DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0296
DEATH OF GUIDOBALDO
283
tiglione snatched a spare moment to write the follow-
ing brief note to his mother :
' I only send these few lines in answer to the letter
brought me by Fracassa because we are all in the
greatest distress. His Excellency the Duke is sink-
ing fast, and the doctors give little or no hope of his
life. The loss is very great for every one of us, most
of all for the poor Lady Duchess, whom I will never
leave as long as she needs my services. God help us !
I think the Lord Prefect will succeed peaceably to
this duchy. M. Cesare is at Urbino, which is a good
thing, as no one else of importance is in the palace,
and we cannot tell what may happen/
An hour later the end came. The dying Prince laid
his right cheek upon his hand, composed himself to
sleep, and, without the slightest struggle, passed
away so gently that Castiglione and the others who
knelt around hardly knew when he was gone. ' No
one/ wrote Bembo to Vincenzo Querini, ' ever died
more calmly and nobly and in a more Christian
manner/
Even the Venetian humanist s cold and calculating
spirit was moved to tears at the premature death of
this Prince, who was so precious to his family and
friends, and so dear to his subjects, who had been
trusted and honoured by the Pope, and whose life
seemed necessary to the peace of Italy. 'We in
Venice/ he reminds his friends, 'witnessed the courage,
constancy, and goodness which he showed in the
weary days of exile, when both he and the Duchess
made themselves so dear to us that it was hard to
say which of the two was the more beloved. . . .
And so ends the life of the rarest Prince of our
age—let others say what they will D
* 'Lettere,'ii. 65,
283
tiglione snatched a spare moment to write the follow-
ing brief note to his mother :
' I only send these few lines in answer to the letter
brought me by Fracassa because we are all in the
greatest distress. His Excellency the Duke is sink-
ing fast, and the doctors give little or no hope of his
life. The loss is very great for every one of us, most
of all for the poor Lady Duchess, whom I will never
leave as long as she needs my services. God help us !
I think the Lord Prefect will succeed peaceably to
this duchy. M. Cesare is at Urbino, which is a good
thing, as no one else of importance is in the palace,
and we cannot tell what may happen/
An hour later the end came. The dying Prince laid
his right cheek upon his hand, composed himself to
sleep, and, without the slightest struggle, passed
away so gently that Castiglione and the others who
knelt around hardly knew when he was gone. ' No
one/ wrote Bembo to Vincenzo Querini, ' ever died
more calmly and nobly and in a more Christian
manner/
Even the Venetian humanist s cold and calculating
spirit was moved to tears at the premature death of
this Prince, who was so precious to his family and
friends, and so dear to his subjects, who had been
trusted and honoured by the Pope, and whose life
seemed necessary to the peace of Italy. 'We in
Venice/ he reminds his friends, 'witnessed the courage,
constancy, and goodness which he showed in the
weary days of exile, when both he and the Duchess
made themselves so dear to us that it was hard to
say which of the two was the more beloved. . . .
And so ends the life of the rarest Prince of our
age—let others say what they will D
* 'Lettere,'ii. 65,