Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/63

 pened are stated by the contemporary diarist Gigli to have been such 'as no one could remember haying eyer witnessed.' 'Not a day passed,' he writes, "without many brawls, murders, and waylayings. Men and women were often found killed in various places, many being without heads, while not a few were picked up in this plight, who had been thrown into the Tiber. ,Many were the houses broken into at night and sadly rifled. Doors were thrown down, women violated,—some were murdered, and others ravished; so also many young girls were dishonoured and carried off. As for the Sbirri, who tried to make arrests, some were killed outright, and others grievously maimed and wounded. The chief of the Trastevere region was stabbed as he went at night the rounds of his beat, and other chiefs of regions were many times in danger of their lives. lMany of these outrages and acts of insolence were done by the soldiers who were in Rome as guards of the various lords and princes; as happened especially with those whom the Cardinal of Savoy had brought for his guard, at whose hands were killed several Sbirri who had taken into custody a comrade of theirs. In short,