On 27th February the Tuscan ambassador had a long audience of the Pope, officially announced Galileo’s arrival at Rome, and expressed the hope that as he had shown his readiness to submit to the papal judgment and the enlightened opinion of the Congregation, the Pope would now be convinced of his devout reverence for spiritual things, especially in reference to the matter in hand. The Pope found it convenient not to take any notice of this indirect question, and replied that he had shown Galileo a special and unusual favour in allowing him to stay at Niccolini’s house instead of in the buildings of the Holy Office; and he had only done so because he was a distinguished official of the Grand Duke’s, and it was out of respect for his Highness that he had granted this exceptional favour to his subject. In order to enhance its value, Urban also told the ambassador that even a noble of the house of Gonzaga, a relative of Ferdinand’s, had not only been placed in a litter and brought under escort to Rome by command of the Holy Office, but had been taken at once to the Castle and kept there for a long time, until the trial was ended. Niccolini hastened to acknowledge the greatness of the favour, expressed his warmest thanks for it, and ventured to plead that in consideration of Galileo’s age and infirm health the Pope would order that the trial should come on soon, so that he might return home as soon as possible. Urban replied that the proceedings of the Holy Office were generally rather tedious, and he really did not know whether so speedy a termination could be looked for, as they were still engaged with the preliminaries of the trial. Urban had by this time become warm, and went off into complaints of Ciampoli and the rest of his evil counsellors; he also remarked that although Galileo had expressly stated in his “Dialogues” that he would only discuss the question of the double motion of the earth hypothetically, he had, in adducing the arguments for it, spoken of it as settled, and as if he agreed with it. In conclusion the Pope said: _Moreover, Galileo had acted contrary to the injunction given him in 1616 by Cardinal Bellarmine in the name of the Holy Congregation._ Niccolini mentioned in defence of Galileo all that he had told him about this accusation, but the Pope adhered obstinately to his opinion. The ambassador came away from this audience with the scant consolation that, at all events, Urban’s personal embitterment against Galileo was a little appeased.[340] We may remark here that what the Pope said about the proceeding of 26th February, 1616, is just as inaccurate as Riccardi’s communication to Niccolini was at that time.[341]