deliberations, "Now, my faithful friends, attend me to the Church of the Madonna del Gratia, where we intend to wed the lovely novice, Beatrice Alfresci, to an earthly husband, and not to the heavenly one appointed by her interested guardian. Albrizzi di Vis conti, who has saved us from the midnight stab of the assassin, shall find my heart is ever grateful for the service, and the signet, given him on that night, has proved the day star of his hope. And now we will away." THE SACK OF ROME, MAY, 1527. 'FROM AN ORIGINAL SPANISH LETTER OF THE TIME. FRAGMENT of a letter touching the assault and sack of Rome, in May 1527, the imperialist army being commanded by the constable, Charles de Bourbon, who, from pique against Francis I., the king of France, followed the party of Charles V. of Spain, and was killed during the assault by a shot from an arquebuss on the 6th of May, 1527. secrets, and the sins of this people have been exceeding great, God alone knoweth the cause why such persecution hath befallen them. We have, likewise, had our share thereof, since no respect was shewn to any one, whatever was his nation or condition, his quality or estate. This same Monday, sir, and before the assault, Monsieur de Bourbon, seeing the small account MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SIR,-On the 1st of May, 1527, which the Pope and the Roman people took of his I wrote to you fully, and forwarded certain papers coming, did send a trumpeter to invite the Romans touching the house which was bought of the Dean to send some person or persons with whom he might and Chapter, together with other papers and old treat concerning the delivery of the town into his documents connected therewith. I did likewise in-hands, so as to save Rome from being sacked: and form you of the death of Doctor Juan Farnandez,- Señor Renzo de Cheri Ursino, who had been made who, I trust, is in heaven,-and of other matters, the captain-general of the Pope's army, dismissed the which you will see more fully set forth in the copies trumpeter with rough words. This did anger Bourof sundry letters herewith enclosed. For which rea- bon, and add more fury to his assault. In order to son, in this letter I will summarily, and in few words, animate his own people, Bourbon placed himself in narrate what hath occurred since I last wrote; see- the front rank, and was killed in one of the first dising that you will learn from the bearer of these charges by a shot from an arquebuss. This death of despatches all particulars. But such great events as Bourbon was the cause of three parts of the mischiefs have occurred, that no time, no wisdom, no judg- and cruelties which did not afterwards ensue, seeing ment, would be sufficient to detail them. that, even had Rome been sacked, the pillaging would have lasted one day instead of nine or ten, as it did actually last; during which time the imperialists were unceasingly plundering and killing; or torturing people to make them discover were their money and goods were concealed. Last Saturday month (the 4th of May, 1527) parties from the imperialist army.began to shew themselves in the neighbourhood of Rome, after having made a feint of marching upon Florence. That same day several horsemen sallied forth from Rome to skirmish with them, and brought in some eight or ten stragglers of the imperialist light horse; the which did cause much rejoicing in Rome. Sir, after the Borgo had been carried by assault, and all the people there killed, the Prince of Orange, and the other captains, to prevent, if possible, the The army, sir, advanced with such rapidity, that, on sacking of Rome, did send another trumpeter, with Monday, the 6th of May,-leaving behind them the an officer, to require the Romans to treat with them. heavy artillery wherewith to batter the walls, party They demanded money to pay the imperialists, and of Spaniards carried by escalade the strongest point of to have the best quarters for their troops. Again Rome, that part lying between the Belvidere and the Señor Renzo de Cheri Ursino, the captain-general, gate of San Pancratio; and, I may almost say, that in did reply discourteously, and warned them that if one moment they carried the Borgo. The Spaniards they came again he would infallibly hang them up fired at the Pope during his flight from the Vatican to by the neck. And although the Roman people, the castle of St. Angelo, and, had they been quicker, seeing and knowing the certain perdition to which -by the time one might say three credos or so, they were exposed, wished to send their delegates to they would have caught his holiness in the Vatican. Monsieur de Bourbon, neither the Pope nor the capIn the space of one hour they killed so many people tain-general would ever give way. The imperialists, in the Borgo, that none but those who could manage therefore, seeing that nothing was to be got by good to find refuge in the castle of St. Angelo escaped, words, entered Rome in such a manner that the sack with their lives. I heard say that the loss on the lasted nine or ten days, during which time the greatside of his holiness is above six thousand,-nay, est cruelties were committed, the which are so numersome go so far as to say even eight thousand men,ous, sir, that neither ink nor paper would be suffiwhile the imperialists have not lost above a hundred cient to indite, nor any man's memory capable to men, and these were chiefly killed by the artillery. It was like a miracle; but the cruelties which the imperialists have since committed detract somewhat from the idea that this miracle was performed from any merit of theirs. But, as these matters are God's