CHAPTER XXXVIII
1522
Castiglione's correspondence with Isabella d' Este—Caradosso's
rebel—-Pope Leo's organ—Raphael's designs—Giulio Romano
—His mother and children—The plague in Rome—Alarm of
the inhabitants—Procession and miracles—Castiglione in the
Belvedere—The Pope lands at Ostia—His entry and coronation.
IN the midst of these grave political cares Castiglione
never failed to keep both the Marquis and his mother
informed of current events, of the latest news that
was to be heard at the Vatican, and of the gossip
that reached his ears from other quarters. His letters
to Isabella especially abound in references to incidents
of interest, which he describes in his usual lively and
picturesque style. He tells the Marchesana of the
grief w ith which men of all parties deplored the death
of Marc' Antonio Colonna, when that gallant captain
was killed by a shell under the walls of Milan. He
records the end of Piero Soderini, the once famous
Gonfaloniere of Florence, who, after long years of
exile at Ragusa, came to die in Rome this summer.
He describes the raids of the Turkish galleys along
the Mediterranean coast, and tells how they sailed up
the Tiber, plundered the houses at Corneto, and carried
off six or seven men and women. He paints in vivid
colours disasters which befell Renzo da Ceri's army
in his fruitless invasion of Tuscany. One half of
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