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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