retain them. We who escaped with our lives, whether Spaniards, Germans, or Italians, do consider ourselves most fortunate. If any house has escaped well in all Rome, it is that one which is occupied by me and by the secretary Perez; for I wrote to you that when the Duke of Sesa left Rome I took in | Men, women, and children,-all had to pay; many the secretary Perez. We paid a ransom of two thou-were tortured, nay, many were killed, with unheard sand and four hundred ducats; and, for escaping of cruelties. with our lives, for not having been put to torture, like so many others, and for not having been despite fully entreated, we have given and do give infinite thanks unto the Lord, and we do think ourselves exceeding fortunate to have escaped by paying such a ransom; in which payment we were much assisted by several persons who took refuge in our house. In addition to my other necessities, sir, this adversity hath befallen me, for to a certainty my share will amount to about six hundred ducats, and we are seeking everywhere for money. As long as I live I shall never be able to pay this debt, in addition to others. But withal I render unto God my unfeigned thanks, in that he hath spared my life: for, during nine or ten days, not a moment passed in which I and the others did not expect instant death. The ambassador of Portugal, sir, was in one of the strongest houses in all Rome, and, for this reason, as well as on account of his position, much people with their linen, their money, and their jewels, had taken refuge in his house, and the ransom of these people was estimated at one million of gold. But the house was, nevertheless, pillaged, and all the people made prisoners, so that the ambassador had not even a shirt or a cloak left him, but went about in his drawhers, and in a doublet; nor had he, or any else in his house, any one thing left to them in this world. They made no difference between Spaniards or imperialists;-no respect was paid to any one. Rome will not be what it was before for fifty years to come. The screams of the women and children, sir, in the streets, were sufficient to break a man's heart. In many parts there were so many deadbodies that it was almost impossible to walk; and, as they lay many days the dead horses, did cause such a pestilent smell, that for certain the plague will much increase, unless, indeed, God bringeth some remedy. There hath not remained, sir, one church, one convent, one nunnery, which hath not been pillaged, many of the clergy, many friars and nuns, have been put to the torture, to force them to discover the money and the linen which peradventure might have been concealed in their houses. The nuns did scream frightfully while the rude soldiery were dragging them through the streets, and ill-treating them;-it was enough to melt a heart of stone! Sir, the cardinals who were in Rome, after having ransomed their houses and their persons once, had their houses and their property plundered: their per-unburied, these bodies, together with the carcasses of sons were seized, and they were dragged on foot by the soldiery as vile malefactors through the streets, without so much as a servant to accompany, or a horse to carry them. It is impossible to imagine anything which could cause greater grief. I do aver to you, sir, that I thought I should have died thus to have seen that blessed gentleman, the Cardinal of Sienna, between eight or ten lanzquenets, a prisoner-on foot-naked-without even a girdle,-having only a short cloak to cover his nakedness. These men had pillaged his house, and ransacked the houses of the other cardinals, and had not left them even the value of a ducat wherewith to supply their wants. And, seeing that much people, with their linen, their jewels, and their money, had taken shelter in these houses, the cardinals did run much risk and peril: and thus, sir, the soldiers must have got an enormous booty by the sack of Rome, because, besides plundering all the linen, the jewels, and the gold, they fixed a price on every one's head, as ransom money. The church of St. Peter is utterly plundered, the gold and silver containing the sacred relics taken away; the relics scattered about the floor, so that nothing can be distinguished. In this same church of St. Peter many dead bodies do lie about within the very chapel dedicated to St. Peter. Close to the very altar there are pools of blood; nay, even the carcasses of dead horses are to be seen there. TOPICS OF THE MONTH. azine, when they can have one equally as valuable for a dollar. At least, we do not believe that there are any live Yankees who will be guilty of such an un-yankee-like act. We wish it to be distinctly understood, that this department of our Magazine is not to be looked upon as a missive directed to our readers, but to our subscribers, for we shall of course have five or six times more of the first than the last. We profess to be imbued with a reasonable quantity of philanthropy, but then we are, for that very reason, opposed to the encouragement of mendicity, and as we ask nothing from the public without returning a full equivalent for what we receive, there is no good reason why we should supply gratuitous reading to our twenty millions of fellowcitizens. Let those who find our Magazine worth reading, honestly confess that it is worth paying for, and remit us the trifle that we demand for a year's subscription. If anybody can inform us in what manner a dollar may be more profitably expended, we shall be glad to know it. "But," you say, "6 you headed your letter 'Topics of the Month," and you have done nothing but prate of yourself." Of course; and is not