Begone, deceiving thoughts and empty hope,
Greedy and blind desires, and bitter cravings,
Begone, ye burning sighs and bitter woes,
Companions ever of my unending pain.
Go memories sweet, go galling chains,
Of a heart that is loosed from you at last,
That gathers up again the rein of reason,
Dropped for a while, and now goes forth in freedom.
And thou, my soul, entangled in so many sorrows,
Unbind thyself and to thy divine Lord
Rejoicing turn thy thoughts;
Now bravely force thy fate,
Break through thy bonds; then, glad and free,
Direct thy steps in the securer way!
In order to give my readers some idea of what was done to furnish the Palazzo Foscari for Henry’s visit, I quote some items of the expenditure from the Souvenirs of Armand Baschet:—
‘Crimson silk and gold hangings, fifty-eight pieces making three hundred and seven braccia and a half at a ducat for each braccio and twelve inches. White silk and silver stuff; shot-silk and silver stuff; white satin with gold lines, etc. Cushions of brocade embroidered with gold and of blue velvet with gold and fringes etc. at forty ducats each. A bed quilt with gold lines and scarlet checks, twenty ducats. Yellow damask with little checks at one ducat the braccio. A rep rug of gold edged with blue velvet and lined with red silk, sixty ducats. A tablecloth of silver and gold brocade with white and gold fringe, thirty-four ducats. Green and blue velvet for the floor, at one ducat the braccio. Complete hangings for a room of yellow satin with gold and silver fringe and gold lace, over seven hundred and thirty ducats.’
Further, we find for the royal gondolas the following items:—
‘Felse of scarlet satin, one hundred and fifty-six ducats. A boat’s carpet of violet Alexandria velvet; a felse of the same velvet lined with silk, fifty-five ducats. Another velvet carpet of the same colour, two canopies, one of violet satin fringed and embroidered with gold, the other of white satin, and two cushions of scarlet satin and gold.’
These things were put away in boxes, an inventory was taken, and they were valued at four thousand two hundred sequins, or more than three thousand pounds. The King on his side was generous. When he went away he presented each of the young noblemen who had attended him with a chain worth a hundred ducats, and gave a collar worth three hundred to his host, Foscari. The captain of his guard received a silver basin and ewer worth a hundred crowns. For the halberdiers of the guard there were three hundred crowns, eighty for the trumpeters and sixty for the drummers. His Majesty left a thousand crowns for the workmen of the Arsenal, two hundred for the rowers of the Bucentaur, one hundred for the major-domo, and fifty to the chief steward of the house.
The Duke of Savoy, who accompanied the King of France, also left some splendid presents. To the wife