clash. A shootout followed, triggered by the casual return to Palazzo Farnese, under heavy French military escort, of the wife of the ambassador. A page of Lady Créqui was mortally wounded, and Louis XIV took advantage of the incident to escalate the confrontation with the Holy See, already started under the government of Cardinal Mazarin. The Pope and the Governor of Rome, Cardinal Lorenzo Imperiali, acknowledged the gravity of the incident at once, and dismissed the Corsicans immediately, nominating a commission to decide the amount of the indemnity to France. However, the Duke refused any accommodation and on September1 left Rome for Tuscany, accompanied by the Cardinals of the French faction. The reaction of the King of France and the claims he made against the Pope give an indication of his power, but also of his personality and of the methods he was willing to use. After the withdrawal of his ambassador from Rome, he expelled the papal nuncio in France, proceeded to annex the French papal territories of Avignon with the Comtat Venaissin, and threatened to invade Rome if AlexanderVII failed to apologize and bow to his wishes. These included the immediate dissolution of the Corsican Guard, the issuing of an anathema against Corsica, the hanging in retaliation of a number of soldiers and condemnation to service in galleys as rowers for many others, the removal of Cardinal Imperiali from his office of Governor of Rome, the banishment of the commander of the Guardia Corsa, Mario Chigi, brother of the Pope, and the erection near the barracks of the Guard by the Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini of a "pyramid of infamy" which would curse forever the Corsicans who had dared to challenge French authority. The Pope at first opposed the terms and tried to prevaricate, but the threat of a descent of the French army onto Rome gradually persuaded him to accede to the king's will. With the humiliating Treaty of Pisa signed on February12, 1664, the Corsican Guard was disbanded forever and some soldiers hanged, the pyramid of infamy was erected, and Mario Chigi was exiled from Rome. In exchange, the seized papal territories were returned, but in July, in Fontainebleau, the Cardinal-nephew and son of Mario, Flavio Chigi, was forced to humiliate himself and present the apologies of Rome to the King of France, who four years later gave permission to demolish the monument of infamy. During