Fiochetto_, and held the post of _Uditore della R.C. Apostolica_,
one of the four high offices which necessarily lead to Red Hats.
Moreover, he was marked by Gregory XVI for the promotion, and had
actually ordered his scarlet apparel. But unfortunately Monsignore
Nicolai affected the good things of this life over-much. He was a
_bon vivant_, and a _viveur_. He loved money, and he was utterly
unscrupulous as to the means by which he obtained it. His career
in the direction of the Sacred College was cut short, when he was
very near its attainment, by a scandalous transaction, in which,
although he was nearly eighty years of age, he played the
principal part. He colluded with a notary, named Bachetti, to
falsify the will of one Vitelli, a wealthy contractor, inserting
in the place of the testator's two orphan nieces that of _his own
natural son_. The affair having been dragged to light, Gregory
XVI. deprived him of his office, and he ended his days in disgrace
and retirement. His fondness for worldly pelf clung to him in his
very last moments. A short time before he expired, he ordered some
gendarmes to be brought into his bedroom, and charged them to
watch over his property, lest anything should be stolen after he
had ceased to breathe, and before the representatives of the law
could take possession.

It is worthy of mention, as illustrating the administration of
Justice in Rome, that even with these proofs of the invalidity of
the will produced as that of Vitelli, his nieces were never able
to recover the whole of his property. They were compelled to make
terms with Grossi, the defunct Prelate's natural son, who to this
day remains in the enjoyment of one-half of Vitelli's property!

18: All the facts and figures contained in this chapter are taken from
the works of the Marchese Pepoli.

19: Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 293.

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