The Works of Lord Byron Volume V Part 135

[df] _We'll add a "Count" to it_.--[MS.]

[dg] {498} ----_my eyes are full_.--[MS.]

[230] [Charles de Bourbon, Comte de Montpensier et de la Marche, Dauphin d'Auvergne, was born February 17, 1490. He served in Italy with Bayard, and helped to decide the victory of Agnadello (A.D. 1510). He was appointed Constable of France by Francis I., January, 1515, and fought at the battle of Marignano, September 13, 1515. Not long afterwards he lost the king's favour, who was set against him by his mother, Louise de Savoie; was recalled from his command in Italy, and superseded by Odet de Foix, brother of the king's mistress. It was not, however, till he became a widower (Susanne, d.u.c.h.esse de Bourbon, died April 28, 1521) that he finally broke with Francis and attached himself to the Emperor Charles V. _Madame_, the king's mother, not only coveted the vast estates of the house of Bourbon, but was enamoured of the Constable's person, and, so to speak, gave him his choice between marriage and a suit for his fiefs. Charles would have nothing to say to the lady's proposals or to her son's entreaties, and seeing that rejection meant ruin, he "entered into a correspondence with the Emperor and the King [Henry VIII.] of England ... and, finding this discovered, went into the Emperor's service."

After various and varying successes, both in the South of France and in Lombardy, he found himself, in the spring of 1527, not so much the commander-in-chief as the popular _capo_ of a mixed body of German, Spanish, and Italian _condottieri_, unpaid and ill-disciplined, who had mutinied more than once, who could only be kept together by the prospect of unlimited booty, and a timely concession to their demands. "To Rome!

to Rome!" cried the hungry and tumultuous _landsknechts_, and on May 5, 1527, the "late Constable of France," at the head of an army of 30,000 troops, appeared before the walls of the sacred city. On the morning of the 6th of May, he was killed by a shot from an arquebuse. His epitaph recounts his honours: "Aucto Imperio, Gallo victo, Superata Italia, Pontifice obsesso, Roma capta, Borbonius, Hic Jacet;" but in Paris they painted the sill of his gate-way yellow, because he was a renegade and a traitor. He could not have said, with the dying Bayard, "Ne me plaignez pas-je meurs sans avoir servi contre _ma patrie, mon roy_, et mon serment." (See _Modern Universal History_, 1760, xxiv. 150-152, Note C; _Nouvelle Biographie Universelle_, art. "Bourbon.")]

[231] {499}[The contrast is between imperial Rome, the Lord of the world, and papal Rome, "the great harlot which hath corrupted the earth with her fornications" (_Rev._ ii. 19). Compare Part II. sc. iii. line 26, _vide post_, p. 521.]

[232] {500}[Compare _Manfred_, act iii. sc. 4, line 10; and _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza cxxviii. line 1; _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv.

131, 1899, ii. 423, note 2.]

[233] {501}["Calvitii vero deformitatem iniquissime ferret, saepe obtrectatorum jocis obnoxiam expertus. Ideoque et deficientem capillum revocare a vertice a.s.suerat, et ex omnibus decretis sibi a Senatu populoque honoribus non aliud aut recepit aut usurpavit libentius, quam jus laureae coronae perpetuo gestandae."--Suetonius, _Opera Omnia_, 1826, pp. 105, 106.]

[234] {503}[Francis the First was taken prisoner at the Battle of Pavia, February 24, 1525.]

[dh] _With a soldier's firm foot_.--[MS.]

[235] [Compare _The Siege of Corinth_, line 752, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 483. There is a note of tragic irony in the soldiers' vain-glorious prophecy.]

[di] _With the Bourbon will count o'er_.--[MS.]

[236] {504}[Brantome (_Memoires, etc._, 1722, i. 215) quotes a "chanson"

of "Les soldats Espagnols" as they marched Romewards. "Calla calla Julio Cesar, Hannibal, y Scipion! Viva la fama de Bourbon."]

[dj] _The General with his men of confidence_.--[MS.]

[dk] {505} _And present phantom of that deathless world_.--[MS.]

