ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



tongues to malign the great man, and the less his 

 enemies dared use open violence, the more malice did 

 they bear against him. It was to refute these slanders 

 and to defend himself from the charge of appropriat- 

 ing rents due to the Papal See that he wrote the 

 memorable letter to Angelo Acciaiuoli at Avignon, 

 the original of which is still preserved in the Lauren- 

 tian Library. 



In this eloquent treatise, after clearing himself in 

 the eyes of the Pope, he narrates his past history, and 

 enumerates the services he had rendered to Robert 

 of Naples, to Louis and Joanna, to the Church and 

 people of Italy. There is still the same pride of 

 character, the same contempt of base motives, of 

 conscious sense of superiority to the men around him, 

 the same old love of magnificence in the manner in 

 which he heaps up the long roll of his exploits and 

 services to cast them in the face of his accusers. But 

 with it all there comes a touch of sadness, a convic- 

 tion of the vanity of earthly greatness, as if he said 

 to himself he had done all this, and had it been worth 

 while ? Certainly, in no other cause would he have 

 risked so much and laboured so unceasingly no, 

 not for all the lands in Naples. And now that the 

 greater part of his course is run, and the end draws 

 every day nearer, he can say with truth in the words 

 of the Apostle, " I have fought a good fight." All 



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