death,
mounted to the assault with the utmost valor, and entering the city
sword in hand, exercised all those brutalities which may be expected
from ferocity excited by resistance, and from insolence which takes
place when that resistance is no more. This renowned city, exposed by
her renown alone to so many calamities, never endured, in any age, even
from the barbarians by whom she was often subdued, such indignities as
she was now compelled to suffer. The unrestrained massacre and pillage,
which continued for several days, were the least ills to which the
unhappy Romans were exposed.[*] Whatever was respectable in modesty or
sacred in religion, seemed but the more to provoke the insults of the
soldiery. Virgins suffered violation in the arms of their parents, and
upon those very altars to which they had fled for protection.

* Guicciard. lib. xviii. Bellai. Stowe, p. 527.

Aged prelates, after enduring every indignity, and even every torture,
were thrown into dungeons, and menaced with the most cruel death, in
order to make them reveal their secret treasures, or purchase liberty by
exorbitant ransoms. Clement himself, who had trusted for protection to
the sacredness of his character, and neglected to make his escape in
time, was taken captive; and found that his dignity, which procured him
no regard from the Spanish soldiers, did but draw on him the insolent
mockery of the German, who, being generally attached to the Lutheran
principles, were pleased to gratify their animosity by the abasement of
the sovereign pontiff.

When intelligence of this great event was conveyed to the emperor,
that young prince, habituated to hypocrisy, expressed the most profound
sorrow for the success of his arms: he put himself and all his court in
mourning: he stopped the rejoicings for the birth of his son Philip: and
knowing that every artifice, however gross, is able, when seconded by
authority, to impose upon the people, he ordered prayers during several
months to be put up in the churches for the pope's liberty; which all
men knew a letter under his hand could in a moment have procured.

The concern expressed by Henry and Francis for the calamity of their
ally was more sincere. These two monarchs, a few days before the sack
of Rome, had concluded a treaty[*] at Westminster, in which, besides
renewing former alliances, they agreed to send ambassadors to Charles,
requiring him to accept of two millions of crowns as the ransom