[237] {506}[When the Uticans decided not to stand a siege, but to send deputies to Caesar, Cato determined to put an end to his life rather than fall into the hands of the conqueror. Accordingly, after he had retired to rest he stabbed himself under the breast, and when the physician sewed up the wound, he thrust him away, and plucked out his own bowels.--Plutarch's _Lives_, Langhorne's Translation, 1838, P. 553.]

[dl] {507} _Of a mere starving_----.--[MS.]

[dm] ----_Work away with words_.--[MS.]

[dn] {508} _First City rests upon to-morrow's action_.--[MS.]

[238] {510}["Des l'aube du lundi 6 mai 1527, le connetable, a cheval, la cuira.s.se couverte d'un manteau blanc, marcha vers le Borgo, dont les murailles, a la hauteur de San-Spirito, etaient d'acces facile....

Bourbon mit pied a terre, et, prenant lui-meme une ech.e.l.le l'appliqua tout pres de la porte Torrione."--_De l'Italie_, par emile Gebhart, 1876, p. 255. Caesar Grolierius (_Historia expugnatae ... Urbis_, 1637), who claims to speak as an eye-witness (p. 2), describes "Borbonius" as "insignemque veste et armis" (p. 62).]

[do] _'Tis the morning--Hark! Hark! Hark!_--[MS.]

[239] {512} Scipio, the second Africa.n.u.s, is said to have repeated a verse of Homer [_Iliad_, vi. 448], and wept over the burning of Carthage [B.C. 146]. He had better have granted it a capitulation.

[dp] _Than such victors should pollute_.--[MS.]

[240] {514}[Byron retains or adopts the old-fas.h.i.+oned p.r.o.nunciation of the word "Rome" _metri gratia_. Compare _The Island_, Canto II. line 199.]

[241] ["Le bouillant Bourbon, a la tete des plus intrepides a.s.saillans tenoit, de la main gauche une ech.e.l.le appuyee centre le mur, et de la droite faisoit signe a ses soldats de monter pour suivre leurs camarades; en ce moment il recut dans le flanc une balle d'arquebuse qui le traversa de part en part; il tomba a terre, mortellement blesse. On rapporte qu'avant d'expirer il p.r.o.nonca ces mots: 'Officiers et soldats, cacher ma mort a l'ennemi et marchez toujours en avant; la victoire est a vous, mon trepas ne peut vous la ravir.'"--_Sac de Rome en 1527_, par Jacques Buonaparte, 1836, p. 201.]

[242] {515}["Quand il sent.i.t le coup, se print a cryer: 'Jesus!' et puis il dist 'Helas! mon Dieu, je suis mort!' Si prit son espee par la poignee en signe de croix en disant tout hault, 'Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam.'"--_Chronique de Bayart_, 1836, cap. lxiv., p. 119. For his rebuke of Charles de Bourbon, "Ne me plaignez pas,"

etc., _vide ante_, p. 499.]

[243] ["'M. de Bourbon,' dit un contemporain, 'termina de vie par mort, mais avant fist le devoir de bon, Chrestien; car il se confessa et recut son Createur."'--_De l'Italie_, par emile Gebhart, 1876, p. 256.]

[244] {516}["While I was at work upon that diabolical task of mine, there came, from time to time, to watch me, some of the Cardinals who were invested in the castle; and most frequently the Cardinal of Ravenna and the Cardinal de' Gaddi. I often told them not to show themselves, since their nasty red caps gave a fair mark for the enemy."--_Life of Benvenuto Cellini_, translated by J. A. Symonds, 1888, i. 112. See, too, for the flight of the Cardinals, _Sac de Rome_, par Jacques Buonaparte, Paris, 1836, p. 203.]

[dq] {517} _Covered with gore and glory--those good times_.--[MS.]

[245] ["Directing my arquebuse where I saw the thickest and most serried troop of fighting men, I aimed exactly at one whom I remarked to be higher than the rest; the fog prevented me from being certain whether he was on horseback or on foot. Then I turned to Alessandro and Cecchino, and bade them discharge their arquebuses, showing them how to avoid being hit by the besiegers. When we had fired two rounds apiece, I crept cautiously up to the walls, and observing a most extraordinary confusion, I discovered afterwards that one of our shots had killed the Constable of Bourbon; and from what I subsequently learned he was the man whom I had first noticed above the heads of the rest." It is a fact "that Bourbon was shot dead near the spot Cellini mentions. But the honour of flying the arquebuse ... cannot be a.s.signed to any one in particular."--_Life of Benvenuto Cellini_, 1888, i. 114, and note.]

