Groaning, supported by his faithful Lorenzo’s arm, Pope Ganganelli
slowly moved through the walks of his garden. Some months had passed
since the suppression of the order of the Jesuits--how had these few
months changed poor Clement! Where was the peace and cheerfulness of
his face, where was the sublime expression of his features, the firm and
noble carriage of his body--where was it all?
Trembling, shattered, with distorted features, and with dull,
half-closed eyes, crawled he about with groans, his brow wrinkled, his
lips compressed by pain and inward sorrow.
No one dared to remain with him; he spoke to no one. But Lorenzo was yet
sometimes able to drive away the clouds from his brow, and to recall a
faint smile to his thin pale lips.
He had also to-day succeeded in this, and for the first time in several
weeks had Ganganelli, yielding to his prayers, consented to a walk in
the garden of the Quirinal.
“This air refreshes me,” said the pope, breathing more freely; “it seems
as if it communicated to my lungs a renewed vital power and caused the
blood to flow more rapidly in my veins. Lorenzo, this is a singularly
fortunate day for me, and I will make the most of it. Come, we will
repair to our Franciscan Place!”
“That is an admirable idea,” said Lorenzo, delighted. “If your holiness
can reach it, you will recover your health, and all will again be well.”
Ganganelli sighed, and glanced toward heaven with a sad smile.
“Health!” said he. “Ah, Lorenzo, that word reminds me of a lost
paradise. The avenging angel has driven me from it, and I shall never
see it again.”
“Say not so!” begged Lorenzo, secretly wiping a tear from his cheek.
“No, say not so, you will certainly recover!”
“Yes, recover!” replied the pope. “For death is a recovery, and in the
end perhaps the most real.”
They silently walked on, and making a path through the bushes, they at
length arrived at the place, with the construction of which Lorenzo had
some months before surprised the pope, and which Ganganelli had since
named the “Franciscan Place.”
“So,” joyfully exclaimed Lorenzo, while the exhausted pope glided down
upon the grass-bank--“so, brother Clement, now let us be cheerful!
You know that here we have nothing more to do with the pope. You have
yourself declared that here you would be brother Clement, and nothing
more; now brother Clement was always a healthy man, full of juvenile
spirits and strength.”
“Ah, my friend,” responded Ganganelli, “I fear the pope has secretly
followed brother Clement even to this place, and even here no longer
leaves him free! No, no, it is no longer brother Clement who sits
groaning here, it is the vicegerent of God, the father of Christendom,
the holy and blessed pope! And if you knew, Lorenzo, what this
vicegerent of God has to suffer and bear, how his blood like streams of
fire runs through his veins, carbonizing his entrails and parching the
roof of his mouth, so that the tongue fast cleaves to it, and he has
no longer the power to complain of his misery! And such a crushed
earth-worm this miserable, infatuated people call the vicegerent of
God, before whom they bow in the dust! Ah, foolish children, are you not
yourselves disgusted with your masquerade, and do you not blush for this
jest?”
“See you not,” said Lorenzo, with forced cheerfulness, “that since you
are here you have, against your will, again become brother Clement, and
inveigh against God’s vicegerent who holds his splendid court in the
Vatican and Quirinal! Yes, yes that was what brother Clement used to do
in the Franciscan convent; he was always scolding about the pope.”
“And yet he let men befool him and make a pope of him,” said Ganganelli.
“Ah, Lorenzo, they were indeed good purposes that decided me, and good
and holy resolutions were in me when I bore this crown of St. Peter for
the first time. Ah, I was then so young, not in years, but in hopes and
illusions. I was so enthusiastic for the good and noble, and I wished to
serve it, to honor and glorify it in the name of God!”
“And in the end you have done so!” solemnly responded Lorenzo.
“I have wished to do so!” sighed Ganganelli, “but there it has ended.
