A relapse of fever having supervened about the beginning of September, he felt that his end was approaching, and calling around him the commissioners of the League, showed them how all his repeated warnings had come true, protesting that his life was sacrificed to unflinching duty in an evil cause. After exposing to them his plan of escape from the jaws of destruction, by removing the seat of operations into a healthy part of Lombardy, he recommended to them the surrounding country and fortresses, and then formally resigned his command, thus briefly reviewing his military career:—

"To Heaven's almighty Lord my thanks are due
For eight-and-forty years of manhood, spent
In war's most worthy calling, though of these
Three-fourths the cares of high command on me
Imposed, beneath time-honoured banners, all
Unstained by foreign insult, and upheld
Proudly victorious. Mine the task has been
To conquer further frontiers for their states,
With gainful triumphs and distinctions high,
Or vindicate a good and lasting peace."[198]

The commissioners at length, by affectionate persuasions, induced the invalid to leave his army in charge of the Lord Giulio Orsini, and withdraw to Ferrara, where a villa of the Duke was prepared for his reception.[199] But it was too late. The disease rapidly gaining ground, he set himself to prepare for death like a Christian hero, and, by the grace of God, was permitted to do so in full exercise of his mental powers. "Having arranged all matters pertaining to the succession of his son, he began to attend to his soul's salvation, and after confessing himself repeatedly, as a faithful and good Christian, he set in order all that seemed to him tending to his future welfare, and took, in their prescribed order, the sacraments of the Church. It was graciously vouchsafed him from on high to perform all this with a mind amply prepared by full examination, so that nothing was omitted that behoved a faithful Christian; and this favour was granted him by God for his perseverance through life in the habitual exercise of virtue, for on every occasion his clemency entitled him to the appellation of father of the miserable, and protector of the afflicted."[200]

Among the friends who tended his last hours was his secretary, Comandino Comandini, to whom he gave instructions for his funeral; but his son, Count Antonio, having come from the army to visit him, was, according to Sanzi, received with this reproof:—

"How! wouldst thou thus my gallant comrades quit,
In time of need, to gaze upon a corpse?
Far other course the urgent hour demands!
The sacred church's all-consoling rites,
Like staid and thoughtful Christian, then he sought:
Nor did they fail his latest pangs to cheer.
Few were the watchers round his lonely couch,
To whom, in sadly soothing words, he spoke
Of gentle kindness, and to God his soul
In peace committed, spurning mundane moils.
* * * * * * *
Just as a locust by the sun struck down,
With holy zeal his last behests were told
In charity and love; and, having touched
The hand of each in turn, with tears bedewed,
That lofty and unvanquished spirit sped;
Whilst on his lips, with pious fervour, late
Lingered the names of God and of our Lady,
Giving good hope, if man such signs may read,
That to a glorious home its flight was winged."

Veterani, another laureate of Urbino, composed a touching sonnet on his patron's death, which begins thus:—

"With ever-welling tears I weep for him,
On him I call, of him I nightly dream,
And to my lips his cherished image strain,
Till by my stains of grief its smile grows dim.
To it my verse I vow, it living deem
For solace of my stricken soul, in vain!"

The Duke died on the 10th of September, within a few days of the premature decease of Roberto Malatesta of Rimini, his son-in-law, and successor in command of the papal troops.[*201] Aided by the factious barons of the Campagna, the Duke of Calabria had gradually penetrated to the gates of Rome, when Roberto, on the 21st of August, dispersed his army in a pitched battle, and returned in triumph as saviour of the Eternal City. His death supervened in a few days, in consequence of a draught of cold water, or, as some thought, of poison administered by the jealous Count of Forlì; and Sixtus, to testify gratitude or remove suspicion, forthwith erected a monument to his general in St. Peter's, with an epitaph testifying that his life had been attended by valour, his death by victory.[202]