[246] {519}[Compare _Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte_, stanza vi. line 2, _Poetical Works_, 1900, in. 307, note 3.]

[dr]

_'Tis the moment_ _When such I fain would show me_.--[MS.]

[247] {520}[Among the Imperial troops which Charles de Bourbon led against Rome were at least six thousand Landsknechts, ardent converts to the Reformed religion, and eager to prove their zeal by the slaughter of Catholics and the destruction of altars and crucifixes. Their leader, George Frundsberg, had set out for Rome with the pious intention of hanging the Pope (see _The Popes of Rome_, by Leopold Ranke, translated by Sarah Austen, 1866, i. 72). Brantome (_Memoirs de Messire Pierre de Bourdeille_.... Leyde, 1722, i. 230) gives a vivid picture of their fanatical savagery: "Leur cruaute ne s'estendit pas seulement sur les personnes, mais sur les marbres et les anciennes statues. Les Lansquenets, qui nouvellement estoient imbus de la nouvelle Religion, et les Espagnols encore aussi bien que les autres, s'habilloient en Cardinaux et evesques en leur habits Pontificaux et se pourmenoient ainsi parray la Ville."

In the Schmalkald articles, 1530, the pious belief that the Pope was Antichrist became an article of the Lutheran creed. Compare the following extracts, quoted by Hans Schultz in _Der Sacco di Roma_, 1894, p. 63, from the _Historia von der Romischen Bischoff, etc._, 1527:

"Der Papst ist fur den Verfa.s.ser der Antichrist, der durch Lug und Trug seine Herrschaft in der Welt behauptet."

"Quant a l'armee imperiale, on n'en vit jamais de plus etonnante....

Allemands et Espagnols, lutheriens iconoclastes qui brulaient les eglises, ou furieux mystiques qui brulaient Juils et Maures, barbares plus raffines que _leur vieux ancetres les Visigoths, les Vandales et les Huns_, ils frappaient l'Italie d'une terreur sans exemple."--_De I'italie_, by E. Gebliart, chap. vii., "Le Sac de Rome en 1527," p.

245.]

[ds]

_Hus.h.!.+ don't let him hear you_ _Or he might take you off before your time_.--[MS.]

[248] {521}["We got with the greatest difficulty to the gate of the castle.... I ascended to the keep, and, at the same instant, Pope Clement came in through the corridors into the castle; he had refused to leave the palace of St. Peter earlier, being unable to believe that his enemies would effect their entrance into Rome."--_Life of Benvenuto Cellini_, translated by J. A. Symonds, 1888, i. 114, 115.

So, too, Jacques Buonaparte (_Le Sac de Rome_, 1836, p. 202): "Le Pape Clement, avoit entendu les cris des soldats; il se sauvoit precipitamment par un long corridor pratique dans un mur double et se laissoit emporter de son palais an chateau Saint-Ange."]

[249] {526}[Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, was slain by Achilles, who wept over her as she lay a-dying, bewailing her beauty and her daring. For the picture, see Pausanias, _Descriptio Graeciae_, lib, v.

cap. 11, 2.]

[250] {527}[See _Gen_. vi. 2, the motto of _Heaven and Earth, ante_, p, 277.]

[251] ["It came to pa.s.s the same day, that in Echatane a city of Media, Sara the daughter of Raguel was also reproached by her father's maids; because that she had been married to seven husbands, whom Asmodeus the evil spirit had killed before they had lain with her.... And as he went, he remembered the words of Raphael, and took the ashes of the perfumes, and put the heart and the liver of the fish thereupon, and made smoke therewith. The which smell when the evil spirit had smelled, he fled into the utmost parts of Egypt."--_Tobit_ iii. 7, 8; viii. 2, 3.]

[dt] {528} _The first born who burst the winter sun_.--[MS.]

[du] ----_through the brine_.--[MS.]

[252] {533}[Lucifer or Mephistopheles, renamed Caesar, wears the shape of the Deformed Arnold. It may be that Byron intended to make Olimpia bestow her affections, not on the glorious Achilles, but the witty and interesting Hunchback.]