day adds so
deep a melancholy to the silence of a church, four porters and two
working carpenters carried the corpse into the chapel where it was to be
interred, and, lifting it off the catafalque, where it lay in state, put
it in the coffin which was to be its last abode; but it was found that
the coffin was too short, and the body could not be got in till the legs
were bent and thrust in with violent blows; then the carpenters put
on the lid, and while one of them sat on the top to force the knees
to bend, the others hammered in the nails: amid those Shakespearian
pleasantries that sound as the last orison in the ear of the mighty;
then, says Tommaso Tommasi, he was placed on the right of the great
altar of St. Peter's, beneath a very ugly tomb.

The next morning this epitaph was found inscribed upon the tomb:

"VENDIT ALEXANDER CLAVES, ALTARIA, CHRISTUM:
EMERAT ILLE PRIUS, VENDERE JUKE POTEST.";

that is,

"Pope Alexander sold the Christ, the altars, and the keys:
But anyone who buys a thing may sell it if he please."

CHAPTER XV

From the effect produced at Rome by Alexander's death, one may imagine
what happened not only in the whole of Italy but also in the rest of the
world: for a moment Europe swayed, for the column which supported the
vault of the political edifice had given way, and the star with eyes
of flame and rays of blood, round which all things had revolved for the
last eleven years, was now extinguished, and for a moment the world, on
a sudden struck motionless, remained in silence and darkness.

After the first moment of stupefaction, all who had an injury to avenge
arose and hurried to the chase. Sforza retook Pesaro, Bagloine Perugia,
Guido and Ubaldo Urbino, and La Rovere Sinigaglia; the Vitelli entered
Citta di Castello, the Appiani Piombino, the Orsini Monte Giordano and
their other territories; Romagna alone remained impassive and loyal, for
the people, who have no concern with the quarrels of the great, provided
they do not affect themselves, had never been so happy as under the
government of Caesar.

The Colonnas were pledged to maintain a neutrality, and had been
consequently restored to the possession of their castles and the cities
of Chiuzano, Capo d'Anno, Frascati, Rocca di Papa, and Nettuno, which
they found in a better condition than when they had left them, as the
pope had had them embellished and fortified.

Caesar was still in the Vatican with his