DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0367
294 COUNT BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE
ing an important position on the banks of the Po]
and ask nothing better than to try our chance in
a battle, if only to get out of these miseries. All my
men and I myself are worn out by these long marches,
and our clothes are in rags. I wish you would try
and procure me some blue and tan cloth to make my
servants new vests, and some blue satin for a tunic
for myself, and I will let you know how much I
require. As for our next movements, I can only tell
you what every one knows. We are very near the
enemy, and are obliged to protect our Ranks as well
as we can. We are at Finale, Bondeno, and Massa,
and the enemy at La Stellata and Sermeto. The
Pope was very anxious to take La Bastia, but every
one else expects great things from this conference at
Mantua.'
Again, on April 7 he wrote:
' Our labours are continual, and the famine increases
every day. There is hardly a feed of corn left for our
poor horses, and I have told the present bearer, Aurelio,
to ask you to send me 18 or 20 bushels of oats by a
means of conveyance that he will explain, and which,
I hope, you will be able to manage, as we certainly are
in a bad case. In two days I will send for the blue
and tan cloth of which I wrote, to clothe my poor lads,
who are reduced to a state of absolute nakedness.
I should also like to have two sacks of wheat, as not
a grain of corn is to be had here, and bread costs as
much as an eye !'
Still more pressing was his letter of the 9th, in
which he repeats his request for suits of blue and tan
cloth for Smeraldo, his secretary, and white cloth to
make a tunic for Gianpietro, and three pairs of fur-
lined hoots. ' All of these I want as soon as possible,
for our clothes are all torn to hits. And I beg you
to send the corn at once, as the horses are in dire
ing an important position on the banks of the Po]
and ask nothing better than to try our chance in
a battle, if only to get out of these miseries. All my
men and I myself are worn out by these long marches,
and our clothes are in rags. I wish you would try
and procure me some blue and tan cloth to make my
servants new vests, and some blue satin for a tunic
for myself, and I will let you know how much I
require. As for our next movements, I can only tell
you what every one knows. We are very near the
enemy, and are obliged to protect our Ranks as well
as we can. We are at Finale, Bondeno, and Massa,
and the enemy at La Stellata and Sermeto. The
Pope was very anxious to take La Bastia, but every
one else expects great things from this conference at
Mantua.'
Again, on April 7 he wrote:
' Our labours are continual, and the famine increases
every day. There is hardly a feed of corn left for our
poor horses, and I have told the present bearer, Aurelio,
to ask you to send me 18 or 20 bushels of oats by a
means of conveyance that he will explain, and which,
I hope, you will be able to manage, as we certainly are
in a bad case. In two days I will send for the blue
and tan cloth of which I wrote, to clothe my poor lads,
who are reduced to a state of absolute nakedness.
I should also like to have two sacks of wheat, as not
a grain of corn is to be had here, and bread costs as
much as an eye !'
Still more pressing was his letter of the 9th, in
which he repeats his request for suits of blue and tan
cloth for Smeraldo, his secretary, and white cloth to
make a tunic for Gianpietro, and three pairs of fur-
lined hoots. ' All of these I want as soon as possible,
for our clothes are all torn to hits. And I beg you
to send the corn at once, as the horses are in dire