One evening, as he was sitting in his study, with the window open, a body of "Whiteboys" surrounded the house which belonged to an unpopular landlord, and of which Dr. Wills had consented to take charge for a time, in return for the convenience of the occupation. The Whiteboys sent in, through the open window, a large dog which accompanied them. Dr. Wills took up his gun, and jumped out after the dog, which he shot in the middle of the men; and as they gathered round it, swearing, he cocked the other barrel, and walked into the midst of them, saying, that "If it had been the dog's master he would have served him in the same manner.” Another instance of personal "pluck" was afforded in a contested election in the Queen's county, in which Dr. Wills's carriage was smashed to pieces with stones, and he received a severe injury on the head, but insisted on going on, covered with blood, to record his vote for the candidate to whom he had promised his support. THE POET TO HIS PEN. My wearied Quill, thy toil hath made thee And wearied too's the hand that bade thee And careless of the faithful penny We shall trust the fickle pound, We shall pluck, nor let winds toss 'em, In some sleepy green retreat. H A PAPAL RETROSPECT. CHAPTER VIII. To the odious list of vices with which Julius II. dishonoured the pontificate, we may add, observes Mosheim, "the most savage ferocity, the most audacious arrogance, the most despotic vehemence of temper, and the most extravagant and frenetic passion for war and bloodshed. His whole pontificate was one continued scene of military tumult; nor did he suffer Europe to enjoy a moment's tranquillity as long as he lived. We may easily imagine the miserable condition of the Church under a Vicar of Christ, who lived in camps, amidst the din of arms, and who was ambitious of no other fame than that which arose from battles won and cities laid desolate. Under such a pontiff, all things must have gone to ruin; the laws must have been subverted, the discipline of the Church destroyed, and the genuine lustre of true religion entirely effaced.”— Eccles. Hist., 16th Cent., book. iv. sec. i. chap. i. On his accession to the tiara, October, 1503, Julius found the Papal treasury entirely exhausted, notwithstanding the vast contributions and exactions that flowed into it from all parts of Western Christendom. His mind was full of daring projects; but without allies, and destitute of resources, his ambitious spirit had to endure the mortification of an enforced quietude. For the space of three years he chafed under the restraints imposed by his necessities, but all the while he was preparing for the great enterprises that occupied his mind. By retrenching all avoidable expenses, and practising the most rigid parsimony, he accumulated during those years a sum sufficiently great to embolden him in disclosing his bellicose policy. His first attempt to carry his ambitious designs into execution, was directed to the conquest of Perugia and Bologna, on the pretence that they formed parts of the ancient possessions of the Church! He applied to the King of France to assist him, but Louis XII. refused, and earnestly depre cated the Pope's design as calculated to involve Italy once more in the horrors and calamities of war. But the warlike pontiff was not to be dissuaded. He assembled a Consistory, and declared that he was about to march for the recovery of Perugia and Bologna with the full approbation of the King of France, and in confident reliance on his promised assistance. When Louis XII. heard this, he said, alluding to one of the Pope's infirmities, "Surely his Holiness must have indulged, more than usual, his love of wine, when he declared what must oblige me either to quarrel with him, or to countenance an unreasonable undertaking!"-Guicciard., 1. 7. Julius, on the 27th of August, 1506, marched from Rome on his first military expedition. He was attended by no less than twentyfour cardinals, and his first campaign was a great triumph, for he met with no resistance. Perugia, unprepared for defence, surrendered; and the King of France, not wishing to come to an open rupture with the Pope, sent some troops against Bologna; the city capitulated, and Julius made a triumphal entry with great pomp and military display. Success so signal acted as oil to the flames of the Pope's ambitious designs and bellicose propensities. In February, 1507, he returned to Rome, and unmindful of the support he had received from Louis XII., commenced negotiations with the Emperor and the German princes for the purpose of forming a confederacy to deprive France of her Italian possessions. But owing to the prudence of Louis XII., the efforts of the pontiff were not successful. Julius next directed his aggressive policy against "The Queen of the Adriatic." The Venetians were