Roman Legends

SCIARRA COLONNA.

Reading edition

When these two Colonna found they had actually killed a Pope, they got so frightened that they ran away to hide themselves. They ran away to France, to Paris, and at last, when all the money they were able to carry with them was spent, they were obliged to take a place as stablemen in the king’s palace, and they washed the carriages and cleaned down the horses like common men. But they couldn’t hide that they were great lords; the people saw there was something different from themselves about them, and they watched them, and saw that they waited on each other alternately every day at table, and you could see what great ceremony they were used to. Then other things were seen, I forget what now, but little by little, and by one thing and another, people suspected at last who they really were.

Then some one went and told the king of France, and he had them called up before him.

The king sat to receive them in a raised seat hung all round with cloth of gold, and he said:

‘Now, I know one thing. You two are hiding from justice. Who you are I don’t know exactly for certain. I believe you are the Colonna. If you confess you are the Colonna, I will make the affair straight for you; but, if you will not say, then I will have you shut up in prison till I find out who you are, and what you have done.’

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · Litta, ‘Storia delle Famiglie italiane,’ traces that from the beginning the Colonna family was always Ghibeline. The present representatives Note 2 · ‘Zoccolo,’ a wooden sandal kept on the foot by a leather strap over the instep. It is worn by certain ‘scalsi’ or ‘barefooted’ friars, hence Note 3 · That Sciarra Colonna headed a band of ‘spadassini’ against Boniface VIII., and made himself the tool of Philippe le Bel, is of course true t Note 4 · They came just as they were, in their stable clothes, wooden shoes2 and all.Note 5 · Then they owned that they were the Colonna,3 and the king sent an ambassador to the Pope that then was, and the thing was arranged, and afte Note 6 · Donna Olimpia Pamfili, nata Maidalchini, wife of the brother of Innocent X. ↑Note 7 · Cancellieri Mercato, § ix. note 7. ↑Note 8 · He had not, however, been originally intended for the Church; had been General of the Pontifical forces before he was Cardinal, and was only Note 9 · His simplicity was the subject of many contemporary mots and anecdotes; e.g. at the time of his elevation to the purple the Pasquin statue h Note 10 · Cancellieri Mercato, § viii. As I have been desirous to put nothing in the text but what has reached myself by verbal tradition, I will add Note 11 · The vices of the rich are never forgotten by the people, and the traditions that still are current in Rome about Donna Olimpia1 are such tha Note 12 · A certain Niccolo Caferri was much ridiculed for the spirit of adulation with which he pretended to trace up Innocent X.’s genealogy to Pamp Note 13 · This date, however, must be incorrect, as Innocent X. only began to reign in 1644. This grandiose Campanile is described at length, and a pl Note 14 · He does not specify what pope, and the wording used seems to imply Innocent X., but this aqueduct is always ascribed to Paul V., twenty year Note 15 · Described in Cancellieri, ‘Descrizione delle Cappelle Ponteficie,’ cap. x. ↑Note 16 · In Melchiorri’s table of Roman moneys he gives the value (in 1758, a hundred years later) of a doppio as 4 scudi 40 bajocchi; and of a doppi Note 17 · Dyer says it was the Stadium of Domitian, and Becker, that there is no proof it was ever a circus. ↑Note 18 · Cancellieri calls Innocent her cognato, and cognato in common conversation now is used for a cousin. Bazzarini explains it as ‘any relations Note 19 · MS. life of his successor Alex. VII. by Card. Pallavicini, quoted by Novaes: Storia de’ Sommi Pontefici, x. 61. ↑Note 20 · Nothing better than deal, I believe. ↑Note 21 · Mercato, § xxi. ↑Note 22 · It was at her house in Piazza Navona that Bernini was rehabilitated in his character of first sculptor and architect of his time. ‘Papa Pamf Note 23 · The Pope went to the house of Donna Olimpia in Piazza Navona to dine after the Procession to the Minerva on the Annunciation,9 and she place Note 24 · To return to Donna Olimpia. One of the pasquinades on her preserved in Cancellieri from Gigli’s diary, refers to an accusation against her, Note 25 · There is nothing, however, which shows the heartless character of Donna Olimpia more glaringly than her refusal to pay a farthing to bury th Note 26 · When a few months after Innocent’s death Donna Olimpia endeavoured to put herself on her old footing at the Vatican Court, by sending a valu Note 27 · ‘Non piangere Pasquino Chè sarà tuo compagno Maidalchino.’Note 28 · His want of capacity seems however to have been compensated by his goodness of heart. ↑Note 29 · ‘Noi volemo altro che guglie e fontane: Pane volemo, pane! pane! pane!’Note 30 · and Note 31 · ‘Ut lapides isti panes fiant!’