Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/226

212 tart, of which he declined to partake; but of which the grand-duke had eaten and that when she saw this, she likewise partook of the poisoned meat, that she might join her consort in the grave, and thus avoid the punishment due to her crime. Others relate the same story with this difference, that they charge the cardinal with the atrocious deed, and go so far in exaggerating his refinement in cruelty, as to assert that he not only opposed by force all those, who, at the cries of the helpless victims, came to their assistance, but that he went into the apartment where they lay expiring, for the purpose of adding insult to their sufferings.

Her avowed enemies the Florentine writers, confess that a great share of the severity with which the cardinal treated her memory must be attributed to the calumnies of those, who, during her life, were her most intimate friends, and, after her demise, proved her most inveterate accusers. His subsequent conduct clearly evinced, that he had been prejudiced against her through false accusations; for he afterwards annulled several of his former resolutions. He solemnly re-adopted Don Antonio into his family, declared him his nephew, made an establishment for him as a young prince of the house of Medici, and at last procured him the grand priorship of the order of Malta. Upon Bianca's father he settled a considerable annuity, and all her officers received handsome presents. He probably discovered, that she, in many things, had been falsely accused, and hence resolved, as much as possible, to obliterate his past severity by acts of munificence.

We meet in history with many instances of women, who, from the lowest situations of life, have risen to a high degree of rank, fortune, and opulence, and who, supported by the inclination of weak princes, have ried