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 MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 12 9

French politics and Latin poetry. When Charles refused to join the League, the Bishop of Fano vindicated his neutrality in a letter to the Duke of Urbino. l When he slew the Huguenots, the Bishop addressed him in verse,-

Fortunate puer, paret cui Gallica tellus, Quique vafros ludis pervigil arte viros, Ille tibi debet, toti qui praesidet Orbi, Cui nihil est cordi religione prius. . . . Qui tibi saepe dolos struxit, qui vinela paravit, Tu puer in laqueos induis arte senem. . . . Nunc florent, tolluntque caput tua lilia, et astris Clarius hostili tincta cruore micant. 2

Camillo Capilupi, a nephew of the Mantuan bard, held office about the person of the Pope, and was employed on missions of consequence. S As soon as the news from Paris reached Rome he drew up the account which became so famous under the title of Lo Stratage1nma dz" Carlo IX. The dedication is dated the 18th of September 157 2 . 4 This tract was suppressed, and was soon so rare that its existence was unknown in 1574 to the French translator of the second edition. Capilupi republished his book with alterations, and a preface dated the 22nd of October. The substance and purpose of the two editions is the same. Capilupi is not the official organ of the Roman court: he was not allowed to see the letters of the Nuncio, He \vrote to proclaim the praises of the King of France and the Duke of Nevers. At that moment the French party in Rome was divided by the quarrel between the ambassador Ferralz and the Cardinal of Lorraine, who had contrived to get the management of French affairs into his own hands. 5 Capilupi \vas on the 1 Charrière, iii, 154. '2 r:armina Ill, Poe/arum Italorum, iii, 212, 216, 3 Tiepolo, Desp, Aug, 6, 1575; Mutinelli, Storia Arcana, i. III. 4 Parendomi, che sia cosa, la Quale possa apportar piacere, e utile al mondo, si per la qualità del soggetto istesso, come anco per l' eleganza, e bello ordine con che viene cosi leggiadramente descritto questo nobile, e glorioso fatto. ,, a fine che una cosi egregia attione non resti defraudata dell' honor, che merita (The editor, Gianfrancesco Ferrari, to the reader). 5 Hue accedit, Oratorem Ser mi Regis Galliae, et impulsu inimicorum saepedicti Domini Cardinalis, et quia summopere illi displicuit, quod superioribus mensibus Illma Sua Dominatio operam dedisset, hoc sibi mandari, ut omnia Regis negotia K