Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/72

 and dealers wish and ask for the same only because it affords them protection for laying their wagers, and they are the parties who sow dissensions between soldiers and Sbirri. . . . If this guard were taken away from the Banchi, the Bargello would then be able to pass there freely, and thus a stop would be put to these wagers, from which proceed all the riots.' Now-a-days, this move of making a Papal election subserve the general love for play has been superseded by the system of the lottery; and whereas formerly heads were often broken in the angry excitement caused by the daily rise and fall in the rival chances of favourite Cardinals, the population of Rome at present during an interregnum satisfies its gambling passions by peacefully playing on combinations of numbers formed out of the ages of Cardinals, or any other circumstances connected with their individualities which human ingenuity may be able to translate into a cabalistic expression.