ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



his old comrade at the Court of Urbino, died in Spain, 

 broken-hearted by the sack of Rome ; and he lost both 

 his neighbour Luigi da Porto, and the beloved 

 Navagero, who died of fever at Blois. " He was too 

 excellent a man for these cruel and miserable times," 

 wrote Bembo. " Cursed, oh ! thrice cursed be the 

 evil fate which has robbed me of the men I loved best. 

 But my pen refuses to do her part, and I had rather 

 weep than write." 



He remained at the Villa all through the spring and 

 summer, and found his best comfort in the sweet 

 scents of the garden and the countless nightingales 

 which soothed his wounded spirits with their delicious 

 song. 



" Yet are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake, 

 For Death, he taketh all away, but these he cannot take." 



At Christmas Bembo went to Bologna to meet the 

 Pope, and to see the Emperor, who came, it was fondly 

 hoped, to restore peace to Italy and receive the Imperial 

 Crown. Many of his old friends were there to welcome 

 him Isabella d'Este, her brother Alfonso, the Duke 

 and Duchess of Urbino ; and every day a brilliant 

 company of scholars and poets met at the house of 

 Veronica Gambara. But not all these splendours could 

 keep Bembo away from his Villa in the springtime, and 

 by March he was at home again with Morosina and 

 her children. 



