ack
cloud was coming up. Foreseeing a thunderstorm, he ordered the cardinal
and the chamberlain to shut the windows. He had not been mistaken; for
even as they were obeying his command, there came up such a furious gust
of wind that the highest chimney of the Vatican was overturned, just
as a tree is rooted up, and was dashed upon the roof, breaking it in;
smashing the upper flooring, it fell into the very room where they were.
Terrified by the noise of this catastrophe, which made the whole palace
tremble, the cardinal and Monsignore Poto turned round, and seeing the
room full of dust and debris, sprang out upon the parapet and shouted
to the guards at the gate, "The pope is dead, the pope is dead!" At this
cry, the guards ran up and discovered three persons lying in the rubbish
on the floor, one dead and the other two dying. The dead man was a
gentleman of Siena ailed Lorenzo Chigi, and the dying were two resident
officials of the Vatican. They had been walking across the floor above,
and had been flung down with the debris. But Alexander was not to be
found; and as he gave no answer, though they kept on calling to him, the
belief that he had perished was confirmed, and very soon spread about
the town. But he had only fainted, and at the end of a certain time he
began to come to himself, and moaned, whereupon he was discovered, dazed
with the blow, and injured, though not seriously, in several parts of
his body. He had been saved by little short of a miracle: a beam had
broken in half and had left each of its two ends in the side walls; and
one of these had formed a sort of roof aver the pontifical throne;
the pope, who was sitting there at the time, was protected by this
overarching beam, and had received only a few contusions.

The two contradictory reports of the sudden death and the miraculous
preservation of the pope spread rapidly through Rome; and the Duke of
Valentinois, terrified at the thought of what a change might be wrought
in his own fortunes by any slight accident to the Holy Father, hurried
to the Vatican, unable to assure himself by anything less than the
evidence of his own eyes. Alexander desired to render public thanks to
Heaven for the protection that had been granted him; and on the very
same day was carried to the church of Santa Maria del Popalo, escorted
by a numerous procession of prelates and men-at-arms, his pontifical
seat borne by two valets, two equerries, and two grooms. In this church