The commissioners at length, by affectionate persuasions, induced the invalid to leave his army in charge of the Lord Giulio Orsini, and withdraw to Ferrara, where a villa of the Duke was prepared for his reception.[199] But it was too late. The disease rapidly gaining ground, he set himself to prepare for death like a Christian hero, and, by the grace of God, was permitted to do so in full exercise of his mental powers. "Having arranged all matters pertaining to the succession of his son, he began to attend to his soul's salvation, and after confessing himself repeatedly, as a faithful and good Christian, he set in order all that seemed to him tending to his future welfare, and took, in their prescribed order, the sacraments of the Church. It was graciously vouchsafed him from on high to perform all this with a mind amply prepared by full examination, so that nothing was omitted that behoved a faithful Christian; and this favour was granted him by God for his perseverance through life in the habitual exercise of virtue, for on every occasion his clemency entitled him to the appellation of father of the miserable, and protector of the afflicted."[200] [Footnote 199: Machiavelli says he died at Bologna, but this is a mistake. Sanzi tells us he meant to do so, but was persuaded by the Duchess Leonora to prefer her capital.] [Footnote 200: Vespasiano da Bisticci.] Among the friends who tended his last hours was his secretary, Comandino Comandini, to whom he gave instructions for his funeral; but his son, Count Antonio, having come from the army to visit him, was, according to Sanzi, received with this reproof:-- "How! wouldst thou thus my gallant comrades quit, In time of need, to gaze upon a corpse? Far other course the urgent hour demands! The sacred church's all-consoling rites, Like staid and thoughtful Christian, then he sought: Nor did they fail his latest pangs to cheer. Few were the watchers round his lonely couch, To whom, in sadly soothing words, he spoke Of gentle kindness, and to God his soul In peace committed, spurning mundane moils.... With holy zeal his last behests were told In charity and love; and, having touched The hand of each in turn, with tears bedewed, That lofty and unvanquished spirit sped; Whilst on his lips, with pious fervour, late Lingered the names of God and of our Lady, Giving good hope, if man such signs may read, That to a glorious home its flight was winged." Veterani, another laureate of Urbino, composed a touching sonnet on his patron's death, which begins thus:-- "With ever-welling tears I weep for him, On him I call, of him I nightly dream, And to my lips his cherished image strain, Till by my stains of grief its smile grows dim. To it my verse I vow, it living deem For solace of my stricken soul, in vain!"