[*149] Roberto murdered Isotta. With the assistance of the Pope and Federigo of Urbino he had set out to win Rimini—for himself, as it proved. Once within the walls he first befriended Isotta, finding her too strong in the affections of the people to oppose openly. On August 8, 1470, Sallustio was found dead in a well belonging to the Marcheselli in Rimini, and within the year Isotta died also, of poison, as was believed, for Valerio, her second son, was openly slain by Roberto not long after.
[150] The following dispatch by the Count to the priors of Siena, from Urbino, the 27th of July, before the confederates had appeared, proves how unimportant were the proceedings of the siege. "Since I last wrote your lordships, nothing new has occurred beyond some attempts by the besiegers of Rimini, to which those of the town offered such resistance that they proved fruitless, indeed, rather detrimental. It also happened, by a sudden and unexpected chance, that the barks and armed vessels which blockaded the town were dispersed and scattered; one if not two of them are known to have foundered, but nothing further has yet been heard of their fate."—Archiv. Diplom. at Siena.
[151] We have spared our readers the numerous orations with which Baldi, emulating the style of Livy, has interpolated his narrative. This one is taken from Muzio, and may be a fair specimen of the eloquence then in use on similar occasions.
[152] From the original in Italian in the Archivio Diplomatico at Siena.
[153] Her mother having been then married but eleven years, Berni is palpably wrong in calling the bride nineteen. Three years appear to have intervened between this betrothal and the nuptials, that the bride might attain the age of puberty. Roberto Malatesta had from his contemporaries the appellation of Magnifico, in common with others of like station. The authorities quoted by Roscoe (ch. ii., note 49), as proving this distinction to have been special to Lorenzo de' Medici, are comparatively modern, and do not countervail repeated instances of its adoption by personages of much less mark. Neither is Sismondi correct in considering it a generic title of such princes as possessed no other.
[154] Letter of Matteo Bosso, quoted by Riposati, I., 409.
[155] So written by Pietro Bizarro, whose Historia Rerum Persicarum is our chief authority for these circumstances. The letter of Federigo (Urb. Vat. MSS. No. 1198) has Asanbech Kan; it is also written Uzun Hassan Bey. The picture is mentioned in Pungileone, Elogio di Giovanni Santi, pp. 11 and 64.
[*156] The picture is now in the Pinacoteca.
[*157] I am in some doubt here. Guerriero says (see op. cit. supra, p. 21) that on 27 April, 1472, the Cardinal [Bessarione] Niceno, called the Cardinal Greco, came to Gubbio on his way into France as Legate. "Fo de lunedì. Foli facto grande honore. Stecto in Ugubio tucto el martedì et in quello dì cresimò el figliolo piccino del Signor Conte con grande festa, el mercoledì partì ... laso ... certe indulgentie al sepulcro novamente facto in la fraternità di Bianchi in Ugubio." As to Pietro Riario, I can find nothing; but it may well have been as Dennistoun says.
[158] Bembi, Opera, I., p. 588. The portentous tale is gravely repeated by Baldi in his Life of Duke Guidobaldo; and as an instance of the twaddle of Italian biographies, we may translate literally the reverend abbot's exposition of the exertions through which the Count and Countess at length obtained a male heir: "Meanwhile, being both of them resolved to leave nothing untried, they, under the direction of prudent physicians, unceasingly employed potent remedies, calculated to invigorate them, and, in as far as practicable, to supply by artificial means the defects of nature. Aware more especially of the efficacy of pious works, accompanied by righteous and fervent prayers to the Most High, they distributed vast alms, aiding them with vows and with public and private prayers." After this sample, we need not dwell upon the prodigies preceding, nor the astrological calculations occasioned by the appearance of the dieu-donné.