"The spider's most attenuated thread Is cord, is cable to man's tender tie Of earthly bliss: it breaks with every breeze." [Footnote 164: It may not be inappropriate here to glance at the territorial limits which, under him, were erected into the duchy of Urbino, and their gradual increment from the petty holding of Montefeltro, which was at first narrow in extent and poor in all but defence. Lying in the furthest highlands of Umbria, its soil and climate yielded nature's bounties but sparingly, though its fastnesses bred bold hearts and stout sinews. The township of Urbino, over which its counts extended their authority, added little to their limited territory. Those of Gubbio, Cagli, and Cantiano, which next came under their rule, lay many miles from their mountain home, separated by an Apennine rampart, and the valleys of the Foglia and Metauro, as well as by the Brancaleoni fiefs. These scattered domains were concentrated by Federigo's first marriage, which gave him all Massa Trabaria from the Foglia to the Cantiano. His purchase of Fossombrone and his conquests from the Malatesta extended his frontier to the Vicariat of Sinigaglia, which he lived to see conferred on his daughter's husband. His long struggles with Sigismondo Pandolfo were further compensated by Tavoleto, Sassocorbaro, S. Leo, Sta. Agata, and Castel d'Elce, establishing his sway over what had been hitherto at best debatable land, to the extreme northern boundary of the state. Although precise limits cannot now be defined, it would seem that Count Federigo nearly trebled the territory which had obeyed his brother, and the only important addition subsequently made consisted of the sea-board brought to it by his grandson Francesco Maria I.] Scarcely had he quitted the scene of his triumphs, in order to bear tidings of them to one whose sympathy would have enhanced their sweets, when an express met him with alarming news of her health. Riding day and night, he reached Gubbio on the 6th of July, just in time to close the eyes of his Countess. We are fortunately enabled to give in his own words all the particulars which have reached us of this melancholy event.[165] [Footnote 165: The first of the letters here introduced was addressed to his allies, the magistrates of Siena, in the archives of which city I found the Italian original. The next, without address, but probably for the King of Naples or the Duke of Milan, and the two following extracts, are copied from the volume of his Latin letters already quoted. Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1198. Muzio and Baldi by mistake place Battista's death in 1474.] [Illustration: _Alinari_ BATTISTA SFORZA, DUCHESS OF URBINO, SECOND WIFE OF DUKE FEDERIGO _From the bust by Francesco Laurana in the Bargello, Florence_] "Mighty and potent Lords, dearest Fathers,