no 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



with Innocent had been in the past remains undecided and is comparatively unimportant. At 

 the time of his accession he was nearly seventy, and it is easy to account for the ascendancy 

 of this brilliant and attractive woman who was devoting all her tact and talent to pleasing, helping, 

 and advising the man whose coarse, obstinate and weak face is immortalised for us on the mag- 

 nificent canvas of Velasquez. The Roman people hated her for her power over the Pope, for 

 her rapacity and ostentatious magnificence, and made many pasquinades and plays upon her 

 name Olimpia impia (impious Olimpia), representing her occupied with making hay in the 

 sunshine, arranging marriages for her sons, and securing the red hat for her brother. In one 

 caricature, nailed to her palace door, Pasquino asks, " Where is the door of Donna Olimpia ? ' 

 The answer was a witty enough play on the Italian words : " Che porta vede la porta, che non 

 porta non vede la porta ' (" Who brings, sees the door ; who brings nothing, sees it not "). 

 The Pope's name was found effaced over the Lateran, and instead of Innocentius Pont. Max., was 

 " Olimpia prima papessa." Every effort was made to find and punish the authors of these satires, 



; 



120. THE PARTERRE. 



but without success. Still more insulting was the report in Rome that a play, entitled The Marriage 

 of the Pope, had been played in London before Cromwell, ending with a ballet of monks and 

 nuns. It seems doubtful whether such a play was ever acted, but the report, none the less, 

 enraged the Pope and his dominant sister-in-law. Parties were formed against her, and the 

 gazettes of the time are full of attacks and scurrilous stories ; but, in spite of occasional reverses, 

 she held on her way, tenacious and determined in her intention to secure solid benefits. For 

 a time the austere Cardinal Maculano worked upon the Pope to banish Olimpia from his 

 Court, where her presence gave such scandal ; but, though openly withdrawn, she was still 

 believed to pay visits to the Pope in secret and to be watching vigilantly over her interests. 

 Soon afterwards the pious Cardinal died, and she was restored to her position. Oigli, in his 

 amusing diary, speaks of a visit by the Pope, when he was carried in a sedan chair to the Pamphilj 

 palace to condole with Olimpia, who had been robbed of some splendid jewels. An unlucky 

 page had already been put to the torture without avail before an audacious letter was received 



