DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0381
308 COUNT BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE
or explain them to her by word of mouth. I also
beg you to show this letter to our Mag. Gio. Pietro,
and to M. Polissena, and hope that you will all beg
of her not to compel me to incur the Duke s disgrace
ior the sake of these few days, which would certainly
be a great pity, as I have already fully explained,
especially as the adair is so far settled that there can
be no thought of drawing back now. I beg of you
kindly to go to Casatico at once and see her, and then
send me a messenger to tell me how she is, for I am
so much disturbed that I hardly know what to do.
SiNiGAGLiA, 6, 1511.
'Since the beginning of these wars, the Pope has
always thought and said that the Duke not only
failed to do his utmost against the Duke of Ferrara
and the French, but was in secret communication
with them, and has often declared that he was a
traitor and should be drawn and quartered, and many
similar words, which he has repeated a thousand
times and now maintains more strongly than ever.
Now that the campaign against Bologna is to be
undertaken, he has reduced the Duke of Urbino s
old company by sixty men-at-arms, and has given the
Duke of TerminP a force of 200 men-at-arms, and
light cavalry, with the title of Lieutenant, which is
greater than that of Captain, so that the Duke would
have to serve under the Duke of Termini, and declares
that he will rather die than submit to such an insult,
for a thousand reasons which would take too long to
tell. Our Lord Duke has always tried, and is still
trying, to remove the Popes suspicions and prove
his innocence, as the best way of recovering His
Holiness s favour. The Pope has repeatedly declared
that I was the medium through whom the Duke
kept up correspondence with the French, having
received this impression from one who bore me no
goodwill—z.^., Count Gio. Francesco of Mirandola—
A Neapolitan general in the King of Spain's service.
l
or explain them to her by word of mouth. I also
beg you to show this letter to our Mag. Gio. Pietro,
and to M. Polissena, and hope that you will all beg
of her not to compel me to incur the Duke s disgrace
ior the sake of these few days, which would certainly
be a great pity, as I have already fully explained,
especially as the adair is so far settled that there can
be no thought of drawing back now. I beg of you
kindly to go to Casatico at once and see her, and then
send me a messenger to tell me how she is, for I am
so much disturbed that I hardly know what to do.
SiNiGAGLiA, 6, 1511.
'Since the beginning of these wars, the Pope has
always thought and said that the Duke not only
failed to do his utmost against the Duke of Ferrara
and the French, but was in secret communication
with them, and has often declared that he was a
traitor and should be drawn and quartered, and many
similar words, which he has repeated a thousand
times and now maintains more strongly than ever.
Now that the campaign against Bologna is to be
undertaken, he has reduced the Duke of Urbino s
old company by sixty men-at-arms, and has given the
Duke of TerminP a force of 200 men-at-arms, and
light cavalry, with the title of Lieutenant, which is
greater than that of Captain, so that the Duke would
have to serve under the Duke of Termini, and declares
that he will rather die than submit to such an insult,
for a thousand reasons which would take too long to
tell. Our Lord Duke has always tried, and is still
trying, to remove the Popes suspicions and prove
his innocence, as the best way of recovering His
Holiness s favour. The Pope has repeatedly declared
that I was the medium through whom the Duke
kept up correspondence with the French, having
received this impression from one who bore me no
goodwill—z.^., Count Gio. Francesco of Mirandola—
A Neapolitan general in the King of Spain's service.
l