allow him to return if he attended the conclave, and government authorities refused to grant him safe conduct despite a request by the U.S. State Department at the request of the College of Cardinals. Aloysius Stepinac was too ill to travel from Zagreb, and he was forbidden from leaving Yugoslavia as a condition of his release from prison in 1951. This reduced the number of attendees to 51, 15 of whom were in Rome on 9 October, 45 of whom were in or near Rome by 16 October. All 51 reached Rome by 22 October. Of the 51 electors who participated in the conclave, 17 were Italians. The required two-thirds plus one majority was 35 votes. Balloting The cardinals were required to set the starting date of the conclave between the 15th and 18th days following the death of the pope, no earlier than 24 October and no later than 27 October. On 11 October they set 25 October for its opening. The conclave was held from 25 to 28 October at the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The voting patterns in the conclave are hard to establish, but some information is consistently reported. Identified as a group with a particular interest, French cardinals were thought to seek greater independence from Rome and Stefan Wyszynski of Poland was thought to be their ally. Several of the French also knew that Roncalli, as nuncio in Paris, had been influential in the careers. Roncalli himself had learned that he had many supporters in conversations with other cardinals before the conclave began. One newspaper reported that Cardinal Pierre-Marie Gerlier of Lyon, asked whom the French cardinals supported as he entered the conclave, said "Roncalli". Giovanni Battista Montini (later Pope Paul VI), a longtime curia official who had recently become Archbishop of Milan, consistently received two votes even though he was not yet a cardinal. There was no ballot on the first day. Four ballots on the second day proved inconclusive. Both times the smoke that reported the results of the morning and afternoon ballots appeared white at first, leading to excited false reports that the election was over. The official responsible for arrangements outside the conclave notified the cardinals that the color of the smoke had been misread and provided them with "smoke torches from a fireworks factory". The third day's four ballots again failed to select a pope and there was no