two was wanting to make those intent on electing Tosco a majority of the necessary amount.

Farnese and Sfondrato were standing at the door of the cell in which the rest of their colleagues had been enacting the scene described; and when they heard some voices of the party expressing their intentions as above, they adopted the strong measure of going instantly to Aldobrandino, where he stood in the midst of his followers, and inviting him to a conference with Montalto. The measure, it will be observed, was suddenly adopted without any authorisation from that Cardinal himself. Farnese and Sfondrato took each an arm of the hostile chief, and led him to the cell where Montalto and the allies were. Sfondrato took upon himself to be spokesman. They all ought to thank the Almighty, he said, who had providentially led them to agree in so excellent an election. All ought to join in it alike, and forget past animosities. Montalto stood leaning against a table, with downcast eyes and strongly working features, in which the agony of abandoning his own hopes and the bitterness of yielding himself to the accomplishment of those of his adversary were violently expressed. Concentrated rage contributed also to throw his mind off its balance, for he felt that he had been betrayed by his friends. He knew that if only they had all been true to their promises and to each other, the adversaries could not have accomplished an election. He knew also that in yielding thus tardily and reluctantly, he, at least, would have none of the merit of yielding in the eyes of the new Pope. Those who had made his doing so necessary might claim the merit of

their defection; but it was too clear that the Pope to be thus elected was elected in his despite.

In answer to Sfondrato's address he replied no word; nor did he raise his eyes or turn towards Aldobrandino, but he silently put out his hand to him. And they went forth together into the hall, where the crowd of cardinals, now consisting of nearly all the Conclave, were waiting to proceed to the chapel for the "Adoration." For it is observable that, notwithstanding the apparent union of the parties, the Clementines, who had prevailed, did not deem it advisable to trust to a scrutiny, but were still bent on hurrying to the quicker and more open process of "Adoration."

And now the election of Cardinal Tosco seemed certain. He himself, meanwhile, was walking up and down with the Cardinals San Giorgio and Diatristain in a distant part of the vast Vatican galleries. His companions urged him to go with them at once to the chapel; but he shrunk from doing this, preferring to wait till Aldobrandino or some of the others came to bring him thither, according to the custom in such cases. But as the minutes went on, and nobody came, Cardinal San Giorgio sent his conclavist to see how matters were going on. He came into the hall just as Aldobrandino and Montalto, hand in hand, came forth to the body of the cardinals from the cell of Acquaviva. Returning therefore in all haste, he told his master and Tosco what he had seen, and said that both the chiefs were coming with a large number of their followers to bring Cardinal Tosco to the chapel. At the same time a tumultuous crowd of conclavists came rushing towards the cell of

the Pope elect, to make booty of all that it contained, according to recognised and tolerated custom. Indeed the election seemed as good as if already made.

But now came a sudden slip between the cup and the lip, which changed the whole face of things in the Conclave, and produced as strange a scene as had ever been witnessed in any of those remarkable assemblies, which had enacted and seen so many curious dramas.

While Aldobrandino and Montalto were on the point of going to bring Cardinal Tosco to the spot where the crowd of cardinals were waiting to conduct him triumphantly to the chapel for the "Adoration," two cardinals held aloof, and were walking up and down the gallery together at a little distance, in deep and evidently not well-pleased conversation. These were Baronius* and Tarugio, an intimate friend of his, who were, as the conclavist says with an evident sneer, "professors of a scrupulous conscience," and as such could not approve of the clevation to the Papacy of such a man as Cardinal Tosco. While the negotiations had been going on that resulted in the all but certainty of his election, Aldobrandino had sent no less than seven successive messages to Baronius, urging him to join the rest of the partyand now, since the accession of Montalto and his friends, it might be said the rest of the Conclave-in the proposed "Adoration" of Tosco. This persistence on the part of Aldobrandino is remarkable. After the yielding of Montalto and his party, there could be no doubt about

I have used here and elsewhere the Latin instead of the Italian form of the great Church historian's name, because it is so familiar to the English reader.

the sufficiency of the votes to carry the election. The abstention of Baronius and his friend could in nowise have affected the result. Yet Aldobrandino, before proceeding to the chapel, made another-the eighth-effort to carry Baronius with him. If we are to suppose that this anxiety was caused simply by respect for the high character and reputation of Baronius, and by an uneasy sense of the responsibility of proceeding to the election of the Pope despite the manifest disapprobation and silent protest of the man whose character had greater weight than that of any other there, it deserves noting as an example of conscientiousness so rare and strange in that world of sacerdotal princes, as to seem almost incredible to us, and quite so to the bystanders who witnessed it. So much so, that our conclavist guide to these mysteries declares that Aldobrandino's imprudence could only be accounted for on the supposition of an immediate interposition of Providence, thus working out its own designs for the election.

On receiving this eighth message, which begged that Baronius and Tarugio would come and confer with Aldobrandino, without any reference to the matter immediately in hand, Baronius yielded, and following the messenger to the great hall, found himself there in the midst of the unanimous assembly of nearly the whole Conclave, bent on proceeding at once to the "Adoration." Aldobrandino had evidently calculated on his not having sufficient moral courage to stand out alone and conspicuously beneath the eyes of his assembled colleagues. But his calculation had been based on an insufficient estimate of the man. Not only did he adhere to his

refusal to join in the vote, but proceeded openly to state his reasons for doing so. Their first and absolute duty, he said, was to elect a man of irreproachable character; and for his part it should be written in his Annals* that he was the last to concur in the choice proposed. It was answered by those around that the election was good and respectable, and the subject of it certainly a worthy one; an assertion which he repudiated, says the conclavist, by the most expressive gestures, "beating his breast, and shaking his head, and uttering broken words and sighs."

Conduct so frank and vehement, a manifestation of sentiments so open, public, and fearless, was almost unprecedented in that world of cautious reticence and simulation, and the result produced by it on the dignified crowd around was remarkable. Montalto first, who saw in this unexpected diversion a possibility of escaping from the election which a moment ago seemed inevitable, and which was fatal to all his cherished hopes, was, or pretended † to be, extremely agitated, and cried out that in truth it were well to lay to heart the words

The "Annali" is the great work by which Baronius is known to the world. The conclavist makes a ludicrous and inconceivable error in his record of this declaration of the great Church historian. He protested, says the conclavist-or the printer for him—that it should be written in his boots,-"negli suoi stivali." The real phrase is supplied by the Venetian ambassador's account of the Conclave.

Montalto was one of the last men in the Conclave to have been really touched by any such appeal. Here is a character of him, as he was thirteen years before the present time. "A handsome young man, luxurious, with no firmness of character, broken by debauch, with an income of an hundred thousand crowns, and debts to the amount of four hundred thousand, it was impossible that he should be his own master. His passions, his vices, constrained him to be dependent upon the courts of Europe. He had offered himself to the King of Spain, and had been accepted."