Note 11 — LETTER XXXII.

Since these Letters were wrote, he is actually return’d, and hitherto he is come but poorly off. Tho’ his Fate be not yet intirely determin’d, ’tis certain that he will not be degraded. A Sentence has been pass’d upon him, and ratify’d, whereby he is declar’d excommunicate, and out of a Possibility of being absolv’d, but by the Pope, even in articulo mortis; he is also to be confin’d in a Fortress, depriv’d of the Power of Speaking or Voting, &c. But as omnia venalia Roma, even more now than in Jugurtha’s Time, the Cardinal del Gindici, who is a Friend of his Eminency Coscia, gave him to understand, that the Pope was resolv’d to treat him as a Grand Vizier in Disgrace; that he must absolutely refund, and that all his Sins shou’d be blotted out. Consequently his Eminency submitted to implore his Holiness’s Clemency, on Condition of paying well for it; and in fine, his Pardon has been tax’d at thirty thousand Ducats. He has clamour’d against it not a little; but the Holy Father wou’d not abate an Ace of it, and the Cardinal was forc’d to acquiesce; however, as he always watches for the Death of the Pope, he desir’d to pay it at several Terms; and upon depositing ten thousand Crowns down, he immediately receiv’d Absolution, his Guards were taken off, and he had Liberty granted him to walk about in the Castle of St. Angelo, and to converse there with his Brother the Bishop of Targa. He pleads Poverty, and shuffles off his Payments from one time to another, in constant Expectation that the Gout will rise into the Pope’s Stomach, and take him out of his Way. At length, in 1734, he paid down ten thousand Crowns more. But a Collector of Taxes, from whom he formerly receiv’d a great Present to procure him an Acquittance from the Chamber, to which he ow’d seventy thousand Crowns, died lately insolvent, and without making good the Fraud; and as Cæsar, they say, loses nothing, the Chamber comes upon Cardinal Coscia, who is condemn’d to pay this Deficiency too, and the Pope won’t hear any Talk of compounding it.