our Magazine one of the great topics of the month? The establishment of a "Dollar Magazine," even in these abounding days of periodicals, is a topic which one may dwell on allowably for a few moments, and we will warrant you, that others will say a vast deal more about it, than we have said ourselves. One may sometimes be allowed to speak of himself without being charged with egotism; when a man introduces himself into strange company, it is necessary that he should give some account of himself, that his new companions may know how to A MERE catalogue of the stirring events of the past month would alone fill up the space in to which we must crowd all that we can afford to give our reader of the topics of the month. But we intend to give, in this department of our Magazine, a full equivalent for the trifling sum which is paid for the whole contents of the number, so that all the rest, the choicest productions of the choicest pens, will be obtained for nothing, as it were. Thus reversing the trick of the mountebank who gave away his medicines, and only charged a shilling for the phial which contained them. We as good as give away our Magazine, and only charge an inconceivably low price for the information which we impart under the head of TOPICS OF THE MONTH, which will not be found a mere essay, to be read by nobody in partic ular, but a private letter addressed by the Editor to each reader of our Magazine personally; so that every one who subscribes to Holden's Dollar Magazine, will be sure of receiving a monthly letter from a very sincere well-wisher. The majority of people are very happy to pay ten cents postage for a brief letter, even though it may not be particularly interesting in style, nor valuable for its information, nor exciting, nor laughable, nor entertaining. It is flattering to one's self-love to know that somebody thinks enough about one to be at the trouble of writing one a letter, even though the motive for so doing may be trifling, and nothing be gained by it, more than a crumpled sheet of ruled foolscap, and a few lines of badly written and ill-spelt gossip about the writer himself; how much more desirable then must it be to receive a long letter monthly, comparatively free of postage, correctly spelt, neatly printed, and filled full of the latest news from the Great Metropolis of the new world; and intake him; silence, in a stranger, is surely worse than egotism. addition to the letter, to receive a gift of sixty-four pages of We begin the new year with a good many formidable competipleasant and profitable reading from the most gifted minds of the tors, old established favourites, who have wealth and great names living generation of English and American authors? This is to support them, but we know our own force too well to entertain what we propose, simply to furnish to every individual in the any fears of coming out the hindmost at the close of the race; but Union at the almost no-price of one dollar per annum. The we shall see who wins. Our cotemporaries are numerous, able, sum is so small that we are half ashamed to confess our willing- and well-to-do in the world. The Knickerbocker, the oldest of ness to work so cheaply. Look at it again. It is but one hun- our five dollar Magazines, and among the best of them, starts on dred copper cents a year; less than the third of a cent a day. his thirty-first volume, as full of life and genial good humor as However we know what we are about, and are no fonder of ever the American Review and Whig Journal, which was so giving something for nothing than our neighbours, who charge well conducted and firmly established by Mr. Colton, who has two, and three, and five times as much for similar works. We just been cut down in the beginning of his career, at the early age enter upon a bold experiment with perfect confidence of success, of twenty-nine, is to be continued by able hands; but the name because we base our calculations upon the shrewdness of the of the future editor is not yet announced. Mr. Whelpley, who people. We have heard our grandfathers tell of paying eight has long assisted in the conduct of the Magazine, still remains the dollars for a passage to Albany, which costs us not more than managing editor, assisted by Mr. Peck, who was, not long ago, one the eighth part of that sum; and now we mean to furnish to the of the editors of the Courier & Enquirer; the political editor of rising generation of readers a magazine for one dollar per an- the Magazine, is the Hon. D. D. Barnard, of Albany, who has, num, quite as good as what their fathers paid five dollars for. from its commencement, furnished the greater part of its political We could not do this by publishing fifteen hundred, as they used articles; some of them have been written by Horace Greeley and to do, nor fifteen thousand, as some three dollar magazines J. P. Kennedy. Some idea may be had of the value of magazine boast of; but at fifty thousand we can make a profit, and a less property from the fact, that the heirs of Mr. Colton asked ten number than that we shall not think of; as we gradually increase thousand dollars for the copy right of the work; we believe, that to a hundred thousand, as we expect to do before long, we shall it never had three thousand subscribers. The Democratic Review, make our Magazine twice as good as it is now, and then it will the rival of the American, which was established by J. L. O'Sulbe an easy matter to double our circulation. The publishing of livan, as a five dollar Magazine, proved unprofitable and was sold magazines, although it is now a century-old business, is still, to Mr. H. Wikoff, who established