ecture of Rome, kept its resentment warm, and
waited. When in August of 1458 Calixtus III lay dying, the Orsini seized
the chance: they incited the city to ready insurgence, and with fire and
sword they drove the Spaniards out.

Don Pedro Luis made haste to depart, contrived to avoid the Orsini, who
had made him their special quarry, and getting a boat slipped down the
Tiber to Civita Vecchia, where he died suddenly some six weeks later,
thereby considerably increasing the wealth of Roderigo, his brother and
his heir.

Roderigo's cousin, Don Luis Juan, Cardinal-Presbyter of Santi Quattro
Coronati, another member of the family who owed his advancement to his
uncle Calixtus, thought it also expedient to withdraw from that zone of
danger to men of his nationality and name.

Roderigo de Lanzol y Borja alone remained--leastways, the only prominent
member of his house--boldly to face the enmity of the majority of the
Sacred College, which had looked with grim disfavour upon his uncle's
nepotism. Unintimidated, he entered the Conclave for the election of a
successor to Calixtus, and there the chance which so often prefers to
bestow its favours upon him who knows how to profit by them, gave him
the opportunity to establish himself as firmly as ever at the Vatican,
and further to advance his interests.

It fell out that when the scrutiny was taken, two cardinals stood
well in votes--the brilliant, cultured Enea Silvio Bartolomeo
de' Piccolomini, Cardinal of Siena, and the French Cardinal
d'Estouteville--though neither had attained the minimum majority
demanded. Of these two, the lead in number of votes lay with the
Cardinal of Siena, and his election therefore might be completed
by Accession--that is, by the voices of such cardinals as had not
originally voted for him--until the minimum majority, which must exceed
two-thirds, should be made up.

The Cardinal Vice-Chancellor Roderigo de Lanzol y Borja led this
accession, with the result that the Cardinal of Siena became Pontiff--as
Pius II--and was naturally enough disposed to advance the interests of
the man who had been instrumental in helping him to that eminence. Thus,
his position at the Vatican, in the very face of all hostility, became
stronger and more prominent than ever.

A letter written two years later from the Baths at Petriolo by Pius II
to Roderigo when the latter was in Siena--whither he had been sent
by his Holiness to superintend the building of the Cathe