CHAP. V.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

119

died suddenly of poison among the French is un-fortunately only too certain . 1 If the emerald wasof no avail—when its office would have been mostneedful—he satisfied himself by saying, It waswritten! And how resist the will of the Eternal?Had lie not predestined all things? Man has butto submit!

That nation (the French) not having at any timeacquired the fame of poisoners, but quite the reverse,no one ever suspected them; but the common voiceis, that the tragedy begun by Cibo’s barber, withouthis master’s knowledge, was finished by Borgia’s,with his consent, or rather by his orders. It seemsto have been the same man who was barber to both;but howsoever that may be, the base instrument isbeneath attention, since the writer held highest andmost orthodox at Rome, Raynaldi, the ecclesiasticalhistorian, is unanswerable, and is quoted byBouhours,who would have doubted, if an honest doubt could beindulged, the words thus weighty with a twofoldweight,thequoterandthequoted. “Perstringuntnon-nulli Yenetos Turcico corruptos auro operam dedisseutveneno Zizimusnecaretur; aliiautem AlexandrumPontificem carpunt qui Zizimum tabo infectumGallo Regi tradiderit .” 2 Nor, on another point, is

1 Bosio: par. ii., lib. xv.

2 Raynaldi : Anna!. Ecoles., anno 1495.