CHAPTER VII. An unprotected Princess.—Match-making, and its penalties.—A ladies' man for a Castellano.—A woman's weakness, and a woman's political economy.—Wanted, by the city of Forlì, a Jew; any Israelite, possessing sufficient capital, will find
this, &c. &c.—The new Pope, Alexander VI.—The value of a Jubilee.—Troublous times in Forlì.—Alliances made, and broken.—Catherine once more a widow 204   CHAPTER VIII. Guilty or not guilty again.—Mediæval Clanship.—A woman's vengeance.—Funeral honours.—Royal-mindedness.—Its costliness; and its mode of raising the wind.—Taxes spent in alms to ruined tax-payers.—Threatening times.—Giovanni de' Medici.—Catherine once more wife, mother, and widow 223   CHAPTER IX. A nation of good haters.—Madama's soldier trade.—A new Pope has to found a new family.—Catherine's bounty to recruits.—A shrewd dealer meets his match.—Signs of hard times.—How to manage a free council.—Forlì ungrateful.—Catherine at Bay.—"A Borgia! A Borgia!"—A new year's eve party in 1500.—The lioness in the toils.—Catherine led captive to Rome 238   CHAPTER X. Catherine arrives in Rome; is accused of attempting to poison the Pope; is imprisoned in St. Angelo; is liberated; and goes to Florence.—Her cloister life with the Murate nuns.—Her collection of wonderful secrets.—Making allowances.—Catherine's death 256  

VITTORIA COLONNA.

Born, 1490. Died, 1547.

CHAPTER I.
	PAGE
Changes in the Condition of Italy.—Dark Days.—Circumstances which led to the Invasion of the French.—State of things in Naples.—Fall of the Arragonese Dynasty.—Birth of Vittoria.—The Colonna.—Marino.—Vittoria's Betrothal.—The Duchessa di Francavilla.—Literary Culture at Naples.—Education of Vittoria in Ischia	271
CHAPTER II.
Vittoria's Personal Appearance.—First Love.—A Noble Soldier of Fortune.—Italian Wars of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries.—The Colonna Fortunes.—Death of Ferdinand II.—The Neapolitans carry Coals to Newcastle.—Events in Ischia.—Ferdinand of Spain in Naples.—Life in Naples in the Sixteenth Century.—Marriage of Pescara with Vittoria.—Marriage presents	287
CHAPTER III.
Vittoria's Married Life.—Pescara goes where glory waits him.—The Rout of Ravenna.—Pescara in prison turns penman.—His "Dialogo di amore."—Vittoria's poetical epistle to her Husband.—Vittoria and the Marchese del Vasto.—Three cart-loads of ladies, and three mule-loads of sweatmeats.—Character of Pescara.—His Cruelty.—Anecdote in proof of it	301
CHAPTER IV.
Society in Ischia.—Bernardo Tasso's sonnet thereon.—How a wedding was celebrated at Naples in 1517.—A Sixteenth Century trousseau.—Sack of Genoa.—The Battle of Pavia.—Italian conspiracy against Charles V.—Character of Pescara.—Honour in 1525.—Pescara's treason.—Vittoria's sentiments on the occasion.—Pescara's infamy.—Patriotism unknown in Italy in the sixteenth century.—No such sentiment to be found in the writings of Vittoria.—Evil influence of her husband's character on her mind.—Death of Pescara	312
CHAPTER V.
Vittoria, a widow, with the Nuns of San Silvestro.—Returns to Ischia.—Her Poetry divisible into two classes.—Specimens of her Sonnets.—They rapidly attain celebrity throughout Italy.—Vittoria's sentiments towards her husband.—Her unblemished character.—Platonic love.—The love poetry of the Sixteenth Century	328
CHAPTER VI.
Vittoria in Rome in 1530.—Antiquarian rambles.—Pyramus and Thisbe medal.—Contemporary commentary on Vittoria's poems.—Paul III.—Rome again in 1536.—Visit to Lucca.—To Ferrara.—Protestant tendencies.—Invitation from Giberto.—Return to Rome	345
CHAPTER VII.
Oratory of Divine Love.—Italian reformers.—Their tenets.—Consequence of the doctrine of justification by faith.—Fear of schism in Italy.—Orthodoxy of Vittoria questioned.—Proofs of her Protestantism from her writings.—Calvinism of her sonnets.—Remarkable passage against auricular confession.—Controversial and religious sonnets.—Absence from the sonnets of moral topics.—Specimen of her poetical power.—Romanist ideas.—Absence from the sonnets of all patriotic feeling	356
CHAPTER VIII.
Return to Rome.—Her great