer by 20,000 florins, including her fee from the grateful Medici bank…