Spaniard told the Emperor that his house and all
that he possessed were at his sovereign's disposition, but that he
should assuredly burn it down as soon as Bourbon was out of it; since,
having been sullied by the presence of a renegade, it could no longer be
a fitting residence for a man of honor.

So low had Bourbon fallen! Every man's hand was raised against him, and
his hand was against every man. And it is easy to conceive what must
have been his tone of mind and feeling, as he led on his mutinous
robber-rout to Rome, while men of all parties looked on in
panic-stricken horror. Thus Bourbon led his unpaid and mutinous hordes
to a deed which, none knew better than he, would shock and scandalize
all Europe, as a man who, having fallen already so low as to have lost
all self-respect, cares not in his reckless despair to what depth he
plunges.

As for Frundsberg, he was a mere soldier of fortune, whose world was his
camp, whose opinions and feelings had been formed in quite another
school from those of his fellow-general; whose code of honor and of
morals was an entirely different one, and whose conscience was not only
perfectly at rest respecting the business he was bound on, but approved
of it as a good and meritorious work for the advancement of true
religion. He carried round his neck a halter of golden tissue, we are
told, with which he loudly boasted that he would hang the Pope as soon
as he got to Rome; and had others of crimson silk at his saddle-bow,
which he said were destined for the cardinals!

Too late Clement became aware of the imminence and magnitude of the
danger that threatened him and the capital of Christendom. He besought
the Neapolitan viceroy, who had already signed a treaty with him, as has
been seen, to exert himself and use his authority to arrest the
southward march of Bourbon's army. And it is remarkable that this
representative of the Emperor in the government of Naples did, as it
would seem, endeavor earnestly to avert the coming avalanche from the
Eternal City. But, while the Emperor's viceroy used all his authority
and endeavors to arrest the advance of the Emperor's army, the Emperor's
generals advanced and sacked Rome in spite of him. Which of them most
really acted according to the secret wishes of that profound dissembler,
and most false and crafty monarch, it is impossible to know. It may have
been that Bourbon himself had no power to stay the plundering,
bandit-like march of his