the Republic, in conjunction comparatively, in its infancy; the first great impetus has yet to with Duff Green, a daily paper which lived but a very short time, be given to this best means of disseminating information among for something like five or six thousand dollars; the new proprietor the people. The enterprise, which we begin to-day, corresponds of the Democratic reduced the price to three dollars, and gave it to the invention of the penny newspaper, which has already in charge to Mr. Kettell, the able financial writer, who first gained made a revolution in society. Let those who expend a penny a popularity for the Herald, by his admirable Wall street articles; a day for a flimsy newspaper, and those who expend but a third the Democratic, we believe, has a larger circulation than its Whig of that sum for our Magazine, compare notes at the end of the rival. The Columbian Magazine is still prospering under the year, and see who can show the greatest amount of profitable editorship of John Inman, of the Commercial Advertiser; it was and amusing reading. It is hardly possible that anybody will established by Israel Post, who has since withdrawn from it, and have the folly to persist in paying three or five dollars for a mag-established the Union Magazine in conjunction with Mrs. Kirk land, (Mary Clayers,) and Mr. T. H. Matteson, the artist. These The Opera House is extremely beautiful in its internal fittings two last Magazines are of the three dollar tribe, and value them-up, and is said to be quite equal to any of the theatres in Paris; selves a good deal on their pictures. Pictures are well enough in it will seat about sixteen hundred persons. It is opened three their way, and so are flowers; but flour is preferable to flowers, times a week. The pit and two first rows of boxes are sumptuand wheat, which bears no flower, is better than the hollyhock or ously furnished with chairs and sofas of crimson velvet; there is dahlia. We make no appeals to the eye in our pages, but to the a profusion of gilding in the ornamentation of the house, and mind. The Union Magazine has been very successful, and now the whole is illuminated by a most brilliant cut glass chandelier, enters upon its second volume with encouraging prospects, but which has nearly a hundred jets of gas. The seats and boxes we see abundant signs around us, that the days of the pictorial are so arranged that the audience are as much exposed to obserMagazines are numbered. The taste for good pictures is increas- vation as though they were sitting in the centre of a drawing ing among the people; they demand a higher order of art, than that room; this renders a nice attention to dress particularly neceswhich has been furnished to them, and they are no longer content sary, so the ladies go in ball-room costume, and the gentlemen to pay for indifferent literary productions, that they may obtain have to appear in white vests and white kid gloves. At the a few indifferent engravings. One of the most potent influences, Italian Opera House in London no gentleman can be admitted in in disseminating a taste for art through the country, and among a frock coat or a coloured cravat, or coloured pantaloons, and it all classes of people, has been that exercised by the American was proposed by some of the subscribers to the Astor Place Opera Art-Union, which distributes from one hundred and fifty to two House to establish similar regulations here, but the managers had hundred good paintings among its subscribers every year, and too much good sense, or too little courage, to try the experiment some three or four thousand fine engravings. The operations of of passing such sumptuary laws. The law of courtesy, however, this association were more extensive this year than they had ever imposes upon all the frequenters of the Opera a conformance to been before; the distribution of pictures, by lot, took place on the the general habit, and one would as soon think of walking down 24th ult.; but we were unable to obtain a list of the lucky holders Broadway bare-headed as to appear at the Opera without white of prizes in time to insert them in this letter. kid gloves. There is a place, however, where all sorts of ill dressed people may visit the Italian Opera; the third tier, called the Amphitheatre, may be visited without any particular regard being paid to costume. Lorgnettes, or small pocket telescopes, are as generally carried to the Opera as white kid gloves; it is fashionable to be short sighted, in other places than the Opera unhappily, and lorgnettes serve as an excuse for staring pretty girls out of countenance. As every one does not choose to carry a pair of spy-glasses in his pocket, and some have none to carry, a person makes a business of hiring out lorgnettes for the evening at the Opera, and we have no doubt that a very good business might be done by hiring out white gloves for a night's performances. It is the fashion too, for the audience to throw a bunch of flowers at a favourite singer as a token of approbation ; and as every one does not keep a flower garden in winter, a good business is done at the Opera by selling bouquets. Not long since an irreverend scamp, who had no great respect for fashionable precedents, threw a bunch of onions on to the stage while a favourite singer was receiving flowery tributes from the audience, for which he was put out of the theatre by the officers of the house; he sued the manager for assault and battery, and recovered a verdict of one hundred dollars. This is a free country, as well as a great one. The President's message, thereports of the Secretaries, the meeting of Congress, the