DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36839#0364
822 COUNT BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE
his advice, but was genuinely distressed at the pillage
of the Vatican. Castiglione's own friends had suffered.
Imperialists and French partisans, the innocent and
the guilty, had alike fallen victims to the Spanish
soldiery. Sadoleto and Chiericati lost everything ;
the Datary's priceless porcelain was smashed to
atoms ; even Leo X.'s poor fool Coco, whose
services Federico Gonzaga had been so anxious to
retain, was robbed and torturedd But the expres-
sions of sympathy which he received on all sides
softened his grief. Henry VIII. and Wolsey sent
him condolences through the nuncio in England,
Uberto Gambara.
' The Bishops and courtiers, great and small/ wrote
Castiglione, ' express their dismay at these enormities ;
the very stones cry out. The Emperor was deeply
moved when I dwelt on these barbarous deeds and on
the insults offered to the Head of the Church and the
name of Christ. He said that he hoped to be for-
given before God, vowing that he had never ordered
these horrible deeds, but felt the load on his con-
science, because, being engaged in a perilous war
through no fault of his own, he had been unable to
refuse the services of the ColonnaU
The same courier brought news of the disaster
which had befallen Christendom in the defeat and
death of the Emperor's brother-in-law, King Louis
of Hungary, at Mohacz. This gallant prince had
fallen, with the flower of his chivalry, fighting against
the Turks, leaving the Sultan Soliman master of
the Danube. The loss of his valiant kinsman, from
whom he had received a pathetic farewell, written on
the eve of the fatal battle, moved Charles to tears
and produced a marked change in his feelings. In a
i 'Lettere di Principi,' i. 104. ^ Serassi, ii. 98.
his advice, but was genuinely distressed at the pillage
of the Vatican. Castiglione's own friends had suffered.
Imperialists and French partisans, the innocent and
the guilty, had alike fallen victims to the Spanish
soldiery. Sadoleto and Chiericati lost everything ;
the Datary's priceless porcelain was smashed to
atoms ; even Leo X.'s poor fool Coco, whose
services Federico Gonzaga had been so anxious to
retain, was robbed and torturedd But the expres-
sions of sympathy which he received on all sides
softened his grief. Henry VIII. and Wolsey sent
him condolences through the nuncio in England,
Uberto Gambara.
' The Bishops and courtiers, great and small/ wrote
Castiglione, ' express their dismay at these enormities ;
the very stones cry out. The Emperor was deeply
moved when I dwelt on these barbarous deeds and on
the insults offered to the Head of the Church and the
name of Christ. He said that he hoped to be for-
given before God, vowing that he had never ordered
these horrible deeds, but felt the load on his con-
science, because, being engaged in a perilous war
through no fault of his own, he had been unable to
refuse the services of the ColonnaU
The same courier brought news of the disaster
which had befallen Christendom in the defeat and
death of the Emperor's brother-in-law, King Louis
of Hungary, at Mohacz. This gallant prince had
fallen, with the flower of his chivalry, fighting against
the Turks, leaving the Sultan Soliman master of
the Danube. The loss of his valiant kinsman, from
whom he had received a pathetic farewell, written on
the eve of the fatal battle, moved Charles to tears
and produced a marked change in his feelings. In a
i 'Lettere di Principi,' i. 104. ^ Serassi, ii. 98.