"Do not indulge too much in sleeping. Eat and drink of everything indifferently, without reference to diet such as is recommended by physicians, of whom keep aloof while you can, never calling them in until you are ill; but when really so, obey them strictly, committing yourself first to God, and secondly to their skill.
"Remember, as soon as convenient, to complete your marriage with the sister of the Grand Duke of Tuscany; for no alliance could be found better or more entirely suitable for this state, for our house, or for yourself. To her, as your wife, be ever most affectionate; yet see that she meddle not in the affairs of government, but more particularly that she does not interfere in matters regarding the administration of justice. Endeavour always to maintain a most friendly footing with her family, paying to the Grand Duke the deference due to a father, and consulting him on every incident of importance.
"Should God grant you more than one son, purchase for one of them a fief, however small, in the kingdom of Naples, and other property, yielding in all 12,000 scudi of revenue, but give him no lands in your own state: by this means you will found a second house, and avert the danger in which our family was at the time of your birth. Your other sons you may provide for by making one a churchman with the Pope's assistance, and by giving to the rest such savings as will in that case be very requisite. Forget not to treat your eldest son like a brother, admitting him to share with you the government and administration, which, if God grant me life, I shall certainly do towards you.
"Lastly, I assure you, that those who have been faithful and attached to me will, if you avail yourself of their services, be the same to you; others you may seek to attach to you, but abandon not these.
"Such is the little I would impress upon you, not without difficulty and much consideration; but take courage, and the execution of it will become easy. I give you my paternal benediction, praying the blessed God to confirm it."[99]
But though it seems agreed that the seed thus kindly and carefully sown fell upon a soil not naturally ungenial, and though to much childish beauty the Prince is stated to have joined a fine temper, a remarkably quick apprehension, and an uncommon memory, he was destined sadly to verify a remark of Dante, that,—
|
"Rarely into the branches of the tree Doth human worth mount up." |
The good fruit of almost spontaneous growth was speedily and entirely choked by rank weeds, fostered under an erroneous system of early discipline. An only child, he was deprived of playmates of his own rank, and even of the companionship of the higher nobility, for whom were substituted those whose flattery and indulgence provoked and pandered to all the worst passions of a spoiled brat; and so early and fatally was this perversion effected, that he had scarcely passed the years of infancy ere the people, who had hailed him as a gift of Heaven, ominously deprecated his accession to power. On his eighth birthday, he was sent by the Duke, with a suitable attendance, to pay his vows at the shrine of his patron saint in the cathedral of Gubbio, and to offer there a small bust of himself chased in gold. On this occasion the aged courtiers, who assembled to do honour to his reception, were heard to draw the most melancholy forebodings, on observing the overbearing and fiery temper which he was at no pains to control or conceal.[*100]