DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36839#0149
LEO X.'S TRIUMPH
125
prospers, there will be no occasion to think of that.
The nearer we are to a crisis, the more confident
His Holiness is of hearing great news and of seeing a
good end to the war, which may our Lord God grant!
V. E. will not think that I forgot to ask for your
salary, because not a day passes that I do not speak of
it to the Pope, or mention it to our friend M. Pietro
Ardinghelli, who does his best to find money. But
I seem to be like Tantalus, who draws so near to the
water and yet cannot drink, for from day to day I
hope to receive these blessed ducats, and never get
them! All the same, I really think they cannot
escape me much longer U
The next afternoon, Sunday, the 24th, Paolo
d' Arezzo, Cardinal de' Medici's chamberlain, arrived
in Rome with news of the occupation of Milan, and
rode post-haste with Giberti to tell the Pope at
La Magliana. Leo X. was saying Lauds in the
chapel when the messengers arrived, and had just
reached that verse of theRc^c^'c^, ' Ut sine timore,
de manu inimicorum nostrorum liberati, serviamus
illi.' His joy was unbounded, and the next day,
when he returned to Rome and met the Cardinals
and ambassadors riding out in state to congratulate
him, he said to Castiglione : ' This pleases me even
more than my election to the Papacy.' The Romans
greeted him with shouts of triumph. Salutes were
fired from S. Angelo, bells rung, and bonfires lighted
in all parts of the city. The Pope entertained the
Cardinals at supper, and the English envoy, Clerk,
Dean of Windsor and afterwards Bishop of Bath and
Wells, remarked that he had never seen His Holiness
look more lusty. In the midst of the general re-
joicing, Castiglione sent a hurried note congratulating
the Marchesana on her son's victory, and describing
^ Contin, 18.
125
prospers, there will be no occasion to think of that.
The nearer we are to a crisis, the more confident
His Holiness is of hearing great news and of seeing a
good end to the war, which may our Lord God grant!
V. E. will not think that I forgot to ask for your
salary, because not a day passes that I do not speak of
it to the Pope, or mention it to our friend M. Pietro
Ardinghelli, who does his best to find money. But
I seem to be like Tantalus, who draws so near to the
water and yet cannot drink, for from day to day I
hope to receive these blessed ducats, and never get
them! All the same, I really think they cannot
escape me much longer U
The next afternoon, Sunday, the 24th, Paolo
d' Arezzo, Cardinal de' Medici's chamberlain, arrived
in Rome with news of the occupation of Milan, and
rode post-haste with Giberti to tell the Pope at
La Magliana. Leo X. was saying Lauds in the
chapel when the messengers arrived, and had just
reached that verse of theRc^c^'c^, ' Ut sine timore,
de manu inimicorum nostrorum liberati, serviamus
illi.' His joy was unbounded, and the next day,
when he returned to Rome and met the Cardinals
and ambassadors riding out in state to congratulate
him, he said to Castiglione : ' This pleases me even
more than my election to the Papacy.' The Romans
greeted him with shouts of triumph. Salutes were
fired from S. Angelo, bells rung, and bonfires lighted
in all parts of the city. The Pope entertained the
Cardinals at supper, and the English envoy, Clerk,
Dean of Windsor and afterwards Bishop of Bath and
Wells, remarked that he had never seen His Holiness
look more lusty. In the midst of the general re-
joicing, Castiglione sent a hurried note congratulating
the Marchesana on her son's victory, and describing
^ Contin, 18.