great effort he might have terminated both to his honour and advantage.

In the hopeless situation to which the duke was reduced, surrounded by an army clamorous for subsistence, and apprehensive at every moment of being betrayed into the hands of his enemies, he consented, at length, to listen to terms of accommodation. The negotiation was, however, entered into on his part under the most unfavourable auspices The sovereigns of Spain and of France had seen with mutual jealousy the commanders and troops of each other employed as auxiliaries in the war, and began to entertain apprehensions that the continuance of this contest might endanger the possessions which they respectively held in Italy. The remonstrances of the pope to those monarchs, to recall their subjects from the service of the duke of Urbino, were also urged with a degree of earnestness that could no longer be resisted without giving open cause of offence, and Don Ugo de Moncada, viceroy of Naples, was directed to mediate between the contending parties. His efforts to this effect were seconded by those of the French commander L'Escù, and as the duke appeared unwilling to submit to the terms proposed, orders were immediately given to the French and Spanish troops, then in his service, to quit his standard, and to repair to that of their respective sovereigns. Under these circumstances, the duke was required to relinquish his dominions, and accept from the pope a compensation for his claims; but although he was compelled to assent to the former, he rejected the latter with becoming spirit, as a measure that would be subversive of his rights. He stipulated, however, that he and his followers should, on his relinquishing his territories to the pope, be freed from all ecclesiastical censures; that his subjects should not be liable to punishment on account of their adherence to him; that the dowager duchess, and his own wife, should be allowed to enjoy their possessions in the state of Urbino, and that he should be at liberty to remove all his furniture, arms, and personal effects, among which, it was expressly agreed, there should be included the celebrated library collected by his grandfather Federigo, duke of Urbino. With these terms the pope did not hesitate to comply, and the duke having been allowed to repair to Urbino for the purpose of carrying into

28

66

execution the articles agreed to in his favour, there assented to the treaty.2 On the same day he quitted the city under an escort of French cavalry, and passing through Cento, again took up his residence with his father-in-law, the marquis of Mantua, "to enjoy," says his biographer Leoni, the admiration and applause of mankind, and the reward of his labours. Thus,' continues the same writer, "did Leo, after a contest of eight months, terminate the war of Urbino, with the expense of a million of crowns, which it was said throughout Italy had only purchased for him disgrace and insult to his soldiers, his states, and his commanders; and with the acquisition of the duchy of Urbino, lost indeed by the trial of arms, but obtained by the influence of his authority." Without wholly agreeing with this author in his commendations of the conduct and character of the exiled duke, it must be confessed that the motives of the pope in this undertaking were as culpable as the conduct of his commanders was disgraceful; whilst the enormous penses which he incurred exhausted his treasury, and induced him to resort to those measures for replenishing it which were shortly afterwards productive of such disastrous consequences to the Roman church.

ex

During the war of Urbino, an alarming conspiracy was discovered at Rome, the object of which was to destroy the pope by poison; and if the name of religion had not been already sufficiently prostituted, the Christian world might have shuddered to hear that the authors of this crime were found among the members of the sacred college. The chief instigator of this attempt was the cardinal Alfonso Petrucci, the brother of Borghese Petrucci, who had lately been deprived of his authority in Siena, and expelled from that place by the interference of the pope. This total subversion of the dignity and fortunes of his family, which had been accompanied with the confisca tion of his own hereditary revenues, sunk deep into the mind of the cardinal. He considered the conduct of the pope in this transaction as in itself highly oppressive and unjust; but when he compared it with the services rendered by his father Pandolfo to the family of the Medici, as well on their restoration to Florence as on other important occasions, and recollected the very active part which he had himself taken, with the rest of the younger cardinals, in raising the pope to his high

dignity, his resentment rose to such a degree as could not be restrained either by the sense of guilt or the fear of punishment. In the first paroxysms of his anger he determined to assassinate the pope with his own hand; but from this he was deterred by the difficulty of effecting his purpose, rather than by the horror of such a crime, or the scandal that must have arisen to the church from the murder of a pope by the hands of a cardinal.* Changing, therefore, his means, but not his object, he resolved to destroy the pope by poison, for which purpose he engaged, as the partner of his guilt, Battista da Vercelli, a celebrated practitioner of surgery at Rome. The manner in which this was to be accomplished was agreed upon.† During the absence of the surgeon who usually attended the pope, on account of a dangerous and painful complaint, with which he had long been afflicted, Battista was introduced to him as a person of superior skill; and if Leo had not, by a fortunate delicacy, and contrary to the entreaties of his attendants, refused to discover his complaint to a stranger, it was intended to have mingled the ingredients of poison in the medicaments to be applied. The impatience of Petrucci could not, however, brook delay, but frequently and involuntarily burst forth in complaints against the ingratitude of the pontiff, and in expressions of enmity and revenge. This conduct soon attracted notice, and Petrucci, being aware of the danger which he had incurred by his imprudence, thought it expedient to retire for a short time from Rome. He did not, however, relinquish his project, which he had communicated to his secretary, Antonio Nino, who was to accelerate its execution in his absence, and with whom he maintained a frequent interchange of letters. Some of these being intercepted, sufficiently disclosed the criminal nature of the correspondence; and Leo, under the pretext of consulting with Petrucci on the arrangement of his family concerns, required his presence in Rome. Conscious of his guilt, Petrucci manifested some reluctance in complying with this request, but Leo removed his apprehensions by granting him a safe conduct, at the same time undertaking, by his solemn promise to the Spanish ambassador, not to violate his own act. Confiding in assurances so solemnly sanctioned,

