lations were fruitless.
He found Urban highly incensed against Galileo; and his Holiness begged
Niccolini to advise the Archduke not to interfere any farther, as he
would not "get through it with honour." On the 15th of September the
Pope caused it to be intimated to Niccolini, as a mark of his especial
esteem for the Grand Duke, that he was obliged to refer the work to the
Inquisition; but both the prince and his ambassador were declared liable
to the usual censures if they divulged the secret.

From the measures which this tribunal had formerly pursued, it was not
difficult to foresee the result of their present deliberations. They
summoned Galileo to appear before them at Rome, to answer in person the
charges under which he lay. The Tuscan ambassador expostulated warmly
with the court of Rome on the inhumanity of this proceeding. He urged
his advanced age, his infirm health, the discomforts of the journey, and
the miseries of the quarantine,[34] as motives for reconsidering their
decision: But the Pope was inexorable, and though it was agreed to relax
the quarantine as much as possible in his favour, yet it was declared
indispensable that he should appear in person before the Inquisition.

[34] The communication between Florence and Rome was at this time
interrupted by a contagious disease which had broken out in
Tuscany.

Worn out with age and infirmities, and exhausted with the fatigues of
his journey, Galileo arrived at Rome on the 14th of February, 1633. The
Tuscan ambassador announced his arrival in an official form to the
commissary of the holy office, and Galileo awaited in calm dignity the
approach of his trial. Among those who proffered their advice in this
distressing emergency, we must enumerate the Cardinal Barberino, the
Pope's nephew, who, though he may have felt the necessity of an
interference on the part of the church, was yet desirous that it should
be effected with the least injury to Galileo and to science. He
accordingly visited Galileo, and advised him to remain as much at home
as possible, to keep aloof from general society, and to see only his
most intimate friends. The same advice was given from different
quarters; and Galileo, feeling its propriety, remained in strict
seclusion in the palace of the Tuscan ambassador.

During the whole of the trial which had now commenced, Galileo was
treated with the most marked indulgence. Abhorring, as we must do, the
principles and prac