could not, as we have already observed, nominate whom he chose; but he could, at least, have excluded any other. Now, he ought never to have consented to the election of one of the cardinals whom he had injured, and who, having become the pontiff, would have had to dread him; for men injure us either through hatred or fear. Those whom he had injured, were, amongst others, Saint Peter ad Vincula, St. George, and Ascanius. All the rest who came to be elected had to fear him, except the Cardinal de Rouen and the Spaniards; the latter were united to him by family connections, and the Cardinal d'Amboise, supported by France, was too pówerful to fear him.
The duke, therefore, ought in the first instance to have endeavoured to procure the election of a Spaniard, and not being able to succeed, he should have consented to the nomination of the Archbishop of Rouen, and never to that of St. Peter ad Vincula. It is an error to think that new services make the great forget old offences. The duke, therefore, in this election committed a fault, and was himself the cause of his entire ruin.
