DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0066
28 COUNT BAUDASSARE CASTIGLIONE
courtier's nature, and lost no time in attaching him
to herself. The trust which she reposed in him was
repaid with interest. Wherever Castiglione found
himself during the next thirty years, whatever private
or public business he had in hand, his best powers of
body and mind, his wide knowledge of men and
inhnite resource, were always placed at Isabella's
disposal. And she on her part never failed him. It
was to her that he turned in the darkest and most
difficult moments of his career, when his lord frowned
upon him and slanderous tongues reviled him, and he
had no other friend whom he could trust at court.
In his letters to his mother he speaks of her as our
pillar—/u ?20.s-iTu C0/07272U—the one unshaken rock
upon whom his hopes were fixed, and on whose help
and friendship he could rely with absolute certainty.
As yet, however, no clouds had risen to darken the
young courtier's horizon, and strong of arm and blithe
of heart he rode out to do his lord s bidding. The
Marquis, we know, declined to take up arms on Lodo-
vico Sforza's behalf when, early in February, 1500,
that unfortunate Prince crossed the Alps in the
forlorn hope of recovering the Milanese. Just at
that time we find Baldassare in command of the
garrison of Castiglione, a fortification on Mantuan
territory. The post was a solitary one, and the
young soldier grew restive in this enforced inaction.
On January 27 he sent his mother the following note,
begging for supplies for himself and his servants :
' MAGNIFICENT LADY AND HONOURED MOTHER,
' I send Andrea with the mule for the bread
and other things you wrote about, if they are ready,
and by him some fish which was given me yester-
day. This morning I sent Spagnolo to Brescia for
courtier's nature, and lost no time in attaching him
to herself. The trust which she reposed in him was
repaid with interest. Wherever Castiglione found
himself during the next thirty years, whatever private
or public business he had in hand, his best powers of
body and mind, his wide knowledge of men and
inhnite resource, were always placed at Isabella's
disposal. And she on her part never failed him. It
was to her that he turned in the darkest and most
difficult moments of his career, when his lord frowned
upon him and slanderous tongues reviled him, and he
had no other friend whom he could trust at court.
In his letters to his mother he speaks of her as our
pillar—/u ?20.s-iTu C0/07272U—the one unshaken rock
upon whom his hopes were fixed, and on whose help
and friendship he could rely with absolute certainty.
As yet, however, no clouds had risen to darken the
young courtier's horizon, and strong of arm and blithe
of heart he rode out to do his lord s bidding. The
Marquis, we know, declined to take up arms on Lodo-
vico Sforza's behalf when, early in February, 1500,
that unfortunate Prince crossed the Alps in the
forlorn hope of recovering the Milanese. Just at
that time we find Baldassare in command of the
garrison of Castiglione, a fortification on Mantuan
territory. The post was a solitary one, and the
young soldier grew restive in this enforced inaction.
On January 27 he sent his mother the following note,
begging for supplies for himself and his servants :
' MAGNIFICENT LADY AND HONOURED MOTHER,
' I send Andrea with the mule for the bread
and other things you wrote about, if they are ready,
and by him some fish which was given me yester-
day. This morning I sent Spagnolo to Brescia for