romeo, who was also favourable to him, of the expediency of such an election, though without any idea of realising it. Sfondrato, one of the knot of the allies who had started the candidature of Bellarmine, went to Baronius and persuaded him to go, as on his own idea, to Aldobrandino, and point out to him that if he and his friends would vote for Bellarmine, he might be sure of sufficient support from the party of the allies to elect him. Aldobrandino cautiously requested to know from Baronius his grounds for such an opinion; to which the latter replied that he might trust him, as his information was from a perfectly trustworthy source. Aldobrandino, however, divining how matters really stood, as soon as ever Baronius had left him, sent Cardinal San Giorgio to Bellarmine to assure him of his (Aldobrandino's) perfectly favourable disposition towards him; but, at the same time, to point out to him that the move in his favour was merely a trick of the other party, set on foot with the hope of sowing division among them, and to beg of him not to play into their hands, and be duped by lending any encouragement to their project. He, at the same time, sent two other of the younger cardinals round to all his adherents to warn them that the proposal to elect Bellarmine was only a trick of the adversaries, and to advise them "to go to bed and pay no attention to any rumours on the subject." All the cardinals belonging to the monastic orders were already astir, we are told, at the first report of a possibility of the election of Bellarmine, ready to exert themselves to the utmost to prevent the choice of a Jesuit Pope.

Cardinal Sfondrato in the meantime, as soon as he

had sent Baronius to Aldobrandino, as has been seen, himself proceeded to the cell of Montalto, the leader of his party, who was just sitting down to supper, and told him that intrigues were on foot in the Conclave for the election of Cardinal Como. The object of this falsehood was, the conclavist tells us, to prevent Montalto from hurrying off to prevent the election of Bellarmine if any rumour of it should reach him. But the precaution was needless, our historian assures us, "for Montalto, seduced by the sight of the good things before him, replied that they might intrigue for any one they liked, for he did not mean for his part to leave his supper!" So Sfondrato left him; but on returning to his colleagues in the attempt to elect Bellarmine found that Aldobrandino's vigilance and activity had put an end to all hopes of success. So there was an end to the chance of a Jesuit Pope, and of the first day of the Conclave.

The next move was another attempt on the part of the allies to put forward Cardinal Camerino, who, though one of themselves, was thought not to be strongly objectionable to many of the other party. Aldobrandino had a conference with Montalto on the subject, and pretended to be desirous of inducing his party to accept this new candidate. But Montalto was not deceived by his professions. He saw that the Clementines did not intend to allow the elevation of Camerino, and dropped the attempt; not, however, without determining to avenge himself by opposing any candidate of Aldobrandino to the utmost of his power.

Hitherto the active tentatives had been all on the part of the allies. Aldobrandino and his friends had as

yet contented themselves with standing on the defensive. But the real and earnest wish of the late cardinal nephew and minister was to bring about the election of Cardinal San Clemente, his intimate friend and confidant. He had begun by securing the co-operation of the French party in return for his promise to insure the exclusion of the cardinals especially objected to by France. He had next applied to the Spaniards; and as San Clemente was not among those whom they had orders to exclude they also promised their assistance. This seemed, therefore, to offer a better chance of coming to an election than any that had been yet proposed to the Conclave. But, as has been seen, all the Clementines, united to all the French and all the Spaniards, only amounted to thirty-eight votes-two short of the number requisite. If, therefore, the allies held firmly together, they could prevent the possibility of San Clemente's election. And upon this occasion they not only seemed inclined to do so, but, not content with that, succeeded in inducing Cardinal Sordi, one of the French party, to break his engagement with Aldobrandino, and join them. They determined, moreover, to take the violent step of openly and by solemn resolution excluding San Clemente, declaring frankly that it was their determination not to vote for him—a very strong and decisive measure, because the cardinals taking part in it having thus declared themselves hostile to San Clemente, were definitively bound to struggle to the last against the election of a Pope in the person of one whom they had already rendered their enemy.

Aldobrandino, therefore, was extremely anxious to

avert this threatened measure, and did succeed in causing it to be delayed for one day-a respite which he calculated on employing in putting his adversaries on a false scent. While still continuing every effort to seduce some one or two voices from the allied party, he caused it to be rumoured in the Conclave that he had abandoned the hope of electing San Clemente, and was now intent on electing Cardinal Tosco, another of his adherents. With a view to throw dust into the vigilant eyes around him, he induced the Cardinal San Marcello, who had not entered the Conclave in consequence of serious illness, to come in. One does not see how this could have been compatible with the strict prohibition of all intercourse with the world outside the Conclave. The conclavist, however, states the fact without observation; and we are left to suppose that the non-intercourse supposed to be assured by so many ostentatious precautions had become, like so many other pretensions and forms at Rome, a mere sham.

The sick man was known to be a very intimate friend of Cardinal Tosco; and Aldobrandino meant it to be supposed by everybody that San Marcello would never have thought of coming into the Conclave in his state were it not for the purpose of securing the election of his friend. Indeed, the poor invalid himself was duped by Aldobrandino, and supposed that it was really to elect Tosco that he was so urgently wanted. But if the sick man was deceived, the lynx-eyed watchfulness of the rest of the Conclave was not. Indeed, the study of these prize-matches of duplicity and cunning, in which the sciences of simulation and dissimulation were

carried to the most polished pitch of perfection, would lead us to the conclusion, that among masters of the craft the arts of defence were generally more than a match for those of attack. The unceasing efforts to deceive seem rarely to have succeeded. Unsleeping perpetual suspicion of every word spoken, and of every apparently insignificant detail of conduct, joined to life-long practice in the knowledge, estimate, and calculation of all the littlenesses, meannesses, selfishnesses, and hypocrisies of human, and more especially of priestly nature, sufficed almost invariably to guard against the strategy of a craft, every turn and double of which was familiar to the objects of it. The open dealing of an honest man might probably have thrown them out entirely.

The allies discovered that it was still San Clemente who was advancing to the Papacy under the mantle of Tosco, as the conclavist expresses it. They determined, therefore, on the next day to proceed, as they had threatened, to the open and avowed resolution of excluding him. This they accordingly did. And our conclavist's account of the meeting held for the purpose gives us a dramatic little peep at Conclave life.

The meeting was held in the cell of Cardinal Bevilacqua, one of the less notable members of the party. And their Eminences were just about to begin the business in hand when two of the youngest cardinals of Aldobrandino's party, Pio and San Cesareo, entered the cell, as if strolling in by chance to visit its occupant. They had been sent on this errand by Aldobrandino in the hope that their unwelcome presence might drive the allies assembled there to put off the