clothes him,
puts abundant money in his purse, and dispatches him on his way. The
Sultan, in reward of this courtesy to his servant, gave a number of
fine horses to the Marquis, who, possibly being tired of presenting
his own horses, returned the Porte a ship-load of excellent Mantuan
cheeses. This interchange of compliments seems to have led to a kind
of romantic friendship between the Gonzaga and the Grand Turk, who did
occasionally interest himself in the affairs of the Christian dogs;
and who, when Francesco lay prisoner at Venice, actually wrote to the
Serenest Senate, and asked his release as a personal grace to him, the
Grand Turk. And Francesco was, thereupon, let go; the canny republic
being willing to do the Sultan any sort of cheap favor.

This Gonzaga, being so much engaged in war, seems to have had little
time for the adornment of his capital. The Church of Our Lady of
Victory is the only edifice which he added to it; and this was merely
in glorification of his own triumph over the French at Taro. Mantegna
painted an altar-piece for it, representing the Marquis and his wife
on their knees before the Virgin, in act of rendering her thanks for
the victory. The French nation avenged itself for whatever wrong was
done its pride in this picture by stealing it away from Mantua in
Napoleon's time; and it now hangs in the gallery of the Louvre.

Francesco died in 1519; and after him his son, Federico II., the first
Duke of Mantua, reigned some twenty-one years, and died in 1540. The
marquisate in his time was made a duchy by the Emperor Charles V.,
to whom the Gonzaga had given efficient aid in his wars against the
French. This was in the year 1530; and three years later, when the
Duke of Monferrato died, and the inheritance of his opulent little
state was disputed by the Duke of Savoy, by the Marquis of Saluzzo,
and by the Gonzaga, who had married the late Duke's daughter,
Charles's influence secured it to the Mantuan. The dominions of the
Gonzagas had now reached their utmost extent, and these dominions
were not curtailed till the deposition of Fernando Carlo in 1708, when
Monferrato was adjudged to the Duke of Savoy, and afterwards confirmed
to him by treaty. It was separated from the capital of the Gonzagas by
a wide extent of alien territory, but they held it with a strong
hand, embellished the city, and founded there the strongest citadel in
Italy.

Federico, after his wars for the Emperor, appears to have