Moreover, the same Duke began to seduce the Principals of Rome by his friends that he had in it, but particularly by the cheat that he put upon the Pope; for his design being to prevent the French Forces, and to surprize the Pope, he resolved to go streight to Rome, and to bring his design the better to pass, he sent Pyrrhus Coffrede to the Pope, to see if there was any way of agreement, to the end that upon this proposition the Pope should mistrust nothing. In the mean time the Duke of Alba was coming near Rome, at which the Pope was so angry, that he put this Embassadour in Prison, where he was kept till the conclusion of the Peace; in this sort were the principal men of Rome seduced, having no thought of the Spaniards approaches, this is the relation of the Lord de Thou, Lib. 16.
LXIX.
French.
La grand pitie sera sans long tarder,
Ceux qui donnoient seront contraints de prendre
Nuds affamez, de froid, soif, soy bander,
Passer les Monts en faisant grand esclandre.
English.
What a great pitty will it be e’re-long,
Those that did give shall be constrained to receive,