DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0289
228 COUNT BAUDASSARE CASTIGLIONE
they are once done, cannot be undone. Everything
has been arranged, thanks to the wisdom and dexterity
of the Lord Duke, and the Eord Prefect is here again,
and is restored to His Excellency's favour, and he
who no longer lives is already forgotten.'*
Bembo's reference to the murder sounds even
more cold-blooded and heartless in our ears. On
November 18, barely a week after the deed which
had sent a shudder through the court and city, he
wrote to inform Bibbiena that he had just returned
from a visit to Padua, and observed that he would
hear the latest news from Count Lodovico Canossa,
who was on the point of starting for Rome.
' The Count will tell you what has happened here,
regarding which he has received full and minute
particulars from Messer Cesare. So I will keep
silence, and will only say this: he who might remain
standing, and falls by his own fault, deserves to lie
there against his will.'^
It is difficult to understand the confusion of moral
ideas which could lead a scholar as refined as Bembo,
and a knight as gentle and high-minded as Cas-
tiglione, to palliate so dark and treacherous an act.
All that can be said in their defence is that, by the
code of honour commonly accepted in those days,
there were certain wrongs which only death could
avenge. The situation was no doubt a very difficult
one both for the Duke and Duchess. The perpetrator
of the deed was not only their own nephew and heir
to the crown, but the Pope's nephew and the affianced
husband of Elisabetta's niece. Hence family as well
as political exigencies led them to accept Francesco's
excuses and forgive his crime. Under these circum-
i Serassi, i. S4. 2 'Lettere/ iii. 15.
they are once done, cannot be undone. Everything
has been arranged, thanks to the wisdom and dexterity
of the Lord Duke, and the Eord Prefect is here again,
and is restored to His Excellency's favour, and he
who no longer lives is already forgotten.'*
Bembo's reference to the murder sounds even
more cold-blooded and heartless in our ears. On
November 18, barely a week after the deed which
had sent a shudder through the court and city, he
wrote to inform Bibbiena that he had just returned
from a visit to Padua, and observed that he would
hear the latest news from Count Lodovico Canossa,
who was on the point of starting for Rome.
' The Count will tell you what has happened here,
regarding which he has received full and minute
particulars from Messer Cesare. So I will keep
silence, and will only say this: he who might remain
standing, and falls by his own fault, deserves to lie
there against his will.'^
It is difficult to understand the confusion of moral
ideas which could lead a scholar as refined as Bembo,
and a knight as gentle and high-minded as Cas-
tiglione, to palliate so dark and treacherous an act.
All that can be said in their defence is that, by the
code of honour commonly accepted in those days,
there were certain wrongs which only death could
avenge. The situation was no doubt a very difficult
one both for the Duke and Duchess. The perpetrator
of the deed was not only their own nephew and heir
to the crown, but the Pope's nephew and the affianced
husband of Elisabetta's niece. Hence family as well
as political exigencies led them to accept Francesco's
excuses and forgive his crime. Under these circum-
i Serassi, i. S4. 2 'Lettere/ iii. 15.