DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42863#0150
128
FLIGHT OF THE DUKE
and most charming child in the world. He talks
boldly of all the great things he will do, and says:
‘ If Pope Leo had come by himself, he could never
have taken my father’s State! ’ and other things
which make us all marvel, since he is only just two
years old. The rooms of the Duke and Duchess
are being prepared in the Corte.” But a few days
later the same writer explained that the illustrious
exiles and their suite are to remain at Pietola for
the present, until the Pope has granted permission
for them to come to Mantua, and are made as
comfortable as they can be under present circum-
stances. “Yesterday,” he continues, “my mother
and I went to see Their Highnesses, and kissed their
hands, and the Duke and Duchess immediately
asked after you and how you like France, and many
other things. Before I left, the widowed Duchess
came out under the loggia to enjoy the cool evening
air. The young Duchess went upstairs to bed, the
Duke having sent for her, and I stayed downstairs.
Then the widowed Duchess began to tell us how
she went to Rome to see the Pope and how badly
he had treated her, and when she had finished speak-
ing there was no one who could help weeping.”1
The utmost compassion was felt on all sides for
this good and gentle princess, who had thus for the
second time been unjustly exiled from her home, and
was once more forced to depend upon the charity of
others. Fortunately Elisabetta had a kind and loving
friend in Isabella, who did all that was possible to
alleviate her painful position, and seems to have been
more deeply attached to her sister-in-law than she ever
was to her own daughter, Duchess Leonora.
1 Luzio e Renier, op. cit., pp. 228, 229.
FLIGHT OF THE DUKE
and most charming child in the world. He talks
boldly of all the great things he will do, and says:
‘ If Pope Leo had come by himself, he could never
have taken my father’s State! ’ and other things
which make us all marvel, since he is only just two
years old. The rooms of the Duke and Duchess
are being prepared in the Corte.” But a few days
later the same writer explained that the illustrious
exiles and their suite are to remain at Pietola for
the present, until the Pope has granted permission
for them to come to Mantua, and are made as
comfortable as they can be under present circum-
stances. “Yesterday,” he continues, “my mother
and I went to see Their Highnesses, and kissed their
hands, and the Duke and Duchess immediately
asked after you and how you like France, and many
other things. Before I left, the widowed Duchess
came out under the loggia to enjoy the cool evening
air. The young Duchess went upstairs to bed, the
Duke having sent for her, and I stayed downstairs.
Then the widowed Duchess began to tell us how
she went to Rome to see the Pope and how badly
he had treated her, and when she had finished speak-
ing there was no one who could help weeping.”1
The utmost compassion was felt on all sides for
this good and gentle princess, who had thus for the
second time been unjustly exiled from her home, and
was once more forced to depend upon the charity of
others. Fortunately Elisabetta had a kind and loving
friend in Isabella, who did all that was possible to
alleviate her painful position, and seems to have been
more deeply attached to her sister-in-law than she ever
was to her own daughter, Duchess Leonora.
1 Luzio e Renier, op. cit., pp. 228, 229.