After the sudden death of Pope Leo X., two Latin lines to the following effect were found upon Pasquino: "If you desire to hear why at his last hour Leo Could not the sacraments take, know he had sold them." The allusion is to Leo's unscrupulous use of every means within his power of raising money. When Clement VII., after the sack of Rome, was held a prisoner, Pasquino had this: "_Papa non potest errare._" This sentence ordinarily means that the pope can not err; but the verb _errare_ signifies also _to wander_, _to stroll_; so that the line was a sneer both at the pope's confinement and his claim to infallibility. One of Pasquino's hardest hits was called forth by the grasping measures of Pius VI.: "Three jaws had Cerberus, and three mouths as well, Which barked into the blackest deeps of hell. Three hungry mouths have you; ay, even four; None of them bark, but all of them devour." There was a capital one, too, and a just, upon the institution of the Legion of Honor in France by Napoleon Bonaparte, not long after he had stolen several hundred precious works of art and manuscripts from the Roman States. "In times less pleasant and more fierce, of old, The thieves were hung upon the cross, we're told. In times less fierce, more pleasant, like to-day, Crosses are hung upon the thieves, they say." Thus for centuries have Pasquino and his rival, Marfario, an exhumed river-god, given occasional expression to the pent-up wrath of Italy at the spoliation of their beautiful country. Mr. Story reports a pasquinade which appeared but a very few years since, when all the world was longing to hear of the death of Ferdinand II. of Naples, who, under the name of King Bomba, was so deeply execrated by Italians. Pasquino supposes a traveler just arrived from Naples, and asks him what he has seen there, when the following conversation takes place: "I have seen a tumor [_tumore_]." "A tumor? But what is a tumor?" "For answer, take away the _t_." "Ah! a humor [_umore_]. But is this humor dangerous?" "Take away the _u_." "He dies! what a pity! But when? Shortly?" "Take away the _m_." "Hours! In a few hours! But who, then, has this humor?" "Take away the _o_." "King! The king! I am delighted. But, then, where will he go?" "Take away the _r_." "E-e-e-h!" [Illustration: King Bomba's Ultimatum to Sicily. (From _Il Don Pirlone_, Rome, December, 1848.)] Could there be any thing better than a pasquinade which appeared during the conference upon Italian affairs at Zürich between the representatives of Austria, Italy, and France? Pasquino enters the chamber, where he holds the following conversation with the plenipotentiaries: "Do you speak French?" "No." "Do you speak German?" "No." "Do you speak Italian?" "No." "What language do you speak?" "Latin." "And what have you got to say in Latin?" "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, for ever and ever. Amen."