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 compassion on Galileo, and allow him to remain at the embassy. Urban merely replied that he would have special apartments assigned to Galileo, the best and most comfortable in the Holy Office. With this Niccolini had to be content.

In concluding the despatch of 13th March to Cioli, in which he reported this interview, he says:—

Meanwhile, Ferdinand II. in spite of the increasingly unpromising aspect of affairs, continued indefatigably to sustain his ambassador's efforts. The latter and Galileo, in two letters of 19th March, asked the Grand Duke to send letters of recommendation to the eight other cardinals who composed the Holy Congregation, like those he had sent to their eminences Bentivoglio and Scaglia, lest they should feel themselves slighted, and the Grand Duke readily granted the request. The prelates, however, received these letters with mixed feelings, and excused themselves from answering them, as it was forbidden them in their capacity as members of the Holy Office; some even hesitated to receive the letters at all, and it was not till Niccolini pointed out that Cardinal Barberini and others had received them, that they consented to do so. These letters had evidently produced the happiest