fire.

Within the conclave, the tumult, if less loud and clamorous, was hardly
less general. The confusion without and terror within did not allay the
angry rivalry, or suspend that subtle play of policy peculiar to the
form of election. The French interest was divided; within this circle
there was another circle. The single diocese of Limoges, favored as it
had been by more than one pope, had almost strength to dictate to the
conclave. The Limousins put forward the Cardinal de St. Eustache.
Against these the leader was the Cardinal Robert of Geneva, whose fierce
and haughty demeanor and sanguinary acts as legate had brought so much
of its unpopularity on the administration of Gregory XI. With Robert
were the four Italians and three French cardinals. Rather than a
Limousin, Robert would even consent to an Italian. They on the one side,
the Limousins on the other, had met secretly before the conclave: the
eight had sworn not on any account to submit to the election of a
traitorous Limousin.

All the sleepless night the cardinals might hear the din at the gate,
the yells of the people, the tolling of the bells. There was constant
passing and repassing from each other's chamber, intrigues,
altercations, manoeuvres, proposals advanced and rejected, promises of
support given and withdrawn. Many names were put up. Of the Romans
within the conclave two only were named, the old Cardinal of St.
Peter's, the Cardinal Jacobo Orsini. The Limousins advanced in turn
almost every one of their faction; no one but himself thought of Robert
of Geneva.

In the morning the disturbance without waxed more terrible. A vain
attempt was made to address the populace by the three cardinal priors;
they were driven from the windows with loud derisive shouts, "A Roman! A
Roman!" For now the alternative of an Italian had been abandoned; a
Roman, none but a Roman, would content the people. The madness of
intoxication was added to the madness of popular fury. The rabble had
broken open the Pope's cellar and drunk his rich wines. In the conclave
the wildest projects were started. The Cardinal Orsini was to dress up
a Minorite friar (probably a Spiritual) in the papal robes, to show him
to the people, and so for themselves to effect their escape to some safe
place and proceed to a legitimate election. The cardinals, from honor or
from fear, shrunk from this trick.

At length both parties seemed to concur. Each claimed credit for first
advancing the