beyed his master, established himself in Avignon, and the King
to all intents and purposes had taken the Pontificate captive and lost
no time in using it for his own ends against the Empire, his hereditary
foe. Such, in a few words, is the history of that memorable transaction;
and but for the previous quarrels of Colonna, Caetani and Orsini, it
could never have taken place. The Orsini repented bitterly of what they
had done, for one of Clement the Fifth's first acts was to 'annul
altogether all sentences whatsoever pronounced against the Colonna.'

But the Pope being gone, the Barons had Rome in their power and used it
for a battlefield. Four years later, we find in Villani the first record
of a skirmish fought between Orsini and Colonna. In the month of
October, 1309, says the chronicler, certain of the Orsini and of the
Colonna met outside the walls of Rome with their followers, to the
number of four hundred horse, and fought together, and the Colonna won;
and there died the Count of Anguillara, and six of the Orsini were
taken, and Messer Riccardo degli Annibaleschi who was in their company.

Three years afterwards, Henry of Luxemburg alternately feasted and
fought his way to Rome to be crowned Emperor in spite of Philip the
Fair, the Tuscan league and Robert, King of Naples, who sent a thousand
horsemen out of the south to hinder the coronation. In a day Rome was
divided into two great camps. Colonna held for the Emperor the Lateran,
Santa Maria Maggiore, the Colosseum, the Torre delle Milizie,--the brick
tower on the lower part of the modern Via Nazionale,--the Pantheon, as
an advanced post in one direction, and Santa Sabina, a church that was
almost a fortress, on the south, by the Tiber,--a chain of fortresses
which would be formidable in any modern revolution. Against Henry,
however, the Orsini held the Vatican and Saint Peter's, the Castle of
Sant' Angelo and all Trastevere, their fortresses in the Region of
Ponte, and, moreover, the Capitol itself. The parties were well matched,
for, though Henry entered Rome on the seventh of May, the struggle
lasted till the twenty-ninth of June.

Those who have seen revolutions can guess at the desperate fighting in
the barricaded streets, and at the well-guarded bridges from one end of
the city to the other. Backwards and forwards the battle raged for days
and weeks, by day and night, with small time for rest and refreshment.
Forward rode the Colonna, the stolid Germans,