solitary habits and pursuits, tempered by sincere anxiety to discharge his public duties for the benefit of his people. An argument addressing itself to both motives readily occurred to the wily Pontiff. An immediate abdication would secure to the Duke personal ease, and the consequent devolution of his government to the Camera Apostolica might be guarded by stipulations for the public weal, which such voluntary demission alone could entitle him to dictate. The art with which these considerations had been urged, and the impression they made upon the Duke, may be best gathered from a circular he addressed to the magistrates of each city in his state, curiously exemplifying him in that character of royal philosopher which it seems to have been his ambition to attain.

"Most magnificent and well-beloved,

"Ever since we understood that you so affectionately long for the continuation and maintenance of our house, we have had no wish more urgent than to conform to your desires; and although for some time past we have been always anxious to facilitate this resolution, yet the more we consider it, the greater do the difficulties daily appear, not only by reason of our age and infirmities, but much more from the obligation laid upon us to take no step that might turn to your prejudice, as we know this would do: for, upon weighing the advantages that would accrue to you by being placed after our death immediately under the sway of the Church, there cannot, in our opinion, be a doubt that this would be most beneficial; since, besides being rid of the present inconvenient restrictions on trade in grain, salt, oil, and similar commodities, you might well hope, from a sovereign so powerful as his Holiness, many exemptions and facilities which we, however well-disposed, cannot, with due attention to the suitable maintenance of our rank, accord you. Wherefore, we exhort and pray you, to take all this into your most serious consideration; and, along with it, those suggestions which your affectionate devotion may prompt, in conjunction

with our delicate health and advanced age, as these might, at all events, render vain the hope of a succession, or at least might occasion you to be some day left under a minority (ever a judgment of God upon a nation), and us to die with such pain. as you may conceive the predicament of leaving a minor would occasion us: whereas, on the other hand, were we to remain in our present condition, looking, so long as God may vouchsafe us life, for no other children than yourselves, we might the more diligently apply to the cares of our government. It is therefore our desire that you satisfy yourselves in this matter, and, after having prayed in all sincerity to our Lord and Saviour for His inspiration, that you convoke a full meeting of your usual council, excluding all officers of our government, and that, after reading to them this our letter, they should decide by ballot what they judge most fitting for the common weal, having sworn the consuls to conceal nothing of the resolution they come to; and you shall report their decision to the Bishop of this city, who, keeping it secret from us and all others, shall declare only the general result of this appeal to you and to the other principal places of our state, to whom we write in similar terms: and the opinion so expressed we shall, in accordance to our love towards you, endeavour to carry into effect even at the hazard of our life, thus appealing to the faithful attachment you have ever displayed towards our house and ourselves, as is well known to all, but chiefly to us.-May it, therefore, please the blessed God so to inspire you, that these our exhortations and commands may be executed so as to bring about the best results, and may He preserve you. From Pesaro, 7th June, 1598.

"FRANCESCO MARIA."

The consequence of this singular appeal was a unanimous and urgent resolution in favour of the Duke's immediate marriage; indeed nothing else could well be looked for, the alternative contemplated by the people being loss of their independence, and the substitution of a foreign legate, changed every few years,

for a hereditary and popular sovereign. Passeri conjectures that this result was in fact less distasteful to Francesco Maria than the tone of his letter might infer; and that the whole expedient was adopted in order to obtain a satisfactory answer to the importunities of the Pontiff, whom the stern measures lately adopted towards Ferrara had rendered the Duke peculiarly averse to thwart, by opposition to his scheme. From the Memoirs so often quoted, we learn nothing beyond the obvious facts, that the marriage was undertaken in compliance with urgent entreaties of the Duchess mother and of the people of Urbino, and that the bride was his own choice.

Of Cardinal Giulio della Rovere's two natural sons we have already spoken.* In the correspondence of Francesco Maria, there occur some proofs of a bad understanding between him and these cousins, the origin and circumstances of which it is unnecessary to examine. To Ippolito Marquis of S. Lorenzo, there was born in 1585, of his marriage with Isabella Vitelli, Princess dell' Amatrice in the Abruzzi, a daughter Livia, who was educated in the convent of Sta. Caterina at Pesaro; and on her fell the choice of Francesco Maria, as announced in the following extract of a letter to the Archduchess Maria of Austria. A selection so obviously ineligible may have been dictated in part by that shrinking from close contact with strangers which his reserved habits were calculated to generate, and partly too by the sad experience he had already reaped of a marriage of state policy.

"Moved by the unremitting entreaties of my subjects, I have been forced to establish myself by a new alliance: yet as my age and other considerations would have prevented me from taking this resolution but for their satisfaction, I have chosen to combine with their wishes a due consideration for my own, by selecting one of my proper blood, and brought up in this country, in whom are combined many of the qualities suited to my views."

Of the domestic life of Francesco Maria after his second union no record has been preserved to us. The circumstances in which it was effected were not such as to promise a high degree of matrimonial felicity, to which his cold nature, advanced age, and reserved character were virtually impediments. Nor could the monotonous seclusion of his habits be attractive to a youthful bride, transported from a convent to the rank of sovereignty with few of its gauds. That she had the good sense simply to conform to her position may be inferred from the rare occurrence of her name in the documents which I have inspected. The brief notices of her in her husband's Diary merely prove that they were seldom apart, and in one instance she is mentioned as accompanying him to his favourite pastime of deer hunting. Regarding preliminaries for their marriage, that record is silent, and the only allusion to it is in this concise phrase: "26th April, 1599, I married the Lady Livia della Rovere." But letters of the Duchess, written long subsequently, to her grand-daughter, of which a specimen will be introduced below, exhibit her character in a light so amiable as to warrant our regret that it has not been more prominently brought into view, in the few materials which we possess for this portion of our narrative.

Francesco Maria's affection to his mother would have been beautiful in any rank. Besides anxiously providing for her comfort by a suitable establishment, he made her his friend and confidante through life; and during his first marriage she filled at his court the place which in happier circumstances would have been occupied by his wife. The ailments of her advancing years he tended with affectionate anxiety, and thus notices her decease on the 13th December, 1602, after a long indisposition. "Most deep was the public grief for the loss of this excellent and sainted Princess. She was beloved by all, but most by her son, who felt her death as no common sorrow, and testified both in public and in private the sincerity of his feelings. Her funeral oration, pronounced by Leoni, was very fine, though his

praises necessarily fell far short of her real merits." The Venetian Relazioni from the della Rovere court bear witness to her sound judgment and business habits, to her generous disposition and beneficent charities, as well as to the piety of her character, and the exemplary conduct observed by her household.

Her remains were interred by those of her husband, with an epitaph which will be found in No. VII. of the Appendix, and her son appears from his Diary to have worn mourning for her for upwards of a year.