election of Speaker, the trial of Col. Fremont, and the Wilmot Proviso have all been prominent topics of public discussion the past month, but our readers need have no fear that we have any wish or intention to thrust such stale subjects upon their notice, or bore them with our private opinion of such matters; we shall allow everybody to choose for himself in politics and religion, only hoping, which we may be allowed to do without offence, that our own subscribers, towards whom we have a kind of brotherly feeling, will, like the devout sister of Martha, "choose the better part.' We would just like to say a word or two about glorious old Rough and Ready, and some of his brave companions in arms, who have returned with fewer limbs, but more laurels than they carried with them to the theatre of war, but we have not time, nor room for anything of the kind; and speaking of theatres, reminds us that among the thousand and one subjects which we had intended to itemize for your amusement, the theatres of the city formed one. The present season has been one of altogether unprecedented theatrical activity in New York. The opening of two new, large, and elegant theatres, the new furnishing of old ones, and a great number of brilliant theatrical stars twinkling in our firmament, have altogether made the Drama and Music very prominent topics of the month. The Italian Opera House in Lafayette Place, or, rather, Astor Place, as it is called, has been more talked about than visited. It is a very handsome structure, well proportioned, but exceedingly plain in its external appearance; the basement is of brown free stone, and the main building of brick stuccoed and coloured in imitation of the material of which the basement is constructed. It's establishment is still a doubtful experiment. It is built on a narrow pyramidal-shaped strip of land which terminates on Lafayette Place; on the upper side it is vis-a-vis to the Presbyterian Church in Ninth streetwhich once stood in Murray street, and on the lower side its opposite neighbour is the noble aristocratic looking mansion of Mrs. Langdon, the daughter of John Jacob Astor; her brass latticed aviary and beautiful conservatory overlook the loges, or dressing rooms of the filles de l'opera. The neighbourhood is aristocratic, and the neighbours are people of the first fashion as well as of the first standing; many of them, however, are more remarkable for their money than for their manners, and are so rich that they can afford to indulge in the luxury of being thought mean; but that is no business of ours, on y, we cannot but wonder that any one should choose to be thought mean, who might just as well be accounted generous. They have no remarkable singers at the Opera House, but the prima donna, Signora Truffi, is a very beautiful woman, with a delicious voice, a fine expressive countenance, and an arm which would show to advantage by the side of the Greek Slave. A great crowd assembled at the Opera House to witness the debut of an American lady in Italian Opera; the debutante was a Countess, too, which added to the novelty of her appearance. She is the Countess Biscaccianti, and the character chosen for her debut was that of Amina in the Opera of La Sonnambula. The Countess Biscaccianti was formerly Miss Ostinelli of Boston; her mother's name was Hewitt, the sister of the Hewitt's, music sellers of Boston, New York and Philadelphia; the father of Miss Ostinelli is a violinist who for many years was the leader of the orchestra of one of the Boston theatres. She received her musical education in Italy, where she married the Count her husband, and has since returned to America and adopted the stage as a profession. Her debut was only tolerably successful. Having said thus much of the Italian Opera, which is a thriftless exotic in America, we may let, the subject pass, for the present at least. The other new theatre, Col. Mann's in Broadway, is a magnificent house, larger than any theatre in Paris; it will hold one third more than any other in the country, and is superbly decorated and illuminated. Col. Mann is the great circus proprietor, and having accumuiated about a hundred thousand dollars by native author, which will doubtless create some sensation, at least tion. We have just lighted upon a little book, lately published in London, that contains some of the pithiest sentences that have ever appeared in print since the first coming out of Lacon. As the work has not yet been reprinted, and the Magazines and newspapers have not got hold of it, a few extracts will be fresh to our readers. The book is called "The Council of Four;" the author says, in his preface: A small party assembled at the house of a friend, and agreed to play at bouts rimes. A new exercise for their wits was proposed, to consist of various definitions of some word fixed upon by general consent. To work the party went; a round of “definitions was produced; subsequent meetings were held; and it was ultimately agreed that the editor and three friends should define one hundred words. The result of these meetings is the publication before us. One of the party-named it "The Council of Four." The designation was accepted, and made the title of the volume. The reader will see the character of the work from a few AMERICA. America.-Youth affecting manhood. BACHELOR. Bachelor.-The slave of liberty. COMMERCE. The close of the year is the merriest season that can be enjoyed Commerce.-Beneficent selfishness. JOKE. Joke. A glittering dew-drop on the leaves of imagination. LIBERTY. Liberty.-A country to which all nations are travellers, though the actions of others. MARRIAGE. |