finance of Rome. France and Spain were still contending for
the possession of Italy. While acting as Vice-Chancellor, Giulio de'
Medici had seemed to hold the reins with a firm grasp, and men
expected that he would prove a powerful Pope; but in those days he had
Leo to help him; and Leo, though indolent, was an abler man than his
cousin. He planned, and Giulio executed. Obliged to act now for
himself, Clement revealed the weakness of his nature. That weakness
was irresolution, craft without wisdom, diplomacy without knowledge of
men. He raised the storm, and showed himself incapable of guiding it.
This is not the place to tell by what a series of crooked schemes and
cross purposes he brought upon himself the ruin of the Church and
Rome, to relate his disagreement with the Emperor, or to describe
again the sack of the Eternal City by the rabble of the Constable de
Bourbon's army. That wreck of Rome in 1527 was the closing scene of
the Italian Renaissance--the last of the Apocalyptic tragedies
foretold by Savonarola--the death of the old age.

When the Florentines knew what was happening in Rome, they rose and
forced the Cardinal Passerini to depart with the Medicean bastards
from the city. The youth demanded arms for the defence of the town,
and they received them. The whole male population was enrolled in a
militia. The Grand Council was reformed, and the republic was restored
upon the basis of 1495. Niccolo Capponi was elected Gonfalonier. The
name of Christ was again registered as chief of the commonwealth--to
such an extent did the memory of Savonarola still sway the popular
imagination. The new State hastened to form an alliance with France,
and Malatesta Baglioni was chosen as military Commander-in-Chief.
Meanwhile the city armed itself for siege--Michel Angelo Buonarroti
and Francesco da San Gallo undertaking the construction of new forts
and ramparts. These measures were adopted with sudden decision,
because it was soon known that Clement had made peace with the
Emperor, and that the army which had sacked Rome was going to be
marched on Florence.

XXVI

In the month of August 1529 the Prince of Orange assembled his forces
at Terni, and thence advanced by easy stages into Tuscany. As he
approached, the Florentines laid waste their suburbs, and threw down
their wreath of towers, in order that the enemy might have no
harbourage or points of vantage for attack. Their troops were
concentrated within the city,