CARDINAL BEMBO AND HIS VILLA 
children of his daughter Antonia, for whom Pietro had 
to provide ; while, to add to his difficulties, a dis¬ 
honest factor of an estate which he held under the 
Knights of St. John at Bologna, had absconded with 
600 florins. Such were the straits to which he was 
reduced that he feared he must sell his beloved 
Villa. “ My father’s death,” he wrote to his old 
friend, Cardinal Bibbiena, “ has involved me in such 
financial difficulties that I hardly know which way 
to turn. And yet, if possible, I would preserve that 
delightful Villetta, of which I have so often told 
you—I mean my dear Noniano.” 1 
Fortunately this catastrophe was averted and Bembo 
managed to raise a dowry of 3000 florins for his 
eldest niece, Marcella, whom he married to his kins¬ 
man, Gian Matteo Bembo, an able young official, 
“ not rich, but sufficiently well-to-do and highly 
esteemed in the city.” Marcella’s sisters went back 
to their convent, to remain there until a dowry 
could be provided for them, and Bembo returned to 
Rome, groaning in spirit over his hard fate. The 
high hopes which he had entertained on Leo’s 
accession had been disappointed, the Cardinal’s hat, 
which at one time dangled before his eyes, had 
vanished into space, and he found himself involved 
in vexatious lawsuits with rivals who disputed his 
1 Letters, i. 46. 
139 
