262 THE HISTORY OE THE ORDER OE [book ill.

word, and expired in about eight hours. 1 It is to behoped that what he left undone ClementVILwill do.As an earnest, the grand master was made Captainof the Guard of that conclave; during which hemerited the trust of all the cardinals, and lived infamiliarity with them; courteous to them all, butpartial to none, as became his high post.

In the chamber called Bussola how many of hisknights were painted in their scarlet sopravests, bythe great Raphael d’Urbino, may still be seen, saysBosio; not that the knights themselves composedthe guard, but had two thousand hired troopsunder them at the expense of the Papacy. 2 No oneprobably will blame my having had considerablesatisfaction at finding in the British Museum whatproves how accurate the chronology on which Ihad determined—consistent with it neither couldL’Isle Adam have written a letter to the King ofEngland from Rome, much before December, 1523,or later than the 25th of January immediatelynext, when he left that metropolis. Taking up theCottonian, I knew I was on sacred ground, onlydangerous for weak eyes like mine, from the minute,crabbed, and nearly obliterated writing. But whatmy delight at finding there (discovery all my own)the original letter of L’lsle Adam, dated Rome 26th

2 Bosio : par. iii., lib. ii. 21.

1 Bourbon: 30.