then, as regards commercial industry, prosperity, and national wealth, combined with a high spirit of patriotism and independence, the premier State in Italy, and had often set the usurping pretensions of the Papacy at defiance. To effect the total overthrow of the prosperous Republic, that he might annex coveted portions of its territories to the States of the Church, Julius earnestly entered into negotiations with France, Germany, and Spain for the partition of the Venetian States among themselves, and was suc cessful in forming the infamous League of Cambray, which was settled by a treaty signed on the 10th of December, 1508. The perfidiousness of the policy that then ruled the Papacy was never more transparent than in this transaction. Guicciardini and Onuphrius relate that, having negotiated the league, Pope Julius informed the Venetians of their danger, and offered to betray his allies if the Venetians consented to his terms! Before he signed the treaty, the Pope informed the Venetian ambassador at Rome of its contents, and offered not to confirm the league, but to raise difficulties and frustrate it altogether, provided the Venetians ceded to him the cities of Rimini and Faenza! The Venetian Senate, however, rejected the proposed terms, whereupon the Pope, in a rage of disappointment, fulminated a sentence of excommunication against them; but they had no fear of mere spiritual thunders, and no regard was paid to the excommunication save by a few monks and friars. The Pope also confirmed the league by a bull, dated at Rome, the 22nd of March, 1508, and the exasperated Venetians vented their anger, as Bembo relates, in describing "the father of the faithful" as better qualified for the office of a public executioner than for that of the pontificate. Non pontifice, ma carnefice, d'ogni crudeltà maestro.Guicciard., 1.8; Onuphrius's Life of Julius, Raymund ad ann., 1509. The war that followed brought Venice to the very verge of ruin, for it was impossible that so small a State, with all its wealth and resources, could offer effectual resistance to the combined arms of such powerful Leaguers as Spain, France, Germany, and the Pope. Had the Leaguers maintained good faith with one another, and acted in unison and with promptitude, Venice, as an independent State, would have been blotted from.the map of Italy! But they did not do so, and the salvation of Venice was effected by the indecision, selfishness, and mutual jealousies of its enemies. The Pope was the first to manifest perfidy. Driven to bay, the Venetians yielded all that the ambitious Pontiff demanded, and sup plicated his protection. There can be no doubt that, about this time, the mind of Julius began to contemplate the grand scheme of a United Italy, under the despotism of the Papacy, as under the Cæsars of old! It was not compatible with the realization of this magnificent idea that France, Spain, and Germany should consolidate their power over their Italian provinces, and, therefore, we find that the Pope now laboured as zealously to nullify the League, and frustrate its aims, as he had intrigued and negotiated to create it. It was a matter of no moment to the Pope that the Leaguers had solemnly contracted not to conclude peace separately, but conjointly. No considerations of treaty engage ments, or of honour, stood in the way of his ambitious policy. When he thought the moment opportune, he turned round, relinquished all the solemn engagements contracted with his allies, and, exacting great concessions from the Venetians, absolved them from all the anathemas he had thundered against them in his excommunications, and entered into an alliance with them to drive the French from Italy! Julius had sufficient art to induce Spain to join in this new league, being well aware that his idea of a united Italy could only be realized by playing the ambition of one great power against another, while he commanded the position and "held the stakes." This new alliance was called the "Holy League," and the Pope endeavoured to win the Emperor Maximilian to his views, and detach him from his alliance with France by offering him a large sum of money. He also sought to induce the city of Genoa to revolt against the rule of France, and paid great court to Henry VIII. of England, in the hope that he might be prevailed on to join the league, and invade the seaboard provinces of France. He sent Henry the "consecrated rose," anointed with chrism and perfumed with musk, and hired 15,000 Swiss mercenaries to carry the horrors of war into Italian homes.