ROME. THE PONTE SISTO. The Niobe of nations! there she stands, Of their heroic dwellers: dost thou flow, Rise, with thy yellow waves, and mantle her distress. BYRON. THE Ponte Sisto was erected during the pontificate of Sixtus IV., from whom it derives its name. The view of this bridge recals to the mind of the traveller the character of one of the most violent and depraved men who ever filled the chair of St. Peter. Profligate, avaricious, and despotic, to supply means for his pleasures he not only exposed to sale the offices of the church, but instituted new ones for the mere purpose of bartering them, and when the indignation of the people was roused by these infamous acts, he established an inquisition of the press in order to stifle the voice of censure. His death is said to have been occasioned by vexation at the prospect of a general peace-" Di grossi conti avrà avuto questo pontefice nel tribunale di Dio," says Muratori. The following account of the Ponte Sisto and its neigh bourhood is given by a lively writer in one of the best of our periodical works. "The Ponte Sisto, an erection of Sixtus IV., notorious for his connexion with the Pazzi conspiracy, is an ordinary bridge, and the buildings about it are ordinary disfigurements. It is preceded by a meagre fountain, which is a mere concetto in water. Here the Tyber, rushing angrily enough in whirlpool and in mud, yellow and frothy, just hints what an inundation might have been in the days of Horace and Augustus. It conducts you into the heart of the Janiculum or Transtevere. Its inhabitants are still very fiercely marked with all the characteristics of the ancient race, unalloyed by any weaker blending of Greek, Jewish, or Gothic blood, and furnish a bold illustration of the observation of Alfieri,' that in no country in Europe does the plant man attain such robust maturity as in Italy;' and, it might be added, in no part of Italy is this vigour of constitution so striking as at Rome. Every head you meet might bear an immediate translation into marble, and not be misplaced beside the austere busts of the Vatican or Capitol. The Lungara, which by its length and regularity justifies the appellation, leads directly to St. Peter's through the bastions of the Leonine city, or the Borgo, along the banks of the Tyber, from all view of which, however, it is singularly excluded by the Farnesina and its gardens, the Chigi stables, &c. &c. On the left are a series of palaces with their plantations stretching up the sides of the Janiculum behind. The most remarkable of the line is undoubtedly the Corsini, now deserted by its prince, who, more a Florentine than a Roman, resides habitually in the former city. One of its last inhabitants was Christina of Sweden; 'the glory of the priesthood, and the shame,' and whose equivocal reputation still, sub judice, is not to be determined either by Pasquin or Filicaia. The bastion, even in its unfinished state, is a fine piece of military architecture, which might have done honour to the genius of Micheli. It leans, on one side, on a portion of the colossal hospital of the Santo Spirito, and on the other runs up to the Campo Santo of the city. The gate, or its immediate vicinity, has been immortalised by the death of the Constable Bourbon, and the graphic sketch of Cellini. Above is San Onufrio, consecrated by the ashes of Tasso-vineyards, cypresses, chestnuts, pines, bosoming it, or framing it, and beyond scattered villas, oratories, crosses, and ruins; the whole shut in by the regular towers and brown-red battlements of the Borgo." 66 Pope Clement," says Cellini, "having, by the advice of signor Giacopo Salviati, dismissed the five companies which had been sent him by signor Giovannino, lately deceased in Lombardy, the Constable Bourbon, finding that there were no troops in Rome, eagerly advanced with his army towards that capital. Upon the news of his approach, all the inhabitants took up arms. I happened to be intimately acquainted with Alessandro, the son of Pietro del Bene, who at the time that the Colonnas came to Rome, had requested me to guard his house. Upon this more important occasion he begged I would raise a company of fifty men to guard the same house, and undertake to be their commander, as I had done at the time of the Colonnas. I accordingly engaged fifty brave young men, and we took up our quarters in his house, where we were all well paid and kindly treated. 66 The army of the Duke of Bourbon* having already appeared before the walls of Rome, Alessandro del Bene requested I would go with him to oppose the enemy: I accordingly complied, and taking one of the stoutest youths with us, we were afterwards joined on our way by a young man of the name of Cecchino della Casa. We came up to the walls of Campo Santo, and there descried that great army, which was employing every effort to enter the town at that part of the wall to which we had approached. Many young men were slain without the walls, where they fought with the utmost fury; there was a remarkably thick mist. I turned to Alessandro, and spoke to him thus: Let us return home with the utmost speed, since it is impossible for us here to make any stand; behold, the enemy scales the walls, and our countrymen fly before them, overpowered by numbers.' Alessandro, much alarmed, answered, 'Would to God we had never come hither;' and so saying, he turned with the utmost precipitation, in order to depart. I thereupon reproved him, saying, 'Since you have brought me hither, I am determined to perform some manly action,' and levelling my arquebuse, where I saw the thickest crowd of the enemy, I discharged it with a deliberate aim at a person who seemed to be lifted above the rest, but the mist prevented me from distinguishing whether he was on horseback or on foot. Then turning suddenly about to Alessandro and Cecchino, I bid them * Bourbon, without any artillery, arrived quite unexpectedly at Rome, on the night of the 5th of May, with 40,000 men: the ensuing morning the assault, of which Cellini gives this account, took place. fire off their pieces, and showed them how to escape every shot of the besiegers. Having accordingly fired twice for the enemy's once, I cautiously approached the walls, and perceived that there was an extraordinary confusion among the assailants, occasioned by our having shot the Duke of Bourbon *; he was, as I understood afterwards, that chief personage, whom I saw raised above the rest.” All historians agree, that Bourbon fell by a musket-shot early in the assault, while, distinguished by his white mantle, with a scaling ladder in his hand, he was leading on his troops to the walls. |