"He was a man, if well his mind I wot, Magnanimous but lavish; to his friends Most generous and liberal; to the learned A patron kind, though indiscriminate. The locust well might typify his life: In youth a friar, but no longer bent On things of such high import, now he deemed Himself all but supreme. Yet of his deeds No record lives in prose or lofty song, No fame but of a splendour all apart From churchman's calling, more offensive still To laymen. Thus elate and arrogant (For pride of place the youthful heart corrupts), His whim it was through Italy to speed In gorgeous array, till sudden death Snatched him from these delights.... Just as a locust by the sun struck down, So perished in their prime his fancies vain, Despite the projects hatched beneath the shade Of his red hat." CHAPTER X Birth of Prince Guidobaldo--Count Federigo captures Volterra--Is again widowed--Receives the Garter and the Ermine--Is made Duke of Urbino--His patronage of learned men. Eleven years had now gone by since the marriage of Federigo, and had given him eight daughters. Although the laws of succession were neither well defined nor rigorously adhered to among Italian feudatories, a general desire to see the sovereignty secured in the line of one so justly beloved was felt throughout his state. For an object beyond human aid recourse was had to the Disposer of all good, and to Him were the prayers both of sovereigns and subjects continuously addressed for the blessing of a boy. We are told by Odasio, that the anxious Battista hesitated not to offer her own life in return for the boon of a son worthy of his father; and he gravely attests this supernatural answer to her own and her people's intercession. She saw in a dream a lovely phoenix perched upon a lofty tree, which, after sitting there for thirty-six days, winged its flight heavenward until it touched the sun, and then disappeared in flames. Coincident with this vision was the fulfilment of her desire, and in due time she presented her delighted husband and subjects with a beautiful boy.[158] As her dream occurred while resident at Gubbio, and in supposed response to appeals addressed through S. Ubaldo, the patron of that city, she was careful that her confinement should likewise take place under his auspices. The child was born there on the 17th or 24th of January, 1472,[*159] and whilst the grateful piety of his parents ordered solemn public devotional acknowledgments for the boon, the universal joy was testified by popular festivities and illuminations, which were prolonged until Lent set in. A few days after his birth he was baptised in the cathedral with becoming solemnity by the Bishop, Antonio de' Severi. The names selected were GUIDO PAULO UBALDO, of which the second seems never to have been used: the first was, as we have seen, of historical illustration in the