Buonamici had access to the Vatican at night, because of his job with Cardinal Barberini. Inside the walls of the holy fortress, it was possible for him to disguise himself as a Dominican, and thus make his way everywhere in the silent grounds, including through the hallways to Galileo’s room. From there, he could lead Cartophilus out and behind Saint Peter’s, where they could skulk in the shadows and visit any chamber they chose, if care was taken.

“They’re still in the Sele of the Congregation talking it over,” Buonamici said to Cartophilus in a low voice. “It’s gotten pretty vicious. The cardinals who are implacable are the Jesuits. Scaglia, Genetti, Gessi, and Verospi. They’re all Romans, and they don’t like Florentines.”

“And the Borgia?”

“He’s their leader, of course. But he’s gone to the Villa Belvedere to get some sleep.”

“Can any of the Jesuits be turned?”

“No, I don’t think so. They can only be opposed by the cardinals on our side. My master Barberini, of course—he’s really furious, because his solution to the problem has been overthrown, so that he will look to the grand duke like a liar. Then Zacchia, I’m sure he will refuse to sign anything he doesn’t agree with. Bentivoglio also—and as he is the general, he could probably force a compromise sentence, because if he refused to sign, it would look too bad to go forward. It would look like Urban was forcing it, which could only mean that he had caved to the Borgia. So Urban doesn’t want that. He wants it to look like he came in all merciful at the last moment. And Bentivoglio could make the implacables accept a compromise, I think. Of course it would be much, much more certain if the Borgia were absent for the rest of the debate. That would probably do more than anything else we could manage. That, and provide the substance of a compromise to Bentivoglio, something for him to work with.”

“See to that part, then. I’ll be back in at dawn.”

The Villa Belvedere was an enormous complicated pile, anchoring one corner of the Vatican’s outer wall. There were the usual night watchmen at its gates and doors, of course; but none were stationed around the back side of the villa, which stood as a four-story cliff overlooking the outer wall, fortresslike in its vertical mass.

But in the dark it was easy enough to jump from a tree to the outer wall, then crawl over a branch to the building itself, and there inch along the narrow ledge left by the stonemasons on the wall of the villa. There it was possible to use expanders in the vertical cracks between the huge blocks of sandstone that formed the villa, and ascend the blank side of it.

The window casements high on the wall were enormous, and made it possible to sit outside the windows, which were closed against mosquitoes and the mephitic vapors of early summer. In some comfort, catching one’s breath, a person could work a knife between the window frames and push up the latch holding the windows closed. And then slip inside.

Where it was dark as a cave. In the infrared, shapes were redblack in the blackred. Possible then to make one’s way to the fourth floor, where a sleeping pair of bodyguards lay across the doorway of the Borgia’s bedroom. Possible to very gently mist the men with a soporific, and step over them; unbolt the inside bolt on the door by the use of a magnet; enter the room. Information provided by household members, which had included this bedroom’s location, also described the cardinal’s daily habits, which included a cup of wine mixed with citron water to break his fast and start each new day on a right note. More substantive fare would soon follow. So: mist the face on the boulderlike head sticking out of the blankets. Small injection. Lift the jug by the bed to estimate the volume of liquid, unstopper a vial of a more powerful kind of soporific, touched with an amnestic, both of them tasteless and colorless. Leave a drop at the bottom of the cup next to the jug as well, just in case a new jug was called for. Make sure not to underdose; the massive lump snoring under the blankets was a constant reminder what a heavy man Gasparo Borgia was. Then retreat, rebolt the door, retrace steps, climb out the window and downclimb the wall, the most difficult part of the whole operation, tough on old joints—and away.

There was already a Roman expression for this kind of turning of a method onto its usual perpetrators; it was called to poison the Borgias.

GALILEO WAS CALLED TO THE CONVENT of Minerva by a little phalanx of Dominicans who showed up at his dormitory. The black-and-white Dogs of God looked as grim as executioners. Before leaving his chamber, they gave him the white robe of the penitent to put on over his own clothing. Nothing of his own could appear outside the robe, they said; and he had to be bareheaded.

So it was time for the sentence.

They surrounded him wordlessly then, and led him on the short walk to the room of judgment. Inside that room it was much more crowded than during any of the depositions; most of the Holy Congregation was there to witness the ruling. Pope Urban VIII was not present, of course.

Maculano read the judgment:

We:

Gasparo Borgia, with the title of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem;

Fra Felice Centini, with the title of Santa Anastasia, called d’Ascoli;

Guido Bentivoglio, with the title of Santa Maria del Popolo;

Fra Desiderio Scaglia, with the title of San Carlo, called di Cremona;

Fra Antonio Barberini, called di Sant’Onofrio;

Laudivio Zacchia, with the title of San Petro in Vincoli, called di San Sisto;

Berlinghiero Gessi, with the title of Sant’Agostino;

Fabrizio Verospi, with the title of San Lorenzo in Panisperna, of the order of priests; Francesco Barberini, with the title of San Lorenzo in Damaso; and

Marzio Ginetti, with the title of Santa Maria Nuova, of the order of deacons;

By the Grace of God, the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and especially commissioned by the Holy Apostolic See as Inquisitors-General against heretical depravity in all of Christendom:

Whereas you, Galileo, son of the late Vincenzio Galilei, were denounced to this Holy Office in 1615 for holding as true the false doctrine that the sun is the center of the world and motionless and the earth moves with diurnal motion;

And whereas this Holy Tribunal wanted to remedy the disorder and the harm which derived from this doctrine, the Assessor Theologians assessed the two propositions of the sun’s stability and the earth’s motion as follows:

That the sun is center of the world and motionless is a proposition which is philosophically absurd and false, and formally heretical, for being explicitly contrary to Holy Scripture;

That the earth is neither the center of the world nor motionless but moves with diurnal motion is philosophically equally absurd and false, and theologically at least erroneous in the faith.

Whereas, however, we wanted to treat you with benignity at that time …

Maculano, reading the judgment aloud, went on to describe how Paul V had used Bellarmino’s injunction to warn him, also to issue a decree against the publishing of any books about the matter. Then:

And whereas a book has appeared here lately, the title being Dialogue by Galileo Galilei on the two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican, the said book was diligently examined and found to violate explicitly the above-mentioned injunction given to you; for in this book you have defended the said opinion already condemned, although you try by means of various subterfuges to give the impression of leaving it undecided and labeled as probable; this is still a very serious error, since there is no way an opinion declared and defined contrary to divine Scripture may be probable.