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 pow'er 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 elTaced over the Lateran, and instead of Innocentius Pont. Max., was 
Olimpia prima papessa. Every elfort w'as 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 wTether 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Court, where her presence gave such scandal; but, though openly withdrawn, she was still 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. Gigli, 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 
