DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0294
254
RETURN OF GUIDOBALDO
early the next morning, says expressly that there was
no suspicion of poison, although both father and son
were taken ill at the same time.1
The news spread like wildfire through the whole
of Italy. It reached Francesco Gonzaga as he was
marching south with the French army at Parma,
and he sent it on by express courier to Mantua. It
rejoiced the heart of Giovanni Sforza, who was ill in
bed himself, but told his brother-in-law that the good
news had nearly cured his malady, and that he only
hoped soon to hear that Valentino was also dead ! It
reached the exiled Duke and Duchess in their sad
retreat at Venice, and Guidobaldo started without
delay for Urbino, where the people rose in arms and
welcomed him with acclamation. Never was an
exiled prince greeted with such passionate delight.
The children poured out to meet him with olive-
branches in their hands, and hailed his return with
triumphal songs. Old men wept tears of joy,
women and children thronged the streets, and
mothers held up their little ones to see the Duke, and
told them never to forget that day. “The very
stones,” wrote Castiglione, “seemed to rejoice, and
to sing for gladness.”2 Emilia Pia’s secretary, who
described the scene to the Marchesa Isabella, told
how high-born women danced with glee in the
streets, and old blind men of eighty were led up to
the Duke, and asked leave to touch him with their
hands that they might be sure he was there again.
“ Some brought their children in arms to see him;
others uttered words which would have moved the
1 Archivio Gonzaga, quoted in Pastor, “ History of the Popes,”
vi., App.
2 Serassi, Leltere di Castiglione.
RETURN OF GUIDOBALDO
early the next morning, says expressly that there was
no suspicion of poison, although both father and son
were taken ill at the same time.1
The news spread like wildfire through the whole
of Italy. It reached Francesco Gonzaga as he was
marching south with the French army at Parma,
and he sent it on by express courier to Mantua. It
rejoiced the heart of Giovanni Sforza, who was ill in
bed himself, but told his brother-in-law that the good
news had nearly cured his malady, and that he only
hoped soon to hear that Valentino was also dead ! It
reached the exiled Duke and Duchess in their sad
retreat at Venice, and Guidobaldo started without
delay for Urbino, where the people rose in arms and
welcomed him with acclamation. Never was an
exiled prince greeted with such passionate delight.
The children poured out to meet him with olive-
branches in their hands, and hailed his return with
triumphal songs. Old men wept tears of joy,
women and children thronged the streets, and
mothers held up their little ones to see the Duke, and
told them never to forget that day. “The very
stones,” wrote Castiglione, “seemed to rejoice, and
to sing for gladness.”2 Emilia Pia’s secretary, who
described the scene to the Marchesa Isabella, told
how high-born women danced with glee in the
streets, and old blind men of eighty were led up to
the Duke, and asked leave to touch him with their
hands that they might be sure he was there again.
“ Some brought their children in arms to see him;
others uttered words which would have moved the
1 Archivio Gonzaga, quoted in Pastor, “ History of the Popes,”
vi., App.
2 Serassi, Leltere di Castiglione.