JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD, VIGO STREET, LONDON, W.

[FOOTNOTES]

[*1] The army would not hear of a truce. Bourbon, really at their mercy, as he knew before he crossed the Apennines, asked them what they wished to do. "To march on," replied the Spaniards, "even without pay." The Germans after a time, though hungry for their wage, made common cause with them. "To march on," became almost a war-cry, and Bourbon was compelled to consent. He sent word to the Pope before he got into Val d'Arno that his men "were determined to push on, not only to Florence but to Rome, and dragged him with them as a prisoner." He asked for 150,000 ducats by April 15th to pay them with, that he might lead them back. The Pope, however, who had no faith in his power or honesty, sent nothing, trusting in Lannoy and that broken reed the Duke of Urbino.

[2] The play of words applies equally in Italian and English, and the incident savours much of a carnival jest. A scarce little book of prophecies, dated 1532, has for Envoye a sonnet, foreshadowing the woes of Italy in consequence of—

"L'infando error de Sogdoma e Gomora,
Le profanate sacre binde e tempi,
L'occider Dio mille volte al hora."

[3] It is difficult to reconcile the varying accounts of the sack, for which, besides the many printed authorities, we have drawn largely upon a collection of unpublished and very minute details, Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1677. It is doubtful whether Bourbon arrived on the evening of the 4th or of the 5th of May, but the assault was unquestionably made upon Monday the 6th. Many of the incidents given in that MS. are too horrible for admission into these pages. The narratives of Guicciardini and Giacomo Buonaparte, and those printed in the second volume of Eccardius, may be consulted for such; the two first, indeed, have done little beyond arranging some documents of that MS. collection. We have also consulted the Narrative of Leonardo Santori, Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 2607, and Sanuto's MS. Diaries; checking the whole by minute examination of the localities. *On the 3rd May Bourbon had passed Viterbo, on the 4th he was at Isola Farnese. As to the number of men which Renzo da Ceri had at command, 3000 seems nearer the truth than 30,000. Bourbon had scaling ladders but no artillery. Cf. Guicciardini, Il Sacco di Roma, Milanesi, p. 163, and Casanova, Lettere di Carlo V. a Clement VII. (per nozze Firenze, 1894).

[*4] Cf. The Life of Benvenuto Cellini, trans. by J.A. Symonds (Nimmo, 1896), p. 656.

[5] In a set of miniatures executed by Giulio Clovio for Charles V., and illustrative of his military achievement, which were bequeathed by the Right Hon. Thomas Granville to the British Museum in 1847, Bourbon is represented falling backwards from a ladder placed against a round tower on the walls of Rome; but being composed without accurate knowledge of the localities, it throws no light upon the manner of his death.

[*6] Creighton justly remarks that this was not in keeping with Renzo da Ceri's character. The tale is from Guicciardini. Renzo da Ceri was certainly no "craven caitiff."