Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/80

 upon the other clergy defended themselves with the torches in their hands, and the soldiers made use of their weapons, so that the clergy, becoming frightened, rushed in a body into the sacristy, leaving off their chant, and the Pope's corpse remaining by itself. I and some others took up the bier and carried it before the high altar.' Happily there is no record of any other scandal of equal magnitude, but yet the deathbeds of many Popes have been attended by circumstances of painful neglect, in glaring contrast with the eminent rank in life of the individual who was going to his grave. The last Pope, Gregory XVI., died in a manner unattended. He had been ailing with an attack of erysipelas in the foot for some days, which had confined him to bed; but the illness had not attracted notice until his absence from the public service on Whit-sunday, which fell on the 31st May (1846). It was a peculiarity of Gregory XVI. not to like the subject of death to be mentioned in his hearing, so that this known feeling on his part, combined with the absence from Rome of his chief physician—the German Dr. Alertz—probably contributed to make the courtiers and the less experienced medi-