DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42863#0065
RELEASE OF FRANCESCO
43
in-law’s cause, the Pope broke into a furious passion,
and drove him out of his presence, using the most
violent language, and reproached him with trying to
play the part of Valentino and to govern the Papacy.
Leonora tried to approach the Pope, with no better
result, although he expressed great affection for her,
and Bembo wrote from Rome in April that “the new
Duchess was really a most beautiful child, as modest
and gentle as possible, and already wise beyond her
years.”1 Only when he was watching the races held
at carnival from the balcony of S. Pietro, His
Holiness remarked, with evident satisfaction: “ The
Marquis of Mantua has already won two palliums ;
I expect he will win this too, and then we shall
hear the people cry, Mantova! ” upon which the
two Duchesses of Urbino seized the opportunity to
implore him to remember the captive Marquis, and
His Holiness replied kindly: “ Have a little patience,
my children.” Presently, the Gonzaga colours were
seen flying across the course, and the Marquis’s horse
came in the winner, leaving more than forty others
behind him in the race. A great shout of “ Mantova !
Mantova ! Turco ! Turco ! ” rang through the air, to
the delight of not only Leonora and Elisabetta, but
of the old Pope, who laughed heartily, and went home
in high good humour.2 This incident was duly re-
ported to the Marchesa by an eye-witness, the Urbino
scribe, Picenardi, and helped to revive her drooping
hopes. But when at length Julius II. desired the
Venetians to release Francesco, saying that he had
need of his services, the Signory refused to give him
their prisoner without receiving some pledge in return,
1 Lettere, iii. 42.
2 Luzio, op. cit., p, 58.
43
in-law’s cause, the Pope broke into a furious passion,
and drove him out of his presence, using the most
violent language, and reproached him with trying to
play the part of Valentino and to govern the Papacy.
Leonora tried to approach the Pope, with no better
result, although he expressed great affection for her,
and Bembo wrote from Rome in April that “the new
Duchess was really a most beautiful child, as modest
and gentle as possible, and already wise beyond her
years.”1 Only when he was watching the races held
at carnival from the balcony of S. Pietro, His
Holiness remarked, with evident satisfaction: “ The
Marquis of Mantua has already won two palliums ;
I expect he will win this too, and then we shall
hear the people cry, Mantova! ” upon which the
two Duchesses of Urbino seized the opportunity to
implore him to remember the captive Marquis, and
His Holiness replied kindly: “ Have a little patience,
my children.” Presently, the Gonzaga colours were
seen flying across the course, and the Marquis’s horse
came in the winner, leaving more than forty others
behind him in the race. A great shout of “ Mantova !
Mantova ! Turco ! Turco ! ” rang through the air, to
the delight of not only Leonora and Elisabetta, but
of the old Pope, who laughed heartily, and went home
in high good humour.2 This incident was duly re-
ported to the Marchesa by an eye-witness, the Urbino
scribe, Picenardi, and helped to revive her drooping
hopes. But when at length Julius II. desired the
Venetians to release Francesco, saying that he had
need of his services, the Signory refused to give him
their prisoner without receiving some pledge in return,
1 Lettere, iii. 42.
2 Luzio, op. cit., p, 58.