n Angelo where he was immured, has described the terrors. The
Eternal City, whose population under Leo X had been 90,000, was now--in
1530--reduced to half that number. Palaces and temples had been the
scenes of riot and destruction, yet to this very lawlessness of the time
the Roman galleries of the present owe their ancient statues, which were
uncovered by these assaults. The Coliseum was left in the ruined state
in which it is now seen, and by the sale of the stones taken from it the
Palazzo Barberini was erected.

Vittoria, coming again to Rome and revisiting its classic greatness,
exclaimed that happy were they who lived in times so full of grandeur;
to which the poet Molza gallantly replied that they were less happy, as
they had not known her! Everywhere was she received with the highest
honors. She made a tour, visiting Bagni di Lucca, Bologna, and Ferrara,
where she was the guest of the Duca and Duchessa Ercole in the ducal
palace. The Duchessa was the Princesse Renee, the daughter of Louis XII
of France, and an ardent friend of Calvin, who visited her in Ferrara.
It was to this visit that Longfellow refers in his poem entitled
"Michael Angelo," when he pictures Vittoria as sitting for her portrait
to the artist and conversing with her friend Giulia, the Duchess of
Trajetto, Michael Angelo begs them to resume the conversation
interrupted by his entrance, and Vittoria says:--

"Well, first, then, of Duke Ercole, a man
Cold in his manners, and reserved and silent,
And yet magnificent in all his ways."

To which the Duchessa replies:--

"How could the daughter of a king of France
Wed such a duke?"

MICHAEL ANGELO.

"The men that women marry,
And why they marry them, will always be
A marvel and a mystery to the world."

VITTORIA.

"And then the Duchess,--how shall I describe her,
Or tell the merits of that happy nature
Which pleases most when least it thinks of pleasing?
Not beautiful, perhaps, in form and feature,
Yet with an inward beauty, that shines through
Each look and attitude and word and gesture;
A kindly grace of manner and behavior,
A something in her presence and her ways
That makes her beautiful beyond the reach
Of mere external beauty; and in heart
So noble and devoted to the truth,
And so in sympathy with all who strive
After the higher life."

JULIA.