ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



the quiet round of the Church's offices, and the loveli- 

 ness of Val d'Ema to be his solace. 



But this time never came. To the end of his days 

 he led the same busy, active life ; and a hurried visit 

 here and there was all that he had to bestow on his 

 beloved Certosa. Neither king nor realm could spare 

 him. Louis and Joanna were both too incapable to 

 govern alone ; and " whenever," says Villani, " the 

 virtue of this man was absent from court, affairs 

 went ill." 



From the grave of his son he had gone straight to 

 Sicily, to conquer that island from the Aragonese, 

 and had already subdued Palermo and Messina, when 

 he was recalled and sent as ambassador to the Emperor 

 Charles IV, whose descent into Italy had created 

 general alarm. His mission met with complete suc- 

 cess ; and the Emperor not only paid him the highest 

 honours and kept him to attend his coronation at 

 Rome, but tried to induce him to accompany him on 

 his return to Germany, an invitation which Niccolo, 

 faithful to his old allegiance, refused to accept. On 

 another occasion, when he was sent to the Papal Court 

 at Avignon in 1360, Innocent VI presented him with 

 the golden rose, a mark of special favour hitherto re- 

 served for royal personages. From Avignon he went 

 to Milan to negotiate a peace between the Pope and 



Bernabo Visconti, and there sought out his old friend 



218 



