Page:Matteo Bandello - twelve stories (IA cu31924102029083).pdf/167



MONG those Lombard fugitives who came on to Mantua after the famous defeat of the Swiss at Melegnano was Messer Cornelio. With myself he took up his abode in that city. It is a pleasure to me, having all good cause for it, to speak of him as a most noble and gallant young gentleman of about four-and-twenty, tall, well-made, and of great strength and comeliness. He had his full share of virtues; while, in the gifts of fortune, he was passing rich. His mother, who lived in Milan, and took the utmost pains to save his patrimony intact, always sent him all that he needed, so that he could keep a house in Mantua, and was well