The above I have retained until the 24th of May, and as no courier is gone, I shall here note what has since happened. Your Majesty must know that on the Pope declining to accept the capitulation which I have mentioned above, your Majesty's captains and counsellors began diligently to surround the castle with trenches, &c., &c.
[APPENDIX III]
([Page 22])
THE DUKE OF URBINO’S JUSTIFICATION, 1527.[256]
WE print this document with hesitation, and solely from its being the Duke's own and formal defence against very serious charges; which, however, it leaves untouched. It is a futile attempt to evade these by feeble and puling recrimination; to distract attention from their true merits by circumlocutions and reiterations, which our version has somewhat condensed. The original is one unbroken sentence, rudely constructed, apparently of purpose to mystify the reader.
Letter of the Lord Duke of Urbino, Captain-general to the Signory of Venice, dated under Monteleone, 9th July, 1527.
By your Sublimity's letters to the most illustrious lord Proveditore Pisani, and from my ambassador accredited to you, I have learnt, to my infinite dissatisfaction and surprise, the suspicions entertained by you lest the illustrious lady Duchess, my consort, and my son should secretly leave Venice, and the doubts of my good faith which you by implication exhibit in denying them permission to quit the city; regarding which it seems necessary first to recapitulate to your Signory what I had formerly charged my resident to explain to you, to this effect. Since, from the very outset of this war, it has generally happened to me not to accomplish my intentions for your service and my own honour, and to be blamed for failures resulting from the occurrence of impossibilities, or from the blunders of others, whilst with mind and body I was exclusively occupied on what might prove advantageous and creditable,—I determined, for these and other considerations which, out of modesty, I omit, seeing the bad success with which I had, on this occasion, borne arms, to yield to my evil fortune on the expiry of my engagement; which I considered to be clearly ended at the close of three years; nor again to expose my honour to question, from no fault of mine. And, on this account, I have all along and often said I would not continue, which may be attested by all the commissioners employed by your Serenity in this war, to whom, as to many others you are accustomed to credit, I repeatedly stated this. Passing over for the present the good reasons, already well known to your Sublimity, which induced me to forget all this, and treat of a re-engagement, with the disposition to remain on,—as well as those considerations which, renewing the first impressions, made me again deliberately fall back upon my project, yet with the full intention not to abandon the cause of your Sublimity, unless the expected succours should arrive, or until I had placed it in safety, even should this necessitate my staying long after the conclusion of my service; thinking also that, I having no opposite interest, the enemy ought to let me rest in my intention, and in a firm resolution neither to take up arms, nor otherwise act against your Sublimity and your interests; nevertheless, considering that, were I to quit you at the close of three years, from all these and numerous other reasons, which might probably occasion me annoyance, I might be exposed to the surmise of having acted, not from such motives, but that, on observing the success of the other side, I wished, by attaching myself to a prosperous cause, to evade adversity; and my chief object ever being to preserve my honour intact, not only from stain, but even from suspicion;—on these accounts, and from the difficulty that arose as to finding myself at freedom in regard to the two years of beneplacito,[257] I decided to serve, in order not to expose my honour to any reflection. Yet, in addition to all that passed in private between the Proveditore and myself, when I told him I would and should serve your Sublimity without further demands, and that he might freely dispose of me, I, even in the public council, stated my views as to maintaining these bands, and constituting them the mainspring of the war. For the whole of which considerations, I declared that I would serve your Sublimity, without regard to life or anything else, as I have uniformly done, in order more fully to satisfy all the Lords of Council that what I proposed I was, and more than ever am, anxious to do, in conjunction with them. And if the dates of letters be examined, it will be distinctly seen that each of these circumstances occurred much before I had heard, or could have heard, a word as to any doubt or distrust of me being exhibited, which, in my opinion, ought not to be, even were I to take my leave. Thus I had no apprehension; yet, as my intention of so acting was founded on what might fairly be done, I did not suppose that by your Sublimity it would have been not only opposed, but even gainsaid, in restoring to me my son when I should ask him of you, as I meant to do. In such case you might well consider that, even had I any intention to fail you,—a thing you could not and ought not to suppose from my former life,—you would have known how to adopt, and would have adopted, measures suitable to such intentions, and not so frequently have said and reiterated, chiefly to the agents of your Sublimity, that you wished me to be gone; and this after I had voluntarily given into your hands my lady consort and my son, when there was, and could be, no obligation to do so beyond the suggestions of my thorough sincerity. And, with a view to establish this, I lately offered you three proposals,—first, my person, which is here at your Sublimity's disposal in your service; second, my son, who is now in your hands; third, my state, with its fortresses, which I willingly would offer your Sublimity, to be kept, along with myself, in your service and disposal, as full guarantee and security; although I know not what better satisfaction you can require besides my free action, whereby I so long and often have manifested my disposition. And most clear, in my opinion, are the many reasons which freely induced me; all of which, and more too, were they not already so known, I am prepared to maintain in case of need. Hence my modesty, serene Prince, will not, in these circumstances, let me stop to say how great a wrong I suffer; yet to no one, not even to your Sublimity, have I given cause or occasion to depreciate my good faith, which was, is, and ever shall be, most sincere. And, although it be considered impossible that you can do anything without that wisdom which becomes your dignity, I nevertheless have grounds for complaint, and am exceedingly vexed that my ill luck has been so in the ascendant as,—after all the efforts and perils of my life, and the loss of so many followers in your service, for which I have heeded no calamities,—instead of the gratitude which I might reasonably have promised myself from you, to occasion such marked dishonour; so that, ever since my birth, I may say that my life has been passed in ceaseless travails and difficulties. And, if you have thought fit to believe any malicious and spiteful fellow, I ought not to be the victim, though he be an astute and wily foe, who, well aware that I maintained myself to be at liberty, and very often declared myself unwilling to remain, has spread some rumours against me, reckoning that, if in nothing else, he would, at all events, have the satisfaction of circulating that distrust of me which is already apparent, although I ought not on that account to be slandered. I do, therefore, with the greatest possible urgency, beseech you to investigate the truth; and, if I be blameable, to visit me with such punishment as I merit; or, if found innocent, to liberate me, by a suitable public acknowledgment, from the stigma under which I lie. And, commending myself to your favour, I remind you that all these past thoughts of mine arose from no private interest of my own, but from despair at being unable, by no fault of mine, to do what your service and my honour demanded, and at being prevented, by past circumstances, from effecting what I had previously hoped to accomplish, although no exertions of mind or body were wanting on my part. From beneath Monteleone, the 9th of July, 1527.