"Sixtus the fourth was, if I mistake not, a great collector of books."Ib., p. 257.

That Sixtus and his nephew were accessories before the fact is now regarded as unquestionable.

Jack, what was Sixtus the Vth.'s artful depression of his natural powers to mine, when, as this half-dead Montalto, he gaped for the pretendedly unsought pontificate, and the moment he was chosen leapt upon the prancing beast, which it was thought by the amazed conclave he was not able to mount, without help of chairs and men?