DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0498
CASTIGLIONE AND HIS FRIENDS 428
that are to be painted in your little cabinet, or, rather,
the inscriptions for the pictures, because those which
you sent him before will be finished this week. Her
Dm/ this is no joke, for now M. Baldassare has
arrived, and says I am to tell you that he intends
to spend this summer in Rome, not to spoil a good
habit, and more especially because M. Antonio Tebal-
deo wishes it A
But the joyous freedom of these days was soon
ended. M. Baldassare was required to attend to
sterner duties. Only the day before he had been to
La Magliana for a last interview with the Pope, as
he told his lord in the following letter:
' In order that V. E. may understand the situation
fully, I must tell you that to-day I once more begged
His Beatitude to give us a further respite, explaining
that the Duchess desired more time to discuss these
matters. Upon which he replied that the delays
were nothing but a trick to blind him, and that he
would grant no more. I returned that the delays
might have been numerous, but that they were
certainly short, that there had been no time to send
messengers, and that the marriage proposals which
I had made could not be entertained without some
delay. To this he replied that his honour could not be
satisfied unless V. E. came here, as he said before.
I endeavoured to show him that V. E. had good
reason to be afraid of coming here, as the situation
was so serious, and defended your action with all
the words and reasons that i could call to mind. At
the end he said that V. E. would never trust him
until you realized how much His Holiness might
have done to injure you, and had refrained horn
doing, and that he could never trust V. E. unless
you gave him this proof of confidence. He was
content to promise the Lady Duchess, the Marquis,
* ' Lettere/ i. 33-35.
M1F
j .. ^
that are to be painted in your little cabinet, or, rather,
the inscriptions for the pictures, because those which
you sent him before will be finished this week. Her
Dm/ this is no joke, for now M. Baldassare has
arrived, and says I am to tell you that he intends
to spend this summer in Rome, not to spoil a good
habit, and more especially because M. Antonio Tebal-
deo wishes it A
But the joyous freedom of these days was soon
ended. M. Baldassare was required to attend to
sterner duties. Only the day before he had been to
La Magliana for a last interview with the Pope, as
he told his lord in the following letter:
' In order that V. E. may understand the situation
fully, I must tell you that to-day I once more begged
His Beatitude to give us a further respite, explaining
that the Duchess desired more time to discuss these
matters. Upon which he replied that the delays
were nothing but a trick to blind him, and that he
would grant no more. I returned that the delays
might have been numerous, but that they were
certainly short, that there had been no time to send
messengers, and that the marriage proposals which
I had made could not be entertained without some
delay. To this he replied that his honour could not be
satisfied unless V. E. came here, as he said before.
I endeavoured to show him that V. E. had good
reason to be afraid of coming here, as the situation
was so serious, and defended your action with all
the words and reasons that i could call to mind. At
the end he said that V. E. would never trust him
until you realized how much His Holiness might
have done to injure you, and had refrained horn
doing, and that he could never trust V. E. unless
you gave him this proof of confidence. He was
content to promise the Lady Duchess, the Marquis,
* ' Lettere/ i. 33-35.
M1F
j .. ^