nly the fierceness, sternness, and
indomitable will of the man remained. He felt himself to be placed on a
height from which every thing beneath him appeared on one level. The
cardinals, with their ancient blood and accomplished statesmanship, were
no more to him than the meanest drudges in his dominions; and when they
first attempted remonstrate at his proceedings, he answered them with such
withering disdain, that the proudest of them quailed beneath his eye. He
told them distinctly that he was not only their spiritual head but their
temporal king, and that in neither capacity would he brook any
interference with his authority. It was the custom, on the accession of a
pope, for the prisoners to be manumitted in all the jails of Rome; and the
consequence of this equivocal mercy was, that these places of durance were
always full at such a time--the whole villainy of the city taking the
opportunity of committing murders, robberies, and other great crimes that
would be cheaply visited by a brief imprisonment. When Sixtus was asked,
as a matter of form, for his sanction to the discharge of the prisoners,
he peremptorily refused it. In vain the members of the holy college, in
vain the civic authorities, implored him not to set tradition at defiance:
he ordered for instant execution those legally deserving of death, and in
the case of the others, did not abate a single day of their confinement.
Even the respect paid to his own person by the populace became a crime,
since it interfered with his designs. The perpetual _vivas_ with which he
was greeted made his whereabout so public that he could not come unawares
into any suspected place, and he issued an order forbidding such
demonstrations. One day, however, two citizens were so enthusiastic in
their loyalty that they could not repress the cry of "Long live the Pope!"
which rose to their lips; whereupon the offenders were instantly laid hold
of by the orders of Sixtus, and received a hearty flogging.

This _parvenu_ pope treated with other monarchs with the unbending dignity
which might have been looked for in the descendant of a line of kings; and
in some cases--more especially that of Spain--he exhibited the
uncompromising sternness of his character. But where the interest of his
policy was not involved--where the actors in the drama of life moved in
circles that had no contact with his--he admired with all his impulsive
soul a masculine and independent spirit. So far did he