Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/71

 Church, of the circumstances that led to a murderous scuffle between his own soldiers in guard in the Banchi and a patrol of the city Shirri. By right the Banchi lay within the bounds of the Bargello's authority, but at the request of the shopkeepers the Lieutenant had posted a watch of soldiers in this street. These had refused, it was said by mistake, to let pass a round of Sbirri, whereupon the Bargello had hurried in person to the spot to assert his authority, hut the soldiers laughed to scorn his pretensions, and a scuffle ensued, with a discharge of fire-arms, which killed several individuals. The Bargdlo beat a retreat into the palace of the Governor of Rome, while the Duke, who happened to be standing at the Castle gate when the tumult occurred, hastened across the bridge to appease it, and draw off into the Borgo his riotous soldiers. In his report he then recommends measures to prevent the recurrence of such scenes, and states the cause that lay at their bottom: 'I have sent,' he writes, 'another company to be in guard at the Banchi; but it may be deemed advisable, on account of what has happened, to remove altogether this post from there, as the brokers