I have been hemmed in everywhere; wherever I wished to press through,
I have always found a wall before me--a wall of prejudices, of ancient
customs, once received as indifferent, and at this wall my cardinals and
officials held watch, taking care that my will should be broken against
it, and not be able to speak through, in order to let in a little
freedom, a little fresh air, into our walled realm! They have curbed and
weakened my will, until nothing more of it subsists, and of my holiest
resolutions they have made a scarecrow before which foreign kings and
princes cry murder, and prophesy the downfall of their kingdoms if I
adhere to my innovations. Ah, the princes, the princes! I tell you,
Lorenzo, it is the princes who have undermined the happiness of the
world with their ideas of absolute power; they are the robbers of all
mankind; for freedom, which is the common property of all men, that
have they, like regular lawless highwaymen, appropriated for themselves
alone. They plundered the luck-pennies of all mankind, and coined them
into money adorned with their likenesses, and now all mankind run after
this money, thinking: ‘If I gain that, then shall I have recovered my
part of human happiness which once belonged to all in common!’ It has
come to this, Lorenzo, through the rapacity of princes, and yet they
still tremble upon their thrones, and fear that the people may one day
awake from their stupid slumber, all rising as one man, and cry in
the paling faces of their robbers: ‘Give back what you have taken from
us--we will have what is ours; we require freedom and human right; we
will no longer remain slaves to tremble before a bugbear; we will be
free children of God, and have no one to fear but the God above us and
the consciences within our own breasts!’ Come down, therefore, from your
usurped thrones, become once more human--labor, enjoy, complain, and
rejoice, as other men do; live not upon the sweat of your subjects, but
nourish yourselves by your own efforts, that justice may prevail in the
world, and humanity regain its rights!”
And Ganganelli’s eyes flashed, his sunken cheeks were feverishly
flushed, while he was thus speaking. Lorenzo observed it with anxious
eyes; and when the pope made a momentary pause, he said: “You are again
altogether the good and brave brother Clement, but even he should think
about sparing himself!”
“And to what end should he spare himself?” excitedly exclaimed
Ganganelli; “Death sits within me and laughs to scorn all my efforts,
burying himself deeper and deeper in my inward life. You must know,
Lorenzo, that my cause of sorrow is precisely this, that I now live in
vain, and that I cannot finish what I began! I wished to make my people
happy and free; that was what alarmed all these princes, that was an
unheard-of innovation, and they have all put their heads together and
whispered to each other, ‘He will betray to mankind that they have
rights of which we have robbed them. He wishes to give back to mankind
his inherited portion of the booty! But what will then become of us?
Will not our slaves rise up against us, demanding their human rights? We
cannot suffer such innovations, for they involve our destruction!’ Thus
have they cried, and in their anxiety they have decided upon my death!
Then they threw me in a crumb exactly suited to my dreams of improving
the happiness of the people; they all consented that I should relieve
mankind from that dangerous tapeworm, Jesuitism, and with secret
laughter thought, ‘It will be the death of him!’ And they were right,
these sly princes, it will be the death of me! I have abolished the
order of Jesuits--in consequence of which I shall die--but the Jesuits
will live, and live forever!”
The echo of approaching footsteps was now heard, and, sinking with
fatigue, he directed Lorenzo to go and meet the intruder, and by no
means to let any one penetrate to him.
Returning alone, Lorenzo handed the pope a letter.
“The courier whom you sent out some days since has returned,” said he.
“This is his dispatch.”
Taking the letter, with a sad smile, the pope weighed it in his hand.
“How light is this little sheet,” said he, “and yet how heavy are its
contents! Do you know what this letter contains, Lorenzo?”
“How can I? A poor cloister brother is not all-knowing!”
“This letter,” said the pope, with solemnity, “Brings me life or death.
It is the answer of the learned physician, Professor Brunelli, of
Bologna!”
“You have written to him?” asked Lorenzo, turning pale.
“I wrote him, particularly describing my condition and sufferings; in
God’s name I conjured him to tell me the truth, and Brunelli is a man of
honor; he will do it! Am I right, therefore, in saying that the contents
of this letter are very heavy?”
Lorenzo trembled, and, grasping the pope’s hand, he hastily and
anxiously said: “No, read it not. Of what use will it be to learn its
contents? It is tempting God to endeavor to learn the future in advance!
Let me destroy this fatal letter!”
And, while his faithful servant respectfully stood back, Ganganelli
broke the seal.
A pause ensued--a long, excruciating pause! Lorenzo, kneeling,
prayed--Pope Ganganelli read the letter of the physician of Bologna. His
face had assumed a mortal pallor; while reading, his lips trembled, and
tear-drops rolled slowly down over his sunken cheeks.
Falling from his hand, the letter rustled to the earth; with hanging
head and folded hands sat the pope. Lorenzo was still upon his knees
praying. Ganganelli suddenly raised his head, his eyes were turned
heavenward, a cheerful, God-given peace beamed from his eyes, and with a
clear, exulting voice, he said: “Lord, Thy will be done! I resign myself
to Thy holy keeping.”
“The letter, then, brings good news?” asked Lorenzo, misled by the
joyfulness of the pope. “There is, then, no ground for the presentiments
of death, and the learned doctor says you will live?”