*-Lunig, vol. ii, pp. 2002, 2499; Rapin, vol.i. p. 708. As the Duke of Ferrara would not renounce his alliance with France, the Pope resolved to declare war against him, in the hope of conquering the Principality and annexing it to the States of the Church. A colourable pretext was not wanting. The Pope had salt mines at Cervia, and he claimed to possess a monopoly of the salt supply for all Italy. The Duke of Ferrara, on the other hand, had prolific mines at Commachio, which competed with those of the Pope, and an arbitrary demand was made that they should be closed. After some hesitation the Duke, by the advice of France, in the hope of avoiding war, agreed to close his mines; but the Pope desired war, and made other demands which the Duke could not comply with, and so war became inevitable. Such was the way in which the "League of Cambray" was broken * Subsequently Henry VIII. was induced to join the "Holy League." The Pope played upon his vanity, and promised to deprive the French monarch of the title, Most Christian King, and confer it upon him. In July, 1513, Henry landed at Calais, and with the aid of the Emperor Maximilian, who joined him as a mercenary, and was allowed one hundred ducats a day to defray the expenses of his table, got together some 50,000 men, and laid siege to Teroünne. The French, under the Duke de Longueville, in attempting to raise the siege brought on a general engagement at a place called Guinegate, on Aug. 16, 1513, which was derisively designated The Battle of Spurs, because, as alleged, the French on that disastrous day plied their spurs more vigorously than their swords. up, and the "Holy League" formed, in consequence of the crooked, treacherous, and ambitious policy of the Pope. Thus, says the German historian Kohlrausch, "in the course of a few years friendship gave way to hostility, and the latter again yielded to the former. Spain, for instance, from being at first hostile had become allied with, but was now hostile to, Venice, and throughout the whole of this, foul treachery appeared to pass for wisdom, whilst honour was treated as nothing." The Pope commenced the war by excommunicating the Duke of Ferrara, and all who adhered to or countenanced him. This sweeping sentence included the Emperor and Louis XII., who were thus virtually placed under the anathema of the Church! But Papal thunder had lost its terrors, its lightning was scatheless, though the conduct of the King of France on this occasion shows how deep and grovelling, and hard to be eradicated, was the ignorance and superstition that still lingered in high places respecting the office and pretensions of the Papacy. The King sent the Cardinal of Auch to the Pope, to remonstrate against such an unjustifiable exercise of pontifical power as the excommunication involved, but Julius, disdaining to reply, sent the cardinal to a dungeon in the Castle of St. Angelo. Whereupon the King, exasperated and alarmed, assembled a council of his clergy at Tours, and submitted to them the following questions: "Whether the Pope had a right to make war, when neither the interests of religion nor the domains of the Church were in danger? "Whether a prince might seize the Ecclesiastical States, in case the Pope were his declared enemy, and keep temporary possession of them, until he should have humbled his adversary ? cumstances, a subtraction of obedience, under certain restrictions, were lawful? "Whether a prince might defend another prince, his ally, against the pontifical arms?" The French episcopacy and clergy of that day, honourably distinguished from their servile and miracle-mongering successors of the present, patriotically answered :— That the King's arms were just, and that the Pope's were not, and that he might proceed to the offensive part in his own defence." (Mezerai, Abreg. Chron., vol. iv. p. 453.) This answer removed the superstitious scruples of the King, and he felt justified in resisting the ambitious aggressions of the Pope. In a moment of exultant enthusiasm he had a medal designed and struck off, bearing the title and arms of France and Naples with his own portrait, and the significant inscription - Perdam Babylonis nomen! The Pope full of military ardour, and impatient for conquest, resolved to undertake a winter campaign against Ferrara. He commenced the siege of Mirandola in December, 1510, and, as Guicciardini relates, took up his quarters in the town of St. Felix, a few miles from the camp, which he visited daily to animate his troops, and urge on the siege. One day the celebrated Chevalier Bayard laid an ambuscade for his Holiness, and nearly succeeded in capturing him. He had to fly with all possible speed, and just escaped by crossing the drawbridge and lending a hand to rapidly raise it!-Hist. du Chev. Bayard, c. 42; Guicciard., 1. 9. The siege advanced but slowly, and the Pope resolved to leave St. Felix and take up his quarters with the besiegers, in order the better to stimulate their ardour. He discharged all the functions of a "Whether under the same cir- general, was constantly on horse |