• Guicciard. lib. xiii.

p. 115. Jovii, Vita Leon. X. lib. 1v.

Petrucci instantly repaired to Rome. On his arrival he was introduced, in company with the cardinal Bandinello de' Sauli, into the chamber of the pope, where they were both secured by the guards, and committed prisoners to the castle of S. Angelo. Against these proceedings the Spanish ambassador loudly remonstrated, asserting, that as he had pledged his faith for the safety of Petrucci, it must be considered as the engagement of his sovereign.* Leo was not wanting in arguments to justify his conduct. He alleged in reply, that no instrument of safe-conduct, however full and explicit, could be allowed to avail a person who had conspired against the life of the supreme pontiff, unless the crime was therein expressly mentioned. He contended that the same rule was applicable to the crime of murder by poison; a species of guilt abhorred by all laws, human and divine. By evasions of this nature the pontiff did not scruple to violate that good faith, of which he ought to have been the first person to set an example, and condescended to use against his adversary the same treachery which had been employed against himself. The measures thus adopted Leo communicated by official letters to the other European potentates, well knowing that great interest would be made by the cardinals to screen their offending brethren from a punishment which would reflect disgrace on the whole college.†

The surgeon Battista, who had retired to Florence, was soon afterwards apprehended and sent to Rome. Another person named Pocointesta, who had long served the family of Petrucci in a military capacity, was also taken into custody; and the delinquents were rigorously examined by the procurator-fiscal, Mario Perusco. From the confessions of these wretched men, the guilt of Petrucci was apparent, and there was also great reason to suspect, that not only the cardinal de' Sauli, but several other members of the college, had been privy to his designs. Leo, therefore, resolved to call a meeting of the cardinals in full consistory, to inform them of the reasons of his conduct, and to obtain, if possible, a public confession from such of them as he suspected to be implicated in the crime.

Before the day arrived for this assembly, which had been

Guicciard. Jih. xiii. vol. ii. p. 145.

+ The Letter of Leo to Henry VIII. is given in Reymer vi. par. p. 154

fixed for the twenty-second of May, Leo became so greatly alarmed at the extent to which the conspiracy had been carried among the cardinais, that he durst not trust himself in the midst of them. He determined, however, to secure the person of Raffaello Riario, cardinal of S. Georgio, who since the time of the memorable conspiracy of the Pazzi, in which he had acted a principal, though perhaps an involuntary part, had now sat in the college nearly forty years, and from his great wealth and splendid manner of life, was considered as the principal person in the college. The particulars of his arrest, and of the dismission of the other cardinals from the consistory, are minutely related by Paris de Grassis, and may give a sufficient idea of the personal conduct of the pontiff on this trying occasion.* "The consistory being assembled, the pope sent for the cardinal of Ancona, who continued with him about an hour. As we were surprised at this long interview," says this vigilant master of the ceremonies, I looked through an opening of the door, and perceived in the chamber of the pope the captain of the palace, and two of the guards under arms. I was apprehensive of some untoward circumstance; but I remained silent. Seeing, however, the cardinals S. Georgio and Farnese enter the pope's chamber with great cheerfulness, I concluded that the pope had called them to consult with him respecting a promotion of cardinals, of which he had spoken in the morning; but scarcely had the cardinai S. Georgio entered, than the pope, who commonly walked very deliberately between two of his chamberlains, hastened out of the room with great precipitation, and, shutting the door, left the cardinal S. Georgio with the guards. Greatly astonished at his haste, I inquired from the pope the reason of it, and asked whether he meant to enter the consistory without his stole. We arrayed him with the stole. He was pale and much agitated. He then ordered me, in a more positive tone than usual, to send all the cardinals from the consistory, and afterwards, with a still louder voice, to shut up the consistorial chamber. I obeyed; and no longer entertained a doubt that the cardinal S. Georgio was arrested. The other attendants and myself then began to form conjectures as to the cause of these proceedings; but the pope soon after

*Notices des MSS. du Roi, tom. ii. p. 599. Par. 1789.