“The life eternal, Lorenzo!” said Ganganelli. “This letter confirms my
suppositions! Brunelli is a man of honor, and he has told me the
truth. Lorenzo, would you know what signifies this consuming fire,
this weariness and relaxation of my limbs? It is the effect of _Acqua
Tofana_!”
“Oh, my God,” shrieked Lorenzo, “you are poisoned!”
“Irretrievably,” calmly responded the pope; “Brunelli says it, and I
feel in my burning entrails that he speaks the truth.”
“And are there no remedies?” lamented Lorenzo, wringing his hands. “No
means at least of prolonging your life?”
“There is such a means; and Brunelli recommends it. The application of
the greatest possible heat, the production of a continual perspiration,
which may a little retard the progress of the evil, and perhaps prolong
my life for a few weeks!
“Lorenzo, it is my duty to struggle every day with death. I have yet
much to complete before I die, yet much labor before I go to my eternal
rest, and, as far as I can, I must bring to an end what I have commenced
for the welfare of my people! Come, Lorenzo, let us return to the
Vatican; set pans of coals in my room, procure me furs and a glowing hot
sun! I would yet live some weeks!”
With feverish impetuosity Ganganelli grasped Lorenzo’s arm and drew him
away. Then, suddenly stopping, he turned toward his favorite place.
“Lorenzo,” he said in a low tone, and with deep sadness, “it was yet
very pleasant in the Franciscan cloister. Why did we not remain there?
Only see, my friend, how beautifully the sun glitters there among the
pines, and how delightfully this air fans us! Ah, Lorenzo, this world is
so beautiful, so very beautiful! Why must I leave it so soon?”
Lorenzo made no answer; he could not speak for tears.
Ganganelli cast a long and silent glance around him, greeting with his
eyes the trees and flowers, the green earth and the blue sky.
“Farewell, farewell, thou beautiful Nature!” he whispered low. “We take
our leave of each other. I shall never again see these trees or this
grassy seat. But you, Lorenzo, will I establish as the guardian of this
place, and when you sometimes sit here in the still evening hour, then
will you think of me! Now come, we must away. Feel you not this cool and
gentle air? Oh, how refreshingly it fans and cools, but I dare not enjoy
it--not I! This cooling cuts off a day from my life!”
And with the haste of a youth, Ganganelli ran down the alley. Bathed
with perspiration, breathless with heat, he arrived at the palace.
“Now give me furs, bring pans of coals, Lorenzo, shut all the doors and
windows. Procure me a heat that will shut out death--!”
But death nevertheless came; the furs and coverings, the steaming
coal-pans with which the pope surrounded himself, the glowing atmosphere
he day and night inhaled, and which quite prostrated his friends and
servants, all that could only keep off death for some few weeks, not
drive it away. More dreadful yet than this blasting heat with which
Ganganelli surrounded himself, yet more horrible, was the fire that
consumed his entrails and burned in his blood.
Finally, withered and consumed by these external and internal fires, the
pope greeted Death as a deliverer, and sank into his arms with a smile.
But no sooner had he respired his last breath, no sooner had the
death-rattle ceased in this throat, and no sooner had death extinguished
the light in his eyes, than the cold corpse exhibited a most horrible
change.
The thin white hair fell off as if blown away by a breath of air, the
loosened teeth fell from their sockets, the formerly quietly smiling
visage became horribly distorted, the nose sank in and the eyes fell
out, the muscles of all his limbs became relaxed as if by a magic
stroke, and the rapidly putrefying members fell from each other.
The pope’s two physicians, standing near the bed, looked with terror
upon the frightful spectacle.
“He was, then, right,” murmured the physician Barbi, folding his hands,
“he was poisoned. These are the effects of the _Acqua Tofana_!”
Salicetti, the second physician, shrugged his shoulders with a
contemptuous smile. “Think as you will,” said he, “for my part I shall
prove to the world that Pope Clement XIV. died a natural death.”
Thus saying, Salicetti left the chamber of death with a proud
step, betaking himself to his own room, to commence his history of
Ganganelli’s last illness, in which, despite the arsenic found in the
stomach of the corpse and despite the fact that all Rome was convinced
of the poisoning of the pope, and named his murderer with loud curses,
he endeavored to prove that Ganganelli died of a long-concealed
scrofula!
And while Ganganelli breathed out his last sigh, resounded the bells
of St. Peter’s, thundered the cannon of Castle Angelo, and the curious
people thronged around the Vatican, where the conclave was in solemn
session for the choice of a new pope. Thousands stared up to the palace,
thousands prayed upon their knees, until at length the doors of the
balcony, behind which the conclave was in session, were opened, and the
papal master of ceremonies made his appearance upon it.
