nes which I have
quoted.

[Illustration: The Haunted Pool

Villa Conti Torlonia, Frascati]

Hither certainly came the ladies of Palliano[8] from their castle in the
neighbouring hills, for the Conti were cousins of the Colonna, and fond
of entertaining their kindred on the terraces of their ancestral villa.

Here Giulia Gonzaga must have met another renowned woman of the family,
Giovanna of Aragon, the wife of Ascanio Colonna, with their little son
Marcantonio, from the Castle of Marino, hardly three miles away. This
boy was to become the most renowned man of his race, and was to form a
link between the lives of two women of Palliano, to whom brief reference
must be made, for the pity and horror of their fate are not surpassed in
all the annals of tragedy.

At first glance it may seem strange that the Colonnas possessed no
suburban villa which could rival that of the Conti. Castles in plenty
were theirs, Marino, Palliano, Palestrina, and a score of others, but
though these sheltered comfortless, so-called palaces within their
strong walls, there was never an attempt made here to indulge in such a
feat of landscape-gardening as the Conti's

"fountain stairs,
Down which the sheeted water leaps alive."

The reason of this lack of the amenities of life is not far to seek. The
magnificent Colonna palace at Rome, with its beautiful garden, answered
every purpose of an elaborate villa. Here they flaunted in seasons of
prosperity, retiring to their mountain fastnesses in times of trouble.

For five hundred years succeeding generations have added to the
sumptuousness and charm of the Roman palace, and the portraits of the
fair ladies who once gave those regal rooms their chief attraction still
look down upon us from their walls. They hold us still with an
all-compelling fascination: the noble Vittoria Colonna, whom Michael
Angelo worshipped; that Duchessa Lucrezia, whom Van Dyck painted in her
velvet robe and jewelled ruff; Felice Orsini and her children; and the
bewitching Marie Mancini, as Mignard makes her known in her arch and
innocent girlhood, and again with world-weary disillusion betraying
itself through Netscher's pomp and opulence.

[Illustration: Vittoria Colonna

From a portrait in the Colonna Gallery]

[Illustration: Marie Mancini, Princess Colonna

From a portrait in later life by Netscher]

It is the women who interest us most, for the men of the race, masterful
and brave, hero