the morning of the 18th, Pope Marcellus II showed symptoms of a fever and in the night between 30 April and 1 May, he died. But even before Marcellus was dead, Cardinal Farnese wrote directly to Henri II, urging him to send the French cardinals to Rome immediately. A second Conclave was necessary. The second Conclave of 1555 opened on 15 May, with the same cardinals as in April, but with the addition of eight late arrivals. The leading candidate seemed to be Cardinal Carafa, the Inquisitor, but he was told to his face by the Imperial Ambassador that the Emperor Charles V did not want him as Pope. The Imperial faction was favoring Cardinals Carpi, Morone, and Pole. Pole also seemed to have French support, but there was an influential group, led by Carafa, Carpi, and Alvarez (all professional Inquisitors), who openly questioned the orthodoxy of Pole and of Morone. The French Ambassador, Jean d' Avanson, informed King Henri that his favorite candidate, Cardinal d'Este, was being opposed vigorously by the Imperial faction, and that he could not win, thanks to a "virtual veto" (that is, the withholding of votes for a candidate by more than one-third of the voters); the Emperor even expressed fears that d'Este might try to bribe himself into the papacy. D'Avanson also had to break the news that Cardinal du Bellay, out of personal ambition, had broken ranks and would support Cardinal Carafa. In the voting, the Imperial candidate, Cardinal Carpi, seemed to be moving forward, until the French faction and the cardinals created by Julius III (of which there were fifteen at the Conclave) combined to put him out of the running. Once it was clear that nobody in the French faction was going to succeed, Cardinal Farnese and Cardinal d'Este decided to throw their support to Cardinal Carafa. The Imperial faction was so frightened at what Pope Carafa might do in trying to get Naples out of the hands of the Emperor that they sent Cardinals Corner and Ricci to Alessandro Farnese to beg him to abandon Carafa and accept their votes for himself. But Farnese was not so foolish as to believe that he could be successful without the endorsement either of the Emperor or of the King of France—and he had neither. He did not respond to the offer. The supporters of Carafa finally numbered more than the two-thirds needed