Lucrezia tries to come to terms with her new life with her husband. As an escape, she forms an attachment to handsome young stable boy Paolo.  An increasingly empowered Lucrezia exhorts Paolo to sabotage her husband’s riding saddle. It causes Giovanni to fall and break his leg, thus incapacitating him and calling a temporary halt to the rapes.

Cesare induces Machiavelli to break his agreement with Della Rovere to allow the passage of French troops through Florence. In exchange, the Pope will squelch firebrand preacher Savonarola, who has been enthralling the masses with his thunderous condemnation of the Medicis.  Cesare has fallen in love with Ursula.  Cesare, too, strikes against a rival. With Micheletto’s help, he confronts and kills Ursula’s husband.