At a given signal the bells became silent, the cannon ceased to thunder,
and breathlessly listened the crowd.
The master of ceremonies advanced to the front of the balcony. A
pause--a silent, dreadful pause! His voice then resounded over the
great square, and the listeners heard these words: “_Habemus pontificem
maximum Pium VI.!_” (We have Pope Pius VI.)
And the bells rang anew, the cannon thundered, drums beat, and trumpets
sounded; upon the balcony appeared the new pope, Juan Angelo Braschi,
Pius VI., bestowing his blessing upon the kneeling people.
As they now had a new pope, nothing remained to be done for the deceased
pope but to bury him; and they buried him.
In solemn procession, followed by all the cardinals and high church
officials, surrounded by the Swiss guards, the tolling of the bells and
the dull rolling of the muffled drums, the solemn hymns of the priests,
moved the funeral _cortege_ from the Vatican to St. Peter’s church.
In the usual open coffin lay the corpse of the deceased pope, that the
people might see him for the last time. As they passed the bridge of St.
Angelo, when the coffin had reached the middle of the bridge, arose a
shriek of terror from thousands of throats! A leg had become severed
from the body and hung out of the coffin, swinging in a fold of the
winding-sheet. Cardinal Albani, who walked near the coffin, was touched
on the shoulder by the loosely swinging limb, and turned pale, but he
yet had the courage to push it back into the coffin. The people loudly
murmured, and shudderingly whispered to each other: “The dead man has
touched his murderer. They have poisoned him, our good pope! His members
fall apart. That is the effect of _Acqua Tofana_.” (*)
(*) Archenholz relates yet another case where the Acqua
Tofana had a similar violent and sudden effect. “A
respectable Roman lady, who was young and beautiful, and had
many admirers, made in the year 1778, a similar experiment,
to rid herself of an old husband. As the dose was rather
strong, death was followed by the rapid and violent
separation of the members. They employed all possible means
to retain the body in a human form until the funeral was
over. The face was covered with a waxen mask, and by this
means was the condition of the corpse concealed. This
separation of the members seems to be the usual effect of
this poison, and is said to occur as soon as the body is
cold.”
The infernal work had therefore proved successful, the vengeance was
complete--Ganganelli was no more, and upon the papal throne sat Braschi,
the friend of the Jesuits and of Cardinal Albani, to whom he had
promised the crowning of the improvisatrice Corilla.
And as this cost nothing to the miserly Pope Pius, he this time found no
inconvenience in keeping his sacred promise, though not so promptly as
Corilla and the passionate cardinal desired.
Not until 1776, almost two years after Braschi had mounted the papal
throne, took place the crowning of the improvisatrice in the capitol at
Rome.
She had therefore attained the object of her wishes. She had finally
reached it by bribery and intrigue, by hypocritical tenderness, by the
resignation of her maiden modesty and womanly honor, and by all the arts
of coquetry.
But this triumph of hers was not to be untroubled. The _nobili_ shouted
for her, and the cardinals and princes of the Church, but the people
accompanied her to the capitol with hissing and howling. Poems came
fluttering down on all sides; the first that fell upon Corilla’s head,
Cardinal Albani eagerly seized and unfolded for the purpose of reading
it aloud. But after the first few lines his voice was silenced--it was
an abusive poem, full of mockery and scorn.
But nevertheless she was crowned. She still stood upon the capitol, with
the laurel-crown upon her brow, cheered by her respectable protectors
and friends. But the people joined not in those cheers, and, as the
exulting shouts ceased, there swelled up to the laurel-crowned poetess,
from thousands of voices, a thundering laugh of scorn, and this scornful
laugh, this hissing and howling of the people, accompanied her upon her
return from the capitol, following her through the streets to her own
door. The people had judged her!
Corilla was no poetess by the grace of God, and only by the grace of man
had she been crowned as queen of poesy!
Mortified, crushed, and enraged, she fled from Rome to Florence.
She knew how to flatter the great and win princes. She was a
princess-poetess, and the people rejected her!
But the laurel was hers. She was sought and esteemed, the princes
admired her, and Catharine of Russia fulfilled the promise Orloff had
made the improvisatrice in the name of the empress. Corilla received a
pension from Russia. Russia has always promptly and liberally paid those
who have sold themselves and rendered services to her. Russia is very
rich, and can always send so many thousands of her best and noblest to
work in the mines of Siberia, that she can never lack means for paying
her spies and agents.